Ad Jesum per Mariam

St. Luke: A Friend in Faith

St. Luke: A Friend in Faith Today the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Luke, evangelist. Luke wrote his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. Together, they represent approximately twenty-five percent of the New Testament’s scripture. Interesting, Luke begins his Gospel. Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us, I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received. Luke: A Man of Many Talents Luke is not one who walked with Jesus. He heard the teachings of the Apostles and read all that was written about Jesus and His ministry. Assembling all this information, he sits down and creates an orderly account . . . which becomes the Gospel. Luke was an extraordinary writer . . . and more. He was a physician and was well educated. He was also a painter. There was a time when people questioned why having four Gospels was a good idea, since Luke’s Gospel was so well written. What is important was Luke followed Paul and heard him speak. In doing so Luke converts to Christianity based on the strength and testimony of Paul’s teachings of Jesus Christ. Luke: A Follower and Friend to St. Paul When this happens, he becomes a companion of Paul. When Paul is imprisoned, Luke (secretly) visits him to learn further of Paul’s experiences, mission and wisdom. It is based on these conversations and Paul’s experiences that we have the Acts of the Apostles. When we hear in the first few chapters of the Acts of the Apostles about the Resurrection, we are hearing and understanding St. Paul’s description of this amazing event. Paul mentioned that several companions of Paul . . . we might even call them disciples of Paul . . . abandoning him. However, Luke remained. Luke was a dear friend of Paul in faith. Paul suffers in chains in prison. But he has a friend in Luke with him. Hear more in the Homily! Interesting, Luke is the only Gospel that tells us about the “72” disciples going out two-by-two. This is today’s scripture reading. The Homily tells us these ministers were not sent alone, but in pairs. We also hear more on the Topic: Friends in Faith are friends to gather together to pray. We all need friends in faith, even today. It is important within our Spiritual Journey. Understand why this is important. Listen more within the Homily. Hear more in this Meditation Media and understand its message for our own Spiritual Journey. Listen to: St. Luke: A Friend in Faith ----------------------------- Mary in the Gospel of St. Luke The Queen previously published two separate sets of articles reviewing Mary in the Gospel of St. Luke. They can be found in the Long Running Article Series. The two sets of articles are: Mary, In The Gospel of Luke: The Annunciation Series and Mary, In The Gospel of Luke: The Infancy Narratives. ----------------------------- Image: 16th-century Russian version showing copy of the Theotokos of Vladimir: Vladimir Mother of God As we hear in the Homily, St. Luke was multi-talented. He was a painter. Tradition has it that he painted the Blessed Mother. Read more about this on the QoAH’s website post. Please check out the two links above on the QoAH's website displaying other images of Our Lady influenced by St. Luke. ----------------------------- Gospel Reading: Luke: 10: 1-9 First Reading: 2 TIM: 4: 10-17

Duration:: 14m
Broadcast on:: 27 Oct 2024
Audio Format:: other

The Lord be with you, a reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. The Lord Jesus appointed 72 disciples whom he sent ahead of him in pairs, to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, "The harvest is abundant, but the rebels are few. So ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way. Behold, I am sending you like lumps among wolves. Carry no money, no bag, no sack, no sandals, and greet no one along the way." Into whatever house you enter, first say, "Peace to this household." If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him, but if not, it will return to you. Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you for the laborer deserves payment. Do not move about from one house to another. Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is said before you. Queer the sick, eat and say to them, "The kingdom of God is at hand for you." The gospel of the Lord. We see the life of St. Luke, to whom is attributed near a quarter of the whole New Testament, because Luke has written first of all the gospel and then the acts of the apostles. And what is interesting in this is that Luke begins the gospel by saying, "Many people have sat down and wrote about what has happened in the past days with the best of Jesus Christ, the death of Jesus Christ. And this they have gotten it from those that were really eyewitnesses to what has happened. And myself after going through all those that have made their accounts, I have sat down to make an orderly account of all these things that have happened. So Luke is not one who worked with Jesus. He was not one of the apostles of Jesus, but after hearing it from the apostles and considering all those that have written about what had happened, he sits down and creates an orderly account, which becomes the gospel. And when the gospel of Luke was written and people began to read the gospel of Luke, Luke was educated, Luke was a master in Ritarajan, Luke was a painter, he had the act of bringing all the events in that artistic manner that people began to say, "Why should we have them for gospels?" Let us just have Luke because he is the masterpiece of all the gospels. But what is important is that this man from following Paul, from hearing what Paul is preaching, he is converted to Christianity. And from that moment, he becomes a companion of Paul. That when Paul was in prison, first in prison of the moment of Paul in Rome, tradition has it that he sneaked into the prison and asked Paul, "Can you tell me what are your experiences of your journeys in mission?" And then Paul begins to tell him what he has experienced, how he was converted. And that is what we have as the acts of the apostles. Apart from the first two chapters, two, three, four chapters that talk about the resurrection and the early community of the church, the whole of the acts of apostles are the missionary journeys of Paul that comes out to us from the hands of the evangelist Luke. And what is very clear in this is what we have read today that Paul says that many of those that worked with him as missionaries had abandoned him. One going to the to the enticement of the world, another one has gone there, only Luke is with me. He was a friend of Paul, a friend of Paul in faith. There is a clear friendship between Paul and Luke, a friendship that supports each other. Now Paul is suffering in chains in prison and yet he has a friend, he has one who is a friend to him, who is Luke. Probably this is very, very important for us. First of all, the fist of today is that it teaches us to find good friends, not only friends that we play, go together, friends that we go together, but friends in faith. Those that support us when temptations come to us. The temptations to give up on God, temptations to give up in time of hardships. Each one of us, at one point in time, we will meet difficulties of life. It may be financial hardships, it may be sickness, it may be all other sorts of difficulties that we will make us want to look away from God, but we need friends in faith that it tells us back that supports us when those time comes. And Luke was such a friend to Paul. This is why he writes everything that Paul had done in his ministry. Second lesson about friendship, we see that in the gospel Jesus sends 72 others and this passage is only found in Luke. The other gospels talk of the mission of the Twelve, but Luke talks of 72 others and he sends them in pairs two by two. In ministry you are not sent alone. For Luke, ministry must be supported by those that have faith. Luke is writing in Rome during the period of the Emperor Nero who was executing the Christian by the fact that you say a Christian that was a death sentence. Luke saw how those that he declared themselves the Christians, how they were hung on the cross, not only hung on the cross, put on the cross and set on fire on the cross. The only thing that made these Christians to stand was they gathered together and prayed to God and supported to one another that this persecution will come to an end. It only takes friends with faith. It only takes the companions in faith to support us when things are hard. Not only bodies, but friends in faith. Another lesson that we get from there, he sends them two by two and he tells them don't take neither your second tunic. Don't carry money in your pets. To a whichever house you go into, you let your first words be peace. He sends them vulnerable so that they may depend. I know in our century the word dependency is not acceptable. Everyone wants to be their own person. Everyone, this is why we wanted to make our life to prepare our life to the end that it there might be no time in our life that we can depend. He sends his disciples vulnerable and the dependency says into the house where you go, find your sustenance there. We live in a society that is very affluent. A society that we may not want to depend and the the the the trick of all this is that the more we have all the things that life can give us, the more we are vulnerable. The more we still have our hearts, lacking our hearts, desiring for more because we are not contented, we are not dependent on God. Saint Luke points us to this. Everyone baptized must lend to be vulnerable. Apart from friendship they must lend to be vulnerable and that vulnerability, poor musty, point them to God. Therefore, total dependence on God. Finally, the gospel of Luke is a gospel that invites everyone. Jew, nanny Jew, female, male into salvation. The gospel is written for the salvation of all. This is why the other gospels send 12 disciples and this gospel sends 72. 72, a symbol of 72 nations that Luke knew that the gospel of the Lord must reach to the ends of the earth. It is the opening up of the mercy of God to the entire world, that the whole world may be converted to God. We as Christians today, we are invited to a true friendship in faith. We are invited to depend on God. We are invited as to become missionaries to bring the word of God to the whole world. Amen.