Today is the feast day of St. Luke, the evangelist who wrote the third gospel. He was a doctor by profession and a Greek gentile from Antioch. We need to learn from St. Luke, a dedicated worker for the Lord, preserving the beautiful teachings and life of Christ. He was also with St. Paul on several occasions. They traveled together on missionary journeys. He contributed to the Church’s growth and evangelization helping to make the Church truly catholic in its outreach and its membership in the latter years of the First Century. His writing emphases are on forgiveness, justice, love for the poor, for those who suffer, and healing of the sick which were mentioned several times to portray Jesus. St. Luke has special features to illustrate a loving focus on Mary, the Mother of Jesus: the annunciation to Mary of her vocation in relation to Jesus as His mother; the Magnificat; the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple at Jerusalem so that we could capture the loving relationship with Mary throughout the course of her life after Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Reading Paul’s letter to Timothy, I feel that St. Paul had been abandoned by his friends after preaching Jesus’ message, except for St. Luke. St. Paul wrote this, “Luke is the only one with me…..but the Lord stood by my side and gave me strength”. St. Paul was a disciple of deep faith together with Luke.
The gospel today narrates to us that Jesus “appointed 72 disciples whom he sent ahead of Him in pairs to every town and place He intended to visit.” These disciples were to announce that the Kingdom of God is present among the people there.
The focus of the gospel pericope is about discipleship. Jesus called his disciples and us to participate in the spreading of the Good News and to minister to each other. However, to accomplish this challenging task, we must respond with faith, gentleness, mercy shown to those who are lost, and to share the love of Christ which is necessary to express that we are truly disciples of Jesus Christ. All the things we do for Jesus become our joy, comfort, and peace and not just simply doing our duty. We do everything for the love of God. In return, God blesses us and the world we live in.
Like St. Luke, we are blessed to serve and to dedicate our whole life to Jesus’ invitation to service and love. May we follow the example of St. Luke and extend our love to those we love so deeply, that is, His Church.
St. Luke, pray for us.
Fr. Arlon, osa