Newsletter - January

THE EVANGELIST LUKE

This year 2007, on the Sundays in Ordinary Time, we read the gospel according to Luke, the third gospel.  It is the liturgical year ?C? of the Latin Catholic Church.

According to the tradition, Luke was a disciple of Paul (cf Phil 4: 14; Tim 4: 11; Col 4: 14), who calls him ?doctor?; most likely a medical doctor.  We do not know where he was born. Some believe he was from Antioch of Syria. Others maintain that he was a Greek from Macedonia. But certainly his maternal language was Greek, which he uses as a learned person with elegance.  It is believed that he was a pagan who became a proselyte, a word used to indicate the pagans (gentiles) who embraced the Jewish religion and ways of life.  Later on he eventually became Christian.

Luke wrote his gospel, most probably at Ephesus,   around the years 80-85 AD, so about fifty years after Jesus? death and resurrection. His literary work is divided into two parts: the gospel,  and  the Acts of the Apostles. He writes for the non-Jews, that is, for the believers of Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, who became Christians through the preaching of Paul, Peter and their disciples.

Luke writes about the infancy of Jesus, and, in parallel, the birth of John the Baptist. Luke emphasises the intervention of the Holy Spirit, who leads and inspires Jesus in his mission. Later, the Church starts its mission, inspired by the same Spirit.  Luke gives great importance to the ascent of Jesus to Jerusalem, described in ten chapters (9: 51-19: 46). This is not a physical walking, but it symbolises the following of Jesus by the believers. Another characteristic of Luke are the parables of mercy: the lost sheep, the lost drachma, the prodigal son (15: 1-32), and the parable of the good Samaritan (10: 29-37), which reveal the theology of Luke, based on the joy and mercy of the saving work of Jesus, who came to reconcile us to the Father.

We can truly say that the first written work of Luke is the gospel of the mercy of God towards the lost humanity and of the  joy of man as loved by God.

The gospel of Luke ends with the ascension of the risen Lord to heaven, and the return of the disciples to Jerusalem.  These last words constitute the link between the gospel and the ?Acts of the Apostles?, Luke?s second written work, which starts with a more detailed narration of the  ascension of the Lord and the waiting of the Apostles for the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church.

GIVE  YOUR  LIGHT  TO  MY  LANTERN

How blessed, how fortunate, are those servants whom the Lord will find watchful when he comes again. Blessed is the time of waiting when we stay awake for the Lord, the Creator of the universe, who fills all things and transcends all things.

How I wish he would awaken me, his humble servant, from the sleep of slothfulness, even though I am of little worth. How I wish he would enkindle me with that fire of divine love. The flames of his love burn beyond the stars; the longing for his overwhelming delights and the divine fire ever burn within me!

How I wish I might deserve to have my lantern always burning at night in the temple of my Lord, to give light to all who enter the house of my God. Give me, I pray you, Lord, in the name of Jesus Christ, your Son and my God, that love that does not fail so that my lantern, burning within me and giving light to others, may be always lighted and never extinguished.
 Jesus, our most loving Saviour, be pleased to light our lanterns, so that they may burn for ever in your temple, receiving eternal light from you, the eternal light, to lighten our darkness and to ward off from us the darkness of the world.

Give your light to my lantern, I beg you, my Jesus, so that by its light I may see that holy of holies which receives you as the eternal priest entering among the columns of your great temple. May I ever see you alone, look on you, long for you; may I gaze with love on you alone, and have my lantern shining and burning always in your presence.

Loving Saviour, be pleased to show yourself to us who knock, so that in knowing you we may love only you, love you alone, desire you alone, contemplate only you day and night, and always think of you. Inspire in us the depth of love that is fitting for you to receive as God. So may your love pervade our whole being, possess us completely, and fill all our senses, that we may know no other love but love for you who are everlasting. May our love be so great that the many waters of sky, land and sea cannot extinguish it in us: many waters could not extinguish love.

May this saying be fulfilled in us also, at least in part, by your gift, Jesus Christ, our Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

(St. Columban, De Compunctione, pp. 112-114)

[The gospels written by Mathew, Mark and Luke are called the Synoptic Gospels, because they are similar and use, although not always, the same sources.  The first gospel written is Mark?s. But, before, it is believed that there was a tradition, maybe a written source, called ?Q? (from the German word quelle, source) which is used by Mark. Mathew and Luke follow Mark in many instances,  and also the ?Q?.]

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