The Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke

Today we commemorate the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke, who is the author of the Gospel, which bears his name, as well as the Book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles, which records the early history of the Church from the Ascension of the Lord into Heaven until the imprisonment of Saint Paul in Rome.

This Holy Apostle was originally from Antioch and was, according to some account of Jewish parentage. In his youth, he studied philosophy and medicine and became a physician. According to some accounts, he studied in the greatest medical school of the time, at Tarsus in Cilicia. Thus, it is said that he knew the Saul, the future Apostle Paul, from his medical school days, since Saul was also from Tarsus and was very active in the Jewish community of his hometown. During the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus, Luke came to Jerusalem and there became a follower of Jesus. He was numbered among the Seventy Apostles. In the company of the Holy Apostle Cleopas (also one of the Seventy) he was traveling to the town of Emmaus in the countryside, when the Lord Jesus appeared to them and was revealed to them fully in the Breaking of the Bread.

Later, Luke returned to Antioch, where he became a fellow worker with the Holy Apostle Paul. During his years of traveling and working with Paul, Luke was asked by various communities in Asia to write a history of the life of the Lord Jesus. Thus, he wrote his Gospel around the year 60. He undertook the task in a scientific way, using as many credible sources as possible. Chief among his sources was the Most Holy Mother of God, who was still alive and living in Ephesus at the time. 

After the martyrdom of Saint Paul in Rome, Luke preached in Italy, Dalmatia, and Macedonia. During this period, he is said to have originated the tradition of Christian iconography, because he painted three portraits of the Most Holy Mother of God and one of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.

After traveling widely and preaching in places as distant as Libya and Upper Egypt, he finally returned to Greece, where, in his old age, he wrote the Book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles. He dedicated both of his books to the governor of Achaea, Theophilus, who was a new convert to Christianity at the time of the writing of the Gospel.

At last, at the age of eighty-four, the pagan people of Thebes in Greece, angered at the success of the Apostle's preaching and the abandonment of the old gods, tortured the old man and ultimately hung him from an olive tree.

From the life of Saint Luke we learn an important lesson to always consider ourselves learners and beginners. We should always strive to learn more and more about our faith. We should never rest with the knowledge that we know enough of God and the things of God.

Just as Luke assembled all the credible sources he could find to document the life of Jesus and the preaching of the early Apostles, in the same way, we should read widely in the spiritual literature esteemed and approved by our Catholic Church. We should teach what we know to others, remembering that instructing the ignorant is a work of mercy. In order to do so, we need not think of ourselves as more knowledgeable than others. We need only consider that we know ONE thing that we can impart, even as we learn so many other things from the very people whom we also teach.

Lastly, we should learn from the Holy Apostle Luke to have a living, close relationship with the Mother of God. May she be our primary teacher. May she teach us the contemplation of things stored up in our hearts, the proofs of God's love for us, which He shows to us from day to day.