18 October 2021 - St Luke the Evangelist - Luke 10:1-9

     We read the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, another book of the Bible that he wrote, but how much do we know about St Luke?  According to tradition he was a physician and a Gentile convert to the Way of Jesus.  Luke is mentioned in the letter to the Colossians by St Paul as a dear friend, so Luke was probably an associate of St Paul’s and probably accompanied him on some of his missionary journeys.  

      Luke came from Antioch in Syria. In the Early Church, Antioch emerged as an important center of Christianity. Not much after the time of St Luke, the influential theologian and Church leader Ignatius of Antioch was the Bishop of that city.  The city of Antioch was also an important center of culture and learning.  Most biblical scholars believe that the intended audience for the Gospel of Luke was Gentile.  

       When Jesus sends out his disciples for their missionary journey, I think of the journeys that all of us take as modern day disciples of Christ and how we are called to prepare for those journeys.

        I am getting ready to return to Spain in January to hike on the Camino for two weeks, my first time hiking on the Camino in five years. When I go on a hike, I am so careful as to what I take, since I carry everything in my backpack and thus every ounce counts.  Everyone little items, such as a paper clip or safety pin or a nail clippers, has to have a purpose and has to be necessary.  I try very hard to take the minimal amount of things because I don’t want anything weighing me down on my journey, which is the approach Jesus takes when sending out his disciples on mission.  So much can weigh us down, even when we do not realize it.  On our journey of faith, we can be weighed down by our anger, our hurt feelings, our lack of forgiveness, our impatience, our laziness, our sarcasm, and our inability to live by the morals and virtues of our faith.   

        This upcoming weekend, we will commemorate World Mission Sunday.  This month of October, we commemorate World Missions Month.   According to Pope Francis, we can all learn from the missionary saints and martyrs.  Luke, the apostles, and the fathers and mothers of the Early Church have so much to teach us by their words and their example.  The hardships Luke and this contemporaries went through in order to practice their faith and to bring Christ’s Good News to others is hard for us to imagine today.  St Luke, we unite our prayers to your prayers today as we celebrate your feast day.  St Luke - pray for us.