SAINT LUKE, EVANGELIST
18 October 2013
Readings:
Key Verses (using the World English Bible):
2 Tim. 4:16: “No one came to help me, but all left me. May it not be held against them.”
Luke 10:5-6: “Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’ If a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you.”
Reflection
The Church owes a great deal to this mysterious figure known as St. Luke the Evangelist. Despite a lack of autograph, tradition has ascribed to him authorship of one gospel and the Book of Acts. His gospel provides the background behind the birth of St. John the Baptist, and includes the intimate and well-cherished details of the Virgin Mary’s encounter with the Angel Gabriel. Indeed the praise songs of both Mary and John’s father, Zechariah, have become indelible parts of the church’s liturgy. Furthermore, Acts is the New Testament’s only attempt at church history. Without it, the stories of the Holy Spirit’s descent on Pentecost, or St. Paul’s conversion, would not be the same.
However, tradition also recognizes Luke as a physician, something for which he is lesser known. A Gentile hailing from Antioch in present-day Syria, Luke would’ve practiced medicine in a form barely recognizable to us today. He would’ve skillfully observed a patient’s symptoms just as much as he might’ve consulted the stars for a diagnosis. His cures might more accurately be termed “herbal remedies”, ones based on ancient humoral theory. In particularly difficult cases, he (and his patient?) might’ve sought guidance at the Temple of Asclepius, the ancient Greco-Roman god of healing. And yes, Luke might’ve performed a primitive surgery or two.
It’s striking to me that only Luke’s Gospel, when describing how Jesus was rejected in his hometown of Nazareth, includes the following remark:
[Jesus] said to them, “Doubtless you will tell me this parable, ‘Physician, heal yourself!’” (Luke 4:23)
I think this might actually be more about Luke than Jesus. With all his medical, herbal, astrological, and spiritual knowledge, Luke would still have known that there are some diseases that can’t be cured, and that he was not immune to them. Jesus’ message turned Luke’s focus to a deeper, more holistic (if you will) type of healing, one that addresses the real pathology behind human illness and prescribes the common treatment.
The Church has come to know this illness as “original sin”, a powerfully charged phrase describing the human fall from Paradise. In the Protestant West, we tend to think of “original sin” as a stain of sin and guilt transmitted across generations (through sex, according to some, like Martin Luther) because of Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden. Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox theology thinks of it more as a state of illness or “un-health” that we’re born into. We’re not personally guilty of Adam and Eve’s sin, but we suffer the consequences.
In a broken world like ours, where our natural resources are at their brink of exhaustion; where decades-old waste and pollution are still causing immediate, worldwide problems; where the freedoms of one generation become the immaturity and apathy of the next; where we still alienate each other with violence, prejudice, and poverty, I’m starting to understand what it means to suffer the consequences of things I personally may not be guilty of. I, too, find myself in Luke’s position of helplessness and vulnerability. On his feast day, then, I seek guidance from the sainted physician. May he walk with me into the Temple of God, and teach me how to follow our Great Physician, where true healing and wholeness are found.
Prayer of the Day
Almighty God,
you inspired your servant Luke the physician
to set forth in the Gospel
the love and healing power of your Son.
Graciously continue in your Church
this love and power to heal,
to the praise and glory of your Name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen.
—from the Book of Common Prayer, pp. 244-245
Hymn: “Lord Jesus Christ, O living bread” (for Friday, Creation 6)
(Words: “Du Lebensbrot, Herr Jesu Christ” by Johann Rist, 1654; translation by Arthur T. Russell, 1851; adapted by Joseph A. Soltero
Tune: ‘Du Lebensbrot’, Peter Sohren 1630?-1692?; adapted by Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen, 1670-1739)
Lord Jesus Christ, O living bread,
May I as mine possess you.
I would with heav’nly food be fed.
Descend, refresh, and bless me.
Prepare me now for you, O Lord,
And, humbly by my heart implored,
Grant me your grace and mercy.
My soul to pastures green you guide.
To quiet waters, lead me.
And for your table, you provide,
And from your hand, you feed me.
Sin, weakness, and infirmity
Am I, and yet you give to me
The cup of salvation.
O bread of heaven, soul’s delight,
For full and free remission
With prayer I come before your sight
In sorrow and contrition.
With faith adorn my soul, that here
I to your table may draw near
With your own preparation.
Now sin upon me lies, O Lord,
Your grace I do not merit.
Beneath my burden, self-abhorred,
I cry to you in spirit.
And in my grief, it comforts me
That you show favor graciously.
O Lord, you are compassion.
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