The
liturgical calendar of the Indian Orthodox Church commemorates St Luke the
Evangelist on 18th October.
St
Luke the evangelist was a native of Antioch, a trusted aide of St Paul, a physician,
the author of the Gospel (St Luke) and Acts of the Apostles.
The Church
historian Eusebius tells us about St Luke thus:
“But Luke,
who was of Antiochian parentage and a physician by profession, and who was
especially intimate with Paul and well acquainted with the rest of the
apostles, has left us, in two inspired books, proofs of that spiritual healing
art which he learned from them. One of these books is the Gospel, …. The other
book is the Acts of the Apostles which he composed not from the accounts of
others, but from what he had seen himself.”- Eusebius, Church
History Book III, Chapter 4, NPNF Series II, Volume I.
St Jerome states:
“Luke a
physician of Antioch, as his writings indicate, was not unskilled in the Greek language. An adherent of the apostle Paul, and companion of all his journeying, he wrote a Gospel,.. He also wrote another excellent volume
to which he prefixed the title Acts of the Apostles, a
history which extends to the second year of Paul's sojourn at Rome, that is to the fourth year
of Nero, from which we learn that the book was composed in that
same city….. Some suppose that whenever Paul in his epistle says “according to my gospel” he means the book of Luke and
that Luke not only was taught the gospel history by the apostle Paul who was not with the Lord in the flesh, but also by other apostles. This he too at the beginning of his work declares, saying “Even as they delivered
unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word. “So he wrote the gospel as he had heard it, but composed the Acts of
the apostles as he himself
had seen. He was buried at Constantinople to which city, in the twentieth year
of Constantius, his bones
together with the remains of Andrew the apostle were transferred.” – Jerome, On Illustrious Men, Chapter 7, NPNF Series II, Volume III.
St Paul
addresses St Luke the evangelist as the ‘beloved physician’ (Colossians 4:14);
in the same chapter (verses 7 onwards) wherein the final greetings is given- St
Luke’s name is not counted among the ones who are ‘of circumcision’, so it is
unlikely that St Luke was of a Jewish ancestry.
The tradition
attributes that the other disciple in the road to Emmaus to be St Luke (Gospel
of St Luke 24: 13 onwards) and credits St Luke with writing the first icons of St
Mary-the Theotokos.St Luke accompanied St Paul on his second missionary
journey, and in St Luke, St Paul found a friend who was to be with him, in
happiness and troubles alike.
We first
encounter St Luke in the Acts chapter 16- St Luke gives the details in the
third person (‘they’) and here we see him changing to first person plural (‘we’).
“Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the
next day came to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi..” (Acts 16:11 onwards).
The reference to ‘we’ continues till the group departs from Philippi. Perhaps,
St Luke was asked to be in Philippi to carry on the gospel work.
St Luke forsook
a promising life to be a fellow worker to St Paul in his ministry. Couple of
years back, I happen to study in a Sunday School Teacher’s conference that we
often wrongly use the word ‘Enthusiasm’ in our day to day conversations. If we
see the etymological root of the word ‘Enthusiasm’, we learn that it focuses on
‘en-theos’ which means ‘divinely inspired’.
When you
are divinely inspired to do a work- you do not worry about the ups and downs
that come in your way rather you just march ahead. When we see references to St
Luke by St Paul in his various letters and of course in the book of Acts of the
Apostles- we see a physician, an artist, a fellow worker who is ‘enthusiastic’ about
his Christian mission. He provides his unflinching support to St Paul through
thick and thin of his ministry, not bothered about the problems he is facing/will
face nor interested in getting any due recognition.
Such
marvelous was his enthusiasm for his support to St Paul’s ministry throughout
his life, that in his farewell epistle, St Paul exclaims ‘Only Luke is with me’
!(2 Timothy 4:11)
May the
intercessions of St Luke help us to be faithful to our Lord no matter what the
situation is and may by his prayers may we be divinely inspired in all our good
works which we render unto our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!
In Christ,
Rincy John
Rincy John
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