What is Saint Luke Telling Us?

From Our Spiritual Advisor:

Most of the special celebrations of the Church year are over and done. The Advent wreath is on a high shelf in the sacristy with a dust cover over it. Margarine tubs with ashes are put away in a drawer. The Paschal candle has been dethroned from its prominent place and exiled to the sacristy, where it will help welcome new baby members into the light of Christ.

However, Ordinary Time is special in its own subdued way. I’ve always told kids that “ordinary” doesn’t mean “boring” or “useless.” The Church is simply recognizing our human condition. We can’t permanently exist at a high emotional pitch. “It can’t be your birthday every day,” I would tell them. “Everybody would get sick of ice cream and cake. They’d get tired of having to buy you presents.” To which kids always say that it would be OK to have their birthday every day, and as far as all that ice cream and cake – bring it on!

They’ll find out differently when they get older. We need quiet time. We need an opportunity to relax and reflect on who we are in God’s plan, what our calling is in our families, in our towns and neighborhoods, and what our calling is in our Church.

Each year the Church reads a different Gospel to us to help us reflect and come to know ourselves better in our relationship to God. All summer and fall we’ll read from Saint Luke, with the exception of the feast of the Holy Cross (September 14) and All Souls Day (November 2). What will Saint Luke show us?

One of Saint Luke’s major themes is that the people who don’t count for very much in society’s eyes are important in God’s eyes. He shows us how important the poor are in Jesus’ eyes. His mother and foster father hail from backwoods Nazareth. Shepherds, the migrant farm workers of Jesus’ day, hail His birth. At the beginning of His preaching career, He quotes Isaiah 61: 1-2 (“He has sent me to bring good news to the poor”) to explain who He is. A few chapters later He says “Blessed are you poor.” In the same talk, he bursts the bubble of our romantic notions by saying “Woe to you rich.” You won’t find a PhD or a CEO among His disciples; no, He chose hard-working fishermen with the smell of fish on their hands and clothes, and a despised tax-collector. And even these people from the lower classes He told that they would have to renounce everything to be His followers.

Saint Luke’s Gospel is the gospel of prayer. Jesus prays before every major decision: at His baptism; at the choosing of apostles; before He asks “Who do people say I am?” and gets Peter’s answer; before He teaches the Our Father; and in Gethsemane when His enemies are coming after Him, prepared to arrest Him, put Him on trial, and sentence Him to death.

Saint Luke’s Gospel is the Gospel of the Holy Spirit. Mary, Elizabeth and the unborn John the Baptist are filled with the Holy Spirit. Mary conceives Jesus through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells His disciples that if they know how to give their children good things, “how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” (Luke 11:13) Acts of the Apostles is St. Luke’s “volume 2.” A constant theme in Acts is how the Holy Spirit guides and strengthens the Church in a hostile world.

Women are quite prominent in St. Luke’s Gospel. Mary, His Mother, is referred to frequently. Jesus heals women; He is close friends with another Mary and her sister Martha; He sees a woman putting a few pennies in the Temple treasury and bases a lesson on her; women discover that His tomb is empty and bring the good news of resurrection to His male disciples.

We will also hear stories of forgiveness. Jesus forgives a sinful woman at a banquet in a Pharisee’s home. He takes Matthew the tax collector into His inner circle of apostles. He meets Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, receives his words of repentance, and forgives him for all his crooked dealings and extortion. When the good and holy people raise the objection, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them,” Jesus tells three stories to show God’s attitude toward sinners: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the two lost sons. (Yes, both sons were lost to the father. One went off to a far country to live “la vida loca”; the other retreated behind a wall of resentment and bitterness.) The father welcomed both back. The younger son accepted the father’s welcome; what did the older son do? Jesus leaves the story hanging. We aren’t told if he went into the party or not. I think Jesus wants us to examine our hearts about our own self-righteousness and refusal to forgive.

And this summer, we will hear a lot about Jesus sitting down at a meal. These stories begin with the meal at Simon the Pharisee’s home, where the local lady of the evening bursts in because she sees in Jesus a chance to be rid of the sin that is eating her alive. The “meal” stories then build on one another until we arrive at the Last Supper, the meal at Emmaus, and the final meal with the disciples in the Upper Room.

What does Jesus want you and me to learn this summer. First of all, He wants us to learn about poverty and materialism. He wants us to ask what we put ahead of God, and what we put ahead of God’s people. It’s a pretty uncomfortable question. He wants us to ask about how much effort we devote to prayer. If we use words that come from the great masters of prayer, like the Our Father or Hail Mary, are we just mouthing words, or are we lifting up our hearts to God? Do you and I acknowledge our need for the Holy Spirit, or do we insist on bulldozing our own way through life’s problems? Do we realize the joy that can be ours in the life of the Holy Spirit? Is there anyone in our life whom we refuse to forgive? Do you and I admit that we need to be forgiven? Do we treasure our welcome to the Lord’s table, and do we welcome other people to that banquet above all others?

I’ve met so many faith-filled, Spirit-filled people through Cursillo. Many of them hardly need to answer these questions. But a review of our lives never hurts. There is always room for growth.

De colores!

Fr. Tom