From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.
The goodness and kindness of God our Saviour hath appeared to all men.[1] It would seem that the third evangelist, a disciple of St. Paul, had purposed setting forth this word of the doctor of the Gentiles; or may we not rather say, the apostle himself characterizes in this sentence the Gospel wherein his disciple portrays the Saviour prepared before the face of all peoples; a light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of . . . Israel.[2] St. Luke’s Gospel, and the words quoted from St. Paul, were in fact written about the same time; and it is impossible to say which claims priority.
Under the eye of Simon Peter, to whom the Father had revealed the Christ the Son of the living God, Mark had the honour of giving to the Church the Gospel of Jesus, the Son of God.[3] Matthew had already drawn up for the Jews the Gospel of the Messias, Son of David, Son of Abraham.[4] Afterwards, at the side of Paul, Luke wrote for the Gentiles the Gospel of Jesus, Son of Adam through Mary.[5] As far as the genealogy of this First-born of His Mother may be reckoned back, so far shall extend the blessing He bestows on His brethren, by redeeming them from the curse inherited from their first father.
Jesus was truly one of ourselves, a Man conversing with men and living their life. He was seen on earth in the reign of Augustus; the prefect of the empire registered the birth of this new subject of Cæsar in the city of His ancestors. He was bound in the swathing-bands of infancy; like all of his race, He was circumcised, offered to the Lord, and redeemed according to the law of His nation. As a Child He obeyed His parents; He grew up under their eyes; He passed through the progressive development of youth to the maturity of manhood. At every juncture, during His public life, He prostrated in prayer to God the Creator of all; He wept over His country; when His heart was wrung with anguish at sight of the morrow’s deadly torments, He was bathed with a sweat of blood; and in that agony He did not disdain the assistance of an angel. Such appears, in the third Gospel, the humanity of God our Saviour.
How sweet too are His grace and goodness! Among all the children of men, He merited to be the expectation of nations and the Desired of them all: He who was conceived of a humble Virgin; who was born in a stable with shepherds for His court, and choirs of angels singing in the darkness of night: ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good-will.' But earth had sung the prelude to the angelic harmonies; the precursor, leaping with delight in his mother’s womb, had, as the Church says,[6] made known the King still resting in His bride-chamber. To this joy of the Bridegroom’s friend, the Virgin Mother had responded by the sweetest song that earth or heaven has ever heard. Then Zachary and Simeon completed the number of inspired canticles for the new people of God. All was song around the new-born Babe; and Mary kept all the words in her heart, in order to transmit them to us through her own evangelist.
The divine Child grew in age and wisdom and grace before God and man; till His human beauty captivated men, and drew them with the cords of Adam to the love of God. He was ready to welcome the daughter of Tyre, the Gentile race that had become more than a rival of Sion. Let her not fear, the poor unfortunate one, of whom Magdalene was a figure; the pride of expiring Judaism may take scandal, but Jesus will accept her tears and her perfumes; He will forgive her much because of her great love. Let the prodigal hope once more, when worn out with his long wanderings, in every way whither error has led the nations; the envious complaint of his elder brother Israel will not stay the outpourings of the sacred Heart, celebrating the return of the fugitive, restoring to him the dignity of sonship, placing again upon his finger the ring of the alliance first contracted in Eden with the whole human race. As for Juda, unhappy is he if he refuse to understand.
Woe to the rich man, who in his opulence neglects the poor Lazarus! The privileges of race no longer exist: of ten lepers cured in body, the stranger alone is healed in soul, because he alone believes in his deliverer and returns thanks. Of the Samaritan, the levite, and the priest, who appear on the road to Jericho, the first alone earns our Saviour’s commendation. The pharisee is strangely mistaken, when, in his arrogant prayer, he spurns the publican, who strikes his Dreast and cries for mercy. The Son of Man neither hears the prayers of the proud, nor heeds their indignation; He invites Himself, in spite of their murmurs, to the house of Zacheus, bringing with Him salvation and joy, and declaring the publican to be henceforth a true son of Abraham. So much goodness and such universal mercy close against Him the narrow hearts of His fellow-citizens; they will not have Him to reign over them; but eternal Wisdom finds the lost groat, and there is great joy before the angels in heaven. On the day of the sacred nuptials, the lowly and despised, and the repentant sinners, will sit down to the banquet prepared for others. In truth I say to you, there were many widows in the days of Elias in Israel, . . . and to none of them was Elias sent, but to Sarepta of Sidon, to a widow woman. And there were many lepers in Israel at the time of Eliseus the prophet, and none of them was cleansed but Naaman the Syrian.[7]
O Jesus, thy evangelist has won our hearts. We love Thee for having taken pity on our misery. We Gentiles were in deeper debt than Jerusalem, and therefore we owe Thee greater love in return for Thy pardon. We love Thee because Thy choicest graces are for Magdalene, that is, for us who are sinners, and are nevertheless called to the better part. We love Thee because Thou canst not resist the tears of mothers; but restorest to them, as at Naim, their dead children. In the day of treason, and abandonment, and denial, Thou didst forget Thine own injury to cast upon Peter that loving look, which caused him to weep bitterly. Thou turnedst away from Thyself the tears of those humble and true daughters of Jerusalem, who followed Thy painful footsteps up the heights of Calvary. Nailed to the cross, Thou didst implore pardon for Thy executioners. At the last hour, as God Thou promisedst paradise to the penitent thief, as Man Thou gavest back Thy Soul to Thy Father. Truly from beginning to end of this third Gospel appears Thy goodness and kindness, O God our Saviour!
St. Luke completed his work by writing, in the same correct style as his Gospel, the history of the first days of Christianity, of the introduction of the Gentiles into the Church, and of the great labours of their own apostle Paul. According to tradition he was an artist, as well as a man of letters; and with a soul alive to all the most delicate inspirations, he consecrated his pencil to the holiest use, and handed down to us the features of the Mother of God. It was an illustration worthy of the Gospel which relates the divine Infancy; and it won for the artist a new title to the gratitude of those who never saw Jesus and Mary in the flesh. Hence St. Luke is the patron of Christian art; and also of the medical profession, for in the holy Scripture itself he is said to have been a physician, as we shall see from the breviary lessons. He had studied all the sciences in his native city Antioch; and the brilliant capital of the east had reason to be proud of its illustrious son.
The Church borrows from St. Jerome the historical lessons of the feast. The just censure therein passed upon a certain apocryphal and romantio history of St. Thecla, in no way derogates from the universal veneration of east and west for the noble spiritual daughter of St. Paul.
Ex libro sancti Hieronymi presbyteri de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis.
Lucas medicus Antiochensis, ut ejus scripta indicant græci sermonis non ignarus, fuit sectator apostoli Pauli, et omnis peregrination is ejus comes. Scripsit Evangelium, de quo idem Paulus: Misimus, inquit, cum illo fratrem, cujus laus est in Evangelio per omnes ecclesias. Et ad Colossenses: Salutat vos Lucas, medicus carissimus Et ad Timotheum: Lucas est mecum solus. Aliud quoque edidit volumen egregium, quod titulo, Acta apostolorum, prænotatur: cujus historia usque ad biennium Romæ commorantis Pauli pervenit, id est, usque ad quartum Neronis annum. Ex quo intelligimus in eadem urbe librum esse compositum.
Igitur periodos Pauli et Theclæ, et totam baptizati leonis fabulam, inter apocryphas scripturas computamus. Quale enim est, ut individuus comes apostoli, inter ceteras ejus res, hoc solum ignoraverit? Sed et Tertullianus, vicinus eorum temporum, refert presbyterum quemdam in Asia amatorem apostoli Pauli, convictum a Joanne, quod auctor esset libri, et confessum se hoc Pauli amore fecisse, et ob id loco excidisse. Quidam suspicante, quotiescumque in epistolis suis Paulus dicit, Juxta Evangelium meum, de Lucæ significare volumine.
Lucam autem non solum ab apostolo Paulo didicisse Evangelium, qui cum Domino in carne non fuerat, sed a ceteris apostolis: quod ipse quoque in principio sui voluminis declarat, dicens: Sicut tradiderunt nobis, qui a principio ipsi viderunt, et ministri fuerunt sermonis. Igitur Evangelium sicut audierat, scripsit: Acta vero apostolorum, sicut viderat ipse, composuit. Vixit octoginta et quatuor annos, uxorem non habens: sepultus est Constantinopoli, ad quam urbem vigesimo Constantini anno ossa ejus cum reliquiis Andreæ apostoli translata sunt de Achaia.
From the book of St. Jerome, priest, on ecclesiastical writers.
Luke was a physician of Antioch, and, as is shown by his writings, was skilled in the Greek tongue. He was a disciple of the apostle Paul, and accompanied him in all his journeys. He also wrote a Gospel; wherefore the same Paul says of him: We have sent also with him the brother whose praise is in the Gospel through all the churches. And again to the Colossians: Luke the most dear physician saluteth you. And to Timothy: Only Luke is with me. He wrote another excellent work, called the Acts of the apostles, in which he relates the history of the Church, as far as Paul’s two years’ sojourn at Rome, that is to the fourth year of Nero. From this circumstance we infer that the book was written at Rome.
Conseqently we class the journeys of Paul and Thecla and the whole fable of the baptized lion, among apocryphal writings. For is it possible that the apostle’s inseparable companion should know everything concerning him except this one thing? Moreover Tertullian, who lived near to those times, relates that a certain priest in Asia, an admirer of Paul, was convicted by John of having written that book; which he confessed he had done out of love for Paul, and was on that account deposed. Some are of opinion that whenever Paul in his epistles says: According to my Gospel, he means that of Luke.
Luke, however, was instructed in the Gospel not only by the apostle Paul, who had never seen the Lord in the flesh, but also by the other apostles. This he declares in the beginning of his work, saying: According as they have delivered them unto us, who from the beginning were eye-witnesses and ministers of the word. He wrote his Gospel, then, from what he had heard, but the Acts of the apostles from what he had himself seen. He lived eighty-four years, and was never married. His body lies at Constantinople, whither it was translated from Achaia, together with the relics of St. Andrew the apostle, in the twentieth year of Constantine.
The symbolical Ox, reminding us of the figurative sacrifices, and announcing their abrogation, takes his place to-day, with the man, the lion, and the eagle, to complete the number of the four mystical creatures before the throne of God. O evangelist of the Gentiles, blessed be thou for having put an end to the long night of our captivity, and warmed our frozen hearts. Thou wast the confidant of the Mother of God; and her happy influence left in thy soul that fragrance of virginity which pervaded thy whole life and breathes through thy writings. With discerning love and silent devotedness, thou didst assist the apostle of the Gentiles in his great work; and didst remain as faithful to him when abandoned or betrayed, shipwrecked or imprisoned, as in the days of his prosperity. Rightly, then, does the Church in her Collect apply to thee the words spoken by Saint Paul of himself: In all things we suffer tribulation, are persecuted, are cast down, always bearing about in our body the mortification of Jesus; but this continual dying manifests the life of Jesus in our mortal flesh. Thy inspired pen taught us to love the Son of Man in His Gospel; thy pencil portrayed Him for us in His Mother’s arms; and a third time thou revealedst Him to the world, by the reproduction of His holiness in thine own life.
Preserve in us the fruits of thy manifold teaching. Though Christian painters do well to pay thee special honour, and to learn from thee that the ideal of beauty resides in the Son of God and in His Mother, there is a yet more sublime art than that of lines and colours: the art of reproducing in ourselves the likeness of God. This we wish to learn perfectly in thy school; for we know from thy master St. Paul that conformity to the image of the Son of God can alone entitle the elect to predestination.
Be thou the protector of the faithful physicians, who strive to walk in thy footsteps, and who, in their ministry of devotedness and charity, rely upon thy credit with the Author of life. Second their efforts to heal or to relieve suffering; and inspire them with holy zeal, when they find their patients on the brink of eternity.
The world itself, in its decrepitude, now needs the assistance of all who are able, by prayer or action, to come to its rescue. ‘The Son of Man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, faith on earth?'[8] Thus spoke our Lord in the Gospel. But He also said that we ought always to pray and not to faint;[9] adding, for the instruction of the Church both at this time and always, the parable of the widow, whose importunity prevailed upon the unjust judge to defend her cause. ‘And will not God revenge His elect, who cry to Him day and night; and will He have patience in their regard? I say to you that He will quickly revenge mem.'[10]
[1] Tit. ii. 11; iii. 4.
[2] St. Luke ii. 31. 32.
[3] St. Mark i. 1.
[4] St. Matt. i. 1.
[5] St. Luke iii. 38.
[6] Vesper hymn for the feast of St. John Baptist.
[7] St. Luke iv. 25-27.
[8] St. Luke xviii. 8.
[9] Ibid. 1.
[10] Ibid. 2-7.