THE WORD AND THE SAINT
2 Timothy 4: 10-17b; Luke 10: 1-9
Today we celebrate St. Luke, an evangelist par excellence who has made an irreplaceable contribution to the Christian Scriptures. If it were not for Luke, we would have no Magnificat -the song of praise sung by our Blessed Mother, no Benedictus -the song of praise by Zecharaiah, no song of Anna, no account of John's birth or no account of the Ascension!
But for St. Luke we would not have met Zachaeus in Jericho, the ten leprosy patients on the way, or the Women disciples who followed Jesus, or the good thief on the Cross or Jesus on the way to Emmaus. But for St. Luke we would have missed the greatest of stories ever told -the Prodigal Son and other inspiring stories of the Good Samaritan, the Rich man and Lazarus and Jesus' walk to Emmaus after resurrection.
There is yet another speciality of Luke, which is his way of making sense of the Reign of God. Though even the other Gospels, be it the synoptics or that of John, they speak of the Reign of God, Luke in his turn speaks of the Reign of God as being amidst us. "Reign of God is amidst you", says Lk 17:21. The same is recorded in Lk 10:9, which we hear today: "the Reign of God has come near to you". This specific message of Luke invites us to recognise in action our call to be agents of the Reign of God. It is a call to live our life as the people of the Reign thus ushering in the Reign of God here on earth and right now amidst us.
May St. Luke inspire us to get in touch with the Word of God more and more and help us towards making the Reign of God be felt, be present and flourish wherever we are.