Feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist

Crucifix in the Friars' Cemetery

Although we know almost nothing about the Luke who wrote The Gospel According To Saint Luke the Church prefers to celebrate the man, rather than the gospel. That seems important to me.

The project of announcing the gospel requires that we build and maintain an enormous infrastructure. There will be the material infrastructure of churches, schools and administration buildings. There will be intellectual infrastructures like the gospels, epistles, and assorted books which are gathered into the canon of the Bible, plus millions of extra-biblical books. There are artistic infrastructures – the songs, poetry, sculpture, paintings etc which inspire and edify. Many of our best songs were written centuries ago! And there are legal infrastructures which include everything from Canon Law to the bylaws of local churches. Finally there are communities of every kind, which are created of living stones (people). Every century witnesses the birth, life, and death of communities – dioceses, parishes, and religious communities of every sort; and yet the Church continues.  

The infrastructure of the Bible will require a huge commitment of scholars who can accurately research and translate the Old and New Testaments. This is especially challenging because the original manuscripts of every book in the Bible were lost millennia ago. We have only copies of copies, each of them scrupulously transcribed, mistakes and all, by intensely dedicated professionals. With reasonably accurate renditions of the original, modern linguists try to give us faithful translations, realizing that living languages change continually. We must render the Word of God in language that befits its dignity and yet is accessible to everyone. Fortunately, in our Catholic Church, our bishops have the authority and depth of knowledge to tell us which translations to trust and which to avoid.

It seems to me that celebrating the enormous task of maintaining the Bible would rate a feast day! But when we come to October 18, each year, we celebrate the Evangelist Luke and not his book.

Perhaps that’s because God does not save books; God saves people. And even when we read the gospel in solitude we are surrounded by a worshipping community which has given us this precious treasure.

Some folks say they do not interpret the scriptures; they read it “literally” and discern the exact intention of God who wrote the Bible. It’s a powerful argument to persuade the ignorant of their authority, but woefully naïve.

In celebrating the feasts of the evangelists (Saint Mark, April 25; Saint Matthew, September 21; Saint John, December 27) we remember the men who wrote the gospels and we honor their courage and integrity. We remember that, although the Lord calls each Christian personally and requires her to discover her own singularity in the presence of God, she nonetheless belongs to a Church which gives her much and requires much of her.

No Christian is saved alone; we’re in this together. Some members have outstanding intelligence, creativity, courage, and holiness and we honor them as saints. But each of those saints reflects the virtue we enjoy in God’s company.