St. Luke the Apostle

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Wednesday, 18 October 2017 : Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast of one of the four writers of the Holy Gospels, or the Evangelists, namely St. Luke the Evangelist. The Gospel he wrote, the Gospel according to St. Luke, was known for its rich attention to details, showing in great detail especially the early life of Jesus, from the time when He was still in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, His mother.

St. Luke was told to be a renowned physician and doctor who became a follower of Jesus. He then accompanied St. Paul in his travels across the Eastern Mediterranean region, and visited many places, during which he recorded many of his experiences. It was possible that the Acts of the Apostles itself was written and recorded by St. Luke on top of his involvement in the writing of the Gospel of St. Luke.

St. Luke was dedicated to serve the Lord through his eloquence with language and the literary works. That was how he helped to record the works and life of the Lord Jesus and His Apostles, that in the end, a comprehensive collection of the Word of God could be compiled, in the form of the Gospels, the Epistles of the Apostles, and also the Holy Bible as a whole with the accounts of the Old Testament.

Through the Scriptures and particularly the Holy Gospels, many people have been touched by the Word of God, and therefore, were converted to the Lord’s cause. The Gospels contain within them the Word of God Himself, for they contain the words directly spoken by the Lord, as well as accounting the life of the Divine Word made flesh, Our Lord Jesus.

The examples of St. Luke, his dedication and hard work, together with that of the other Holy Apostles and disciples of the Lord should become sources of inspiration for each and every one of us Christians, as in the Gospel passage today, we are reminded of our obligation as those who believe in God and as those who follow Him and obey His laws. In that Gospel passage, we heard how the Lord Jesus commissioned and sent His disciples ahead of Him to do His works.

He sent His seventy-two disciples ahead of Him in order to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord to those places He were to visit. The disciples were told to preach the Good News to the people living in those places, and if they were receptive to the message of God, they were to continue dwelling there and bless the people. But if the disciples were rejected and the people refused to listen to them, they were to leave that place.

This passage serves as a reminder to all of us Christians, that in our world today, there is still indeed a great need for us to do what the Lord Jesus had sent His disciples to do at that time. Why is that so? That is because just as there were many who had not yet heard about the Lord Jesus and His truth at that time, there are also still many people living in our time who are still ignorant or purposely shutting themselves from God’s truth.

And this should bring our attention to the other words that the Lord Jesus spoke, the well-known phrase of ‘the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few.’ This is the reality of our world today, as Christians living in the world still filled with darkness and sin, and yet with tremendous potential for conversion and change. And each and every one of us Christians are these labourers of Christ, the workers of the field of the Lord, that is this world and the multitudes of mankind.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, there are many ways in which we are able to serve the Lord, as St. Luke the Evangelist has shown us. St. Luke proclaims the Word of God through his writings and literary works, documenting the important moments of the history of our salvation, providing a safe anchor for all the faithful to adhere on, the Books of the Gospels through which many people had been saved because they listened and repented from their sins.

And others still went about, preaching the truth by words and by actions, as we see our holy predecessors, the holy saints and martyrs, who had devoted their lives to the Lord, caring for the people of God, and showing tender love for them, by calling them to the Lord’s salvation and forgiveness. We can do much to emulate their examples, and follow in their footsteps.

The reason why there are so few labourers for the plentiful harvests of the Lord, is because of our reluctance and refusal to obey the call of the Lord, either because of our fears and uncertainties, or because of our lack of faith in God and the distractions which prevented us from being able to commit ourselves completely to the Lord’s cause. This is what we must overcome, brothers and sisters in Christ, by actively engaging ourselves in our faith life, and committing ourselves to God.

Let us all devote ourselves, our time, effort and attention to serve the Lord with all of our hearts. Let us be faithful and dedicated servants of the Lord, that through our every actions, no matter how small they are, we may bring many more people and souls closer to the salvation in God. Let us be active in our faith, and live according to what the Lord had commanded us to do. May the Lord be with us all, and through the intercession of St. Luke the Evangelist, may He always inflame our hearts with the love for the Word of God. Amen.

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Wednesday, 18 October 2017 : Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Luke 10 : 1-9

At that time, the Lord appointed seventy-two other disciples, and sent them, two by two, ahead of Him, to every town and place, where He Himself was to go. And He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. So you must ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers to His harvest. Courage! I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Set off without purse or bag or sandals; and do not stop at the homes of those you know.”

“Whatever house you enter, first bless them, saying, ‘Peace to this house!’ If a friend of peace lives there, the peace shall rest upon that person. But if not, the blessing will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking at their table, for the worker deserves to be paid. Do not move from house to house.”

“When they welcome you to any town, eat what they offer you. Heal the sick who are there, and say to them : ‘The kingdom of God has drawn near to you.'”

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Wednesday, 18 October 2017 : Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 144 : 10-11, 12-13ab, 17-18

All Your works will give You thanks; all Your saints, o YHVH, will praise You. They will tell of the glory of Your kingdom, and speak of Your power.

That all may know of Your mighty deeds, Your reign, and its glorious splendour. Your reign is from age to age; Your dominion endured, from generation to generation.

Righteous is YHVH in all His ways, His mercy shows in all His deeds. He is near those who call on Him, who call trustfully upon His Name.

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Wednesday, 18 October 2017 : Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

2 Timothy 4 : 10-17b

You must know, that Demas has deserted me, for the love of this world : he returned to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia and Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke remains with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is a useful helper in my work. I sent Tychicus to Ephesus.

Bring with you the cloak I left at Troas, in Carpos’ house, and also the scrolls, especially the parchments. Alexander, the metalworker, has caused me great harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. Distrust him, for he has been very much opposed to our preaching.

At my first hearing in court, no one supported me; all deserted me. May the Lord not hold it against them. But the Lord was at my side, giving me strength, to proclaim the word fully, and to let all the pagans hear it.

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Tuesday, 18 October 2016 : Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we mark the commemoration of the great feast day in honour of St. Luke, one of the writers of the Four Holy Gospels, the Gospel according to St. Luke, which was known as one of the most detailed among the four Gospels, filled with rich details about the life of Jesus our Lord, His works, His family and His disciples, and all other testimonies of faith that helped us to know what our Lord had taught us through His Church.

In today’s readings, we heard about the works of the Apostles and the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, from the works of St. Paul the Apostle, who went about to many places, cities, towns and villages throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, crossing back and forth between Greece and the Roman province of Asia, Syria and Judea, he had proclaimed the word of God in many occasions, testifying to the communities in the places he had visited about the Lord and Saviour of the world.

In the Gospel we also heard how Jesus sent His chosen seventy-two disciples who had been appointed to assist the twelve Apostles in the deliverance of the Good News to the people, and these helped the work of the Lord by preparing those people and communities for the coming of the Lord Jesus, that when He came, He would be able to relate better to them and many more of them would listen to Him and be saved.

And as Jesus had foretold, their works and missions were not to be easy, but instead many obstacles and challenges exist on their path. There would be those who welcomed them into their places, and many more would listen to them and be changed in accordance to what the Lord intended for these, but there were also to be many more who would refuse to listen to God’s call, rejecting the call to repentance and mercy.

There would be those who were obstinate and stubborn in following the path of the world, worshipping pagan idols and being devoted to worldly pursuits such as money, power, fame and all other things, and these would come to oppose the Lord and His disciples, and in time, would come to persecute them, to chase them away from their lands, and to torture them, imprison them, and even to make them meet their end in martyrdom.

But without those courageous disciples and Apostles of our Lord, who have given their all to bring the Good News to the people who were still living in ignorance and in the darkness, there would have been no Church, and no salvation and grace for the countless souls who had been saved because of their works. Their blood, the spilling of their blood and the destruction of their mortal bodies served to be the foundation of the Church, as the saying goes, that the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians.

How is this relevant for us all, brothers and sisters in Christ? That is because we all are the current day’s Apostles and disciples, whom the Lord had continued to entrust the same mission which He had given to His Apostles and disciples as mentioned in the Holy Scriptures. We may be thinking that their works had been completed and the mission was over, but in reality, the mission God had entrusted to us is still very much real and ongoing.

We may not have to lay down our lives in the manner of the Apostles and the disciples of our Lord at that time in the early days of the Church, but we have to realise that there are places in this world where being a Christian, and believing in our God may equate to suffering and being persecuted even unto death, when even the enemies of the Lord will not show mercy to the faithful.

And there are also still so many of our brethren who still live in the darkness, lacking knowledge and understanding of our Lord and His salvation. And we can devote ourselves in the many ways available to us in accordance with our talents and abilities, and in terms of what we are willing and what we are able to give to our brethren who are in need of guidance and help.

We can start little from ourselves, be good and faithful disciples of our Lord, who shun all forms of fornications and sins, be it of the flesh, or of the mind and the heart. We can be charitable and be generous with all those whom we meet along the way, who need help with sustenance, with care, love and attention, and also most importantly, those who have not received the message and truth about God’s salvation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, may the examples of St. Luke and the other saints, Apostles, disciples and holy martyrs be inspirations for all of us to follow in their footsteps, so that by doing what they have done, and by staying devoted and being faithful in all things, and beginning from whatever little and simple things that we can do in our own surroundings, may we all work together to bring the enlightenment to many others and that many more souls may be saved through our work and dedication. May God bless us all and our endeavours. Amen.

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Tuesday, 18 October 2016 : Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Luke 10 : 1-9

At that time, the Lord appointed seventy-two other disciples, and sent them two by two ahead of Him to every town and place, where He Himself was to go. And He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. So you must ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers to His harvest.”

“Courage! I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Set off without purse or bag or sandals, and do not stop at the homes of those you know. Whatever house you enter, first bless them, saying, ‘Peace to this house!’ If a friend of peace lives there, the peace shall rest upon that person. But if not, the blessing will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking at their table, for the worker deserves to be paid. Do not move from house to house.”

“When they welcome you to any town, eat what they offer you. Heal the sick who are there, and say to them : ‘The kingdom of God has drawn near to you.'”

by

Tuesday, 18 October 2016 : Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Psalm 144 : 10-11, 12-13ab, 17-18

All Your works will give You thanks; all Your saints, o Lord, will praise You. They will tell of the glory of Your kingdom and speak of Your power.

That all may know of Your mighty deeds, Your reign and its glorious splendour. Your reign is from age to age; Your dominion endures from generation to generation.

Righteous is the Lord in all His ways, His mercy shows in all His deeds. He is near those who call on Him, who call trustfully upon His Name.

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Tuesday, 18 October 2016 : Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red
2 Timothy 4 : 10-17b

You must know that Demas has deserted me for the love of this world : he returned to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia and Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke remains with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is a useful helper in my work. I sent Tychicus to Ephesus.

Bring with you the cloak I left at Troas, in Carpos’ house and also the scrolls, especially the parchments. Alexander the metalworker has caused me great harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. Distrust him for he has been very much opposed to our preaching.

At my first hearing in court no one supported me; all deserted me. May the Lord not hold it against them. But the Lord was at my side, giving me strength to proclaim the Word fully, and let all the pagans hear it.

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Sunday, 18 October 2015 : Twenty-Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Mission Sunday and Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about firstly, from the book of the prophet Isaiah, on the prophecy of the suffering Servant, the Messiah who would suffer for our sins, and who would be given the burden of all of mankind’s faults, and He would be crushed with the grief and the punishment due for our faults, mistakes and sinfulness.

And in the Psalm, we heard about the Lord our God, who is God that is caring and loving towards all those who are faithful to Him, giving His blessings and graces to all those who trust in Him, and who fear Him and give to Him what is due for Him, namely honour, respect and due worship. This is the promise that God gives to all those who keep their faith in Him, that He will not leave them, but bless them and remain with them forever.

And linking to these two readings is what St. Paul mentioned in his letter to the Hebrews, where he highlighted the fact that Jesus, who was crucified, suffered and died for the sake of all the people, is the One true great High Priest of all, who offered not the sacrifice of animals and grains, but a different sacrifice that is His own Body, and His own Blood.

And He offered it not many times, but just once for the sake of the salvation of the whole world. The offering of His own Body and Blood, the offering of His worthy life has been accepted by God, as the one and only perfect sacrifice that is worthy to absolve us all from all the accumulations of our sins. God has given us all this grace and opportunity for us to be freed from the tyranny and hold of sin.

Then finally, in the Gospel today, Jesus spoke about how the way that He has revealed to us is not the path of pride and worldliness, but instead, we have to chart for ourselves a new path and follow a new life according to the will of God our Lord and Father. And this new path is shown by how Jesus rebuked His own disciples, St. James and St. John who asked to be favoured over the others by asking Jesus to give them the favour of sitting on His left and right, essentially a very great honour.

But these two disciples were basically thinking in terms of worldly power and glory, and they were thinking in terms of human glory, fame and honour, but they did not understand the true meaning of God’s Law and intentions for mankind. They thought that to follow Jesus means to share in His glory and honour, as well as majesty and greatness, and this is not surprising, as the normal ways of this world demand that we demand and seek for glory, fame and recognition in the eyes of one another.

After all, in this world, many of those who serve kings and rulers dress nicely and attempt to show that they are the best dressed and best in appearance before their master and trying to garner his or her favour by doing so. And yet, with Jesus, who is truly the King of all kings, and Lord of all lords, things are very different indeed.

For His kingship and kingdom is not of this world, and thus His ways and His methods are different from what we all used to know. If the way of the world is to flaunt greatness, wealth, fame and promote human praise and glory, then the way of our Lord Jesus and King is the way of humility, of loving service and genuine care to all those whom He is Lord over, and that is why He told His disciples, that whoever wants to be great from among His disciples must be a servant to all.

It is too often in this world that mankind uses power and influence to control and to oppress those who are subordinated to them, and they use all these to maintain their power, their privileges and their status, not willing to lose or be reduced in any of them. They desire for ever more and more worldly goods, worldly power, fame and influence, and this is why we mankind by our nature always bicker, enter into conflict and wars, and end up bringing suffering upon another or even resorting to murder and destruction of life.

The Lord teaches us that His way is not the way of greed, or of succumbing to our personal desires and jealousy upon others and what they had and what we do not have with us. He teaches us that to become greater in His eyes does not mean the same as being great in the eyes of the world. On the contrary, the greater a person has become, the more humble he or she should become, and become even less attached to their glory and desires.

It is difficult for us to detach from all these worldliness and human desires, as it is in our human nature to want even more when we already have something with us. And the more we have, the more difficult it is for us to resist that temptation to seek for even more. And the most important reason is that, we mankind are always looking for something that can satisfy our needs and wants, but all the things and goods of this world prove to be unsatisfactory in providing what we need.

After all, all the money and possessions, all the material goods in the world that we have cannot buy for us true happiness and joy. They can only provide us with happiness that is illusory, temporary and impermanent. And as I have just mentioned, that we mankind always grow in our greed and desire as we have more things with us? This is why we can never be satisfied with whatever this world is able to offer.

On the contrary, what truly can provide us with true happiness and satisfaction, is the satisfaction that comes from the Lord alone. It is only God alone who can give us and provide us with true happiness, that is by the provision of His words, His Law, His truth and His perfect love, that He fills us up with, that all of us are needing right now, to liberate us from our own sinfulness, stubbornness, and inability to live in accordance to the way of the Lord.

This is why, on this day, the Feast of St. Luke the Apostle and Evangelist, we should all reflect on the Holy Gospels, which the Apostles had written and composed by the power of the Holy Spirit, to provide us with God’s truth and love, through the words they have written in the Four holy Gospels. The Gospels and the entirety of the Holy Scriptures are the repository and evidence of the truth and the words of God that all of us have heard, witnessed and shared, and thus we believe in Him from whom the words came.

And as today is also the celebration of the Mission Sunday, by this we should all realise that all of us are the bearers of God’s Gospel to the world, for there are indeed many of those our brethren, who are still living in the darkness of this world, and which by our actions and deeds, we may bring the revelation of God’s truth to them, so that they may be saved too, just as we have been saved.

Many of us mankind are still living in ignorance of the truth of the Lord, blinded by darkness and sin, and the light provided by the truth in the Gospels are truly necessary for us all to be able to liberate one another from the effects of darkness that had covered our souls and bring all of us into the light of Christ our Lord. It is the mission which our Lord had given and entrusted to all of us, to bring His light to the nations.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, let us all remember the mission which our Lord Jesus Christ had given to all of His disciples before the time when He was about to depart back from this world to His heavenly Father. This mission is that all of us bring all mankind, from all the nations and from the whole world, to receive baptism in the Holy Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

And the way to do this is by proclaiming God’s truth, the truth of His words and the light of His truth by practicing our faith in our own actions, and showing our adherence and faith in God’s truth by showing these through all that we do to our fellow men, and through our commitment to the Lord and His ways. Let us all be missionaries of the Faith to one another, and in particular to those who lives are still in darkness, and who still have yet to hear the word and the truth of God.

May Almighty God be with us always, bless us all in our endeavours and works, so that in all the things that we say and do, we may bring more souls closer to the salvation in God. God bless us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Sunday, 18 October 2015 : Twenty-Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Mission Sunday and Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 10 : 35-45

At that time, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and said to Him, “Master, we want You to grant us what we are going to ask of You.” And He said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” They answered, “Grant us to sit, one at Your right hand and one at Your left, when You come in Your glory.”

But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink, or be baptised in the way I am baptised?” They answered, “We can.” And Jesus told them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and you will be baptised in the way that I am baptised; but to sit at My right hand or at My left is not Mine to grant. It has been prepared for others.”

On hearing this, the other ten were angry with James and John. Jesus then called them to Him and said, “As you know, the so-called rulers of the nations act as tyrants, and their great ones oppress them. But it shall not be so among you; whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you shall make himself slave of all.”

“Think of the Son of Man, who has not come to be serve but to serve, and to give His life to redeem many.”

Alternative reading (shorter version)

Mark 10 : 42-45

Jesus then called them to Him and said, “As you know, the so-called rulers of the nations act as tyrants, and their great ones oppress them. But it shall not be so among you; whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you shall make himself slave of all.”

“Think of the Son of Man, who has not come to be serve but to serve, and to give His life to redeem many.”