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A
Secretary who got the credit he deserved
St Luke is a patron of physicians and pharmacists.
An assistant of St Paul the Apostle, his is the name given to the
third Gospel in the New Testament.
That Gospel reflects Pauline tradition, St Paul's mission being,
of course, the spread of Christianity among the pagan Gentiles.
This is why the Gospel of St Luke is not overly concerned with quotes
from the Old Testament or with trying to show that Jesus is the promised
Messiah of the Chosen People, as we find in the Matthew's Gospel.
Given the audience the Gospel was meant to reach, those messages
would have fallen on largely deaf ears.
It was Matthew who provides us with a constant reference to the Old
Testament and the Prophets especially.
It is he who presents us with Christ's genealogy.
But there is something else about Matthew's Gospel that is so
very remarkable and that is often overlooked.
Matthew, as we know, was a tax-collector before he was called by
Christ to join him. As a
publican, Matthew was making a political statement.
He worked as a civil servant for the Roman Administration,
basically helping to oppress his own people through the onerous Roman
tax system.
The Jews of Matthew's time had two classifications of those they
wouldn't have anything to do with.
First, there were the "sinners."
These included adulterers, prostitutes, thieves and the like.
The other classification that stood alone was that of
"publicans" or tax collectors who were Jews who assisted Roman
oppression against the people of Israel.
So, essentially, Matthew was a traitor to his people.
Yet, Matthew's breach with his own people was healed through Christ.
It is Matthew who elects to bring the message of Salvation to his
people. It is he who chooses to dedicate his life to those on whom he
had turned his back. It is Matthew's Gospel that shows such a tremendous love for
the history of his own people through a copious referencing of the
Hebrew Scriptures.
A traitor turned lover of his people, Matthew's example teaches us to
take pride in our cultural background and to especially love all those
with whom we share it.
Luke, on the other hand, came from a pagan Syrian background.
For him, the Jewish heritage could not be more foreign.
Yet, the preaching of Paul the Jew contained much that attracted
Luke to Christ. A physician
with a high education, Luke became a great follower of Jesus and
dedicated his scholarly abilities to the dissemination of the Gospel
among non-Jewish peoples.
Both Paul and Luke began the movement of outreach to cultures and
religions outside that of the People of Israel. They clearly created bridges.
Although their initial contacts in other countries were with the
existing Jewish communities already there, they quickly made contact
with Gentiles and demonstrated, as we see in the Acts of the Apostles,
that God was calling them as well to the Salvation and Church of Jesus
Christ.
St Paul and St Luke had apparently even made contact with Scythians
who were located in what was to become Ukraine, as mention is made of
them in the New Testament. That
St Andrew travelled to the hills of Kyiv in the company of Scythian
Christians (e.g. Sts. Inna, Pinna and Rimma) is therefore not a
"far-fetched" conclusion in the least.
Today, we may reflect on how the Gospels of Luke and Matthew, while
so different, teach us an integral truth.
We are called to live the Gospel within our own cultural context
and community. Like St
Matthew, we should be proud of that community as it is our very own. Like St Luke, we should always be prepared to help make the
Gospel as culturally relevant as possible, without, however, sacrificing
its exciting message or imperatives.
Both Apostles fulfilled, each in their own way, the commandment of
Christ to "Go and teach all nations . . . baptizing them in the
Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." |
