93 My Monologues with Luke the Evangelist (edited)
Dear Evangelist, Luke,
Probably, you may be the least known person among the Four Evangelists and among the other New Testament authors.There isn't much information about you in the New Testament except what your colleague and companion, Paul writes about you which isn't much either.
Yet one is able to gather a pretty good amount of information about you from your own writings and from the traditions.
You are the one and only New Testament author who is a gentile, right?
It is amazing that a gentile writes a Gospel about Jesus the Messiah and gets it approved and accepted!
I wonder whether you had met with much opposition from the veterans of the early Jewish-Christian Community!
Some scholars say you were from Antioch while some others are of the opinion that you were from Macedonia.
It matters little.
It seems Apostle Paul liked you a lot and he chose you as his travelling companion. He calls you as the "beloved physician," right?
Were you there with Paul:
When he was bitten by the snake?
Did you medically treat him?
When he was beaten up by the enemies,
Did you medically attend him to soothe his pain?
When he was in shipwreck,
Did you assist him as a physician?
While Apostle Paul, your Mentor, was imprisoned for two years in Caesarea,
Did you give him some medical attention besides the company you kept?
Is it because of these reasons he calls you the "beloved physician"?
Sure, Apostle Paul must have shared with you all his knowledge about Jesus and answered all your questions and doubts, right?
Some of the bible scholars believe you are the brother of Titus who was the companion and co-worker of Apostle Paul. Nothing is known about him except he was a gentile just as you were!
Yet some others are of the opinion that you were the one who was with Cleopas on the way to Emmaus.
Were you?
I would love to believe that!
Some scholars think your name is Lucius of Cyrene and it was hellenized into Lukas.
Some hold the view that you might have met or at least seen Jesus and heard him preach. Some of them say you were an artist and a skilled artist-painter and you painted icons of our Blessed Mother and of Peter and Paul!
Though all these nitty-gritty details have their own importance, they are immaterial for my present reflections.
So I let the experts continue juggling with them.
Dear Evangelist Luke, my own earliest recollection of you is that of an artist-painter. As a boy, my grandmother used to take me to one of her favourite Marian Shrines in the neighbourhood. She used to ask me to kneel down and pray before the old icon painting of the Madonna with the Child which was up above the Main Altar. She used to tell me that it was a miraculous picture, a copy of the original painting of St. Luke. Thus I was aware you were an painter-artist as well as a saint.
Only later on, from the Sunday Catechism class we were taught you were one of the Four Evangelists.
Dear Evangelist Luke, you were impressed with the Praying Jesus, right?
You have presented him praying before many a important moments and events in his life, like:
just before his baptism
before confrontation with the Pharisees
before calling his disciples
before the prediction of his own death
during the Transfiguration at Mount Tabor
before praying for Peter
before his own death on the Cross
Dear Evangelist Luke,
how I wish I could do it ...
to place myself in the presence of my God at every important moment in my life.
Very often, instead of praying and placing myself in the Divine Presence, either I am almost instinctively worried too much or I am over excited and exuberant due to my overblown ego.
Dear Evangelist Luke, you, yourself must have been used to pray at every important moment of your life and must have found it very energizing.Thus you wanted to share with us too, right?
Thank you for highlighting and presenting us with a Praying Jesus despite He himself being the Son of God!
Dear Evangelist Luke,
thank you also for highlighting the Compassionate Jesus, through the parables
of the Lost Sheep,
of the Lost Coin,
and of the Lost Son (The Prodigal Son).
His compassion on the crying widow drove him to raise up her dead son.
Dear Evangelist Luke,
your Jesus forgives the sinful woman on the one hand and the tax collector Zacchaeus on the other.
Thus you instill hope in sinners and prodigals like me.
Thank you!
Your Jesus is motivated by compassion and compassion alone urged him to perform miracles and to forgive sins.
The marginalized and the exploited, the public sinners and the tax collectors experience his compassion and find healing and forgiveness.
Yes, I can vouch it from my own life. Innumerable are the times and occasions when he reached out to me with compassion and forgiveness.
If not, I would not find myself here on this Hilltop Shrine. His immense patience with me and with my wayward and wanton ways for well over sixty years make me aware of my awful inadequacies and the need to keep on repenting and renewing!
Dear Evangelist Luke,
thank you for the ever innocent and romantic scene of
the baby Jesus
"wrapped in swaddling clothes laid....
in a manger"!!!
Thank you for gifting us with these indelible memories of an evergreen Christmas wrapped up in crispy cold and gentle peace, under canopy of the starry skies and singing angels from the heavens above and surrounded by the company of poor shepherds with their bleating sheep from the earth below!
Dear Evangelist Luke, if not for you, there wouldn't have been the joy of Christmas and our childhood memories of the same.
Millions of us keep treasuring and relishing those memories in our hearts and keep them nourishing and cherishing in our minds!
Thank you! a million thanks to you!
Dear Evangelist Luke,
you emphasise:
The All Inclusive aspect of the Kingdom.
It matters little whether one is:
A Jew or a Gentile,
A sinner or a saint,
A Pharisee or a Publican,
A male or a female,
All are welcome invitees of the Kingdom.
The punch line:
"the Kingdom of God is within you"
really is very very encouraging and energizing indeed for us the frail humans!
Along with many, many millions
I want to experience and enlarge the Kingdom within me!
I want to relish the joy of having the treasure of the Kingdom within my
"earthen vessel!"
Yet another attractive and unique feature of your version of the Good News is the presence of those:
Hymns of Joy and of Thanksgiving.
The "Magnificat" of the Young Virgin and newly Expectant Mother is a marvellous and mesmerising piece of poetic theology spontaneously experienced by a happy and grateful soul!
I want to imbibe it and internalise it
and keep singing it everyday of my life.
Yes,
"the Mighty One has done great things for me - holy is his name."
Thank you, dear Evangelist Luke,
for making it known to the world!
So is the "Benedictus" of the elderly priest Zacharias who was filled with joy and gratitude.
As a priest in the evening of my life,
I want to keep singing my "Benedictus":
"because he has graciously visited"
and keep on visiting me
and keep on delivering me
from my sins and failings.
"Blessed be the Lord, God of Israel..."
Dear Evangelist Luke,
you know what,
the best of all,
I just love the Grand Old Simeon,
"the good pious" man.
He comes across as one of the happiest, old and elderly men the world has ever seen!
There aren't many who have expressed their readiness to go and willings to pray like him:
"Now O Lord, as you said,
let your servant depart in peace...
For my eyes have seen the salvation.."
Dear Lord Jesus,
This is my earnest wish!
Like the Grand Old happy and content Simeon,
I want to grow gracefully old and peacefully depart!
From my younger and adult days of an Ugly Duckling of sins and failures,
I want to grow into a gracefully old Swan of a happy and content "Simeon".
I want to do it as I keep inching on to the evening of my life.
I want to do it despite all my soul searching and agonizing pangs and pains of growth even at these belated times of my life.
At the end, I want to sing happily like the Grand Old Simeon,
"Domine...Nunc dimittis in pace..."
"Lord.. let your servant depart in pace..."
"Domine. .. Nunc dimittis in pace..."
Dear Evangelist Luke,
Thank you very, very much for:
What you are !!!!!
And for what you have written !!!!
A Big Thank you!
Just one more question to you,
a naughty one, please!
Dear Evangelist Luke,
Where were you there when they were looking for a substitute for Judas Iscariot?
Why didn't you show up?
You would have made an apt and accurate sub Indeed!
Dear Evangelist Luke,
I would be enriched if you could share with me one of the most touching messages of your Master which appeals to you personally?
...... ........ ........
Musings of Evangelist Luke....
"In hindsight, what touches me most is the Unconditional Forgiveness of the Heavenly Father which is very poignantly portrayed in story of the Prodigal Son.
The father of the Prodigal son Unconditionally Accepted his son when he returned in repentance. No questions were asked,
No explanation were sought,
No annoyance were expressed,
No complaints were made,
Not even a speck of anger felt,
No hurt feelings were displayed!
The Lord Jesus reveals His all Loving Father who is ever ready to forgive totally and forget the sins of a repentant penitent. If amazes me and it beyond any human imagination as our actions, reactions, attitudes are conditioned, right?"
I just love my Lord and Master!"
Dear Evangelist Luke,
Thank for your musings!
You are mystic indeed!
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for giving us Luke the Evangelist!
He did paint a portrait of you bringing out
Your Compassion,
Your Care,
Your Forgiveness,
Your All embracing and All Inclusive attitude.
Lord, I want to spend some time in silence..
in your Presence..
"Speak Lord!
your servant is listening"
Amen
JoAchen
Sunday, 18th October, , 2015
PS
These Reflections are neither pure scientific exegetical interpretations nor highly theological explanations. They are my devotional meditations mainly meant for my personal renewal and spiritual growth.
Dear Reader, as I keep holding you in my daily prayers, I request you to do the same for me.
Thank you!
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