Today we celebrate the feast of St Luke who wrote one of the four Gospels. Each of the writers gives their Gospel a specific tone or emphasis. Luke’s Gospel is very human and very concerned for the poor and common folks. Our first reading from the letter of Paul to Timothy demonstrates Luke’s constancy in being with Paul through his difficult journeys to form new Christian communities.
Luke puts the experience of being sent out to share the Good News from Jesus as a central part of life for a Christian. One of the first things that Jesus does is send his disciple out to share their joy. Jesus sends them out with practically nothing for the journey: no extra money, no luggage, and no extra shoes. They had to concentrate on their mission and also experience God’s support along the road. Their only concern was to be sharing the joy of having God in their lives. Jesus says quite simply: Go!
This is our mission as Christians today: to share the joy of having God in our lives. It does not matter where we are, who we are, or how old we are – we all have the same mission. Each of us is a missionary to our family, friends, school, and neighborhood. We tend to concentrate our lives on ourselves and that tends to make us stationary and stagnant, even rotted inside. We don’t move beyond ourselves. Rather than being concentrated on our own worries, toys, plans, sports team, food, or feeling good, we are sent by Jesus to others to share our joy with them. A true Christian, lives for the good of others.
So, take some time today how Luke wrote his beautiful Gospel to share his faith with us and he was constant in accompanying Paul in the missionary trips. Ask yourselves if you are living as someone sent to share the joy of the Gospel with others.
Go on your way.
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