Christ the Cornerstone

Like St. Luke, let’s proclaim our salvation in Christ

Jesus received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and he healed those who needed to be cured. (Lk 9:11)

Today, Oct. 18, is the feast of St. Luke the Evangelist. Through St. Luke’s Gospel and his Acts of the Apostles, our understanding of the kerygma (the core meaning of the New Testament) is greatly enriched.

St. Luke was not one of the 12 Apostles, but we know that he traveled with St. Paul on his apostolic journeys (2 Tm 4:10-11).

Church tradition also affirms that Luke was close to Mary, the mother of Jesus. In fact, his Gospel describes incidents in the life of the Holy Family that many believe can only have come from the personal recollections of Mary. These include the annunciation, the visitation with Elizabeth, the adoration of the shepherds in Bethlehem, Christ’s circumcision, the finding of the boy Jesus in the temple and more.

Luke also describes our Lord’s ascension into heaven, and he gives us some insight into Mary’s contemplative role in the early Church when he says that after her Son’s ascension “she persevered in prayer” (Acts 1:14).

St. Luke is an ideal evangelist because he both proclaims the good news of our salvation in Christ and lives it himself as a missionary disciple. What he proclaims—the kerygma (from the Greek word meaning “proclamation”)—can be synthesized in several sermons given by St. Peter and St. Paul and recorded by Luke in the Acts of the Apostles.

The basic content of sermons in Acts is that Jesus is the chosen Messiah of God, the One who was promised. Although he was crucified, he rose gloriously from the dead and appeared to his disciples. Now, having been exalted at the right hand of the Father through his ascension, Jesus summons everyone to himself. This good news requires a response from us: it demands that we repent of our sins, accept baptism and live the new life that Christ is offering.

When we hear this simple but powerful proclamation, we cannot help but be amazed. Truly the Holy Spirit is speaking through St. Luke to communicate the good news of our redemption!

Tradition tells us that St. Luke was a physician who had studied the art and science of healing the body. Clearly, his closeness to St. Paul and to our Blessed Mother also educated him in the spiritual healing that comes from Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Many of St. Luke’s stories in his Gospel account and in the Acts of the Apostles describe the healing that comes from faith in a spiritual power that is far greater than anything known to the earthly sciences—then or now. As St. Luke writes:

“A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people … came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured. Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all” (Lk 6:17-19).

Here in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, we are blessed to have parishes named for the four evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These parish communities remind us that we are all called to be “Spirit-filled evangelizers,” which is Pope Francis’ term for our baptismal responsibility to share our faith with others.

Many Catholics are reluctant evangelizers. Too often, we hesitate to speak openly and enthusiastically about our faith—either because we are unsure about the teachings of the Church, or because we lack confidence in our ability to give credible witness to what Catholicism means in our lives.

In his apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium” (“The Joy of the Gospel”), Pope Francis urges us to overcome this hesitation. He reminds us that this is precisely what Jesus commanded his followers to do as he ascended into heaven. To his timid, reluctant disciples, Jesus said:

“ ‘You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight” (Acts 1:8–9).

We, too, can become confident witnesses to the truth of our salvation in Christ. By meditating on the words of St. Luke and the other New Testament writers and by living our faith in our daily lives in simple, humble ways, we, too, can be Spirit-filled evangelizers. We can proclaim the truth with love, and we can share with others the good news that Christ has set us free! †