St. Luke the Evangelist Canonization Photos

Lord God, who chose Saint Luke to reveal by his preaching and writings the mystery of your love for the poor, grant that those who already glory in your Name may persevere as one heart and one soul, and that all nations may merit to see your salvation. Through the Lord.

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LUKE’S GOSPEL MESSAGE

More than other evangelists, Luke stresses the “world-affirming” dimension of Jesus' ministry.

For Luke locates Jesus not only within the salvation history of God's chosen people but within the history of the whole human race.

Thus, Luke refers both to the leaders of Israel and to figures like the Caesars (Augustus and Tiberius) who played key roles on the world's stage where Jesus of Nazareth belongs.

Luke's gospel highlights God's designs as the reversal of human values and expectations. God demonstrated a preferential love for the poor, the afflicted and the outcast as the starting-point for summoning all humanity to salvation.

Luke underlines the importance of faith and of prayer, giving prominence to the Holy Spirit's role in the life of Jesus and his disciples.

Luke shows that conversion implies a change in one's behaviour and accentuates the presence and contribution of women among Jesus' disciples.

Above all, Luke emphasizes the orderly transition from the ministry of Jesus to the mission of the Twelve Apostles. He shows that God blessed the transition from early church patterns in the apostolic era to later structures governed by elders appointed in apostolic succession.

Though many of the early church's struggles might appear to have been chaotic, the development of the Church came about following a divinely-ordained plan so that people's faith might be firmly grounded (Luke 1:1-4).

As one reads his Gospel, one sees how Luke explores dimensions in the disciples' experiences with Jesus that get below surface appearances.

For example, Peter's sense of unworthiness at his call (Luke 5:1-11).

Or a forgiven woman's love overflowing into tears that bathed the feet of Jesus (7:36-50).

Or a cleansed leper's joy that had to say “thank you” (17:11-19) and the recollection by the Emmaus disciples that their hearts burned within them as Jesus opened the meaning of the scriptures to them (24:13-35).

These themes and others are found in parables and narratives unique to the Third Gospel.

We should not be surprised then, that when Luke came to transmit Jesus' words concerning the end of human history, he gave them a special focus (Luke 21:5-36). In his account, Luke highlighted Jesus' role as the prophet who could and truly did foretell the future.

All through the Acts of the Apostles, Luke shows that Jesus correctly foretold the persecution of Christians after Pentecost (Luke 21:12-19).

As they read Luke's two-volume work late in the first century, Christians would have been aware that Jesus also had accurately predicted the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. (Luke 21:8-11, 20-24).

Accordingly, they would have had confidence in Jesus' predictions about happenings still to come.

Jesus' words about the end speak of the cosmic portents that will take place and of the reactions then of people who do not understand what these happenings mean (“people will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world”).

Christians who are taught by Jesus, however, are to have a different outlook. They are urged to hold their heads high because “your redemption is drawing near.”

Jesus warned that there remains a danger even for Christians. It derives from “the worries of this life” which may overwhelm their hearts and so weigh them down that they abandon themselves to “dissipation and drunkenness.”

In that case, the Day of the Lord may suddenly spring on them “like a trap.” One's only defence against this is “being alert at all times, praying for strength to escape” and to stand confidently before the Son of Man on Judgment Day. Here is the link with yesterday’s Gospel in which Jesus urged all his disciples to “pray always without becoming weary”



The ox, symbol of St. Luke



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PHOTOS AROUND THE CANONIZATION (1)

 

Mass with CCO Founders [Angele and Andre Regnier who were celebrating that day their 22nd wedding anniversary] and Staff [Scott from Vancouver, Carol from HQ in Ottawa and Etienne from Quebec City] in the Rooms of St. Ignatius (next to the Church of the Gesu, Rome), lunch on the piazza outside the Chiesa San Ignazio, coffee at Casa Santa Maria, house of graduate studies by the Gregorian University:

 

PHOTOS AROUND THE CANONIZATION (2)

Several priests of the Archdiocese took part in the festivities (Mgr Andre Drouin, Episcopal Vicars Daniel Berniquez and Joseph Muldoon, Sainte-Marie Pastor Michel Pommainville and our man in Rome, Msgr. Jose Bettencourt. We managed to get together for a meal, meeting at the obelisk in front of St. Peter's and heading to a family restaurant nearby.

We also met at the Collegio Canadese (Pontifical Canadian College), where Father Muldoon seems to have been transformed into a Redemptorist (the Reds, at whose Generalate he found lodging, provided him with one of their cassocks so he could distribute Holy Communion at the Canonization Mass in St. Peter's Square: