Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Luke. While actual biographical information is elusive, we can tell a lot about him based on New Testament “testimonies.” For example, in the Letter to Philemon (1, 24), St. Paul refers to “Luke, my coworker.” In the Letter to the Colossians (4, 14) St. Paul speaks of “Luke, the beloved physician,” so it is taken that he was a medical practitioner of some kind. In the Second Letter to Timothy (4, 11) St. Paul says, “Only Luke is with me.” So, St. Luke seems to have been a close companion of St. Paul on some of his missionary journeys and on his final journey to Rome.
It is also well regarded that St. Luke was the author of the Gospel which bears his name and the Acts of the Apostles. The two works are linked by his statement at the beginning of Acts that: “In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when He was taken up to heaven….” (Acts 1, 1)
St. Luke’s Gospel has many special characteristics which can also tell us something about the kind of person he was. His Gospel contains some of the most touching parables in the Gospels: the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, to name just two. While presenting an “all-or-nothing following of Jesus” with an emphasis on radical simplicity of life, there is at the same time great emphasis on the compassionate nature of Jesus. He focuses on Jesus praying before every important phase of His public life, and there is an openness to the Gentiles to whom the Gospel is especially directed.
For more: https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-luke/
