St Luke, Evangelist

"Lk 10:1-9"

After this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to come. And he said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest."

These 72 disciples couldn't be more different from one another. They weren't a set of apostles in uniforms with written speeches to be read in a particular tone of voice, all in the same way. They were all different and had different talents, different accents, different ways of expressing themselves. They were not an army of clones or robots because God needs free and genuine disciples, not impersonators. St Paul explains that God called some to be "apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers..."

St Luke was a physician. He wasn't a skilful rhetorical speaker or a wise Scripture scholar. He was a faithful companion of St Paul on his trips, absorbing his teachings on their missionary journeys. There is something he was good at: writing. He was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write his Gospel and the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. He researched the life and preaching of Our Lord, carefully interviewing witnesses who were still living and collating all the necessary material. Almost half of the content of his Gospel is not to be found in the other Gospels. To him we owe, for instance, the account of Jesus' Infancy that he probably gathered from Our Lady.

Luke had that talent: he could write very elegant Greek. God didn't need two St Pauls or two St Peters to spread the Gospel; He needed one Paul and one Peter, and one Luke... and one you. He needs people with different talents but who put their gifts at the service of the Holy Spirit. The Gospel has to be spread throughout the world. Some will use pulpits, others can use websites, blogs, social media, radio stations, music, poems, novels, articles, paintings, films... There are so many different ways! You have your talents as well: what can you do?

Mary, Mother of the Evangelists, help me to put all my talents at the disposal of the Holy Spirit so that He can spread the Gospel effectively everywhere.