Each year on the First Sunday of Advent we shift our biblical wheels as we begin proclaiming another of the synoptic Gospels. This year finds us in Cycle C of the Lectionary for Sunday Mass so we will use the Gospel of St. Luke for most of the Sundays of Ordinary Time of this year, as well as some of the Sundays of Lent and Easter.
St. Luke was an extraordinary writer whose monumental two-volume work fills almost 25% of the New Testament. He was a Gentile, perhaps a convert to Judaism, and possibly a companion to Paul. At the beginning of his Gospel, he states clearly that he was not an eyewitness to the ministry of Jesus but that he has spoken to the eyewitnesses. He is writing for a friend, Theophilus by name: “Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us, I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received.” A similar prologue appears at the beginning of his second work, The Acts of the Apostles.
St. Luke’s Gospel is populated with some memorable characters: Elizabeth and Zechariah, the shepherds of Bethlehem, the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, Martha and Mary, Zacchaeus, the repentant thief, and Cleopas and his wife who encounter Jesus on the way to Emmaus. This Gospel is sometimes called the Gospel of Prayer as it finds Jesus at prayer before every major decision he makes. Indeed, it also forms the backbone of the prayer of the church as two important canticles from this Gospel are prayed every day at morning and evening prayer. Others refer to it as the Gospel of Joy or the Gospel of the Holy Spirit. Among all the titles by which we have come to know Jesus, it is the Gospel of St. Luke who first calls Jesus our Savior. This title was first used by the angels who announced his birth to the shepherds on the hillsides outside Bethlehem.
Throughout the coming year we will hear all fourteen of the parables which are exclusive to St. Luke’s Gospel. These parables will paint a picture of Jesus who is the embodiment of the compassion and mercy of God, a God who is eager to forgive, a God who is eager to welcome home the sinner.
Though today is the beginning of Advent, we don’t start at the beginning of the Gospel of St. Luke. Rather, we find ourselves still pondering the end times, the apocalypse. This is done purposefully as the Church wishes to remind us of the character of this season that we call Advent. “Advent is both a beginning and an end, an alpha and an omega of the Church’s year of grace. Too often considered merely a season of preparation for the annual commemoration of Christ’s birth, this rich and many-layered season is actually designed to prepare the Christian for the glorious possibilities of the Parousia. It is a season of longing expectation.” (William G. Storey, An Advent Sourcebook, Liturgy Training Publications, 1988, p. 4.)
The warnings that we hear in today’s Gospel are important for all Christians, both those who first received this Gospel as well as those who read it today. Like his contemporaries, Luke includes the apocalyptic warnings towards the end of the Gospel; but unlike Matthew and Mark, Luke regards the Church as here to stay. This lengthy period is marked by “a distress of nations” and by human fear and foreboding. At the time that Luke wrote his Gospel, In the Christian community slackness was setting in. There was dissipation, drunkenness, and the “cares of this life.” In such a situation Luke calls upon his contemporaries to watch and pray. At the same time, there are those who still count themselves among the blameless and the holy. They are marked by the same complacency because of the delay of the second coming of Jesus. Instead of standing vigilant and prepared to stand before the Son of Man, they have put off the needful work of constantly turning toward the Lord.
So as we all begin another pilgrimage through the Gospel of St. Luke, Advent provides us with a time to do a self-check. Are we ready? The coming weeks will be filled with parties and shopping and baking and gift wrapping and choir practices and all sorts of activity to prepare for Christmas. However, the Gospel asks us to balance all of that activity with a time of self-examination and preparation for a much more consequential time in our life; namely, the end of this life and the beginning of the next.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator