Today is the feast of St. Luke the evangelist. He contributed more to the New Testament than any other author. He wrote both the gospel that bears his name and the Acts of the Apostles. If you have ever studied biblical Greek, then you know that his style was quite elegant. Even when we read his writings in English, we can appreciate his ability to tell a story, to make a compelling narrative, and to include helpful details. He paints a picture with his pen.
Following that lead, St. Ignatius, in his Spiritual Exercises, encourages the exercitant to make a composition of place. The composition of place, he says, “will consist in seeing in imagination the material place where the object is that we wish to contemplate. I said the material place, for example, the temple, or the mountain where Jesus or His Mother is, according to the subject matter of the contemplation” (SpEx 47). St. Luke’s gospel, being so rich in detail, makes excellent material for Ignatian composition of place. In fact, St. Luke was so good at providing details that many have surmised that he was a painter. Thus, in art, he is often depicted making a painting or an icon.
In art he is also depicted with an ox. That is because his writings begin with the story of a Jewish priest named Zechariah, and it was the duty of the Jewish priests, among other things, to sacrifice oxen. Sacrifice is an important theme in Luke’s gospel and also in the Spiritual Exercises. That is why they invite us to pray “Thou hast given all to me. To Thee, O Lord, I return it. All is Thine” (SpEx 234).
Through the intercession of St. Luke, may we have the grace to see the beauty of God’s actions in this world, and to respond in a spirit of sacrifice.