Her face shone as she related the stories — the words were vibrant, and though she was much older now, her memory was excellent. He sat enraptured as she brought the past into living color. 

He had traveled a long way to see her and he sat motionless, with furrowed brow, taking careful notes on his parchment, spending hours asking questions and listening. 

The Blessed Virgin Mary’s recollections seemed incredible. But St. Luke had been a Christian long enough to know the stories were true. He was compiling an orderly account for his Excellency Theophilus.

St. Luke’s Gospel stands third among the Gospels and is the only one written by a non-Jew. In fact, St. Luke is the only Gentile author in the Bible. He wrote a sequel to his Gospel — the Acts of the Apostles — which is the first history of the fledgling Church, also addressed to Theophilus, who was probably a governmental dignitary. 

Luke and Acts together span the initial sixty years of the first century. St. Luke was a physician by trade from Antioch in Syria, and he often accompanied St. Paul on his apostolic journeys (see Col. 4:14; Philem. 24). St. Luke was loyal to the Apostle until the end (see 2 Tim. 4:11). 

The gentle physician interviewed Jesus’ mother and other eyewitnesses because, as a fragment of an ancient text tells us, he didn’t “see the Lord in the flesh” himself. Some of the most noteworthy stories could have come only from the Blessed Virgin Mary. St. Luke’s purpose was to collect the many stories and historical events from various sources and to compile them into a convincing and orderly account so that everyone would believe in Jesus, the Savior of the world. 

St. Mark’s gospel was a primary source for St. Luke. Of Luke’s 1149 verses, about 320 are from Mark. The date of his writing was around A.D. 62, probably while caring for St. Paul under house arrest in Rome (see Acts 28:16, 30).

Neither St. Mark nor St. Luke were apostles. Both recorded Christ’s life as told to them by others: St. Mark served as the scribe for St. Peter, and St. Luke did the same for St. Paul, writing with a beautiful Greek style that surpasses the writing skills of the other New Testament writers. 

Because of his close association with St. Paul, St. Luke’s account is often referred to as “Paul’s gospel.” St. Irenaeus, not far removed from the Apostolic Age, writes: “Luke also, the companion of Paul, recorded in a book the gospel preached by [Paul].” 

Pulling back the curtain of time is such a thrill, giving us a glimpse into the past. The Muratorian Fragment (late second century) gives a fascinating and ancient witness to the ministerial relationship between St. Paul and St. Luke and the early acceptance of St. Luke’s gospel into the canon of Scripture. Origen (185-245) informs us St. Paul approved of St. Luke’s Gospel and Tertullian (c. 160-225) informs his opponents that “this gospel of Luke has been received without contradiction from the moment of its publication.” 

St. John’s gospel presents Jesus as God, St. Mark’s as a servant, St. Matthew’s as the king. St. Luke reveals Jesus Christ as the perfect Man to a Hellenistic audience steeped in Greek philosophy and struggling for human perfection and meaning in the aftermath of their failed “glory days.” St. Luke impresses this point upon his readers by explaining Jesus’ human lineage all the way back to Adam, the first Man — “the son of God” (Luke 3:38). 

His opening narration is glorious, telling the story of a young Jewish girl approached by Gabriel the archangel announcing the birth of a Son whose Father would be none other than God Himself, accomplished by an overshadowing of the Holy Spirit (see text box). No science fiction has ever reached such heights of simplicity and profundity. Truth is stranger than fiction; God has become Man. As St. Augustine wrote, Jesus was “the Revealer of His Father, Creator of His mother; Son of God from His Father without a mother, the Son of Man through his mother without a father.”

The young Jewish girl who would many years later tell St. Luke about her Son is not the only woman warmly profiled in this Gospel. Luke is often affectionately called the “Gospel of Women” since he honors many women in his moving account with great sensitivity — including the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist, St. Anna the prophetess, St. Mary Magdalene, and many others. We know more about Jesus’ mother from Luke’s opening passages than from anywhere else in Scripture. In this regard St. Luke proves himself a theologian par excellence, as we shall see. 

This sympathy and kindness toward women is unusual for the ancient world, where women were often scorned and Pharisees would not even stoop to converse with them. Luke ennobles women and shows their dignity and essential place in the work of God. 

Poetry and music were important for Greeks as well as the Hebrews; St. Luke alone includes such artistry in his Gospel. Thus the book is frequently referred to as “The Gospel of Hymns.” Many of these poems play an important role even today in the Divine Office of the Church: the Hail Mary, the Magnificat, the Benedictus, and the Nunc Dimittis all draw from his accounts. The text of the Rosary is taken directly from words spoken by Elizabeth and Gabriel as recorded in Luke (1:28, 42), both under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Emphasis on the six prayers of Christ have also earned it the title “The Gospel of Prayer.”

The intimate details of the first two chapters obviously came from an eyewitness, and the most likely eyewitness was the Blessed Virgin Mary. The conversations with the archangel, the visit to St. Elizabeth and the leaping of the baby in her womb, the beautiful prayers and hymns to God are examples of such detail. We have an acknowledgment of Jesus’ divinity when St. Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, exclaims, “And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:43). 

Here we have a foundational understanding of the Virgin as the Theotokos, the Mother of God. Luke also lays the groundwork for understanding her Immaculate Conception and her role as the new Ark of the Covenant. He cleverly uses the word “overshadowed” (1:35), drawing our attention to the Old Testament. 

Jesus’ mother would be “overshadowed” by the Holy Spirit and would become the ark of the New Covenant, carrying the physical presence of the holy God Himself in her very womb. This was prefigured in the Old Covenant when “Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Exod. 34:35). Thus erudite readers and those familiar with the Law of Moses would see the Virgin as the new Ark of the Covenant, containing the second Person of the Blessed Trinity within her very womb. 

The initial chapters in St. Luke’s Gospel — before he picks up where St. Mark begins, with St. John baptizing in the wilderness — form a bridge between the Old and New Covenants. This reality is clearly demonstrated by St. Zacharias, the priest and father of St. John the Baptist, who was the last “Old Testament” prophet; St. Simeon, who announces that the Christ has arrived as a Light to the Gentiles; and St. Anna, the prophetess pronouncing the arrival of God’s Anointed One. Jerusalem is always central to St. Luke’s story: Jesus weeps over the city as a hen that’s failed to gather her chicks (Luke 13:34), and He prophesies judgment against Jerusalem because they “did not recognize the time of [their] visitation” (Luke 19:44).

The Gospel ends with the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of the Lord, with Jesus proving He has risen really and bodily from the grave before ascending into heaven. But nestled within these appearances is one of the most sublime passages in all the New Testament. Jesus walks with two men on the road to Emmaus, explaining His death and resurrection. Even though they have heard the most inspired Gospel message in all of history, they don’t understand who He is until they recognize Him “in the breaking of the bread” (Luke 24:13-35). 

Here the Eucharist is presented — Jesus took, blessed, broke and gave — in the same words He used in the Institution in the Upper Room. They recognized him in the Eucharist, and St. Luke is teaching us also, two thousand years later, to find Christ in the Sacrifice of the Mass. The transition from the Old Covenant to the Eucharistic celebration and presence of Christ in the New Covenant is fulfilled. Christ is risen! Alleluia! 

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You can contact Steve Ray via his website at www.catholic-convert.com.