Hearts on Fire

Learning to love Luke and the Lord

12/30/219

Luke 2:36-40 There was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer. And coming forward at that very time, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem. When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

I’m very pleased to announce that I’ll be leading another bible study in the New Year together with Dr. Scott Hahn. Actually, it will just be Scott Hahn’s voice, and not the rest of him. We listen to his audio recordings. I was surprised when over 40 people signed up for the study on Mark, called “Mark the Way.” I hope we get an even better turn out for Luke. The study will be called “Hearts on Fire,” based on Luke 24:32, where the two disciples recognize Jesus in the “breaking of the bread,” in Emmaus. I hope the study sets our hearts on fire rather than gives us heart burn.

We’ll follow the same format as we did for Mark. The meeting will run one hour on Monday evenings, from 5:30 to 6:30, and definitely be done before Bingo begins at 7 p.m. I don’t want to force Catholics to choose between the bible and bingo, because I’m not sure the bible would win. The first session starts on February 3, and the last session will be April 20, and we will skip the Mondays of Spring Break and Holy Week, for a total of 10 sessions. By the way, we will cover entirely new material than we did for Mark, so I hope to have some “recidivists” (repeat offenders) who will come to study Luke, even if they also attended Mark.

Now, if there’s one underlying message or one overriding motif in Luke, it is undoubtedly “universality.” That is, Jesus has come to save everyone, just only the Jews (those from Judah), and not only all of Israel (the 12 tribes of Jacob), but even the Gentiles. A Gentile is anyone who is not a Jew. In other words, you and I would be Gentiles, non-Jews. And perhaps more than anything else Jesus did, this universal desire to save Jews as well as Gentiles really tweaked the noses of the Jewish leadership. Why? Well, it undermined the Jews’ position as the Chosen People, and therefore made Jewish leadership and their position of power and prestige obsolete. Jesus would establish a new universal leadership in order to lead a new universal Church.

And that’s why the Jews sought to kill our Lord. I suspect we would have done the same if we perceived how Jesus subverts our way of life and our livelihood. My job in the study of Luke, therefore, is to provide this important background information about Jewish culture and customs. I hope it leads not only to a love of the gospel of Luke, but ultimately to a deeper love for our Lord, simultaneously overcoming whatever holds us back from him, especially our limited love. So we Gentiles don’t make the same mistakes as the Jews and crucify our Savior.

With that brief background maybe we can see the significance of the opening line in today’s gospel from Luke 2:36. Luke, the only Gentile author of the four gospels, writes: “There was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.” Notice how Luke takes pains to point out that Anna belongs to the tribe of Asher. Why is that important? Asher was one of the ten “lost tribes” of the Northern Kingdom. In 722 B.C. the invading Assyrians absolutely annihilated the Northern Kingdom, including Asher, and scattered them among the Gentiles, never to be heard from again.

All that remained of the Chosen People after 722 B.C. were the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin. When Luke describes how Anna of the tribe of Asher recognizes Jesus at his circumcision as the long-awaited Messiah, Luke underscores his main message of universality. Jesus has come to save everyone without exception. In other words, the Messiah’s mission is not only to restore the 12 tribes of Israel, but to create a whole new “Israel of God,” the Church, as St. Paul writes in Galatians 6:16.

What does this mean for you and me? Well, it means a lot of things, but one thing in particular, namely, we too should have this universal love of Jesus for all to be saved. And what is the Greek word for “universal”? It is “katholikos,” or “Catholic.” That is the deepest sense in which we can insist that Jesus came to establish a Catholic Church, because that best describes our Lord’s universal love to save everyone without exception. Therefore, we need to uproot from our hearts anything that tends toward elitism or superiority, where we look down on others and think we somehow have the corner on the market of God’s love. If we don’t harbor a healthy suspicion of the spirit of superiority, I’m afraid we will make the same mistake the Jews did in the first century, namely, miss the Messiah.

My friends, to truly be Catholic is to exclude no one from the reach of our love, just like Jesus. So, let me ask you: did this homily set your hearts on fire, or just cause you some heart burn? Don’t worry, the Holy Spirit frequently causes both.

Praised be Jesus Christ!