Wednesday, October 9, 2013


Wednesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

(Jonah 4:1-11; Luke 11:1-4)

At the beginning of his narrative, Luke tells his patron that he has decided to write his gospel different from others.  He says that his will be “an orderly sequence” presumably meaning that he will relate the events of Jesus’ life in a straightforward and concise way.  Certainly the “Lord’s Prayer” in the third gospel exemplifies more directness than Matthew’s version.  As is seen in today’s reading, Luke has two blessings in place of Matthew’s three and three petitions instead of four in the first gospel.

It seems that Luke emphasizes God’s intimacy with us.  For him there is no need of circumlocution.  We don’t have to acknowledge that God is “in heaven.”  Much less do we have to qualify our relationship with God by saying “Our Father.”  No, Luke when speaking of God, Luke has in mind the prodigal father of Jesus’ most famous parable who loves each of us as someone very special.