Since COVID-19 gripped the world, the first responders such as paramedics, doctors, nurses, law enforcement officers and emergency department personnel have been hailed as heroes and heroines. Indeed, they are.
Last Tuesday, I also became somewhat of a first responder when I was called out to administer the Last Rites to a Catholic elderly gentleman at a nursing home. His name was Jack. We first met at the South Morang Leisure Centre and have been friends for about five years. Whenever we met at the pool, we discussed something related to faith, and jokingly, Jack would always tell me, "Father, you must be the priest who must give my Last Rites when I die."
It happened that he had been informed in a nursing home just 400 meters away from our home in Epping (Melbourne, Australia). About three weeks ago, he had a few serious health issues and had given my name and contact details to the staff to contact me if he were to die. As Jack had wished, this is what happened. In the last hour Jack had in this life, a doctor and I, assisted by a Personal Care Assistant, attended to him as first responders.
Yes, I know: Last Rites (officially called the Viaticum, the sacrament of the dying) is predominantly practised in Catholicism. It involves a priest administering Holy Communion to a dying person. A layperson designated a Eucharist Minister can also offer the Viaticum.
I have administered the Last Rites many times in my ministry over the last 30 years, but it was pretty different this time. Usually, the Last Rites are given in a hospital or nursing home. In that case, the medical personnel are not present at the time of the administration. If there are any, only family members are present.
In Jack's case, I witnessed something entirely different. The female doctor who had been called out for Jack stood by me and offered to read the Bible and help me administer Holy Communion. Amazingly, the doctor knew the Apostles Creed (recited after the Confession in the Rite), recited it with Jack, then said the Our Father, and assisted me in giving Jack Holy Communion.
While the Rite was being administered, I did not notice anything unusual. Still, soon after it was over and Jack had died, I realised how amazing it was for a doctor not only to be present and assist with the administration of the sacrament but to know the Rite by heart and be a genuine participant in administering the sacrament.
Before the end of this message, I will tell you how the doctor helped me administer the Rite.
I wanted to share this story with you because today is St. Luke's Day, and the church remembers St. Luke and thanks God for all healthcare workers, doctors and surgeons.
So, today, I want to tell you about Luke and his witness to Jesus. In speaking about Luke, I also want to share the medical signature he left when telling us about Jesus in his gospel.
Although Luke is only mentioned by name three times in the Bible (Col. 4:14; Philemon 1:24; 2 Tim. 4:11), he is hinted at on several other occasions. He was a native of Antioch in Syria (today in south-central Turkey), and today, we might call him a Turk. Although a Gentile, he was a "God-fearer" who followed the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
How do we know that he was from Antioch in Syria? We know this because in the Acts of the Apostles, he mentions this city several times and gives details of it and shows some "civic pride" (Acts 11:19-30; 13:1; 14:26-28; 15:22, 30-35; 18:22). Interestingly when he wrote about the six deacons in Jerusalem who were waiting on tables, he mentioned them by name. But he adds extra information for Nicolas by identifying his countryman and saying he was from Antioch (Acts 6:5).
Luke is the author of the Gospel of Luke. Although he had not met Jesus in person, he tells us that everything he wrote in the gospel was what he had heard about the events in Jesus's life from other eyewitnesses (Luke 1:2). He is also the author of Acts of the Apostles.
In Acts, Luke also tells us something we may not necessarily have considered as Christians. Luke tells us that the followers of Jesus were first called "Christians" at Antioch (Acts 11:26). At that time, it was a derogatory nickname given to the followers of Jesus.
Luke was humble and did not want to call attention to himself or his family. Instead, he had wanted to point people to the person of Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in His Church.
When he wrote his gospel and the book of Acts, he did not mention his name (Luke 1:1-2 & Acts 1:1), nor did he say about his brother. His brother was Titus, the person to whom St. Paul wrote one of his Epistles – the Epistle of Titus. Paul had Luke in mind when he wrote 2 Cor. 8:18, in which he spoke of "sending along with him (Titus) the brother whose fame in the things of the gospel has spread through all the churches."
Titus and Luke were brothers. St. Paul's statement, "The brother whose fame in the things of the gospel has spread through all the churches," is a tremendous witness to Luke's ministry in all the churches. Luke was an amazing disciple of Christ who was highly respected within the Christian community for his faithfulness to the cause of the Lord and the proclamation of his message.
Some think that Luke might have been the second unnamed disciple in the story about the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). This we do not know for a fact, but was it Luke's modest and humble way of putting his signature to his gospel?
Luke was a doctor by profession. During Paul's first imprisonment in Rome, he wrote to the Colossians and identified Luke as "the beloved doctor" (Col. 4:14). Suppose you are to read the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles in the Greek language; you will be amazed to see Luke's abundant use of medical terminology.
I want to share some examples with you.
To start with, Luke is the only gospel writer who recorded Jesus' statements about doctors: "Doctor, heal yourself!" (Luke 4:23), and "Those who are well have no need of a doctor, but those who are sick" (Luke 5:31).
Reading his gospel and seeing how he extends "professional courtesy" to his fellow doctors is remarkably interesting. He is an example from the story of a woman who has had a blood issue for twelve years. Take note of the difference between how Mark and Luke record the information.
Mark wrote, "Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, and had suffered many things from many doctors. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse" (5:25-26).
Dr. Luke toned his account down in an almost clinical statement about the inability of the woman to get healed. He wrote: "Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on doctors and could not be healed by any" (8:43).
I hope you noticed him being courteous to his fellow doctors when reporting the woman's condition and how the doctors had not helped her.
It is interesting to think about where Luke got his medical training. There were important Greek Medical Colleges with different philosophies about medical practice.
Hippocrates (460-370 BC, the father of modern medicine) diverged from the traditional Greek view of sickness and disease. In his day, a person was believed to be sick because the gods were angry at the individual. So the solution to the problem was to offer sacrifices to the offended deity. But Hippocrates brought medicine into the realm of science. He diagnosed the patient ailments and disease by his clinical observation of the body and enquired about the patient's lifestyle.
Hippocrates also looked for natural remedies for people's sickness. On the island of Kos, there was a white willow tree. Hippocrates observed that the bark and leaves from this tree cause the pain in a patient to diminish or cease. Only recently did scientists analyse the bark from Willow trees and discovered that the active ingredient is what is found in Aspirin. Hippocrates was 2,300 years ahead of Aspirin, which we buy in our pharmacies today!
Medicine was also considered an art in the Greek world but not so much a science. Luke's day had at least two schools of thought concerning medicine and healthcare. The first school of thought had been championed by Plato (427 – 347 BC). In this philosophy, the doctor made medical and healthcare decisions to advance the good of society. Thus, their primary job was to protect the welfare of the state. But if a person was incapable of living in the established round and order of life, he did not think it worthwhile to treat him, since such a fellow is of no use either to himself or to the state" (from Plato's Republic 407D)
On the other hand, the Hippocratic school of thought on healthcare was patient-centred and emphasised the doctor-patient relationship. Hippocrates's first principle was, "Do no harm to the patient." The Hippocratic School was patient-oriented and not state-oriented.
Again, from Luke's writings, we can easily recognise which school of thought Luke had been trained in. St Paul's description of Luke as the "beloved doctor" tells us that he cared for his patients. Dr. Luke was Paul's personal doctor.
James Smith, a classical scholar and yachtsman, has suggested that Luke was once a ship doctor because he was versed in nautical matters and described them in the appropriate language of a seaman. Luke used detailed nautical terms when he recorded the voyage to Rome in Acts 27-28.
Here are a few examples of Luke using words typical of doctors of his time.
The story of the man suffering from dropsy (Luke 14:1-4). In this story, Luke uses the word hudropikos, which is not found anywhere else in the Bible. This word is found frequently in the medical literature of his time, especially in the writings of Hippocrates. Hudropikos means "a surplus of fluid in the body tissues." This is the condition we call oedema today.
Then, Luke describes the woman with infirmity (Luke 13:11-13).
And just then, there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over. The word Luke used for "bent over" is a Greek medical term that refers to the curvature of the spine. When Jesus saw her, Luke says, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. The word Luke uses for "set free" is an ancient Greek medical term for relaxing tendons and membranes and for taking off bandages.
Furthermore, you will notice that Luke carefully records the patient's history: "eighteen years." He diagnoses the condition and describes her physical state further in these words: "she was quite unable to stand up straight."
Then, he states several stages in the recovery process: 1) relaxing the contracted muscles of the chest. This itself would not have been sufficient to give the woman an erect posture because of the stiffening of the muscles through so many years; 2) he describes the removal of the curvature.
The case history of the woman with the issue of blood (Luke 8:43, 44). In this story, Luke carefully notes the duration of her illness ("twelve years"). Then, he uses the word este for "stanched". The word este is the precise medical term used for the stoppage of bodily discharges. The entire story is described in medical terms, in contrast to the descriptions in the gospels of Matthew and Mark.
The story of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37) is one more example of Luke's medical description. As you would immediately recognise, the treatment the Samaritan who came to assist the injured man reveals Luke's knowledge of the first-aid treatment of his day. He says that "he (the Samaritan) went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine." (v.34).
Sympathy for the suffering fills Luke's gospel. He had a keen understanding of frailties and knew the relationship between sicknesses, mental distress, and anxiety.
Now, I want to share some other remarkable features of Luke's Gospel.
Luke focuses on the poor and oppressed, encouraging tenderness and compassion for the less fortunate. It is only in the gospel of Luke that the beatitude is used "blessed are the poor" instead of "blessed are the poor in spirit."
Only Luke tells us the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man and the parable of the Good Samaritan.
Luke also highlights the importance of taking the gospel of Jesus to the Gentiles. It is in his gospel that we hear Jesus praising the faith of Gentiles, such as the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian (Lk.4:25-27). We also hear the story of the one grateful leper, a Samaritan (Lk.17:11-19).
Unlike in other Jewish writings, women are important in Luke's gospel. Luke writes about the women who accompanied Jesus, such as Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, Martha, and Mary, and "many other women who used their own resources to help Jesus and his disciples" (8:1).
Luke also writes about the birth of Christ from Mary's point of view. Luke gives Mary a very important place in his gospel. Only in the gospel of Luke are the stories of Mary's Annunciation, her visit to Elizabeth, the Magnificat, the Presentation, and Jesus's remaining in Jerusalem. In Luke's gospel, we learn the words spoken by the angel to Mary at the Annunciation, "Hail Mary, full of grace" and Elizabeth's words to Mary, "Blessed are you and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus."
It is possible that Luke heard these stories from Mary firsthand.
Further, Jesus is mainly presented as a man of prayer in St Luke's Gospel. When he wrote his gospel, he recorded several instances of Jesus praying or talking about prayer.
Eight instances are unique to his gospel and not in the other three gospels. The Lord Jesus prayed at His baptism (3:21), at the Transfiguration (9:28-29); before choosing His apostles (6:12); for His enemies on the cross (23:34, "Father, forgive them"); for His disciples to learn the lesson on prayer (11:1); and talked about prayer in the parable of the persistent friend (11:5-10); as well as two other parables on prayer (18:1-14): the widow and the unjust judge, as well as the Pharisee and tax collector when they were in the Temple praying.
Luke, too, was a man of prayer. He did it, and he wrote about it. While in Rome, Paul had daily prayer meetings in a rented apartment. These meetings included those who were ministering with him and to him (Col. 1:1; 4: 7-14). Dr. Luke was present at these prayer meetings.
Dr Luke was an excellent doctor and a remarkable servant of God. Dr Luke was loyal to his friend St Paul. Luke stuck close to Paul in his darkest hour when everybody else had left him for another task, or even deserted him completely: "Only Luke is with me" (2 Timothy 4:11).
Luke was probably at the beheading of Paul (AD 67), perhaps at a distance. More than likely, it was the good doctor who buried the body of his friend, co-worker, and fellow traveller on the road of life.
Church tradition says that after Paul's death, Dr. Luke went and ministered in central Greece, particularly in Thebes of Boiotia.
It is said that a mob arrested Dr Luke in Thebes at the age of 84, flayed him alive and crucified him on an olive tree, which some say is still there today.
Now, let's go to the story of the doctor who assisted me in administering Last Rites to Jack.
Before I left the Nursing Home, I thanked the doctor for being there for Jack and especially for assisting me with the Rite. When I appreciated her participation, she disclosed to me that she is a member of the organisation called Christian Medical and Dental Fellowship of Australia (CMDFA)
To my great delight, I learned from her that such an organisation exists and that many hundreds of Christian doctors and dentists are members of this organisation. I was deeply moved to learn that this organisation is a "fellowship of doctors and dentists and associated healthcare professionals who take membership of CMDFA to be part of making a stand as followers of Christ in healthcare" who "believe in the Revelation of the One true God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and the Gospel of redemption and regeneration through the incarnation, the death, and the bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ."
They "believe in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit until Christ returns finally to fulfil all things in Himself as it is given to us in the Bible, which is the divinely appointed authority for faith and life."
The motto of the CMDFA, which they call their heartbeat, is "Following Christ, integrating faith and practice". Their vision is "To be transformed by Christ and transforming healthcare" (This information about the CMDFA is taken from their website: http://www.cmdfa.org.au/about-us/who-we-are
Isn't it wonderful that we have doctors, dentists, and associated healthcare professionals who imitate Saint Luke, serve God, and witness to the gospel of Jesus?
So, as we remember Saint Dr Luke today, let us thank and pray for all doctors in the service of humanity. Amen
