“But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Luke 2:19
St. Luke
One of the best listening experiences I ever had came from a physician.
Medical guides tell you that when you visit a doctor to compose a list of questions and unroll your concerns up front. “Take charge!” they trumpet. “You need to communicate to your doctor directly your needs and concerns! Be forceful!” Doubtless this is good advice, but it is a little hard to be forceful when within seven hours you have been jettisoned from the world of the thoughtlessly healthy into the one of testing, surgery, treatment, and a parade of physicians of all sorts, sizes, and temperaments and you are running low on oxygen.
The chief physician assigned to my case was a wonderful man, who would tell me what was going to happen next and then ask if I had any concerns and issues. He was sincere in wanting to answer questions, but I always felt that I did not want to disturb the high priest with my unfocused questions: he might be waiting for a communiqué from God.
One day, though, hours before I was to be released from the hospital at the end of a bit of a rough run, as the chief physician, having consulted Urim and Thummim and pronounced all good, swept out of the room followed by the retinue, one of the doctors stayed behind. He asked again, “Do you have any questions?” I, being in good patient mode and wanting to get the heck out of the hospital, assured him I was completely up to date and had no concerns. He smiled, came over to the side of the bed, pulled out a chair, sat down and said “You can ask anything, you know.“ and then sat there in smiling silence, waiting.
In my mind St. Luke is a blond, blue-eyed Hungarian.
Of course, St. Luke wasn’t a Hungarian, but he was a good listener. His bedside manner must have been fantastic. A Greek (possibly Greco-Syrian) born in Antioch in present day Syria, Luke was an early convert to Christianity. Some traditions hold that Luke was among the seventy sent out by Christ. Others say it can’t be so because Luke states upfront in his Gospel that he did not see any of the events told. He is merely relating them.
I rather hope the latter position is the accurate one, because while Luke’s Gospel would be pretty marvelous if he had been one of the 70, it is even more extraordinary as a complete work of hearsay. Having not seen the acts he describes in the Gospel, he has to rely upon the stories of others, which meant he had to listen.
One person to whom Luke seems to have listened very closely was Mary, the mother of Jesus.That text you may hear once a year,
St. Luke drawing the Virgin by Rogier van der Weyden
“In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world was to be taxed…” comes from Luke. It’s Luke who gets into the nitty-gritty of the nativity and tells all the lovely stories beginning with the Gabriel’s apparition to Zacharias through to twelve year old Jesus teaching in the temple. Most of what we know about the early life of Jesus comes from Luke, whom tradition supposes got it from Mary…because who else was there for those events?
It probably wasn’t easy to get the story from Mary. Sure, mothers like to talk about their children, and I’m sure Mary liked talking about her boy, but Luke writes a telling phrase about Mary: she “kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.” That phrase indicates a long practice of introverted contemplation, and information locked into the heart of an introvert is hard information to obtain. The only person who can get to it is an extremely good listener.
It is also clear from the writings that Luke listened well to another, very different personality. Luke is often credited as the author of Acts as well (scholarship agrees that the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles were likely written by the same author) and the main character of Acts, Paul, gives Luke several shout-outs in his writing. Paul had a lot to say. Luke apparently listened. Sometimes its even harder to listen to the never-ending talker than it is to one who speaks rarely. That Luke could listen so well to both is to his credit.
I eat Greek! Souzoukaklia and some fixins.
How to celebrate this extraordinary listener? Go listen to somebody. You don’t even have to cook, just go listen. But if you want to cook, invite someone over for Souzoukaklia in honor of St. Luke and listen as you eat.
Vital Stats
Name: Luke
Origin: Greek/Syrian
Symbol: a winged ox (Luke’s gospel emphasizes the sacrificial nature of Christ)
Patron: artists (Luke is credited in the East as the first icon writer for writing an icon of the Virgin as the above painting shows he gets credit in the West as well), physicians, surgeons, students, butchers (whether this is because of the winged ox or the origin of surgeons I cannot say)
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I’m writing a blog called Cooking for Jesus so think it’s obvious: I like food. I like food way too much. I like food so much that the only thing that turns me off food is food writing. Not all food writing mind you. Food writing that gets in there and gives you all the gory and glorious details but keeps the focus firmly on the fact that, in the end, this is just food is some of the best writing out there. I wish I could write like that.
