COMMENTARY ON LUKE
Prooemium
1. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the meek, to heal the contrite of heart, and to preach release to the captives and opening to those who are shut up. As we consider some text that might introduce us into the Gospel of blessed Luke, none seems more fitting than that which blessed Luke himself reports Christ the Lord to have taken up at the beginning of his preaching, namely the proposed text, which is written in Luke chapter four and is taken from Isaiah chapter sixty-one.
2. This, however, according to the general sense, can apply to any teacher of Sacred Scripture; according to the special sense, to blessed Luke the Evangelist; according to the singular sense, to Christ himself, who is the font of truth and grace.
According to its general understanding, it is suggestive of the twofold person necessary for the work, namely the teacher and the hearer; according to its special understanding, of the twofold extrinsic cause, namely the efficient and the final; according to its singular understanding, of the twofold intrinsic cause, namely the material and the formal. With these six things known beforehand, entry into what follows will be sufficiently easy.
3. First, therefore, the proposed text according to the general sense indicates to us who and of what quality the teacher of this evangelical Scripture ought to be, adding nonetheless what kind of hearer he ought to have. The teacher of evangelical Scripture ought to be anointed with divine grace, directed by pure obedience, and inflamed with fraternal benevolence.
He ought to be anointed with divine grace, and this is noted when he says: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me. As a figure of this, in the Old Testament the Prophets were anointed; whence the Lord said to Elijah in 3 Kings chapter nineteen: You shall anoint Elisha, the son of Shaphat, as Prophet in your place; and of David it is said in 1 Kings chapter sixteen that after he was anointed, the Spirit of the Lord was directed upon him from that day and thereafter. For they were anointed for this reason, that they might receive the Spirit of the Lord, through whom the divine secrets are disclosed to us. If, therefore, the Scriptures must be expounded by the same Spirit by whom they were composed—and the holy men of God spoke by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit —then for someone to be a suitable teacher of those things which were communicated through Christ and written through the Holy Spirit, it is necessary that he be anointed with supernal grace.
4. He ought also to be directed by pure obedience, and this is noted there: He has sent me to announce to the meek, by the example of Moses, to whom the Lord said in Exodus 3: Come, I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt; and Moses said: Who am I, that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? Moses, who was the lawgiver and the leader of the children of Israel out of Egypt, signifies the teacher of the divine law, who leads the people of the Lord out of the darkness of ignorance. To which office indeed no one ought to approach unless he is sent, nor ought he to seek it, but rather to refuse it, because no one ought to consider himself suitable for this office. For if he has not spoken with the Lord, he is unworthy; but if the Lord speaks to his heart, he finds himself, like Moses, to have become one of more impeded and slower tongue. And therefore, unable to express the divine mysteries which the Lord has opened to him, he ought not to presume upon those things unless directed by pure obedience.
5. He ought also to be inflamed with fraternal benevolence, which he notes when he says: That I might heal the contrite of heart and preach release to the captives and opening to those who are shut up; and this by the example of Paul, who says of himself in First Thessalonians 2: We became little ones in your midst, as if a nurse were to cherish her own children; so desiring you eagerly, we wished to deliver to you not only the Gospel of God, but also our own souls. For just as carnal offspring cannot be generated without carnal love, so neither can spiritual offspring without spiritual benevolence. Whence Gregory says: "He who does not have charity toward another ought by no means to assume the office of preaching"; moreover, to expound and teach the Gospel of God is to preach the divine word, and therefore the teacher ought to be inflamed with fraternal benevolence.
6. Moreover, this teacher, in order that the evangelical doctrine may have efficacy in him, ought to have a hearer who is humble, meek, and faithful.
For the hearer of evangelical doctrine ought to be gentle in address through the accommodation of hearing: on account of which he says: To announce, namely to the meek, not to the unruly. For only the meek rightly understand the divine and evangelical words: Sirach 5: Be meek to hear the word of God, that you may understand : and in the Psalm: He will teach the meek his ways. And therefore it is said in James 1: In meekness receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. For evangelical doctrine teaches a man to be a disciple of Christ, who says in Matthew 11: Learn from me, for I am meek. For disputation and contention are not fitting for evangelical disciples, but for Aristotelian ones: whence 2 Timothy 2: The servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle toward all, teachable, patient, etc. Whence Augustine in the second book of On Christian Doctrine: "It is necessary to grow gentle through piety and not to contradict divine Scripture, whether understood, if it strikes against some of our vices, or not understood, as though we could know something better and perceive more rightly; but rather to think and believe that what is written is better and truer."
7. He ought to be humble in affection through contrition of spirit: on account of which he says: To heal the contrite of heart. Sorrow indeed in the heart of a man will humble him, Proverbs 12: and such a one is fit for learning: Psalm: It is good for me that you have humbled me, that I may learn your justifications: Matthew 11: You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to little ones.
8. Lastly, he ought to be faithful in assent through the captivation of the intellect: which he notes when he says: And I would preach release to captives: 2 Corinthians 10: Bringing every intellect into captivity to the obedience of Christ. And this indeed is accomplished through true faith, without which it is impossible to understand the teachings of evangelical Scripture: Isaiah 7, according to another translation: Unless you believe, you will not understand. For if in learnable matters the learner must believe, how much more in divine things? And this captivation makes them free from sin: Acts 15: Purifying their hearts by faith: and John 1: He gave them the power to become sons of God, to those who believe in his name.
Thus therefore it is clear that this word, expounded generally, indicates and describes a twofold person, namely that of the good teacher and of the hearer.
9. But understood specially, according as it pertains to blessed Luke, it is indicative of a twofold extrinsic cause, namely the efficient and the final : of the efficient in that which he says: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me: but of the final in that which follows: To announce to the meek, etc.
10. Now the efficient cause is expressed quite perfectly: for the supreme efficient cause is intimated in what is said: The Spirit of the Lord. For he himself is the one of whom John sixteen says: When that Spirit of truth shall come, he will teach you all truth. Hence he himself is the one who spoke through the Evangelists and who spoke through blessed Luke, according to that passage of Matthew ten: It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you : and Luke twenty-one: I will give you a mouth and wisdom etc.
11. The lowest efficient cause is intimated in what he says: Upon me, that is, upon blessed Luke, of whom blessed Jerome says that "he died full of the Holy Spirit"; and therefore he was fit for writing the Gospel, according to what the Apostle says of him in Second Corinthians eight: We have sent our most dear brother, whose praise is in the Gospel throughout all the Churches. Hence that passage of Ecclesiasticus is fitting for him: In the midst of the church he opened his mouth etc.
12. The intermediate efficient cause is intimated when it says: Because the Lord has anointed me. For the anointing of grace disposes the soul to receive the teachings of truth from the supreme Teacher; hence First John two: His anointing will teach you concerning all things. For the Holy Spirit through grace taught the Evangelist, and he, having been instructed, taught the Church by writing the evangelical doctrine.
And thus in this work there was a threefold cause, namely the supreme, which is indeed the person of the Holy Spirit; the lowest, the Evangelist himself; and the intermediate, namely the grace of the Holy Spirit: all of which are understood in the authority set forth above, insofar as it is understood to be uttered by blessed Luke.
13. The final cause is also intimated quite perfectly in what follows, namely the first, the middle, and the last. The first is the manifestation of truth, the middle is the healing of infirmity, the third is the unlocking of eternity: the first pertains to preparing grace; the second, to grace making pleasing; the third, to consummating glory.
14. Therefore, first the first final cause of this doctrine is intimated, which is the manifestation of truth, in what he says: He has sent me to announce good tidings to the meek, according to that passage of the Psalm: They declared the works of God, and understood his deeds : hence from this it received its name, so that it is called Gospel, that is, good announcement: First John one: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life, and the life was manifested: and we have seen and do testify and announce to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us: and Isaiah fifty-two: How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who announces and preaches peace, who announces good tidings, who preaches salvation! This was first realized in the holy Evangelists.
15. The second indeed was the healing of our infirmity, which he touches upon when he says: To heal the contrite of heart. For the word of evangelical preaching brings about the effect and fruit of healing, according to that passage of Wisdom sixteen: For neither herb nor poultice healed them, but your word, O Lord, which heals all things. This fruit the Gospel of Luke well brings forth, concerning which Jerome says: "If we know Luke the physician, whose praise is in the Gospel, we observe likewise that all his words are medicine for the languishing soul." And this is the second purpose of blessed Luke, namely, that through the knowledge of truth we might come to the healing of infirmity.
16. The third and last was the unlocking of eternity, which is noted when it is said: To preach release to the captives and opening to those shut in. This is accomplished in the possession of eternal life, to which the evangelical doctrine exhorts as to the ultimate end: John twenty: These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name; and Mark, last chapter: Go into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature: whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved. This command the Evangelists fulfilled especially, who not only preached the Gospel by word to those present at that time, but also by writing to those present and future in all generations, so that they might make all saved.
Thus therefore the aforementioned word, understood specifically in the person of blessed Luke, is suggestive of a twofold extrinsic cause, namely the efficient and the final.
17. Understood singularly, however, of the Lord Jesus, of whom it was properly said, it is suggestive of a twofold intrinsic cause, namely the material and the formal; and this is evident as follows. For it is certain that the entire evangelical history revolves around Christ, either insofar as he is mediator, or insofar as he is preacher, or insofar as he is restorer, or insofar as he is triumpher. The mediator regards the mystery of the incarnation; the preacher, the teaching of instruction; the restorer, the remedy of the passion; the triumpher, the trophy of the resurrection. The first refers to the nature of Christ; the second, to his doctrine; the third, to his sacrifice; the fourth, to his victory. These four are touched upon distinctly and in order in the aforementioned discourse, according as it pertains to Christ.