Dear and Glorious Physician by Taylor Caldwell

I had heard of this book a long time ago, but had never read anything by Taylor Caldwell. Here are my thoughts on the novel, it was not what I expected.  I have returned the book to the library, so I am writing from memory. I apologize for any errors.  The copy I checked out of the library was published by St. Ignatius Press.

Taylar Caldwell writes that she began drafting a novel about Saint Luke when she was about 12 years old.  So it  took her about 40 years to write this book, first published in the late 1950s.

The book begins with Luke as a young boy, the son of two former Greek slaves.  They were freed by the family of his father's current employer, a wealthy Roman soldier and Tribune.  The Roman Tribune was a friend of Tiberius Caesar, but a severe critic of the turn that Roman politics has taken.  The Tribune grew up in love with Luke's mother as the two were playmates and she was quite beautiful.  However, he could not marry her because Roman rules about marriage.   The Roman Tribune is so impressed by the young Luke that he promises to send him to the university in Alexandria to study medicine. 

The very young Luke is presented as someone chosen by God and he already has great love for what the Greeks call "the unknown God".  He even sees the star on Christmas eve and learns of the birth of this unknown God while still a youngster.  However, Luke's love for God and men comes under attack as he sees a girl he loves  (the daughter of the Tribune)  suffer and die.  He becomes bitter wondering how God can be good if he allows this innocent girl to suffer and die.  Nevertheless he still wants to study medicine and relieve the suffering that the cruel God of the universe allows to happen.

After Luke finishes his studies he becomes a travelling physician, taking jobs on ships.  He carefully cares for the sick on ships and provides the same care for slaves and freemen alike.  He seems to have a mystical power to cure serious diseases such as leprosy.  Because the Tribune had adopted him, he is very wealthy, so he never charges the poor for his services and refuses to treat anyone rich unless their case otherwise would be hopeless.  Nevertheless he maintains his bitterness against God and cannot really love anyone.  In many ways he is a lonely man.

But by the time he is in his forties, as a result of his travels in the Mediterranean,  Luke begins to hear stories about the life of Jesus, His Crucifixion and His resurrection.  At this point the reader begins to see the point of the novel.  Through learning about the life of Christ and how He interacted with sinful and suffering men and women, Luke's life is transformed from the bitter man he had become to one who allows charity (the love of God) to guide his life. He finds salvation and the faith in the "unknown God" he had as child returns to him.  This is the first point of the novel, how learning about the life and teaching's of Jesus Christ can transform a man's soul.

The second point of the book is to offer an explanation about how Luke came to write his Gospel.  Luke is presented as a multi-talented man, someone quite naturally good at everything.  That is, God has endowed him with many graces including the grace to seek knowledge of the unknown (and true) God and the ability to write well.  Hence, as Luke hears stories of Jesus--the rich young man who fails to give up all he had to follow Jesus, the centurion whose servant is healed, and many others--he decides to write them down so that he might be able to share them with others.

Finally, he decides to travel to Palestine to meet some of the disciples of Jesus and to find the Blessed Virgin Mary.  During these travels he learns of the glorious birth of Jesus, Mary's Magnificant, the nunc dimittis and the birth of John the Baptist among other events in the life of Christ. Hence, Taylor Caldwell offers a reasonable explanation for how Saint Luke was able to compile his Gospel.  In my opinion this makes the book very valuable.  At the end of the novel Luke departs from Nazareth to seek out St. Paul. How he came to write the Acts of the Apostles, therefore, is not part of the story.

Although there are many historical flaws in the book--for example the book has Luke drinking whiskey which did not exist for over a thousand years after the birth of Christ--they do not detract from the story.  The heroic characters in the book clearly would be supportive of traditional morality if living today and blame our current political problems on the decline of morality broadly defined.  She also goes out of her way to be very critical of slavery.

I enjoyed the book very much until Luke travels to Palestine.  There he even stays with Pontius Pilate and is responsible for the lifting the Roman persecution of the Church. At this point the book begins to drag.  Hence it took me longer the read the last 50 pages than the first 300.  Nevertheless I enjoyed most of the book and would recommend it to adult readers.  There is a somewhat mild description of a Roman orgy thrown by the wife of Tiberius Caesar and Luke's escape from it. Hence, this part should be skipped by younger readers.

Catholic Theory and Worship

Below is an excerpt from Bridgett, Thomas Edward. Ritual of the New Testament 3^rd edition (Burns and Oates Limited, London: 1887) pp. 112-115.  In my opinion it clarifies the nature of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the Extraordinary form, and though written to explain Catholic Ritual to 19th century Protestants, it also answers questions that modern Catholics, who are unfamiliar with the ancient rites of the Church, might also have.  Since I assisted at TLM's for about 12½ years before ever assisting at a NO mass, in my opinion I could in good conscience substitute NO wherever the text says Protestant.  I admit that I could be wrong about this.

II. Catholic theory of worship and of prayer.
The main difficulty experienced by Protestants in witnessing Catholic worship arises from their not understanding the difference between a common act and a common prayer. The acts of the Church, such as processions, expositions of the Blessed Sacrament, the administration of Sacraments, and above all the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, are indeed always accompanied by prayer, and generally by prayers of priest and people, though not necessarily by united or common prayer. In any case, the act must be distinguished from the prayers.

A Protestant may easily understand what is meant by this distinction by aid of a few illustrations: Suppose a ship, filled with a mixed crew of French, Spanish, and Portuguese, is being wrecked on the coast of England. A crowd is assembled on the cliff, watching with intense earnestness the efforts being made by the captain and crew on the one hand, and by lifeboats from the coast on the other, to save the lives of the passengers. A great act is being performed, in which all are taking part, some as immediate actors, others as eager assistants. We may suppose this act carried out in the midst of united prayers. English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, each in their own tongues, and many without spoken words at all, are sending up petitions to Almighty God for the safety of the passengers. It is a common act at which they assist; it is accompanied by the prayers of all; but they are not common prayers, in the sense of all joining either vocally or mentally in the same form of words.

When the priest Zacharias had gone into the temple of the Lord to offer incense, and ' all the multitude of the people was praying without' (Luke i. 9), there was a common act performed by priest and people by the priest as actor, by the people as assistants and the act was accompanied by united prayers. But it mattered not to the people what language was spoken by the priest or what sacred formulas were used. Their intentions were joined with his. Their individual and varied petitions were one great Amen said to his sacerdotal invocations; and all ascended together in a sweet-smelling cloud of incense to heaven.

Or to come still nearer to the reality of Catholic worship, let the reader represent to himself the great act of Calvary. Our Lord Jesus Christ is Priest and Victim. He accompanies His oblation of Himself with mysterious and most sacred prayer. Two of His seven words are from the Psalms ; and it has therefore been conjectured that He continued to recite secretly the psalm, after giving us the clue to it, by pronouncing aloud the words, ' Eloi, Eloi, lamma sabacthani?' 'My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?' Or again, ' Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.' There were many assistants at that act, and among those who assisted piously the Blessed Mother of Jesus, the Apostle St. John, the holy women, the centurion, the multitude 'who returned striking their breasts ' there was a certain unity in variety, not a uniform prayer, yet a great act of harmonious worship.

There are, then, prayers used in Catholic churches in which the whole congregation joins, such as the singing of hymns, the recitation of the Rosary, performing the Stations of the Way of the Cross, and especially the chanting of Vespers or Compline. Such prayers are either recited in the vernacular, or, when Latin is used, they require some little education in those who take a direct and vocal part in them. But the great act of Catholic worship is the Holy Mass, or the unbloody Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.' One alone stands forth and makes the awful offering; the rest kneel around, and join their intentions and devotions with his; but even were there not a solitary worshipper present, the sacrifice both for the living and dead would be efficacious and complete. To join in this act of sacrifice, and to participate in its effects, it is not necessary to follow the priest or to use the words he uses. Every Catholic knows what the priest is doing, though he may not know or understand what he is saying, and is consequently able to follow with his devotions every portion of the Holy Sacrifice. Hence a wonderful union of sacrificial, of congregational, and of individual devotion. The prayers of the priest are not substituted for those of the people. No one desires to force his brother against his will. It is the most marvellous union of liberty and law which this earth can show. The beggar with his beads, the child with her pictures, the gentleman with his Missal, the maiden meditating on each mystery of the Passion, or adoring her God in silent love too deep for words, and the grateful communicant, have but one intent, one meaning, and one heart, as they have one action, one object, before their mental vision. They bow themselves to the dust as sinners; they pray to be heard for Christ's sake; they joyfully accept His words as the words of God; they offer the bread and wine; they unite themselves with the celebrant in the Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ, which he as their priest offers for them; they communicate spiritually ; they give thanks for the ineffable gift which God has given them. Their words differ, their thoughts vary; but their hearts are united and their will is one. Therefore is their offering pure and acceptable in the sight of Him who knows their secret souls, and who accepts a man, not for the multitude or the fewness of his sayings, for his book or for his beads, but for the intention with which he has, according to his sphere and capacities, fulfilled His sacred will, through the merits of the Adorable Victim who is offered for him.'

It will be seen from this that, supposing the existence of cogent reasons for the use of a dead language, there would be no such difficulties in its employment in the Holy Sacrifice and Divine Office of the Catholic Church as there would be in what Protestants understand by public and congregational service.