In the gospel of Luke, what is the most important city? If the number of times mentioned is the criteria, then Jerusalem is the answer, being mentioned more than 90 times in the Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles. I imagine there are all kinds of “what is Luke’s favorite…” questions, but an insightful one come from Fr. Bill McConville OFM. Fr. Bill has a daily podcast on Soundcloud that you can subscribe to and be very much enlightened by his insights.
As he asks in today’s installment, what is Luke’s favorite piece of furniture?
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It was a straight up trap from the outset. A plan to put Jesus between the proverbial “rock-and-a-hard-place.” Pay the tax and one side thinks you are a heretic and are capitulating to a pagan emperor who thinks himself divine. Don’t pay the tax and the other side sees you a seditious and a problem to be immediately dealt with. Seems like a lose-lose proposition.
Every so often someone approaches me after I have celebrated a Mass to inform me what I have done wrong in the ritual. It is in those moments that I have great empathy for the physician who resigns themselves to listen to a patient reveal their self diagnosis based on what they have discovered on WebMD. Given the ubiquity of the internet I suspect every profession has similar moments. On one hand it is good that patients and clients inform and educate themselves; on the other hand there is a reason medical school, internship, residency, and specialty fellowships take a bit more time than an internet search. As a doctor/friend once offered, “There is a reason it is called the ‘Art of Medicine,’ – the human body is beyond complicated in all its possible reactions.” 
“The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king…” Kings? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua – some of the great names of Israel’s history. And none of them were king. Yet under the leadership of God, they led Israel from slavery to the freedom of the promised land. Deborah, Gideon, Samson – none of them were kings, yet under the leadership of God, these Judges united Israel to defend itself and its identity against the other nations. To be the qahal Yahweh – the people of God. And the last of the judges was Samuel. It was to Samuel (1 Sam 7) that the people came and said “Now that you are old, and your sons do not follow your example, appoint a king over us, as other nations have, to judge us.” When Samuel prayed about this before the Lord, God said in answer: “Grant the people’s every request. It is not you they reject, they are rejecting me as their king.” And God warned the people of the rights of those other kings: 
In cleaning up files from my computer, I ran across this classic bit of saintly humor. Enjoy!
The reading from today’s gospel (with a few extra verses) and St. Francis of Assisi’s answer to the question.
Today is the Feast of St. Bonaventure the great Franciscan saint, theologian and provincial minister of the Order in the mid-13th century. There are a special set of 
friarmusings 