“Merciful Father, as you have sent the Holy Spirit on Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, to write all that You wished and wanted, we pray You, send the same Holy Spirit on us, so that we may understand, appreciate Your Word, and make it our plan of life. This we ask for the merits of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.”
8…..Matthew wrote for the Jews, his own people who were converted to Christianity, and, in the Gospel, he presented Jesus as the King. Because of this, he mentions the Family Tree of Jesus, so called geneology, starting from Abraham, through King David. He declares that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah, prophecied from years before His Birth. Prophet Isaiah prophesied His coming 700 years before Jesus was born, besides other prophecies. Yet, Jesus was refused by the priests the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Scribes and most of the Jewish people.
Mark got all his information through Peter, for this reason we find nothing about Jesus’s Infancy. He wrote for the converted gentiles. He wanted to present Jesus the way Peter had presented Jesus to him, that is as the Son of God. It is the shortest of the four accounts, but very descriptive, very picturesque.
Luke, according to Tradition wrote for the ‘neophytes’, those converted by Paul’s teaching. As we know for Paul there exists, absolutely no difference between Jews and gentiles, pagans. All are sinners and all are in need of God’s mercy. Luke’s Gospel is the Gospel of the poor, of the sinners, of the sick, of those ignored by society, of the lost sons, of the lost sheep and the lost coin. They are all waiting to be return to the Father’s House.
John wrote his account of the Gospel from personal experience, that is he did not depend on others for second hand information…he himself declared it, ‘by one who was there’. It is a Theological account. In the Synoptist, Jesus seemed to have wanted to hide the fact that He was the Messiah, whilst in John’s account He almost admits right away. We must remember that John was fortunate enough, had the grace of witnessing Christ’s intimate life. /9
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