"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.”
63 …. `May we say that all we read in the Gospel is historical ?
I quote from Vatican Council II Document, ‘Dei Verbum’: “Our Mother Church retains, and consistently repeats, unequivocally, that the four versions of the Gospel, are historically correct, and faithfully reported what Jesus, the Son of God said and performed, during His life on earth, for the eternal Salvation till the moment of His Ascension. (Acts of the Apostles, 1: 1-2)
After Christ’s Ascension, the Apostles passed on to all their hearers, all they heard and saw Jesus do, when they were still with Him. Instructed by the glorious happenings and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, they felt more qualified in their mission, in their apostolate, to pass on the Good News.
The contents of the four Accounts, Versions, of the Gospel, were chosen, taken by the Sacred Authors, from all the aural and written information, material, available at the moment, and some of it, still fresh in the minds of those who heard it directly from Jesus Himself.
They wrote a synthesis of all that they wanted to pass on to their particular hearers, audience, or explained it for the particular churches they were writing for. In this process they retained the character of teaching, preaching, keeping in mind that they were instructing or teaching about Jesus. This was done in all sincerity and truth.
We have to keep in mind that the Authors reported all that they themselves remembered, hearing, or seeing, or reported to them by other first-hand witnesses, thereby they became “ministers of the Word”, and wrote with the sole intention of teaching the Truth (Luke1: 2-4).
As a conclusion we can say that it is clear that:
• The Evangelists chose only certain material from a much greater amount, at their disposal, material recorded in writing or aurally, passed by word of mouth.
• They produced a synthesis of some of this material,
• They explained some, according to the needs of their churches,
• They retained the teaching character, whilst remaining faithful towards the truth of Jesus’ teachings and actions.
• They wrote with the intention of teaching, whilst they relied on their personal experiences of all that they could recall or the witnesses of those who had seen with their own eyes. /64
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