Rose Round: The signs of the Four Evangelists

"Is that your eagle, Theo?"
Theo laughed. "No, it's St. John's," he said.
"St. John's?"
"You know the four Evangelists have signs?" Theo said. "St. John has the eagle, which was said to fly unblinded towards the sun, because he is the one who looked longest and deepest at Christ on earth and into the mystery of his being when he went back into his glory."
....
"And what's St. Luke, Theo?"
"St. Luke is a Bull."
"How queer! Why?" Matt asked.
"I'm not sure," said Theo. "Perhaps because the Bull is a sign of life: the zodiac bull comes in the spring, you know. He's the sign of generation and Christ is the regenerator of Man, and his sacrifice of his own life was made in the spring. He said himself that the seed must die to bring up the new corn. The signs are symbols of mystery: they let you look through the doors but they don't tell you everything at once. You can never know everything there is to know, that's why we shall be happy for ever in heaven if we get there."

Your Word is a Lamp: Luke, by Monsignor James Turro

Luke was a Gentile and wrote for Gentiles. There is scarcely a reference in his writings that a Gentile could not understand. Unlike Matthew, he does not project his account of Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy -- an approach that only Jews could fathom. He regularly provides the Greek equivalent for Hebrew words that might occur in his account. So for instance, he refers to Kranion (the place of the skull) rather than Golgotha, the Hebrew name. In providing a genealogy, he traces Jesus' ancestry all the way back to Adam instead of doing as Matthew does, that is, trace Jesus back to Abraham, the forefather of the Jewish race. In virtually every way, Luke has the Gentile perception of things. Interesting for modern readers to note is the prominence Luke gives to women in his account of Jesus. So for instance, he sees and feels the birth of Jesus as Mary must have. There is a whole catalogue of women through whom we are made to see the life and work of Jesus -- Elizabeth, Anna, the widow of Niam, the woman who anointed Jesus at the house of Simon, a Pharisee. Then there is Martha and Mary and also Mary Magdalene. This attention given to women is striking especially when one considers that to this day in the Near East the role of women is very much muted. There is a mildness in Luke's prose that makes it particularly attractive. It is tempting to think that this graciousness reflects the attitude and personality of the man who wrote this Gospel.

Your Word is a Lamp: Mark, by Monsignor James Turro

In attempting to understand Mark's Gospel it would be helpful to approach it as being divided into two sections: from the beginning to chapter eight, and from chapter eight to the conclusion of the Gospel. It is in chapter eight that Jesus begins to speak of his having to suffer, die, and then rise again. Up until that point (chapter eight) Jesus is portrayed as misconstrued at every turn, in spite of all the good he has done and taught.

Mark seems most concerned to have his reader understand Jesus' peerless teachings and his mighty deeds in light of his victory on the cross and in his resurrection. These latter -- his death and resurrection -- cast a long shadow backwards over Jesus' life and work.

Mark's Gospel is not without a certain elegance of composition. Not seldom the reader is captivated by the fashion in which Mark narrates an incident. As an example, into the account of the cure of Jairus' daughter there is dovetailed the incident of the woman troubled with the issue of blood. Not seldom this is the way it materializes in life -- a happening within a happening. Then too, take note of the way in which Mark reproduces Jesus' words in the original Aramaic: talitha koum ("little girl, I say to you, arise"). This helps to engender a "you are there" sense.

Another instance of Mark's gift for vivid description and narration would be the narrative of the Gerasene demoniac (Mk 5: 1-20). Mark recounts how the man could not be restrained even with a chain. He would rip off the manacles with ferocious energy.

One peculiarity of style in Mark that English-speaking people must make an effort to adjust to is a stylistic feature quite foreign to us -- the use of "and" to join a sequence of sentences. Each new sentence begins with "and." There are some eighty sentences in Mark that begin this way. When all is said and done, the challenge Mark's style of writing presents to the determined reader is small -- "the book is worth the candle."