Intro Session

By clicking on the link, you can find the handout for the introductory session. In that session, we covered What Is a Gospel?, and How were the Gospels Written?.

Please read through the entire handout, but here are some explanatory comments I included in the session for Page Four:

We can unpack this statement from Fr. Harrington by beginning at the end.

...from Jesus.... What did the disciples hear? Did they hear him correctly? Did they hear him completely? We trust that the Holy Spirit has guided the church to the truth. But, we also know, from within the texts themselves, that the disciples often did not understand Jesus at all. For example, in the scene of the Transfiguration, in Mark 9, the disciples raise the question among the themselves - What did 'rising from the dead' mean?

So, we are listening to witnesses, not recordings. Our faith tells us that these witnesses are reliable, but not every witness to every event remembers every detail with absolute accuracy, even when they communicate to us the basic events.

...a complex process...

The disciples took the message and memories of events and brought them to the communities they evangelized. Some events and memories were more applicable than others to the people they dealt with. For example, if it was a Gentile community, Jesus' outreach beyond Israel would have been important. If it was a predominantly female community, Jesus' interactions with women would have been important.

Then, as the first witnesses began to die, the community itself told and retold the stories in the next generation. For example, if the community was undergoing persecution, how they told the story would have been different than if they were relatively free from danger.

As we read the Gospels, we began to see the shape of the communities through the filters of what came down to us from each place. We can tell what was more important to them from what they tell of Jesus and his teachings.

...of tradition...

Tradition means 'handing on'. We are not getting second best. We're getting the Gospels handed on from people who took them to heart, held them dear and made them their own. They hand on to us the most precious thing they had. Consider a gold ring. One would be much like another. But a gold band, even if it is not worth much to an online gold buyer, would be priceless if it were your great-grandmother's wedding ring. What it meant to her and to your family is being passed down along with the object. When we receive the Gospels, we receive something that people were willing to die for - and did.

The Gospels are portraits

Here we have two Presidential portraits. JFK's looks melancholy and sad. In fact, if you didn't know what he looked like, you would have trouble seeing his face. It seems almost unfinished, like an interrupted Presidency. Compare that to him with Marilyn Monroe. That tells us something completely different.

LBJ looks powerful and in control. He got more legislation through Congress than almost anyone except FDR: the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare. Then, there is the day he showed his scar from gall bladder surgery at a press conference. It made him look a bit of a buffoon.

All of these are 'true' pictures, but none of them tell the whole story. Where is JFK's wit and style? Where is Vietnam?

A Gospel portrait is true, but like all true portraits, it can't be absolutely complete.

The El Greco painting is of Veronica. According to the story, she came forth from the crowd, as Jesus carried his cross, and wiped his face. His face then appeared on her head scarf. This is a legend - it doesn't appear in Scripture - but it tells us something important. Her name, Veronica, means "true image". The image of Christ is seen as much in her, reaching out to someone in desperate need, as it is on the cloth. In the same way, the true portrait of Christ alive is seen in the Church.