Description
THIS IS the fourth in a series of gospel commentaries, prepared in order to replace the popular The Four Gospels: an Introductory commentary, first published in Australia in 1980 and in the USA by Winston Press under the title The Winston Commentary on the Gospels.
There is something quite special about the Gospel of the Beloved Disciple. From the intimacy of his communion with Jesus he takes us into Jesus' heart where we are invited to share in Jesus' own prayer which John came to experience as the prayer of him who is the incarnation of God's Word. John is symbolised by an eagle, because, as the great Saint Jerome writes: 'he soars above the heavens and penetrates even to the Father'. Nowhere do we see more beautifully the divine radiating in the flesh, and above all from the pierced heart, of the one whom God consecrated and sent into the world to draw all humankind into his embrace.
Our earliest systematic commentary on John's Gospel comes from Origen, writing in Alexandria c.230AD. He states: 'We might dare to say that the Gospels are the first fruits of all Scriptures, but that the first fruits of the Gospels is that according to John, whose meaning no one can understand who has not lain on Jesus' breast nor received Mary from Jesus to be his mother also. However, he who would be another John must become like John... For indeed everyone who has been perfected "no longer lives, but Christ lives in him" (Galatians 2:20), and since Christ lives in him it is said of him to Mary "Behold your son".
ISBN:8170862817
