The Apostle John records a three word powerful sentence concluding the Prologue:  He explains Him. John 1:18.  He (Christ) explains Him (the Father).

In this theological Gospel, John reveals the person of Jesus intimately, perceiving His inner most thoughts and emotions. If you want  to understand the true meaning of life, if you seek eternal life, if you long to know God, you will find all those desires fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ as revealed in all the Gospels.

Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to enlighten the apostles so that they recorded, with divine authority, God’s truth.  Imagine the power that inspired a teenage fisherman to later write: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” John 1: 1. And, later in an epistle:  “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” I John 1:1.

Each Gospel writer had a goal and specific audience in mind, which  guided him to select certain miracles or signs to point to the different aspects of eternal truth. The Synoptic Gospel were recorded much earlier than John’s Gospel.  Matthew, Mark and Luke simply recorded what Jesus did and what He said. It is the beloved disciple, John, who  gives a special emphasis on what Jesus meant. All four portrait painters of Jesus had one goal, expressed by John: “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”  John 20:31

Jesus is divine; He is also human.  He is now in heaven in His human resurrected body which although invisible to us, is nonetheless is as real as you are. Peter knew what was what when he said to our Lord: “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6: 66-69. The doubting disciple,  Thomas who as a Jew was strictly monotheistic, recognized the divinity of Christ when he exclaimed in faith: “my Lord and my God.”  John 20:28.

Christ is a living person, who has come to make knowledge become light and life in you.  Trust Him and as you read the Gospels, expect Him to show you He can help you now.  Seek to find  in the heart of Jesus, the meaning  of His words and miracles. Look  into your own heart.  Expect Him to enable you to see whatever changes you can make in your life for your own good.

In his recent book, Jesus of Nazareth, Part Two, Pope Benedict XVI states: “God revealed his ‘name’ to Moses.  That ‘name’ was more than a word.  It meant that God allowed himself to be invoked, that he had entered into communion with Israel….God’s name means: God present among men.”

“The revelation of the name is a new mode of God’s presence among men, a radically new way in which god make his home with them.  In Jesus, God gives himself entirely into the world of mankind: whoever sees Jesus sees the Father. (cf.Jn 14:9)”

“In him God is truly ‘God-with-us’….As the Risen One, he comes once more, in order to make all people into his body, the new Temple.”