Since 1969 the Church has benefited from the new lectionary for Sundays with its three - year cycle of readings. As a result, the faithful now get to hear the distinctive voices of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. At the same time, however, the faithful appear to need more than comments of the homilist to appreciate the distinctive portrait of Jesus in each evangelist. This guide by John Craghan seeks to develop this portrait according to the order of the biblical text itself instead of following the chronological order of the readings, while appreciating the dilemma of worshippers who seek to recover the identity of Jesus of Nazareth in the course of the three– year cycle.
