Growing up I was always fascinated about the prophetic elements of scripture. They seemed full of images often other worldly. I had heard this person or that person give their explanation of what Daniel or Ezekiel or Revelation meant by certain verses. Some interpretations were bizarre and usually centered around a certain country attacking another. While I didn’t believe any of that, the imagery was definitely enigmatic and mysterious. After my experience with Jesus in April of 1994, I had an intense desire to read the Bible (which has not stopped) and I devoured whole books at a time: the Gospels, Paul’s letters, the Old Testament etc etc. It was like food to my soul and I was hungry. I came across Ezekiel and read in chapter 1 about his vision and the four living creatures: Their faces were like this: each of the four had a human face, and on the right the face of a lion, and on the left, the face of an ox, and each had the face of an eagle. I remembered a similar account from St. John’s vision in Revelation chapter 4: In the center and around the throne, there were four living creatures covered with eyes in front and in back. The first creature resembled a lion, the second was like a calf, the third had a face like that of a human being, and the fourth looked like an eagle in flight. I pondered what this could mean for days and even weeks but told no one. One day my family and I traveled to a Church that my mother-in-law wanted to show us. As they walked around the Church looking at the various statues, I sat down in the front pew and prayed silently, “God, please show me what these creatures represent”. Exasperated I opened my eyes and looked up at the cupola of the Church and saw in each corner a lion, a calf, a man and an eagle with each of the Gospel writers next to them. I was floored! View attachment 3668 It was simple but yet to me it was profound and I considered it as a great gift from God. I then began to see this in the artwork at many Churches and paintings from centuries long ago. The Fathers of the Church spoke about it and it was even on the cover of the Lectionary at Mass. In fact, the footnote in Revelation chapter 4 said that the four living creatures were associated with the Gospel writers since the 2nd century. Matthew was written to the Jews and stressed the Messiah, God who took flesh. Luke was written to Greeks and the Greek language in that Gospel is the most refined. Also ox in Greek means more of a calf. Mark and was written to the Romans, the lion. Mark later brought the Good News to Egypt and the Churches there honor him as the lion and there is a lion over each door of a Coptic Orthodox Church. John wrote his Gospel decades after that the others. His Gospel doesn’t go through the birth narratives etc and goes straight to, “In the beginning was the word . . .” It is more mystical and flies higher than the others, so to speak. So his Gospel is the eagle. The early Church always referred to St. John as the Theologian. I share this story to offer a point for reflection: things are not always as they seem until the Lord enlightens us. We may read a scripture or a prophecy and think that it is menacing with our limited understanding but it may turn out to be something much more profound and holy.
Hi Robert, Thanks for sharing that and for the beautiful photo. The glass front doors of my church here in Morrinsville New Zealand are engraved with the symbols of the Four Evangelists. The following is taken from the former parish priest's description of our new church. "The winged living figures, symbols of the Evangelists, which are most frequently met with, and which have ever been most in favour with early Christian artists, appear to have been used at a very early date. They are taken from the vision of Ezekiel and the Revelation of St John. St Matthew: Winged Man, Incarnation. -To St Matthew was given the creature in human likeness, because he commences his gospel with the human generation of Christ, and because in his writings the human nature of Our Lord is more dwelt upon than the divine. St Mark: Winged Lion, The Resurrection. - The Lion was the symbol of St Mark who opens his gospel with the mission of John the Baptist, "the voice of one crying in the wilderness." He also sets forth the royal dignity of Christ and dwells upon His power manifested in the resurrection because the young lion was believed always to be born dead, but was awakened to vitality by the breath, the tongue, and the roaring of its sire. St Luke: Winged Ox, Passion.- The form of the ox, the beast of sacrifice, fitly sets forth the sacred office, and also the atonement for sin by blood, on which, in his gospel, he particularly dwells. St John: The Eagle, Ascension. - The eagle was allocated to St John because, as the eagle soars towards heaven, he soared in spirit upwards to the heaven of heavens to bring back to earth revelation of sublime and awful mysteries." This is my beloved church, a church of today for today, a church in which I am well pleased; Modern but not Modernist, Traditional but not Traditionalist; simply Catholic, Roman Catholic.
