For our knowledge of Jesus we are completely dependent on the witness and testimony of others. He left us no record except in the lives of those he touched. In the New Testament the various authors share their faith to call others to faith. We are in the same situation today. If others are to come to know Jesus in their lives it will only be by the witness of ours. One helpful exercise is to notice how the different New Testament authors talk about Jesus. For example, St. Luke records a saying of Jesus: “If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” When St. Matthew record this saying instead of saying the gift will be “the Holy Spirit” he says, “give good things.” We cannot, of course, know which were the actual words of Jesus. And, since he spoke in Aramaic and not Greek, the language of the Gospels, any where he is reported to have said is a translation. All of which says that St. Luke wanted his community, and us, to understand that the greatest gift we receive from Jesus is the grace and power of the Holy Spirit.
