It is because the Gospel of John is considered the most theological of the four Gospels and the most spiritual or mystical (because it is here that we receive the revelation of Jesus and the teaching of the early disciples on the indwelling Trinity) that John in Christian art and iconography is pictured as an eagle. He has a most penetrating gaze into the hidden mysteries of the very community of triune love that explodes into creation in order that the Trinity might share its very own life with us, made in God’s Word – His image.

Prayerfully reading this Gospel requires a certain knowledge given by the Holy Spirit who reaches the depths of everything, even the depths of God. This is the hidden wisdom of God that both Paul and John preached as the wisdom of the truly spiritually mature. Such is the darkness of our own intellectual abilities that a light of faith from the Spirit of the risen Lord is required if we are to believe that God is not only ecstatically in love with us in His constant self-giving, but that He eagerly waits for our return of love.

John’s world is quite radically different from the historical accounts given of Jesus’ life in the three Synoptic Gospels. In these three Gospels, Jesus is seen as actively engaged in preaching, teaching and healing. In John, there is less action and more of longer discourses. Symbolic metaphors such as glory, truth, life and light are used as John urges us to reflect on the meaning of Christ in our daily lives.

John is a master story teller. But the details – with some core of historical tradition behind them – are not as important as the spiritual meaning set forth in symbols which usher us into the hidden reality of the triune God’s active presence in this world. In the I AM statements, Jesus uses symbols to lead the reader into various meanings hidden inside the reality of Jesus.