Its aim is to help a person mobilize his inner resources for handling a crisis; for making a difficult decision; for adjusting constructively to
an unalterable problem; or for improving his interpersonal relationships, including his relationship with God.
It has always been an insoluble
problem for harmonists and writers of the life of Christ; and it is clear from the way Matthew — and perhaps John — and even Luke used the materials of the Gospel of Mark that they, who were its earliest editors and commentators, did not view the Marcan order as chronological or final and
unalterable — save in one section, the passion narrative, though even here they did not hesitate to make some changes in order.