The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to consider the way we witness to love, beauty, and truth through the action that follows our contemplation of God in our lives.
Revelation to witnesses
The reading from the Book of Revelation shares a Vision of the New Jerusalem, built on our salvation history.
* [21:9] The bride, the wife of the Lamb: the church (Rev 21:2), the new Jerusalem (Rev 21:10); cf. 2 Cor 11:2. * [21:14] Courses of stones,apostles: literally, “twelve foundations”; cf. Eph 2:19–20.1
Psalm 145 praises the greatness and the Goodness of God.
* [Psalm 145] A hymn in acrostic form; every verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Acrostic poems usually do not develop ideas but consist rather of loosely connected statements. The singer invites all to praise God (Ps 145:1–3, 21). The “works of God” make God present and invite human praise (Ps 145:4–7); they climax in a confession (Ps 145:8–9). God’s mighty acts show forth divine kingship (Ps 145:10–20), a major theme in the literature of early Judaism and in Christianity.2
In the Gospel of John, Nathanael is called among the First Disciples.
* [1:48] Under the fig tree: a symbol of messianic peace (cf. Mi 4:4; Zec 3:10). * [1:49] Son of God: this title is used in the Old Testament, among other ways, as a title of adoption for the Davidic king (2 Sm 7:14; Ps 2:7; 89:27), and thus here, with King of Israel, in a messianic sense. For the evangelist, Son of God also points to Jesus’ divinity (cf. Jn 20:28).3
Eileen Burke-Sullivan comments that for Bartholomew (in John called Nathaniel) he does not announce his own deeds, but Jesus’s deeds and thus we know Christ and know only that this faithful man gave his life and death that Jesus might be known, loved, and followed.
The Gospel today invites us to recognize his Apostolic call – he came to meet Jesus at the behest of his friend or relative – he encounters Jesus’ loving gaze, and the fact that Jesus “knows him” – as God knows him, establishes his committed relationship to come and see, to discover for himself what God was inviting him to become. With the others, he had no earthly shelter against the storms of nature or evil, only Jesus’ confidence in the Father. He had nowhere to lay his head but where believers granted him rest, no security but God’s love made present in Jesus. He witnessed Jesus’ human death and the glorious resurrection and recognized that God was building a New Temple in a New Jerusalem for those who would become the members of Jesus’ Body. With his companions his feet were washed by Jesus, who perhaps gazed at him again and gently confirmed the rightness of his witness. In all probability he ate fish with Jesus at the seashore after the resurrection and knew that he himself and the world he dwelt in were forever transformed. In receiving Jesus’ Spirit, he could speak with the power of witness anywhere on earth – and he followed the Spirit to do just that.4
Don Schwager quotes “The Lord of Angels,” by John Chrysostom (347-407 AD).
"Do you see how he [Jesus] leads him [Nathanael] up little by little from the earth and causes him no longer to imagine him as merely a man? For one to whom angels minister and on whom angels ascend and descend, how could he be a man? This is why he said, 'You shall see greater things than these.' And to prove this, he introduces the ministry of angels. What he means is something like this: Does this, O Nathanael, seem to you a great matter, and have you for this confessed me to be King of Israel? What then will you say when you see 'angels ascending and descending on me'? He persuades him by these words to receive him as Lord also of the angels. For on him as on the king's own son, the royal ministers ascended and descended, once at the season of the crucifixion, again at the time of the resurrection and the ascension, and before this also, when they 'came and ministered to him' (Matthew 4:11). They also ascended and descended when they proclaimed the good news of his birth and cried, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace' (Luke 2:14), when they came to Mary and also when they came to Joseph... Our Lord made the present a proof of the future. After the powers he had already shown, Nathanael would readily believe that much more would follow." (excerpt from the Homilies On the Gospel of John 21.1)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on John 1:45-51 comments that for centuries, God’s promises in Scripture had sustained Israel with visions of hope. A radiant bride, a city and temple shimmering with the glory of the Lord—the images pointed to a peaceful future when God would live among his people. Nathanael must have drawn strength from reflecting on this life to come, even as he felt the weight of Roman occupation. Perhaps this gave him eyes to recognize Jesus as the “Son of God” and “King of Israel” who would set things right (John 1:49). And Jesus replied, in essence, Keep watching. You haven’t seen anything yet!
So go and sit under your fig tree today, wherever that may be—an armchair, your prayer corner, the Adoration chapel. If you don’t have such a place, find one wherever prayer comes easiest. Lift your heart to the Lord and let his promises fill your mind. Then listen as Jesus says to you, “You haven’t seen anything yet!” “Jesus, by your cross and resurrection, you have thrown heaven wide open. Let me see your glory and follow your gospel!”6
Friar Jude Winkler shares that the vision of the New Jerusalem in Revelation is a description of a Heavenly society built on our salvation history. Nazareth was considered a dirt poor town, with less orthodox practice. The Messiah would have to come from Judea. Friar Jude reminds us to practice the honest inquiry modelled by Nathanael under the fig tree.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that the true and essential work of all religion is to help us recognize the divine image in everyone and every thing. It is to mirror things correctly, deeply, and fully until all things know who they are.
We can enlarge this idea of mirroring to give us another way of understanding the Universal Christ. For example, there is a divine mirror that might be called the very “Mind of Christ.” The Christ mirror fully knows and loves us from all eternity and reflects that image back to us. I cannot logically prove this to you, but I do know that people who live inside this resonance are both happy and healthy. Here’s how the Franciscan mystic Bonaventure (c. 1217–1274) described this mirroring: “We can contemplate God not only outside us and within us but also above us: outside through his vestiges [creations], within through his image and above through the light which shines upon our minds, which is the light of Eternal Truth.” [1]7
Our desire to seek out truth and beauty is born from the life of God that dwells within our being.
References
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