The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to go beyond our comfortable intellectual sense of Christ to “Come and See” through the experience of full life in communion with the people who follow Him.
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The reading from the Book of Revelation shares the Vision of the New Jerusalem.
* [21:9–22:5] Symbolic descriptions of the new Jerusalem, the church. Most of the images are borrowed from Ez 40–48.
* [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. (Revelation, CHAPTER 21, n.d.)
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. (Psalms, PSALM 145, n.d.)
In the Gospel of John, Jesus calls Nathanael.
* [1:47] A true Israelite. There is no duplicity in him: Jacob was the first to bear the name “Israel” (Gn 32:29), but Jacob was a man of duplicity (Gn 27:35–36).
* [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).
* [1:50] Possibly a statement: “You [singular] believe because I saw you under the fig tree.”
* [1:51] The double “Amen” is characteristic of John. You is plural in Greek. The allusion is to Jacob’s ladder (Gn 28:12). (John, CHAPTER 1, n.d.)
Tom Lenz comments that in the gospel story is the line that really sticks with him. After Nathanael’s doubt comes Philip’s response, “Come and see.” What a powerful response. If Jesus were to be known only with the mind, Philip would have responded with a long explanation that only the mind could be satisfied with.
Throughout this short reading, “seeing” is used carefully and purposefully as the method of knowing. When we truly see something, it has a way of passing through our minds and entering our hearts. Seeing with our heart seems to have a depth of knowing that far exceeds the mind's ability to know. As the new school year begins and I get wrapped up in course content and effective teaching methods, today’s gospel reminds me that “knowing” doesn’t just happen with the mind, which sometimes can be skeptical and doubting. Knowing that comes through our lived experiences with Jesus gives us the depth to know him with our hearts as well. This type of knowing can allow us to “see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (Lenz, 2023)
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) (Schwager, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on John 1:45-51 comments that we can often trace our initial encounter with the Lord back to someone—or multiple people—who urged us to discover the Messiah for ourselves. And as followers of Jesus, we can do the same for other people.
How? Perhaps you could ask someone to come to a parish Bible study or to Adoration or Mass. Or you could give them a spiritual book that has meant a lot to you. Maybe it will take more than one invitation or more than one point of contact before they encounter Jesus in a personal way. But remember, you’re not responsible for what happens next. Once they’ve accepted your invitation, Jesus will reveal himself to them and speak to their hearts in his own time and way.
So whom will you invite to encounter the Lord today?
“Jesus, open my eyes to all the ways I can invite people to ‘come and see’ you.” (Meditation on John 1:45-51, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler comments that the seer in Revelation shares a vision of the heavenly Jerusalem in which we meet God face to face. Nathanael, in John’s Gospel, is known as Bartholomew in the synoptic Gospels. Friar Jude develops the connection between Nathanael and Israel, also known as Jacob, the grasper, before his encounter with God at Bethel.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, describes how different God’s methods of transformation and correction are from ours. Almost all of us in Western civilization were educated with the notion of retributive justice. Our entire penal system and judicial systems are based on it. Even the old-fashioned ideas of heaven and hell are based on it: if we sin this much, we get this much punishment; if we do this much good, we get this much heaven. It’s a pretty sick system, based on quid pro quo thinking. There’s nothing grand, transformative, or godly about it.
Here’s the great surprise of the Hebrew Scriptures, revealed in this central passage from Isaiah: People are not going to get what they deserve, they’re going to get much better than they deserve. God says, “The way I punish you—this vindication, this retribution—is actually going to be by loving you more and loving you more deeply.” Show me anyone whose heart was changed by punishing them! Love is the only thing that transforms the human heart. Nothing else. I was a jail chaplain for fourteen years and I have seen the evidence. We can punish people all we want, and the more we punish people and imprison people, the worse they become.
Many Catholics grew up with the threat of purgatory and arbitrary sentences doled out for various sins—from three days in purgatory to three months to three years. Please tell me how that makes us love God more? In fact, what it’s done is make a high percentage of Catholics fear God, not love God. It certainly did not make us love our neighbor.
I think the question we really have to ask is, “Do we like restorative justice?” If we’re honest, we’ll admit that we like to see people punished. We like to see people in jail and for them to “get what they deserve.” How different God is from humanity! We don’t know God, agree with God, or understand God. We think in such a small, small way. We think fear and anger and judgment and punishment are going to achieve love—but show me where? (Rohr, 2023)
We are invited by the Spirit to “Come and See” the Way of love of Jesus that is the path of transformation.
References
John, CHAPTER 1. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 24, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/1?45
Lenz, T. (2023, August 24). Creighton U. Daily Reflection. Online Ministries. Retrieved August 24, 2023, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/082423.html
Meditation on John 1:45-51. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved August 24, 2023, from https://wau.org/meditations/2023/08/24/766283/
Psalms, PSALM 145. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 24, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/145?10
Revelation, CHAPTER 21. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 24, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/revelation/21?9
Rohr, R. (2023, August 24). The Big Picture of Love — Center for Action and Contemplation. CAC Daily Meditations 2023. Retrieved August 24, 2023, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/the-big-picture-of-love-2023-08-24/
Schwager, D. (n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved August 24, 2023, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2023&date=aug24a
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