Gospel: August 24, 2024
August 24, 2024 (Saturday)
Feast of St. Bartholomew, Apostle
Psalter: Proper / (Red)
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 145: 10-11, 12-13, 17-18
Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.
1st Reading: Revelation 21: 9b-14
Gospel: John 1: 45-51
Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets: he is Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”
Nathanael replied, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” When Jesus saw Nathanael coming, he said of him, “Here comes an Israelite, a true one; there is nothing false in him.” Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?” And Jesus said to him, “Before Philip called you, you were under the fig tree, and I saw you.”
Nathanael answered, “Master, you are the Son of God! You are the king of Israel!” But Jesus replied, “You believe because I said, ‘I saw you under the fig tree.’ But you will see greater things than that.
Truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
Reflection:
“Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth”
Our difficulty of exercising the love of God and the love of neighbor inseparably may also result from a duplicity we experience from within us. Jesus’ true disciple, like St. Bartholomew, exhibits no guile. Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Bartholomew, one of the Twelve Apostles (cf. Mk. 3:16-19; Mt. 10:2-4; Lk. 6:14-16).
In John’s Gospel, he is presented as Nathanael. Today’s Gospel narrates the call of Nathanael. When Philip told him that they have found the one whom Moses and the prophets wrote about—Jesus of Nazareth, he immediately registered his bias against the Nazoreans. He was inclined to believe that nothing good could come from Nazareth.
Nonetheless, he accepted Philip’s invitation to come and see Jesus. Upon meeting him, Jesus recognized him to be a true Israelite because he was not exhibiting guilefulness.
Perhaps the reason why he could not immediately let go of his bias against the Nazoreans was that, as a person, he was leading a nondouble standard life.
However, the kind of duplicity he needed to let go was the dichotomy between a principled life and one that shows compassion. As Christians, we are called to grow in compassion while leading a principled life.
