Thursday,
September 29, 2016
Feast of Sts. Michael, Gabriel & Raphael
1st Reading: Dn 7:9-10,13-14 or Rev 12:7-12
Gospel: John 1:47-51
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.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in
the Assimilated
Life Experience)
Nathanael passed the test of integrity when Jesus said of him: “Here comes an Israelite, a true one; there is no duplicity in him.” What did Jesus mean when he said, “Here comes an Israelite, a true one?”
Israel was the original name of Jacob, grandson of Abraham. He was duplicitous because he cheated his brother Esau by grabbing from him the blessing of their father Isaac. A father’s blessing was important to the Hebrews because the son getting the blessing would be in the same lineage of the Messiah to come. By stealing his father’s blessing, Jacob (Israel) grabbed the right to that lineage from Esau. Jesus found in Nathanael the trait he would have wanted Israel (Jacob) to have – the trait of integrity.
Nathanael knew the story of Jacob (Israel) by heart, for he was a reflective man who often meditated on Scriptures under a fig tree. To the Hebrews, the shade under a fig tree was conducive to meditation.
Nathanael must have spent time under a fig tree meditating on Scriptures’ promise of a Messiah. When Jesus addressed him, on their very first meeting, as a true Israelite without any guile or duplicity, Nathanael took it as a great sign. Jesus knew his inner self and fathomed the depths of his longing for the fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel. But Jesus assured him he’d see greater signs such as the opening of the heavens with the angels of God “ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
Nathanael recognized in this prophetic statement Jacob’s dream of a stairway resting on the ground with its top reaching to the heavens and God’s messengers going up and down on it. (Gen. 28:12).
Nathanael recognized Jesus as that ladder connecting earth and heaven and making it possible for him to ascend to Yahweh.
The same ladder is available to us. But would we pass the test of integrity as Nathanael did? – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM, MMExM, MAPM, REB. Email:dan.delosangeles@gmail.com
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