Saturday, September 29, 2018 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.” 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 coming Messiah. By stealing his father’s blessing, Jacob (later renamed Israel) grabbed the right to that lineage from Esau. Jesus found the true Israel in Nathanael – one having no guile or duplicity.
Nathanael knew the story of Jacob (later renamed Israel) by heart, for he was a reflective man who often meditated on Scriptures under the shade of a fig tree. To the Hebrews, the fig tree was a symbol of reflection. This explains Nathanael’s surprise when Jesus addressed him, on their very first meeting, as a true Israelite without any guile or duplicity. To him Jesus was one who knew his inner longing for the fulfillment of Yahweh’s promise made to his forefathers. “Master, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Nathanael exclaimed. In reply Jesus said that he’d see more signs of who he was with the opening of the heavens and with the angels of God “ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
Nathanael recognized in what Jesus said Jacob’s dream about 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 understood that Jesus was that ladder connecting earth and heaven and making it possible for him to ascend to Yahweh.
The same ladder is available to us. But we won’t be ready to climb that ladder nor persevere climbing it unless like Nathanael we have that longing in our heart for the reign of the Messiah in our lives. –(Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M. Email: [email protected].
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