Come and See

Piety

Suspice of Ignatius

Let us pray. Take Lord, receive, all my liberty. My memory, understanding, my entire will, Whatsoever I have and possess. Thou hast given all these things toMe – to thee O Lord, I restore them. All are thine – dispose of them according to thy will. Give me only your love, and your grace, for that is enough for me. Deliver us from evil and grant us peace today. Amen.

Study

God meets man and man is astounded.

Imagine for a minute, that Nathaniel is you. You best friend, Phillip, comes to you with a sure thing. Barbaro will win the Triple Crown. Apple stock will quadruple in value. A group of fuzzy haired singers from Liverpool England will light the music world on fire while a hip-shaking singer from Memphis has the teenagers screaming.

Yeah? Right? Our skeptical minds would be working overtime. If this deal is so good, why don’t you keep it for yourself?

But, because Phillip is a generous friend, we go along and check out this vision only to find that it is the Real Deal. And it promises to get even better. Hard to believe? Not when it’s Jesus, the Real Deal of the Good News.

In the Hebrew Bible, Jacob saw a ladder connecting heaven and earth. Nathaniel knows all about Jacob’s vision and now he hears that he will have a similar experience. “You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

In the reading from the Book of Revelation, we learn that the Lord “took me in spirit to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. It gleamed with the splendor of God. Its radiance was like that of a precious stone, like jasper, clear as crystal.”

Jesus promises Nathaniel and us a chance to experience heaven, to experience His great vision. “Come and see.” Nathanial accepts the invitation. Will you? Or do you still think it’s too good to be true?

Nathanial did indeed see greater things. He was one of those to whom Jesus appeared after the Crucifixion. Jesus appeared on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias after his resurrection (John 21:1-14). The disciples had retreated into their comfort zone as fishermen after the fear they experienced when Jesus was executed. They had been fishing all night without success. In the morning, they saw someone standing on the shore though no one knew it was Jesus. He told them to cast their net again, and they made so great a catch that they could not haul the net in. Then John cried out to Peter, “It is the Lord.”

When the disciples brought the boat to shore, they found a fire burning, with some fish laid on it and some bread. Jesus asked them to bring some of the fish they had caught, and invited them to come and eat their meal. Nathaniel was indeed one of the first hand witnesses to the resurrection.

The American Catholic web site reminds us that this reading confronts us again with the fact that we know almost nothing about most of the apostles. Yet the unknown ones were also foundation stones, the 12 pillars of the new Israel whose 12 tribes now encompass the whole earth. Their personalities were secondary (without thereby being demeaned) to their great office of bearing tradition from their firsthand experience, speaking in the name of Jesus, putting the Word made flesh into human words for the enlightenment of the world. Their holiness was not an introverted contemplation of their status before God. It was a gift that they had to share with others. The Good News was that all are called to the holiness of being Christ’s members, by the gracious gift of God.

The simple fact is that humanity is totally meaningless unless God is its total concern. Then humanity, made holy with God’s own holiness, becomes the most precious creation of God.[1]

Action

Just as Nathaniel is invited to “Come and See,” so are we. We don’t have to go to the Middle East like the Christian Peacemaking Team or the Peace Corps or other experience. We just have to be willing to see the face of Jesus in the people we meet and make God’s will our own.

Nathaniel did not cut and run saying he had better things to do. Instead, he stayed and because of him, we have another eyewitness to history.

Who can you better serve if you stand by their side?

[1] http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1117