Reflection for Thursday Before Epiphany 

By

Fr. Aloysius Santiago sdb
Director, Social Action Movement, Don Bosco Bidar

 Today's WORD of GOD 


 John 1: 43 - 51

 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” 

 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida .  Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 

 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. 

 “Come and see,” said Philip. 

 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” 

 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. 

 Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” 

 Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.” 

 Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.” 

Meditation on the word of God 

A Man in Whom there is No Deceit

It’s Hard Not to like the Person of Nathanael as Portrayed by the Evangelist in Today’s Gospel. 

He Clearly Wasn’t the Kind of Man who Got Carried Away by Other People’s Enthusiasms. When Philip Breathlessly Tells Him, “We have Found the Messiah, JESUS of Nazareth,” Nathanael’s Reply was, “Can Anything Good Come Out of Nazareth.” 

To Philip’s Credit, He Persisted with Nathanael, & He must have Broken through Nathanael’s Prejudice because at the Beginning of Today’s Gospel We Find Nathanael Coming Towards JESUS. 

JESUS Addresses Him as a Man Incapable of Deceit, Someone in Whom there is No Guile. 

What U See is What U Get, as We Might Say Today. As a Result of His Meeting with JESUS the Sceptic Comes to Confess JESUS as “the Son of GOD; the King of Israel.” JESUS makes Nathanael a Wonderful Promise, “U will See;” Angels were Understood as Mediators, Connecting Heaven & Earth. 

JESUS Promises Nathanael that He will Come to Appreciate JESUS as the Meeting Point of Heaven & Earth. Nathanael Travelled a Journey from Scepticism to Great Faith, with the Promise of Greater Things to Come. 

We are All on a Journey of Faith; We can All Hope to See Those Greater Things that JESUS Promises Nathanael. As Paul Says, “Now We See as in a Mirror Dimly, then We shall See Face to Face.”

Encountering and  Experiencing Jesus would lead one to Proclaim. 


          Good morning

God bless you with a lovely day