Reflection for THURSDAY, St. Bartholomew, Apostle.

By

Fr. Aloysius Santiago sdb
Assistant Parish Priest, Manjeshwar, Kasargod

Gospel Passage for the day 

John 1:45-51

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, the one about whom the prophets wrote: he is Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.’ ‘From Nazareth?’ said Nathanael ‘Can anything good come from that place?’ ‘Come and see’ replied Philip. When Jesus saw Nathanael coming he said of him, ‘There is an Israelite who deserves the name, incapable of deceit.’ ‘How do you know me?’ said Nathanael. ‘Before Philip came to call you,’ said Jesus ‘I saw you under the fig tree.’ Nathanael answered, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel.’ Jesus replied, ‘You believe that just because I said: I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.’ And then he added ‘I tell you most solemnly, you will see heaven laid open and, above the Son of Man, the angels of God ascending and descending.’


Reflection on the feast

St Bartholomew was from Cana in Galilee, and he was often identified as Nathaniel in the gospel of John but the other gospels listed him together with Philip as one of the first apostles chosen by Christ.

From the gospel, we can make a presumption of what kind of character he was.

For one, he was a straight-forward and a straight-talking person, who says what he means and means what he says.

We can make that presumption when he made that statement: Can anything good come from Nazareth? That was indeed a raw and cutting frankness.

Nonetheless, he was an open-minded person because he followed Philip to see who that person Jesus was.

He was also a person of prayer, as attested to by Jesus, because to sit under a fig tree means to be under its shade of coolness and to pray and meditate on God's righteousness and a longing for the coming of God's kingdom.

So in effect, Jesus was affirming Bartholomew about his character. It was like He knew what kind of a person Bartholomew really was.

Similarly, Jesus also knows each of us through and through and He also wants to affirm our goodness.

Like St. Bartholomew, let us continue to follow Jesus as He reveals Himself to us.

May we also come to know ourselves deeper and be strengthened in our goodness.

May we also always meditate on God's righteousness and on God's kingdom and proclaim it in our lives.

GOD BLESS YOU

Good morning. Have a nice day. 

HAPPY FEAST OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW