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| Saint Bartholomew |
But Nathanael said to him,
"Can anything good come from Nazareth?"
We may be like Nathanael, ready to dismiss Jesus simply because of the baggage surrounding him and where he comes from. With the Church in her present condition, people are justified in wondering if anything good can come from the Church. Can she really have anything to offer the world? Still, in spite of everything, there seems to be something more to Jesus.
Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?"
Jesus answered and said to him,
"Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree."
He knows us. Christianity is no longer a merely impersonal movement, ideology, or philosophy. Jesus knows us. Even our best friends and lovers sometimes fail to understand us perfectly. But by Jesus we are perfectly known. It is scary to be so completely known, so exposed. Won't he reject us if he knows the truth? But no, somehow we see only love in his eyes. We respond to this acceptance with belief.
Nathanael answered him,
"Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel."
Nazareth may have its problems. But we ought not circumstances prevent us from finding the one on whom angels ascend and descend. We are called to discover the one who bridges heaven and earth. And the place heaven and earth is bridged is the Church, the bride.
The angel spoke to me, saying,
"Come here.
I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb."
He took me in spirit to a great, high mountain
and showed me the holy city Jerusalem
coming down out of heaven from God.
Not all of the successors of the Apostles of the Lamb will find their names inscribed anywhere in the heavenly Jerusalem. But to it, in spite of themselves, they still bear witness even as it condemns them. We should follow Nathanael's lead. In Jesus we discover the love for which we long. Though his bride is wounded and broken he still longs to lead us to see the beauty of the heaven through her. Though men may fail, though Nazareth may indeed lack much to recommend it, even so the Kingdom will never fail.
Your Kingdom is a Kingdom for all ages,
and your dominion endures through all generations.
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