Behold God beholding you...and smiling!

Feast of St Bartholomew, Apostle and Martyr

Rev 21, 9-14; Jn 1:45-51

You might be wondering where St Bartholomew is in today's Gospel. Well, according to early Eastern Christian tradition, Nathanael and Bartholomew refer to the same person. That is why we read this Gospel today. It is a Gospel of encounter and recognition.

Jesus sees Nathanael and recognizes him from afar: "Here is a true child of Israel, there is no duplicity in him." Jesus recognizes him not because he had met him before but because he noticed him under the fig tree. So what, we might ask?

The fig tree in the Hebrew Scriptures symbolised the Law of Moses. The fig is a very sweet fruit and therefore the sweetness of Law, the joy that the Law brings. Therefore Nathanael sitting under the fig tree indicates that Nathanael used used to spend time meditating on the Law of the Lord. It must have filled his heart with joy and Jesus must have recognized this in him, even from afar. This is what made Nathanael a true child of Israel and a person of no duplicity, that is, a person of complete honesty.

It is true that he was a person of complete honesty - his seemingly negative remark, is not merely a negative judgment of Nazareth, but it also an implicit affirmation that the Messiah, "whom Moses had spoken of in the Law" would come not from a the "world", "an earthly village," "Nazareth," but much more: Jesus is from the bosom of God, as we read in the very first lines of the Gospel: the "Word was with God."

And because Jesus recognizes Nathanael, Nathanael in turn recognizes Jesus as the Son of God and King of Israel. Nathanael knows who this person standing in front of him is. He does not simply know who he is but he knows him, he knows him deeply, although he has never met him before.

Sometimes I like to observe how babies watch their mother's face, they recognize it from among all other faces, and track their mother's face even when their mother is walking around. How much do I know Jesus? How much do I spend time reflecting under the fig tree, in other words, reflecting on the Word of God to get to know Jesus, to be able to recognize him at first sight?

Someone once described praying as simply beholding God beholding you and smiling. In other words, realizing that God is looking at you, or rather, recognizing you, and smiling as God does so. When we do so, we start opening our eyes wider to be able to notice God more.

Jesus praises Nathanael and tells him that once he has recognized him, he will be able to see even more of Jesus.

They say that we become what we contemplate. If I contemplate Jesus, the Word of God, I will be transformed into Christ. The whole world will be changed into a place where the power of God can be seen and is active.

This is what gave courage to Nathanael or Bartholomew to travel to India and be a missionary there, until he was martyred, according to tradition by being skinned alive. Let us learn from St Bartholomew to contemplate the word of God and to behold God beholding us and smiling. And in doing so, may we be also given the courage to be true witnesses to God's love, as Bartholomew was to the point of martyrdom.