Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle
August 24, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082424.cfm

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Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him,
“Here is a true child of Israel.
There is no guile in him.”
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.”
Nathanael answered him,
“Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”
John 1:47-49

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I’m sure Jesus loved all his disciples, but I think he loved Nathaniel in a special way. Nathaniel was a WYSIWYG person – “what you see is what you get“. Jesus never had to second-guess Nathaniel. His faith and longing for holiness were clear. When he had doubts and reservations he brought them openly and humbly to God.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We ask to be guileless, without duplicity with God, with ourselves, and with our companions. May we burn with a sincerity of heart lit by faith, hope, and charity.

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Poetry: The Glance – George Herbert (1593-1633)

As he comes from under the fig tree, Nathaniel’s life is changed and consecrated by his first glance of Jesus.

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The Glance

When first thy sweet and gracious eye
Vouchsaf’d ev’n in the midst of youth and night
To look upon me, who before did lie
Weltring in sinne;
I felt a sugred strange delight,
Passing all cordials made by any art,
Bedew, embalme, and overrunne my heart,
And take it in.

Since that time many a bitter storm
My soul hath felt, ev’n able to destroy,
Had the malicious and ill-meaning harm
His swing and sway:
But still thy sweet originall joy,
Sprung from thine eye, did work within my soul,
And surging griefs, when they grew bold, controll,
And got the day.

If thy first glance so powerfull be,
A mirth but open’d and seal’d up again;
What wonders shall we feel, when we shall see
Thy full-ey’d love!
When thou shalt look us out of pain,
And one aspect of thine spend in delight
More then a thousand sunnes dispurse in light,
In heav'n above.

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Music: Hymn to St. Bartholomew (also known as Nathaniel) – Fr. Ricardo Arriola