Today we celebrate the feast day of the archangels, Sts. Raphael, Michael and
Gabriel. The Gospel, John 1: 47-51, recalls Nathanael’s call to follow Jesus. As
Nathanial approaches Jesus, the Lord says of him: “Here is a true child of
Israel. There is no duplicity in him.”
If I approach Jesus, what might Jesus say of me? Am I as single-hearted,
as pure of heart as Nathanial was? Would Jesus say: “Here is a true disciple of
My Father?”
Nathanial is taken aback that Jesus knew Him that well? “How
do you know me,” He asked Jesus. And Jesus responds: “Before Philip called you,
I saw you under the fig tree.” Yes,
Jesus sees us under “the fig trees” of our lives, as well. He knows us through
and through just as He knew Nathanial. This Gospel story ends with the Lord
reminding Nathanial that he will see
greater things than he’s already seen, that is, he will see the “heaven opened and the angels of God
ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Was it Nathaniel’s lack of duplicity that gave him the
clarity to eventually “see the heaven
opened and angels of God ascending and descending”? A friend of mine, once told me that, in a very
dense fog, she saw an angel pushing the
fog aside so she could see to drive. When she was in an emergency room, unable
to breathe because of severe asthmatic attacks, she saw an angel sitting beside
her keeping her calm. Was it that she, too, was so steadfast in her faith, so
focused on the Lord and the things of God, on doing His will above all, that
prepared her for such encounters?
What drives me? To what do I tenaciously cling?
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