Today's Gospel (John 1:43-51):43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. And he found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." 44 Now Philip was from Beth-sa'ida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathan'a-el, and said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." 46 Nathan'a-el said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." 47 Jesus saw Nathan'a-el coming to him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" 48 Nathan'a-el said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." 49 Nathan'a-el answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" 50 Jesus answered him, "Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You shall see greater things than these." 51 And he said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man."I love the image of Nathan'a-el just sitting under his tree, mostly because we've all been there before.
I wonder if he was lonely, bored, ready to give up, just tired, frustrated, angry, confused, doubting, stubborn, or just plain lazy. We can't know, but we do know that Nathan'a-el doesn't jump up in joy--as we might expect of a saint and apostle!--when his friend delivers the news that Jesus had been found.
Nathan'a-el sits there. "I cannot come to the feast," we almost hear him say.
Good thing that Phillip knows a thing or two about evangelization. Rather than debating with Nathan'a-el about the claims of Jesus, Phillip simply says, "Come and see."
Arguments, lessons, lectures--these things are nice, but they do not always succeed in bringing someone out from under his tree. Now a true encounter with the living God--that will.
This weekend a large group of high school sophomores from St. Charles in Bloomington will arrive on this Hill. They come from under their own trees--and, like Nathan'a-el, most likely reluctantly.
But here they will "come and see" for themselves who Jesus is. If they open their eyes, as Nathan'a-el does in today's Gospel, they will quickly find a God who knows them and loves them deeply, and who will transform them right here.
May it be so.
mk
