Come and See

Reflection on John 1: 45-51, Feast of St. Bartholomew

Today we celebrate the feast day of St. Bartholomew. According to bible scholars, he was the same person whose story we heard in today’s reading from the gospel of John, Nathanael. In the synoptic gospels, Nathanael’s name was not included in the list of Jesus’ twelve disciples. Instead Bartholomew is listed among the twelve, along with Philip.

While reflecting over this gospel passage I can’t help but to become curious of what really happened under the fig tree. It is clearly an incident or an event, known only to Jesus and Nathanael. As I tried to reflect more on the passage, I am left clueless and I realize that I can only guess. Perhaps it might have been a profound experience for Nathanael. I get the feeling that, perhaps, it was very personal, intimate experience of God during one solitary prayer, most probably under a fig tree. Maybe it was during this experience that Nathaniel first heard the call of God.

Possibly it made him feel good and excited with the idea, though the idea is so good to be true. Along with it, perhaps, are questions and doubts about ‘the calling’. Perhaps he may also have asked, how can an ordinary guy like him be a disciple of the Messiah? It seems to be a far away dream.  He wasn’t sold out with the idea that is why when Philip said to him one day, “We have found the Messiah! It was Jesus of Nazareth” he replied with a sly humor, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” He never took it seriously – but perhaps, deep within him, there is a great of hope, that it may be really true. But when he came to see Jesus, everything became clear to him. Nathanael indeed has come to see the Lord whom he seeks to follow. Thus, he followed Jesus, and everything else is history.

Isn’t it true that all of us have our very own experience under the fig tree? An experience when you felt a deep connection between you and your creator? An experience when you felt God’s gentle love and invitation? It can be a profound experience you felt once, while looking at the sunset in the horizon.  It can be an experience of God while beaming at the stars during one solitary night. It may also be during one bus or jeepney ride, when you, amidst the hassle and bustle of the city life, felt God’s invitation. Or perhaps it was during one solemn moment during a retreat, praying in solitude, that you experienced Him, so real and so present in your life.  In one way or another, God makes His way to us, to invite us and make his presence real to us like what he did to Nathanael.

We know that it starts with an idea or far-fetched dream. Sometimes we may even think of it even as a cosmic joke, or worst hallucination. But we are left wondering why this idea of following the Lord, though unclear and unsure, gives us much peace. It excites us, it makes us smile, and it inspires us even and gives us joy. But then, we sometimes think that this ‘calling’ is so good to be true, thus we tried to avoid it. We try to shrug it off.  Then it makes us restless. It leads us to ask questions we never dare to ask and we are led to look for deeper meaning.  We wanted to come and see what this calling, vocation, mission, dream, purpose or whatever you may call it that we seek, is really all about. I think in the very core of our Christian vocation, God leads us to such situations, where we are invited to ‘come and see’. We are people intrinsically drawn to our purpose, for a deeper meaning in life. That is why we are here in Arvisu House to come and see wherever the Lord wants us to be – to know His will.

Like Nathanael, we are led and invited in this house to have a close encounter of the Lord and to allow him to reveal to us the meanings and answers to our very own fig tree experiences. Arvisu House is an experience of coming and seeing. It may still be unclear, and there may be times that we still doubt if our own fig tree incident really did happen, but one thing is for sure, the last three months of our stay in Arvisu led us to a deeper relationship with the Lord. And everyday, in our community life, in our prayer and silence, we are led to new fig tree experiences. We dare to believe and with great hope that the Lord listens and sees us in our prayer. The Lord is with us in our daily struggles, with our own issues, with our life in the community, work and studies.

Dear Brothers, today I invite you to go back to your own fig tree experiences and see how the Lord revealed and continuously reveals himself to you. In our continued search for the meaning of our ‘calling’, may we always be led to a closer encounter with Caller. May we all have greater hope each day as we anticipate and open ourselves to whatever the Lord may reveal to us in our life of discernment. Let us also thank the Lord and pray for the many people instrumental in bringing us closer to the Lord, like Philip did to Nathanael. Amen.

Saint Bartholomew, Pray for Us!

Picture Above: A Lumad Boy from Cabanglasan, Bukidnon