From: John 1:43-51

The Calling of the First Disciples (Continuation)

[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 Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and
Peter. 45] Philip found Nathaniel, 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 Jo-
seph.” [46] Nathaniel said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Philip said to him, “Come and see.” [47] Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to Him,
and said to him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” [48] Nathaniel
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] Nathaniel 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 de-
scending upon the Son of Man.”

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Commentary:

43. “Follow Me” is what Jesus usually says to all His disciples (cf. Mt 4:19; 8:22;
9:9). During Jesus’ lifetime, His invitation to follow Him implied being with Him in
His public ministry, listening to His teaching, imitating His lifestyle, etc. Once
the Lord ascended into heaven, following Him obviously does not mean going
with Him along the roads of Palestine; it means that “a Christian should live as
Christ lived, making the affections of Christ his own, so that he can exclaim with
St Paul: ‘It is now no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me”’ (St. J. Escriva,
“Christ Is Passing By”, 103). In all cases our Lord’s invitation involves setting out
on a journey: that is, it requires one to lead a life of striving always to do God’s
will even if this involves generous self-sacrifice.

45-51. The Apostle Philip is so moved that he cannot but tell his friend Natha-
nael (Bartholomew) about his wonderful discovery (verse 45). “Nathanael had
heard from Scripture that Jesus must come from Bethlehem, from the people of
David. This belief prevailed among the Jews and also the prophet had proclaimed
it of old, saying: ‘But you, O Bethlehem, who are little to be among the clans of
Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler of Israel’ (Micah 5:
2).

Therefore, when he heard that He was from Nazareth, he was troubled and in
doubt, since he found that the announcement of Philip was not in agreement
with the words of the prophecy” (St. John Chrysostom, “Hom. on St. John”, 20,
1).

A Christian may find that, in trying to communicate his faith to others, they raise
difficulties. What should he do? What Philip did—not trust his own explanation,
but invite them to approach Jesus personally: “Come and see” (verse 46). In o-
ther words, a Christian should bring his fellow-men, his brothers into Jesus’ pre-
sence through the means of grace which He has given them and which the
Church ministers — frequent reception of the sacraments, and devout Christian
practices.

Nathanael, a sincere person (verse 47), goes along with Philip to see Jesus; he
makes personal contact with our Lord (verse 48), and the outcome is that he re-
ceives faith (the result of his ready reception of grace, which reaches him through
Christ’s human nature: verse 49).

As far as we can deduce from the Gospels, Nathanael is the first Apostle to make
an explicit confession of faith in Jesus as Messiah and as Son of God. Later on
St. Peter, in a more formal way, will recognize our Lord’s divinity (cf. Matthew 16:
16). Here (verse 51) Jesus evokes a text from Daniel (7:13) to confirm and give
deeper meaning to the words spoken by His new disciple.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

Mass Readings

First reading	1 John 3:11-21 ©

This is the message

as you heard it from the beginning:

that we are to love one another;

not to be like Cain, who belonged to the Evil One

and cut his brother’s throat;

cut his brother’s throat simply for this reason,

that his own life was evil and his brother lived a good life.

You must not be surprised, brothers, when the world hates you;

we have passed out of death and into life,

and of this we can be sure

because we love our brothers.

If you refuse to love, you must remain dead;

to hate your brother is to be a murderer,

and murderers, as you know, do not have eternal life in them.

This has taught us love –

that he gave up his life for us;

and we, too, ought to give up our lives for our brothers.

If a man who was rich enough in this world’s goods

saw that one of his brothers was in need,

but closed his heart to him,

how could the love of God be living in him?

My children,

our love is not to be just words or mere talk,

but something real and active;

only by this can we be certain

that we are children of the truth

and be able to quieten our conscience in his presence,

whatever accusations it may raise against us,

because God is greater than our conscience and he knows everything.

My dear people,

if we cannot be condemned by our own conscience,

we need not be afraid in God’s presence.

Psalm	Psalm 99:1-5 ©