Let us be an instrument of bringing the Good News

Good morning, happy Monday, and many blessings.

With today’s gospel, John 1:45-51, three little reflections come to my mind.

The first reflection is that today is the feast of St Bartholomew, or Nathanael, one of the Twelve apostles. We know very little about St. Bartholomew, other than that he is probably the same Apostle that the Evangelist John calls Nathaniel. If Bartholomew and Nathaniel are indeed whom Jesus paid an extraordinary compliment. Jesus called one and the same person, we have one other bit of certain knowledge about him. He was a man of integrity, a man to him "a man without guile," a man incapable of deceit.

To how many people in today's world can we offer such a compliment? Think of the number of times we all put on false faces to try to make ourselves impressive. Think how often we play around with words to hide or alter the truth, to mislead those with whom we're speaking.

Dishonesty appears to be a fact of life throughout society. Student surveys show that cheating is widely practiced in schools. Students cheat, apparently unaware that cheating is immoral. The same might be said of the corporate officials of companies like Enron, Worldcom, etc. One wonders whether these officials had any sense at all of the evil they were doing, endangering the jobs and the pension plans of rank and file employees.

The second reflection is the story of someone who found someone. Jesus found Philip.  Philip found Nathanael.  Nathanael found Jesus. This experience of finding someone and bringing that person to Jesus made me think about who the person was who brought me to Jesus. When Nathanael agreed to come, he had no great expectations about what he was going to see. His comment about Nazareth may not have been one of contempt but possibly a comment indicating the lack of any statements concerning Nazareth in Messianic prophecies. We can begin to understand his surprise when he was introduced to the Son of God. He expected so little and found so much.

And the third reflection is the story of who have you brought to Jesus Christ?  We have a lot of people to thank, but do we have anyone that will thank us?  Have I brought anyone closer to Jesus?   Have I invited anyone to come closer to Jesus?  If not, then reach out to some of your friends, family members and even past enemies.

Jesus does not ask us to convert anyone.  He asks us to simply proclaim the Good News.  We would be foolish to think that our words or actions could replace God's words or actions; that our presence could replace the Holy Spirit's presence.  Only Jesus knows the hearts of His people.  Only He knows us by heart. We are simply his beloved instruments that have come to know and believe that Jesus is our greatest treasure.

Blessings

Fr. Luis+