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Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Twenty-first Week In Ordinary Time, Year II
Feast of St. Bartholomew, Apostle of the Lord
Revelation 21:9-14 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> John 1:45-51
Thank you, God our loving Father for this Monday; though still gloomy with forecast of more rains like the past weeks, we rejoice in celebrating the Feast of St. Bartholomew, one of the amazing Apostles of Your Son Jesus Christ; he died a martyr after being skinned alive and crucified upside down like St. Peter; it must have been his most glorious achievement because after skinning him alive, his torturers must have seen and realized his faith was not that skin-deep: layers upon layers of skin they must have found only Jesus deeply ingrained in his very person!
How lovely of St. Bartholomew known earlier as Nathanael his baring of his true self, that first layer of our person we often hide when he asked Philip if anyone good could come from Nazareth; truly as Jesus had said, there was no guile in him, so unlike us with so many masks and pretensions layered on our person.
Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” But Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him.” (John 1:45-47)
Everywhere in this life there are layers of everything: layers of clothing, layers of skin, layers of meaning, and layers of faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ who asked us yesterday "who do you say that I am?" Teach me, Jesus to remove that first layer of covering myself with masks pretending to be somebody else as good; let me bare my true self before you, free and faithful in telling you what I feel, what I think like St. Bartholomew because you see everything beneath our many layers of covering.
Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.” (John 1:48-49)
Most of lovely of all, dear Jesus is how you "see" us even from afar, especially whenever we are "under the fig tree"; you know very well our desire to see you too, to find you and to dwell in you; unless we are able to remove our layers of duplicity and guile, we shall never see your promise "you will see the heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man" (John 1:51); thank you, dear Jesus for your loving gaze upon us despite our many sins and brokenness; help me to look at you too, to see you like St. Bartholomew as "truly the Son of God, the King of Israel." Amen.
