First Reading: (Revelation 21:9–14)
Responsorial Psalm: All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your faithful shall bless you.
Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia, alleluia.
Master, you are the Son of God;
you are the King of Israel.
Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: (John 1:45–51)
Reflection:
From the Gospel, Nathanael said “From Nazareth, can any good thing come out from that place?”
This resulted in some gracious words from the mouth of the Master himself about Bartholomew!
Imagine hearing such words about you from the Master himself. Truth himself speaking.
What accounted for this?
It was because Bartholomew had a transparent heart, free of fake piety.
He spoke with raw, unfiltered, frank honesty rather than hidden hypocrisy.
He voices genuine doubts instead of pretending to understand simply because he does not want to hurt someone's feelings.
He will not seek to pretend. He will not seek to flatter. That's what Jesus saw in Nathanael.
Now the age of information is upon us. Companies and even government agencies are always gathering information from and on us because the data they gather helps improve their management of us, sales and productivity.
Consciously or unconsciously, we are also gather information about people. Every time we have a conversation with someone, our brain gathers and compiles some information about the person we didn't know before.
The important question becomes : What do we do with those information?
In this life, we encounter two kinds of people.
There are those who sincerely care about us and will use their knowledge about us to provide us with the encouragement, support, and help we need, just at the right time.
And then there are some who will use the knowledge against us for their own benefit.
From the Gospel today, we read about St. Bartholomew. Scholars believe Bartholomew and Nathanael are one and the same person. So when Nathanael met Jesus for the first time, Jesus praised him with the following words:
“Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”
Jesus didn't criticize him for his scepticism. Jesus praised him for his honesty and sincerity.
I'm sure we have all had moments when we felt insecure and worried about what other people may think about us.
Our brains are hardwired to give more weight to negative information than positive. This particular trait, being able to quickly assess and respond to threats, is how we humans survive thousands of years.
Unfortunately, this negative bias, our tendency to focus on the negative by magnifying criticisms and mistakes, often works against us.
Even though nine people express their gratitude, the one complaint or criticism we heard is all that we will remember.
While it is easy to focus on the negative, doing so will not help us see the objective reality. Nor will it help solve our problems.
When we are criticized, our nervous system triggers a fight-or-flight response. We either feel wounded and shut down completely, or we become defensive and fire back with equally hurtful words.
We may even up the ante with personal attacks.
Jesus didn't criticize Nathanael for his scepticism. But with his kindness, Jesus helped Nathanael turn his scepticism and doubt into faith.
Jesus helped to transform Nathanael into a man of unwavering faith, a faithful disciple, and a martyr.
God can do the same with us for we are not ordinary in His eyes.
We are loved.
We never, ever have to worry about how God thinks or feels about us. He has all the information there's on us. Unlike governments and corporations, He won't use it to hurt us.
Sometimes we forget how special we are in God's eyes.
He knows us. He understands us.
Saint Francis de Sales once said:
“If you wear a mask, people will fall in love with the mask you wear, and not you.”
We do not have to feel insecure around Jesus. He knows us even better than we know ourselves.
God is proud of our accomplishments.
God will never criticize us for our weakness, but help us grow into the person we are meant to be like Nathanael in today's Gospel Reading.
God bless you.
Amen
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