GOSPEL: JN 1:47-51
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JESUS saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him.” 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.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” And he said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
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Angels are messengers of God. In Luke, the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she has been chosen to be the mother of the Savior (cf Lk 1:26). An angel appears to the shepherds that a “savior has been born… who is Messiah and Lord” (2:11); a multitude of the heavenly host appears “with the angel, praising God” (2:13). The angel strengthens Jesus during the agony in the Garden (cf 22:43). At the end of Luke’s gospel (24:51) and the beginning of the Acts of Apostles (Acts 1:11), we find Jesus ascending to the heavens with the angels proclaiming Jesus will come back at the end of time.
Angels have been participants in the affairs of humanity, especially in the story of salvation. Anyone who introduces Jesus, however, acts like an “angel,” a messenger of God. Upon hearing John the Baptist introducing Jesus as “Lamb of God,” two of his disciples (Andrew and John) follow Jesus. Andrew brings Peter to Jesus, while Philip introduces Nathanael to the Teacher. Jesus calls Nathanael a true Israelite, who searches for the Messiah while meditating on the Scriptures, and while “sitting under the fig tree” (Jewish rabbis usually teach under a tree). Unlike Jacob (also known as Israel), who was a man of duplicity because he grabbed Esau’s birthright through trickery, Nathanael recognizes Jesus as “Rabbi, the Son of God, King of Israel.” Jacob’s dream of the stairway to heaven, where “God’s angels were going up and down on it” (Gn 28:12), is finally realized in Jesus.
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SOURCE: “365 Days with the Lord 2020,” ST. PAULS Philippines, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 895-9701; Fax 8957328; E-mail: books@stpauls. ph; Website: http://www.stpauls.
