From the ancient dream to the incarnate relationship

(Jn 1:47-51)

Today's liturgy presents Nathanael's first encounter with the Lord, whom some traditions identify as the apostle Bartholomew.

The purpose of the Call is to follow Jesus; let us see the chain of events. First of all: people are convinced by encounter, by seeing and experiencing, not by imposition.

But the Eternal One's plan takes us by surprise. Witness and sharing lead to Christ, but they are not enough - because his plan is not what people imagine or propose, what they expect and desire it to be.

To Philip's enthusiastic announcement [name of Greek origin], Nathanael [from the Hebrew Netan'El: 'God has given'] responds with a preconceived scepticism that represents us: what good can come from the most insignificant suburbs (v. 46)?

Why does the solution to our expectations not come from the palaces of power, from the exceptional magnificence of the Holy City, or from the proven and selective doctrinal prestige of the observant territory (Judea)?

Nazareth was an insignificant village of hotheads and Galilean troglodytes; Jesus was a carpenter, so he did not even own land.

The expectation of the Messiah was anchored to other manifestations of prestige, wealth, splendour and power (substituting for the authentic experience of relationship and fullness of being).

The personal encounter with Jesus and listening to his Word overcome every obstacle, leading to an explicit and convinced profession of faith.

And like Nathanael, those who devote their lives to the study of the Scriptures find Christ in them (vv. 45, 48-49).

At first, perhaps we too approached the Son of God imagining that he had the attributes of the King of a chosen people (v. 49).

Then familiarity with the Person and life experience ["Come and see": meaning of the Semitic expression in verse 46] showed us a much broader relationship with Heaven (vv. 50-51).

In following the Way proposed by the unexpected Messiah, we see the convergence of God's movement towards men and our yearning for Him. It is the realisation (and overcoming) of Jacob's ancient dream.

Those who cling to preconceptions remain under the fig tree (cf. v. 48), that is, they remain tied to the ancient religion [the rabbis taught the ancient Scriptures while sitting under trees; the fig tree was a symbol of Israel].

By remaining in expectation of magnificence and allowing ourselves to be carried away by standard notions of expected glory, we do not enter into the movement that binds our earth to Love: we will find ourselves increasingly old, bogged down and sterile - incapable of generating new creatures and being reborn.

'Israelite without deceit' (v. 47): everyone is this when - having examined - they know how to discard common opinions and teachings; when they realise that they do not agree with the Father's plan for us.

The history of salvation aims at 'greater things' (v. 50) than those already desired; normal, expected, invoked, calculated and longed for (transmitted by doctrines and 'teachers' as they are).

Even the Plan of Providence is not as people imagine or desire it to be. Situations await us that no one has ever seen before.

'God has given' [meaning of the proper name Nathanael], but everyone must be reborn.

From Nathanael, every believer makes an Exodus to transmigrate to the meaning of the name Bartholomew: 'Son of the well-ploughed field and the land of abundant furrows'.

From religiosity we will move on to Faith: the best of God's Dream in us must come. 'Greater things' than commonplaces.

Jesus is the authentic Dream of Jacob, which foreshadowed a vast descendants; further unfolded (Gen 28:10-22) and became reality.

But no one would have expected that the Messiah could be identified with the 'Son of Man' (v. 51), the One who creates abundance where there is none - and where it did not seem possible for it to expand before.

The new bond between God and human beings is in the Brother who becomes a 'close relative', who creates an atmosphere of humanisation with broad contours - not at all discriminatory.

The 'Son of Man' is the one who, having reached the height of human fulfilment, comes to reflect the divine condition and radiates it in a diffuse way - not selectively as expected.

'Successful Son': the Person with the definitive step, who in us aspires to the most expansive fullness in events and relationships, to an indestructible calibre within each one who approaches [and encounters divine signs].

It is the growth and humanisation of the people: the peaceful, true and full development of the divine plan for humanity.

'Son of Man' is therefore not a religious title, reserved, cautious, controlled and discreet, but an opportunity for all those who adhere to the Lord's proposal and reinterpret life in a creative and personal way.

They overcome their fixed and summary boundaries, making room for the Gift; welcoming from Grace the fullness of being and character, in its new and unrepeatable paths.Feeling totally and undeservedly loved, we discover other facets... we change the way we are with ourselves and read history.

In short, we can grow, fulfil ourselves, flourish, and radiate the completeness we have received - without any more closures.

On this Path, every day we feel the same impulse that led Nathanael to Jesus: an instinct of incomparable Presence [Michael: Who like God?], a liberation of shrivelled consciousness [Raphael: God has healed - Rescuer], a revelation of wonder [Gabriel: Strength of God].

In short, on the new adventures to be undertaken, the invisible world has a special relationship with humanity and creation.

In our souls and in things, we are guided along the right path (in an incessant, growing, unexpected way) even through our anxieties, rebellions, crises and doubts.

From Son of David to Son of Man

The Church is Catholic because Christ embraces all humanity in his mission of salvation. While Jesus' mission in his earthly life was limited to the Jewish people, 'the lost sheep of the house of Israel' (Mt 15:24), it was nevertheless oriented from the beginning to bring the light of the Gospel to all peoples and to bring all nations into the Kingdom of God. Faced with the faith of the Centurion in Capernaum, Jesus exclaims: "I tell you, many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 8:11). This universalistic perspective emerges, among other things, from Jesus' presentation of himself not only as the "Son of David" but as the "Son of Man" (Mark 10:33), as we have also heard in the Gospel passage just proclaimed. The title "Son of Man," in the language of Jewish apocalyptic literature inspired by the vision of history in the Book of the Prophet Daniel (cf. 7:13-14), refers to the figure who comes "with the clouds of heaven" (v. 13) and is an image that heralds a completely new kingdom, a kingdom supported not by human powers, but by the true power that comes from God. Jesus uses this rich and complex expression and refers it to himself to manifest the true character of his messianism, as a mission destined for the whole of humanity and for every human being, overcoming all ethnic, national and religious particularism. And it is precisely in following Jesus, in allowing oneself to be drawn into his humanity and thus into communion with God, that one enters this new kingdom, which the Church proclaims and anticipates, and which overcomes fragmentation and dispersion.

[Pope Benedict, address to the Consistory, 24 November 2012]