Let nothing be said about anyone unless it passes through the three sieves: Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?
- Amy Carmichael
(How might this influence something you've been planning (or neglecting) to say to someone?)
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Rv 21:9b-14; Psalm 145:10-11, 12-13, 17-18
Jn 1:45-51
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.”
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 heaven opened and the angels of God
ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Reflection on the Scriptures
Bartholomew is one of the foundation stones of that New Jerusalem that the Book of Revelations text speaks of today. Transparent, and beautiful, the Church recognizes one of its foundation stones and honors him by simply celebrating his witness of Jesus. Like nearly all the faithful members of the New Jerusalem he needs no biography. His own name might be Bartholomew and it might be Nathaniel
or some amazing combination of the two, but his identity is clothed in the truth that Jesus knew him, loved him, called him to follow and claimed him forever in the Reign of God, that is everlasting life. Bartholomew asks us to trust that the message he received is the same message each of us is given – come and see, believe, receive, and witness. May we have the courage that he had to say yes!
- by Eileen Burke-Sullivan
The Son of God Became Human
From The Catechism of the Catholic Church
Part One, Section Two, Chapter Three
Article 8: I Believe in the Holy Spirit
III. GOD'S SPIRIT AND WORD IN THE TIME OF THE PROMISES
Expectation of the Messiah and his Spirit
711 "Behold, I am doing a new thing."78
Two prophetic lines were to develop, one leading to the expectation of the Messiah, the other pointing to the announcement of a new Spirit. They converge in the small Remnant, the people of the poor, who await in hope the "consolation of Israel" and "the redemption of Jerusalem."79
We have seen earlier how Jesus fulfills the prophecies concerning himself. We limit ourselves here to those in which the relationship of the Messiah and his Spirit appears more clearly.
(Footnote references in the Catechism.)
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