On 24 August, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Bartholomew. He is the Nathanael spoken of in the Bible.
Newsroom (30/08/2023 09:00, Gaudium Press) Our Lord was walking in the desert with His disciples. They probably went from preaching to preaching, admiring the deeds of their Master. He had walked on water, turned water into wine, and promised living water that would quench their thirst. And what a thirst! Under the Judean sun, they were slightly discouraged, with the weight of the afternoon affecting their walk.
Perhaps they did not know where they were going to stay that night; walking with Jesus was always indirectly uncertain; in fact, that’s what He asked for in the first place: trust in Divine Providence, just as He put himself in the Father’s hands.
That day, Philip had told the Master about a friend of his who would probably like to meet Him. Indeed, everyone admired Jesus: He healed lepers with a command and lifted the paralysed with a glance. All you had to do was ask and believe: Christ did the rest, even overcoming the laws of nature. Philip remembered Him saying: “For those who have faith the size of a mustard seed, if you say to a mountain, ‘Get out of there and throw yourself into the sea’, it will go”. The size of a mustard seed, he thought.
Bartholomew meets the Divine Master
Suddenly, breaking from his thoughts, Philip saw his great friend at one end of the road, at the entrance to the city. Excited, he turned to Jesus to warn Him, but Christ had already seen him. Philip could not explain why his Master had stopped, but he heard Him confide in His disciples: “Here is a true Israelite, without falsehood”. St Bartholomew, having already come to meet Jesus, hears Jesus’ compliment. He was astonished. “How did this rabbi, so profound, so serious, so moving, know you?”
Philip officially introduced him: “Master, this is Nathanael”. But waiting was not the new guest’s style. Looking at Jesus, who was staring at him, he asked: “Master, where do you know me from?”
“When you were under the fig tree, I saw you,” replied Jesus.
What did Nathanael do under the fig tree when, thinking he was alone, he affirmed his faith by being seen by Jesus? What great questions had Nathanael been asking in silence, in prayer, and which were answered by that exchange of glances with Jesus?
Philip did not understand, but what he saw touched his soul. Nathanael was kneeling down, his eyes filled with tears: “Rabbi, you are the son of God, you are the King of Israel”. From then on, he was never separated from the Divine Master. He was with Him at all times; he succumbed to fear, asked for forgiveness and, together with his great friend Philip, approached Our Lady and received Pentecost with Her, going to preach the Gospel to the far corners of the world. Today, as a martyr, St. Bartholomew is celebrated in Heaven by legions of Angels.
According to historical sources, St. Bartholomew preached Christianity even in India. Another tradition says that the Apostle died from having his skin flayed off in Albanopolis – now Derbent – in the Russian region of Dagestan, on the shores of the Caucasus Sea, at the behest of the governor. In the Sistine Chapel, he is painted holding his own skin in his left hand and in the other the instrument of his torture, an alfange (a type of sword). According to the Catholic Church, his relics were later taken to Europe and lie in Rome, in the church dedicated to him.
May St. Bartholomew – who, even out of sight, maintained his integrity – give us this virtue of his: holiness to the full!
Text adapted from heralds.org.
Compiled by Sandra Chisholm