SEEING  IS  BELIEVING

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this feast of St. Bartholomew is, “Seeing Is Believing.”

In today’s gospel from John 1: 45-51 we see the word see or saw 6 times.

Seeing is a significant word for John - appearing 107 times - but the Gospel of John uses 5 different words for “to see”.

It means knowing, believing…. It means physically seeing …. It means insight ….

We had a priest in the seminary - Teddy Meehan - who said all the time, “Do you see?” He wanted us to see what he saw. Don’t we all? We nick-named him, “Do You See?”

We counted how many times he’d ask that question in just one class. I remember one class he said it, 247 times.

Do you see?

In the gospel of John the key message is to see Jesus.

The message is to follow Jesus.

The message is that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Jesus is the door, the gate, the Good Shepherd. Jesus is the Living Bread and Wine. Jesus is the light of the world. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the Son of God. The Father and I are one. I am life giving water.

Do you see?

NATHANIEL

Here in early part of John, the first chapter, we have 2 invitation scenes or situations.  Andrew discovers Jesus when someone says to him, “Come and see.”  Philip says in today’s gospel to Nathaniel, “Come and see.”

Nathaniel like Andrew, like Peter, come and see Jesus - to see if he is the one.

Jesus sees Nat and says, “Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him.”  He’s not a divisive or a divided person. And Nathaniel is surprised and says, “How do you know me” and Jesus says, “Before Philip called you, I saw  you under the fig tree.”  Under the fig tree means - I saw you sitting there at your house. They think he comes from Cana and Cana like Nazareth, you’d know every person in the village by name.

SEEING IS BELIEVING

Sit in your home - at your house - here in this house - under this fig tree - which has figs, Christ, hanging from it. Sit under this cross - this eat this fruit, this wheat, these grapes, this break, this wine - and take an eat. This is my body…. this is my blood.

Do you get that? Do you see that?

In this gospel text - just the first chapter of John, we see Jesus as the Son of God as well as the Son of Man.

In this gospel text - just the first chapter of John, we see Jesus as the ladder  - that we can ascend to heaven and connect with God the Father - and come back and connect with each other.

COME AND SEE

When I read the gospel of John I get a quote from Teilhard de Chardin, “The whole of life can be found in the verb to see.”

Do you see?

CONCLUSION

I had a nice personal moment this morning at 8:30.

I’m sitting there at the Kids Mass in the St. Mary’s Schoolyard. It’s very bright - as I’m looking out and seeing 700 or so kids - or more - so I close my eyes slightly to be more comfortable in the light.

Surprise I see through my slightly opened and slightly closed eyes - grey light. I see what looks like one of those sonograms - showing what's going on in a mother’s womb - with a baby inside.

What hits me next is that I am alive. This is life. I am alive from conception to birth to death - and I have been blessed with the wonderful world of in between. Christ is here in all this.

I say a prayer of thanks for seeing the whole mystery of life as if I’m in the womb of the world. It’s all here - right in front of me - especially in all these elementary school kids who have their whole life in front of them.

Then came the question: Do I see Jesus here? Then I hear the answer, “Come and see.”

Then the prayer, “Thank you Jesus. Amen - Amen.”