Homily: Feast of St. Bartholomew

Feast of St. Bartholomew (John 1:45-51) “Who Chooses?”

When we think of people becoming apostles of Jesus, we often think of him selecting them. The stories we remember, revolve around Jesus choosing each apostle. He walks along the seashore, and he calls fisherman from their nets. He stops by the tax collector’s office and calls Matthew to be his followers.

We get a sense it is sort of a one-way street. Jesus issues the invitation, and the apostles respond. This seems to be the way it works in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. But it is not the pattern in the Gospel of John.

In John the apostles come looking for Jesus. The apostles bring their friends to meet Jesus. The disciples who come to meet Jesus have a lot of questions. Several of them are very skeptical.

We think of a man like Nicodemus. He comes to Jesus at night. He is a learned Jew. He asks why a man must be born again before he can follow Jesus. We are left unsure about whether he accepts Jesus’ answer or not.

Skepticism is expressed by Nathanial who is also known as Bartholomew. He asks the famous question, “Can anything good come out of Galilee. Galilee was in the northern part of Israel and the people of the City of Jerusalem were unimpressed by the hicks from Galilee. What could a man from there possible have to teach others about religion.

Nathanial comes to see Jesus reluctantly. But he quickly is impressed with Jesus. We are left to wonder why. My thought would be that Jesus had charisma. He must have had an impressive personality. There must have been an aura about Jesus that caused others to believe they were in the presence of a holy man.

Something impressed Nathaniel. He makes one of the most heartfelt professions of faith we ever hear of in scripture. He says with all sincerity, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God.”

1.    Have I met a person in my life that had charisma? Who was that and how did it feel to meet them?

2.   Am I skeptical about certain teachings of the church? What would be one example? 

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Dear Parishioners,

          This weekend we will be selling tickets to Wayne Messmer’s one act play about Fr. Damien. Hawaii is very much on our mind these days. I heard today there are still 1,000 people missing from the island of Maui. This is a week after the fires. How terrible this must be.

          If there is a patron saint of Hawaii it is Fr. Damien. We can ask him to intercede for the people suffering there. If you would like to know more about Damien the Leper, plan on attending they play on October 1st. 

          May our Lady pray for all homeless people who are suffering because of the heat.

          Fr. Mark