Friday Gospel Recharge
A Reflection on John 1: 47-51
(25th Friday of Ordinary Time, Year A of the Liturgical Calendar, 2023)
Hiding your heart from God? Don't even tryyy!
In
today’s Gospel, Nathanael asks the question, with great amazement,
“how
do you know me?”
He is surprised because without a word spoken from his mouth, Jesus knew who he was - not just by name but also his true character. What does this say about Jesus’s own abilities? As God, Jesus is all powerful, capable of creating all things from nothing. However, also in his ability to create all things, he is capable of knowing the hearts of men. As this is the case, then no matter how hard we try to hide or deny how we feel or what we think of ourselves from others, the lesson from this passage teaches that we are unable to hide those thoughts from God, because he knows our hearts even if we choose not to reveal it to him.
Jesus’s power to read a man’s heart is insightful. We might be able to hide our hearts desires, and sometimes our feelings from others, but with God this is impossible. He can tell from a mile away what we are thinking. Again, in this passage, Jesus saw Nathanael from a distance sitting under a fig tree, and when he saw him he knew him. Jesus only needs to gaze at us, even from a distance, to know who we really are. God isn’t limited to an encounter in order to judge the interior of our hearts.
It doesn’t take a textbook or one skilled in rocket science to realise we have a desire to know God, but maybe for some we are not sure if God can really know what occupies our hearts and thoughts, and so sometimes we feel so abandoned and alone because we have no one to whom we can open up.
Here, this Gospel reveals to us that God, although we can think of him as being the big ol’ guy up somewhere in the sky looking down at us, actually looks into us. He looks and makes an assessment: “there is an Israelite who deserves the name, incapable of deceit, “ as this Gospel tells it. Jesus is able to assess and know who we truly are. There is no hiding from God even if we try.
If you have something on your heart, and have no one to turn to, seek God and share those things with him, for he genuinely concerned about our wellbeing. 1 Samuel 16: 7 says God does not judge by appearances as people do, but looks at the heart.
As Christians, we are called to pray often to God, somethings and always through the intercession of the saints. When we pray, we should pray with more than just words but with all our heart. In other words, be frank with the Lord. This kind of prayer is sincere and properly desired by the Lord. God already knows what is in there, however he wants us to give to him from the heart in prayer. When we pray with a heartfelt prayer, we to go to God as we are.
The whole point of prayer is to put us into contact with God and give him the opportunity to mould our thinking and bend our hearts to his will. A person who is occupied in head and heart in the concerns of God is a person devoted to Godly things, to an honest living in the truth. Any man who lives this way is promised those treasures which God has promised to give them. This treasure is much more than just heaven, it includes God and knowledge of himself, a knowledge that can’t be excavated from the pits but freely given to us from the one who reigns in heaven: “you will see heaven laid open and, above the Son of Man, the angels ascending and defending.”
Despite
where we are on the spectrum of holiness, pray and live honestly. Let’s be like
the apostle Nathanael and be people who are incapable of deceit. While it is
nice to know that an honest life is rewarded with the best gift of heaven: God.
It’s also a nice term of endearment to die with. An honest person is always
worth remembering.
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