Daily Archives: August 24, 2026

St. Bartholomew

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St. Bartholomew, an apostle and early martyr of the Church, is recognized for his missionary zeal especially in Armenia for whom he is their patron saint. And in some traditions, Bartholomew is also honored as a missionary to the Bombay India region on the Konkan coast, a region which may have been known as the ancient city Kalyan.

Bartholomew’s name sometimes creates confusion. The name is not a proper name per se, but means “son of Tolmai” similar to Barjona = “son of Jona”.  Just the son of Jona had a proper name, so too the son of Tolmai – Nathaniel.

Bartholomew is listed among the Twelve Apostles of Jesus in the three synoptic gospels: Matthew (10:1–4), Mark (3:13–19) and Luke (6:12–16) and also appears as one of the witnesses of the Ascension (Acts 1:4, 12, 13. On each occasion he is named in the company of Philip. Bartholomew is not mentioned by the name “Bartholomew” in the Gospel of John, however “Nathaniel” appears with Philip in John 1:45-51 – our gospel reading for today. It is generally accepted that Nathaniel and Bartholomew are one in the same person.

The gospel reading offers a little regional trash-talk, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” The passage also offers Jesus’ response to Bartholomew’s inquiry as to how Jesus knew him to be a man of honesty, Jesus enigmatically responded: “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”

There is no further explanation and no other reference to the incident. We are left to conjecture. The fig tree was almost a symbol of home (cf. Isa. 36:16; Mic. 4:4; Zech. 3:10). Its shade was used as a place for prayer and meditation and study. It seems probable that Nathanael had some outstanding experience of communion with God in the privacy of his own home, and that it is this to which Jesus refers. Whatever it was, Nathanael was able to recognize the allusion. The effect on Nathanael of these simple words is more than surprising. His immediate response is to salute Jesus in terms implying divinity: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”

One lesson from this gospel is that Bartholomew is like the pearl merchant who has prepared his entire life to find the pearl of great price (Mt 13:45-46). Bartholomew was grounded in Scripture, had meditated upon its meaning, and when he came to his “pearl of great price” he was able to instantly connect to Jesus as Son of God, Messiah.

Would it be that each of us is so prepared to come to our moment in which we are asked to be all in.

Image: Public Domain, The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew by Jusepe de Ribera (1634). Tradition holds that Bartholomew was martyred by being skinned alive. The paintings and imagery of the saint often shows his flayed skin or the curved flensing knife with which he was skinned. Somewhat ironically, he is the patron saint of leather makers.

Under the fig tree

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Today we have a reading from the Gospel of John in which Jesus encounters Nathaniel under a fig tree. It is only at the end of the reading that angels get a mention: “you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (John 1:51) Otherwise, Jesus is involved in the calling of the disciples, having found Peter, Andrew and Philip at work. He finds Nathaniel sitting under a fig tree. Micah 4:3-4 and Zechariah 3:10 suggest that “under a fig tree” may be a place of contemplation. It may be that Nathanael was a “thinker”. He wouldn’t accept anything at face value, but he would question and contemplate everything until he was sure of its truthfulness. On the other hand, sitting in the shade, eating the free figs, might indicate that he was just a lazy bum.

I think that we need more fig trees — at least in a figurative sense. They can be quite messy when the unpicked, over-ripe fruit falls to the ground and attracts all kinds of birds and bugs. What I mean is that we need more places and time to be contemplative — time to be quiet and think. We need more “fig trees” in church — places and times to stop working, to stop doing the business, and to sit and reflect. Perhaps we might become more Christian with less busyness in our own lives and more time to ask the simple question to ourselves: how was I a disciple of Christ.

Perhaps we would be a better church if we could stop and contemplate our place in this world we are called to evangelize. We might find things quite messy: unpicked, over-ripe fruit on the ground. A harvest wasted.

In my last assignment, the Franciscans had just taken up pastoral leadership of a parish almost 150 years old. There was a lot of focus on the past, a church caught in the Newtonian mechanics of an object at rest. We can learn from the past, but we also have to consider the now, and then contemplate a new future of a church not at rest, but a restless church.

Same is true of each one of us as individuals, members of a family, and all the other roles we have in life.

Where is your fig tree? Find it and may the messengers of God, the angels, bring you divine food for thought.

Nathaniel under the fig tree | James Tissot, ca. 1890 | Brooklyn Museum | PD

Where we are, where we’re going

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This coming Sunday is the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Lectionary Cycle A. Our reading begins:  “From that time on” which serves as a type of marker that indicates one storyline is closing and the sacred author is moving to another. But there is also a larger storyline that is beginning to take shape. In the succeeding weeks of Ordinary Time we have heard of mighty deeds as well as what seems to be an initial “sorting out” of those who will or will not commit to discipleship. Perhaps a way to view the context of our readings is outlined here.

Signs of the Kingdom and Messiah

  • Healing and Feeding the Crowds (14:13-21)
  • Walking on Water (14:22-26)
  • Defilement (15:1-20 but not part of the Sunday gospel sequence)
  • The Canaanite Woman (15:21-28)
  • Healing Many People (15:29-39 but not part of the Sunday gospel sequence)
  • The Pharisees Seek a Sign (16:1-12)

Messiah Revealed and a Community Begins to Form

  • Jesus, Messiah; Peter as Rock (16:13-20)

Who Will Follow and What it Means

  • The Cost and Promise of Discipleship (16:21-28 – our Sunday gospel)
  • The Transfiguration (17:1-13)
  • Discipleship and Faith that Moves Mountains (17:13-20)

“From that time on” also marks the turning point of the mission in Galilee and from this point on, Jesus and the disciples are moving towards Judea and the city of Jerusalem. This geographical change coincides with the change in the pattern of Jesus’ activity and teaching. Peter’s declaration in Mt 16:16 that Jesus is the Messiah leads Jesus to immediately begin to describe the messianic mission with the very plain statement that he must suffer, die and be raised again (v.21 – repeated again in 17:22-23). The entire journey towards Jerusalem will be in the growing shadow of the cross. As we move ahead there are few encounters with crowds and few miracles. The attention is on preparing the disciples to understand, live and promote the radically different values of the Kingdom – as well to prepare them for the “sea change” that will begin in Jerusalem and ripple out to the ends of the earth.

If that places it all in a larger context, perhaps the more immediate context is well described by R.T. France. He labels the reading as a “Glimpse Into the Future: Messianic Suffering and Glory” where the “primary emphasis of this first part of the journey narrative is on the declaration that the Messiah must meet with rejection, suffering and death, and that those who follow him must expect to share his fate. But set within this depressing message is a persistent reminder that that is not the end of the story. The prediction of 16:21 includes also resurrection on the third day (cf. also 17:9); those who lose their lives do so in order to gain them (16:25–26); the same Son of Man who is to be killed will ‘come in his Father’s glory’ as judge (16:27), and be seen to be king (16:28). [The Gospel of Matthew, 629]

Image credit: James Tissot, Rétire-toi Satan, c.1890, Brooklyn Museum, Public Domain