28/09/2025
Gospel Reading (John 1:47-51)
> When Jesus saw Nathanael coming, he said of him, “Here is a true child of Israel; there is no duplicity in him.”
Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”
Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.”
And he said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
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Reflection
1. “There is no duplicity in him.”
Jesus’ words about Nathanael point to the rare quality of transparency, sincerity, integrity. To be “without duplicity” means there is nothing hidden, no divided allegiance, no pretense. In our spiritual journey, how often do we carry hidden parts of ourselves — fears, regrets, unconfessed sins — into our encounter with God? Jesus invites us not to mask ourselves but to come as we truly are.
2. “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”
This insight of Jesus reveals two things: (a) He sees us even before we respond, and (b) He knows us by what we do in private as well as in public. Nathanael’s surprise — “How do you know me?” — is the same question many of us ask: how can God see me in my hidden places, in my loneliness, in my doubts? The answer is that Christ sees us fully, all our times and places, and approaches us there.
3. “You will see greater things … angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Jesus promises Nathanael that his experience of God will grow. The “angels ascending and descending” is a powerful image that echoes Jacob’s ladder (Genesis 28), where heaven and earth are connected. In Christ, the divine comes to us; in Christ, we are lifted up. Our faith is not static. What we glimpse now is only the beginning of what is possible in him.
4. The feast of the angels — Michael, Gabriel, Raphael — gives a heavenly backdrop.
On this feast, we remember that God’s messengers are ever at work: protecting, guiding, healing, proclaiming. The Gospel’s image of angels ascending and descending reminds us that the spiritual realm is alive, that God’s presence is not distant, and that we are part of a cosmic story in which heaven intersects earth.
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Prayer
Heavenly Father,
You see me — in light and shadow, in joys and struggles, in my hidden self.
Help me to come before you with integrity and honesty, not hiding what is real.
Thank you that through Christ you bridge heaven and earth, and invite me to see “greater things.”
May your angels accompany me in my daily path — guarding, guiding, encouraging.
Strengthen my faith that I may receive the fullness of your presence in my life.
Amen.
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A Question for Reflection / Application
In what area of my inner life do I sense duplicity or hiding?
How might I practice honesty before God today — confessing, naming, allowing Christ’s light to shine?
What “greater things” might God be inviting me to see or believe, even beyond what I currently imagine?
