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00:00Music
00:01Brothers and sisters, let's conclude, let's move forward this week.
00:28Then we saw Juan and Andrés, who stayed with the master all that day, and saw where he lived.
00:42The story of John the Evangelist is lost to us in the sense that he marked it for himself; he kept this experience to himself.
00:52Andrew is going to invite Peter to have the same experience, to come and meet the Lord.
00:58And boom, here the curtain falls, the third act ends.
01:06The curtain rises again, it's the fourth scene of our play, it's the fourth day.
01:12In fact, we are observing how, as the days go by, the lamb is gradually taking its place, increasingly speaking, becoming the central character of this play.
01:34From this point onwards, John the Baptist will not be mentioned again during this week.
01:42He decreased so that Jesus might increase.
01:47He decreases so that the master may increase, as John the Baptist himself will mention in chapter 3, verse 30.
01:55But we'll see that in another session.
01:58As I was saying, we are on the fourth day, the curtain opens and we follow the lamb wherever he goes.
02:07We read below two very short verses.
02:10We should be very, very amazed by the power of Jesus' words and the power of his attraction.
02:38Just look, only one word was enough for Philip to be called and become a disciple of Jesus.
02:49It's as if Felipe doesn't like being begged.
02:56How many times in our spiritual life, in our Christian life, in our life of following him, have we encountered Jesus,
03:02Is he drawing us in and revealing his will to us, and sometimes revealing his requests to us? What does he want us to do?
03:11But we do not respond promptly to his call, to his invitation.
03:17Saint Philip, the disciple, should help us to be agile in our vocational response.
03:25but also in the daily response we give to the Lord.
03:29Every time we say yes, let it be a straightforward yes, without overthinking it.
03:35But above all, let us not forget that our calling, the calling that Christ makes to us to follow him,
03:44It is a call that is founded, that is based on the desire of Christ.
03:49But, look, a small detail, but not a small one at all, is that this verse 42 begins by talking about Jesus,
03:59main character of our play, who wants to go, who decided to go, who had the will to go to Galilee.
04:09The next day, Jesus wanted to go to a certain region of Galilee.
04:14And why did he go to this region of Galilee?
04:18Why does verse 42 begin like this?
04:20Well, only to meet Philip and make him his disciple.
04:28Look, I insist, let's see the power of Jesus' attraction.
04:33A single word was enough for this man, named Philip, to become a disciple of Jesus
04:41and may he be a saint and a pillar of the church today, since he was an apostle of Christ.
04:49Let us also consider the synoptic Gospels in response to Matthew's call.
04:52When Jesus passes by Matthew, sitting at his tax collector's table, he says to him, follow me,
04:58And he gets up, leaving the table.
05:00Felipe is the same. Felipe has the same audacity.
05:04A single word was enough to become a disciple of Christ.
05:08And Philip will be like Andrew, he will lead others to the encounter with Christ, with the Lamb.
05:18So effective is the call of Christ in the heart of Philip and in the heart of Andrew
05:23that these two characters want to take it to others.
05:28Felipe, in his case, is going to meet Nathanael.
05:32Regarding Nathanael, it is necessary to mention, as a brief aside, that biblical tradition,
05:38Catholic tradition has seen in this Nathanael to be the same disciple called Bartholomew.
05:46Just so we have it in mind, Bartholomew is the Nathanael of the Gospel of John.
05:52Then Philip speaks to his companion, Nathanael, and tells him that he has found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law.
06:04Of course, this reminds us of what we read in the prologue.
06:10In verse 17 of the prologue, it said that the gift of the law through Moses leads to the encounter with Christ.
06:22But here, Felipe adds the family origin of this character he found, who is now his teacher.
06:34What does Felipe say?
06:36He says that Moses wrote in the law.
06:42Jesus, the son of Joseph of Nazareth.
06:44Then Nathanael, who is listening, is going to object, he's going to raise an objection, he's going to bring up his strong character,
06:54And he's going to say, "Nothing good has ever come out of Nazareth."
06:59And Philip says to Nathanael, well then, come, come and see, and come and verify it for yourself.
07:09In fact, it is the same phrase that Jesus said to Andrew and John earlier, when they began to follow Jesus.
07:20And Nathanael, then, accepts the challenge.
07:25Natanael has a strong character, he has a character, well, a little aggressive.
07:30If we have strong personalities, or if we know someone like that, we can trust Nathanael.
07:37And we can even identify with him.
07:40Nathaniel accepts the challenge.
07:41Nathanael accepts the challenge, and then agrees to take the step and go to meet Christ.
07:48Let's see if what Felipe tells me about him is true.
07:52He will come out, but in reality, the one who will come out to meet us is Jesus first.
07:59And Jesus, seeing what is approaching him, will say, this is a true Israelite in whom there are no duplicitous people.
08:08This statement in verse 47, which Jesus says, is common in Jewish culture.
08:17It's like saying a brave Israelite, a strong Israelite.
08:22This Israelite, a son of this people, is sincerely proud of his roots and proud of his customs.
08:31Well, finally proud of who he is.
08:33This expression can be found in a psalm, in psalm 32, verse 2, and also in Isaiah 53, verse 9.
08:45But if we continue with this encounter between Jesus and Nathanael, in verse 48,
08:52It is mentioned, or rather Jesus tells Nathanael that he saw him under the fig tree.
09:01A mysterious phrase because we don't know when Jesus saw it.
09:07In fact, here we find ourselves facing a very powerful biblical symbol.
09:13The fig tree, the fig tree, is a very common tree in the territory of Israel.
09:20And it was common to have it in people's homes.
09:23And if it was a fruit tree, then it was people who had an orchard who could eat from it.
09:28We can ask ourselves if Nathanael was a wealthy person, if he had a large house, even enough to have fruit trees.
09:38And well, we can think that Nathanael was in a comfortable place when he was under this fig tree.
09:45I was in a safe place, a place I knew, a place in the shade,
09:49because the fig tree has large leaves that provide shade.
09:52Perhaps he was in his own home when Jesus saw him.
09:58Then Jesus is going to invite him to leave his comfort zone, his sense of security,
10:05to become his disciple.
10:07Let him leave his house to become this itinerant disciple.
10:13Follow the master, follow the lamb, wherever he may go.
10:17In verse 49, of course, Nathanael is surprised.
10:23And look how beautifully surprised Natanael is!
10:27who begins to make a series of confessions of faith in the person of Christ.
10:33That's what we need to see here.
10:35He calls him Rabbi, as do the other disciples, like John and Andrew,
10:40just as you hear John the Baptist in verse 38.
10:45Rabbi.
10:45Nathanael also calls him King of Israel.
10:49That this statement, the reign of Israel,
10:53It was a very typical view, and indeed of the Jewish faith.
10:58from seeing that the Messiah has to be king of the family of David.
11:05And he also says to him, son of God.
11:09And this is indeed the culmination of the expressions of Nathanael, son of God.
11:15And it is the one that comes closest to the prologue.
11:18The logos, we had been told, is the son of God.
11:23This was already expected by the tradition of the Old Testament.
11:27The Old Testament already foresaw that the Messiah would be the son of God.
11:32Among other passages, you can consult it in the second book of Samuel, chapter 7, verse 14.
11:40And in verse 50, since these acts of faith of Nathanael had ended, Jesus invites him to grow even more in faith.
11:57Why? What does he say to her?
11:59He tells her, "You think that because I told you I saw you, you must see greater things."
12:07This is what leads us to the Easter faith.
12:11Seeing is believing.
12:13"You will see greater things," Jesus tells Nathanael.
12:17And let us remember that in the resurrection, very similarly, the Lord will meet Thomas.
12:27Thomas who believes because he sees the resurrected Lord.
12:30But Jesus wants us to have a direct faith in Him, a faith directly in Him, without conditioning our senses, without conditioning our touch, as Thomas did.
12:44Finally, Nathanael and Thomas are like two very similar personalities in the Gospel of John.
12:51They were surprised by what Jesus told them immediately.
12:55But Jesus invites them to a deeper vision.
12:58That is the vision of faith, which is ultimately the only way to know Christ.
13:06And here, then, the curtain falls on this fourth day, which will prepare us for something bigger, something greater.
13:17This week, this opening and closing of curtains, these scenes, what are they leading us to?
13:27They are leading us to the great revelation of the glory of Jesus.
13:33When?
13:34Three days later, at a wedding in Cana of Galilee.
13:40When Jesus turned water into wine, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, who was present,
13:48And in the end we learn of the miracle; in the end John will say that it was his first sign and there he revealed his glory.
13:57This series of days, this week of the Gospel of John, this first week of the Lamb,
14:05It is preparing us for the revelation of glory.
14:09This week is also preparing us, sending us into another week.
14:15Which week?
14:16Holy Week, the last week of Christ's earthly life.
14:20The last week in which He will also reveal His glory.
14:26On the third day the story of Cana will begin.
14:30The third day also makes us think about the resurrection.
14:32I invite you here, in a spiritual way, to look at all our days, to look at our week,
14:44from Sunday to Sunday, that the Eucharist of one Sunday, sending me to the Eucharist of another Sunday,
14:51and that a cycle is formed, the healthy liturgical cycle, the natural cycle of life,
14:56The one that best suits my Christian life, from Sunday to Sunday, seeing my week as a Holy Week.
15:03We often consider Holy Week as a uniquely special and important week in our year,
15:12But if we have faith, we must see all our weeks, all our days, as one Holy Week.
15:21And thus remember on Thursday the institution of the Eucharist, and on Friday his offering on the cross,
15:30Saturday his time in the tomb, and Sunday the day of the Eucharist, the day of the encounter with the Lord,
15:38The day He reveals His glory. It is something to meditate on in prayer.
15:43God bless you. With that, we conclude this session, and we will continue moving forward.
15:51Following this lamb, wherever he goes. Blessings.
16:13Thank you!