HOW DO YOU KNOW ME?

PRAYER MOMENT  

Monday 24 August 2015, St Bartholomew, aka Nathanael

HOW DO YOU KNOW ME?

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “There is an Israelite who deserves the name, incapable of deceit.” How do you know me?” said Nathanarel. “Before Philip came to call you,” said Jesus, “I saw you under the fig tree.” Nathanael answered, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God.” (John 1:45-51)

Reflection. This brief sound bite astonishes us. How did Jesus know him? And why did Jesus’ words have such an immediate and powerful effect on him? We don’t have precise answers other than the ones given by the whole thrust of John’s gospel. Jesus knows the Father and came so that he might reveal him to men and women; and he knows his own and his own know him. Fig tree or no fig tree, Jesus knew Nathanael through and through, as he knows each one of us. And it is a knowledge framed in love. Nathanael senses this and makes a confession that reappears several times in the gospel – with the woman by the well, Peter at the end of chapter six, the man born blind and Mary of Magdala.  

Prayer. Lord, you know me, “you know my rising and my lying down.”  Help me so that I may know you more clearly, love you more dearly and follow you more nearly. Amen.