The Catholic Calendar for Friday, September 29, 2006
The Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, archangels

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Revelation 12:7-12 or Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
Psalm 138:1-5
John 1:47-51

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

"You will see greater things than this." (John 1:50)

Today we honor three prominent angels, messengers who helped carry out various aspects of God's salvation plan. Biblical texts suggest that angelic help is provided to every human soul. Most of us are totally unaware of our angel's presence as they prompt us to seek God and accept His grace to enter into an intimate, meaningful and loving relationship with Him.

Unknowingly we live immersed in a sea of grace, God's loving power that yearns for us to be united to Him in mind and heart. He seeks this union through obedience to His Word, not simply to assert power over us, but to share His blessed life with His beloved children. However, since love can neither be forced upon nor demanded from us, we have the choice of saying "Yes" or "No" to His offer. The present state of the world suggests that relatively few have chosen to deeply participate in His divine love.

God employs other ways of drawing souls to Himself. In today's Gospel, Nathaniel is introduced to Jesus by Philip, on fire with joy at having found Israel's Messiah. Nathaniel's initial reaction is amusing: "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" His bias against Jesus coming from a specific area did not hinder Christ, for God's choices aren't affected by human weakness or sin.

Jesus sees into our hearts and minds, and saw Nathaniel to be without guile, worthy of trust and open to receive and able to communicate, through grace, His message of salvation. Jesus told Nathaniel that prior to Philip's introducing him, He had observed him praying with a sincere and humble spirit. These words deeply touched Nathaniel, illumined his heart to see that, indeed, Christ is "the Son of God and King of Israel." Jesus assures him he will see greater wonders, "the sky opening and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." In other words, Nathaniel will actually see (at His Ascension) that He is the Christ, fully human and also fully Divine.

Heavenly Father, illumine our hearts; deeply unite us in mind and heart to You; fill us with the joy of recognizing You as our one true hope and so abandoning ourselves to Your care. Amen

- Marie Bocko, OCDS
(mlbocko at earthlink dot net)