January 15, 2006

January 15, 2006

When Samuel is called, he responds with, "Speak, for your servant is listening." Listening is not always an easy thing to do, especially when we have prejudged the message to be something we'd rather not hear. However, sometimes such messages are important, so we have to overcome our resistance and preconceived notions in order to fully receive the message being offered. Here's how I envision the way the encounter between Nathanael and Jesus unfolded.

Philip finds Nathanael sitting under a fig tree. He excitedly tells him that he has found the one spoken of by Moses and the prophets. Nathanael responds with, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" We don't know what Nathanael was brooding about as he sat under the fig tree, but this rather insulting reply suggests that he was responding from a very dark place within himself.

When I am full of doom and gloom, I am inclined to mutter the most awful things in response to anyone who attempts to enter the dark cloud surrounding me. For instance, if someone mentions some news about Texas, I might grumble, "Can anything good come out of Texas?"

Now I've never lived in Texas and have never visited the state, yet I have all of these preconceived notions about its inhabitants. There's a word for this kind of attitude: prejudice, a term defined in the dictionary as "an adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts. " What might we call one who expresses such prejudices? A bigot, defined as "a prejudiced person who is intolerant of any opinions differing from his own."

We don't know why Nathanael was so prejudiced toward anyone from Nazareth. But we can surmise the effect such bigoted attitudes might have had on his interior life.
Prejudice builds walls which we hide behind to avoid facing the truth. Prejudice also forms mental barriers within ourselves. When hiding behind these self-made walls, we become dependent on own ideas, the stone and mortar from which these walls are made. When these ideas are challenged, our safety feels threatened. We defend our walls by all means possible. Prejudice is an attempt to guard our safety. It is a response that springs from fear, a deadly poison that will eventually destroy us all without the proper antidote.

For some reason, Nathanael decides to go meet this man from Nazareth. When Jesus sees him approaching, he shouts out, "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!" This comment makes no sense, unless we consider it a retort to Nathanael's bigoted remark about Nazareth. Here is an Israelite who does not hold his tongue. Here is an Israelite who disregards the social mores, who is not restrained by being "politically correct," but who speaks his mind and doesn't care whether others are offended.

Nathanael is rather taken back by this response. How did this man from Nazareth overhear his conversation with Philip? "Where did you get to know me?" he asks. Jesus answered, "I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you." This stranger from Nazareth knew what Nathanael had said to Philip. He also knew that dark place Nathanael had been in under the fig tree. Yet, here he stood, knowing Nathanael's ugliest inclinations, yet still smiling with an invitation to join him in his mission. Could it be this man from Nazareth was indeed the one promised by the prophets? As his prejudices against Nazareth begin to fade away and a new hope stirs within him, chasing away those dark clouds, Nathanael finds himself transformed. He blurts out, ""Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!"

Jesus is amused by this sudden transformation. "You will see greater things than these," he tells him. "You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." Nathanael would have recognized the reference to the story of Jacob's dream of a ladder stretching from earth to heaven. Jacob, the original "Israelite," was quite the rascal, yet was blessed by God. It might just be possible that even a bigot like Nathanael, a tax collector like Matthew, a hothead like Peter, or a sinner like you and me could also be blessed by God and become a follower of the Messiah.

St. Paul reminds us that we are a temple of the Holy Spirit. Here is our antidote to the prejudices that dwell within each one of us: God's healing Spirit. But we first have to do all we can do to make a place in ourselves for this gift. We have to bring to light the prejudices that dwell within each and every one of us. We have to see the walls that we have built. And then we need to trust that God will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, that God will tear down those walls that are beyond our strength. Free from these barriers, the light of God's Spirit can then shine brightly, allowing us to offer freedom to a world trapped behind walls of bigotry, an antidote to the poison of prejudice.