Living Without Duplicity on the Foundation of the Apostles, Feast of St. Bartholomew, August 24, 2023

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
Feast of St. Bartholomew, Apostle and Martyr
August 24, 2023
Rev 21:9-14, Ps 145, Jn 1:45-51

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

The following text guided the homily: 

• Today the Church celebrates the feast of St. Bartholomew, a holy disciple of the Lord Jesus who became a great apostle, bringing the Gospel, as the great early Church historian Eusebius tells us, first to India (which in ancient usage included Arabia, Ethiopia, Libya, Parthia, Persia and India proper) and then Armenia, where he converted many people before being flayed alive by the barbarians in Albanopolis, on the west coast of the Caspian Sea. In the Gospel, we have the Gospel of Jesus’ encounter with Nathanael because from the earliest days of the Church Nathanael (a first name which means “God has given”) and Bartholomew (an Aramaic patronym that means “Son of Tolmay”) have been identified as the same person. The synoptics all mention Bartholomew, but never Nathanael; St. John uses Nathanael but never Bartholomew. And so it is almost certain the two names included in the different lists of apostles almost certainly refer to the same person.
• His feast allows us to focus on a couple of important aspects of living the faith. The first thing we can focus on is the great accolade Jesus gives him in the Gospel. Jesus does not give too many compliments in the Gospel. He praises his mother as someone who heard the word of God and observed it. He lauds a Centurion and a Syro-Phoenician woman for their faith. He commends Simon Peter for having cooperated with God the Father’s promptings to confess him to be the Messiah and Son of God. But here he compliments St. Bartholomew for being a “true Israelite” in whom there was “no duplicity” or “guile.” There was no deception in him. Jesus could see right away that he was forthright, honest, open, plainspoken, straightforward, upfront, earnest, innocent, and unpretentious. The Suffering Servant, who was prophesied by Isaiah as a man in whom “no deceit was in his mouth” (Is 53:9), recognized Bartholomew as a man praised by the Psalms: “Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no inquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit” (32:2). This candor, this lack of deception, is an attribute that should be able to be said about each of us as Christians, since Christians ought to recognize that lies flow from the one Jesus calls “father of lies,” who is a murderer and a liar from the beginning. One of the greatest corruptions that can happen in a person, in the Church or in society is when people stop telling the truth and cease to have candid consciences. People start to gossip, to connive, to evade, as if Jesus told us something other than “let your yes mean yes and your no mean no, everything else is from the devil.” The great dissidents of 20th century communism, like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Vaclav Havel, said that the power of the powerless was to live not by lies, because the communists sought to have everyone not say, think, or live the truth. The feast of St. Bartholomew every year is an opportunity for us to make a greater commitment to truth telling.
• The second great lesson from today’s feast is about the fig tree. The initial encounter of Jesus with St. Bartholomew reaches another level when Jesus said he saw him under the fig tree. Jesus’ words to Nathanael have been much commented upon in the reflections of the fathers of the Church. I think Pope Benedict’s explanation of it in his 2006 catechesis on St. Bartholomew shows how important it is for us in our prayer and one day in our preaching. “Jesus’ reply,” Pope Benedict stated, “cannot immediately be understood. He says: ‘Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you’ (Jn 1:48). We do not know what had happened under this fig tree. It is obvious that it had to do with a decisive moment in Nathanael’s life. His heart is moved by Jesus’ words, he feels understood and he understands: ‘This man knows everything about me, he knows and is familiar with the road of life; I can truly trust this man.’ And so he answers with a clear and beautiful confession of faith: ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel! (Jn 1: 49). In this confession is conveyed a first important step in the journey of attachment to Jesus. Nathanael’s words shed light on a twofold, complementary aspect of Jesus’ identity: he is recognized both in his special relationship with God the Father, of whom he is the Only-begotten Son, and in his relationship with the People of Israel, of whom he is the declared King, precisely the description of the awaited Messiah. We must never lose sight of either of these two elements because if we only proclaim Jesus’ heavenly dimension, we risk making him an ethereal and evanescent being; and if, on the contrary, we recognize only his concrete place in history, we end by neglecting the divine dimension that properly qualifies him.” Nathanael answers as soon as he meets Jesus what will be the content of this Sunday’s Gospel, when Jesus asks the apostles who do the crowds say that the Son of Man is and who do they say that he is. It’s Peter who refers to him as the Messiah (the son of David) and the Son of the Living God. We’re all called to refer to him and relate to him according to his divinity and humanity.
• The third point is about how he came to know Jesus. Bartholomew may never have met Jesus if it weren’t for his friend Philip, who after meeting Jesus, ran to him and told him, “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus.” Philip couldn’t keep Jesus to himself. It’s always the way for those who truly encounter Christ. After Bartholomew wondered if anything good could come from Nazareth, because there was nothing in Sacred Scripture pointing out that the Messiah would come from there, Philip’s response was not to argue with him, but to introduce him to Jesus. Philip reiterated Jesus’ “come and see.” Pope Benedict 16 commented: “Philip offers Nathanael a meaningful invitation: ‘Come and see! (Jn 1:46). Our knowledge of Jesus needs above all a first-hand experience: someone else’s testimony is of course important, for normally the whole of our Christian life begins with the proclamation handed down to us by one or more witnesses. We ourselves must, however, then be personally involved in a close and deep relationship with Jesus.” This point is how he is depicted. The most famous iconography of St. Bartholomew is of his holding his flayed skin. Michelangelo prominently featured it in the Last Judgment, putting his own face on St. Bartholomew right near the throne of Jesus. Bernini’s pupils famously executed his design in the tremendous statue of St. Bartholomew at the front of the basilica of St. John Lateran, so that all of us entering that Church would know that our skin is meant to be in the game, just as Bartholomew’s was. His martyrdom was just the culmination of a life giving in union to God from his heart to his dermis. It’s an example for us all. We’re called to be all in. And we see that in how he followed Jesus and then gave his life to help others follow him. We prayed in the Psalm, “Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your kingdom,” and he was a true friend. We prayed at the beginning of Mass, “Strengthen in us, O Lord, the faith by which the blessed Apostle Bartholomew clung wholeheartedly to your Son.” Bartholomew wanted to cling to Christ his friend with his whole heart and we seek to do the same.
• The last point I’d like to make is about the end of today’s Gospel passage. Jesus promised that Bartholomew would see angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. This was a prophecy about Jacob’s ladder, the ladder that Jesus had come to establish between heaven and earth by means of his Cross. That vision is anticipated in every Mass. St. Bartholomew was present at the first Mass. He had his feet washed by the Lord and was instructed to do likewise to others. He received Jesus’ body and blood in the Upper Room. He, in turn, celebrated Mass for the first Christians and likely for the Blessed Virgin. He’s with us now seeking to strengthen us by faith so that we may love the Lord as wholeheartedly as he did, all the days of our life, to tell the glories of the Lord’s kingdom, to be a pillar on which the Lord can build his Church, so that, like him, we might see what he and Jacob and all the apostles now behold.

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

Reading 1
RV 21:9B-14

Podcast: Play in new window | Download