First Sunday of the Great Fast: Sunday of Orthodoxy. Octoechos Tone 5. Our Holy Father Leo, Pope of Rome (461).
Great Fast Day 7. The Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great is celebrated today.
Hebrews 11:24-26,32-40. 12:1-2. John 1:43-51.
Read John 1:43-51
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Oh, to be truly seen and known! Even with others who know and love us, there are moments when we wish they could see and understand us better. There is a worse kind of loneliness than being alone – it is when we are with someone and we still feel alone. On the other hand, being seen can be uncomfortable, sometimes unbearably so.
Because we know that Jesus Christ would have spoken truly when he said of Nathanael, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile,” we know that Nathanael was not only convinced that Jesus is the Christ because Jesus saw him externally under the fig tree, but also because he knew Jesus saw him internally. Touched in his heart, Nathanael, like Peter, confessed Jesus to be “Son of God” and “King of Israel”.
Nathanael, being receptive to the gift of such faith and confessing Christ, is given the further gift of Jesus revealing their future together, that he will see “heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”
We might not feel so good being so known by Jesus. Do we feel that he would say that in us is no guile? Notice, though, that immediately after Peter made his confession of Christ, Jesus began teaching plainly about his death and resurrection for our forgiveness and resurrection. As we sing to Jesus in our Divine Liturgy, “O only Lover of Mankind,” we sing to One who not only knows us through and through – better than we know (or admit to) ourselves – we sing to One who we can trust to both see us and have a loving eternal purpose in doing so.