Commentary on the Gospel of
Have not you felt more joyful and free when you have accepted good news from a friend just because you trust his words? However, sometimes we have negative thoughts about other people we know or have heard about, simply because of things that they may have said or done before and then our own surroundings become dark and full of fear.
Nathanael, a teacher of Law, has prejudices about people from Nazareth. Because of this, it seems that Nathanael will not be able to meet Jesus, but he trusted his friend Phillip and this enabled him to have an encounter with Jesus. In that case we discover a great opportunity to open ourselves to God: having faith in people draws us to God; to believe in our neighbors is a part of our belief in God. If we change our prejudices through our confidence in the others and in the world, we will encounter Jesus and we will see greater things than we could imagine.
Let us give thanks for so many Phillips in our lives; thanks for those friends of ours who have helped and continue to help us in the following of Jesus Christ. They have been ‘apostles’ for us (apostle means who is sent), because we notice that God has sent many people for our own good.
