Can anything good come from Nazareth?

24 AUGUST (Jn 1,45-51)

Today, Jesus reveals Nathanael that the prophetic dream made by Jacob while he was fleeing from his brother Esau to find refuge with his uncle Laban, is fulfilled in him.

Isaac therefore called Jacob, greeted him with a blessing, and charged him: “You shall not marry a Canaanite woman! Go now to Paddan-aram, to the home of your mother’s father Bethuel, and there choose a wife for yourself from among the daughters of your uncle Laban. May God Almighty bless you and make you fertile, multiply you that you may become an assembly of peoples. May he extend to you and your descendants the blessing he gave to Abraham, so that you may gain possession of the land where you are staying, which he assigned to Abraham.” Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way; he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, and brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau. Esau noted that Isaac had blessed Jacob when he sent him to Paddan-aram to get himself a wife there, charging him, as he gave him his blessing, not to marry a Canaanite woman, and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and gone to Paddan-aram. Esau realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac, so he went to Ishmael, and in addition to the wives he had, married Mahalath, the daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth. Jacob departed from Beer-sheba and proceeded toward Haran. When he came upon a certain shrine, as the sun had already set, he stopped there for the night. Taking one of the stones at the shrine, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep at that spot. Then he had a dream: a stairway rested on the ground, with its top reaching to the heavens; and God’s messengers were going up and down on it. And there was the Lord standing beside him and saying: “I, the Lord, am the God of your forefather Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you are lying I will give to you and your descendants. These shall be as plentiful as the dust of the earth, and through them you shall spread out east and west, north and south. In you and your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing. Know that I am with you; I will protect you wherever you go, and bring you back to this land. I will never leave you until I have done what I promised you.”

When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he exclaimed, “Truly, the Lord is in this spot, although I did not know it!” In solemn wonder he cried out: “How awesome is this shrine! This is nothing else but an abode of God, and that is the gateway to heaven!” Early the next morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head, set it up as a memorial stone, and poured oil on top of it. He called that site Bethel, whereas the former name of the town had been Luz. Jacob then made this vow: “If God remains with me, to protect me on this journey I am making and to give me enough bread to eat and clothing to wear, and I come back safe to my father’s house, the Lord shall be my God. This stone that I have set up as a memorial stone shall be God’s abode. Of everything you give me, I will faithfully return a tenth part to you” (Gen 28,1-22).

Jesus is the ladder of God and man. Through Him, in Him, with Him, in his real and true humanity, God descends upon our earth with the fullness of his eternal life. Man rises to God in order to implore forgiveness, mercy, pity, compassion and eternal life. Not only is Christ the Mediator in communion. He is the one who puts us in communion with the Father, as if his were only an instrumental mediation. This is not the truth of Jesus Christ. He is Mediator of divine essence, eternal truth, grace and truth. Because He is the grace, truth, eternal life and the essence of God who must renew our own nature. His is not a mediation by representation. Instead, his is a mediation by essence, by the gift of himself; but, in which God is completely there. God gives himself all in Christ, and out of Him he is does not give himself.

Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” But Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Here is a true Israelite. There is no duplicity in him.” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” And he said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us understand Christ.