{"id":10849,"date":"2015-08-24T06:00:08","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T05:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/?p=10849"},"modified":"2015-08-24T10:25:06","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T09:25:06","slug":"from-the-shadow-to-the-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2015\/08\/from-the-shadow-to-the-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"From the shadow to the truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"EIA1019ADIS\"St Bartholomew (24 Aug.)<\/em>
\nII NOCTURN<\/p>\n

From a Sermon by Theophanes Cerameus, Bishop<\/p>\n

\u201cPhilip,\u201d says the Gospel, \u201cfound Nathaniel and told him: We have found the One whom Moses wrote about in the Law, and whom the Prophets also wrote about, Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth.\u201d\u00a0 It is as if he cried out: There is no need for us to pore over the sacred books any longer, dear Nathaniel, for we have met the One they tell about: we have found him for whom we have so long been searching.\u00a0 \u201cNathaniel asked him: Can anything good come out of Nazareth?\u00a0 Philip answered: Come and see.\u201d\u00a0 The Gospel continues: \u201cJesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said of him: Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit.\u201d\u00a0 He saw him coming from the shadow to the truth, from the fig tree of the Law to the One who had dried up the leaves of the fig tree of the Law because it lacked the fruit of good works; and seeing him he called him a true and not a false Israelite.<\/p>\n

Then note the steadiness of Nathaniel and how incapable he was of feeling flattered.\u00a0 Our Lord\u2019s praise left him totally unmoved, but in asking: \u201cHow dost thou know me?\u201d he showed his eagerness for mystical knowledge.\u00a0 And the sign was at once given to him.\u00a0 \u201cBefore Philip called thee, I saw thee under the fig tree.\u201d\u00a0 Nathaniel was indeed sitting under the fig tree when Philip instructed him in the divine mysteries concerning Jesus.\u00a0 But in his remark our Lord was also hinting at the fig tree as a symbol of the Law, whose shadow was keeping Nathaniel from receiving the light.\u00a0 For just as the trunk of a fig tree is bitter to the taste, and the leaves rough to the touch, while its fruit is very sweet, so too the punishments of the Law are bitter and its observances harsh and hard to keep; but the fruit of the Law and the synagogue, the fruit of the root of Jesse, is the fairest of men and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.<\/p>\n

Let us listen to Nathaniel acknowledging the Divinity of Jesus: \u201cRabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel!\u201d\u00a0 Surely a divine light illumined his holy mind to enable him to see something deeper than the testimony of Philip, and something worthy of a noble Israelite!\u00a0 Philip said that Jesus was the son of Joseph, but Nathaniel, who earlier had called him \u201csomething good\u201d, now proclaimed him more explicitly Son of God and King of Israel, pointing to the two natures in Christ.\u00a0 For being by nature the Son of God, as man he is said to have received the kingdom from his Father.\u00a0 Jesus, therefore, seeing Nathaniel thus speaking of divine truths, led him by his words to thoughts still more sublime.\u00a0 \u201cThou believest,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause I told thee that I saw thee under the fig tree, but thou wilt see greater things than this.\u201d\u00a0 In these words he promised to show him the Resurrection.<\/p>\n

Responsory<\/strong>.\u00a0 Blessed is the man || to whom the Lord hath not imputed sin, and in whose spirit there is no guile: * Mercy shall encompass him that hopeth in the Lord.\u00a0 V. Behold a true Israelite in whom there is no guile! * Mercy shall \u2026 Glory be \u2026 Mercy shall \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St Bartholomew (24 Aug.) II NOCTURN From a Sermon by Theophanes Cerameus, Bishop \u201cPhilip,\u201d says the Gospel, \u201cfound Nathaniel and told him: We have found the One whom Moses wrote about in the Law, and whom the Prophets also wrote about, Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth.\u201d\u00a0 It is as if he cried out: <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[178],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-florilegium-patristicum"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-2OZ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10849"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10849"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10856,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10849\/revisions\/10856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}