WEBVTT 00:00:00.479 --> 00:00:04.080 There are twelve names written on the foundations of heaven. 00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:08.640 That is an extraordinary image Saint John gives us in the first reading today. 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:14.800 He sees the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of God, and beneath that city are twelve foundation stones. 00:00:15.039 --> 00:00:18.239 On those stones are written the names of the twelve apostles. 00:00:18.399 --> 00:00:23.039 We know some of those names immediately, Peter, James, John, and Thomas. 00:00:23.359 --> 00:00:30.480 But today the church asks us to remember one of those quieter names carved into that foundation, Bartholomew. 00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:32.560 Today's his feast day. 00:00:33.359 --> 00:00:41.759 And that name is worth thinking about because compared with some of the other apostles, we know remarkably little about him. 00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:45.200 There's no gospel according to Bartholomew. 00:00:45.359 --> 00:00:48.399 There's no letter of Bartholomew in the New Testament. 00:00:48.719 --> 00:00:53.600 We do not have a great sermon of his recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. 00:00:53.840 --> 00:00:58.399 In fact, his name appears in the Gospels mainly in the list of the twelve. 00:00:58.719 --> 00:01:04.719 And yet, according to Revelation, his name is carved into the foundation of the heavenly Jerusalem. 00:01:04.959 --> 00:01:07.359 There's something beautiful about that. 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:14.640 The church has traditionally identified Bartholomew with Nathaniel, the man we meet in today's gospel. 00:01:15.120 --> 00:01:22.560 We cannot prove that identification with absolute certainty, but it is an ancient Christian tradition. 00:01:22.959 --> 00:01:30.959 And if Bartholomew is Nathaniel, then the first thing we discover about this apostle is that he was not easily impressed. 00:01:31.280 --> 00:01:34.879 Philip comes running to him excitedly. 00:01:35.200 --> 00:01:39.040 We have found the one about whom Moses wrote. 00:01:39.280 --> 00:01:42.239 And Nathaniel basically responds, Really? 00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:45.599 Well, can anything good come from Nazareth? 00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:46.959 I love that. 00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:55.280 Because sometimes we imagine the apostles as stained glass windows, perfect men walking around with halos, waiting for Jesus to find them. 00:01:55.519 --> 00:01:56.400 They were not. 00:01:56.640 --> 00:02:00.879 They were humans, people who actually walk this earth. 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:02.879 Nathaniel is skeptical. 00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:09.759 He has opinions, he has prejudices, he has already decided what God can do and where God can do it. 00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:12.159 And Philip does not argue with him. 00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:14.960 He simply says, Well, come and see. 00:02:15.360 --> 00:02:17.120 And that changes everything. 00:02:17.360 --> 00:02:23.280 Because when Nathaniel finally stands before Jesus, Jesus says something that stops him in his tracks. 00:02:24.159 --> 00:02:29.360 He says, Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree. 00:02:29.759 --> 00:02:37.039 Well, we don't know what happened under the fig tree, and perhaps that's exactly why the sentence is so powerful. 00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:41.039 Whatever did happen belonged to Nathaniel and God. 00:02:41.280 --> 00:02:46.080 And Jesus is telling him, You think this is the first time we have met? 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:47.039 It isn't. 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:48.400 I already know you. 00:02:48.719 --> 00:02:50.960 I saw you before you saw me. 00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:54.319 Maybe that's a word somebody needs to hear today. 00:02:55.120 --> 00:02:57.599 Because you came looking for God. 00:02:58.000 --> 00:02:59.680 God was looking for you. 00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:03.120 Before you walked into this church, he saw you. 00:03:03.840 --> 00:03:06.560 Before you knew how to pray, he knew your name. 00:03:07.439 --> 00:03:09.599 He saw the moments nobody else saw. 00:03:10.080 --> 00:03:17.120 The questions, the disappointments, the sins, the sacrifices, the prayers you never told anybody you prayed. 00:03:17.599 --> 00:03:20.240 The things that happened under your fig tree. 00:03:20.719 --> 00:03:22.960 Well, Jesus says, I saw you. 00:03:23.680 --> 00:03:28.080 And suddenly the skeptic becomes one of the great professions of faith in the gospel. 00:03:28.639 --> 00:03:33.120 Bartholomew says, Rabbi, you are the Son of God. 00:03:33.599 --> 00:03:35.520 You are the King of Israel. 00:03:36.639 --> 00:03:38.639 That man becomes an apostle. 00:03:38.960 --> 00:03:41.439 And then something fascinating happens. 00:03:41.759 --> 00:03:44.800 He largely disappears from the biblical story. 00:03:45.039 --> 00:03:49.439 But tradition tells us that Bartholomew carried the gospel far beyond Israel. 00:03:49.759 --> 00:03:56.240 Ancient Christian sources connect his missionary activity with the lands to the east and Armenia. 00:03:57.120 --> 00:04:04.159 Armenian Christians have long honored Bartholomew as one of the apostles who first brought the faith to them. 00:04:04.800 --> 00:04:09.919 Tradition also remembers that he eventually gave his life for Christ in a horrific martyrdom. 00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:12.000 He was flayed alive. 00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:20.879 The man who once asked can anything good from Nazareth eventually became willing to die for the man from Nazareth. 00:04:21.199 --> 00:04:22.399 Think about that. 00:04:22.959 --> 00:04:25.680 Something happened between those two moments. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:30.000 He came and saw, and what he saw changed everything. 00:04:30.319 --> 00:04:33.519 Maybe that's why Bartholomew matters so much for us. 00:04:33.839 --> 00:04:36.240 Most of us will never be famous. 00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:39.519 Our names will never appear in a history book. 00:04:39.759 --> 00:04:43.439 Most of the good we do will never be recorded anywhere. 00:04:43.759 --> 00:04:48.399 But the kingdom of God has never been built only by famous people. 00:04:48.800 --> 00:04:57.920 It has been built by men and women who encountered Jesus Christ, allowing themselves to be changed by him and then quietly gave him their lives. 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:01.279 That's why I keep coming back to the first reading. 00:05:01.519 --> 00:05:15.360 At the end of the Bible, when Saint John sees heaven itself, Bartholomew's name is there, but not on a banner, not on a monument, on a foundation stone, hidden underneath everything else, holding something up. 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:17.439 Maybe that's holiness. 00:05:17.759 --> 00:05:26.720 Not necessarily being noticed, not necessarily doing something spectacular, but allowing Christ to build something upon the gift of your life. 00:05:27.040 --> 00:05:30.079 And it begins exactly where it began for Bartholomew. 00:05:30.319 --> 00:05:31.360 Come and see. 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:34.079 Come and see who Christ really is. 00:05:34.399 --> 00:05:36.800 Come and see what he can do with your life. 00:05:37.040 --> 00:05:42.000 Come and see what happens when you stop telling God where he can and cannot be found. 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:47.120 Because long before you ever came looking for him, he already seen you. 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:54.800 And if you give him your life, one day you may discover that God was building something with it all along. 00:05:55.120 --> 00:05:55.759 Amen.