Above: Jacob, Israel, striving with the angel, in St Cuthbert's church, Edinburgh. Photo by Father Lawrence Lew, O.P.
The name Israel means “he who strives with God,” which can be interpreted to mean ‘one who wrestles with the mystery of God in order to know Him, to enter into and remain in His Presence.’ What a marvelous affirmation Our Lord gives to Nathanael! Jesus calls him “a true child of Israel”: he strives with God in sincerity. When Nathanael hears the words of Jesus, Nathanael recognizes himself in those words, demonstrating the very humility—the acceptance of the truth about himself—for which Jesus praised him. Nathanael does this without airs and with a childlike simplicity. He asks with a genuine desire to know how and who this is who knows him.
Jesus saw Nathanael (John 1:47–51) “sitting under the fig tree.” This figure of speech means that Nathanael was meditating upon the Scriptures, upon the Law. Jesus, Who is the fulfillment of the Scriptures and the Law, saw Nathanael looking at Him, hidden in His Word and revealed in His Word. This genuine desire for God and pursuit of God will—Jesus promises—lead to Nathanael’s seeing “heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” That is, Nathanael will recognize that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the one come down from Heaven to bring us up to Heaven. And indeed this prophecy proves true, for Nathanael will later give his life for the Lord Jesus Christ. Nathanael by his martyrdom professes the Truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
St. Dominic, much like Nathanael, had a great love for the Word of God. There he encountered Christ and lingered with Him so long that he bore Christ’s sweet aroma. May St. Nathanael and St. Dominic obtain for us the grace of striving with God, of sitting under the fig tree, of truly loving the Word of God.
St. Dominic, Man of the Gospel, enriched with the Grace of Christ, pray for us.
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