August 24th: Feast of St. Bartholomew

One of the things I like about contributing to Verbum Domini, aside from working with great guys like Brian and Joel, is the fact that it gives me a chance to get a little deeper into the daily readings than perhaps I would otherwise. Here is a for instance. The Gospel reading for the Feast of St. Bartholomew happens to be from John. It's the occasion on which Jesus meets Philip and his brother, Nathanial. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, Bartholomew is identified by many scholors as this Nathanial. In this particular Gospel reading, Nathanial reveals himself to be quite the character, as he says to his brother about Jesus, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" His comment reminds me that the pillars of our Church are comprised of ordinary people like . . . us.