Seeing Angels: Reflection for the Feast of Saint Bartholomew

And he said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (Jn 1:51)

Let’s picture this scene. Nathaniel has just been blown away by Jesus’ declaration that He “saw” him under the fig tree. Scripture does not reveal why this particular statement should cause Nathaniel to open his eyes to who Jesus is—the Son of God—but whatever it was, Jesus’ statement to Nathaniel has moved him profoundly. It has made a believer out of him, such that he no longer doubts Jesus’ divinity. But now, Jesus tells Nathaniel that he will see greater things than “this;” he will see angels “ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” What must Nathaniel have been thinking?

He now knew for certain that Jesus was the King of Israel; even though Nathaniel had doubted his friend Philip when Philip told him as much, Jesus’ mysterious words about the fig tree were enough to prove it to him, beyond the shadow of a doubt. So we can assume that when Jesus prophesies to Nathaniel about the greater things that he will see—namely, these angels—Nathaniel, in that moment, would have believed Him.

Would he have understood what Jesus was taking about? Absolutely not. In fact, Scripture never tells us where and when this said angelic travel takes place. Did the prophecy even occur at all? Yes, of that we can be sure. We know this because of Jesus’ use of one little word, repeated twice for emphasis:

AMEN, AMEN, I say to you…

Jesus’ use of parables to strike emphasis was so frequent throughout the Gospels that in order to distinguish those words from words He intended to be taken literally, and not figuratively, He would preface the former with “Amen, amen, I say to you.” So for example, when He taught His disciples that they must literally eat His flesh, He prefaced this teaching with “amen, amen” (Jn 6:53). This was no figurative lesson. He meant what He said, and all the disciples would have fully understood that what He said was what He meant. So much so, that many of them couldn’t accept His words, much less understand how this could be. And the rest is history: those who didn’t accept His teaching simply left, returning “to their former way of life” (Jn 6:66). 

So did the words of Jesus to Nathaniel come to fruition? Did Nathaniel indeed “see greater things than this”? He did indeed! But the reality is, Jesus wasn’t just speaking to Nathaniel—he was speaking to all of us as well when He said that he would see angels “ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” Um…really? I personally have not seen that. Where are these supposed angels? St. Augustine tells us exactly where we can find them:

If they ascend to him precisely because he is on high, how do they descend to him if he is not also here?

Angels “ascend” and simultaneously “descend” upon Jesus…every time the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated! At the moment of consecration, Jesus—both fully human and fully divine—is on earth and in heaven at the exact same time! This is the prophecy Nathaniel—also known as Bartholomew—would have seen come to fruition with his own two eyes, beginning at the Last Supper. Can we even imagine his amazement? His joy?

Still, if Jesus’ prophetic words were intended not just for Nathaniel but also for all of us—if they were intended for me…then I am left with one obvious difficulty: I don’t see angels at Mass. Oh, I can use my vivid imagination…but does that count? It is certainly not enough to keep me from getting distracted by thoughts of my grocery list or what I’m going to eat for lunch. Now, if I actually saw angels with my own two eyes, that would be a different story. I would stand to attention from beginning to end, completely immersed and mesmerized!

Two points here. The first is, if we don’t see angels at Mass, perhaps it is because we don’t need to. Let’s remember, we can assume Nathaniel did indeed see those angels at the Last Supper…but what was about to take place the next day? His Master’s crucifixion! Nathaniel—and the other disciples—would need that extra grace to hold onto in order to get through the next three traumatic and horrifying days. If we don’t see angels at Mass, perhaps it is simply because we don’t need the same grace that the disciples did just before Our Lord endured his passion. Jesus wills us to rely on our faith, and simply take His word for it on most things.

But there is a second point about seeing or not seeing angels at Mass. The reality is, we do get distracted at Mass at times, and we do have questions and doubts at times when it comes to believing some implausible-sounding teachings that we are expected to simply “accept.” But the fact is, seeing angels is not going to instantaneously fix that problem. If we think that is all it would take to keep us “immersed” and “mesmerized,” one look at Nathaniel will tell us that we would be sorely mistaken. After all, Nathaniel presumably saw those angels…and still, he fled the scene of the Crucifixion when Jesus needed him most.

We cannot simply rely on our physical senses to dictate to us what we believe because our senses are fickle, our memories weak, and our convictions subject to changing. Ultimately, it is faith alone that will keep us yoked to Jesus, snuggled up against His chest. That is why Jesus doesn’t hand everything to us on a silver platter, showing us all the things of the spirit for our own two eyes to see—such as angels at Mass.

Most things He keeps hidden behind a veil, that we might learn to cultivate our faith and make it strong. It is in this way alone that we can strive to love Jesus more and more each day, eventually loving all our brothers and sisters equally and with detachment, “humbly regard[ing] others as more important than [ourselves]” (Phil 2:3).

Let us trust our Jesus on this one.

Photo by Isaac Wendland on Unsplash