Homily for the Feast of Saint Batholomew, Apostle, Martyr, delivered in the Chanel College Chapel, Gladstone, Qld."The angel came to speak to me, and said, ‘Come here and I will show you the bride that the Lamb has married.’ In the spirit, he took me to the top of an enormous high mountain and showed me Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down from God out of heaven. It had all the radiant glory of God and glittered like some precious jewel of crystal-clear diamond. The walls of it were of a great height, and had twelve gates; at each of the twelve gates there was an angel, and over the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel..." (cf. Apoc 21).
"Your friends tell the glory of your kingship, Lord." (Ps 154).
"Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, the one about whom the prophets wrote: he is Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.’ ‘From Nazareth?’ said Nathanael ‘Can anything good come from that place?’ ‘Come and see’ replied Philip." (cf. Jn 1).
Artwork:
an angel showing John the New Jerusalem, with the Lamb of God at its center, (as depicted in the Bamberg Apocalypse).