UNBLOCKING THE WELL OF THE LIVING WORD

John 1:35-53

Focus verse: ‘“Come and see,” said Philip.’ (John 1:46) 

Old Testament lens: ‘I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your body, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.’ (2 Samuel 7:12) 

Can anything good come from Nazareth?’ Nathanael’s reaction was understandable: Nazareth was a small, obscure town. Philip had met Jesus and found his friend Nathanael, and had excitedly said to him, ‘We’ve found the one Moses and the prophets wrote about — Jesus of Nazareth’ … but Nathanael was sceptical about Nazareth. Philip didn’t try to convince him with arguments. He simply said, ‘Come and see.’ 

That phrase ‘Come and see’ is more than just an invitation for Nathanael. It’s an invitation to all of us reading the Gospel of John. It invites us to encounter Jesus personally and discover for ourselves who He truly is. Jesus is looking for us. John wants us to explore how this man from a small village is actually the fulfilment of Israel’s deepest hopes and prophecies. Even in this early part of John’s Gospel, Jesus has already been introduced with incredible titles: the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and the eternal Word (Logos) through whom all things were made. Now Philip adds to that list, calling Jesus the one spoken of in the Law and Prophets. But he doesn’t quote Scripture to prove it, he simply points to Jesus. 

The idea is clear: You have to come and see for yourself. Nathanael does go to see, and his response is striking. After a short interaction with Jesus, he exclaims, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’(1) (John 1:49). These two titles — Son of God and King of Israel — carry deep meaning. In the Old Testament, especially in Psalm 2 and 2 Samuel 7, these terms were used for Israel’s kings, particularly the promised Messiah from David’s line. Nathanael probably meant that Jesus is the anointed king Israel was waiting for. 

The Early Church Fathers who inspired the Celtic Church 

St Pachomius (292–348) 

‘Shun the praise of men and love the one who, in the fear of the Lord, reprimands you.’ (2)

St Pachomius was born in Thebes, Egypt, to pagan parents. He converted to Christianity after encountering the faith through acts of charity while serving as a conscripted soldier. After a period as a hermit (under St Palamon), he founded the first organised monastic community around 320 at Tabennisi on the Nile. He established a Rule, a written set of guidelines for communal life: obedience, prayer, manual labour, and communal worship. Pachomius’ monasteries were organised almost like small, self-sufficient villages, with clear hierarchies and rhythms of work and prayer. He’s often contrasted with St Anthony the Great, who embodied eremitic (solitary) monasticism. 

Before Pachomius, monasteries in the desert were mostly scattered cells — with monks living on their own. Pachomius created community without interrupting monastic living. He started corporate rules for communities that made room for individual obedience — the cell remained the place where God meets individuals and changes lives. 

Cassian eventually wrote this down, and Benedict published it wider in the West. The Celtic Church, especially in Ireland and Britain, was heavily influenced by Gaul (modern-day France) and Mediterranean monastic models through Cassian and others. So, while there’s no evidence that Celtic monks had direct contact with Pachomian communities, his writings and the broader Desert Fathers tradition. Irish and British monasticism in the 5th–7th centuries developed independently in some respects, yet its spirit and structure echo Pachomian ideals: even the Rule of St Columbanus (6th century) and later the Rule of St Benedict (which supplanted it in Western Europe) are spiritual descendants of the Pachomian model. The Celtic monks — like St Columba (Colum Cille), St Brigid, and St Kevin — developed a monastic culture that was more ascetic and missionary than the Pachomian system, and deeply communal, with abbots rather than bishops as central authorities. The underlying structure was a rule-governed community devoted to prayer and labour, which ultimately comes from the Egyptian cenobitic (community) tradition that began with Pachomius.

St Cuthbert is one of the major Celtic-Anglo saints. When his coffin was opened in 698, a small pocket gospel book — the Gospel of St John — was found placed with him.(3) That suggests a deep devotion to this Gospel. Having John’s Gospel as his personal Gospel points to his valuing the kind of revelation (‘seeing’, in John 1:35–53), recognition of Jesus, and devotional intimacy that the fourth Gospel (including the first chapter) offers and to his following Jesus. The fact the Gospel was placed with him suggests its importance in his spiritual life, possibly as a guide in contemplative discernment and to his faithful following.

Celtic monks would have practised a form of lectio divina, when practising Scripture reading, meditation, and prayer was intended to promote communion with God and deeper understanding of the word. They often spent long periods alone with Scripture, and engaged in contemplative prayer and chanting psalms. While they didn’t use the term lectio divina, and may not have followed the formal four-part method, their approach was essentially the same in spirit — a slow, prayerful, meditative engagement with Scripture. For instance, using the following Scripture, ‘Come and see’ (John 1:46), a Celtic-style meditative reading (lectio-like practice) may have looked as follows:

REVIVAL

Do you have a deep hope and persistent longing to encounter God? Have you been waiting a long time?

1. Reading (lectio) — Slowly and reverently ‘Come and see’. A Celtic monk might read this aloud slowly, perhaps in the early dawn, beside the sea or in a stone cell, listening for the voice of God not only in the words, but in the wind, the birds, and the silence.

2. Meditation (meditatio) — Reflecting with the heart what it would have been like to walk by the Sea of Galilee. The quiet waves on the shore.

3. Prayer (oratio) — Responding to God: ‘I’ve found the promised One!’

4. Contemplation (contemplatio) — Silent presence, with no-words contemplating … ‘He saw me under the fig tree.’ ‘Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me …’ (from St Patrick’s Breastplate).(4)

PRAYER

I come to You, Lord Jesus … may I see You more clearly, King Jesus. Bring conviction and humbling that I might come into conformity with You, Lord Jesus the Lamb of God, and see victory over self. I come to see You, Jesus … come and know me, transform me and make me whole. 

Come and see, follow me

(Click on picture below to listen to song )

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(1) Hays, R. Echoes of the scripture in the Gospels

(2) Ward, B.(trans) The sayings of the desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection, Cistercian Publications, 1975

(3) https://www.medieval.eu/eu/s-cuthbert-gospel/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

(4) https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/st-patricks-breastplate-prayer-irelands-patron-saint