I thought of that long-ago association on hearing Sunday's gospel. "What good can come out of Nazareth?" asked the skeptical Nathaniel sitting under a fig tree when Philip approached him to meet the one "about whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth." In the northern district of Galilee, Nazareth was known for insurrection, poverty and not very good wine.

Jesus immediately knew Nathaniel as "an Israelite in whom there is no guile," distinguishing him from Jesus' forebears Jacob and Rebekah, and the serpent who "beguiled" Eve in the garden. Somehow Nathaniel didn't take long to acknowledge Jesus as "Rabbi," "Son of God," and "King of Israel." Imagine someone coming across a young Michael Jordan or LeBron James, and declaring that he was the Greatest of All Time. And then imagine that anointed demigod telling his idolater that he would see even greater things. Nobody would believe it.

Joliet has survived its less than ideal origins and now boasts a riverboat casino and a performance space appropriately called the Rialto. Nazareth is now a thriving community of mostly Arab-Muslims who somehow get along with their Jewish brethren. Are these the greater things that Jesus said we would see? Or are we to look for more?

David Duggan is an attorney living in Chicago