FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT

November 30, Tuesday

Saint Andrew

Andrew must have been a seeker of God. He first followed John the Baptist, then, when John had pointed out Jesus, he transferred to Jesus. He brought several to Jesus: his brother Simon Peter, some Greeks looking for Jesus; at the multiplication, he noticed the boy with the loaves and the fish and brought him to Jesus. Tradition says that he was an apostle in the Balkans and Southern Russia; he is the patron of the Church of Constantinople. With Andrew, let us bring people to Jesus.

 

First Reading: Romans 10:9-18

But trusting God to shape the right living in us is a different story—no precarious climb up to heaven to recruit the Messiah, no dangerous descent into hell to rescue the Messiah. So what exactly was Moses saying?

The word that saves is right here,
    as near as the tongue in your mouth,
    as close as the heart in your chest.

It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—“Jesus is my Master”—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between him and me!”

Scripture reassures us, “No one who trusts God like this—heart and soul—will ever regret it.” It’s exactly the same no matter what a person’s religious background may be: the same God for all of us, acting the same incredibly generous way to everyone who calls out for help. “Everyone who calls, ‘Help, God!’ gets help.”

But how can people call for help if they don’t know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven’t heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it? That’s why Scripture exclaims,

A sight to take your breath away!
Grand processions of people
    telling all the good things of God!

But not everybody is ready for this, ready to see and hear and act. Isaiah asked what we all ask at one time or another: “Does anyone care, God? Is anyone listening and believing a word of it?” The point is: Before you trust, you have to listen. But unless Christ’s Word is preached, there’s nothing to listen to.

But haven’t there been plenty of opportunities for Israel to listen and understand what’s going on? Plenty, I’d say.

 

Gospel: Matthew 4:18-22

Walking along the beach of Lake Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers: Simon (later called Peter) and Andrew. They were fishing, throwing their nets into the lake. It was their regular work. Jesus said to them, “Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I’ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.” They didn’t ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed.

A short distance down the beach they came upon another pair of brothers, James and John, Zebedee’s sons. These two were sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, mending their fishnets. Jesus made the same offer to them, and they were just as quick to follow, abandoning boat and father.

 

Prayer

Lord our God,
we honor today your great apostle Andrew.
With him, make us restless seekers for you
and bring many to Jesus and to you.
Let Jesus be our life and trust
and when we have found Jesus,
do not let us keep him to ourselves
but share him with all around
with the riches of his love and forgiveness,
his mercy and compassion.
This we ask you through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection:

Journey of discipleship

Today is the feast of St. Andrew, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. We often think of the 12 apostles as pillars. They were leaders and teachers in the community. They were heroic martyrs. Today, the successors of the apostles are the bishops in our church, and we believe they have been entrusted with the apostolic mission of teaching, sanctifying and governing the Church in Jesus’ name.
The call of the first disciples that we read today portrays Andrew and the others as students of the Master. Jesus, the teacher, calls them to a new way of life. The call to discipleship is a call to learn from Jesus. It’s not an instantaneous promotion. When Andrew and Peter, James and John, and you and I are called by Jesus to be disciples, we become students of the one instructor, the Lord.
The call reaches them in the middle of their daily activity: the Lord reveals himself to us not in an extraordinary or impressive way, but in the everyday circumstances of our life. There we must discover the Lord; and there he reveals himself, makes his love felt in our heart; and there — with this dialogue with him in the everyday circumstances of life — he changes our heart. The response of those fishermen was immediate and willing: “Immediately they left their nets and followed him” (v. 20).
The Lord is calling today too! The Lord passes through the paths of our daily life. He is calling us to go with him, to work with him for the Kingdom of God, in the “Galilee” of our times. Pope Francis invites us to reflect that, “If one of you feels that the Lord says to you “Follow me,” be brave, go with the Lord. The Lord never disappoints. Let’s let his gaze rest on us, hear his voice, and follow him! “That the joy of the Gospel may reach to the ends of the earth, illuminating even the fringes of our world” says the Pope in Evangelii Gaudium (no.288)
Advent is an opportunity to begin this journey of discipleship again and become students of the Lord. We might be listening to the call of Jesus, and following him, like Andrew and other apostles, without knowing exactly what does it imply or where we’re going. Yet, the most important thing is to accompany Jesus and to let him accompany us.

 

Video available on Youtube: Journey of discipleship