Daily Gospel Reflection
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November 30, 2021
As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers,
Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew,
casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen.
He said to them,
“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
At once they left their nets and followed him.
He walked along from there and saw two other brothers,
James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets.
He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father
and followed him.
“When Christ calls a man,” wrote Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “he bids him to come and die.” In jarring simplicity, Bonhoeffer was referring to the cost of discipleship.
To be a disciple is to be invited to follow in the footsteps of Jesus’ death. It is to carry one’s cross and follow the crucified savior. According to Saint Paul, “We who are baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death” (Romans 6: 3-4). In other words, before Christ commissions us as disciples, he first incorporates us into his death. Saint Paul’s words are evident in the lives of the earliest disciples.
The first four disciples Jesus called were certainly not thinking of death as they left everything and followed him. Their decision, however, drastically uttered the trajectory of their lives. As Jesus promised them, rather than being only fishermen, they became fishers of men.
Andrew, referred to as the “First-Called” by the Orthodox tradition, dedicated his entire life preaching the gospel and making disciples for Jesus. He died a martyr, witnessing by his death to the truth of the message of Christ.
We learn from the call of Andrew and the other three disciples what it means to respond to the call of Jesus urgently and wholeheartedly. To become a disciple like Andrew, we must endeavor to keep the cross of Christ ever before us.
In doing this, we will acquire the kind of courage that the disciples preached and the utter devotion with which they proclaimed the message. Above all, we will learn what it means to “lose our lives” for the sake of Christ and the Gospel.
Prayer
O, Christ, we have heard your voice. We have felt your eyes upon us. And we have turned and dropped our nets. We follow you, with one shaky foot after the other. What will you have us do now? We follow you not because we know where you lead us, but because we know it is you, O Christ, who leads. Our hands often itch for the sureness of the nets we knew before. But now we hold our hands open in faith. Lead on, Master, to deeper and wilder waters. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Andrew stands out from the other disciples because he was the first to respond to the invitation to follow Christ. He is known in the Greek Church as the Protoclete—"first called."
Like his brother, Simon Peter, Andrew was born in Galilee, traditionally thought to be Bethsaida, and grew up near the lake of Genesareth to become a fisherman. He became a follower of John the Baptist until, one day, John pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” (John 1:35-51).
In a homily on this passage in the Gospel of John, St. John Chrysostom writes:
"Andrew's words reveal a soul waiting with the utmost longing for the coming of the Messiah, looking forward to his appearing from heaven, rejoicing when he does appear, and hastening to announce so great an event to others. To support one another in the things of the spirit is the true sign of good will between brothers, of loving kinship and sincere affection."
Andrew not only saw the Light of the World when John the Baptist pointed him out but carried that light clearly and brightly to his brother, Peter.
Andrew and Simon remained fishermen for a time until Jesus called them away and promised to make them fishers of people. Tradition holds that Andrew traveled to Greece to spread the good news after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.
It is claimed that he was martyred by being tied (not nailed) to a cross in the shape of an “X," and that he lived for two days on the cross and continued to preach to those gathered around him, but this is unlikely as the X-shaped cross was not known before the 14th century. Nevertheless, Andrew is most often depicted holding a cross of this shape.
St. Andrew is the patron saint of Greece and Russia, where it is claimed he traveled to preach. He is also a patron of Scotland, though he did not visit there—that designation comes from another saint who protected his relics.
St. Regulus, a native of Greece, was designated to protect St. Andrew's relics in the fourth century. It is told that he was warned in a dream by an angel to take part of those relics and start to journey northwest, "towards the end of the earth." He received a sign to stop at the place now known as St. Andrews, Scotland, where Regulus built a church to hold them. Regulus was named bishop and taught the faith to the Scots for 30 years.
Relics of St. Andrew also rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica. He is depicted in several places on campus, including in a statue above the door to Morrissey Manor (shown above). The chapel in the residence of Holy Cross priests on campus, Corby Hall, is named after St. Andrew.
St. Andrew, who was first to follow Jesus and to lead others to Christ—pray for us!