FOR THE FEAST OF SAINT ANDREW, APOSTLE

78.1 [i]     First Point

Saint Andrew, who was for a while a disciple of Saint John the Baptist, became a follower of Jesus Christ when Our Lord, passing along the shore of the sea, called him with his brother, Saint Peter, and told them to come with him and he would make them fishers of men. At once Saint Andrew left everything and followed Jesus Christ.[ii] He had the advantage of knowing Jesus sometime previously, because Saint John the Baptist had pointed him out to him, and from that moment he followed him.[iii] That is how this saint had the honor of being the first disciple of Jesus Christ, who always showed him a very special affection and often had him for his companion.

               The way to be specially loved by Jesus is to be attached to him, to give up everything for him and without hesitation, and to do everything he asks and everything he inspires in us as soon as we hear his voice.

               You have the advantage of placing yourselves in the following of Jesus, and of being withdrawn from the world. Have you left everything for him? Have you no longer attachment to anything? Are you faithful to follow God's voice when he speaks to you in prayer? Do you not often neglect his holy inspirations? As the Prophet King says, do you not harden your hearts[iv] and make them unresponsive to grace when it inspires you to carry out what God asks of you? What happens when you act this way? God withdraws his grace and abandons us to ourselves and to our own weakness. Then, without the grace of our state, we can no longer maintain ourselves in it.

78.2       Second Point

Saint Andrew faithfully carried out what Jesus Christ had predicted to him when he called him to the faith, namely, that he would be a fisher of men,[v] that is, he would win others to God and would attract them to Jesus Christ by the net of the apostolic grace which he would give him. He even had a share in this grace as soon as he knew Jesus, and brought his brother, Saint Peter, to Our Lord.[vi] This made Saint Peter Damian say that from the start of his apprenticeship in Christianity this saint had already applied himself to effect good in souls, and had already become a preacher of the truth, though he was barely a listener himself. This new disciple, not satisfied with taking care of his own salvation, was already trying to bring others to become disciples with him. After the descent of the Holy Spirit this saint continued to exercise his zeal in many countries, because he knew that Jesus Christ had left his apostles on earth for no other purpose than to preach his doctrine everywhere.[vii]

               You have been called just as the holy apostles were to make God known, and you need great zeal for this. Ask God for a share in the zeal of Saint Andrew, look upon him as your model, and proclaim Jesus Christ and his holy maxims without growing weary. For this purpose you need to have learned these truths from Jesus Christ by being often in his company through your assiduity in prayer. This is where, after you have studied the responsibility you have to instruct others, you should not spare yourselves in anything in order to procure the glory of God in all sorts of ways.

78.3       Third Point

After preaching in Achaia, Saint Andrew was brought before Aegeus, the proconsul of this province, who forbade him to preach the Gospel to the people. But all these prohibitions did not keep him from fulfilling his ministry. He considered that Jesus Christ was much more to be respected than this proconsul, as Saint Peter had said to the prince of the Jewish people, it was more correct to obey God rather than men.[viii] This saint continued to speak so forcefully about Jesus Christ, his humiliations, and the cross on which he died, that this judge condemned him to die on a cross just like his Master, Jesus Christ, and before attaching him to it he had him cruelly scourged.

               No sooner did the holy apostle see the cross that was prepared for him than he cried out that this cross was very dear to him, and that he had for a long time desired it, and in fact even looked forward to it with much eagerness. He then asked the cross to receive him tenderly as it had received Jesus Christ, who felt honored to die on it and had made it something lovable and honorable. Surprisingly, the zeal of this holy apostle was so ardent that he was not able to give up even in death: it happened while he hung on the cross, where he remained for two days, that he did not stop preaching and instructing the people who were present.

               Do you have as much love for suffering as Saint Andrew had in his suffering for the cross on which he died? Do the pains, sufferings, and persecutions that you have to endure in your ministry, instead of wearing down your courage, serve to increase your zeal and animate you all the more to make Jesus Christ known and loved?

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Andrew, as the Gospel tells us, was the brother of Saint Peter, one of the first to be called by Christ, a fisherman by trade. He was the one who told Our Lord about the boy with the five loaves and two fishes, and about the Gentiles who had come asking to see Jesus. There are many conflicting stories about his mission after Pentecost. He has become patron of both Russia and Scotland. The tradition of the X-shaped cross of Saint Andrew, part of Scotch heraldry, does not seem to have been associated with him before the 14th century. His cult began in Constantinople, one place where his body is said to be buried, in the 4th century. His relics are said to have been transferred to southern Italy in 1210, and his head to Saint Peter's, Rome, in 1462.