The Church celebrates today the feastday of the Apostle St. Andrew. He, along with his brother St. Peter, were called by Jesus along with another set of brothers, Sts. James and John (Matthew 4, 18-22). There is a great simplicity about the passage in Matthew 4. Jesus saw the brothers making a cast with their nets, going about their daily work, and He said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” St. Matthew tells us that the brothers immediately left their nets and followed Jesus.
The Gospel text, however, may provide us with an “abbreviated” or streamlined account of the experience in the lives of these brothers. Which is to say that, in reality, their initial encounter with the Lord may have been a lot more complex. We might expect, for example, that there would have been some resistance to the call of Jesus, because it meant leaving behind what they were familiar with (and good at) and heading out into the unknown.
After all, “catching people” is a lot more challenging than catching fish! Gathering people into the net of God’s Kingdom is much more complicated than gathering fish from the Sea of Galilee into fishing nets. Yet, if there was hesitation in Sts. Andrew and Simon, they obviously overcame it: they completely gave themselves to Jesus and trusted Him enough to follow Him. They became great preachers of the Gospel, witnesses, and dedicated leaders of the Church entrusted to their care.
The way the Lord works in our own lives is perhaps not all that different from the way He worked in the lives of these great Saints. Jesus often calls to us in the midst of our daily tasks. He calls us beyond where we are, beyond the familiar, in the service of the coming of God’s Kingdom. That call can come to us in small and subtle ways. We may find ourselves resisting it, but if we attend to it and allow it to resonate within us, and respond to it, we will often discover that the Lord works through us for good in ways that can surprise us, as was true with the Apostles.
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La Iglesia celebra hoy la Fiesta de San Andrés, Apóstol, natural de Betsaida, hermano de San Pedro y pescador como él. Fue el primero de los discípulos de Juan el Bautista a quien llamó el Señor Jesús junto al Jordán y que le siguió. Trajo a varias personas o grupos a Jesús: a su hermano San Pedro; a algunos griegos que buscaban a Jesús; y en la multiplicación de los panes se dio cuenta del muchacho que tenía los panes y los peces y lo acercó a Jesús.
Como a los Apóstoles, llamados por su nombre por el Señor, tenemos nuestro nombre bautismal e, igual a ellos, no se nos pide en el envío que calculemos lo fácil o difícil que pueda resultar la misión. Sabemos que la misión va a ser difícil, siempre lo ha sido y siempre lo será. Pero, como a San Andrés, el Señor nos llama por nuestro nombre a ser mensajeros de la Buena Noticia de Jesús Resucitado. Atraigamos a la gente a Jesús de manera especial por nuestra forma de vivir – porque somos también parte de “la Iglesia misionera.”
Oremos. “Señor Dios, honramos hoy a tu gran apóstol Andrés. Guiados por él, haz que te busquemos sin descanso y que llevemos a muchos a Jesús y a ti. Que Jesús sea nuestra vida y confianza; y, cuando le hayamos encontrado, no permitas que con egoísmo nos lo guardemos para nosotros mismos, sino que lo compartamos con todos en derredor nuestro con las riquezas de su amor y perdón, de su misericordia y compasión. Te lo pedimos por el mismo Jesucristo, nuestro Señor. Amén.”
