+ We come now to the first Mass in the Liturgical
Calendar year 2016. It is the feast of St. Andrew, the Apostle. There must have been something in his
voice, there must have been something in the way he said things, there must
have been something in his look and manner that would make these four long-time
dedicated fishers of fish leave
everything immediately and follow someone who has just offered to make them
“fishers of men.” What could this possibly mean? But, they didn’t have to stop
to figure it all out: their intuition, their instinct, their gut told them to
go and find out what this new adventure was all about.
Andrew was actually the first
Apostle called by Jesus as seen in another account; he was the brother of Simon
Peter and led him to Jesus. He was a follower of John the Baptist; and like
John, he spent his life leading people to Jesus, both before and after the
Crucifixion. He was a missionary in Asia Minor and Greece and possibly areas in
modern Russia and Poland. He was martyred on a saltire (x-shaped) cross and is
said to have preached from it for two days before he died. There are several
legendary explanations for why St. Andrew became patron of Scotland. The first
being that in 345, the Emperor Constantine the Great decided to move Andrew’s
bones from Patras, Greece to Constantinople. Then St. Regulus of Scotland was
instructed by an angel to take these relics to the far northwest. He was eventually
told to stop on the Fife coast of Scotland, where he founded the settlement of
St. Andrew. And, when the Pictish King, Angus, faced a large invading army, he
prayed for guidance. A white cloud in the form of a saltire cross floated
across the blue sky above him. Angus won a decisive victory, and decreed that
Andrew would be the patron saint of his country. The Saltire became the
national flag of Scotland in 1385.
The first reading today from
St. Paul’s letter to the Romans beautifully describes the mission of the
apostle and evangelist. The world must
hear the Good News in order to believe in it; and someone must be sent to bring
that Good News to the waiting world: this would be the Apostles and their
successors and helpers. “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good
news!” Faith comes from what is heard and
what is heard comes through the word of Christ. May we rejoice that their voice has gone forth to all the earth
and their words to the ends of the world; and may we do our part today to
spread that word, that message, that hope to at least one person, if not many!
Come
after me, says the Lord, and I will make you fishers of men.
St.
Andrew, pray for us!
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Meditation:
When St. Andrew first caught sight of the gibbet on which he
was to die, he greeted the precious wood with joy. "O good
cross!" he cried, "made beautiful by the limbs of Christ, so long
desired, now so happily found! Receive me into thy arms and present me to
my Master, that He Who redeemed me through thee may now accept me from
thee." Two whole days the martyr remained hanging on this cross
alive, preaching, with outstretched arms from this chair of truth, to all who
came near, and entreating them not to hinder his passion.
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