+ 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.