30 November 2018 - Saint Andrew's Call

Today's Readings (Audio)

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved.

Like Andrew we need to recognize that Jesus is the Lamb of God that John proclaimed. Faith in Jesus is the way to righteousness and salvation. Only he can bring true peace. He welcomes and unites all peoples, Jew and Greek, slave or free, male or female to be one people under one Lord. There are many lords in the sense of worldly power but only one true LORD. His divinity uniquely qualifies him to be universal and therefore to be "Lord of all", that is, LORD for each manifestation of the diversity of the world. This ability to embrace all the manifold variation of creation is something which must not stop with Jesus. It must spread through his disciples as we invite others to follow Christ.

But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
And how can they hear without someone to preach?

We, like Andrew, are called to invite others. We do not impose. Rather, we simply propose, just as does Andrew. And we needn't venture to far corners of the club. We can start close to home. There are many around us who aren't following Jesus. There are many in our lives who would benefit from a gentle nudge (and not a violent shove) in his direction.

He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (see John 1:41).

It is not just the clergy who are called to be fishers of men, although the way in which they are called is unique. For instance, we read from Pope Paul VI:

We cannot but experience a great inner joy when we see so many pastors, religious and lay people, fired with their mission to evangelize, seeking ever more suitable ways of proclaiming the Gospel effectively (Evangelii Nuntiandi 73).

Or, as Saint John Paul the Great writes:

The mission ad gentes [to the nations] is incumbent upon the entire People of God (Redemptoris Missio 71)

Let us practice now by confessing that Jesus is LORD. Let us make an act of faith, from the heart, that God raised him from the dead. This faith, if we let it have it's full effects of hope and love, is more than enough to equip and send us out as fishers of men.

The decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple.