My Thoughts on 30/11/2020

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Peter’s brother, Andrew who was also a fisherman.

We have two different versions of his calling. One was Jesus called him and his brother to become fishers of men. The other we find in St. John’s gospel. Andrew was one of the John the Baptist’s disciples who when John sees Jesus tells them, “Look, here is the Lamb of God.” They stay with Jesus all day and then Andrew then tells Peter, “We have found the Messiah”.

According to my dictionary of the saints, “Andrew always appears among the first four in lists of the names of the twelve apostles, and in Greek tradition he is known as protoclete, “first-called”. The reason he is patron of Scotland comes from the story of a St Regulus who was in charge of his relics. An angel told him to take these “to the ends of the earth,” and he obeyed, heading northwest and eventually reached what was considered the ends of the earth at the time, ending his journey at what is now St Andrew’s in Scotland. There he built a church to house the relics and became the first bishop of St Andrew’s.

The first reading from this feast is from St Paul to the people of Rome. “But they will not ask his help unless they believe in him(Jesus), and they will not believe in him unless they have heard of him, and they will not hear of him unless they get a preacher, and they will never have a preacher unless one is sent, but as scripture says: The footsteps of those who bring good news are a welcome sound.

Andrew was said to have preached in Greece and was said to have been martyred there on an X- shaped cross-“saltire” in heraldic terms-cross. This seems to have been a Tenth century tradition. It is important to focus on Andrew who introduced others to Jesus.

Let us think of ways we can introduce others to Jesus.