BECOMING FISHERS OF MEN


FEAST OF ST. ANDREW, APOSTLE 

Rom 10:9-18; Ps 19:2-5; Mt 4:18-22

Follow Me and I will make you fishers of Men

The feast of the Apostle Saint Andrew brings our liturgical year to an end. The celebration makes a beautiful and calculated reminder of all the central themes of our reflections throughout the year; it is about the word of God and the faith we require to receive Jesus Christ through his words. St. Paul’s letter to the Romans captures what is necessary for our salvation. “If your lips confess that Jesus is Lord and if you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved. By believing from the heart, you are made righteous; by confessing with your lips you are saved.” We have explained this principle as making the word of God a door into the communion of the Blessed Trinity of divine Persons. Because the Incarnate Word presents the word of God in a concrete way to us, the statement presents the humanity of Jesus Christ as the principle of communion that stands for salvation. Our Lord’s reference to his humanity as the way, the truth, and life has this meaning. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead presents him as God. Thus, Paul proposed it as a firm foundation for our faith. The resurrection from the dead produces the faith we profess in our hearts. Our faith is a divine act/gift we receive in our mind and heart and cooperate and own through our confession. Because it originates from God, it gives us a new and divine life.

Once we have the divine life through our faith, the words of our Lord nourish the divine life through our faith, hope, and charity. The participation and cooperation in divine acts make our preaching apostolate fruitful. Our fidelity to grace causes our lives to grow into a divine communion and mission in which we act as ambassadors of the Lord. Hence, Isaiah prophesies the beauty of the feet of those bringing the Gospel. “The footsteps of those who bring good news are a welcome sound.” The feet of the preachers are beautiful because they come in the name of the Lord and in his company or communion. As Christians, we carry the sweet company of the Lord and his life wherever we go, and we are sent wherever we go because of the need of those who are there for salvation we carry. “But they will not ask his help unless they believe in him, 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.” This chain of activities would not commence without the assent of faith in our minds and hearts. We give the assent of faith to a divine act present and conveyed through a human voice. The first active divine component moving our minds and hearts is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is especially true for us who never encountered the humanity of Jesus Christ. St. Paul emphasizes this component in the passage.

For those who encountered Jesus Christ in his humanity, his words and actions produced the needed faith to bring them into communion with him. Andrew and his brother Simon felt the impact when they met Jesus at the shore of the Sea of Galilee. “As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew; they were making a cast in the lake with their net, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.’ And they left their nets at once and followed him.” Only God can produce such an effect in our minds and hearts as these words in the minds and hearts of Andrew and Simon. Our personalities produce a divine impact on people to the extent we have allowed the Gospel message to transform us into Christ. Hence, the invitation of our Lord to Andrew and Simon to follow him and become fishers of men entails laying down their lives to be the vehicle for the Gospel message. It is sacrificing their lives that their word, which becomes our word also, goes forth through all the earth, even when no speech, no voice is heard.

Let us pray: We humbly implore your majesty, O Lord, that, just as the blessed Apostle Andrew was for your Church a preacher and pastor, so he may be for us a constant intercessor before you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. 

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