Matthew 4:18-22

Romans 10:9-18

Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 11

Matthew 4:18-22

As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers,

Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew,

casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen.

He said to them,

“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

At once they left their nets and followed him.

He walked along from there and saw two other brothers,

James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.

They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets.

He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father 

and followed him.

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I have heard the call of your Son and will follow him. I have abandoned my nets and left my former life behind. I only desire the new life you offer with your Son and in the Spirit.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Andrew, the First-Called: The Gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee and called two brothers, Peter and Andrew, to become fishers of men. We know from the Gospel of John that Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist and encountered Jesus near the Jordan River before this call to become a fisher of men (John 1:40). That is why Andrew gets the title “protoclete,” which means “the first-called.” The fact that Andrew was already spending time away from fishing with his brother in the Sea of Galilee and the fact that he was with John the Baptist in the wilderness indicates that his heart was detached from the things of this passing world and open to the things of the age to come. His heart was open to the seed of the word of God, whether it came through the ancient prophets, through John the Baptist, or through the definitive Word of God, Jesus Christ.

2. Bringing the Good News to Jew and Greek: The First Reading is taken from an important section of the Letter to the Romans. In Romans 9-11, Paul focuses on the place of Israel in the plan of God. Paul argues that there are not two ways of salvation, one for Israel and one for the Gentiles, but that there is only one way of salvation, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life. Andrew, as an apostle, was sent out by Jesus to preach the one way of salvation. Andrew went to the northern part of Asia Minor, to the region south of the Black Sea, and to Scythia, and went as far as Kyiv, preaching the Good News to the peoples he encountered. The people heard the Good News from Andrew’s lips. They believed in the Lord, began to call upon him, and were enriched and justified with God’s grace. Andrew preached salvation in the name of Jesus, and many welcomed God’s salvation in Christ through the apostolic ministry of Andrew. Like his Lord, Jesus, and his brother, Peter, Andrew gave the supreme witness when he was crucified.

3. Praying and Working for Unity: Saint Andrew is connected especially to the Greeks and the city of Constantinople. Tradition holds he founded the see of Byzantium (later Constantinople and Istanbul) in A.D. 38 and appointed Stachys as its first bishop. Andrew’s brother, Peter, on the other hand, is connected especially to the city of Rome. After the tragic division – the Great Schism – of the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church in A.D. 1054, the Feast of St. Andrew has become, in recent years, a call to work toward the reestablishment of full communion between the Church of Rome and the Church of Constantinople. When Benedict XVI visited Türkiye on the Feast of St. Andrew in 2006, he said that the Catholic Church was willing to do everything possible to overcome obstacles to full communion and seek more effective means of pastoral cooperation. While we work tirelessly for unity among Christians, we can ask Peter and Andrew to intercede for us. May we work and pray to overcome division, not just between Catholics and the Orthodox, but between every Christian community. 

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you prayed at the Last Supper to the Father that we be one, as you and the Father are one. We should not be divided, and yet we are. I pray today that I may be an apostle of unity and not a cause of division. Enlighten my mind and move my heart as I work for your Kingdom today.

Living the Word of God: Am I praying and working for the unity of the Church? How well do I know the history of what has sadly divided the Church throughout the centuries? Do I know what divides Catholics and the Orthodox? Can I appreciate and identify what still unites us all? Am I familiar with the teachings of the main Protestant denominations (Episcopalian, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, etc.)? Do I understand why they teach what they teach? What lessons can I draw from the conservative-progressive divisions in these ecclesial communities?