This weekend, we celebrate the feast of St. Andrew, our patron saint. Although his actual feast day is November 30, our community celebrates our patronal feast on the closest weekend to this date that is not a significant church feast day and since next weekend we celebrate Christ the King, we celebrate St. Andrew this weekend. St. Andrew was one of the 12 apostles and the older brother of St. Peter, who introduced him to Jesus. St. Andrew was born in Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee during the early first century. Legend has it that Andrew preached the Good News in what is now modern Greece and Turkey and was crucified at Patras on an X-shaped cross.

In John’s Gospel 1:38, Jesus saw Andrew and John following him, so He turned around and asked them,‘what are you looking for?’ They said to Him, ‘Teacher, where are you staying?’ His reply to them was ‘Come and see.’ So they went and saw where He was staying and they remained with Him that day.’ When Jesus said ‘come and see’ where I live, He wasn’t talking about the house he was staying at. He was talking about where He lived in His heart (where He was coming from). Over the next 3 years, the apostles (including St. Andrew) would be seeing Jesus’ life in action (the miracles, the sermons, his gentleness and approachability to the poor in spirit, and his admonishment to the arrogant that knew better, and tried tripping up his mission at every turn.

When Jesus saw Andrew and Peter casting their nets in the sea to catch fish, Jesus said to them: “follow me and I will make you fishers of people.” In other words, Jesus would mentor them about how to entice the hearts of millions to follow Him.

In our fast-paced world, it’s easy to get lost in the fog of mediocrity and fear. Like our patron, St. Andrew, may we overcome our fears by allowing ourselves to be enticed by the Word of God, and be fishers of people ourselves!

Fr. Pierre