May the Lord give you grace, peace and health in the Holy Spirit.
It is 30th November 2021.
We celebrate the feast of St. Andrew, whose example of being open to the call of Jesus is the proof of profound faith in Jesus to leave the harbinger of the Lord to follow Him alone. Andrew is the older brother of Peter. Without Andrew, we would not be having St. Peter, the head of the Apostle, the first Vicar of Christ.
A good teacher always leads every student to the master; a humble preacher inspires the listener to adhere the voice of God; a saint challenges us to spark our own personal insights. Mentors never replace God in our life, but they motivate and invert our unsettled sediments of sentiments to revise the mind to be intrigued by God.
Having the smell of sheep and the sound of the Shepherd opens all avenues of life of the listener. Everyone has a message to pass on to the world. There is no life is futile and empty of the insights of God and so imbibe the message from the life of others and pass ours without doubt and hesitation is our vocation. ‘Faith comes from what is preached, and what is preached comes from the word of Christ.’ (Rom.10:17). Hence, believing is not enough but to introduce the One by whom we feel blessed and saved.
Simon, called Peter, and Andrew, were fishers whom Jesus called to become fishers of people. The Risen Lord sent them out together with the other Apostles with the mission of making all nations his disciples, baptizing them, and proclaiming his teachings before his Ascension. (Mt 28:19; Lk 24:47; Acts 1:8).
It is good to start the evangelization from the home of origin and particularly with our own siblings. We need to create new bonding and connections with other churches. St. John Paul II invites us in Encyclical Ut Unum Sint, 95 to “accomplish a service of love recognized by all concerned”
We find hope in his own words found in the Passion of Saint Andrew: “I greet you, O Cross, consecrated by the Body of Christ and adorned by His limbs as by precious pearls … May the faithful know your joy, and the gifts you hold in store ….”
Let us be like St. Andrew who brought cultures and churches closer to each other without imposing but by sharing the encounter with the Lord by his fervent initiative and activities of bringing someone closer to the Lord. May God bless you.