Commentary
Saturday, 11/30/2019, Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle
A Circle of Faith
First Reading Commentary: Romans 10:9-18
Paul says that those who have true faith in the Lord will be saved by the Lord and each of us is charged with the mission of sharing our faith. Paul explains his message with a series of questions. Paul asks, “How can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him in whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can people preach unless they are sent?”
We do not call on a plumber if we are sick. We do not call on anyone to help us with a problem unless we believe that they possess the expertise to be able help us. Paul’s message is that we cannot call on the Lord for help unless we believe that He has the knowledge, the ability and the tools to do the job. In other words, we must believe that God can help us in order to have faith in Him believing that He will help us.
We cannot believe in someone if we have never heard of them. For example, we cannot believe that an athlete is the best in their sport if we know nothing about that athlete. We cannot believe in the Lord if we do not know anything about Him. If we are going to know the Lord, we must listen to His Word which is one reason why we should take the time to read Scripture and go to church.
We cannot hear the Word of the Lord if there is no one to preach the Word. It is helpful and it is a good start to read Scripture but there must be someone to interpret, teach and proclaim the Word in Scripture. This is, why we must pray for vocations.
Finally, how can someone preach who has not been sent? I want to make two points about this question. First, in order, to be sent to preach the Word of the Lord, one must know the Word of the Lord. If one truly knows the Word of the Lord, they believe totally in the Word and therefore accept the fact that they can do nothing without the Lord. This means that they must call on the Lord and that completes the circle taking us back to Paul’s first message: in order, to call on the Lord, one must believe in the Lord.
My second point is that by way of our Baptism, we are all called to evangelize which means that we are all called to share our faith with others. Each of us has a talent which is a gift from God which was given to us so that we might complete our mission in life for God. When we use our talents for the glory of God, we evangelize. This is different from what first comes to mind about evangelization but consider this: when we use our talents for God’s glory, we are living our lives according to God’s Will. People will notice and some people will be touched enough to follow. We may not even see this happening, but it will.
This is, why Paul paraphrases Isaiah 57:7 saying “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!” But Paul also points out that not everyone heeds the good news paraphrasing Isaiah 53:1 saying, “Lord, who has believed what was heard from us?” There are two ways to consider this question. It could mean that there are those who hear the Word of the Lord but do not listen to it. If we do not listen to the Word of the Lord, we will not take it to heart. And if we do not take the Word of the Lord to heart, we will not follow it.
But Paul is taking the positive approach in hopeful anticipation that everyone who hears the Word of the Lord has faith. Paul says, “Thus faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ which has gone out to the ends of the earth. There are some people who have not heard the Word of the Lord, but Paul is saying that those who have faith have heard the Word of the Lord.
Called to Be a Fisher of Men
Gospel Commentary: Matthew 4:18-22
The first disciples to be called by Christ were Peter, Andrew, James, the son of Zebedee and John. It is St. Andrew who we celebrate today but when we look at St. Andrew in today’s gospel, we have to look at all four of these men. There is a common denominator among them. They follow Christ immediately. They do not think about it and they do not question it. They just do it.
That is what God wants from us. Is this because of God’s pride? No! Pride is a deadly sin and has no place with God. Furthermore, God has shown us His humility, most especially through the Son, time, and time, again. The reason is because if we take the time to think about whether we should follow the Son, we give the evil one time to corrupt our thoughts with his lies. Therefore, we should not think about following Christ, we should just do it and He will lead us straight to heaven.
Jesus said to Peter and Andrew, “I will make you fishers of men.” Did Peter and Andrew know what Jesus meant by this? No, but they would find out in time. Would they have been so quick to follow Jesus if they did know from the beginning? Now that is an interesting question. But it is doubtful at best considering how they would be tested, considering the many hardships that they had to endure and considering the fact that they would become martyrs. Why would they submit to any of that without knowing more about Jesus? They had to have faith.
But consider this analogy: when you decide to marry someone, you may meditate on how wonderful life with that person will be but you don’t worry about what lies ahead. You already know going in that there will be good days and bad days. So, you just commit yourself to them and what will be, will be. You face life together. As the marriage vow goes, “For better or for worse.”
If we can have enough faith in another human-being to follow them in marriage, how can we not have faith in God? He is our creator from whom all good things come. He is our Savior who will do everything to protect us and keep us from falling into the devil’s traps. There is no higher priority with God than to have us spend eternity with Him in heaven.
When we take these things to heart, we become believers and followers. We become disciples of Christ and our very actions will make others want what we have. As, a result, we end up evangelizing even if we do not realize that we are evangelizing and we become, “fishers of men”.
