Homily for the Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle

There is a beautiful simplicity to the story of the call of Andrew and his brother Simon and the other set of brothers, James and John. Jesus saw Simon and Andrew casting a net into the sea, going about their daily work, and He called out to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” We are told that the brothers immediately followed Him.

However, Matthew may have simplified the conversion experience of these two fishermen, which may have been more complicated. It would be natural to expect some resistance to the call of Jesus because answering it would mean leaving behind all that they ever knew and their whole livelihood and heading out into “uncharted waters.” Catching people is more complex than catching fish. However, whatever tentativeness Andrew and Simon may or may not have felt, they overcame it and went with Jesus. They became great evangelists, preaching well of the gospel of Christ.

The LORD works in our lives as He did in the lives of Andrew, Simon, James, and John. He often calls out to people amid their daily tasks, in the ordinary and sometimes humdrum moments of our lives. He calls us to go beyond where we are, beyond the familiar, beyond our comfort zone, into the service of God’s kingdom. That call can come to us in small and subtle ways. We may find ourselves resisting it, but if we listen to it and allow it to echo within us, and respond positively to it, we may find that the LORD works through us for good in ways that can surprise us.