St. Andrew

This afternoon some of us missionaries traveled to St. Helena's Church in Clayton for mass where Fr. Foley, a visiting priest gave one of the best homilies I've heard in a long time. The topic he chose to talk about was St. Andrew, which at first seemed strange- the first reading was about the call of Samuel and the Gospel about the call of the first disciples. St. Andrew is mentioned in but one line, so I wasn't expecting him to be the center of the homily. Which was exactly the point.

Father talked about how St. Andrew was the first of Jesus' disciples, the first to react to the call, and that it was through him that St. Peter was brought to Jesus. But though the first, Andrew was not included in the inner circle of the apostles- Peter, James, and John. He's only mentioned 12 times in the New Testament, and nine of those times he's only referred to as one of the 12. Andrew was an ordinary man who answered the call God placed on his heart, he wasn't a great man or a genius or an orator, just a man who did was he was called to do, no more, no less. And that, Father said, was what made Andrew a saint. The three times that we read about St. Andrew's actions in the New Testament he is bringing someone to Jesus. How profound.

The point of Father's homily was that we don't need to be anyone other than who we are to do God's work. St. Andrew was content to be an ordinary man, he didn't seek greatness, and we have no record of him being upset or jealous, of being unsatisfied with his place. He did the work that he was called to and he did it well- he brought people to the Lord.

As I'm still trying to figure out my place here at Covecrest and my place in the world, what I'm doing now and what I will be doing next, the example of Saint Andrew is what I need to remember to simply be me and to simply be God's. I don't need anything more.