Weekly Reflection 011809AD

Sunday, January 18, 2009AD

2^nd Sunday in Greentime

Honorary Andrew’s or Andrea’s

In Greek Christianity, they bestow the title, “Protoclete” (The First-called”) upon St Andrew, the brother of St Peter. In today’s Gospel, Andrew is one of the two disciples of John the Baptist who came to follow Jesus. He tells his brother, Simon Peter, to come to Jesus. We all know what happened after. Immediately, Simon Peter takes precedence and Andrew recedes into the background. Was St Andrew jealous? Probably not. St Andrew appears twice more in the Fourth Gospel, at the multiplication of the loaves and the fish and then, again, just before, the death of Jesus, when a group of Greek-speaking Jews came to St Andrew at the Passover and told him that they would like to see Jesus.

St Andrew’s “job description” seems to be “to bring other people to Jesus and then, step back and let Jesus take over.” Every Catholic has the same job description, mandated by Baptism and Confirmation.

One theologian said that, in Baptism, we are commissioned as disciples (students) of Jesus. But, in Confirmation, we are commissioned as apostles (emissaries of Jesus), sent to bring others to Jesus and let Jesus take over.

Therefore, in a real way, all the confirmed are honorary Andrew’s (or Andrea’s). Whenever a Catholic baptism is celebrated, the Church bestows a special blessing upon the father of the neonate. “We bless the father of this child. He and his wife will be the first teachers of their child in the ways of faith and hope. May they be the best of teachers by what they say and do in Christ our Lord.” Values are caught, not taught.

One child told the bishop a few years back “I am basically a good kid. I go to church on Sunday unless I have something important to do.” Whence did he get that impression? Values are caught, not taught.

In so many ways, all of us are called to be “Andrew’s or Andrea’s” by Jesus. As Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian sociologist of mass communication, put it, “The medium is the message.” We recall the familiar adage as well, “Values are caught, not taught.” People see what motivates us by what enthuses us.

Recall the familiar story told about the statue of Jesus in France after the D-Day invasion, in which the arms of the statue had been blown off. The town decided to leave the statue as it was and added a prayer of St Teresa of Avila before it that St Andrew would have understood. St Teresa wrote, “Christ has no hands, but yours; not words, but yours, no feet, but yours, no heart, but yours.”

Not just parents and family members, but all of us are called to bring people to Jesus. In early Christianity, each Christian was expected to bring in one other new member with himself or herself as part of the on-going process of evangelization. One Church historian guessed that this is one of the reasons why Christianity grew in such exponential numbers despite intermittent persecutions. People saw that followers of Jesus took their faith seriously and despite the costs involved, they wanted to get on the bandwagon. St Andrew would have understood. Bring people to Jesus and step back and let Jesus take over. It’s a tried and true method. Values are caught, not taught, especially religious ones. 011809AD jfq