Today's readings | Today's saint
[Mass for the school children.]
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle. Is anyone here named Andrew? If so, this is your special feast day. But it is also a feast day for all of us Christians because we are all called to do the same kinds of things that St. Andrew did in his life.
The story we just heard about St. Andrew from the Gospel today is just one of the stories we have about him. In another Gospel, St. Andrew is said to be a follower of St. John the Baptist. One day, as Jesus was passing by, St. John the Baptist pointed Jesus out and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” Because of that, St. Andrew was interested in Jesus and, along with another of John’s disciples, went and followed Jesus. When they caught up with him, Jesus said to them, “What are you looking for?” Andrew said to him, “Master, where are you staying?” Then Jesus said to them, “Come and see.” So they went with him and stayed with him that day.
The next day, Andrew went and got his brother St. Peter and told him all about Jesus. St. Peter was interested in Jesus too, and Andrew introduced Peter to Jesus. That’s how St. Peter, who was a great Apostle for Jesus, came to know Jesus in the first place. It was because his brother St. Andrew introduced them. Later, Peter and Andrew both came to be Apostles of Jesus as we hear in today’s Gospel story.
How many of you have brothers or sisters (or both)? Today St. Andrew’s life tells us how we should be with our brothers and sisters. St. Andrew loved his brother Peter, and knew that Peter would want to know all about Jesus. So Andrew brought him to see Jesus and a very special friendship was born. That sounds nice, but it’s important to know that you too should bring your brothers, or sisters, or friends to see Jesus.
How can you do that? Well, Jesus isn’t walking around today, so it’s not like we can physically introduce someone to Jesus. But we can bring them to Jesus by bringing them here for Sunday Mass, or by spending time with them, or by standing up for them if someone is picking on them or bullying them, or by helping them if they are having a problem with their school work, or by cheering for them when they’ve done something good, or lots of other ways. Every time you let other people see Jesus working in you to do good things, you are bringing them to see Jesus.
St. Andrew was an Apostle of Jesus. He did his work by preaching the Gospel and introducing people to Jesus. You can do the very same thing if you let other people see Jesus working in you. You can sure let everyone know who Jesus is by saying “Come and see” and letting them know that Jesus works in your life every day.