Andrew, patron of vocations

Homily for the Feast of St. Andrew, apostle
30 November 2009
St. Lawrence Chapel at the University of Kansas
Year for Priests

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Today's feast of St. Andrew is important for every vocation director. A popular vocation program for high school men is called Project Andrew. The program involves priests bringing young men to come and see what the priesthood, a life specially united to Christ, is like. Andrew is the perfect patron for such a vocation evening. He is the first disciple of Christ, leaving behind his discipleship with John the Baptist and his fishing trade in order to follow Jesus with a special closeness and attention. Every vocation is the fruit of the discipleship modeled by Andrew. Before we are sent by Christ, we must first learn to leave everything behind that keeps us from following him. The main obstacle to every vocation is our desire to have Christ follow us rather than the other way around.

Andrew in John's Gospel brings his brother Peter to Jesus. This is important as well in that every vocation is fostered by the faith of others. None of us follows Jesus alone, but always we are encouraged by the witness and words of others. Andrew is told by John the Baptist to follow Christ, and then he promptly encourages his brother Peter to do so as well. We know the rest of the story. Peter's vocation was helped by the encouragement of his brother Andrew. Andrew is thus the patron of those, like vocation directors and pastors, who are trying to bring their young men closer to Christ, so that they can follow Him and receive a vocation directly from Him.

Finally, Andrew himself is sent as an apostle. He receives the apostolic mission to become a fisher of men. As a fisher, Andrew receives the mission to preach the Good News in such a way that it captures the minds and hearts of all who hear it. He must capture people in such a way that they realize that it is not they who choose Christ, but Christ who chooses them, and sends them out to bear a kind of fruit that will remain. He is a powerful patron of all of those who are being called by God to take up some special apostolic mission within the Church, and especially of those called to the priesthood. It is the priest's first duty to proclaim the word of God, so that people may believe in Christ. It is his first duty to proclaim the love of Christ, which appeals to the deepest longings of man, and sets him free to live a perfect life of sacrificial love. +m