Responding to the call

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today resonate with themes of quiet competence and kinship as qualities of the disciple who is welcomed on bringing the Good News.



In the Letter to the Romans, Paul declares the importance of witnessing to the Good News in our body.

* [10:15] How beautiful are the feet of those who bring [the] good news: in Semitic fashion, the parts of the body that bring the messenger with welcome news are praised;

The Gospel from Matthew describes the calling of Andrew, Peter, James and John to be Jesus first disciples.

* [4:18–22] The call of the first disciples promises them a share in Jesus’ work and entails abandonment of family and former way of life. Three of the four, Simon, James, and John, are distinguished among the disciples by a closer relation with Jesus (Mt 17:1; 26:37).

Mike Nappa comments that Jesus’ choice of his first disciples was surprising, to say the least.

Matthew reports that the first four people Jesus’ called to be his disciples were Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Again, these were surprising choices. For starters, none of these four men were scholars; none was pursuing a career in rabbinical or priestly training. They were all working-class guys, fishermen who expected to spend their lives on the sea. Or as Acts 4:13 described them later, they were “unschooled, ordinary men.”

George Butterfield notes that today we celebrate the Feast of Saint Andrew, patron saint of Scotland, who is one of the twelve apostles who might be called a shadow apostle.

Andrew was in the inner circle of Jesus. Andrew, like the other apostles, became a missionary. Tradition tells us that he was crucified during the reign of Nero. Instead of nailing him to the cross, they tied him to it with ropes so as to lengthen the suffering. Andrew lived a faithful Christian life.
Peter, Andrew, James, and John.... They were all different. They were all needed. Some in the spotlight gave themselves as a sacrificial offering to God. Some in the shadows did the same.
The Church will never be worthy of the Andrews who bring the light of Christ into the shadows. Saint Andrew, apostle in the shadows, pray for us.

There may be some interesting connections between the shadow apostle Andrew and the Star Trek character “Scotty” played by James Doohan. He did several accents, which he had perfected, while meeting with Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. It has been said that he chose the name “Montgomery Scott” partially in tribute to his grandfather James Montgomery.


“If you want an engineer, in my experience the best engineers are Scotsmen.” Doohan recalled from his audition, during an interview in 1993.

Don Schwager quotes “Jesus chooses them for what they can become”, by an anonymous early author from the Greek church.

"'Before he says or does anything, he calls the apostles so nothing may be concealed from them as to Christ's words or works and they may later say in confidence: 'For we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard' (Acts 4:20). He sees them not bodily but spiritually, regarding not their appearance but their hearts. And he chooses them not as apostles but because they could become apostles. Just as an artist who sees precious, and not rough-hewn, stones chooses them - not because of what they are but because of what they can become. Like the sensitive artist who does not spurn the unshaped good - so too the Lord, upon seeing them, does not choose their works but their hearts." (excerpt from INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW, HOMILY 7, the Greek fathers).

The Word Among Us Meditation on Romans 10:9-18 shares the observation that envy and rivalry, guilt and self-condemnation, that rise from shame had no place in Andrew’s heart. His experience of Jesus’ love and his devotion to Jesus’ call pushed aside self-centeredness and made him a humble servant instead.

In fact, he became one of the boldest and farthest traveled of the apostles. After Pentecost, he evangelized the nomadic peoples around the Black Sea. He also founded the church in Constantinople, which became the head of Eastern Christianity. Finally, at his martyrdom, Andrew asked to be crucified, not on a cross like Jesus and not upside down like Peter, but on an X-shaped cross.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/Flag_of_Scotland_%28traditional%29.svg/220px-Flag_of_Scotland_%28traditional%29.svg.png

Friar Jude Winkler connects our action as disciples to the understanding of being justified as expressed by Paul to the Romans. Justification is now, salvation comes at our end of life. Friar Jude notes that responding to the call of Jesus requires us to leave some of what is familiar to us behind.

Cynthia Bourgeault, core faculty member at the Center for Action and Contemplation, writes about the unshakable depths of hope.

Must we be whiplashed incessantly between joy and sorrow, expectation and disappointment? Is it not possible to live from a place of greater equilibrium, to find a deeper and steadier current?
Deeper than our sense of separateness and isolation is another level of awareness in us, another whole way of knowing. Thomas Keating, in his teachings on centering prayer, calls this our “spiritual awareness” and contrasts it with the “ordinary awareness” of our usual, egoic thinking. The simplest way of describing this other kind of awareness is that while the self-reflexive ego thinks by means of noting differences and drawing distinctions, spiritual awareness “thinks” by an innate perception of kinship, of belonging to the whole.

The natural kinship with family is developed by the Spirit to become action to attract others to relationship with Jesus. This kinship in the Body of Christ is the source of the hope we call upon for our spiritual sustenance.

References

(n.d.). Romans, chapter 10 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved November 30, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/romans/10
(n.d.). Matthew chapter 4 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved November 30, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/4
(n.d.). Matthew 4:18-22; The Calling of the First Disciples (Cultural ... - Beliefnet. Retrieved November 30, 2018, from https://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/forbiblestudynerds/2014/07/matthew-418-22-the-calling-of-the-first-disciples-cultural-commentary.html
(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections .... Retrieved November 30, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved November 30, 2018, from https://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
(n.d.). 34th Week in Ordinary Time - Mass Readings and Catholic Daily .... Retrieved November 30, 2018, from https://wau.org/meditations/
(2017, December 30). 2018 Daily Meditations - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved November 30, 2018, from https://cac.org/2018-daily-meditations/