Hunolt Sermons/Volume 12/Sermon 44

St. Andrew was the first disciple and follower, the first helper of Christ; therefore, before others, he was a worthy servant of Christ, and an apostle of God. Preached on the feast of St. Andrew.

"Andrew, the servant of Christ, the worthy apostle of God." (From the office of the day. )

Were not, then, all the apostles servants of Christ? Were they not all made worthy to become apostles of God? There is not the least doubt of it. Why, then, does the Catholic Church give to St. Andrew alone, and not to the others, this praise, that he is "a servant of Christ, and a worthy apostle of God"? Either she could say nothing of him but what could also be said of the others, or she uses those words with some special meaning. This latter is indeed the case, my dear brethren, for when I consider the matter, I find something in St. Andrew, special to himself, that could not be said of the other apostles and disciples of Christ; on account of which the Church praises him in the manner quoted. And what is that? The others were apostles and disciples of Christ, but Andrew was the first of them all. The others helped Christ in the work of converting souls, but Andrew was the first of all to help Him. There you have the subject of this panegyric.

St. Andrew was the first disciple and follower, and at the same time the first helper of Christ; therefore, before others, he was a worthy servant of Christ and apostle of God: such is the whole subject. What we have to learn from it will appear from the moral lesson to he drawn.

Christ Jesus, we beg of Thee, by the merits of Thy Moth er, Mary, and the intercession of our holy guardian angels, to strengthen us with Thy grace, that we may imitate Thy holy servant and apostle Andrew, even if only at a distance.

When something has to be done that is unusual, rare, and at the same time dangerous and difficult, generally speaking, no one is willing to be the first to commence it. We say to ourselves: No, I will not meddle with it; who knows how it may turn out? I will wait till others begin, and see how they get on. But he who ventures to be the first to undertake the business is looked on as either daring, or as brave and heroic, or as wise and far-seeing. Thus people say: I should like to know who was the first to venture his life on the sea; he must have been a daring man, or he must have been much more clever than his fellows. And without doubt they who were present at that first venture must have trembled with dread, and been filled with amazement when they saw the rash man set forth. But to-day no one is astonished to see countless numbers committing their fortunes to the raging deep, for there have been so many who have returned safe to land. If an unlettered artisan, whose sole occupation has been to patch up old shoes, were to set himself up as a doctor, what sick person would venture to be the first to entrust his life to him? I certainly should not care to be the first nor the twentieth to leave my health in the hands of such a man; nor should I venture on such a step until I had learned by experience that he had succeeded in curing many. Suppose, further, that a poor, strange, unknown man were to come into this city and to endeavor to upset all the old traditions and customs hitherto observed herein, to replace them by an altogether new and unheard of order of things, and to secure his end by trying to gain as many as possible of the people over to his way of thinking; how long do you imagine he would have to wait before finding partisans? Not a single one would he find to agree with his project, much less to give up his business and attach himself to the new order. Eh! do we not know this well? It is not an easy matter to persuade people who are apparently good and pious to give up certain customs that they themselves acknowledge to be useless, and that certainly are scandalous, and to be more mod est and Christian in their lives and conduct. If others like my self do it, they say, then I will follow suit; but I do not wish to be the first to begin a thing of the sort. I myself have heard many say in a similar case: If one can be found to be the first to do away with this abuse, I will be the second. See; nearly all desire to see things amended, but no one wishes to commence, and thus the change is never effected.

But to my subject, my dear brethren. St. Andrew was a heroic and far-seeing man when, having seen Our Lord for the first time, he at once went with Him and became His disciple. Consider all the circumstances, and you will wonder at this exploit of the holy apostle. Christ came forward to deliver His doctrine to the people; it was quite a new doctrine, of which the world had hitherto heard nothing, a doctrine that was to upset all other forms of religion; one that utterly contradicted those sacred usages and ceremonies peculiar to the Jewish religion, that Andrew and all the Jewish people had always professed, namely, the law of Moses, that had hitherto been held in the highest honor, and could point for so many years to its patriarchs, prophets, judges, kings, and high-priests; a law that was made illustrious in the world by the glorious temple, in which so many sacrifices of praise, thanks-giving, and atonement had been offered to the Almighty by His own command; a law, the followers of which were called the chosen people of God. All who received the teaching of Christ and acknowledged themselves His disciples had to renounce that law and look on it henceforth as invalid. Truly, that was a strange doctrine; one that preached a hard, strict law, opposed to all sensuality; a law that spoke of nothing but mortification, humiliation, self-denial, chastising the flesh, loving one's enemies, detaching one's heart from all earthly things and riches, despising the world, and shunning all worldly customs; a law that represented happiness to be found in weeping, poverty, persecution, and so forth. Could we believe it possible, my dear brethren, that in those days even one man could be found in the whole world to adopt such a teaching; nay, that even one would listen to Christ when propounding such a law? See, now, what a wonderful man Andrew was. Hardly had he heard John the Baptist say of Our Lord, as He was passing by: " Behold the Lamb of God!" when he at once followed Him and asked Him: " Rabbi, where dwellest Thou? " He then went with the Lord, arid, as St. John tells us, heard -His doctrine for a whole day. This alone was enough to convince him that Jesus was the true Messias, and to induce him at once to proclaim himself a disciple of Christ, and to live according to His doctrine.

Yes, you think; but what did the other apostles and disciples do? And countless numbers followed their example afterwards; and all good Christians in our own days do the same; all have truly adopted the same wonderful teaching that is so opposed to sensuality, and have determined to live as followers of Jesus Christ. What, then, is there in Andrew that deserves so much wonder? What! Do you not vet see the difference, as I explained it to you in the introduction? It is one thing to follow where many have preceded, and another to be the first to strike out on an unknown path, without any predecessor to guide you. "There is a great difference," says St. Chrysostom, "between entering on a smooth and easy road, where many travellers have already passed, and venturing on a way that has to be made with difficulty, that is full of stones and beset with wild beasts, and by which no traveller has as yet journeyed." Who will not admit that the first task is much easier than the second? True it is that countless Christians have adopted the doctrine of Christ, but the way they entered on was smoothed and made easy for them by others. Soldiers rush forward to the walls of the besieged city with much greater intrepidity when they see that many of their comrades have succeeded in mounting. Much readier is the fisherman to throw himself into the water to swim when he sees others swimming about in safety. Did you ever read how those soldiers acted who had Simon Machabeus as their general? They came to a swollen torrent that separated them from the enemy; they were afraid of their lives to cross, and not one of them would have ventured had not Simon himself first made the at tempt; then they all vied with one another in following him: " He went over first; then the men,, seeing him, passed over after him." So powerful is the example of the first that it draws thousands after it, while, on the other hand, in a thousand you will hardly find one who will dare to be the first to attempt anything with which danger or difficulty is connected.

Therefore what is most to be wondered at in the holy apostle St. Andrew is the fact that he first of all ventured on the unknown way, and became an adherent of Christ. And I cannot help thinking: What had he seen in Our Lord to bring him so suddenly to such a resolution? Imagine, my dear brethren, that poor, unlettered man of whom we have already spoken, who wishes to pass as a doctor, and think what qualities he would be likely to possess to gain the respect and sympathy of the world, and then you will have some idea of that man who then called Himself Jesus Christ, as He appeared before the world, to astound it by the doctrine He came to preach. For in the eyes of the world He was a lowly, ignorant, poor, unsophisticated artisan, unknown until that moment, hidden away in the cottage at Nazareth, earning His bread by the labor of His hands; He was one of whom the people could -say no more than that He was a carpenter, who had never learned anything but His trade. His own countrymen, when they heard Him teaching in the synagogue, asked with amazement: " How came this man by this wisdom? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary? " How, then, can He teach others? "And they were scandalized in His regard; " so that there was little chance of their listening to Him favorably and following His doctrine. Such, too, was the opinion formed of Him by the Jews when they heard Him in the temple: " And the Jews wondered, saying: How doth this man know letters, having never learned? " Moreover, He was still an object of hatred and execration to the scribes and chief men of the people; nay, they conspired together, and agreed to put out of the synagogue any one who should venture to become His disciple: "For the Jews had already agreed among themselves, that if any man should confess Him to be the Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue." See, now, how this poor, lowly artisan persuaded Andrew in one interview to be the first to follow Him; a circumstance of which Salmeron well says: " The greatest praise that can be given to An drew consists in this, that he was the first who dared to believe in Christ." And still greater praise is due to him because he gave up all he had, although he was only a poor fisherman, in order to follow Our Lord. For he might with good reason have said: Master, Thou art so poor that Thou hast neither house nor home; nor have I anything, except what I can earn by my daily labor. Now if I follow Thee, I shall have to leave my trade, give up my nets and boat; and then how shall we manage to live? But no such excuse fell from the lips of Andrew, for as soon as he had spoken to Christ he acknowledged Him as the true Messias, and went with Him as His disciple, without any delay or consideration as to where the means of livelihood were to come from.

And how did he know that Christ was the Messias? I know well that afterwards Nicodemus, one of the chiefs of the Pharisees, and a prince among the Jews, believed Our Lord to be the Messias, but that was after many great miracles had been wrought. "Rabbi," he said, " we know that Thou art come a teacher from God." How did he know that? "For no man can do these, signs which Thou dost unless God be with him." For the same reason many of the people in Jerusalem believed in Our Lord: " Many believed in His name, seeing His signs which He did." The same motive impelled others to follow Him in thousands into the desert, in spite of having to suffer hunger and thirst: "A great multitude followed Him, because they saw the miracles which He did on them that were diseased. ": Truly, it is not surprising that a great multitude of people should run after Christ, and see that there was something more than human in Him, after they had beheld the water turned into wine, tne multiplication of the loaves, the healing of the sick with one word, the instantaneous curing of the dumb and blind, of the lame and paralytic, the expulsion of demons, the raising of the dead to life, for no sound reason could resist the influence of such wonders as these. But for one to believe in a poor, unknown, and lowly man, and to follow him at the first word as the saviour of the world, before he had worked any miracles that is something that human reason cannot grapple with. For what is most surprising in the conduct of Andrew is the fact that Our Lord had not yet worked any sign when Andrew followed Him as His disciple. As the Evangelist tells us, the first miracle was wrought after wards, at the marriage-feast of Cana, where Our Lord and several of His disciples were present: "Jesus also was invited, and His disciples, to the marriage." There Our Lord changed the water into wine: " This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory." So that Andrew had as yet seen nothing wonderful done by Jesus, and yet lie believed in Him.

O what a wonderful man! Truly, I must repeat, with the learned Salmeron: The greatest praise that can be given to An- drew consists in this, that he was the first who dared to believe in Christ. " See," he continues, " what light must have been suddenly infused into him, to enable him to recognize the Messias." The Doctors of the Church can therefore hardly find terms expressive enough in which to praise him. " He had," says de Lyra, " the privilege of being the first disciple of Christ, the first to point out the promised Messias." " sweet apostle, and first calling of the Saviour!" cries out St. Peter Damian. St. Lawrence Justinian calls him the first foundation of the Church: " He was truly worthy of being the foundation-stone for the building of the people into the house of God.": By others he is called "the dean of the college of the apostles." " He was," says St. Thomas of Aquin, " the first to be perfectly converted to the faith of Christ, and he was also the first to preach Christ; as Stephen was the first martyr after Christ, so Andrew was the first Christian."

Mark those words of the angelic Doctor, my dear brethren, " he was also the first to preach Christ." Not only was Andrew the first disciple of Christ, but he was also the first who showed himself as an active co-operator with Christ, who won many for Him by his persuasion. For as soon as he knew who Our Lord was he gave himself no rest, but ran at once with joy and exultation to his brethren, to gain them also for Our Lord: " He findeth first his brother Simon, and saith to him: We have found the Messias. And lie brought him to Jesus." " He did not keep for himself alone the treasure he had found," says St. Thomas, " but ran at once to his brother, to share with him the goods he had received." "For the true way of finding God and being zealous in His love is to have a care of the salvation of our brethren," says the Venerable Bede. Cardinal Hugo, speaking of the text, "he findeth first his brother," says: "That is, before he found others. Whereby we are told that Andrew called many to Jesus." Probably he went about and told all whom he met of the joyful news of having found the Messias, and urged them to go with him and become disciples. Be that as it may, when he brought Peter to Christ he brought Him half the world. For what did not Peter afterwards do for Our Lord? In one day he converted three thousand infidels, on an other occasion five thousand, and finally he won to Christ count less souls. Now it was Andrew, and Andrew alone, who brought into Our Lord's net this great fish, that caught the world, as Salmeron remarks: "Andrew has the name of being the first Christian, and the first who preached Christ and brought the first fish, namely, Peter, into the net of the gospel to Christ." "Behold!" exclaims St. Peter Damian in astonishment, "An drew in his very noviceship brings forth fruit, and becomes a preacher of the truth he had but just heard; being made a new disciple, he is not content with securing his own salvation; he seeks to make other disciples; his fraternal charity moves him to gain other souls." 2

Now if his zeal for souls was so great in the beginning, when he first knew Our Lord, how intense must it not have become afterwards when, filled with the Holy Ghost, he entered on his apostolate? Mark, my dear brethren, how Our Lord says to all the apostles: "Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature;" a command they all obeyed, for they divided the world among them, and each went to the part of the globe allotted to him and preached Jesus Christ: "But they, going forth, preached everywhere." Yet the Catholic Church gives to Andrew this special praise, that he was the preacher and ruler of the Church; for she prays thus on this feast: " God, we humbly beg of Thee that as the blessed Andrew was the preacher and ruler of Thy Church," etc. Why is that? Doubtless the Church wishes to show that among the apostles Andrew was a specially zealous preacher of the gospel and propagator of the true faith. And indeed he journeyed through many countries of the world, and with unwearied toil gained many souls to Christ. He preached the gospel in Scythia, as Origen testifies; in Ethiopia, or the country of the Moors, as Sophonius says; and the Roman Martyrology relates how he spread the faith in Thrace, Cappadocia, Bithynia, and even to the borders of the Black Sea. St. Gregory Nazianzen adds that he visited Albania; St. John Chrysostom asserts that he preached the gospel in Greece. Oh, who could count the number of souls that he gained for Christ in those long journeys, through so many extensive provinces? Let it suffice to say, with Denis the Carthusian: " St. Andrew converted countless souls to the faith."

And how long did that zeal continue in him? To his old age, to the death of the cross: nay, what must strike all with astonishment, he continued to preach even in those circumstances, which he at that time when nature imposes silence on the most eloquent tongue; for he preached Christ even while he was hanging on the cross, suffering the most cruel agony, and struggling with death, and expounded the truths of faith to a vast crowd even to his latest breath, as we read in the history of his life. Truly, no bridegroom ever longed so eagerly for the presence of his beloved spouse as St. Andrew did for his cross: " When he saw the cross afar off he began to exclaim: good cross, long desired, earnestly loved, sought for without intermission, and now at last conceded to my earnest desires! receive me from among men, and restore me to my Master." What a wonderful thing! exclaims Denis the Carthusian: "Wholly filled with divine love, when he saw the cross prepared for him his joy was so great that he could hardly contain himself, and addressed the cross as if it could understand him." So that Andrew was the first follow er of Christ, the first helper of Christ, and therefore, before others, he was. " the servant of Christ, and a worthy apostle of God."

O my dear brethren, would that each one of us could with truth be called "a worthy servant of God"! But, alas, how unlike we are in this respect to the holy apostle St Andrew! He was the first of all who followed the doctrine of Christ, and was faithful to Him, although he had no example to encourage him to this step. We have the example of many thousands of both to sexes who have sworn fidelity to the holy doctrine and law of Jesus, and have been constantly faithful to Him till death; and yet we cannot make up our minds to be true followers of Christ, and to order our lives according to his teaching! Such was the complaint uttered by the holy Pope Gregory, when writing on the gospel of to-day: "You have heard, my dear brethren, how Peter and Andrew at the first call left their nets and followed the Redeemer; they had not as yet seen Him work any miracle, they had not heard of any eternal reward from Him, and nevertheless, at His first command they seemed to forget all they possessed. How many miracles of His we have witnessed! How many stripes He has visited us with! What threats He utters to deter us from evil! And yet we refuse to come when He calls! He who has exhorted us to repentance is now in heaven; He has already subjected the heathens to the yoke of the faith; He has overcome the pomps of the world; by many calamities He warns us of the approaching day of His strict justice; and yet our proud heart will not relinquish that which we are daily obliged to lose against our will. What, then, my dearest brethren, shall we be able to say for ourselves in His judgment, since neither His commands nor His punishments can wean us from the love of this world? " So did St. Gregory speak to the Christians of his time. May not the same complaint be made nowadays of most of us Catholics? I know that we all boast of the name of Christian; we say that we are servants and followers of Jesus Christ; but how do our lives and actions harmonize with our professions?

Andrew, a true servant and follower of Christ, was the first who, in circumstances in which no one dared to join Our Lord, professed himself boldly as His disciple. human respect, what power thou hast over us! For to please a mere mortal, or to avoid displeasing him, we often trample on the law of God, omit doing good, and do evil against the voice of our conscience! Nay, we do the evil and omit the good even because we are ashamed to be the first to proclaim ourselves openly as servants of God! How often does not the tolling of the bell warn us, when the Blessed Sacrament is carried to the sick, of our duty to show the sovereign Monarch of heaven the honor of accompanying Him? How often are we not reminded in sermons that when the signal is given we should, morning, midday, and evening, greet the Mother of God on our knees by the recitation of the Angelus, in order to gain the usual indulgences? that we should appear in the church with humility and reverence, with downcast eyes, folded hands, on both knees, as before the throne of God? that we should say grace before and after meals with similar devotion? a custom that, alas, seems to have fallen almost into desuetude amongst those people of the world who seem to belong to the better classes! How often are we not exhorted in sermons to give up this or that dangerous abuse, and so on? But at all this we shrug our shoulders! No one will be the Andrew; no one will be the first to show due honor to his God. If others like myself do it, such is the un-Christian excuse put forward, then I will follow them; but I am ashamed to be the first. As if it were a shame to be the first among the servants of God! Fie! Should not every one look on it as the greatest honor and glory to be before others in good? If the favor of a mortal sovereign is to be gained, if a handful of money is to be made anywhere, if a lucrative post is to be obtained, do we then think or say: I am ashamed to be the first? Oh, no! here every one will be a good Andrew; every one strives to prevent others from being beforehand with him. But where there is question of the true service of God, of the salvation of the soul, of the grace and favor of the sovereign Monarch, of the eternal happiness of heaven then we look at others, and consider what they do; then no one will be the first to put in his claim; every one wishes to be the last. " What, then, dearest brethren, shall we say for ourselves in the judgment?" Alas, dear Christians! what shall we have to urge in our defence before the tribunal of God, when He Himself will show us how He will act in our regard: " He that shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him the Son of Man shall be ashamed when He shall come in His majesty, and that of His Father, and of the holy angels."

Andrew was the first who, not content with following Christ himself, at once went and induced many to follow Him. My dear brethren, if we wish to be true servants and followers of Christ, we, too, must show our zeal in this respect, and try to gain other souls for Christ and heaven. God has given a charge to every one concerning his neighbor; when occasion offers we must endeavor, by fraternal correction, exhortation, and good example, to restrain others from evil and encourage them to good. This is specially the case for you, Christian parents, fathers and mothers, superiors, and others in authority. The great Father of all has entrusted to your care the souls of your children, servants, and subjects, that you may keep a watchful eye on their actions, prevent and amend their sins and vices, keep them from the dangers and occasions of evil, teach them the fear and love of God, and so one day restore them to Him in eternity; and wo to you if you neglect or perform carelessly this, your bounden duty! But, alas, how slothful most people are in this respect! In how many cities and country places are not shameful abuses and public vices tolerated through the indifference of those who should extirpate them, and who could do so! How many masters and mistresses there are who take more care of their horses than of the immortal souls of their servants! How many fathers and mothers who, when their sons or daughters experience a vocation to the religious state or the priesthood, try to restrain them from following it by caresses and endearments, by promises and threats, by blows and hard usage, nay, what is most horrible, even by leading them into sin! How many parents there are who can not bear to see their children good and pious, and therefore send them into foreign countries that they may learn to live according to the maxims of the world! How many parents who, by word and exhortation and example, are the first to inculcate on their children, from their very youth, the vanity and folly of the world, and thus bring up those still innocent souls for the world and of ten for the devil! Wo to you! I say again. " What shall we say for ourselves in the judgment?" How shall you answer before the tribunal of God when He will ask at your hands those souls entrusted to you?

Andrew, in order to follow Christ, unceasingly sought for the cross, and when he saw it he rejoiced and exulted as if he had found the greatest treasure in the world. Christians! are we so minded that for Christ's sake we are ready, I will not say to desire and seek crosses and trials, but to bear them contentedly and cheerfully when they are sent to us? Oh, how true are the words of Thomas a Kempis: "Jesus has now many lovers of His heavenly kingdom, but few to bear His cross; many He has who desire His consolations, but few who wish to share in His sorrows; He has many companions at His table, but few in His mortifications and fastings. All wish to rejoice with Christ, but few desire to suffer with Him. Many follow Jesus to the breaking of bread, but few follow Him in drinking the bitter chalice of the passion. Many honor His wonders and miracles, few go with Him to the ignominy of the cross. Many love Jesus as long as no trial comes in their way; many praise and bless Him because they are comforted by Him; but if Jesus hides Himself and leaves them even for a little time, they either complain or fall into the greatest despondency." Truly, such is the case! Even those trials and crosses that we cannot avoid, no matter how we try, and that, according to the well-meaning intention of the Almighty, should be so many ladders to enable us to mount up to heaven even these we turn into a means of thrusting ourselves down deeper into hell by our frequent and wilful impatience, by our cursing and swearing, by murmuring and complaining against God, and by giving way to despondency and despair. "What, then, dear brethren, shall we have to say for ourselves in the judgment" when the sign of the cross shall appear in the heavens as a consolation for those who have willingly borne their cross, but as a source of terror to those who have avoided it, or rejected it with disgust?

O dear Saviour. I see now how vainly I have hitherto professed myself Thy follower! By my actions and mode of life I have frequently contradicted what my lips have uttered, in spite of the many examples of true servants of Thine that have gone before me! Sometimes, when there was question of Thy public honor and glory, I was ashamed to be the tenth or twentieth when I should justly have been the first to show Thee due reverence! Instead of using the many opportunities afford ed me of leading souls to Thee, alas, how often have I not turned them away from Thee by my dissolute manners, by instructing them in evil, and by giving scandal and bad example? The bare name of the cross has often quite disturbed me, although I cannot come to Thee in heaven except by the way of the cross! Ah, God of infinite goodness, give me Thy powerful grace that I may carry out what I now firmly resolve to do, and to some extent, at least, tread in the footsteps of Thy worthy servant and apostle, work zealously for my salvation and that of others, lay aside all human respect, acknowledge myself as Thy true servant, accept with resignation the crosses Thou art laying on me and those Thou art minded to send me, love Thee constantly, and so, with Thy holy apostle Andrew, ascend from the cross to Thee in heaven. Amen.