On Saint Andrew

The Apostolic Trumpet§1

1An apostolic trumpet has gathered us to the festival: a trumpet that Christ forged with the cross for his hammer, the gospel for his anvil, and the Spirit for his fire, working it, I dare to say, with the Old and New Testaments for bellows; a trumpet of which it is not out of place to speak, borrowing for it a word of praise from prophet and psalmist together: “Sound the trumpet!” (Joel 2:1; Psalm 81:3).

For Andrew gives all a share in grace; he lends to all the bounty of the Spirit; he enlists all for the contest, he who was called before all and wishes to be crowned together with all. “Sound the trumpet!”, since the mysteries of Christ deserve a trumpet to spread them through all the earth; they must be proclaimed to all the nations.

“Sound the trumpet!”, since the festival is the token of a spiritual trumpet; for there is need of war and battle, of contest and wrestling, of weapons for the right hand and for the left (2 Corinthians 6:7), to carry through the task before us. “Sound the trumpet!”, so that with its call you may overtake the enemy and throw down the walls of the spiritual Jericho (Joshua 6:20). May its sound enter the ears of the deaf; may it raise from the dead those who sleep the heavy sleep of sin, a sleep like death.

“Sound the trumpet at the new moon” (Psalm 81:3); for now our life has become a new moon: it has laid aside its old age and wiped away its wrinkles, and through the renewal of the mystery it has been made new from old, “on the notable day of our feast” (Psalm 81:3). For what is more notable than the present feast, in which “all the nations will clap their hands” (Psalm 47:1)? All the earth gathers for the banquet; kings run together to honor the fisherman; the living ask nourishment of one who seems to be dead; the wise hurry to the unlettered man as to a teacher. The poor man’s supper belongs to the whole world; the festival is shared by every city.

An apostolic trumpet has gathered us to the festival: Andrew, the firstborn of the company of the apostles, the first-set pillar of the Church, the Peter before Peter, the foundation of the foundation, the beginning of the firstfruits. He called before he was called, sealed before he was sealed, and brought others near before he himself was brought near; he preached a gospel not yet entrusted to him, opened a door he had not yet entered, revealed life before he had learned it, and promised bread such as he had not yet taken into his hands.

For had he heard anything at all, great or small, by way of teaching? He himself said to Jesus, “Where are you staying?” And he answered, “Come and see” (John 1:38–39). And what did those words contain to match what Andrew anticipates and proclaims? Did Christ reveal his own glory in them? Did he show how great a power he had? Did he declare himself Creator and Maker? Did he make the lame run? Did he kindle the eyes of the blind? Did he force anything beyond nature?

Where, then, did you come by such things to say about him? How did you become a prophet, and God-bearing all at once? Why do you fill Peter’s ears with clamor? Why do you hurry to get ahead of one you cannot get ahead of? But, you will say, John moved you to these words. Yet in your presence he said only this: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29, 36).

But you, who heard of a lamb, preach God; you have left the things below and search into the things above; you have let the lake go and cast your net into heaven. Can a dragnet hunt such things? Can a fishing rod haul them in? Earth and heaven hang from your hand.

What do you mean, “We have found the Messiah, who is called Christ” (John 1:41)? Where did you lose him, and how, and when? A person finds what has been lost; but how can he who saves all be lost? How can he who is present everywhere be found, or be said to be found? But Andrew knows what he is saying.

We have found the one whom Adam lost, of whom Eve was robbed, whom the cloud of sin hid from our eyes, whom disobedience parted from us and made us think far away, though he was near and present. We have found the one whom, in seeking him out, even…

Struck, Healed, and Raised on the Third Day§2

2…David too took pride in seeking out. 'In the day of my trouble,' he says, 'I sought out God' (Psalm 77:2). Zephaniah too cries out: 'Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth' (Zephaniah 2:3). For once he is found, he lifts up the humble, raises them from the earth, frees them from corruption, and makes them higher than the high.

He found the one whose finding the excellent prophet Hosea set out for us: 'In the day of their trouble they will rise at dawn to seek me, saying: Let us go and return to the Lord our God, for he has struck us and he has healed us; he will strike us and bind up our wounds; he will make us whole after two days, and on the third day we shall rise up before him, and we shall press on to know the Lord; as a ready dawn we have found him, and he will come to us like the early and the late rain upon the earth' (Hosea 5:15–6:3).

Here, then, summon the Jew to judgment for me; bring the ungrateful man to court. Read the prophet and take the book in your arms. Let what is his own be brought against him: it stands written in his keeping, even if it has been fulfilled in mine. So I ask for the meaning of the prophetic words. Show, if you can, how and when it has come to pass in your case. That you were struck, you yourselves admit and we can see; but I do not see your healing, I do not behold your cure. On the contrary, the wound is inflamed, the disease has grown worse, and the sickness, given up as hopeless, has run on toward death.

Since, then, you cannot offer proof of the prophecy, I myself will interpret the prophetic word. I set forth the time, I point out the place, and I call the whole creation to bear witness, not to my words but to the Lord's divine wonders.

God struck us, then, when he condemned Adam to death, when he sentenced us to eat bread in the sweat of our face (Genesis 3:19), when he ordered the earth to spring up thorns and thistles for us (Genesis 3:18), when through the first-formed man he cast the whole race out of 'the paradise of delight' (Genesis 3:23). But having struck, he healed; having wounded, he bound up. How, and in what way? Hear Isaiah saying: 'The chastisement of our peace was upon him; by his bruise we have all been healed' (Isaiah 53:5). So nothing the prophet said has proved false. What follows shows it most of all: 'He will strike us and make us whole after two days, and on the third day we shall rise' (Hosea 6:1–2).

Do you remember the time when you crucified Christ, when you saw Life hanging on the tree and did not believe (Deuteronomy 28:66)? Do you recognize the drama you acted out, and the wonders of that drama, when Christ was lifted up naked on the cross as if to a wedding? Having no sin, he needed no garment; he was without blemish and had no need to hide; nothing about him was shameful, for he himself shows what is seemly. Yet creation could not bear the lightning flashes of the Lord's beauty: light overcame light, and sun gave way to Sun, the sun the eye sees to the Sun the mind knows, the sun that runs its course to him who is present everywhere, the sun that keeps its place to him who is beyond all place, the sun that sets to him who never sets, the sun that brings on the night to him who fixed the bounds of night and day.

Then it was night, for darkness covered the whole earth (Matthew 27:45); but day ran its course again from the ninth hour until evening; then night followed the day by the law set over it, and day in turn succeeds the night. So the course of two days ran in order, and the term of the prophecy reached its end: 'He will make us whole after two days' (Hosea 6:2).

Then what follows also reached its end: 'On the third day,' it says, 'we shall rise' (Hosea 6:2). For Christ rose, and we rose with him. The liberator of the dead came up from the dead, and our race came back to life, since, as the inspired Paul says, 'As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive' (1 Corinthians 15:22). This tomb is witness: the joy of the living, the comfort of the dead. This stone is witness, which was rolled away and rolled over all the idols of the demons; and not only rolled them over, but crushed them, ground them to powder, winnowed them with the winnowing fork of the cross, and blew them from the earth 'like chaff from a threshing floor and like smoke from a chimney' (Hosea 13:3) by the blast and rushing of the Spirit.

These women are witnesses, who in place of the women of long ago bring to the Bridegroom, every day and night, ointments for the senses and for the spirit. The white-robed priest is witness, the angel of the church, crying out to them: 'Do not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified' (Matthew 28:5; Mark 16:6). But do you ask about the hour? For it says: 'As a ready dawn we shall find him' (Hosea 6:3). Luke can tell you this too: 'On the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, bringing… (Luke 24:1)

Early Rain, Late Rain, and the Call to Repent§3

3…the spices they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the door of the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were at a loss over this, behold, two men stood beside them in dazzling garments. As they were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?"' (Luke 24:1–5)

"Why do you think thoughts about Life that are foreign to life? He whom you seek here is seated in heaven; he who was touched here rests in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18); he who became dead so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living (Romans 14:9) did not leave life behind. For he lends life to all; from him the whole of nature draws breath; in him all that moves is moved (Acts 17:28), all that holds together holds together (Colossians 1:17), all that works is at work."

Going out from there, the women met Jesus (Matthew 28:9). They saw the Dawn as dawn, and said to him what David sang in prophecy: 'For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we shall see light' (Psalm 36:9).

But if you say, 'The women found him, but the apostles did not,' and, 'How is it a gain for all? How does what was found become salvation for the whole of nature?', you ask needlessly and accuse in vain. For the women found what they had earlier lost through Eve. She who gave occasion for the loss found the gain.

But read the rest of the prophecy: 'As a ready dawn we shall find him, and he will come to us like the early and the late rain upon the earth' (Hosea 6:3). This has been fulfilled plainly, word for word. The saying needs no spiritual interpretation; we have no need to allegorize the prophet's meaning: 'He will come to us like the early and the late rain upon the earth.' See him, then, appearing early to the women and late to the apostles. Early, here, he greeted the women with 'Rejoice' (Matthew 28:9); late, in Zion, he greeted the disciples with 'Peace' (John 20:19). 'Rejoice' to the women, to undo the sentence of sorrow; 'Peace' to the disciples, to put an end to the enmity the dragon had planted. That is why he spoke to them with this distinction: 'Peace be with you; for the war is with the devil, and the enmity against him remains. His horn must be broken, his venom poured out, his sting trampled. Now I will forge the weapons with which war will be waged against him.'

Not in vain, then, did Andrew tell Peter, 'We have found the Messiah, who is called Christ' (John 1:41), since God too spoke such words through the prophecy of Isaiah: 'If you seek, seek, and dwell with me' (Isaiah 21:12). So Andrew dared to ask Christ: 'I know that you have no house on earth; you do not build in corruption, you do not make your dwelling of brick. "Where are you staying?" (John 1:38) — so that I may become doorkeeper of the Lord's court. "For I have chosen to lie at the threshold in the house of my God rather than dwell in the tents of sinners" (Psalm 84:10). "Where are you staying?" If I learn, I will not leave the door.'

But this is the table the church has now set out from the Gospels; I have only served its dishes, as a household servant. So, if you agree, I will pass on to another table.

His calling crowns Andrew; it shows the soldier that he has been chosen. The hiring that Matthew set before us shows the worth of the vinedresser: 'From then on Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near' (Matthew 4:17). 'From then on.' From when? From the time he sanctified the Jordan, planted the gift of baptism, crushed the heads of the dragons in the waters (Psalm 74:13), brought down from heaven the gift of the Spirit, opened the way of life, and flung wide the gate of salvation. 'From then on he began to preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.' For the creditor has come who wipes out the charges against all; the generous King has arrived; the judge is here who sets the guilty free from prison, who looses the iron collars, who wipes out the charges against all, 'who shuts his eyes so as not to see injustice, who stops his ears so as not to hear a judgment of blood' (Isaiah 33:15).

'Repent': wash your deeds with the word, scour your mouth with your tongue, cleanse your life with prayer, offer a sacrifice that ranks above many. 'Repent': so the one who repents is not only freed from terrible things but also receives an inheritance of good things; he becomes not only free from wickedness but also a farmer of righteousness. 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.' You who are strong, take it by force (Matthew 11:12); you who are weak…

Repentance, and the Call by the Sea§4

4…be made strong; you who are lame, run; you who run, hurry; and you who hurry, do not trust in yourselves, but in God who directs the race: 'For it depends not on the one who wills, nor on the one who runs, but on God who has mercy' (Romans 9:16). 'Repent': for there is no wickedness that conquers repentance, no venom that can quench the power of this honey. The devil wrestles with everyone, resists everyone, fights everyone; repentance alone he does not dare to wrestle. For she snatches the sheep out of his throat; she tears the captive from the tyrant's very hand.

'And as Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother' (Matthew 4:18). Many he saw and passed over, since they were unworthy of the Lord's eyes. 'He saw two brothers': brothers not in body only but also in soul, in nature and in grace, in way of life and in kinship. 'He saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter', not 'who will be called', for he had already been granted the name. For he knew that Christ had said to him: 'You are Simon; you shall be called Cephas, which means Peter' (John 1:42). See: before your confession you hold the wage; before you work in the vineyard you have received the denarius (Matthew 20:2); before you kindle the altar, your sacrifice has been accepted; before you preach, you were crowned; before you proclaim the gospel, the prize of theology came to meet you.

Andrew was the cause of this very thing, and for this reason Matthew added, 'and Andrew his brother', although he had already said once, 'He saw two brothers'. Yet see, he now takes it up a second time, because he wishes to proclaim Andrew as Peter's benefactor. That is why he says, 'Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother': Andrew, who fulfilled the command that Solomon wrote long before in Proverbs: 'Let brothers be useful in times of need' (Proverbs 17:17), that is, in matters of great benefit, of great importance, of pressing urgency; for these are what wisdom called needs, as necessary and unavoidable occasions. 'Let brothers be useful in times of need.' So Andrew did not overlook Peter when the call was pressing; for you have heard how he said to him, 'We have found the Messiah, who is called Christ' (John 1:41).

'Run, Peter,' he says, 'before other Peters get ahead of you, before others seize the first places. For he enlists his soldiers from wherever he wishes; he is the one who gathers from "the roads and the hedges" (Luke 14:23), who sets his seal on the sexually immoral and on tax collectors. Wherever he casts the seed, there the earth bears fruit; where he plants the cutting, the vine springs up at once; wherever he casts the net, it is found full of fish.'

'He saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen' (Matthew 4:18). Marvel at Christ's generosity: he has chosen the poor, the untaught, the unlettered, and fishermen. For Wisdom needs not advocates but servants. No one gives anything to her, but from her we all receive all things; no one lends to the rich, but we all borrow from him. What need, then, will there be of the wise in the preaching? For whoever is to share in true wisdom must become a fool (1 Corinthians 3:18).

Marvel at Christ's wisdom, and call blessed the choosing of the apostles. What did they receive, and in exchange for what? The words that follow make it plain, when he says to them: 'Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men' (Matthew 4:19). Forget all that is old; renounce your parents according to the flesh, so that you may receive the true Father. Let the whole world be small in your eyes, measured against its own Maker.

'Come after me', for I lead you up to life, I guide you by the hand to the light. 'Come after me', so that you may outstrip the patriarchs and receive the inheritance before the prophets; and though you are last you will become first (Matthew 20:16), so that you who come about the eleventh hour may rise above those hired at dawn (Matthew 20:1–9). 'Come after me', for if you follow me you will have a life free of toil: without silver you will be rich; without drugs you will be physicians of the world; without weapons you will be found stronger than your enemies. 'Come after me': 'For I am the light of the world' (John 8:12); 'I am the way and the life and the truth' (John 14:6); I lead you by the hand to the Father; to those who walk after me I grant 'to tread upon the asp and the basilisk, and to trample the lion and the dragon' (Psalm 91:13).

'And at once they left their nets and followed him' (Matthew 4:20). It is fitting, then, to call blessed the…

What the Apostles Left Behind§5

5…good judgment of the apostles. For they left what they had; the livelihood they had, this they disregarded. Their nets were their whole treasure and their whole wealth, for their living lay in their dragnets; the catch of fish fed their hopes of life. Yet they left even these. They did not say to themselves: 'This man tells us nonsense and idle tales; he promises to make us fishers of men (Matthew 4:19). Where is there such a net? Where is a dragnet able to catch such a prey? What lake, what sea will bring men to our nets? What profit will the catch bring? Where shall we use the catch once it is caught?' But heeding the one who called them, made firm by faith, and…

Raised Above Kings and Stars§6

6…perceiving that his word held some hidden meaning, they followed him (Matthew 4:20). At once they rose above the earth and were seen to be more glorious than kings: like angels, ministers of God, heralds of salvation, servants of immortality, more radiant than sun, moon, and stars. For their glory is not, as it were, beneath the heavens, but above the…

Praying for the Apostles' Light§7

7…heavens. They have a light that cannot be quenched, a course that never ceases, rays that always shine; let us pray that these may shine into our minds. Let us flee the darkness itself, turn aside from the bitter brine of life, and, as we travel the restless sea, escape the surge of the soul-destroying waves, and…

Fish for the Master's Table§8

8…let us become fish in the heavenly net of Christ's unlettered apostles, choice fare for the Master's table, at which the King of kings (1 Timothy 6:15) dines, counting our salvation as his food. To him be glory and might for ever and ever. Amen.