CSVF Blog

The first called

In a Wednesday catechesis from 2006, our Holy Father explains why St. Andrew is called the “protoclete”:

<<He was truly a man of faith and hope; and one day he heard John the Baptist proclaiming Jesus as: “the Lamb of God” (Jn 1:36); so he was stirred, and with another unnamed disciple followed Jesus, the one whom John had called “the Lamb of God”. The Evangelist says that “they saw where he was staying; and they stayed with him that day…” (Jn 1:37-39).

Thus, Andrew enjoyed precious moments of intimacy with Jesus. The account continues with one important annotation: “One of the two who heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon, and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus” (Jn 1:40-43), straightaway showing an unusual apostolic spirit.

Andrew, then, was the first of the Apostles to be called to follow Jesus. Exactly for this reason the liturgy of the Byzantine Church honours him with the nickname: “Protokletos”, [protoclete] which means, precisely, “the first called.”>>

For Pope Benedict, the example of St. Andrew “especially [teaches us] to cultivate a true familiarity with [Jesus], acutely aware that in him alone can we find the ultimate meaning of our life and death.

Apostolic encounter

During Advent, the Protoclete reminds us of the great privilege of our Apostolic faith. Indeed, after we recite the Our Father during the Communion Rite of the Mass, we proclaim the joyful hope with which we await our Lord’s coming; then, the priest affirms: “Lord Jesus Christ, you said to your Apostles, ‘I leave you peace, my peace I give you;’ look not on our sins but on the faith of your Church, and grant us the peace and unity of your Kingdom…” This is to say that the peace we receive and offer is the very peace that the Apostles themselves received from Christ, the peace that surpasses all understanding and is the fruit of possessing the true faith in love.

When we affirm that our Church is “Apostolic,” we don’t merely refer to the linear continuity that our present shepherds ultimately hold with the Apostles. Moreover, we mean that, through the Church’s Sacraments and Faith, we participate in the very experience of the Apostles. Just recall that great opening of the First Letter of St. John: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled, of the word of life. For the life was manifested: and we have seen and do bear witness and declare unto you the life eternal, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. That which we have seen and have heard, we declare unto you: that you also may have fellowship with us and our fellowship may be with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you, that you may rejoice and your joy may be full.”

The mystery of nearness

The nearness to Christ that the Apostles experienced is something absolutely unique. They were called by him, fed the Eucharist by him, instructed by him; they saw him both crucified and glorified. Thus did St. Andrew not only live with him but die like him.

Accordingly, St. Thomas Aquinas teaches: “The ultimate consummation of grace was effected by Christ, wherefore the time of His coming is called the “time of fullness [Vulgate: 'fullness of time']” (Galatians 4:4). Hence those who were nearest to Christ, wherefore before, like John the Baptist, or after, like the Apostles, had a fuller knowledge of the mysteries of faith” (STh, II-II, 1.7, ad 4).

Of course, given St. Thomas’s use of Galatians as well as the season in which we find ourselves, we have to ask about Our Lady. Elsewhere Thomas writes: “God gives to each one according to the purpose for which He has chosen him. And since Christ as man was predestinated and chosen to be predestinated the Son of God in power… of sanctification (Rom 1.4), it was proper to Him to have such a fullness of grace that it overflowed from Him unto all, according to Jn 1.16: ‘Of his fullness we have all received.’ Whereas the Blessed Virgin Mary received such a fullness of grace that she was nearest of all to the Author of grace; so that she received within her Him Who is full of all grace; and by bringing Him forth, she, in a manner, dispensed grace to all” (STh, III, 27.5).

The hope for us lies in the fact that this “nearness” is not essentially physical. Our Lady didn’t receive her plenitude of grace as a result of her physical closeness to the one whose flesh she gave. Rather, her fullness of grace is due to her divinely ordained mission to be the God-bearer, to receive for all the world the Creator’s renewing “Let it be” within her own created “let it be done unto me.” It is her providential closeness to the Author of salvation that is so singular!

We too can draw as close to Jesus as is accordant with all the graces of sanctity and charisma that God gives us to be the saints He desires us to be for Him, for the world, and for our happiness.

This Advent, as we prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ, let us do so by drawing nearer to those who were nearest: Our Lady and the Apostles. (The Gloria is sung only twice this Advent–on the feasts of St. Andrew and the Immaculate Conception.) By God’s grace and our docile cooperation, let us become more fully the Christians we have been called to be.

For, in the Kingdom of Heaven, even the last will be called first.

O glorious St. Andrew,
you were the first to recognize and follow the Lamb of God.
With your friend, St. John,
you remained with Jesus for that first day, for your entire life, and now throughout eternity. As
you led your brother, St. Peter, to Christ and many others after him,
draw us also to Him.
Teach us to lead others to Christ solely out of love for Him and dedication in His service.
Help us to learn the lesson of the Cross and
to carry our daily crosses without complaint
so that they may carry us to Jesus.
Amen.

No Comments »