Reading and meditation on the Word of God, Saturday of the 34th week of ordinary time, November 30, 2019; the feast of Saint Andrew, the apostle. Rome 10, 9-18; Matthew 4, 18-22. Voice: father Peter sdb (reading) and sister Maria Fe Silva fma (meditation)
Our meditation today has the theme: Excempted, But Chosen. This phrase wants to reflect something or someone who is not ignored or excluded. This means it is very important and becomes a choice. People prefer paper money from their wallets. Coins in the bag are ignored. When the payment requires to use coins, then they realize that coins are important.
Many people work behind the scenes. They do not appear, do not show up even do not go there and here. But their roles are very important. Without them the work and the running process of a dynamic work do not take place as expected. Saint Andrew, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus whose feast we celebrate today, is an example for us.
He was the one who brought his brother Peter to meet Jesus during the call of the first apostles. Furthermore Andrew no longer appears dominant in the Gospel. Jesus always brought the first three apostles: Peter, James and John, among others, to the healing miracle of the daughter of Jairus (Mk 5.37), to the apparition on Mount Tabor (Mk 9.2) and to the garden of Gethsemane (Mt 26,37). We do not know exactly Andrew was not invited or included.
We have experienced being excempted. How does one feel to be the third out of the two chosen? Or when waiting in line, you are number four out of three needed! Or as you are trying your hardest efforts but only reaching number five out of the four positions available! Usually when such situations happen we react with anger, disappointment, hurt, and surrender. But the apostle Andrew responded with his faith, which was his commitment from the beginning to follow Christ.
He decided to leave his family and work as fisherman, in order to continue his calling to be an apostle and evangelist of Jesus Christ. He responded to the experience being excempted with love. Though he was not appearing in public, no mention of his name in pucblic works and no talks about him among people, but the Apostle Andrew fulfilled his life by bringing Jesus Christ to everyone.
If you are normally not counted, not remembered, not invited, ignored, don’t feel as if your life will end. You just share these experiences with Jesus Christ, because from birth to His death, He was severely insulted, abandoned, rejected and until its peak He was sentenced to death. You are encouraged to respond such experiences being excluded with the choice to love, which is with Christ in loving others, even to those who cause you sad and suffering. That way will make you happy and excellent like Saint Andrew.
Let’s pray. In the name of the Father … O good Father, make me a person who does not lose courage and give up when I am excempted, but to try to share with Christ to forgive and continue to serve others. Our Father who art in heaven … In the name of the Father …