Andrew has always been my favorite Apostle. Today is his Feast Day. Andrew always brought people to Christ—including his brother Peter, the boy with five loaves and some fish, and Greeks who wanted to meet Jesus during Holy Week. He is much honored in the Orthodox Church because he founded Christian communities as far north as Kiev in Russia. The Ukraine, Georgia, Romania, Greece, and Cyprus all claim their faith originated with St. Andrew.
Today’s Gospel: First Called
The Gospel of John names Andrew as one of John the Baptist’s disciples. He spent a day with Jesus, then told his brother Simon, “We have found the Messiah.” Today’s Gospel from Matthew describes then how Andrew, Peter, James, and John left their fishing boats to follow Jesus. They were called to later be sent.
Romans: Why Called, Why SENT
In our first reading, St. Paul talks about the importance of people being called and sent. It has been these verses from Romans that have riveted me this week:
For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
And how can they hear without someone to preach?
And how can people preach unless they are sent?
As it is written,
How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!
Andrew and the other Apostles were beautiful feet and voices that brought the Good News. The context in this 10th chapter of Romans is Paul’s distress that so many of his Jewish friends do not believe Jesus is the Messiah, so they do not believe in him. He is mourning because his Jewish brothers and sisters are stuck in their faith journeys. They will not see salvation as coming from Jesus and thus choose to believe in him. They are blocked from salvation except through the Law. Paul no longer believes that salvation through observance of the Law is enough.
He then logics out the sentences above. His Jewish friends can’t call on Jesus because they do not believe in him. But before they can believe, they must hear about Jesus. And they can’t hear unless someone brings them God’s Word.
Not Believing Today
Our parish is making another round of “how are you” contacts, this time to all members of our parish. Kentucky is in lockdown from COVID, winter is coming, a lot of people have not been to church for a while. We are asking, “How are you holding up?” We have 5 other questions about connections with the parish, but, bluntly, as I made calls last week, people had PLENTY to say about that first “how are you holding up” question. It was not unusual for a person to not pause for breath on that one question for 30 minutes or more!
But there was also another later question that drew my attention: “Is there anything in particular you would like us to pray for?” An answer I am hearing is, “Pray for the conversion of my children.”
In us older folks, perhaps especially as Christmas approaches, this yearning weighs heavy, heavy, heavy on our hearts. We see our children struggling with economic hardships, family wear-and-tear, and the inability to do so many holiday things they have always done. We see their stress and unhappiness.
Yet they are not reaching out for God. They are closing down, grumbling, rebelling at restrictions, or reaching out for “stuff.” From our eyes, they are hungering for God—for Hope, for Advent—the “coming of our God.”
Yet, honestly, they don’t know their faith well enough to know what they are hungry for. And, sadly, they know their faith poorly enough, they see it as useless to help them.
I know a lot of younger people who put up their Christmas decorations a couple of weeks ago. They wanted some joy, some distraction, something to occupy the kids as they stay home all day. They put up Christmas trees, bright colors, and assorted purchased decorations that say, “Don’t worry. Be happy. The serious problems around you are unimportant.”
But what about Advent? What about waiting in HOPE, with PATIENCE, in the darkness of December and COVID and politics? What about letting ourselves experience emptiness so we can give ourselves over to yearning for God? What about seeking and finding quiet to face ourselves and multiple situations that are serious?
A Kerygma Tree
I must admit I gave in this week to a yearning for joy, too. And so, I spent most of two days making a “Kerygma Tree.” Kerygma is a Greek word that means “Good News.” A Kerygma Tree is a Jesse Tree that goes all the way from the first Sunday of Advent to the second Sunday in Ordinary Time and covers highlights of both Old and New Testaments.
I’ve just finished reading the New Directory of Catechesis that came out from the Vatican and USCCB in July. I love it! It is the most exciting material for evangelization I have ever seen. All through it there is structure and practical advice for how to evangelize in our world today. Again and again and again, it says, “Focus on the Kerygma.”
The Kerygma is the core Good News of Christ. It is the Good News that God created us from love and for love, that Jesus came to make that love possible—by his Incarnation, active teaching life, his Passion, and his Resurrection. Because Jesus was both God and man, we are now God’s adopted children. God lives in us and through us in the Holy Spirit. The Kergyma includes the story of how God chose the people of Israel and from that base seeks to bring a good, joyful life to all peoples everywhere. It includes that God begins with a person where he is, then gradually guides him to conformity with God’s plan for goodness through relationships–with God, with loving community.
The Kerygma WAS the GOOD NEWS Andrew and Paul preached. It IS the GOOD NEWS that can lead us ALL (our no longer churched children, people on the fringes of culture, those very far away from God, and those of us who are so tempted now to respond to the world with fear and judgment) to LIVE in the Kingdom of God.
So, the picture today is my Kerygma Tree as it is today, this first Sunday of Advent. I have tree and ornaments, painted in Advent colors. Now I need to draw simple pictures on the ornaments to represent stories of God’s path for us: from Old Testament, Christmas narrative, and God’s blessings through the centuries. I will get at least the ones for the first week done this afternoon. My artwork is simple.
I’m not trying to evangelize anybody else at the moment, except maybe my grandson. I’m working on myself. I keep hearing those words from Saint Paul today:
But faith comes from what is heard,
and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.
But I ask, did they not hear?
I want to spend Advent letting the kerygma permeate me—so I can recognize Jesus as Andrew and Paul did and go where Jesus sends me—even to my own family.
Blessed Advent!
Prayer:
Come, Lord Jesus, give this person Hope. Let your Word permeate me in a deep, new way that forms me, leads me, guides me—that calls me—that, in time, will send me.
