St. Andrew was one of Jesus’ closest disciples, but many
people know little about him.
The feast of St. Andrew is November 30th.
Here are 11 things to know and share . . .
1) Who was St. Andrew?
He was the brother of St. Peter, who was also known as Simon
bar-Jonah.
He and Andrew shared the same father, so the latter would
have been known as Andrew bar-Jonah.
Andrew is regularly mentioned after Simon Peter,
which suggests that he was Peter’s younger brother.
Like his brother Peter, and their partners James and John,
Andrew was initially a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee.
2) What is significant about his name?
The name Andrew (Greek, Andreas) is related to the
Greek word for “man” (Aner, or, in the genitive, Andros). It
originally meant something like “Manly,” expressing the parents’ hopes for
their baby boy.
It is interesting that Andrew’s name is of Greek origin, not
Aramaic. Pope Benedict XVI commented:
The
first striking characteristic of Andrew is his name: It is not Hebrew, as
might have been expected, but Greek, indicative of a certain cultural openness
in his family that cannot be ignored. We are in Galilee, where the
Greek language and culture are quite present [General Audience, June 14, 2006].
The fact that their father—Jonah (or Jonas)—gave his elder
son (Simon) an Aramaic name and his younger son (Andrew) a Greek name reflects
the mixed Jewish-Gentile environment of Galilee.
3) How close was Andrew to Jesus?
In the synoptic Gospels and Acts, the twelve apostles are
always listed in three group of four individuals. The first of these groups
indicates those who were the closest to Jesus. It includes the two pairs of
brothers: (1) Peter and Andrew, the sons of Jonah, and (2) James and John, the
sons of Zebedee.
Andrew was thus one of the four disciples closest to Jesus,
but he seems to have been the least close of the four.
This is reflected in the fact that, several times, Peter,
James, and John seem to have privileged access to Jesus, while Andrew is not
present.
For example, Peter, James, and John were those present for
the Transfiguration, but Andrew was not present. They were the closest three,
while Andrew was a distant fourth.
This is ironic.
4) Why is it ironic that Andrew would be more distant?
Because he was one of the first followers of Jesus.
In fact, he discovered Jesus before his brother Peter did.
Indeed, the was one of the two initial disciples of John the
Baptist who encountered Jesus at the beginning of John’s Gospel.
Because the followed Jesus before St. Peter and the others,
he is called the Protoklete or “First Called” apostle.
Pope Benedict comments:
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".
5) What do the Gospels reveal to us about St. Andrew?
There are three notable incidents. The first occurs when
Jesus performs the multiplication of loaves. Pope Benedict notes:
The
Gospel traditions mention Andrew's name in particular on another three
occasions that tell us something more about this man. The first is that of
the multiplication of the loaves in Galilee. On that
occasion, it was Andrew who pointed out to Jesus the presence of a young boy
who had with him five barley loaves and two fish: not much, he remarked, for
the multitudes who had gathered in that place (cf. Jn 6: 8-9).
In
this case, it is worth highlighting Andrew's realism. He noticed the boy, that
is, he had already asked the question: "but what good is that for so
many?" (ibid.), and recognized the insufficiency of his minimal
resources. Jesus, however, knew how to make them sufficient for the multitude
of people who had come to hear him.
6) When else does Andrew come to the forefront?
A second instance is when he and the other core disciples
question Jesus about his statement that the beautiful stones of the temple will
be torn down.
Pope Benedict notes:
The
second occasion was at Jerusalem. As he left the city, a disciple drew Jesus'
attention to the sight of the massive walls that supported the Temple. The
Teacher's response was surprising: he said that of those walls not one stone
would be left upon another. Then Andrew, together with Peter, James and John,
questioned him: "Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign
when these things are all to be accomplished?" (Mk 13: 1-4).
In
answer to this question Jesus gave an important discourse on the destruction of
Jerusalem and on the end of the world, in which he asked his disciples to be
wise in interpreting the signs of the times and to be constantly on their
guard.
From
this event we can deduce that we should not be afraid to ask Jesus questions
but at the same time that we must be ready to accept even the surprising and
difficult teachings that he offers us.
7) Is there a third instance in which the Gospels reveal St.
Andrew’s importance?
In a third instance, St. Andrew—with his Greek name—serves
as a bridge between Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus. Pope Benedict
explains:
Lastly,
a third initiative of Andrew is recorded in the Gospels: the scene is still
Jerusalem, shortly before the Passion. For the Feast of the Passover, John
recounts, some Greeks had come to the city, probably proselytes or God-fearing
men who had come up to worship the God of Israel at the Passover Feast. Andrew
and Philip, the two Apostles with Greek names, served as interpreters and
mediators of this small group of Greeks with Jesus.
The
Lord's answer to their question - as so often in John's Gospel - appears
enigmatic, but precisely in this way proves full of meaning. Jesus said to the
two disciples and, through them, to the Greek world: "The hour has come
for the Son of man to be glorified. I solemnly assure you, unless a grain of
wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it
dies, it produces much fruit" (12: 23-24).
Jesus
wants to say: Yes, my meeting with the Greeks will take place, but not as a
simple, brief conversation between myself and a few others, motivated above all
by curiosity. The hour of my glorification will come with my death, which can
be compared with the falling into the earth of a grain of wheat. My death on
the Cross will bring forth great fruitfulness: in the Resurrection the
"dead grain of wheat" - a symbol of myself crucified - will become
the bread of life for the world; it will be a light for the peoples and
cultures.
Yes,
the encounter with the Greek soul, with the Greek world, will be achieved in
that profundity to which the grain of wheat refers, which attracts to itself
the forces of heaven and earth and becomes bread.
In
other words, Jesus was prophesying about the Church of the Greeks, the Church
of the pagans, the Church of the world, as a fruit of his Pasch.
9) What happened to Andrew in later years?
Pope Benedict noted:
Some
very ancient traditions not only see Andrew, who communicated these words to
the Greeks, as the interpreter of some Greeks at the meeting with Jesus
recalled here, but consider him the Apostle to the Greeks in the years
subsequent to Pentecost. They enable us to know that for the rest of his life
he was the preacher and interpreter of Jesus for the Greek world.
Peter,
his brother, travelled from Jerusalem through Antioch and reached Rome to
exercise his universal mission; Andrew, instead, was the Apostle of the Greek
world. So it is that in life and in death they appear as true brothers -- a
brotherhood that is symbolically expressed in the special reciprocal
relations of the See of Rome and of Constantinople, which are truly Sister
Churches.
10) How has the sisterhood of Rome and Constantinople
manifested?
Pope Benedict noted:
To
emphasize this relationship, my Predecessor Pope Paul VI, in 1964, returned the
important relic of St Andrew, which until then had been kept in the Vatican
Basilica, to the Orthodox Metropolitan Bishop of the city of Patras in Greece,
where tradition has it that the Apostle was crucified.
A more recent example occurred when the ecumenical patriarch
of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, visited Pope Francis on the occasion of his
election to the pontificate.
As the successor of St. Peter, Francis noted the role of
Patriarch Bartholomew as the successor of St. Andrew and referred to him as “my
brother, Andrew,” casting the two of them in the roles of the original brother
apostles.
Before
all else, I express my heartfelt thanks for what my brother Andrew [Ecumenical
Patriarch Bartholomaios I] has said to us. Many thanks! Many thanks!
11) How did St. Andrew die?
Pope Benedict noted:
A
later tradition, as has been mentioned, tells of Andrew's death at Patras [in Greece], where
he too suffered the torture of crucifixion.
At that
supreme moment, however, like his brother Peter, he asked to be nailed to a
cross different from the Cross of Jesus.
In
his case it was a diagonal or X-shaped cross, which has thus come to be known
as "St Andrew's cross".
This
is what the Apostle is claimed to have said on that occasion, according to an
ancient story (which dates back to the beginning of the sixth century),
entitled The Passion of Andrew:
"Hail,
O Cross, inaugurated by the Body of Christ and adorned with his limbs as though
they were precious pearls. Before the Lord mounted you, you inspired an earthly
fear. Now, instead, endowed with heavenly love, you are accepted as a gift.
"Believers
know of the great joy that you possess, and of the multitude of gifts you have
prepared. I come to you, therefore, confident and joyful, so that you too may
receive me exultant as a disciple of the One who was hung upon you.... O
blessed Cross, clothed in the majesty and beauty of the Lord's limbs!... Take
me, carry me far from men, and restore me to my Teacher, so that, through you,
the one who redeemed me by you, may receive me. Hail, O Cross; yes, hail
indeed!".
Here,
as can be seen, is a very profound Christian spirituality. It does not view the
Cross as an instrument of torture but rather as the incomparable means for
perfect configuration to the Redeemer, to the grain of wheat that fell into the
earth.
Here
we have a very important lesson to learn: Our own crosses acquire value if we
consider them and accept them as a part of the Cross of Christ, if a reflection
of his light illuminates them.
