30 November 1991
Baraketa, Madagascar

My dear Confreres,

I cannot now remember which of the Popes had a special personal devotion to St. Andrew, the Saint of today. His devotion seems to have been quite intense, for, by a decree, he had St. Andrew's name inserted into that prayer which followed on the Our Father of the Mass. Some of us here will remember how in the opening lines of that prayer, Deliver us, O Lord, the intercession of Our Lady, St. Peter, St. Paul and St. Andrew were invoked. Then the revision of the liturgy was made, and it was deemed good that at that point in the Mass no reference should be made to the intercession of the saints. I have speculated on the reason why this particular Pope had such a profound devotion to St. Andrew. Could it have been for the reason that it was St. Andrew who introduced St. Peter, the first Pope, to Jesus Christ? You will recall from St. John's Gospel that it was Andrew who first met Jesus Christ, but as Andrew was a full partner in Peter's fishing business, the next day he thought it only fair to share his great find with his brother, Peter. Both Peter and Andrew were not long in the company of Jesus, when the natural qualities of leadership which Peter enjoyed asserted themselves. It was Peter who became the undisputed leader in the apostolic group, a leadership which was to be confirmed in a very solemn way by Jesus Himself. After that Andrew seems to have lost his identity. He became known to the evangelists, not so much for his own qualities but by the fact that he was the brother of Peter.

It was Andrew who brought Peter to Jesus. It was Andrew, too, who in a sense brought the little boy to Jesus when they were in a remote place, and Jesus had posed the question how the crowd could at a late hour of the day be fed. It was Andrew who said: "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they among so many." (Jn 6:9). To Andrew, then, must have fallen the task of bringing the little boy to Jesus. I have sometimes wondered how that little boy must have felt about Andrew when he began to take the lunch which the boy's mother had carefully prepared for him that morning. There must have been a certain sense of panic, if not injustice. Then, when the boy saw what Jesus did with the five loaves and two fish, forever afterwards he must have treasured the memory of St. Andrew, who had made it all possible.

Again, it was on Palm Sunday evening that some Greeks came to Jerusalem and wished to see Jesus. They went to Philip. Possibly Philip felt uneasy about them, as being in some way undocumented persons. For that reason he went to Andrew. So you see that Andrew was regarded by the Apostles as a very good liaison officer. I have sometimes thought of Andrew as a good director of vocations, or a patron for those engaged in the work of directing vocations.

All that I have been saying about persons leading others to Jesus Christ is brought out in St. John's account of Andrew's own vocation. You will recall how, in the first chapter of St. John's Gospel, Andrew heard John the Baptist refer to Jesus Christ. Equivalently he said: "There he goes, the Lamb of God." The words penetrated deeply into Andrew, conveying not only the idea of victimhood but of gentleness. So he followed Jesus Christ until Jesus, turning round, said to him and his companion: "'What do you seek?' And they said to Him, 'Teacher, where are you staying?' He said to them, `Come and see.' They came and saw where He was staying and they stayed with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour." (Jn 1:38-39).

We speak much about evangelizing the poor and about pastoral programs and community projects. They are important topics. However, let us never forget that in the last analysis we bring people to Jesus Christ most effectively by our own willingness to allow Him to act through us. We allow Him to work through us when we surrender our wills to Him. After all, the only gift we can give back to God is our wills. It is through constantly surrendering our wills to Him that we become more transparent, thus allowing the light of God's love to flow unimpeded through us. And it is only the light of God's love that will bring about the conversion of people. It is, to quote a phrase of St. Vincent, "through being filled with God," that we become efficacious missioners. "By being united to Him," and again I quote St. Vincent, "as the branches to the vine, we do the same as He did on earth, I mean we bring about the same divine action and beget children of Our Lord like St. Paul did, filled with His spirit." (Coste XI, Fr. ed., p. 344).