A Reflection for the Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle
He said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him.
You can find today’s readings here.
In the second week of the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius invites the retreatant to meditate on the “Three Degrees of Humility.” The meditation is structured around three points of prayer, presenting different states of humility that become successively more radical and demanding.
The first degree is pretty straightforward: humility means obeying God and avoiding sin. The second degree is more demanding: to truly be humble, we should be indifferent, desiring neither riches over poverty, honor over dishonor, nor a long life over a short one. The third degree takes it up a notch: I want so badly to imitate Jesus that I desire not to be regarded as wise but as nothing more than “a fool for Christ” [Sp. Ex. 167].
When I first read those words, they confused me. As a Jesuit in training, the idea of being seen as a fool seemed simply ineffective for ministry. Even more concerning was that the thought of desiring and voicing this felt performative. Calling myself “a fool for Christ” sounded more likely to come from a place of spiritual pride than humility. So, I took that confusion and frustration to my spiritual director in the hope of gaining some clarity.
In the conversation that followed and in the years of ministry that have since passed, my understanding of humility has changed. Humility is not a state of being we simply reach or come to; it is a grace, and thus, it cannot be earned. Rather, to be humble is a disposition, a response to the circumstances we find ourselves in. The depth of our humility is found less in what we say about ourselves in moments of praise but in how we respond when we are truly humiliated.
Humility invites us to wrestle with the paradoxes and mysteries our faith is founded upon. That, somehow, our weaknesses are our strength, that the first shall be last and the last shall be first, and that it is in the emptying of ourselves that we are fulfilled. Ultimately, it is in being humble that we can most closely imitate Christ.
Today, we celebrate the Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, and through him, we can see how closely related humility is to following Jesus. One of the first apostles called, St. Andrew would go on to preach the Gospel along the shores of the Black Sea until being martyred in Patras, Greece. Tradition holds that St. Andrew was crucified, being bound to an X-shaped cross, yet scholars are unsure whether this was done in mockery of his faith or at Andrew’s request, deeming himself unworthy to die in the same way Jesus did.
Whatever the reason, it reveals the depth of Andrew’s humility. But I’d like to suggest that this depth of humility is not as far from our grasp as we might think.
Andrew wasn’t born a bold preacher; he was a fisherman. Yet, we hear today that when Christ called him, he left his net “at once” and followed him. I’m sure many people thought Andrew was a fool. But even at the time of his death, I doubt Andrew would have any regret for the decision he made that day.
While we may not be fishermen, we might consider what the “nets” in our own lives might be. What might God be inviting us to leave behind so that we may follow him more closely? This may look foolish to others, but if it brings us closer to Christ, it’s a price worth paying.
