Holy and All-Praiseworthy Apostle Andrew the First-Called.
Polyeleos Feast. Nativity Fast.
1 Corinthians 4:9-16. John 1:35-51.
Read 1 Corinthians 4:9-16
The way we live matters. Today we celebrate the memory of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First Called. St. Andrew is the brother of St. Peter and the one who introduced him to the Lord. Tradition holds that St. Andrew emulated Christ even in His death, being crucified on an X shaped cross. His life and witness remind us that the Cross is never absent from the life an Apostle. St. Paul makes this same point regarding suffering being the indication that the gospel message is truly being lived. Let us embrace our call to proclaim the good news, as St Andrew the First-Called did through his life and death and recognize that Resurrection only comes through Golgotha.
St. John Chrysostom writes:
What is the death of Jesus which they carried about with them? It is the daily deaths which they died, by which the resurrection also was shown. This is another reason for the trials, that Christ’s life might be manifested in human bodies. What looks like weakness and destitution in fact proclaims his resurrection. (Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians 9.1).