Monday 30 November, Andrew the Apostle (Festival) +++ Love your neighbours

 

Psalm 19.1-6│Isaiah52.7-10│Romans 10.12-18│Matthew 4.18-22

Psaumes 19.1-6| Esaïe 52.7-10|Romains 10.12-18|Matthieu 4.18-22

 

Love your neighbours

 

Holy writ tells us that there are no differences between Jew and Gentile, slave and freeman, male and female—wow!  If we followed those tenets, we wouldn’t need to have “me too,” “black lives matter,” or any other form of social protests.  We would love our neighbours as ourselves.  We would understand that all are equal, all lives matter, and, to quote the very non-Christian Beatles, “all we need is love!”  Such a simple concept, that all are brothers and sisters in Christ, yet so challenging to affirm and share!

For our spiritual maturation, we are all instructed to read scripture, pray without ceasing and both to listen to preaching and to be “preachers.”  We must not only listen but share the Gospel message: our salvation stems from faith in accepting the unmerited grace of our redemption through Jesus Christ.  Then, we are to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28.19).  Let our voices go out to all the earth, and our words to the ends of the world (Romans 10.18).  Most of us understand these instructions, and that we, as the family of believers that constitutes the church militant, are the corpus that can and will make a difference in the world.  One of my Baptist friends often reminded me when I got frustrated with work or with the behaviour of others, we are simply told “whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10.31).  

So ask yourself today, have you studied, have you listened, have you “preached” (by word or action), have you opened your heart to the Holy Spirit, and have you loved your neighbour?

Peace be with you! 

Rich Goodwin

 Editor’s note: St. Andrew, also known as Andrew the Apostle, was a Christian Apostle and the older brother to St. Peter. It is believed Andrew was one of the closer disciples to Jesus. According to Christian tradition, Andrew went on to preach the Good News around the shores of the Black Sea and throughout what is now Greece and Turkey. Andrew was martyred by crucifixion in Patras. He was crucified on a cross form known as "crux decussata," which is an X-shaped cross or a "saltire." His saltire cross is featured on the flag of Scotland. St. Andrew is the patron saint of fishermen and singers.

 (From https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=109).

'St. Andrew' by Greco, 1541?-1614 From Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48049 [retrieved November 28, 2020]. Original source: www.yorckproject.de.