As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen. He said to them, “Come after me.” St. Matthew begins his account of the public ministry of Jesus with the call of two sets of brothers: Peter and Andrew, James and John. As the story unfolds three of them — Peter, James and John — become a kind of inner circle who are with Jesus at privileged moments. Why wasn’t Andrew part of that group? Did he feel overlooked or taken for granted as a result? In St. John’s gospel Andrew is the first disciples the one who introduced his brother, Peter, to Jesus. One early preacher made this suggestion: Jesus trusted Andrew as his oldest disciple to watch out for the other eight apostles while he and the others were going off. A good reminder that in the plan of God we all have different gifts, and hence different roles to play, in helping to bring good news into the world. Like Andrew, we might be called to be in the background, to go unrecognized, but still make a vital contribution to the kingdom of God.
