Dear brothers and sisters

in the last two catecheses we have spoken of the figure of St Peter. Now we want, as far as the sources allow, to get to know the other eleven Apostles a little more closely. Therefore let us speak today of Simon Peter's brother, Saint Andrew, also one of the Twelve. The first striking feature in Andrew is his name: it is not Hebrew, as one would have expected, but Greek, a not inconsiderable sign of a certain cultural openness in his family. We are in Galilee, where the Greek language and culture are quite present. In the lists of the Twelve, Andrew occupies second place, as in Matthew (10:1-4) and Luke (6:13-16), or fourth place as in Mark (3:13-18) and Acts (1:13-14). In any case, he certainly enjoyed great prestige within the early Christian communities.

The blood bond between Peter and Andrew, as well as the common call addressed to them by Jesus, emerge explicitly in the Gospels. We read: 'As Jesus was walking along the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting their nets into the sea, because they were fishermen. And he said to them, 'Follow me, I will make you fishers of men'" (Mt 4:18-19; Mk 1:16-17). From the Fourth Gospel we gather another important detail: at first, Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist; and this shows us that he was a man who sought, who shared the hope of Israel, who wanted to know more about the word of the Lord, the reality of the Lord present. He was truly a man of faith and hope; and from John the Baptist one day he heard Jesus proclaimed as 'the Lamb of God' (John 1:36); he then moved and, together with another unnamed disciple, followed Jesus, the One who was called by John 'the Lamb of God'. The evangelist relates: they "saw where he was staying and that day they stayed with him" (John 1:37-39). Andrew therefore enjoyed precious moments of intimacy with Jesus. The account continues with a significant note: "One of the two who had heard John's words and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He met his brother Simon first and said to him, "We have found the Messiah, which means the Christ," and led him to Jesus" (John 1:40-43), immediately showing an uncommon apostolic spirit. Andrew, therefore, was the first of the Apostles to be called to follow Jesus. Precisely on this basis, the liturgy of the Byzantine Church honours him with the appellation Protóklitos, which means 'first called'. And it is certain that also because of the fraternal relationship between Peter and Andrew, the Church of Rome and the Church of Constantinople feel that they are sister Churches in a special way. To underline this relationship, my predecessor Pope Paul VI, in 1964, returned the distinguished relic of St Andrew, until then kept in the Vatican Basilica, to the Orthodox Metropolitan Bishop of the city of Patras in Greece, where according to tradition the Apostle was crucified.

Gospel traditions particularly recall the name of Andrew on three other occasions that make us know this man a little more. The first is that of the multiplication of the loaves in Galilee. At that juncture, it was Andrew who pointed out to Jesus the presence of a boy who had with him five barley loaves and two fish: very little - he remarked - for all the people gathered there (cf. Jn 6:8-9). It is worth emphasising, in this case, Andrew's realism: he noticed the boy - so he had already asked the question: "But what is this for so many people?" (ibid.) - and realised the insufficiency of his few resources. Jesus, however, was able to make them sufficient for the multitude of people who had come to listen to him. The second occasion was in Jerusalem. On his way out of the city, a disciple pointed out to Jesus the sight of the mighty walls that supported the Temple. The Master's response was surprising: he said that not stone upon stone would remain of those walls. Andrew then, together with Peter, James and John, questioned him: "Tell us when this will happen and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be fulfilled" (Mk 13:1-4). In response to this question, Jesus gave an important discourse on the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world, inviting his disciples to read the signs of the times carefully and to remain ever vigilant. From this we can deduce that we must not be afraid to ask Jesus questions, but at the same time we must be ready to accept the teachings, even surprising and difficult ones, that he offers us.

Finally, a third initiative of Andrew is recorded in the Gospels. The setting is Jerusalem again, just before the Passion. For the feast of Passover,' John recounts, 'some Greeks had also come to the holy city, probably proselytes or God-fearers, who had come to worship the God of Israel on the feast of Passover. Andrew and Philip, the two apostles with Greek names, served as interpreters and mediators of this small group of Greeks to Jesus. The Lord's answer to their question appears - as so often in John's Gospel - enigmatic, but it is precisely in this way that it reveals itself to be rich in meaning. Jesus says to the two disciples and, through them, to the Greek world: "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, if the grain of wheat that falls into the earth does not die, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (12:23-24). What do these words mean in this context? Jesus wants to say: Yes, the meeting between me and the Greeks will take place, but not as a simple and brief conversation between me and some people, driven above all by curiosity. With my death, comparable to the falling of a grain of wheat into the earth, the hour of my glorification will come. From my death on the cross will come the great fruitfulness: the 'dead grain of wheat' - symbol of me crucified - will become in the resurrection bread of life for the world; it will be light for peoples and cultures. Yes, the encounter with the Greek soul, with the Greek world, will take place at that depth alluded to in the story of the grain of wheat that draws to itself the forces of earth and heaven and becomes bread. In other words, Jesus prophesies the Church of the Greeks, the Church of the Gentiles, the Church of the world as the fruit of his Passover.

Very ancient traditions see in Andrew, who transmitted this word to the Greeks, not only the interpreter of some Greeks in the encounter with Jesus now mentioned, but they consider him to be the apostle of the Greeks in the years that followed Pentecost; they let us know that in the rest of his life he was the announcer and interpreter of Jesus for the Greek world. Peter, his brother, came from Jerusalem via Antioch to Rome to exercise his universal mission there; Andrew, on the other hand, was the apostle to the Greek world: they thus appear in life and in death as true brothers - a brotherhood that is symbolically expressed in the special relationship of the Sees of Rome and Constantinople, truly sister Churches.

A later tradition, as mentioned, tells of Andrew's death in Patras, where he too suffered the torture of crucifixion. At that supreme moment, however, similarly to his brother Peter, he asked to be placed on a different cross from that of Jesus. In his case, it was a decussate cross, i.e. a cross with an inclined cross, which was therefore called 'St Andrew's cross'. Here is what the Apostle is said to have said on that occasion, according to an ancient account (early 6th century) entitled Andrew's Passion: "Hail, O Cross, inaugurated by the body of Christ and adorned with its members, as if they were precious pearls. Before the Lord ascended thee, thou inculcatedst an earthly fear. Now instead, endowed with a heavenly love, you are received as a gift. Believers know, in your regard, how much joy you possess, how many gifts you keep prepared. Surely therefore and full of joy I come to thee, that thou also mayest receive me exultant as a disciple of him who was suspended to thee ... O blessed Cross, who received the majesty and beauty of the Lord's limbs! ... Take me and bear me away from men and render me to my Master, that through thee I may be received by him who by thee redeemed me. Hail, O Cross; yes, hail indeed!". As we can see, there is here a very profound Christian spirituality, which sees in the Cross not so much an instrument of torture as the incomparable means of a full assimilation to the Redeemer, to the Grain of wheat fallen to the earth. We must learn from here a very important lesson: our crosses acquire value if they are considered and accepted as part of the cross of Christ, if they are reached by the reverberation of his light. Only from that Cross are even our sufferings ennobled and acquire their true meaning.

May the Apostle Andrew, therefore, teach us to follow Jesus promptly (cf. Mt 4:20; Mk 1:18), to speak enthusiastically of Him to all we meet, and above all to cultivate a relationship of true familiarity with Him, well aware that only in Him can we find the ultimate meaning of our life and death.

[Pope Benedict, General Audience 14 June 2006]