“When does God reveal His glory in the heavens?” The great works continually send out their mes- sages, both during the day and night. It is as if God’s works are speaking. There is a message. It is not meaningless words or a random string of letters. Just like the messages that we send out into space in hope of having some alien detect it. The message has significance. It reveals knowl-edge. God is releasing knowledge about Himself. It is a pity that most people call it nature for they miss the message. The parallelism of day and night give a solid testimony about God’s glorious person.

Today’s Gospel proclamation describes the call of St. Andrew, whose feast we celebrate today. What we are celebrating is his call to mis- sion: pure and simple. If we are to be a church that mirrors and lives out the spirit of St. Andrew, we too are called to a community life of mission. Worship and mission go hand in hand as the important features of community life. From the first days of the church, the Lord Jesus called his disciples, and gave them a task to do: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people”. The task of mission and ministry is at the heart of our call.

Fishermen must have perseverance. Fishing has become a popular past time activity among affluent youth in the developed world. I sup- pose it stands in complete contradiction to the fast pace of life that they customarily lead. Fishing offers a moment to stop, and be still and reflect on life in a calm surrounding. But the fishermen called to be disciples did not sit on the peace and quiet of a riverbank but in the anxious, risky, physically-exhausting environment of the deep sea.

As we seek to develop as a Mission-oriented Church, we need perseverance. We are persuaded of our call to mission; there will be rough waves along the way. So we need to persevere, confident that we are walking in the way of agreement to the call of Christ. As that happens, there will inevitably be a process of purifying as God asks us to reexamine what is important in the life of our community.

Prayer: Abba Father, may we persevere in our relationship with you and know you in a new way. Amen.