28 November 2026 · Syro-Malabar Rite
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“And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him.” Matthew 4:19–20
On the last day of the liturgical year the weekday readings look at the heavenly city: “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.” Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that true worshippers will worship the Father “in spirit and truth”. The whole year of feasts and Sundays has been a school for that worship.
We also keep St Andrew, the first-called. In John's Gospel he is the first to follow Jesus and immediately brings his brother: “We have found the Messiah.” Andrew is the patron of everyone who brings another to Christ. As the new year begins tomorrow with the Annunciation, Andrew reminds us that the Good News is meant to be shared: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Theme: “We have found the Messiah.”
The last day of the year: the heavenly temple, worship in spirit and truth, and St Andrew who brings others to Jesus.
“And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”” Genesis 28:17
“I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.” Revelation 21:22
Apply: Enter church tomorrow with reverence.
“I am now sending for many fishermen, says the LORD, and they shall catch them.” Jeremiah 16:16
“And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him.” Matthew 4:19–20
Apply: Leave one “net” that holds you back.
“In those days ten men from nations of every language shall take hold of a Jew, grasping his garment and saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”” Zechariah 8:23
“He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah.”” John 1:41
Apply: Invite someone to the Qurbana tomorrow.
The year ends where it began: with the house of God.
Tomorrow a new year begins; bring someone with you.
Take-home resolution: Begin the new liturgical year with confession and Holy Qurbana.
Dear friends, on the last day of the season of the Dedication of the Church we see Jacob dreaming of a ladder set up on the earth, its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending on it. Jacob wakes and says: this is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven (Genesis 28:12–17). Every church, every Holy Qurbana, is a gate of heaven.
Today we keep in advance the feast of St Andrew. By the Sea of Galilee Jesus calls Peter and Andrew: follow me, and I will make you fish for people. Immediately they left their nets and followed him (Matthew 4:19–20). Paul says that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved; but how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him (Romans 10:13–14)?
The first thing Andrew did was to bring his brother to Jesus. Tomorrow the season of Annunciation begins. Decide today to bring one person to Jesus this Christmas season: your brother or sister, or a friend. Amen.
Children, when Andrew met Jesus he ran and brought his brother. Invite a friend to church too!
Lord Jesus, as this liturgical year ends, I thank you for all your gifts. Like Andrew, let me follow you at once and bring others to you, that we may worship the Father in spirit and truth. Amen.
On the last Saturday of Qudash Edtha the Church keeps the feast of St Andrew the Apostle, and the readings follow the path of a call. Jacob, a fugitive, sees a ladder joining earth to heaven and says, “this is the gate of heaven”. Zechariah sees people of every language take hold of a Jew’s garment and say, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” Paul asks how anyone can believe unless someone is sent to proclaim. In Matthew, Jesus walks by the lake and calls Andrew and his brother: “Follow me.” Andrew, the first to follow and the one who brought others to Jesus, stands where these lines meet.
Setting.
Jacob has taken the blessing meant for his brother Esau by deceit (Genesis 27), and now he flees from Esau’s anger toward Haran, to his mother’s family. He is alone, at night, with a stone for a pillow. At this low point God meets him for the first time.
The place will be called Bethel, “house of God” (28:19). It later became one of Israel’s great sanctuaries.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” (28:12)
The angels go up first, then down. Communion between heaven and earth already exists; Jacob is allowed to see it.
“Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” (28:15)
God makes this promise to a man who has just deceived his father and brother. Grace comes before Jacob deserves it, and it will change him.
“Surely the Lord is in this place … and I did not know it!” (28:16)
“How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” (28:17)
These words are sung at the dedication of churches in many liturgical traditions. Every consecrated church is a Bethel.
How the Church reads it.
Jesus himself gives the key to this passage. To Nathanael, in the chapter where Andrew first follows him, he says, “you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man” (John 1:51). Christ is the true ladder, the meeting place of heaven and earth. Many Fathers developed this reading, and the Eastern hymn tradition also greets Mary as the heavenly ladder by which God came down, since through her the Son became man.
Setting.
Zechariah prophesied in 520–518 BC, when the exiles who had returned from Babylon were rebuilding the Temple in a poor and ruined Jerusalem (Zechariah 1:1; Ezra 5:1). Chapter 8 is a series of short promises, each beginning “Thus says the Lord of hosts”. Today’s passage is the last and greatest: the nations themselves will come to seek the Lord.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Come, let us go to entreat the favor of the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts; I myself am going.” (8:21)
Faith spreads from city to city, from neighbour to neighbour. The last words, “I myself am going”, show that the one who invites also goes.
“In those days ten men from nations of every language shall take hold of a Jew, grasping his garment and saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”” (8:23)
Ten is a round number of fullness. One faithful person becomes the way by which many come to God.
How the Church reads it.
Jesus said to the Samaritan woman that “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22). The Church gratefully acknowledges that she received the revelation of the Old Testament through the people of Israel and draws nourishment from that root (Nostra Aetate 4; CCC 839). The scene of Zechariah is lived again when Greeks come to Philip and say, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus”, and Philip goes with Andrew to tell Jesus (John 12:20–22).
Setting.
In Romans 9–11 Paul wrestles with a painful question: why has much of his own people, Israel, not accepted Jesus as Messiah? In chapter 10 he explains that the righteousness of faith is near, “on your lips and in your heart” (10:8, from Deuteronomy 30:14). Then he shows how faith comes to anyone: through a chain that begins with God sending messengers.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (10:9)
Lips and heart, outward and inward. Faith that is real is spoken, and words that are true come from the heart.
“And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”” (10:15)
Isaiah 52:7 speaks of the messenger running over the mountains to Jerusalem with news of peace. The feet are dusty and tired, but beautiful because of the news they carry.
“So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.” (10:17)
“Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” (10:18)
Paul applies to the preachers of the Gospel the words of Psalm 19:4 about the heavens declaring God’s glory. The Church has long sung this verse on the feasts of apostles.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism quotes this chain of questions to show that no one can give himself the mandate to preach the Gospel: the ministers of the Church are sent by Christ (CCC 875). It recalls that the earliest Christian confession, “Jesus is Lord”, attributes to Jesus the divine sovereignty (CCC 449). The Church is missionary by her very nature (Ad Gentes 2).
Setting.
After John the Baptist is arrested, Jesus leaves Nazareth and settles in Capernaum by the Sea of Galilee, and begins to preach: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (4:12–17). His first act is to call companions.
Fishing was the main trade of the lake towns. A man standing in the shallows would throw a round casting net; others worked from boats with larger nets, which needed constant mending. Andrew, whose name is Greek and means “manly”, came from Bethsaida (John 1:44). John’s Gospel tells that he was first a disciple of John the Baptist and had already met Jesus, and that he brought his brother Simon to him (John 1:35–42).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea” (4:18)
Jesus sees them at their ordinary work. God’s call usually comes in the middle of daily life.
“And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.”” (4:19)
“Immediately they left their nets and followed him.” (4:20)
The nets were their living. To leave them is to trust that the one who calls will provide.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that from the beginning Jesus associated his disciples with his own life and mission (CCC 787). The Byzantine tradition honours Andrew as the “First-called” (Prōtoklētos), because in John’s Gospel he was the first to follow Jesus and at once brought his brother to him. Tradition holds that he preached in the regions around the Black Sea and in Greece, and was martyred at Patras in Achaia; later tradition says on a cross shaped like an X. He is the patron of the Church of Constantinople, and each year on his feast a delegation of the Holy See visits the Ecumenical Patriarch, as a sign of the brotherhood of the Churches of Peter and of Andrew.
Why did Andrew and Peter follow Jesus so quickly?
Matthew stresses the power of Jesus’ word. John’s Gospel adds that Andrew had already met Jesus and spent a day with him, and had told Peter, “We have found the Messiah” (John 1:41). Both are true: the call by the lake came to men whose hearts had already been touched.
Is it enough to say “Jesus is Lord” to be saved?
Paul means a confession that comes from a heart that believes, the faith of the whole person. Elsewhere he speaks of “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). Saying the words without living them is not what he means; living faith includes both the confession and a life that follows.
Was Jacob’s ladder a real ladder?
The Hebrew word probably means a stairway. It was a dream, a vision given by God. Its truth is in its meaning: heaven is not closed, God comes down to meet us, and in Christ the way between heaven and earth stays open.
Andrew and Thomas were brothers in the one apostolic college, and the Syro-Malabar Church, founded on the preaching of St Thomas, honours Andrew as the one who first brought others to Jesus. On this last Saturday of the Dedication season the words of Jacob fit our churches: each is “the house of God” and “the gate of heaven”, where in the Holy Qurbana heaven is opened. Andrew’s first act after meeting Jesus was to find his brother; every Christian family and parish is called to do the same.