THE WORD AND THE SAINT
June 11, 2022: Celebrating St. Barnabas, the Apostle of EncouragementActs 11: 2b-126, 13: 1-3; Matthew 10: 7-13
Some characteristics that stand out in Barnabas are his relentless passion for proclamation, his courage to brave all odds, his capacity for being sincere even to the extent of having confrontations with his close friend, Paul (Acts 15). What mattered to them, be it Paul or Barnabas, was the Message of God be announced and the Reign of God be made present; neither their personal likes or dislikes nor their ego demands affect their mission in anyway!
Reflecting on the great apostle we have today to celebrate, we have some lessons that he gives us:
1. Build up persons, that is the way to build up the Reign of God. Look at the way he brough Paul to the other apostles and stood by him and other messengers of the Lord.
2. Be faithful to the Lord, with a firm heart, that is the way to belong to the Reign. The life of Barnabas shows the way he renounced everything for the sake of the call that he had received - a firm heart that remained ever faithful to God.
3. Rejoice in the matters of the Lord, that is the way to invite people to the Reign. We can observe the amount of satifaction that Barnabas has when people converted themselves and were prepared to accept the salvific message of Christ.
Be encouraged, and be an encouragement to the others... that is the crux of the message today. May the apostle of encouragement we celebrate today, St. Barnabas intercede for us that we may be filled with the Spirit of encouragement and empowerment, thus being ourselves sources of encouragement wherever we are.