Homily for Wednesday, 11 June 2014‒ Memorial of St. Barnabas

Wednesday of the 10th week in Ordinary Time
 
Readings of the day: Acts 11:21b-26; Psalm 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4, 5-6; Matthew 5:17-19

What is the mission of an apostle of Christ, and how are we entrusted with this mission to be apostles of Christ? We may think of an apostle as one of the original Twelve in our Scriptures. Sometimes we may include people like Matthias, who filled the role of Judas Iscariot after Christ had ascended to heaven, and Sts. Paul and Barnabas in our list of apostles. Literally, the word “apostle” simply means “one who is sent.”

Today we celebrate the feast day of St. Barnabas, an apostle; the one chosen to assist St. Paul and the early Church at Antioch; one who was sent, as we hear in our first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles, from Jerusalem to a rapidly-growing Christian community in Antioch. What are some of the ways in which Acts describes the apostle St. Barnabas?

We hear that “he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith.” These are vital qualities of an apostle of Christ; to be “filled with the Holy Spirit and faith.” Barnabas arrived in Antioch, where we hear that “he rejoiced and encouraged” the people of Antioch “to remain faithful to the Lord in firmness of heart.”

These are two more vital qualities of an apostle of Christ. How, then, do these words used to describe Barnabas relate to us? How are we, like Barnabas, called to be apostles of Christ?

We began this week with last Sunday’s celebration of Pentecost; of our receiving of the Holy Spirit into our Church; into the hearts of every one of us. Pentecost is our great reminder that we, like Barnabas and like every apostle; every teacher; every prophet; every baptized Christian, is “filled with the Holy Spirit and faith.”

Because we are all “filled with the Holy Spirit and faith” as Barnabas was, we are entrusted in a sense with the mission with which Barnabas was entrusted. We, like Barnabas and like every apostle, are sent to rejoice and to encourage one another. We are sent to take and to give out everywhere we go and to everyone whom we encounter this gift of the Holy Spirit that we have received. In this sense we are all apostles of Jesus Christ.

Let us also take to heart the last words of our Mass that we will hear in a few moments. We end our Mass with words of sending forth: “Go forth, the Mass is ended” or, “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord” or, “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord with your life,” or simply, “Go in peace.”

We have been filled with the Holy Spirit and faith and then we are sent out. “Go.” We have a mission given by our baptism; given in the very words of our Mass; given by the example of St. Barnabas. And so we have all the vital qualities of apostles of Christ.