We honor Barnabas the Apostle today. Barnabas was one of the group of disciples in the Early Church who helped spread the way of Jesus throughout the ancient world. Barnabas worked closely with Paul, as we heard in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles. We don’t know a lot of details about many of the apostles and disciples, but we do know that they worked hard spreading the Gospel and that they worked hard encouraging those on their journey of faith.
As we are engaged in a new evangelization in our world today, a world that is becoming increasingly secular, a world in which many see religion as hypocritical or irrelevant, we find great encouragement in Barnabas and Paul, of their great missionary spirit. We celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood in a couple of weeks. We are called to see a missionary spirit inherent in the spirit of the Eucharist. On the night before Jesus died, he instituted the Holy Eucharist in the Last Supper that he celebrated with his followers. He did this so that his Sacrifice on Calvary, which would be consummated on the following day, might be celebrated in every time and place and for all of humanity. Reflecting upon the Lord’s Supper, Pope Benedict has this to say: “At the Last Supper, Jesus entrusts to his disciples the sacrament which makes present his self-sacrifice for the salvation of us all, in obedience to the Father’s will. We cannot approach the (Eucharist) without being drawn into the mission which, beginning in the very heart of God, is meant to reach all people. Missionary outreach is thus an essential part of the Eucharistic form of the Christian life.”
We need to break out of our comfort zones, to find new and exciting ways to grow in our faith and to evangelize in new and creative ways. The New Testament recounts ways in which Paul and Barnabas met barriers and obstacles in their efforts to evangelize, even to the point of having their lives threatened or being kicked out of towns. We should not get discouraged when things don’t go as we optimistically hope for. May we find strength in the Eucharist and in our community of faith. May we accept the call to be missionaries.
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