Word to the Wise
Saturday, June 11, 2016 - Saturday in the 10th Week in Ordinary Time
[Acts 11:21b-26; 13:1-3 and Matt 5:33-37]While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." Then, completing their fasting and prayer they laid hands on them and sent them off. [Acts]
JUNE 11 ST. BARNABAS, apostle
The Church owes a great debt to St. Barnabas. It was he who went to Tarsus and recruited Saul (who then became Paul) to preach. This was after Saul had undergone his dramatic conversion from persecutor to preacher and had returned to his hometown quite some distance from Antioch or Jerusalem. The first scripture today recounts the action of the community in Antioch in choosing Barnabas and Saul to be missionaries.
We who are accustomed to our local parish church may have some sense of this event if a member of the parish volunteers to go to a mission sponsored by our local diocese down in Central or South America or even in India or Africa. However, travel is considerably less dangerous now than it was in the days of Barnabas and Paul. They were really taking their lives in their hands.
It is not clear how Barnabas knew Paul, although Paul (in his Saul days) was well-known for his anti-Christian activities. Perhaps his conversion was well-known enough to Barnabas for the latter to think, "This guy could be useful!" In any case, we might take a page from his methods and encourage those whom we think might make good missionaries, whether it be as a lay person or as a religious or priest. We could have a hand in shaping the future of the Church! It happened to Barnabas. AMEN
config
view
logs
4096.0 KB
96 ms
4
