Memorial of Saint Barnabas, Apostle

I have to admit to a soft spot in my heart for St. Barnabas. I especially love today’s passage. Barnabas – the “son of encouragement” – emerges as an ideal disciple. Faithful, joyful, and strong, Barnabas was “a good man filled with the Holy Spirit and faith,” a man who embodied Jesus’s guidance that your “yes” mean “yes” and your “no” mean “no.” It is Barnabas’s community in Antioch that first garners the name “Christian,” in part because his community included people as diverse as two North Africans, a former persecutor, and a friend of Herod! This motley crew of fellow travelers on “the Way” crossed so many ethnic, political and social lines that observers had to make up a new name for them: “Christians.” 

I am writing this reflection on the Feast of Corpus Christi. Many churches have a Eucharistic procession this day. I am reminded that Barnabas’s legacy – the spirit of Antioch – continues to thrive nearly 2,000 years later.  In countries around the world hundreds of people accompany the Eucharist on a mile-long “way”. Dozens of choir members sing, primary school girls dance in white dresses, sisters and priests chant, and hundreds of laity walk through the paved or dusty streetsand parking lots….all to celebrate the abiding presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The words of today’s Psalm 98 come alive. “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation by our God. Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands; break into song; sing praise.” Alleluia.