|
134.1
First Point
Saint
Barnabas was one of the first to join the apostles after Our Lord's
Ascension and he showed a very great detachment from the goods of this
earth. As we learn from the account given by Saint Luke in the Acts of the
Apostles, he sold his property which was considerable and brought the
money to the feet of the apostles.[i]
For this reason from then on he was held in special esteem by the
disciples and all the faithful, and was set apart for great things in the
Church, not only by the apostles, but also by the divine will, which
made itself known in his regard.[ii]
It is difficult to realize how much good a detached person is able
to do in the Church. The reason is that detachment shows a deep faith;
when a person abandons himself to the Providence of God it is like a man
who puts himself out on the high seas without sails or oars.
Beg God through the intercession of Saint Barnabas for the
disinterestedness so necessary in your profession, and on your part strive
to make this virtue your own.
134.2 Second Point
This
detachment of Saint Barnabas procured for him so great an abundance of
faith and the spirit of religion that Saint Luke, praising him in a few
words, says that he was a man full of goodness and filled with the Holy
Spirit and faith.[iii]
It was this goodness in him and the tenderness he felt for his neighbor that
led the apostles to appoint him, along with Saint Paul, to distribute the
alms sent from Antioch to Jerusalem during a great famine.[iv]
Faith, and the Spirit of God which animated him, enabled him to perform
several miracles that led people to regard him along with Saint Paul as a
god.[v]
Do you act in such a way as to have as much kindness and affection
for the children you instruct as Saint Barnabas had for the people for
whose conversion and salvation he was working?
The more tenderness you have for the members of Jesus Christ and of
the Church who are entrusted to you, the more God will produce in them the
wonderful effects of his grace.
134.3 Third Point
Although
Saint Barnabas was not one of the 12 apostles, he nevertheless possessed
fully the full of the apostolate. According to Saint Luke's account it
was the Holy Spirit himself, who, when some of the disciples were offering
sacrifices to the Lord and fasting, told them to set apart Saul and
Barnabas to carry out the work for which he had called them. This led the
disciples to lay hands on him as well as on Saint Paul.[vi]
Thus sent by the Holy Spirit, he produced such great results in
Antioch through the preaching of the Gospel, as Saint Luke declares, that a
great many persons there were converted to the Lord, and it was at Antioch
that the disciples were first called Christians.[vii]
Along with Saint Paul, Saint Barnabas was also the first to preach the
Gospel to the Gentiles.
If, like Saint Barnabas, you are filled with faith and the Spirit
of God, as you should be in your work, you will be the cause that those
whom you instruct will be Christians not in name only, but they will also
have the spirit and the conduct of Christians, which will cause others to
admire them for their piety.
|