📖 Homily Today

The Son of Encouragement

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Church gives us a beautiful companion for our journey: Saint Barnabas, the Apostle whose very name tells us who he was. The Acts of the Apostles tells us the apostles called him Barnabas, "which means 'son of encouragement.'" What a name to be remembered by. Not "son of brilliance" or "son of power," but son of encouragement.

In our first reading, we meet Barnabas at a crucial moment. The Gospel had reached Antioch, and "a great number who believed turned to the Lord." When the church in Jerusalem heard this, they sent Barnabas. And listen to what he did: "when he arrived and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain faithful to the Lord in firm commitment of heart."

He rejoiced. Here was a man who could look at the good happening in others and be glad, not jealous. Saint Luke tells us why: "he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith." Barnabas had the rare and holy gift of seeing the grace of God at work and celebrating it.

But notice something else, dear friends. Barnabas did not keep the work to himself. He went to Tarsus to look for Saul, a man others still feared, and brought him to Antioch. Barnabas believed in someone the rest of the Church was hesitant to trust. Without Barnabas, there may have been no Saint Paul as we know him. The greatest missionary in Church history needed a friend who would encourage him, believe in him, and open a door for him.

This is the quiet, beautiful holiness of Barnabas. He did not seek the spotlight. He lifted others into it. And when the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them," the community laid hands on them and sent them off. Encouragement bore fruit in mission.

Now turn to the Gospel, where Jesus calls us to a righteousness that "surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees." He warns against anger, against contempt, against calling our brother "fool." And then He gives a striking command: "if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift."

Brothers and sisters, do you see how perfectly these readings fit together? Barnabas shows us the positive of what Jesus commands. Where Jesus warns us against contempt and division, Barnabas shows us a life of reconciliation, encouragement, and building up. The opposite of calling your brother a fool is what Barnabas did, seeing the grace of God in others and rejoicing.

How easy it is, my friends, to be critics. How easy to notice what is wrong in our spouse, our children, our neighbor, the stranger we disagree with. The anger Jesus warns about so often begins in the heart, in small resentments we let grow. Saint John Chrysostom, preaching on this very passage, warned that anger held in the heart is itself a kind of murder, because it kills our love for our brother long before any harm is done by the hand.

This is why Jesus tells us to leave our gift at the altar and be reconciled first. He is telling us that our worship is bound up with how we treat one another. We cannot truly approach this altar, where in a few moments we will receive the very Body and Blood of Christ, while harboring contempt for a brother or sister whom Christ also died to save.

So as we come to the Eucharist today, let us examine our hearts. Is there someone I need to forgive? Someone I have written off? Someone whose good fortune I have resented rather than celebrated? The Eucharist is the sacrament of unity. Christ gives Himself to make us one body. We cannot receive the medicine of reconciliation while refusing to be reconciled.

Here is your invitation this week, dear friends. Be a Barnabas. Choose one person and become a son or daughter of encouragement to them. Speak a word of affirmation to someone who is struggling. Open a door for someone others have overlooked. Rejoice when you see the grace of God in another, instead of comparing or competing. And if there is someone you need to reconcile with, do not wait. Go, as Jesus says, and be reconciled first.

The Church remembers Barnabas not for great speeches, but for a great heart. May we, nourished by the Body of Christ at this altar, become for our families, our parish, and our world, sons and daughters of encouragement, building up the Body of Christ in love.

Saint Barnabas, son of encouragement, pray for us. Amen.

Sources Consulted - The Navarre Bible Commentary on Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel of Matthew - Saint John Chrysostom, *Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew* - Catechism of the Catholic Church (nn. 1424, 2302-2304, on reconciliation and the Eucharist) - Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience Catechesis on the early Church and the figure of Saint Barnabas - Saint Augustine, *Sermon on the Mount* - Scott Hahn, *Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: Acts of the Apostles* - Raymond Brown, *An Introduction to the New Testament* (background on Antioch and the early mission)