Homily
for Tuesday
4th
Week of Easter
May
10, 2022
Acts
11: 19-26
Christian
Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, New Rochelle
Our reading today continues logically from where we left off yesterday: “God has granted life-giving repentance to the Gentiles too” (11:18). But it also backtracks a little. Since Stephen’s martyrdom and the persecution that broke out that day (8:1), we’ve heard of the diaconal ministry of Philip, Saul’s conversion, and Peter’s reception of Cornelius and his household into the faith.
Now the scattering of some believers on
account of the persecution comes up again.
This scattering calls to mind what Tertullian said about the blood of
martyrs being the seed of the Church.
For these faithful scatter like seeds “as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and
Antioch” (11:19), and by God’s design the scattered believers scatter the word
of salvation also to the Greeks in those places. The grace of God is at work even in the
aftermath of persecution (11:23).
Tradition believes that St. Luke was a
native of Antioch. That’s not
historically certain. Nowadays Antioch
is a minor city called Antakya of half a million people, in southern Turkey
near the Syrian border. In New Testament
times it was the 3d city of the Roman Empire after Rome and Alexandria. The development of Christianity there,
therefore, was significant. It became
the missionary center of Paul’s activity and Peter’s 1st episcopal see, if we
may use that term.
Jerusalem remained the mother church,
and the leaders there showed their concern for developments in Antioch by
dispatching Barnabas—who was briefly introduced back in ch. 4 (vv. 36-37)—as an
apostolic visitor (11:22). He’s indeed
treated as an apostle by Luke and so designated by our liturgical books. Luke tells us “he was a good man, filled with
the Holy Spirit and faith” (11:24), and he implies that Barnabas’s visit
influenced further conversions (11:24), perhaps because of his openness to what
the Spirit was doing in the city as well as in his native Cyprus.
But as regards the scope of Acts and
the preaching of the Gospel, the most important thing Barnabas does is to find
Saul back home at Tarsus and bring him to Antioch (11:25-26). There Barnabas continues the role he’d
undertaken at Jerusalem as Saul’s mentor (9:27), and the 2 form an apostolic
partnership that will bear abundant fruit as Luke’s story progresses.
The work of the Holy Spirit and of
grace didn’t end with the apostolic age, brothers. We believe, e.g., that the Spirit has been at
work in Vatican II and its implementation—regarding not only a revived liturgy
but also in the renewal of our religious congregations; in missionary activity
like what we see in Acts, attuned to different cultures but always following
the same Lord Jesus; in ecumenism; in appreciation for our Jewish brothers and
sisters and for people of other religions; in an entirely new outlook toward
the world not merely as the domain of Satan but also as God’s created order
where his word can thrive. So, brothers,
may we “all remain faithful to the Lord in firmness of heart” (11:23) and be
apostles, within our limitations, with the spirit of Barnabas.
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