Homily for Wednesday, Week 4 of Easter

Homily for Wednesday
4th Week of Easter

April 24, 2024
Acts 12: 24—13: 5
Provincial House, New Rochelle

In the interval since yesterday’s 1st reading, there was a famine in Palestine, and Saul and Barnabas were sent from Antioch to Jerusalem with relief funds.  Herod Agrippa persecuted the Church, killing the apostle James and imprisoning Peter, who escaped miraculously.

So we come to the 2d half of Acts, in which the focus shifts from the apostles in Jerusalem to Paul, Barnabas, and Silas as missionaries from Antioch.  The principal actors, of course, remain the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

In Antioch, Barnabas and Saul are identified among the “prophets and teachers” in that Church.  Barnabas, originally sent there as a delegate of the Jerusalem Church—and extraordinary visitor—is still given the lead role and is observed as Saul’s mentor.  The Holy Spirit selects the 2 of them for a special work and sends them out to “proclaim the word of God.”  And Paul’s 1st missionary journey begins, in the company of Barnabas and John Mark.

The Holy Spirit continued the missionary work of the Lord thru Don Bosco, as the 1st article of our Constitutions tells us.  The Spirit “formed within him the heart of a father and teacher” and “inspired him to initiate various apostolic endeavors, 1st among them our Society.”  The Spirit remains active among us as we continue Christ’s mission.  We, today, are Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark if we allow the Spirit to lead us in our efforts to proclaim the word to the young, to families, to people as yet unevangelized, to bring to the whole world the light of Christ and eternal life (cf. John 12:44-50).