Festival of St. Barnabas, Apostle
Matthew 10:7-16
[Jesus said to the twelve:] 7 “As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Cure the sick; raise the dead; cleanse those with a skin disease; cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. 9 Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, 10 no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff, for laborers deserve their food. 11 Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. 12 As you enter the house, greet it. 13 If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. 15 Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.
16 “I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”
[Jesus said to the twelve:] 7 “As you go, proclaim the good news…
Today is the festival of St. Barnabas, Apostle. I like to think of Barnabas as the Patron Saint of Understudies. Prior to Pentecost, Barnabas was part of the “chorus”, that nameless group of disciples who followed Jesus. After Pentecost, the eleven remaining Apostles elected a replacement for Judas. This person had to have been with them from the beginning and had to have been a witness to the Resurrection. Barnabas won the vote and became the new twelfth Apostle.
I have a soft spot for Barnabas because I, too, have been the understudy many times in my own life. The first time was when I was 16. The young woman who began the second act with a long, solo dance sequence and then was a primary character for the rest of the play, developed a high fever during intermission. With 10 minutes to prepare, I was costumed, coached, and thrust out onto the stage alone to improvise a dance sequence. I had been watching in the wings every night, so I pulled the whole thing off without a misstep or missed line. This was all quite surprising to my father, who happened to be conducting the pit orchestra and didn’t learn of the substitution until the curtain rose at the top of the second act and I was lying on the stage floor at eye level with him…
Barnabas may have come into play a little bit later than the other Apostles, but he had been there, watching and learning from the wings, until his time arrived. May we all remain as present and attentive as Barnabas, waiting for that moment when Jesus says, “we need you out there now”!
Prayer: Lord Jesus: Thank you for all the nameless disciples who have followed you, proclaiming the Gospel and giving glory to you with their whole lives. AMEN