St. Barnabas 7. Example of Charity.
In
our continuing series examining the life of St. Barnabas, we now come to the
first specific Scriptural references to him in Acts 4:36. Chronologically, Jesus
had been resurrected, had ascended into Heaven, and the Holy Spirit had come at
Pentecost. It’s 30 AD. The Apostles Peter and John had, in the name of Jesus,
healed a lame beggar at the Temple, Peter had preached, both had been arrested,
testified before the Sanhedrin Council, and been released. The Church was now
counted at 5,000 men. Peter and John’s meeting strong opposition only served to
strengthen the entire Church, and they prayed for greater boldness in preaching
and greater healings, signs, and miracles. It was such a fervent prayer that
they were all, once again, “filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of
God with boldness” (Ac 4:23-31). We can assume Barnabas was in that powerful
prayer meeting or Liturgy, presumably also at his sister Mary’s house.
Luke
then writes in the Acts of the Apostles of a rather idyllic Pentecost afterglow
in the Church by their community life of charity. “Now the company of those who
believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things
which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common.... There was
not any one needy among them, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses
sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the
apostles’ feet; and distribution was made to each as any had need.” (Ac4:32-35.)
This
was no mandatory collectivism, but free-will generosity which some of the
Christians chose to do (cf., Ac 5:4) out of the charity, the love, of the Holy
Spirit upon them. Luke uses here Hellenistic (Greek) expressions to describe
the Church’s community spirit. Having “everything in common” is an expression
for sharing among friends, and friendship was also commonly expressed as being
of “one soul.” A further Hellenistic way of describing friendship was to say
that no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own. The
Latino expression, “mi casa es tu casa,” “my house is your house,” has a
similar connotation of friendship and welcome. [1] Jesus had said, “By this all men
will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn13:35). The Holy Spirit was now guiding the Church as a community in developing
this love, and we will see that Barnabas is highlighted as the example.
We
also see in Luke’s account the authority of the Twelve Apostles in the
expression, “laid at the apostles’ feet,” used three times in five verses (Ac4:35, 37; 5:2). Whoever administers a group’s money influences the endeavors in
which the group engages. So it implies trusting the Apostles’ discernment in
distributing the funds where most needed. [2] St. Paul uses a similar expression of
“sitting at the feet” of Gamaliel (Ac 22:3), which denotes Paul as the disciple
and Rabban Gamaliel as the authority. Further on we will also see Peter’s
leadership in discernment and judgment in countering Satan’s infiltration of
the Church (Ac 5:3-4, 8-9).
Barnabas
stands out as the example of virtue – of Christian charity, generosity,
truthfulness, and humility before the Twelve. In contrast, Satan’s infiltration
into the community stands out in the lying deceit of Annanias and Sapphira, and
their judgment is horrifyingly immediate.
So we see that Barnabas, “son of encouragement,” is introduced in the Scriptures first for his example of charity. As one historian put it, Barnabas was one “whose generosity seems to have been infectious, [whose example] is quoted in terms of admiration.” [3]
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church is located in California City, CA. Visit our website at ollcalcity.org.
Dibby Allan Green has a BA in Religious Studies (Westmont College, 1978) and MA in Theology (Augustine Institute, 2019), is a lay Catholic hermit, and a parishioner of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish.