St. Barnabas 33. A Christmas Message.       These past many weeks we have taken this odyssey through the life of St. Barnabas. Now it is Christmas time. Wouldn’t it be lovely if St. Barnabas had left us some writing to inspire us this Christmas? To remind us of what Christmas was all about? Well, he may have.       “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power.” Now here’s the Christmas part: the Son who is God also “partook of the same nature” as all of us children of God. That’s Christmas, God come in the form of our human flesh. Why? “That through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver [us].” Say it again, “He had to be made ...

  St. Barnabas 29. Parting of the Ways. God the Holy Spirit, with the Apostles and Elders of the Church, had now clearly spoken that Gentile believers were full members of the Church without circumcision and without the burden of the entire Jewish Law.  We are told “Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also” ( Ac 15:35 ). We know the Church at Antioch of Syria was rich with prophets and teachers ( Ac 13:1 ), and in the roughly nine years since St. Barnabas was first sent to Antioch ( Ac 11:22 ) and Euodious appointed second Bishop of Antioch (after St. Peter), no doubt the Church continued to grow with these “many others” teaching and preaching as well. But the Letter from the Apostles and Elders was not just for the Antiochian Church. It was also for all the Gentile Churches which Barnabas and Paul had previously founded in the couple years prior. So it is no surprise that St. Luke writes, “After some days ...

  St. Barnabas 14. Famine Visit. In our continuing series on the life of St. Barnabas, we last surmised that Barnabas would have been an excellent teacher to Gentile Christian converts of the virtues of charity and generosity for those suffering a famine in Judea ( Ac 11:27-30 ). St. John Chrysostom’s (344/354-407 AD) homily on this passage points out, “Do you see how for them the famine was an encouragement to salvation, an opportunity to give alms, and a harbinger of many blessings? ... The famine was foretold so that they might prepare themselves beforehand for almsgiving.” An interesting note on the purpose of prophecy: that people might prepare to respond to the call of the prophetic message with generosity. [1] The Acts also tells us that the Church in Antioch sent their relief “to the elders [in Jerusalem] by the hand of Barnabas and Saul” ( Ac 11:30 ). Notice that Barnabas continues to be named first as the leader. The term translated “elders” here is the word “presb...