Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter

 Lectionary: 280

The hand of the Lord was with them and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The news about them reached the ears of the Church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to go to Antioch.

Today's first reading lacks the drama of Saint Stephen's martyrdom or Saint Paul's conversion, but it offers necessary information about the earliest days of the Church. Things are taking shape: the apostles in Jerusalem recognize the need in Antioch's infant church for a strong, competent, inspired elder and so send Barnabas. He sees potential here and calls in the recently converted Saul, whom we know as Paul. 

The followers of the Way acquire a new name, Christian, which might not be flattering. The word appears only three times in the Bible and has negative connotations in the other two, as if it might be an insult:

• Acts of the Apostles 26.28: Agrippa said to Paul, ‘Are you so quickly persuading me to become a Christian?’
• 1 Peter 4.16: Yet if any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name.

The Church's need for edification appears in this text. The word edify comes from the Latin aedis, meaning a dwelling; and facere, to build. Buildings require deliberation and planning; they don't just happen. The church and its members must be built up with knowledge. Saints Barnabas and Paul are ideally suited for the task since both have deep, solid knowledge of Jewish scripture, tradition, and religion. Eventually, as we learn in the Acts of the Apostles, Antioch will become a center for the missionary apostolate. Traveling evangelists routinely return there for rest, resourcing, and redirection, and are sent out again. When the Apostle James was beheaded in Jerusalem and the Apostles fled the city, leadership passed to Antioch. 

Back in the 1970's, when I was ordained, I remember several Catholics who were apparently caught up in the Spirit and believed they had no further need for the disciplines of study and learning. The Spirit was sufficient. There are many small churches in the United States who accept that foolish doctrine; they readily entrust the duty of leadership to untrained, unlearned men and women whose only credentials are enthusiasm and conviction. Some of these eager leaders are readily forgiven for their criminal past in the naive belief that the Spirit will make all things well. Some claim an ordination, purchased off the Internet. 

Today's first reading demonstrates the need for serious planning and intense discipline within the Church. It describes a halcyon era before major problems surface and factions appear. We've already heard in the Acts how the Church accepted Saint Peter's startling initiative of accepting gentiles into this Jewish congregation. But, as gentile "Cypriots and Cyrenians" flood into the Antiochene church, Jerusalem sees trouble ahead and sends Barnabas to take matters in hand. 

The Church of the twenty-first century faces similar challenges, especially since the Second Vatican Council. Memorizing passages from the Baltimore Catechism did not prepare baby boomers for a post-Christian era of polarized politics and unsettling change. Many complain that the "church has changed" because it adapted to the needs of a new age in human history. I reply that they would appreciate the changes had they kept the faith and stayed with us. 

Under the leadership of Barnabas and Paul, the Church of Antioch assumed responsibility for evangelizing the Roman Empire while conservative, suspicious Jerusalem clung to its older, exclusive Jewishness. Eventually leadership and the duty of evangelizing the entire world would pass from Antioch to Rome. Jesus had not envisioned that future but the Spirit of Jesus knew precisely what to do.