Son of encouragement

The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary teach us of how the growth of the Gentile followers of Jesus and the Jewish community to which the Evangelist Matthew wrote grew in spite of what might seem to be difficulties about Law and tradition. In the Gospel passage, Matthew while writing about Jesus Sermon on the Mount, underlines Jesus proclamation that He is not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. Friar Jude Winkler comments that this passage made an argument that Gentile converts to Christianity should be bound by Jewish dietary and lifestyle practices. He also comments that the author of the Book of Acts, Luke, writes with the theme of the power of the Holy Spirit in the growth and development of the Church. This Spirit is noted by Kyle Lierk as the driving inspiration for the work of Barnabas, a Jewish convert, who travels to Antioch to preach with Paul, a former Pharisee, to a community which is exponentially adding Gentile believers who are beginning to be called Christians. The action of the laying on of hands, described in the text from Acts, is the surrender to the Will of God as understood through the Spirit which would resolve the fulfillment of the Law as understood by Matthew in life among Gentiles which Friar Jude comments fulfills the “spirit of the Law”. The story of Barnabas, cited in Kyle’s commentary and the story of the eventual separation of Paul and Barnabas are testimony to the necessity of life in the Spirit as our active agent to overcome the obstacles of tradition, distance and personality to be the “son of encouragement.”  (Acts 4:36) which is the title in the meaning of the name Barnabas.