I have a beautiful hard covered book called, 365 Days with the Saints: A Year of Wisdom from the Saints by Carol Kelly-Gangi. Admittedly, I did not know much more about Barnabas than what we hear at Mass. In this book, it says that Barnabas was given the name “Joseph” when he was born. The Apostles later gave him the name Barnabas. It goes on to say they even considered Barnabas an apostle even though he was not one of the original twelve.
Conversion
Barnabas was a Jew and was said to have converted to Christianity after Pentecost. He went on many missionary trips with Saint Paul. And Saint Paul talks about him in his writings. Barnabas was martyred for the faith.
Acts of the Apostles 11:24 says about him, “He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.” He brought people to know and love and serve the Lord. He even died doing so. Many of the readings have been about this lately. We are to be witnesses of the faith, to draw others closer to Christ.
Say What You Mean…
Today’s gospel makes me think of my grandmother yet again. How many times have I written about her in these reflections? My dream is to write a book about her. Perhaps this is my start.
She always said, “Say what you mean and mean what you say.” It pretty much sums up the last part of this gospel reading. Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Mt 5:37.
Grams lived by this. I had always known she read the bible front to back and back to front countless times. I never stopped to consider all her words to live by came straight from scripture. She just paraphrased them to be her own.
No Wasted Words
A person always knew where she stood with Grams. I always admired this about her. Though, truth be told, it was mildly intimidating at times. Picture this, she had the frankness of Mother Angelica, but the charity of Saint Mother Teresa. Petite in stature, she’d say about herself, “I am five foot nothing.” Small and mighty, she maintained every room she entered. She didn’t waste words on foolishness. We hung on to every last one of them when she spoke.
Finally, what do Barnabas (the Saint of the day), Grams, and today’s gospel have to do with the others? They model what we are called to do every day. They say what they mean. And they mean what they say. All the while drawing others closer to Christ. These models of the faith give us the courage and perseverance to do the same. Say what you mean and mean what you say.
