Eventide & Altar

Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done wondrous deeds; his right hand has won victory for him. What Barnabas saw when he arrived in Antioch was the new song being sung in a new place - Gentiles turning to the Lord, the grace of God landing where no one had expected it to land. He recognized it as what it was and rejoiced.

The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. Not in Jerusalem, not among the founding community. In the city of foreigners, among people who had come to faith through people who had been scattered by persecution. The new song is always being sung somewhere unexpected.

Freely received, freely given. In the evening of life the accounting of what was freely received is larger than it appeared while it was being given. The grace that landed unexpectedly, the encouragement that arrived at the right moment, the Barnabas who went to find you when you were in Tarsus. The new song includes all of it.

The Luminous Mysteries trace the public ministry - and the sending of the Twelve in tonight's Gospel is the extension of that ministry outward. Pray them tonight as a meditation on the mission that Barnabas entered: freely received, freely given, the grace landing in unexpected places and recognized for what it is.

• For those who need a Barnabas right now - someone to see the grace in them and rejoice, to encourage them to remain faithful in firmness of heart, we pray to the Lord.
• For those who have been freely given to and have not yet fully given from what they received, that the freely-received-freely-given logic would open in them, we pray to the Lord.
• In this Sacred Heart month, for the heart that sends his workers freely into the harvest and gives them everything they need, we pray to the Lord.

He saw the grace of God and rejoiced. Tonight, name one person in your life in whom you have recently seen the grace of God. Encourage them - tell them what you saw. The gift of Barnabas is the gift of naming grace in others.