“Your Friends Make Known, O Lord” by Melanie Rigney (@melanierigney)

“Your Friends Make Known, O Lord” by Melanie Rigney

Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Easter

(When Paul and Barnabas arrived in Antioch), they called the Church together and reported what God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. Then they spent no little time with the disciples. (Acts 14:27-28)

Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your kingdom. (Psalm 145:12)

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” (John 14:27)

Piety

Lord, I offer gratitude for the friends who make You known to me.

Study

Seleucia. Salamis. Paphos. Perga. Antioch. Iconium. Lystra. Derbe. Attalia. Then back to Antioch.

By Roberto Reggi (sulla base di Yohanan Aharoni, Michael Abi-Yonah,
Atlante della Bibbia, 1987, mappa 245.) (Derivative work of RomanEmpire 117.svg)
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

It was a road show for Christ, Paul and Barnabas sharing the Good News to receptive and not so receptive audiences. It ran the gamut, from persecutions to conversions. And now, back in Antioch, they were among friends, new and old, fellow disciples of Christ. What joy! What relief, to be back with people who “got” them… and Him.

We don’t know for sure just how long they spent in Antioch, just that it was “no little time.” Paul and Barnabas would later part ways, not over doctrine, but over whether a companion who had deserted them at one point should accompany them on their next trip. Barnabas and that companion would head for Cyprus; Paul and Silas would go to Syria and Cilicia. But oh, how that time in Antioch in community must have fed and fortified them all for those future journeys.

In some ways, the twenty-first century AD isn’t a lot different from the first century AD. People quarrel. Friendships end. People die. People aren’t there when we most need them… or we aren’t there for them. But those God-filled moments when we can rest in Him and community together must be treasured and stored in our hearts and souls, for they provide us with food we need to evangelize on our own road shows.

Action

Offer a rosary for someone who fed you spiritually during his or her time on earth.