Daily Mass - Tuesday of the second week of Easter

Mass was offered this morning for the repose of the soul of Anthony Leckey (+), may he be forever blessed in the Risen Christ. Alongside our story of the visit to Christ of the pharisee Nicodemus today, we continue also with the Acts of the Apostles in our first reading. And, as Father Patey said on his Twitter account this morning,

The patron of ⁦@Cathedral_Nottm⁩ gets a mention in today’s first reading. Perhaps we could ask St Barnabas to encourage us and to help us encourage others today. For those who live in ⁦@NottsDiocese⁩ a good day to pray for our Cathedral. pic.twitter.com/0WBHMIxFTe

— Father Colin Patey (@FatherColin1) April 21, 2020

So we come to the remarkable character of Saint Barnabas, one of the early associates of Saint Paul, although they later had a falling out. Barnabas was a Cypriot, so very useful to Paul on his first missions, which were local ones from the north of Syria, to Cyprus, but also from Cilicia (Paul's own home country) to other major Roman cities in the south and south-centre of Asia Minor. Barnabas was also related closely to Saint Mark, who was also associated with the Apostle Saint Peter and who wrote the second Gospel in our collection. I can't remember where I read that Barnabas was, like Paul, a pharisee and student of the great rabbi Gamaliel, who is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, and was later a powerful evangelist in Cyprus. He was buried there with a copy of the Gospel of S. Matthew upon his breast, and his tomb may still be visited. 

When I lived at the cathedral in Nottingham, I was told that there was absolutely no link between the Church in the East Midlands and Saint Barnabas, no particular devotion to him that anybody knew about. The dedication of the cathedral is probably simply on account of the bringing by Mgr. Nicholas Wiseman (then the vicar apostolic of the Midland district) of the relics of the holy apostle from Rome for the consecration of the building in 1844. Thus did we gain a powerful protector for our Diocese, whom we may rely upon in times of distress, for as Acts says in our reading today, 

"There was a Levite called Joseph, a Cypriot by birth, to whom the Apostles gave the fresh name of Barnabas, which means, 'the man of encouragement;' he had an estate, which he sold, and brought the purchase-money to lay it at the Apostles’ feet." - Acts of the Apostles, 4: 36-37