Cappadocians

Summer Vespers, Week Two

A Reading from the Acts of the Apostles:

In those days a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The news about them reached the ears of the Church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to go to Antioch. When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain faithful to the Lord in firmness of heart, for he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith. And a large number of people was added to the Lord.

Then he went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the Church and taught a large number of people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.

Now there were in the Church at Antioch prophets and teachers … While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then, completing their fasting and prayer, they laid hands on them and sent them off.

Homily:

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Last week we spoke of great adventurers in the faith, of warrior-monks and missionaries, who raised sword and axe as well as pen. They were in some ways larger than life. This week’s saints are of a different sort. No less faithful, no less brave, no less guided by the Holy Spirit—but battle and glory were not their callings. These are humbler saints of friendship and family.

First up we have St Barnabas, the friend and traveling companion of St Paul—his first friend, really, if we’re being honest. Barnabas was born Joseph on the Isle of Cyprus, a beautiful spot of land in the midst of the Mediterranean Sea, which has sat at the intersection of various cultures from time immemorial. Raised in the Jewish faith, but with a good Greek education, Joseph could move comfortably through both Jewish and Gentile worlds.

He was chosen as one of Jesus’ 70 disciples, the cousin, we are told, of John-Mark the Evangelist. After the Resurrection, Joseph sold his worldly goods, gave the proceeds to the early Church to distribute to the poor, and thus earned himself a new name: Bar-Nabas, Son of Consolation. It was around this time that Saul, an infamous persecutor of the Church, has his dramatic conversion experience on the road to Damascus and rebranded himself Paul. But of course nobody trusted him. Would you, if the Church’s greatest enemy suddenly proclaimed himself a disciple of Christ? The wounds were still raw.

But Barnabas believed. Barnabas welcomed Paul, gave him a chance. And of course Paul went on to do great things, astonishing things. He is the most important character in the New Testament after Christ Himself. God worked wonders through Paul. But it was Barnabas—faithful, trustworthy Barnabas—who let Paul in the door. It was Barnabas, traveling with him, supporting him, who introduced Paul to the wary congregations of the Mediterranean world, and who welcomed Paul as a Christian, as a fellow sainted sinner forgiven and raised in Christ.

God does not call all of us to a worldly glory. God does not call any of us to inflate ourselves in His cause. But God does call us all to humility, to love, to friendship—to support our neighbors in their callings, and to get out of our own way that the Holy Spirit might do His work. The missions of Paul are rightly famous. But where would his missions be, had it not been for Barnabas who believed and trusted in him from the start?

Our other saints this week are actually a family. They’re called the Cappadocian Fathers, though several of their number were in fact women.

Our story begins with a remarkable and prosperous family living in Cappadocia, in what is today modern Turkey. There were nine brothers and sisters. Their grandmother had been a Christian martyr. Both of their parents were recognized as saints.

And the eldest sister, Macrina, devoted her life to Christ as a nun, turning her Pontic estate into a monastery and convent. Her brother Peter became a bishop; her brother Naucratius, a famous Christian jurist. But it was her brothers Basil and Gregory, along with their good friend, another Gregory, who would go down in history as the great Cappadocian Fathers.

They were a family of prayer and deep thought. It seemed they wanted nothing else than to be left in peace to worship and study together. But the Spirit calls, as He always does. Basil and the two Gregories went on to become bishops—one of them the Patriarch of Constantinople. Macrina, being no lightweight in matters of theology and religion, remained their spiritual equal.

Each had his own strength: Basil, the man of action; his brother Gregory, the great orator; and their friend Gregory, the thinker. Macrina influenced all of them, especially her conviction that eventually everyone, even the wicked, would come to confess Christ—and thus everyone, at the last, be saved. They did not defend the Church with axe or sword but proclaimed God’s Truth in word and deed, in preaching, in prayer, in letters and books, even in that most arduous of arenas, Church bureaucracy. And together they were far greater than any one of them could’ve hoped to have been on his or her own.

I take great comfort in the Cappadocians, and in Barnabas as well. We are not all called to great things in the eyes of the world. We are not all to become celebrities or best-selling authors or millionaires or movie stars. Most of us are called to live humble, holy, remarkable lives largely ignored by the world. Yet who is to say if God will not accomplish some great wonder through our children, or grandchildren, or great-great-great-grandchildren? Who knows if the simple kindness, the loving support, that we offer to friends and family and neighbors won’t produce some great fruit down throughout the generations?

The designs of God are elegant, intricate, and astounding in their scope. A single thread in the tapestry, though its color brightly shines, can never see its purpose in the pattern of the grand design. Who knows what wonders shall be revealed unto us, when at last we see face-to-face, and look back on God’s work in our lives through the eyes of Heaven?

Let us be friends, let us be family, let us be Jesus for all those around us. We may not make great waves with our lives. But even the tiniest ripple, sooner or later, reaches out to touch the farthest shore.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.