One of the great blessings that following Jesus and coming to know God is that the Holy Spirit helps us to know who we are. Often who we are is determined by our family and our society. We take for granted these influences and do not realize their effect on us and how we look at the world. It can influence not just the foods we eat and the music we listen to, but how we look at people who are different than we are by ethnicity, race, language, customs and even gestures.
I gained some insight into this when I was a Jesuit novice on a pilgrimage trial in northern India. Here in the U.S., shaking your head from side to side basically means “no.” In northern India, when you shake your head from side to side and say “Tik hai,” you’re saying “yes, yes.”
As Sts. Augustine and Ignatius of Loyola learned as they turned to the Lord, it is God who can help us to know who we really are – that is, who we are in God’s eyes. To know who we are in the eyes of our loving God, can help to free us from our fears and from the biases that are part of our background and culture. For St. Ignatius, it led him to found an order that accepted men from every nation, ethnicity and race. This was at a time of intense nationalism and regionalism in Europe and at a time when Jewish converts were looked on with prejudice and suspicion in Spain. One of the early Companions, Pedro Ribadeneira, was of Jewish decent and Ignatius established two houses for Jewish catechumens in Rome.
One of the saints we celebrate each June is the Apostle Barnabas. He was a person who, with God’s help, knew his own strengths and weaknesses and trusted all in God. The Acts of the Apostles tells us about how Barnabas was sent by the Church in Jerusalem to Antioch in Syria to see what was happening in this Church which welcomed Gentiles. The followers of Jesus in Jerusalem were Jewish Christians who followed the dietary and other Mosaic rules and all of the males were circumcised. “When he (Barnabas) 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 grace and the Holy Spirit” (Acts 11:23-24). Even though Barnabas came from the Jerusalem Church, he looked not at the manner of observance in Jerusalem but at the faith and love in the Antioch community. As Jesus said,
“By their fruits you will know them.” That is a true rule of discernment.
Barnabas also knew himself well enough that when he realized that many in Antioch, because of their Gentile background were ignorant of the Scriptures, he went to Tarsus to fetch Saul. He knew Saul had been trained as a rabbi and knew the Scriptures better than he did. (Remember that there were not the Gospels and other New Testament writings until some decades later.)
Saul joined Barnabas in teaching the community until the Holy Spirit called Barnabas and Saul to evangelize what today is Cyprus and Eastern Turkey.
As they journeyed and preached, it became clear that Saul, known as Paul in Greek-speaking areas, was the better evangelist. Without jealousy, Barnabas stepped into the background. He knew his own talents and weaknesses and rejoiced that Saul was bringing more people to Christ. Like John the Baptist, Barnabas knew that it was not about him and his ego, but about Jesus and bringing people to faith and love.
In this time of struggle in our own nation over the sin of racism and the prejudices our culture and economic system perpetrate against black and brown people, perhaps we are called to ask the Holy Spirit to open our eyes and our hearts. Perhaps we can pray, as St. Augustine did, “Lord, help me to know myself; help me to know You.” For it is in knowing You, that we meet our deepest desire – to be caught up in a community of love – love of God and love of neighbor. Lord, let it be so.
Jesuit Father John Michalowski is parochial vicar of St. Peter Church in Charlotte.