In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 
In today's gospel, Jesus reminds us that He is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, that He is the fulfillment. "I have come not to abolish but to fulfill all the laws of the Old Testament and the words of the prophets who were in preparation for the coming of Christ and to prepare God's people for the Messiah, Emmanuel, God with us." And so He is the fulfillment of this, that all the laws and the prophets of the Old Testament were in preparation and to prepare the people in their hearts for the coming of Jesus Christ, the Savior. 
And so with this, our Lord Jesus and His apostles, our Lord Jesus and the apostles direct us by which we are to obey these laws, in the sense that not all the laws of the Old Testament or the ritual practices of the Old Testament do we observe. Because the apostles, through their direction, through the Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ, directed us in what is to be observed or not to be observed because of the fulfillment of Jesus Christ, that with Christ, the ritual practices of the Jews are not, we're not all bound to observe, such as abstaining from pork or abstaining from shellfish or not eating certain foods together. These things have, of course, served their purpose in the preparation of the arrival of the Savior. But with our Savior's arrival, Jesus through His apostles, of course, these traditions are handed down through the Church that we know what we are to observe and what we are bound to observe and not to observe. And of course the commandments of God remain, remain as the anchor of our Christian spirituality, that we observe the commandments of God and these commandments are still binding to us, by which we live in accordance to God's divine plan and decree of how we are to love and serve Him and love and serve those around us, love and serve those around us. 
But our Lord reminds us that we still are called to obey and to teach the commandments, and this can be challenging, especially in a world which oftentimes rejects God's commandments. And we can be met with hostility or ridicule. And it's important for us never to lose heart that we are called to proclaim God's commandments by which we are called to give God glory and honor by observing these commandments. 
Today we honor in the liturgy St. Barnabas, and he had a title which I am very fond of. He's called the son of encouragement because he would encourage others in their faith, he would inspire others to live their faith, and so he has that nickname, son of encouragement. St. Barnabas was a mentor of St. Paul, and he accompanied St. Paul on some of his apostolic missions in Cyprus and Turkey. 
But unfortunately, they had a disagreement, and it's just to give us an insight that even saints can disagree. And the disagreement was over Mark, who became St. Mark. St. Mark was a cousin of Barnabas, and Paul did not want to take Mark on one of their journeys because he felt that St. Mark had abandoned them in previous times. But Barnabas, he did not want to abandon Mark, and Mark was actually a cousin of his, and he took Mark under his wing, so to speak, and watched over him. And so they parted, St. Paul and Barnabas parted, and Barnabas took Mark with him on his journey, and St. Paul took Silas. But we see that Barnabas' care and patience and his assistance helped to form Mark to become a saint, and of course he's one of the authors of the Gospels. 
But St. Barnabas also is the apostle, so to speak, of Cyprus. He was from Cyprus, and he also preached in Antioch and in other parts of Turkey. And there are even some reports that he preached in Alexandria, in Egypt, and in Rome. 
He also was known for his generosity in the sense that he sold all his belongings, he sold all his property, and he gave it to the apostles to use for their work. So he teaches us both generosity and detachment from the things of this world. Generosity and detachment from the things of this world. 
And, of course, again, his title as son of encouragement is to inspire us, that we too are to be encouraging to others in the faith, to encourage others to live their faith, and to bring others to see the joy, the joy of living our Catholic faith. 
St. Barnabas was ultimately martyred. He was, tradition was, he was stoned to death on the island of Cyprus at the age of 61, or the year 61, in a town or village called Salamis on Cyprus. He was stoned to death, giving that ultimate witness to his faith of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 
May St. Barnabas pray for us to be an encouragement to others in our faith and to have that same detachment and generosity of heart that he did, especially in preaching the gospel. 
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.