[00:00] In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

[00:39] Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom, Our Lady, Queen of Apostles, St. Joseph, St. Barnabas, Our Patron Saints and Guardian Angels, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Today we celebrate St. Barnabas, one of the companions, helpers of the Apostles. He was of course known as the Son of Consolation, because, Son of Encouragement, because he was always

[01:11] encouraging the faithful, especially when he was sent to Antioch, where he was sent to build up the Church there, and he did it through his, through this special grace that he had, special gift that he had, to encourage the faithful. How did he encourage them? Well, he encouraged them first and foremost by proclaiming the truth to them, because there's nothing more encouraging, nothing more uplifting, than to have the faith being preached to one. To know the truth of

[01:46] Jesus Christ is a very encouraging thing, and of course he encouraged them by his own example, because they said he was a man filled with the Holy Spirit. We could say that in the first reading, which wasn't the reading that was supposed to be read today, but it was by Providence chosen, the story of St. Elias on Mount Carmel, that he too was encouraging the faithful in his day,

[02:16] but probably in a stronger way by admonishing them, because even sometimes the encouragement we need is to be admonished. We need to be told that we need to turn around and get our lives in order, and get our practice of our faith in the right place. And so St. Barnabas, St. Elias, both had this grace of their time to encourage those who are to be faithful, to remain faithful to God, and St. Barnabas eventually had to encourage, I'm sure, those around him, and

[02:51] encourage himself to remain faithful when he was being martyred on the island of Cyprus, for that was the last encouragement that he and those around him probably needed, was to remain steadfast and faithful under trials and tribulations. In the first reading that was read today, we hear the story of Elijah, the prophet Elias, on Mount Carmel after the great contest of faith that took place against the prophets of Baal. And as you know, it doesn't talk about it

[03:27] in the reading, but it is there in the Book of Kings, that after the contest was decisively won by this miraculous fire coming down from heaven, the prophet Elijah slit every one of their throats of the prophets of Baal, that's 800 men that he killed, because that was the price, you might say, for losing this contest, because St. Elias knew that, which he knew, of course,

[04:01] God would not let him down, that this was the role, the whole price was you lose your life or you lose your soul. And this is not, this is what St. Elias knew that this was what he was fighting for, was for the life and soul of his people. And so to remove the evil, these prophets of Baal,

[04:33] that was what was done in those days. But yet after this rather startling conclusion, God gives this rather peaceful and encouraging sign that after the victory over the prophets of Baal, St. Elias sends his servant to look over the Mediterranean Sea and to tell him what he sees. He goes once and he comes back and says, "I see nothing." He goes finally on the seventh time,

[05:07] after St. Elias sent him seven times, he comes back and he says, "I see a little cloud shaped," and it says in the Latin Vulgate, shaped like a man's foot. I don't know if it mentions that it says shaped like a man's hand, I think in the newer translation, but I would think that there's a big difference between your hand and your foot, even in the original languages. I will go with foot because it's much more fitting for the typology that we're interested in. And the

[05:41] typology is that the little cloud shaped like a man's foot, according to Carmelite tradition, is that he was given a prophetic image, a prophetic insight into the Immaculate Conception and the Divine Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. What was in the little cloud shaped like a man's foot would be the Immaculate Conception. Well, the little cloud, it is formed by water

[06:12] like the sea, but unlike the sea, it is without salt, without sin. Our Lady is like us in that she has the same human nature, but is unlike us because she is without sin from the first moment of her conception. And shaped like a man's foot calls to mind Genesis 3:15, which of course tells us that there'll be enmity between thee and the woman, between the serpent and the woman, and that she will crush his head. So that's why I think it's important that the

[06:47] Latin Vulgate and St. Jerome translated it as little foot, because the little foot of the Immaculate was going to crush the head of the serpent in the Incarnation, especially and especially at the culmination at the foot of the cross as Co-Redemptrix, as our Mother Co-Redemptrix, she would help and assist our Lord by her providing the sacrifice that would crush forever the works of Satan. And from that little cloud, of course, came a torrent of rain,

[07:21] it says, even Ahab tells, or even Elias tells Ahab, you better get out of here because there's going to be a great amount of rain coming from this little cloud. And we know that St. Elias was given more than just a meteorological report, and just seeing a natural wonder in this cloud, that he saw something supernatural because it says he outran Ahab and his chariot all the way back to Samaria. So that this was also, when we talk about encouragement, God sends these signs

[07:59] throughout the ages through the prophets of old to encourage the faithful of the Old Testament. And he has sent signs and wonders of his Blessed Mother, especially, she's a mother of encouragement, par excellence, in the different Marian apparitions throughout the ages to encourage us to remain steadfast and faithful to her Son. And so today as we honor St. Barnabas, St. Elias, Our Lady, we want to especially pray that we will be signs of encouragement and

[08:36] sons and daughters of encouragement to one another. And one of those ways in which we do that is by edification, by word and deed. We edify, we build up one another, we encourage one another in the faith. We may say, well, I'm not a bishop or a priest, I can't do anything to help, you know, encourage the Church. Yes, you can. By remaining, being a steadfast and faithful member of the flock, by giving good example, by being faithful to your witness of prayer, good works,

[09:11] coming to Mass every Sunday, that in and of itself encourages those around them, that maybe they were thinking that morning, you know, I'm not going to go to Mass on Sunday today because, well, then they finally, you know, they see the example of a member in their family says, "Let's go to Mass today." Or they go to Mass and they realize, wow, there's other people here also taking time out to come to Mass, especially on Sunday. That encourages one another, builds one another up. And when we see that so many have stopped going to Mass, we can see how

[09:48] they can become sons and daughters of discouragement. And we don't want to be that. We want to help others. We want to assist them. We want to help grab them by the arm and pull them along if we can into heaven to do our best in encouraging one another in the building, up building and then living our faith. Let us pray and ask St. Barnabas and Our Lady, who is

[10:18] Our Lady, who encourages us in everything to say, remain faithful to her Son, that we too will be sons and daughters of encouragement.

[10:52] Amen.