Barnabas was not one of the Twelve but he is called an Apostle. He was one of the first great evangelisers in the Church. And, as described in today's First Reading, we can be grateful that it was he who brought Paul back from his home town of Tarsus, to the city of Antioch, to join in the work of spreading the Gospel. It was here that they set up a great evangelising partnership, bringing the Gospel to more and more places and more and more people in Asia, both Jews and Gentiles. As the Gospel reminds us, they met up with many difficulties and hardships which Jesus had foretold. It reminds us that in the full living out of our Christian faith we have to be ready for misunderstandings, contempt and even abuse. We should not be surprised at this. It has been the Church's experience all through its existence and things are no different today.