Easter Week 5 Friday

Readings: Acts 15:22-31; Psalm 56 (57); John 15:12-17

In the first reading we find the other New Testament reference to a man called 'Barsabbas'. Joseph called Barsabbas whose surname was Justus was the alternative candidate to take the place of Judas Iscariot in the college of the apostles. Matthias was chosen instead, by the casting of lots. Today we hear of another man with the same name, Judas known as Barsabbas, who along with Silas, is sent as an emissary from the church at Jerusalem to the church at Antioch. It seems as if Joseph and Judas may have been related, as cousins or even brothers. Or perhaps they were simply given the same nickname, 'son of the sabbath' (there is no consensus about what the name might mean), in the way that James and John were together called 'Boanerges', Sons of Thunder (Mark 3:17).

Might it even be the same person, called Joseph in Acts 1 and Judas here in Acts 15? Judas is described as a leading man in the brotherhood as Joseph had to be also if he was considered a suitable candidate for the office of apostle. But the tradition is stronger that they were two different individuals.

It seems then as if the Church at this stage is still quite domestic even as it is being institutionalised. We have heard of converts in their thousands (Acts 2:41; 4:4) which would have required no little organisation. There are elders and leaders and teachers with authority not only in Jerusalem and in Antioch but in the churches founded by Paul and Barnabas on their missionary journey. Judas known as Barsabbas and Silas are delegates charged with carrying the decisions of a church 'council' to the community at Antioch.

At the same time it remains a movement of friends and family members, brothers and cousins, sisters and nephews, sometimes entire families and households are baptised together. All who share the same faith in Jesus become brothers and sisters to each other. Jesus had taught that anyone who does the will of his Father is his brother and sister and mother. The claim to be of one family now with Jesus is supported by all we are hearing from Saint John's gospel these days: the disciples are taken up into the domestic relations of the Blessed Trinity, made to be friends of God and brothers and sisters of Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit who is God's transforming love. 

Today, in the first reading, we get that wonderful phrase, 'it has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves'. It might seem naive at best, presumptuous at worst, but it is simply taking seriously what Jesus had promised: 'the works I have done you will do also, in fact you will do even greater works because I am returning to the Father.' 'I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father.' It is one of the characteristics of friendship, Thomas Aquinas says, that friends can reveal everything to each other. So the disciples received everything from Jesus. And the Spirit promised by Jesus 'will remind you of all that I have taught you.' You - we - are commissioned, sent as the Father sent Jesus, to bear fruit in the world as the sons and daughters of the heavenly Father, brothers and sisters of Jesus, collaborators of the Holy Spirit.

There is now just one commandment to remember. It is the 'great commandment' which in John's formulation is simply 'love one another as I have loved you'.  It is the new law of God's new Israel, the Church, a law which establishes us in the friendship of Christ, which makes all burdens light and all yokes easy to bear, even to the giving of one's life for one's friends. Love is the fulfilling of the law, Paul will say, a love that is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

The institutional concern of the Church must always be not to burden the family of God beyond what is essential. And the one thing necessary, according to Jesus, is to remain in friendship with him, listening to his word and keeping it, remaining in that word. Then by the gift of their Spirit, the Father and the Son will abide with us, they will make their home in us, making us to be, in truth and not just in name, the family of God in the world.