Feast of St. Barnabas

The Church celebrates the feast of St. Barnabas today. We are able to find his activities recorded in the Acts of the Apostles and the Pauline epistles: First Epistle to the Corinthians, Galatians and Colossians. To a certain extent, they agree with each other.
His native name was Joseph but the apostles called him Barnabas, meaning the Son of encouragement (Acts 4:36). True to his name, he lent his support wherever it was needed. When the converted Saul had difficulty reaching the apostles in Jerusalem, Barnabas introduced Saul to the community.
And when he had come to Jerusalem he attempted to join the disciples; and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.
But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus (Acts 9:26-27).
Perhaps Luke has condensed the whole process to conserve the sheep hide. According to Paul himself, after his conversion, he did not return to Jerusalem immediately to meet the apostles to verify his call.
nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia; and again I returned to Damascus.
Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and remained with him fifteen days.
But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother (Galatians 1:17-18).
Paul did not mention the help of Barnabas. Of course, there are many reasons.
First of all, not mentioning it doesn't mean that it did not happen, that Barnabas had not offered any help.
Secondly, in context, Paul was defending his private revelation. He had not received his gospel from man but directly from God. In his words, "I did not confer with flesh and blood" (Galatians 1:16b).
Therefore, we cannot deny the help from Barnabas simply because Paul did not mention it, just as we cannot deny Paul's stay in Tarsus after seeing the apostles in Jerusalem for the first time simply because he did not mention this incident in his epistles.
The blood of Stephen sowed the seeds of salvation. Greek-speaking Christians scattered outside Jerusalem to preach the word of Jesus. Many Greeks were converted in Antioch. Consequently, the Jerusalem church sent Barnabas to oversee the development of the Church in Antioch (Acts 11:22). This is how Luke praised Barnabas and his work in Antioch.
for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a large company was added to the Lord (Acts 11:24).
Luke used this expression to describe only one other person in the Acts. It was Stephen (Acts 6:5). Luke spoke highly of Barnabas and his work. Perhaps it was an idealized portrait. Luke painted an idealized martyr Stephen. Now, he drew a good and capable missionary Barnabas.
Managers come with different colours and stripes. One type of managers drive their subordinates like nuts to get their will done. These are traditional bosses. Another type give their subordiantes more room of creativity and initiative. They are able to bring out the full potentials of people working under them. These are team leaders. Barnabas had a big-heart to recruit Saul to help out his missionary work in Antioch. He proved to be a good team player (Acts 11:25).
Some years later, Barnabas and Paul reported their work among the Gentiles in the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:12, Galatians 2:1)
A rift between Paul and Barnabas happened because of John Mark. Half way during the First Missionary journey, Mark returned from Perga to Jerusalem, probably because he was too green (Acts 13:13).
Later Paul wanted to take on a second missionary journey (Acts 15:36). Barnabas wanted to give Mark a second chance (Acts 15:37), or simply because Mark was his cousin (Colossians 4:10) but Paul thought otherwise. In the end, Paul and Barnabas parted company and we do not hear of Barnabas anymore in the Acts.
Was Barnabas too soft? Probably but his softness must have come from his charity.
Paul was less forgiving. In another incident, Paul scolded Peter for not behaving sincerely in front of the brethren who came from James (head of the Jerusalem Church). Barnabas was being criticized too (Galatians 2:12-13). Here, Paul might be a bit over-zealous. He later confessed that charity was more important than faith.

Dear Lord, charity is the greatest virtue of all. Let us learn from Barnabas and be more edifying for our weaker brethren. St. Barnabas, pray for us. Amen.