Homily | April 28, 2026 | Held In The Shepherd’s Hand| (Episode 106)

In today's gospel, they ask Jesus a question that sounds honest, but it's not.

How long are you going to keep us in suspense?

If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.

In other words, just say it.

Make it obvious.

Remove the doubt.

And Jesus answers in a way that almost feels frustrating.

I told you, and you do not believe.

Which means the problem is not clarity, the problem is receptivity.

We like to think that if God were just clear, we would follow him.

If he made it more obvious, he if he gave us a sign, if he spoke louder, then we would believe.

If he would make himself present physically, I can see him.

But Jesus says this is not the issue.

You have already seen enough.

You already have heard enough.

The real question is not whether God has spoken.

The real question is whether you're willing to listen, block out all the noise, and all that attracts you.

He says, My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.

There it is again.

Not my sheep understand everything.

Not my sheep has no doubts.

My sheep hear and they follow me.

And that helps us understand the first reading because what is happening there makes no sense on purely human level.

The church is being persecuted, Stephen has been killed, people are scattered, it looks like a total failure and a collapse.

But instead, something else is happening.

They go out, they start preaching.

At first, only to those who are familiar, only to their own.

But then something shifts.

They begin to speak to the Greeks, to those outside, to those who were not part of the fold.

And the text says something simple but decisive.

The hand of the Lord was with them.

That's the difference.

Not strategy, not planning, not perfect execution.

The hand of the Lord was with them.

And people turned.

Lives are changed.

The church begins to grow.

And then Barnabas arrives.

And I love this line.

When he saw the grace of God, he rejoiced.

He did not analyze it, he did not try to control it, he recognized it, and he encouraged it.

Remain faithful, he says, in firmness of heart.

Stay steady, stay rooted, do not drift.

I love to say, stay structured, stay disciplined.

And then he does something even more important.

He goes and gets Saul.

He brings him into the mission.

And for a year they teach, they form, they build something real.

And it is there in Antioch that they are first called Christians.

That matters.

Because they were not called Christians because of what they said.

They were called Christians because of the way they lived.

Something about their lives made people say they belong to Christ.

I want what those people have.

I want to know that Jesus.

Now that brings us to the gospel.

My sheep hear my voice and they follow me.

This is not about information.

It's about identity.

You belong to Him.

You recognize Him.

You follow Him.

And then Jesus says something that should change the way you walk through your day.

I give them eternal life.

No one can take them out of my hand.

No one.

Not your past, not your mistakes, not your failures, not your anxiety, not your circumstances, not even death itself.

No one can take you out of his hand.

But here's the tension.

If that is true, then why do so many people live like everything is so fragile?

Why do we live like peace can be taken away from us at any moment?

Like identity can be shaken, like everything depends on us holding it together.

Because we're listening to the wrong voices.

There are voices in your life telling you that everything is on you.

That if you do not control it, it will fall apart.

That your worth is based on what you achieve, what you produce, what others think of you.

And then slowly, without realizing, you start following that voice.

And it leads to exhaustion, to anxiety, to a life that feels like it's always on the edge.

Who can live like that?

But Jesus says, No, you are in my hands, and my Father is greater than all.

It's not poetry.

This is security.

This is who we are.

So here's the question: What voice are you actually living by?

Not what you say you believe.

What is shaping your decisions, your reactions, your priorities?

Because that is the voice you're following.

So the invitation is learn to hear his voice.

Not in theory, in reality, in prayer, in silence, in scripture, at the Eucharist.

Because the more you hear him, the more you begin to recognize him.

And the more you recognize him, the more you trust him.

And the more you trust him, the more you will follow him.

And when you do, something changes.

You stop living from fear.

You stop living from the pressure.

You stop living like everything depends on you.

And what happens is you start living like someone who knows they are held in the Father's hands.

You see, the early Christians did not change the world because they had better arguments.

They changed the world because they knew whose voice they were following.

And they stayed faithful, firm in heart.

So today, do not ask for more clarity, ask for deeper capacity to listen.

Because a shepherd is already speaking.

The question is, will you follow?

Because if you do, you will discover that what they discovered at Antioch, that your life begins to look different.

And it starts to look different without you even trying.

People will notice and see it, and they will know that you belong to the Good Shepherd.

Amen.