Following The Good Shepherd

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Easter Feria

Today's Readings:
[ Acts 11:19-26; Ps 87; Jn 10:22-30 ]

The scattered believers in Acts become, almost quietly, the seeds of something new. What began in disruption becomes mission: “they spoke the word to no one except Jews,” and then, suddenly, wider doors open, and “a great number became believers and turned to the Lord”. Barnabas sees this grace and does not try to control it—he rejoices. There is something deeply Franciscan in that posture: to recognize the work of God already alive in unexpected places and to bless it rather than manage it.

Psalm 87 sings of a God whose city is not narrow or exclusive. “Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God”, and then the surprising turn: nations once considered outsiders are named as belonging. “This one was born there,” it says, as if God delights in expanding the family beyond every boundary we draw. For Francis of Assisi, all creation was kin, and all people were neighbors. The Church in Antioch begins to live that truth, becoming a place where identity is reshaped... not by exclusion, but by belonging in Christ. It is there the disciples are first called “Christians,” not as a badge of superiority, but as a sign of shared life.

In John’s Gospel, Jesus speaks with a simplicity that cuts through all noise: “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me”. This is not about possession, but relationship—mutual knowing, steady trust. And then the promise: “No one will snatch them out of my hand”. For those living in uncertainty, in scattering, in the unfamiliar, this is a word of deep reassurance. The security is not in circumstances, but in belonging to the Good Shepherd.

Franciscan spirituality invites us into that same simplicity: to listen for the voice of Christ, to follow with humility, and to rejoice wherever grace appears—even beyond the edges of our expectations. The Church is not ours to guard tightly; it is God’s to grow freely. And we, like Barnabas, are called to see that growth and be glad.

Today, perhaps the invitation is this: to trust that God is already at work in places we have not looked, among people we may not expect, and to follow the Shepherd’s voice with open hands and a generous heart.

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