Secure By Surrender

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Easter Feria

Today's Readings:
[ Acts 4:23-31; Ps 2; Jn 3:1-8 ]

In today’s readings, we are invited into a deeper kind of courage—one that does not come from control, but from surrender.

In Acts, the early believers pray not for safety, but for boldness. After facing threats, they lift their voices together: “And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness”. This is striking. They do not ask for their circumstances to change; they ask for their hearts to be strengthened within those circumstances. And in response, “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.”

This boldness is echoed in John, where Jesus speaks to Nicodemus about being “born from above.” The Spirit, Jesus says, is like the wind—unseen, unpredictable, yet undeniably real: “You hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.” To live by the Spirit is to relinquish control, to trust in something greater than our own understanding.

From a Franciscan perspective, this is the heart of the spiritual life. St. Francis embraced a radical openness to God, letting go of power, status, and certainty. Like the early Church, he did not seek security but faithfulness. To be “born from above” is to live lightly, freely, and attentively... to allow the Spirit to move us where it will.

Psalm 2 reminds us that the powers of the world may rage and conspire, but God is not shaken. This gives us the freedom to live differently—not driven by fear, but by trust.

Today’s invitation is simple, but not easy: to loosen our grip, to stop striving for control, and to ask instead for boldness. Not boldness rooted in ego, but in the quiet confidence that comes from the Spirit’s presence.

Where is the Spirit calling you to trust more deeply today? Where might you speak, act, or love more boldly, not because you feel secure, but because God is with you?

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