SPEAKER_00: In today's gospel, they ask Jesus a question that sounds honest, but it's not.
SPEAKER_00: How long are you going to keep us in suspense?
SPEAKER_00: If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, just say it.
SPEAKER_00: Make it obvious.
SPEAKER_00: Remove the doubt.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus answers in a way that almost feels frustrating.
SPEAKER_00: I told you, and you do not believe.
SPEAKER_00: Which means the problem is not clarity, the problem is receptivity.
SPEAKER_00: We like to think that if God were just clear, we would follow him.
SPEAKER_00: If he made it more obvious, he if he gave us a sign, if he spoke louder, then we would believe.
SPEAKER_00: If he would make himself present physically, I can see him.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus says this is not the issue.
SPEAKER_00: You have already seen enough.
SPEAKER_00: You already have heard enough.
SPEAKER_00: The real question is not whether God has spoken.
SPEAKER_00: The real question is whether you're willing to listen, block out all the noise, and all that attracts you.
SPEAKER_00: He says, My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.
SPEAKER_00: There it is again.
SPEAKER_00: Not my sheep understand everything.
SPEAKER_00: Not my sheep has no doubts.
SPEAKER_00: My sheep hear and they follow me.
SPEAKER_00: And that helps us understand the first reading because what is happening there makes no sense on purely human level.
SPEAKER_00: The church is being persecuted, Stephen has been killed, people are scattered, it looks like a total failure and a collapse.
SPEAKER_00: But instead, something else is happening.
SPEAKER_00: They go out, they start preaching.
SPEAKER_00: At first, only to those who are familiar, only to their own.
SPEAKER_00: But then something shifts.
SPEAKER_00: They begin to speak to the Greeks, to those outside, to those who were not part of the fold.
SPEAKER_00: And the text says something simple but decisive.
SPEAKER_00: The hand of the Lord was with them.
SPEAKER_00: That's the difference.
SPEAKER_00: Not strategy, not planning, not perfect execution.
SPEAKER_00: The hand of the Lord was with them.
SPEAKER_00: And people turned.
SPEAKER_00: Lives are changed.
SPEAKER_00: The church begins to grow.
SPEAKER_00: And then Barnabas arrives.
SPEAKER_00: And I love this line.
SPEAKER_00: When he saw the grace of God, he rejoiced.
SPEAKER_00: He did not analyze it, he did not try to control it, he recognized it, and he encouraged it.
SPEAKER_00: Remain faithful, he says, in firmness of heart.
SPEAKER_00: Stay steady, stay rooted, do not drift.
SPEAKER_00: I love to say, stay structured, stay disciplined.
SPEAKER_00: And then he does something even more important.
SPEAKER_00: He goes and gets Saul.
SPEAKER_00: He brings him into the mission.
SPEAKER_00: And for a year they teach, they form, they build something real.
SPEAKER_00: And it is there in Antioch that they are first called Christians.
SPEAKER_00: That matters.
SPEAKER_00: Because they were not called Christians because of what they said.
SPEAKER_00: They were called Christians because of the way they lived.
SPEAKER_00: Something about their lives made people say they belong to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I want what those people have.
SPEAKER_00: I want to know that Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now that brings us to the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: My sheep hear my voice and they follow me.
SPEAKER_00: This is not about information.
SPEAKER_00: It's about identity.
SPEAKER_00: You belong to Him.
SPEAKER_00: You recognize Him.
SPEAKER_00: You follow Him.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus says something that should change the way you walk through your day.
SPEAKER_00: I give them eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: No one can take them out of my hand.
SPEAKER_00: No one.
SPEAKER_00: Not your past, not your mistakes, not your failures, not your anxiety, not your circumstances, not even death itself.
SPEAKER_00: No one can take you out of his hand.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the tension.
SPEAKER_00: If that is true, then why do so many people live like everything is so fragile?
SPEAKER_00: Why do we live like peace can be taken away from us at any moment?
SPEAKER_00: Like identity can be shaken, like everything depends on us holding it together.
SPEAKER_00: Because we're listening to the wrong voices.
SPEAKER_00: There are voices in your life telling you that everything is on you.
SPEAKER_00: That if you do not control it, it will fall apart.
SPEAKER_00: That your worth is based on what you achieve, what you produce, what others think of you.
SPEAKER_00: And then slowly, without realizing, you start following that voice.
SPEAKER_00: And it leads to exhaustion, to anxiety, to a life that feels like it's always on the edge.
SPEAKER_00: Who can live like that?
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus says, No, you are in my hands, and my Father is greater than all.
SPEAKER_00: It's not poetry.
SPEAKER_00: This is security.
SPEAKER_00: This is who we are.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the question: What voice are you actually living by?
SPEAKER_00: Not what you say you believe.
SPEAKER_00: What is shaping your decisions, your reactions, your priorities?
SPEAKER_00: Because that is the voice you're following.
SPEAKER_00: So the invitation is learn to hear his voice.
SPEAKER_00: Not in theory, in reality, in prayer, in silence, in scripture, at the Eucharist.
SPEAKER_00: Because the more you hear him, the more you begin to recognize him.
SPEAKER_00: And the more you recognize him, the more you trust him.
SPEAKER_00: And the more you trust him, the more you will follow him.
SPEAKER_00: And when you do, something changes.
SPEAKER_00: You stop living from fear.
SPEAKER_00: You stop living from the pressure.
SPEAKER_00: You stop living like everything depends on you.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens is you start living like someone who knows they are held in the Father's hands.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the early Christians did not change the world because they had better arguments.
SPEAKER_00: They changed the world because they knew whose voice they were following.
SPEAKER_00: And they stayed faithful, firm in heart.
SPEAKER_00: So today, do not ask for more clarity, ask for deeper capacity to listen.
SPEAKER_00: Because a shepherd is already speaking.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, will you follow?
SPEAKER_00: Because if you do, you will discover that what they discovered at Antioch, that your life begins to look different.
SPEAKER_00: And it starts to look different without you even trying.
SPEAKER_00: People will notice and see it, and they will know that you belong to the Good Shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.