Acts 11:19-26 / John 10:22-30
Psalm 23 is also popularly known as the "Good Shepherd psalm" and many hymns have been composed using that psalm.
It is a popular psalm because it offers a soothing consolation in a time of distress and danger.
For example, when it says "If I should ever walk in the valley of darkness, no evil would I fear, you are there to show the way"
Certainly it is very encouraging and we feel that no darkness is too powerful when the Lord, our Good Shepherd is leading us.
The first two lines of the first stanza says this: The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want.
That is a very profound starting to the psalm and that sets the tone for the encouragement and consolation that the rest of the psalm expresses.
But we can only experience that encouragement and consolation when we truly listen to what the Lord, our Good Shepherd, is telling us in the psalm.
As Jesus said in the gospel, the sheep that belong to Him listen to His voice; He knows them and they follow Him.
So even in a time of persecution as we heard in the 1st reading, the early Church walked through that valley of darkness with her Good Shepherd leading her to continue her mission and the Church even grew in that time of persecution.
Let us listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd and follow Him so that from the valleys of darkness, we will be lead to the pastures of consolation and grow in encouragement.