Gospel: John 3:1-8

 

Nicodemus was a good man. His heart was in its darkest hour. However, Nicodemus’ darkest hour was different from that of Judas, because this dark hour led him to draw near to Jesus. When Nicodemus went to Jesus, he received a response that he did not understand. It almost seemed as if Jesus wanted to complicate things. Nicodemus asked: “How can a man be born anew?”. It seemed rather ironic, but it is instead the expression of interior torment. 

 

Thus, Jesus explained that it entailed a passage from one mentality to another, and with much patience, with much love.

 

What does it mean to be born of the Spirit? In order to better understand it, the day’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles enlightens us. All the people were there at Solomon’s gat. They had seen and were astonished. It was that state of mind which makes the Lord present in us. Astonishment. The encounter with the Lord leads to astonishment. The leaders, the high priests, the doctors of the law, were scandalized and, knowing that the miracle had been performed in public, asked themselves: “What do we do?”. The same thing happens when Jesus heals the man who had been born blind. 

 

The doctors of the law agreed to call the two Apostles and to tell them to speak no more, to preach no more. Peter, who had denied Jesus three times, responded: No! We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. And thus, we shall continue.

 

The leaders want to enter negotiations in order to reach compromises. But the Apostles do not want compromises. They have courage. They have frankness, the frankness and freedom of the Spirit. This is the point: the concreteness of faith. 

 

The concreteness of faith leads to frankness, to witnessing to the point of martyrdom, which is contrary to compromises or the idealization of faith. One who is born of the Spirit hears the voice, follows the wind, follows the voice of the Spirit, not knowing where he will end up. Because he has chosen the option of the concreteness of faith and being born anew in the spirit.

 

May the Lord give us all this Easter Spirit, to go along the paths of the Spirit without compromise, without rigidity, with the freedom to announce Jesus Christ as he has come: in the flesh.