Tuesday of 2nd Week of Easter,5th April 2016
“How is that possible?” asked Nicodemus. Jesus replied, ’You are the Teacher of Israel, ad you do not know these things!
In all truth I tell you, we speak only about what we know and witness to only what we have seen and yet your people reject our evidence. If you do not believe me when I speak to you about earthly things, how will you believe me when I speak to you about heavenly things?"
There is such deep beauty in what Nicodemus does,but Jesus’ response is even more marvellous.
Nicodemus and Jesus are trying to announce God’s Mystery, they are in a state of prayer.
Nicodemus feels a deep need for a spiritual life. Jesus shows him the way of rebirth - he has to go down into the depths of his being.
Jesus also speaks to him about how hard it is to decipher how the Holy Spirit works; in reality ’the wind blows where it will’.
So that Nicodemus enters into Eternal Life, a new Life regenerated by the action of God’s Spirit is necessary.
Nothing must remain outside the renewal which God operates in us by his Spirit, they are ’things ’of Heaven, God’s Infinite Love which is realised now in men.
Nicodemus will be at the Cross.self Jesus will take on him our selfishness, our sin, our death, they will lead into his tomb. We believe that Jesus, standing upright, rises ourselves with Him. This experience is a really extraordinary one, the Risen Lord Christ took possession of humanity which is the Church. Jesus gave his Life for us and we give our life for our brothers.
“Do not be surprised when I say ’You must be born from above. The wind blows where it pleases; you can hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Jesus proposes to Nicodemus a path be born in God by entering into himself, it is a movement of turning in to the inner life.
Jesus invites him to turn his back on a search for God elsewhere than where he can find Him, within Him, Jesus.
Jesus proposes to Nicodemus his own experience with His Father, suggesting he plunges into his origins, where he did not have a dualistic look at the outside and the inside-it is this unification.Nicodemus will understand it later on and he will be regenerated in all he is.
It is at the Cross that this transformation will be given to Nicodemus by Jesus! Raised up on the Cross, Jesus saves us, and he raises us up, we are risen, the Holy Spirit is given to us and thanks to the Holy Spirit we are reborn to anew Life and we obtain filial adoption.
Participation in the grace of Christ has us participate in Eternal Life, in Eternal Glory.
Nicodemus understands that to be born of the breath of the Spirit is to make the old man die within ourselves, and to not be concerned all the time about oneself.
He will look at how Jesus acts, he who only lives for other people, then after a long journey, Nicodemus will be at the tomb with Christ.
“For no one has gone up to Heaven except the one who came down from Heaven, the Son of man; as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him.”
Jesus proposes to Nicodemus a way out of the perception of God which is one on the outside, so as to encounter him within himself.
Come from Heaven, Jesus communicates the life of Heaven, God’s Infinite Love. The more I love God, the more I discover myself and the more I love the people with whom I live.
Like Nicodemus, we recognise that we are old people as long as we live outside of ourselves; we see everything from the outside, we observe the face and behaviour of someone else but we don’t see what God can perform through that person.
The path Jesus proposes to us is in fact a rebirth from within, he proposes a lovely journey in our inner country. Too often do we seek God on the outside, in an inaccessible Heaven.
Easter is a time for inner awakening.The victory of Jesus Christ is within us, a stone has been rolled away and this has us breathe a spirit whose origins we do not know, but we can tell it exists.
In the depths of our human life there is a life that doesn’t come from us, a Presence which calls us to enter into conversation with God.