November 20, 2022
April 26, 2022
Tuesday of the Second Week of Easter
John 3:7b-15
Jesus said to Nicodemus:
“‘You must be born from above.’
The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes,
but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes;
so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus answered and said to him,
‘How can this happen?”
Jesus answered and said to him,
“You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this?
Amen, amen, I say to you,
we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen,
but you people do not accept our testimony.
If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe,
how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
No one has gone up to heaven
except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
How can this happen? Nicodemus asks a great question and one I think, if we are honest, we all struggle with.
How, indeed, can this happen? How can a person be born again? What does Jesus mean?
I can’t help but think of my son. He is now approaching 31 years of age. He had been away from the church – not just the Catholic Church he was raised in – but the Body of Christ which Jesus established before he ascended. For 16 years he has been adrift – searching for that something. It was that something I could not give him but rather a something he had to take for himself. I would have loved to have been able to give him what I, myself, had to find on my own. Instead, I watched as he searched and was there when he had questions. I modeled, as best I could, for that which he searched.
Last Christmas, just after turning 30 years, the call was so strong he found himself in a nearby Orthodox Catholic Church. The message had become so clear that he could no longer ignore it.
He was finally home.
My son’s journey, his search for that “place”, is what I believe Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus today.
My son has left behind a life – a style of living – that he admits, was hedonistic and self-indulgent. Now, he is living the Gospel and taking to friends he made while living that other life. He is that which his friends wish to be – or at least, are inquisitive of learning about.
He is indeed born again – just as Jesus says to Nicodemus.
At least that’s what I heard Him say…
What I Heard Him Say 