Gospel Reflection on Jn 3:1-8
- Apr 28, 2025
- 3 min read
April 28, 2025
Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicode′mus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicode′mus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’ The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit.”
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I can't help but think that Pope Francis would have quite liked Nicodemus, just as he would have quite liked Zacchaeus. These seekers, Zacchaeus hiding in the tree, and Nicodemus coming at night, undercover, filled with questions, but sensing something and trying to be faithful to what they sensed. Not what they learned in Catechism. And then we have all of that elusive language, being born again, which as we've been chatting about on this morning talks about this moment of illumination, of discovering that I really am of God, and I have been born into this new family of the church.
Once you have that kind of template in the back of your mind, so much of these texts start to resonate and you start to say, 'That's what that's about. That's what that's about.'
One of Jesus' answers to Nicodemus I think is also dear to Pope Francis and that's about the wind blowing where it chooses. It's interesting that they speculate that at the last conclave, he offered an intervention, and in his intervention he said, 'Christ is knocking at the door, but it's not the door to come in. It's the door of the church to be let out.'
And they figured that's what led to his election as pope, was to let Christ out of the church, let the spirit alive. And let it blow where it chooses to blow, and let's learn how to listen to it, which has been one of the hallmarks of his papacy is learning how to listen and having the discipline to be quiet. Those conversations in the spirit that he initiated that I hope will continue in the church, having periods of silence. And it's not so that we can prepare a better argument for what somebody has just said, but so that we can listen to what's going on in here and listen to the spirit outside. So today, we remembered a dear leader, I think a dear friend, a great source of hope for us and for the church.
And we pray for those individuals who will have to make a difficult choice about what will the path of this great community of ours look like in the years to come.
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