Monday of the Second Week of Easter

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/041612.cfm 

A niece-blooming tree!

There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. He came to Jesus at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you are doing unless God is with him.”

Pope Benedict XVI, in his book Jesus of Nazareth, insists that Jesus’ actual teachings are faithfully recorded in the Gospel of Saint John. He challenges the conventional wisdom of many scholars who suppose that John, the last of the gospels, is the least historical. The Holy Father believes a group of scholarly Christians, perhaps former scribes, remembered the gist of Jesus’ teachings and many of his precise remarks. More importantly, they felt the staggering impact of the Messiah’s personality. This midnight conversation with Nicodemus, then, reflects Jesus’ teachings, refined by many years of deep reflection and chastening experience.

During this second week of Easter, from Monday through Thursday, the Church ponders their conversation. As we often see in John’s gospel, people who come to Jesus are very sympathetic with his cause. Nicodemus readily acknowledges Jesus’ prophetic mission: “You are a teacher who has come from God….” This might be read as mere flattery but it fits a pattern found throughout the gospel. (see John 2.11: John 2.23: John 4.41: John 7.31: John 8.31: John 12.42) 

But, despite their initial enthusiasm, he challenges them and, consequently, many abandon him.

Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. (John 6:66)

In today’s gospel Jesus staggers the sympathetic Nicodemus with a very difficult teaching:

Unless one is born from above he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus is frankly amazed by the remark. He wonders if it should be taken literally, “Surely a man cannot reenter his mother’s womb!” But even if it’s a metaphor for a spiritual experience, how can it happen? “Can a man once grown old be born again?” Can you teach an old dog new tricks?

Jesus clarifies his teaching for Nicodemus:

The wind blows where it will, 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.

Easter has demonstrated for us the unpredictable nature of God's graces. If we've learned nothing else from the celebration, we should know that God is still in charge, and "Nothing is impossible with God." We who believe in Jesus cannot be cowed into hopelessness. We may not know where God is leading us but we're certain he will not abandon us. And we often remind one another, "Where God closes one door, he'll open another." 

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.

~  T.S. Eliot  ~