Monday, 2nd week of Easter
DAILY GOSPEL AND COMMENTARY: “YOU MUST BE BORN FROM ABOVE…BORN OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (v. 7)” Jn 3:1-8.
READING I
Acts 4:23–31
After their release Peter and John went back to their own people and reported what the chief priests and elders had told them. And when they heard it, they raised their voices to God with one accord and said, ‘Sovereign Lord, maker of heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them, you said by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of our father David, your servant: Why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples entertain folly? The kings of the earth took their stand and the princes gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed.
“Indeed they gathered in this city against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed, Herod and Pontius Pilate, together with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do what your hand and your will had long ago planned to take place. And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and enable your servants to speak your word with all boldness, as you stretch forth your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” As they prayed, the place where they were gathered shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM
R. Blessed are all who take refuge in the Lord.
Or: Alleluia.
Why do the nations rage
and the peoples utter folly?
The kings of the earth rise up,
and the princes conspire together
against the Lord and against his anointed:
“Let us break their fetters
and cast their bonds from us!”
R. Blessed are all who take refuge in the Lord.
Or: Alleluia.
He who is throned in heaven laughs;
the Lord derides them.
Then in anger he speaks to them;
he terrifies them in his wrath:
“I myself have set up my king
on Zion, my holy mountain.”
I will proclaim the decree of the Lord.
R. Blessed are all who take refuge in the Lord.
Or: Alleluia.
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
this day I have begotten you.
Ask of me and I will give you
the nations for an inheritance
and the ends of the earth for your possession.
You shall rule them with an iron rod;
you shall shatter them like an earthen dish.”
R. Blessed are all who take refuge in the Lord.
Or: Alleluia.
ALLELUIA
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
GOSPEL
Jn 3:1–8
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.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man once grown old be born again? Surely he cannot reenter his mother’s womb and be born again, can he?” Jesus answered, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born of water and Spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I told you, ‘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.”
GOSPEL COMMENTARY
from the Navarre Bible, Commentary to the Gospel of St. John (with permission)
vv. 1-2 : 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.”
Throughout this intimate dialogue, Nicodemus behaves with great refinement: he addresses Jesus with respect and calls him Rabbi, Master.
- He had probably been impressed by Christ’s miracles and preaching and wanted to know more. The way he reacts to our Lord’s teaching is not as yet very supernatural, but he is noble and upright. His visiting Jesus by night, for fear of the Jews (cf. Jn 19:39) is very understandable, given his position as a member of the Sanhedrin: but he takes the risk and goes to see Jesus.
- When the Pharisees tried to arrest Jesus (Jn 7:32), failing to do so because he had such support among the people, Nicodemus energetically opposed the injustice of condemning a man without giving him a hearing; he also showed no fear, at the most difficult time of all, by honouring the dead Body of the Lord (Jn 19:39).
vv. 3-8: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man once grown old be born again? Surely he cannot reenter his mother’s womb and be born again, can he?” Jesus answered, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born of water and Spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I told you, ‘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’ question shows that he still has doubts about Jesus (is he a prophet, is he the Messiah?); and our Lord replies to him in a completely unexpected way: Nicodemus presumed he would say something about his mission and, instead, he reveals to him an astonishing truth: one must be born again, in a spiritual birth, by water and the spirit; a whole new world opens up before Nicodemus.
- Our Lord’s words also paint a limitless horizon for the spiritual advancement of any Christian who willingly lets himself or herself be led by divine grace and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are infused at Baptism and enhanced by the Sacraments.
- As well as opening his soul to God, the Christian also needs to keep at bay his selfish appetites and the inclinations of pride, if he is to understand what God is teaching him in his soul:
- “therefore must the soul be stripped of all things created, and of its own actions and abilities — namely, of its understanding, perception and feelings — so that, when all that is unlike God and unconformed to him is cast out, the soul may receive the likeness of God; and nothing will then remain in it that is not the will of God and it will thus be transformed in God. Wherefore, although it is true that, as we have said, God is ever in the soul, giving it, and through his presence conserving within it, its natural being, yet he does not always communicate supernatural being to it. For this is communicated only by love and grace, which not all souls possess; and all those that possess it have it not in the same degree; for some have attained more degrees of love and others fewer. Wherefore God communicates himself most to that soul that has progressed farthest in love; namely, that has its will in closest conformity with the will of God. And the soul that has attained complete conformity and likeness of will is totally united and transformed in God supernaturally” (St John of the Cross, Ascent of Mount Carmel, book II, chap. 5).
- As well as opening his soul to God, the Christian also needs to keep at bay his selfish appetites and the inclinations of pride, if he is to understand what God is teaching him in his soul:
- Jesus speaks very forcefully about man’s new condition: it is no longer a question of being born of the flesh, of the line of Abraham (cf. Jn 1:13), but of being reborn through the action of the Holy Spirit, by means of water.
- This is our Lord’s first reference to Christian Baptism, confirming John the Baptist’s prophecy (cf. Mt 3:11; Jn 1:33) that He had come to institute a Baptism with the Holy Spirit.
- ‘Nicodemus had not yet savoured this spirit and this life… He knew but one birth, which is from Adam and Eve; that which is from God and the Church, he did not yet know; he knew only the paternity which engenders to death; he did not yet know the paternity which engenders to life… Whereas there are two births, he knew only of one. One is of earth, the other of heaven; one of the flesh, the other of the Spirit; one of mortality, the other of eternity; one of male and female, the other of God and the Church. But the two are each unique; neither one nor the other can be repeated’ (St Augustine, In Ioann. Evang., 11,6).
- This is our Lord’s first reference to Christian Baptism, confirming John the Baptist’s prophecy (cf. Mt 3:11; Jn 1:33) that He had come to institute a Baptism with the Holy Spirit.
- Our Lord speaks of the wonderful effects the Holy Spirit produces in the soul of the baptized. Just as with the wind — when it blows we realize its presence, we hear it whistling, but we do not know where it came from, or where it will end up — so with the Holy Spirit, the divine “breath” (pneuma) given us in Baptism: we do not know how he comes to penetrate our heart but he makes his presence felt by change in the conduct of whoever receives him.
VIDEO REFLECTION
TOPIC: DO YOU KNOW THE IMPORTANCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN YOUR LIFE?
In today’s gospel reading, a Pharisee named Nicodemus visits Jesus at night. Nicodemus was a Jewish Rabbi and one of the seventy members of the Sanhedrin, the highest legal, judicial and religious council then. The Pharisees despised Jesus. But Nicodemus, the same person who argued for a fair trial for Jesus and who assisted Joseph of Arimathea to bury Jesus, became a believer. He came in the early part of Jesus’ ministry with a strong belief that following the Mosaic Law (contained in the Pentateuch, first five books of the Old Testament – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) was sufficient for eternal salvation.But Jesus tells him that one has to be born again in the Holy Spirit – that is, to be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, to be truly deserving of eternal salvation.
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