I like to reflect a little bit on the
third chapter of John's Gospel you know
the church during the Easter season
features John's Gospel and this one is
of extraordinary importance it's
dominated by the conversation between
Jesus and Nicodemus and I'll read you
just now the opening line now there was
a Pharisee named Nicodemus a ruler of
the Jews he came to Jesus at night I'll
stop there
the motif of light and darkness is a
very important symbolic a theme in John
because Jesus is the light of the world
the light shines the darkness the
darkness does not comprehend it all that
night stands for spiritual darkness it
stands for certain ignorant or a
shutting down of one's perspective
that's why for example when Judas
betrays the Lord John says very laconic
Li and it was night he's gone into a
place of spiritual darkness
so here Nicodemus who's a ruler of the
Jews it says meaning of you know an
intellectual leader he came to Jesus at
night so he's in the spiritual darkness
to some degree but he's getting
something because listen he says to
rabbi we know you're a teacher who's
come from God for no one can do these
signs you're doing unless God is with
him so he's in the dark but he's
starting to get what Jesus is about then
comes this famous line and any Christian
you know has to wrestle with the meaning
of this jesus answered and said to him
amen amen
so it's serious business now when the
Lord says amen amen it's this is really
important I say to you no one can see
the kingdom of God without being born
from above this translation has the
Greek word there is unknown and it can
mean either again or from above so we
speak of being born again here born from
above now what does this mean
so this figures in the dark but he's
starting to see something and Jesus says
to him with great seriousness you can't
see the kingdom of God
without being born anew again from above
see what's being described as something
of enormous spiritual significance
namely what Meister Eckhart called the
breakthrough his German word or book
they think was actually a coinage of
meister eckhart breakthrough the moment
when a higher world breaks into this one
when the realm of God the realm of the
supernatural the realm of the divine
life breaks into this world re situating
it shaking it up recontextualizing it
it's the breakthrough of grace to use
more catholic language think here of the
short stories and novels of Flannery
O'Connor they're all about this moment
they're all about the breakthrough of
grace now in her stories it usually
results in someone rejecting grace or
being closed to it
nevertheless something has happened that
shakes us out of our complacency shakes
us out of our orientation to this
dimensional system now put in a more
spiritual language the world what
sometimes called the flesh in the
scripture refers to the preoccupation
with wealth pleasure power and honor
those four things I have spoken of many
times before the world the world of our
ordinary experience our ordinary goals
the things that we think will make us
happy the things that we're interested
in
day to day you get out of bed in the
morning you're thinking about well
wealth pleasure power or honor I'm after
those things that's the world
that's nature if you want anything wrong
with it
no the Catholic reading is that nature
itself is good but but grace builds on
nature and transforms nature there's a
breakthrough of a new world the world of
God's life and here we speak of the
theological virtues faith whole
and love what's faith but now living in
the realm of God under the aegis of God
what's hope it's now the order of your
life to a transcendent good beyond this
world
what's love love is the divine life when
the divine life breaks in were invaded
by faith hope and love what's the result
we are born again were born from above a
new perspective mind vision way of being
breaks in now nature remains but
nature's transfigured now my wealth I
might see not as an ultimate goal but
something that can use for God's
purposes pleasure is now transfigured
elevated for God's purposes same with
power same with honor it's the same
world
yeah I'm not snatched out of this world
but now that old world is completely
transfigured think here of the image
I've used before of Jesus getting into
Simon's boat without being asked without
seeking his permission Jesus simply gets
into his boat and begins giving orders
he reorders the life of Peter or think
of Jesus saying to Zacchaeus I'm coming
to your house today without being asked
he tells them I'm moving in that's what
it means to be born again or born from
above and that's why everything depends
upon it the trouble is we get stuck in
the narrow confines of nature of the
world of ordinary experience and then we
never really live notice please how
Nicodemus like many people doesn't
really get this at first it takes a
transformation of consciousness to get
it Nicodemus said to him how can a
person once grown old be born again
surely can't enter his mother's womb and
be born again
cannae will see what he's doing here is
he's translating spiritual language into
the language of ordinary experience now
mind you a lot of religious people do
just that that's a
real danger in religion is that we take
the symbols and metaphors of the
spiritual order and then we translate
them down into the language of ordinary
experience and we thereby miss them we
don't get what's going on jesus answered
amen amen I say to you so again we're
serious business no one can enter the
kingdom of God without being born of
water and spirit
what's born of flesh is flesh what's
born of spirit is spirit when out water
and spirit our Catholic years pick up
baptism what is baptism but being drawn
into a new world you now become a child
of God not just a child of the world of
the Spirit well what's the spirit what
comes to us in confirmation what comes
to us in the Eucharist in the other
sacraments the Holy Spirit the divine
life say unless you're born of water and
the spirit
you're lifted up into the divine life
you won't enter into what Jesus calls
here the kingdom of God God's Way of
ordering things God's way of seeing
things that's why it's so dramatically
important and notice please
what's born of flesh is flesh what's
born of spirit of spirit don't by the
way platon eyes this that the Bible is
not a platonic text meaning down on
flesh up with spirit as if like this
body is the problem biblical people
don't think that way
they're not plating us the word flesh
here is being used as kind of a metaphor
a symbol for that constricted world of
nature
so what's born of flesh is flesh what's
what you know is born of that world is
of that world
what's born of spirit of spirit spirit
now will contain flesh will elevate
flesh will bring it up into a new
context see that's the right
relationship between flesh and spirit
and then how wonderful don't be amazed I
told you you must be born from above the
wind blows where it wills you can hear
the sound it makes but you don't know
where it comes from or where it goes so
it is with everyone born of the Spirit
it's wonderful in that because the wind
today's a windy day by the way when
we're filming this and we
hearing the wind rattling the windows I
was just out a while ago in the wind
where's it coming from I don't know it's
windy today where's it going I don't
know it's mysterious the wind so what
the holy spirit is I don't control this
if I'm in the world I'm in the flesh I
can't control the spirit I can't summon
it make it happen no there's a dork
broke right there's that break through
something has come into my world and
changed it so with the Holy Spirit I can
learn to sort of ride that wind I can I
can allow that wind to fill the sails of
my life but that's that's the the
breakthrough the Holy Spirit I love
again Nicodemus answered and said how
can this happen and Jesus says to him
you're a teacher of Israel and you don't
know how these things happen you see
he's teasing him there or mocking him a
little bit you claim to be a spiritual
teacher but yet your frame of reference
is still this world in fact what you're
doing is you're taking my spiritual
language and you're rendering it worldly
you'll never get it
you know that's the need now to be born
again now listen as chapter three goes
on though it's fascinating chapter 3
verse 16 now for God so loved the world
that He gave His only Son that everyone
who believes in Him might not perish but
might have eternal life John 3:16 the
famous quote we see how it fits in
though it's part of the Nicodemus speech
God loved the world so much the world
the cosmos right this dimension that He
sent into it his only son that he might
turn the world now into the divine life
he might given eyes the world and so the
the being born from above is a gift from
God given by the father as he offers us
the song and it's purpose now is to draw
us up into the divine life once that
happens we see everything different we
feel everything in a different way we
have different aspirations
we understand our lives differently we
see with the eyes of Christ wealth
pleasure power honor the goods the world
remain but now they are transfigured by
the wind by the light by the Son of God
who's broken into our lines see and
that's the whole spiritual life that's a
whole spiritual order we can pray for it
we should you know if like Nicodemus
were in the dark but we're intrigued by
Jesus great great and pray ask ask the
wind
I mean blows were wills I don't know
where it comes from I know where it's
going but ask for it and see when it
comes I'll use good Catholic language
here when it comes cooperate with it see
there's the point of Flannery O'Connor
stories again is again and again she
says grace breaks through grace breaks
through notice please too painfully very
often because this world becomes very
set in its ways
grace boom will shatter something but
when that happens cooperate with it get
on board
open the sails they might be filled with
that breath with that wind that's why
this text is so important unless you're
born from above you're not going to get
this kingdom that Jesus speaks of