Meditation Minute

My Dearest Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

 

“Whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

 

Gospel Reading 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.”

 

In today’s Gospel reading, we hear the end of the story with Nicodemus.  Jesus is questioned by Nicodemus about his origins and about the kingdom of heaven.  Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be “born anew.”  It is not enough to have an earthly birth, but he must be born in the spirit of God. It is not enough to call yourself a son of Abraham but one must be born in the Holy Spirit which sweeps the earth.  Jesus says, “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.”  Here Christ speaks of the Holy Spirit which flows through the world.  We do not need to know where it comes from nor where it goes, we just need to hear its sounds and  be touched by its grace.  Nicodemus does not believe what he is hearing.  Jesus tells him, if you do not believe the things that I witness to you, then you lack in faith.  Faith is the ability to believe those things which we do not see or cannot touch.  It is the power of faith which is given to us in our baptism which allows us to believe in God.  Because no one has gone up into Heaven, no one can have complete knowledge of God except God himself.  Because Jesus is God, He is the only one who has complete knowledge of God.  It is His witness that allows us to grow in faith.  So why did God completely empty himself to become man? So we would have a witness to the kingdom of heaven.

 

In the end of the Gospel reading, Jesus tells Nicodemus, “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.”  The bronze serpent erected by Moses was raised to cure the Israelites from the bite of the dessert serpents.  Jesus, the Son of man, was raised up on the cross for all humanity to see to save us from our sins and eternal damnation.  Jesus foreshadows his own death and resurrection so when these events occur, the people of Israel will believe.  He tells them this so that they will have faith.  Therefore, those of us who look upon Jesus with the faith that bore out through the crucifixion and his resurrection can be “born anew” into the salvation of eternal life of God.  Jesus took on the form of man to reveal to us the hidden mystery of our eternal life.  We now can witness the power of our baptism in the Holy Spirit and the resurrection of our new life in God.  The faith which we are given in our baptism is a gift from God.  It requires nourishment and feeding or it can wither.  We must ask God to strengthen that faith and increase that faith.  Faith is not only a gift, it is a virtue.  A virtue is a good habit; something that is developed through practice.  We need the help of grace to make this faith grow within us.  Faith and grace are codependents and we must have both to truly encounter Jesus Christ.

 

A Simple Prayer

 

Lord, increase my faith.

Allow my faith to be renewed daily in the Holy Spirit.

 

Yours in Christ

Michael Marcon