Second Birth: Born of Water and the Spirit

In today's Gospel, John 3: 1-8, Nicodemus goes to Jesus at night and acknowledges that Jesus is from God, "for no one," he says to Jesus, "can do these signs that  you are doing unless God is with him."  Jesus says to him in response: "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God." Jesus explains further:  "[U]nless 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.....'You must be born from above.'"

In baptism, you and I were born again, that is, we were born of  water and the spirit. Our first birth was of the flesh. Our second birth was of the Spirit. Born of water and the Spirit in baptism, we are recipients of the gifts of the Spirit--wisdom, understanding, right judgment, courage, knowledge and reverence, holy reverence in God's presence--and empowered to bear an abundance of fruits of the Spirit: love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. We live by the Spirit because of this second birth.  The more we renounce ourselves, also, the more we 'walk by the Spirit'" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, # 736, p. 194).

Nicodemus goes to Jesus at night--he is not yet born from above but is invited to be so!  How strong am I in my faith, that is, do I invite others to be born from above, to be baptized with water and he Spirit? Do I realize that it is because I have been gifted with the sacrament of baptism that I am more likely to act wisely, peacefully, patiently, kindly, gently; that I am therefore  more likely to be faithful to my marriage, religious or priestly vows; and that goodness is more likely to dominate the majority of my choices for that same reason?  Why would I not invite a loved one to choose baptism and seek God above all, to renounce him/herself and thereby walk more in the Spirit than in the flesh?

With the apostles, in today's first reading, Acts 4: 23-31, let us pray for the gift to speak boldly when it comes to proclaiming our faith in Christ Jesus and in what Jesus teaches us in the Scriptures and in the Church.

The Feast of St. Stephen, Dec. 26

Today we celebrate the feast of St.Stephen, the first martyr.  Stephen, like every Christian, sought to acquire the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit is a free gift from God given to us in our baptism and is one that needs to be nourished and nurtured throughout our lives.  In fact, it is a gift that needs "watering," "cultivating," and '"fertilizing" every single day to grow to the stature that St. Stephen enjoyed!  How do we do all of this? The gift of the Spirit grows in proportion to the time we devote to this divine gift: taking time to spend alone with the Lord in silent prayer each day, participating in the Eucharist on a regular basis, reading the Scriptures (the Bible) every day (such as the daily readings of the liturgy in such a resource as Word Among Us (Complete Catholic Mass and Daily Meditations), frequenting the Sacrament of Reconciliation regularly, taking time for spiritual reading (reading that speaks to the deepest parts of ourselves where God reigns, reaching out in love to others, showing our love in actions, being able to ask for forgiveness when we have wronged another, making sacrifices for the good of others and of the world.

At one point Steven assumed a public role of healing and preaching and, finally, he faced death courageously, forgiving his executioners for killing him, as Jesus did upon the cross!  We may not be called to die for our faith in the way Stephen was called, but yet, every day we are called to die to selfishness, to those activities that are not healthy for our spiritual well-being.  The "sacrifice" in which we are called to engage may be as simple but complex and difficult as allowing a family member to watch a TV program that means I will not be able to watch what I want to watch!

How much am I willing to do to "water," "cultivate," or"fertilize" the budding plant of my faith?  Or have I returned it "to the store," as what happens to many Christmas presents or has it simply been tucked away on a shelf never to be touched again! We know what would happen to a Christmas plant treated that way!

Spiritual realities Different from Natural Realities

In today’s first reading, 1 Cor 2: 10b-16, St. Paul reminds us of the Spirit’s presence and role in our lives.  It is the spirit within each of us who knows  what pertains to me and you and “[n]o one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God.”  The spirit that each of us has received is of God, not of the world.  Given that gift from God,  we have the ability to know what God gives us and what is not of or from God.  We have been given the gift to discern good spirits and evil spirits.   Through the spirit within us, we speak of spiritual things spiritually, that is, we use “spiritual terms”.  It is a wisdom of the spirit, not of the world, that inspires us when we speak of heavenly realities, of things of God.

When we speak of spiritual realities, we meet opposition from “the natural man [woman], as the natural and the supernatural oppose one another. Things of the Spirit are not accepted by “the natural man [woman]”.  To such persons, spiritual realities are perceived as foolishness, St. Paul reminds us. There is no way that the natural man/woman can understand the things of God because they are thinking from natural minds; they are judging naturally, not spiritually.  A person who has been given “the mind of Christ” through baptism, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon him/her, knows the mind of the Lord, thinks with the minds of the Lord, responds as God responds to the things, experiences, situations of this world. And people of the world, using natural abilities only, have no idea out of which lens a woman/man of the spirit  (of God)  is looking, perceiving or understanding reality.

For instance, when you and I profess our faith in God, our Creator--His presence in all of life, His power at work transforming our world and our lives one by one; when you and I profess our faith in Christ Jesus and His death and resurrection; when you and I profess our faith in God the Holy Spirit,  in the Eucharist, in the Scriptures as the Living Word of God, and in other spiritual realities, persons who think and function from the perspective of human wisdom, who think only naturally, scoff at us. “How foolish can you get?” “There is no God!”  “Jesus coming to you in a piece of bread or a cup of wine which you say has been changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus in the process of Transubstantiation at your Liturgies, is utter foolishness. You are committing idolatry in your worship services, the natural man/woman proclaims! You are utterly wrong when you believe that God reveals Himself in nature, in other human beings, in life and in death itself: how crazy are you?

I stand by my faith! How about you?

God's Dwelling Place

St. Paul reminds us in today's first reading, Ephesians 2: 19-22, that we are "no longer strangers" nor are we "sojourners," that that we are "being built into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."  What does all of this mean? First of all, we are not strangers to the Lord. A stranger would not take time to visit, would not enter a stranger's house, would not be known  by the other. On the contrary, to God, we are a friend.  We have permanent residence with the Lord, existing in the very core of God's Being, held in the palm of His hand. We are friends who are always welcome, persons God confides in, speaks to heart to heart.  We are part of "structure "held together" and growing "into a temple sacred in the Lord."

We are "being built into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." What building materials is the Lord using?  God uses the materials from my life: its mud, its cement, its clay, its brilliant and dull colors, its woodiness, its softness, its pearls and diamonds--everything that makes me who I am in my strengths and weaknesses, my successes and failures, my ups and downs! Everything! The "mud" God changes into grace. The earthy elements into diamonds and other pearls of great price. He uses my vulnerabilities and weaknesses and creates strengths that support me to become pillar of truth and goodness needed in situations lacking these "pearls."

You and I need to bring these mundane materials to the Lord to be transformed by grace.  Nothing is "not good enough." God never disapproves of what I bring Him.  And, yes, all I have to bring are my weaknesses and my sinfulness. God uses these to grow me into the best version of myself, into "a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."

Two becoming one in Christ Jesus

What a promise in Ephesians 2: 12-22,  today’s first reading, namely that  all those who were once “without Christ, alienated from the community…and strangers to the covenants of promise (the old covenant given to the people through Moses and the new covenant given through Christ), those of us “without hope and without God in this world” are now one with Christ and thus one with each other and with all persons. Christ, Paul tells us, is our peace. He made both covenants one and “broke down the dividing wall of enmity”—a wall Satan tries to erect between us and God and  a wall  which the law with its legal claims creates between peoples of all cultures. On the other hand, Christ, the New Israel,  creates “in himself one new person,” reconciling the two covenants, “with God, in one Body, through the cross, putting that enmity to death by it. “He came  and preached peace to…[us] who were far off and peace to those who were near, for through him, …[all of us, those of the old covenant and those of the new, both Jews and Gentiles] have access in one Spirit to the Father. All of us are “fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of [both] the Apostles and [the] prophets [of old], with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”

Our faith may be sorely tested as we await the creation of this new person, of this sacred temple, of two becoming one. We look around the world and even within our own space, within ourselves, and witness enmity, divisiveness, opposing “covenants” and  laws imposed upon persons of cultures different from our own that seem to  totally violate the rights of its people.  We then find ourselves slow to believe the promises Paul speaks of in this reading.

I do know, however, that God speaks to my heart in what Paul is preaching. What am I doing to reconcile myself with opposition within my very being, between my thoughts and my will, between my ego and my spirit. What am I doing to be a reconciling presence in my community, my family, my parish?     And in what way, each day, do I allow God to do what God needs to do so that I am growing into a temple sacred to the Lord?

The Promise of the Spirit

In today's second reading, Eph 1: 17-23, St. Paul prays that the "God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give...[us] a Spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him. May the eyes of...[our] hearts be enlightened," Paul prays.

 Note the words "the eyes of our hearts."  Those eyes are different from the eyes on our faces, so to speak.  The "eyes of our hearts" are inward eyes, eyes from the depth of our beings, eyes of faith whereby we grow in our knowledge of Jesus  and of "the hope that belongs to...[God's] call, what are the riches of glory in ...[God's] inheritance"  (Eph. 1: 17-23). Functioning from that depth of faith is the gift of the Spirit promised to the apostles, and to us, by Jesus when He said: "...the Spirit of truth ... will guide you to all truth....", truth of all that He taught while on earth and is contained for us in the Scriptures, is communicated to us by the Spirit living within us and others and which is hidden in all of the events of our lives.  As Jesus tells us in today's Gospel, Mt. 28: 16-20, "I am with you always" and as prophesied by Isaiah: "I have not spoken to you in secret, in a dark place of the earth I did not say to the seed of Jacob 'Seek me in vain'; I, the Lord,...declare things that are right."  And so did Jesus, the Son of God!

The Indwelling God

In today's first reading, Acts 17: 15, 22-18:1, Paul admires the Greek's exquisite marble statues of the human body and other man-made monuments. He even notices the inscription on an altar that reads: To an Unknown God."  Paul then proceeds to proclaim to them that the "God who made the world and all that  is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made my human hands,  nor is he served by human hands  because he needs anything" from us.  God dwells in the sanctuary that each of us is, a sanctuary of life made holy by Christ Jesus.  We live and move and have our being in God and God in us. 

This God--the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit--dwells within each one of us, making us one with the Trinity and transforming us in such ways that we become one with one another, relating to each other as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit relate to one another.  In the Trinity all are one. No one dominates the other. No one is deprived of the fullness of life that is the Trinity. All share equally in the Godhead. All give equally to one another. All render complete service to one another in order to accomplish one mission: the salvation of all humankind.

The perfection to which we are called is not of human origin. It is divine. We  are in the process of realizing that perfection from birth until death, a perfection being accomplished by the work of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate that Jesus, in returning to the Father, sent to us to "guide us to all truth" (today's Gospel, John 16" 12-15). What a gift! What a  hope that make all things worth giving one's life to the point of dying. It's the essence of martyrdom. It's the essence of giving one's life in marriage to another. It's the essence of religious life and of priesthood. It's the essence of the single life lived for God!