April 12, 2010
Monday of the Second Week of Easter
“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.” Acts 4:29-30
“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.” John 3:5-8
Piety
The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre –
To be redeemed from fire by fire.
Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame,
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire. (T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets)
Study
Nicodemus responds to the call of his restless heart and comes under cover of darkness to begin to satisfy his desire to know Jesus better. However, at this point in his searching, he does not want his peers to see him with Jesus.
Despite his strong desire to get to know Jesus better, Nicodemus is not yet able to grasp the meaning of what Jesus is teaching him today. Are we? What does being born again or born from above mean in our lives? Jesus was trying to teach Nicodemus that we had to turn away from the everyday desires that we are born with and instead turn to the desires that come from the spirit, from above.
Nicodemus had to begin to let go of the trappings of power and control that he had in the temple. His journey did not end that night in Galilee. Throughout John’s Gospel, we repeatedly encounter Nicodemus growing closer and closer to the Lord and defending Jesus even in the light of day inside the temple. At the very end of Jesus’ mortal life, after the disciples have betrayed, denied and abandoned Jesus, we see Nicodemus at the foot of the cross carrying on the active love demanded by those who follow Jesus.
Action
Last weekend, Mrs. Lighthouse Keeper and I participated in a Centering Prayer retreat at The Well in Smithfield, Virginia. The retreat was led by Fr. Bill Shaheen, OMI. Through sessions of prayer, quiet time and talks by Fr. Bill, the silent weekend was designed around the theme of “Letting Go.” The aim was to deepen our centering experience and focus on the consent to God’s invitation to love and be loved. Nicodemus was struggling to accept that invitation in today’s scripture. (In fact, we will be studying John 3 nearly all week in the Mass readings).
We are called to imitate the willingness that Nicodemus exhibited to begin to turn our life and our will toward our creator (who comes from above). This action will loosen the ties that bind us to the desires of modern life and culture.
“Letting Go” of our distractions, attachments and addictions help us to overcome the obstacles to God’s friendship and the sacredness of the present moment in our lives. Like Nicodemus stepped away from the busyness and pace of life as a Pharisee in order to spend a precious moment with Jesus, we also are called to be companions on the journey, with Jesus, with each other and with the Holy Spirit.
