BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT
To be reborn, we enter into a life of love, peace, joy, and freedom that
can only come from God.
Throughout this
Easter season, our first reading at Mass is taken from the Acts of the
Apostles. This book, composed by St. Luke, tells the story of the pristine
Church after the resurrection of Christ. The Church was born from the side of
Christ dying upon the cross. When the physical Christ died, the mystical Christ
was born, Jesus, like a mother dying in childbirth, gave up His life so that we
might be given a new life in the Spirit.
What happened for
the Church as a whole on Good Friday happened for us on the day of our own
baptism: We were born of water and the Spirit, given a share in the life of
Christ and thereby made children of the Father. We became brothers and sisters
of one another, the family of God. What we read in the Acts of the Apostles
forms a plan for our own lives as Christians. For example, in today's reading
we see that the Christians were a community of believers who were eager to
share their faith, even in the face of dire threats. We also see that they were
a prayerful people. In their prayers and in their lives they were led by the
Holy Spirit.
In the Gospel we
read: "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." Do we ever just stop and listen,
look, smell, to see the beauty of God and what He has created around us. Do we
really marvel at it all, and think of things that are life-giving? Jesus said that rebirth was necessary to
enter the kingdom of God. Of course, Nicodemus the Pharisee had already found
religion, so he thought that Jesus must have referred to physical rebirth. No,
Jesus responded, someone who is reborn spiritually knows the experience as
surely as one who has been refreshed by an invisible breeze. The Gospel
portrays Nicodemus as a defender of Jesus' right to a fair trial (Jn 7-51).
Nicodemus also helped to bury Jesus with honor. Nicodemus did not understand
the new birth, which Jesus spoke of, until after the Resurrection. What does it
mean to be reborn? The new birth Jesus speaks of is a spiritual birth to new
life, and relationship with God as His sons and daughters. To be reborn, we
enter into a life of love, peace, joy, and freedom that can only come from God.
Finally, the life
of the Church is summed up in an earlier chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.
It states "They devoted themselves to the apostles' instruction and the
communal life, to the breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts 2:42). The
apostles' instruction is preserved in the writings of the New Testament and in
the sacred Tradition of the Church. We hear this instruction every day at Mass.
"The breaking of the bread" is the New Testament term for the Mass,
which we celebrate with prayers. The communal life refers to the life of caring
for each other in love. In other words, the life of the Church as described in
the Acts of the Apostles is indeed the blueprint for our lives.
In the responsorial
psalm we acclaim: "Blessed are all who take refuge in the Lord. For God
said we are His sons and daughters; this day I have begotten you" (Ps 2
7b-9). For we are born of water and spirit!