A Nighttime Conversation With Nicodemus
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After the wedding at Cana, Jesus went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover (Probably in late April). There Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a religious leader of Israel came to talk to Jesus alone and at night.
In this conversation recorded in John 3, Jesus reveals some of the most important truths of life:
Jesus did not come to condemn the world. He came to save us from the consequences of our sin by dying in our place, rising from the dead, and conquering death once and for all. For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved…No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven; and the Son of Man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.
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Jesus told us that we could receive his divine life by being born of water and the spirit, by Baptism. He said, “I tell you most solemnly, unless a man is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God'…unless a man is born through water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
Jesus revealed that came to give us the divine life that is in Himself, making us something far greater than sons of men and women. He came to make us sons and daughters of God, heirs to the Kingdom of Heaven where we would reign with him forever and ever. This gift is given through Baptism.
When was the last time you thought about this, every day Jesus offers his divine life to you in the Eucharist when he says, “This is my body, given up for you!” What response do you give to his offer?
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To receive this astonishing gift, to become like God, we must make a decision, the choice to believe in Jesus and to live according to what is true and good or not. For he said: No one who believes in him will be condemned; but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already, because he has refused to believe in the name of God's only Son. On these grounds is sentence pronounced: that though the light has come into the world men have shown they prefer darkness to the light because their deeds were evil.
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But God leaves us free.
If we prefer the love of God and neighbor over our sinful desires, then we will live forever in Heaven. If we prefer our sinful desires over the love of God and neighbor, we reject him. Rejecting him means to live apart from God forever in hell. Our destination after death is not automatic. We must choose by how we live.
For Jesus said: “Indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, for fear his actions should be exposed; but the man who lives by the truth comes out into the light, so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God.”
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Finally, Jesus said to Nicodemus, “The wind blows wherever it pleases; you hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. That is how it is with all who are born of the Spirit.” Just as we cannot see the wind but only its effects, we cannot see the divine life in a person, but we should see what it produces, virtue.
We will produce virtue if we practice a resolution flowing from our meditation each day. We must conclude each meditation with a resolution, a simple concrete thing we will remember and do each day. If you always have a resolution flowing from your meditation and practice it – you will grow. If you never have a resolution, you will not grow!