"Late Night Catechism" by Rabbi Jesus to Nicodemus: Being Born from Above - Born of Water and the Holy Spirit - Monday of the Second Week of Paschaltide

After Paschal Octave, Paschatide daily Gospel readings are no longer on the Resurrection per se, though we will read one more Resurrection episode on the Third Sunday of Paschaltide. We are going to read from John, looking back how Jesus taught and performed signs to deepen our understanding of who this Jesus, the one who is risen, is, in our preparation for Pentecost.

As for First Readings, we continue on with the Acts of the Apostles.

So, we look ahead through the First Readings from the Acts, while we look back how Jesus ministered through the Gospel Readings until Pentecost.

In the Gospel Reading today, Monday after Paschal Octave, Monday of the Second Week of Paschaltide, John 3:1-8, Nicodemus, a high-raking Pharisee member of the Sanhedrin, is described as an ardent student of Jesus, struggling to learn about “being born again – being born of water and the Holy Spirit”.

Nicodemus reminds us that not all Pharisees are same. He did not prejudge Jesus as “possessed” or “blasphemous” as other Pharisees did. In fact, he recognized that Jesus was with God, because of the way Jesus performed miraculous signs as nobody else could, calling him Rabbi (John 3:2). It was Nicodemus, who confronted a hermeneutic problem of his Pharisee colleagues in their application of the Torah to accuse Jesus, based on the Torah, as to admonish them to first listen to Jesus to know who he is  (John 7:50-51). And, he brought myrrh to apply to the corpse of Jesus upon his death (John 19:39).

Nicodemus was so intrigued by Jesus for what he did. So, he became a student of Jesus. However, he met Jesus rather clandestinely at night (John 3:2), perhaps, because he was afraid that other Pharisees see him being in association with Jesus.

It was like Nicodemus receiving a catechism lesson from Jesus the Rabbi at night. The original “Late Night Catechism”?

In that night’s lesson, Jesus taught Nicodemus that we need to be born from about in order to see the Kingdom of God (John 3:3). And Nicodemus had difficulty in understanding what Jesus meant by “being born from above”. He thought it means “being born again” in the way he was born of his mother’s womb. So, Nicodemus must have been wondering how can someone like him, an old man, can come out of mother’s womb again.

But, Jesus was referring to being born of water and the Holy Spirit (John 3:5), namely, Baptism, which is to be Conformed with the power of the Holy Spirit. Being born from above really points to being born of  the Holy Spirit of Pentecost, sending down from the Father above in heaven.

This (John 3:3-5 – being born from above – being born of water and the Holy Spirit for the Kingdom of God) echoes what John the Baptist said about the coming of Jesus, who will baptize the Israelites with the Holy Spirit and fire, after he baptize them with water from the Jordan River (Matthew 3:11). And this points to what Jesus alluded to Pentecost in juxtaposing water to the Holy Spirit in John 7:37-39).

Being born from above by being born of water and the Holy Spirit – being baptized with water and empowered by the Holy Spirit (John 3:3-5) means having deep transformation within. It is not something like having the new skin or having a new outlook. That is why this is not about going back to mother’s womb and come out again at an old age.

Obviously, Nicodemus was thinking like a typical human. But, to understand the catechesis of Jesus, we need to really think outside the box – to think beyond the human flesh (physical human brain).

So then, Jesus compared the Holy Spirit and the flesh (John 3:6) and further addressed on the Holy Spirit (John 3:7-8).

Jesus wanted Nicodemus, his student of catechesis, to understand that the kind of birth in his teaching for the Kingdom is of the Holy Spirit, preceded of water, but not of flesh. Jesus’s catechesis transcends biology, which studies flesh and other physical matter of life.

Today, we know pretty much of science of wind – how it occurs and how it blows. However, science was not that advanced at the time of Jesus. Even a highly educated Pharisee, like Nicodemus, did not know how wind blew, perhaps, except for the fact that it (ruah/pneuma) was blowing when God began Creating the universe (Genesis 1:2). So, Jesus said to Nicodemus that he did not need to fully understand all the details about being born from above – being born of water and of the Holy Spirit but need to experience and recognize it – and hopefully, testify to it, just as he does not have to fully understand science of wind to recognize and experience wind blowing and to talk about this experience. Wind blows regardless of what Nicodemus thinks about it because it goes beyond his thinking and it can be symbolic to transcendence, as it may symbolize the Holy Spirit (Pneuma Hagion).

Jesus said not to be surprised about being born of the Holy Spirit as it should be the “new normal” – the new norm with the new covenant that he is bringing.

So, what would it be like to be born of water and the Holy Spirit for the Kingdom?

It would be like the way Peter and the rest of the disciples are, as written in the Acts of the Apostles, from 2:14 on.

In today’s First Reading (Acts 4:23-31), we see how the disciples responded to Peter and John, as they returned to them upon being released from the custody of the religious leaders for questioning on their authority to do the work of healing and speak of Jesus.

To the rest of the disciples, Peter and John gave a report on how the religious leaders questioned them and spoke to them.

It was a victory of Peter for speaking of Jesus to those who witnessed him healing a paralytic beggar and speaking of Jesus not only to those who had witnessed his healing act but also to the religious leaders, who held and questioned Peter and John (Acts 3:1-4:22).

In response to the report of Peter and John, the disciples prayed to God, citing Psalm 2:1-2, recognizing that they would face more challenges from the religious authorities and others, who were hostile to Jesus and wanted to silence whoever speaks of him and his teaching.

The disciples but now the Apostles, upon being born from above – being born of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, they are filled with the Holy Spirit and not afraid of persecution. Their faith is unshakable. Their prayer has gotten much stronger and more communal. This is an aspect of being born of the Holy Spirit, as we can see from today’s First Reading.

Remember, we are heading to Pentecost – to be born from above – to be born not only of water but of the Holy Spirit, as we continue on our Paschaltide journey.