Daily Mass - Monday of the second week of Easter

Well, with regard to the Mass readings, the excitement is quite all over now. Lent had a marvellous sequence of Gospel readings, each with its own lesson, and the first readings correlating reasonably. Then came the liturgical high of Palm Sunday, the Holy Week and Easter Sunday. Now we've more-or-less settled down with a narrative sequence from the Acts of the Apostles for the first reading, with the early history of the Church. But we had an interesting gospel reading today, from the beginning of the Gospel of S. John. It's all about being reborn through baptism, and it's a dialogue with the good pharisee Nicodemus, probably one of the Sanhedrim, which was the ruling council of the Jews. Yes, there were nice pharisees, too.

"There was a man called Nicodemus, a Pharisee, and one of the rulers of the Jews, who came to see Jesus by night; 'Master,' he said to him, 'we know that Thou hast come from God to teach us; no one, unless God were with him, could do the miracles which Thou doest.' Jesus answered him, 'Believe me when I tell thee this; a man cannot see the kingdom of God without being born anew.' 'Why,' Nicodemus asked him, 'how is it possible that a man should be born when he is already old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and so come to birth?' Jesus answered, 'Believe me, no man can enter into the kingdom of God unless birth comes to him from water, and from the Holy Spirit. What is born by natural birth is a thing of nature, what is born by spiritual birth is a thing of spirit. Do not be surprised, then, at my telling thee, You must be born anew. The wind breathes where it will, and thou canst hear the sound of it, but knowest nothing of the way it came or the way it goes; so it is, when a man is born by the breath of the Spirit.'" - Gospel of S. John, 3: 1-8

This is all part of the instruction that those who are preparing to be baptised at the Easter vigil service are given in the weeks preceding by those responsible for their formation in the Faith. Nicodemus begins with superficialities; he has been led in by the miracles and he asks how one can be reborn, but he seems to be thinking of natural birth. Christ now begins to draw Nicodemus beyond the consideration of natural processes and describes a theology of baptism. This is one of the most famous passages in the Gospel of S. John. The rebirth Christ is talking about is a spiritual rebirth and the Christians are spiritual sons and daughters of God. The rest comes in tomorrow's gospel reading, I'll wager.