GOSPEL
No one has gone up to heaven
except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.
Reading from the holy Gospel according to St. John 3, 5a. 7b-15.
Jesus said to Nicodemus:
“‘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.”
Nicodemus answered and said to him,
‘How can this happen?”
Jesus answered and said to him,
“You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this?
Amen, amen, I say to you,
we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen,
but you people do not accept our testimony.
If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe,
how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
No one has gone up to heaven
except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Where it seeps in.
The truth is, if I had been Nicodemus, I wouldn’t have understood anything either. Now, in hindsight, after knowing the life of Christ, all of this makes sense. We have even been able to experience things related to what Jesus said.
Now we know that if we let ourselves be guided by the Holy Spirit, we don’t know where we will go. And we know that things that have happened and that we didn’t understand at the time have made sense because they were His work. Also, thanks to the Lord, we have some experience of heavenly things, through faith. And we also understand what Christ meant when he spoke of being lifted up. We have seen Him lifted up on the cross and we have seen the healing consequences that it has had for us and our Marriage.
The kingdom of God is already here and transforms our lives, if we draw close to the Lord and let Him transmit His Spirit to us.
Applied to Married Life:
Mercedes: It’s amazing, Javier, how much you’ve changed. You who always planned everything and got very nervous every time the plans were disrupted, I am very surprised to see how confidently you now handle the unexpected.
Javier: Well, I learned that from you when you told me that the Holy Spirit seeps in through the unexpected. I have had so many experiences of the Spirit that have been a result of unexpected events… because it is true that if everything goes as I expected, where do I leave room for the Spirit to seep in?
Mercedes: So now, every time there’s an unexpected event, you look at God and ask Him, “What do You want from this, Lord?” I love it. Mother Teresa of Calcutta said, “God still loves the world and sends you and me to be His love… So, that is our mission wherever we are.”
Javier: Thank you, Mercedes, for being that love of God for me.
Mother,
Your Son has been lifted up, and we have been freed to love through the action of the Holy Spirit. Praise be to Him forever.