There are many people who encountered Christ that we read about in scripture. There were encounters between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, the man born blind, the crippled man at Bethesda, and today with Nicodemus.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee and, in a sense, represented the best of the Old Law. He was a good man, who studied the law and the prophets, and he practiced what the Scriptures taught.
Then he saw this man Jesus who said things were different, and who acted differently from others who taught the people. Nicodemus was confused, so he went to Jesus at night and asked if he could talk to him. Nicodemus admitted that God must be with Jesus. He could not however reconcile what Jesus was saying with what he knew from his study of the law.
Jesus challenged Nicodemus to look at everything in a new way. He told him he had to be born again with God’s Spirit. That’s the same Spirit I have within me through my Baptism and my Confirmation. This was hard for Nicodemus to look completely at things in this new way. Ask yourself if you can see things in a new way, the way God sees the world and all creation. As a Christian we MUST see things differently from what the world sees. Pray for the strength and courage to see as God sees this Lent !
St. Joseph, pray for us !
DeColores, Deacon Doug
