20 April 2020 - Monday of the third week of Easter - Acts 4:23-31, John 3:1-8

      So, Nicodemus, one of the rulers of the Jewish people, comes to Jesus at night to ask him some questions.  Her problem comes at night because he is afraid.  He does not want people know that he has come to Jesus to learn from him.  Then, the talk soon turns to being born again, being born of water and the spirit. Well, we all know as Catholics, that the term “born again” has a certain meaning within Evangelical Christian circles.  But, to be honest, even though we Catholics do not use that term in the same way that our Evangelical Christian brothers and sisters do, we do see ourselves as being born again in the sacrament of baptism, as we go into the waters of baptism, die with Christ, and then rise to new life in him.   And what about being born in the spirit.  Again, I think it is difficult talking about the Holy Spirit in concrete terms, isn’t it.  Sometimes the Spirit comes to us in very strong profound ways, just as in the first reading, when Peter and John are gathered with the people, the presence of the Holy Spirit is so strong that the whole earth shakes.  Yet, we can feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in a lot of different ways in our lives. And the Spirit can move in us in different ways as well.  In these strange times when we priests are not able to have public masses, the Spirit has led me and the staff here at St Jude to some very creative ways as to how we reach out to our flock and how we feel God’s presence in our lives, all the while still being able to function as a community of faith and as disciples of Christ.  Yesterday, when we had a prayer service for Divine Mercy Sunday outside of mass, praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, I definitely felt prompted by the Spirit to do that.  Thus, we have to be open to the Spirit working in our lives and calling out to us.  Being open to the Spirit begins with a life of prayer.  It begins with reading Sacred Scripture and studying the faith.  It is not difficult.  But it does take commitment and persistence.  May the Lord open our hearts and minds to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives.