Wind of the Spirit, new Birth

(Jn 3:7-15)

Life in the Spirit proceeds by new Birth, not according to a progress marked by mechanisms, skills, or instruction booklets.

The Light interrogates, for a different dimension - where (giving way to a reversal of ideas, faces and perspectives) our whys cease to accumulate frustrations.

Nicodemus controlled any stagnation or progress by comparing them to the wisdom of the things of God on the basis of ancient expectations [or clubs].

But not infrequently our growth proceeds by leaps and bounds - not even according to natural intelligence. Let alone the spiritual life.

It is not enough to practise and get along with ideas of fathers or à la page, nor to remain in agreement with normal, external intentions.

We should empty ourselves of unreinterpreted memories, of habitual domestications; of cerebral, disembodied, external, albeit ancient or 'current' theories.

Assimilating other people's knowledge and acquiring already expected expertise is not infrequently junk that blocks true developments - those that belong to us.

Unfortunately, in religious life we often proceed automatically, and there seems to be no need to allow ourselves to be saved or surprised by events.

At best one exposes oneself to a few breezes.

In the adventure of Faith - which disorientates - the Father's Project and the Son's Work do not unfold in a reasonable manner, but in the motive of the disproportion of Love.

The Spirit's unit of measure is different from that of agreed customs, or the latest fashion.

Its impetus is elusive Wind, 'visible' only in ecclesiastical and personal effects, stripped of junk.

The Secret is "from above" (v.7): off the scale. It lurks in the unpredictability of crossroads, surpluses, new creations.

This nourishes what were once perhaps shadow sides of the true 'Pharisee self'.

Even as a complacent man of God, perhaps remarkable - which, however, did not find its full place in reality.

Life does not proceed by arguments to boredom: it protrudes or pales.

For us too: one can frequently hold the Eucharist or the Scriptures in one's hand and not realise that the road already taken can give rise to illusions of spiritual doctoring.

Access to the Kingdom does not come from being Adam-sized: "being flesh" and "things of the earth" (vv.6.12).

The threshold comes from what the encounter with Christ works in those who follow him - and are introduced into community or prophetic life as a regenerated son.

The late redaction of John reflects symbols and realities of Christian baptism, which was already widely experienced at the time.

E.g. in the Letter to Titus, the 'sacrament' itself is referred to as 'rebirth'.

Jesus speaks to Nicodemus of the essential elements of the gesture: water and the Spirit - which is the Newness.

In the Spirit, water no longer has only the negative function of purifying or removing a burden, i.e. removing sin in the sign of washing.

The water of the ablutions that runs off becomes precious and effective: it must be assimilated for growth, to create life - which now not only cleanses or suffocates.

The Birth in water and Spirit speaks of new existence after having produced a Void that takes us elsewhere...

Not so much in refreshment and quiet peace, but in the unpredictable that often throws everything upside down - even decisively.

The new Genesis is not bound to any law: like an intimate Creation.

Mysterious reality, inexplicable, but infallibly leading to completeness - although it can be very fast, instantaneous; completely indeterminable, especially in comparison to normal devout adherence.

It is Action outside of all purpose and process: a bit like the reality and workings of the Wind itself.

The pious man knows that human existence has no meaning outside of God, but he finds it hard to imagine the sacred depth of his heart - and the richness of his own face, so foreign to earthly prejudices.

In order for us to understand the Birth from above, from v.11 the evangelist abruptly switches from the first person singular ['I' of Jesus] to the 'we' that embraces the community of Faith.

The reference is first and foremost to the 'new' non-Jews, coming from pagan religiosity and culture.

Our ecclesial task is to live, proclaim, and represent a decisive enrichment of human life. So much so that it verges - especially in communion - on the divine condition ("things from heaven": v.12).

For the understanding of all this, there is a lack of any point of reference, because sharing is personal and creative, always unprecedented; impossible to chisel into moral or even ideal casuistry.

Life, coexistence, and Gratuity do not willingly submit to worldviews, ideologies, sophistications, or reassuring schemes.

The key to understanding is only the mystery of "the Son of Man" [v.13: point of union of the two kingdoms] who has already experienced that world."Son of man" is man in the divine condition - the true and full development of the divine plan for humanity, as fully grasped in the total self-giving, glorified on the Cross (vv.14-15).

Moses' sign of salvation for the healing of the insidious people acquires its full meaning in such a proposal that impregnates the path of each one; the indestructible life, the very Life of God.

Not: aroused who knows when and how... but which we are privileged to be able to experience already here and now, living in the supreme Sign of the Free.

Stripping away the junk of petty wiles and filling it with the exuberant Otherness. Wisdom, fulfilling.

Not simply "eternal life", but "Life of the Eternal" [v.15 Greek text].

Personal life - that in all spheres disseminates unknown energies, clears the gaps of routine, grasps new synchronicities.

Here the Crucified One who gives communion is the elevated point of light that attracts and shifts our gaze, transcending thoughts and customs that cloud us; around whom we gather as new children and brothers.

To internalise and live the message:

What do you think your Births were? Were they the fruit of reassuring domestications, or did you have to empty them out and rethink them?

Are you still heading in the direction of the wind of the ancient fathers, or are you unfurling your sails in the direction of the Wind of the Spirit, which tosses up your securities, even group or fashionable ones?

From sign of condemnation to sign of redemption

Eternal life has been opened to us by the Paschal Mystery of Christ and faith is the way to reach it. This is what emerges from the words addressed by Jesus to Nicodemus and reported by the evangelist John: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life" (John 3:14-15). Here is the explicit reference to the episode narrated in the book of Numbers (21:1-9), which emphasises the saving power of faith in the divine word. During the exodus, the Jewish people rebelled against Moses and God, and were punished with the plague of poisonous serpents. Moses asked for forgiveness, and God, accepting the repentance of the Israelites, commanded him: "Make a snake and put it on a pole; whoever after being bitten shall look upon it and remain alive. And so it was. Jesus, in his conversation with Nicodemus, reveals the deeper meaning of that salvation event, relating it to his own death and resurrection: the Son of Man must be lifted up on the wood of the Cross so that whoever believes in Him may have life. St John sees precisely in the mystery of the Cross the moment in which the royal glory of Jesus is revealed, the glory of a love that gives itself entirely in passion and death. Thus the Cross, paradoxically, from being a sign of condemnation, of death, of failure, becomes a sign of redemption, of life, of victory, in which, with a gaze of faith, one can see the fruits of salvation.

[Pope Benedict, homily 4 November 2010].