Monday of the Second Week of Easter
(Acts 4:23-31; John 3:1-8)
A Jewish man had, as a boy, been taken from his parents and imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp. He survived only because a German soldier reached out to him in kindness. He says that at one point he decided not to be bitter about his experience. Rather, he would always return to Germans the kindness he had received from the soldier. Well into old age the man’s countenance reflects his decisions. He beams with peace. Whether or not the man was ever baptized, he seems to have been born of the Spirit of which Jesus speaks in today’s gospel.
Jesus is explaining to Nicodemus that people must not follow the ways of the world. Those ways dictate that people are to “look out for number one”; “get even with those who wrong you”; and follow a hundred other maxims of the dominant ego. In contrast, Jesus teaches that people must love one another and forgive those who persecute them. His message may be difficult for those who have undergone significant hardship. But it leads to a life of everlasting peace for all.
The season of Lent has chastened us, and now Easter graces have been poured out on us. We can commit ourselves to the hard teachings of Jesus. Models like the Holocaust survivor exist. More than ever it is time for us to live in the Spirit.
