Dear friends,

For a fast society like our own, the forty days of Lent are a big test to our endurance and faith. We are now right at the very heart of this season, and tiredness takes its toll on us.

We have entered Lent longing for a newness that we can not find within ourselves

No matter how tired beset we may get because of life’s burdens; our faith convinces us that we are wanted by Someone who surpasses all our worries and woes.

Lent is God’s way of drawing us back to himself in love. No matter what our defects may be, no matter the gravity of our failures the Lord offers His love to us over and over again during this time.

There is a temptation to see Lent as a time of self-improvement, during which we focus on ourselves.

However, my weakness and my sins show me that my hope can never be in myself. My only hope is that someone will save me, because “I do not do the good I want, but do the evil I don’t want.

We understand now why Nicodemus went to Jesus. He was a upright person, an elder and leader in the Jewish community of Jerusalem. He had tried to be faithful to God the whole of his life. Now that he was old he felt that he was missing something. He was not as happy as he knew he should be. What was he missing?

Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. It was dark not only outside, but also in the mind of Nicodemus.

His coming to Jesus secretly at night suggests the darkness of unbelief. He was attracted by the teaching of this young teacher and perplexed

Jesus speaks to Nicodemus of the need to experience the presence of God. Knowing God is much more than a gathering of information about him.

Jesus teaches Nicodemus, and all of us in him, that courses in religion and Bible are no substitute for faith and believes: God, in fact, is much more than information and data: God is first and foremost a friend, a lover, a Lord and a Savior, who patiently waits for us by day, and even by night.

Rather than approaching Scripture as something to master, we must allow the Word of God to master us.

Nicodemus felt thunder stricken: Jesus had hit the nail on the head! Nicodemus knew a lot about God, His law and commandments, but he had never experienced the tender love of God about which the Scriptures were talking.

Jesus’ answers to his questions and perplexities puzzled him

During the nocturnal conversation Jesus had used two puzzling expression:

1. “to be born from above”
   
   
2. “ To be lifted up as Moses did with the serpent in the desert”

What did He mean with the expressions?

A. With the expression “to be born from above” Jesus is telling Nicodemus that to be perfect is not enough: we need more that a “patch-up work”, we need to refashioned up, to be born again. Not from human parents but from God.
In speaking about being born again from above, Jesus does not mean that one must reenter the mother's womb for a second time; but Jesus refers to a rebirth, which the Spirit of God makes possible. We don’t build our holiness, it is God who makes us holy. We go to Heaven not because we are good, but because God is God and will finish in us the work that he begun long ago. Holiness, Paradise are not a reword for a very-well lived life, but a free gift offered to us gratuituously in Christ to be recived in gratitude.

Good Works and good deeds are necessary but not to gain salvation, but as a sign that we are saved already.

B.“ To be lifted up as Moses did with the serpent in the desert”
With this expression Jesus is telling Nicodemus that when  He will be crucified, i.e “lifted up”,  people  gazing upon him, pondering on His love and opening their hearts to this love will find healing and peace.

We know nothing more about Nicodemus, except that months afterward, he defend Jesus from the accusations of His enemies and, later on, Nicodemus will assists Joseph of Arimathea in retrieving the broken body of the dead Jesus.

Nicodemus met first  Jesus in the darkness: he was not ready to commit himself fully to Jesus. Finally, at the end of the Gospel, he comes with Joseph of Arimathea, bringing 100 pounds of spices for Jesus’ burial truly grandiose expression of his definitive choice to come to the Light.

Some questions for us to ponder:

1. We can ask ourselves what is the darkness in our life where the Light wants to shine?
   
   
2. What is the choice we face at this time to become not only a sympathizer of Jesus, but a follower?
   
   
3. We ask for the grace to understand that words alone are not enough; love has to show itself in actions.
   
   
4. If God has done so much for us, to the point of dying on the Cross, then we ought likewise do take this love more seriously and do something in return.