Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Friday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

Memorial of St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, St. Peter Chanel and St. Gianna Molla

April 28, 2023

Acts 9:1-20, Ps 117, Jn 6:52-59

 

To listen to a recording of this homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/4.28.23_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in this homily: 

* Today and tomorrow Jesus gets to the climax of his Bread of Life discourse in the Capernaum Synagogue that the Church has us ponder as a mystagogical catechesis every Easter season so that we may experience the “newness of life” that Jesus died and rose to give us. Today we get to the doctrinal climax; tomorrow to the moral climax. After speaking to us about how he is the True Manna given to us every day as our supersubstantial nourishment, how the Father draws us to this gift, and how we’re supposed to respond to this gift by faith — listening to, learning and doing what Jesus says — today Jesus summarizes everything in words that would have sounded almost brutally raw and somewhat sickening to his original listeners.

* After Jesus said at the end of yesterday’s Gospel that the bread he would give for the life of the world “is my flesh,” the Jews quarreled among themselves asking a totally understandable question, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” At first glance it would seem almost as if he were calling them to cannibalism. None of what Jesus was asking would make sense until a year later when Jesus would take bread and wine during the Last Supper, totally change it into his Body and Blood and give it to them to eat and drink. But Jesus was here stressing the aspect of faith, that trusting in him means to trust in what he was saying. They might have legitimate questions about how they would eat his flesh and drink his blood, but they shouldn’t doubt the reality of what he was saying. And Jesus would say that whether or not they ate and drank his body and blood worthily was something of tremendous consequences.

* Swearing an oath, he said, “Amen, amen I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you.” The Greek word for “eat” is actually gnaw, the way an animal rips every last ounce of meat off of a bone. Jesus assures us that we’re lifeless unless we enter into communion with him through his Body and Blood. We’re lifeless unless we’re living off of him. But if we live off of him we will live forever: “Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.” Then he gives two analogies as to how this works, the first of food and the second of filiation. “For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him.” We simply become what we eat and if we eat Jesus’ living flesh and blood we will remain in him and his irrepressible life will remain in us. The second analogy is filiation: “Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.” Jesus in the Eucharist will become the source of our regeneration, our rebirth, our remaking through our entering into his own eternal sonship. That’s the essence of the Christian life. In baptism, we die in Christ and are raised from the dead in him, but we grow in that new life day-by-day through Eucharistic communion with Jesus.

* This lesson about living off of Jesus in Holy Communion each day and thereby becoming one with him is illustrated in today’s memorable first reading that details the conversion of St. Paul. When Saul was “breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord” and had gon...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Third Sunday of Easter, Year A

April 23, 2023

Acts 2:14.22-28, Ps 16, 1 Pet 1:17-21, Lk 24:13-35

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/4.23.23_Homily_CCM_1.mp3

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* Today, after we have accompanied the Lord Jesus on a Eucharistic Pilgrimage to and through the Columbia campus, we have one of the most beautiful, touching and powerful scenes in the Gospel, which teaches us about how the Risen Lord Jesus regularly seeks to journey with us though life, as he comes to walk with us on College Way and throughout Morningside as he ambled alongside our predecessors on the Road to Emmaus. As we head toward the end of the semester, toward finals, and, for those will soon be graduating, toward the post-Columbia pilgrimage of life, this scene teaches us invaluable lessons about how he wants to help us to walk in the light of Christ’s Resurrection — and in his light see light (Ps 36:10; Columbia’s motto).

* Jesus met the two disciples, Cleopas and his anonymous companion — who sometimes in Christian art is portrayed as his wife, perhaps the “Mary the wife of Clopas” who was at the foot of the Cross, since they apparently live in the same home — along the seven-mile path downhill from Jerusalem to Emmaus. That they were heading away from Jerusalem was not just an historical fact, but also a symbol of how they were heading away from the faith that Jerusalem encapsulates. Their hearts had just been put in a blender. They had believed in Jesus, deeming him to be the long-awaited Messiah. Yet their hopes were crushed when they saw him mangled and executed by the Romans. Earlier that day, women had said that his tomb was empty and that they had seen a vision of angels saying Jesus had arisen, but they were obviously reluctant to believe again and have their hopes demolished anew. Jesus met them along the way — he met them where they were at, with all their questions and doubts — but their sadness, and some unmentioned changes in Jesus’ resurrected body, prevented their recognizing him. This seeming stranger stuck his nose into the middle of their conversation and asked, “What are you talking about?” They thought he had no idea! They treated him as if he were someone who cluelessly asked on September 12, 2001, “What’s up?,” oblivious to everything that had occurred the previous day. “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?,” Cleopas asked. Jesus, to draw their reactions to the first Triduum out of them, queried, “What sort of things?” So they told him about Jesus himself, whom they called a “prophet mighty in deed and word,” who they had hoped would be the one to “redeem Israel,” but who was “betrayed and crucified.” But then the incognito Jesus upbraided them, called them “foolish and slow of heart to believe” — slow of heart, not slow of mind, since it was mainly a problem of will and love — and, starting with Moses and all the prophets, interpreted for them all the passages of Sacred Scripture that referred to why the Messiah “had to suffer these things to enter into his glory.” Doubtless he would have mentioned Abel’s being slain by Cain, Isaac’s carrying the wood for the sacrifice on his shoulders, Moses’ leading the Israelites in the Passover through the Red Sea and desert to the Promised Land, Isaiah’s prophecies of the Suffering Servant, the Book of Wisdom’s detailing that the just man would be beset by evildoers, the Psalms’ (especially Ps 22 and 69) foretelling so many details of the crucifixion, Jonah’s spending three days in the belly of the whale, and so much more. As he was talking,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Archdiocese of New Orleans

Redelegation Training for Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion

St. Dominic Church, New Orleans, LA

April 22, 2023

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/4.22.23_EMHC_II_1.mp3

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Archdiocese of New Orleans

Redelegation Training for Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion

St. Dominic Church, New Orleans, LA

April 22, 2023

 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/4.22.23_EMHC_I_1.mp3

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Conversations with Consequences Podcast

Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter, Vigil

April 22, 2023

 

To listen to an audio recording of this short Sunday homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/4.22.23_Landry_ConCon_1.mp3

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a joy for me to be with you as we enter into the consequential conversation the Risen Lord Jesus wants to have with each of us this Sunday, when we enter into one of the most famous dialogues of all time, one that reveals so much about how he seeks to engage each and all of us during the journey of Christian life.

* It’s the conversation that took place the night Jesus rose from the dead, when he met two disciples walking along the seven-mile path downhill from Jerusalem to Emmaus. That the two disciples were heading away from Jerusalem going downhill into darkness was not just an historical fact, but also a symbol of how they were heading away from the light of faith that Jerusalem symbolizes. Their hearts had just been put in a blender. They had believed in Jesus, deeming him to be the long-awaited Messiah. Yet their hopes were crushed when they saw him mangled and executed by the Romans. Earlier that day, women had said that his tomb was empty and that they had seen a vision of angels saying he had arisen, but they were obviously reluctant to believe again and have their hopes crushed anew. Jesus met them along the way — he met them where they were at, with all their questions and doubts — but their sadness, and likely some undescribed changes in Jesus’ resurrected appearance and voice, prevented them from recognizing him. This seeming stranger stuck his nose into the middle of their conversation and asked, “What are you talking about?” They thought he had no idea, as if he were the only person in Dallas on Nov. 23, 1963 who hadn’t heard of the Kennedy assassination the previous day. So they told him about their hopes for this person named Jesus, a “prophet mighty in deed and word,” who they thought might be the one to “redeem Israel,” but who was “betrayed and crucified.” The incognito Jesus, however, upbraided them, called them “foolish and slow of heart to believe” and, starting with Moses and all the prophets, interpreted for them all the passages of Sacred Scripture that referred to why the Messiah “had to suffer these things to enter into his glory.” Doubtless he would have mentioned the just Abel’s being killed by his envious brother Cain, Isaac’s carrying the wood for the sacrifice on his shoulders, Moses’ through the Passover leading the people through the Red Sea and desert into the promised land, Isaiah’s prophecies about the Suffering Servant, the Book of Wisdom’s foretelling that the just man would be beset by evil doers, the many Psalms, like 22 and 69, that had foretold so many details of the crucifixion, the prophecy of Jonah spending three days in the belly of the earth, and so much more. As he was talking, the light of truth began to penetrate the great darkness of their sadness. They would later recount that their hearts, which had been previously slow to believe, began to burn as this Companion spoke to them along the way, even though they still had no idea who he was. They didn’t want the conversation to end. Hence they invited this Wayfarer into their home: “Stay with us!,” they said. Jesus, who never wants to impose himself on us, accepted their invitation.

* But Jesus had something far greater in mind than merely staying with That’s why when he was at table, “he took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to them.” These four verbs are the ones that the evangelists used to describe the multi...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Friday of the Second Week of Easter

Memorial of Saint Anselm

April 21, 2023

Acts 5:34-42, Ps 27, Jn 6:1-15

 

To listen to an audio recording of this homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/4.21.23_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted: 

* The readings of the Easter Season are an annual mystagogical catechesis of the way in which we live together with the Risen Jesus. In this second week, we begin with Nicodemus, which allows us to ponder Jesus’ words about the meaning of Baptism, the rebirth from above God gives us by the Holy Spirit so that we may go wherever the Spirit blows us, so that we might think as God thinks, so that we might live the truth not as a reluctant disciple but as a fervent, courageous disciple.

* In today’s Gospel, we shift from a focus on Baptism to a focus on the Eucharist and begin what I like to call the “Second Octave of Easter,” dedicated to eight different sections of the sixth chapter of the Gospel of St. John, which focuses on how Jesus’ gift of himself in the Eucharist is not only prophesied by the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish but also prophesies the eternal wedding banquet. Jesus worked this miracle and gave us the words we’ll be hearing between now and Saturday of the third week of Easter knowing that we would be focusing on them in the Church after his Resurrection. He gave them to the Church so that we would know how to grow in the power of his resurrection, that, as we’ll hear in upcoming days, if we enter into communion with him through eating his flesh and drinking his blood, we will have eternal life and he will raise us on the last day.

* Today we ponder the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish, which has various Eucharistic resonances. The first is Jesus’ compassion on the crowds. They were hungry and he was going to feed them. In the Eucharist, he feeds our souls with the only nourishment he considers worthy of them, himself. Then we see the collaboration of the apostles and the young boy. Jesus through whom all the plants, fish and animals in the world were made, could have easily created food out of nothing to feed the multitudes, but he wanted to involve his followers. All the apostles could find in a crowd of 5,000 was what a boy had carried, doubtless only for himself: five small buns and two sardines. But Jesus took them, gave thanks to God (the Greek work is eucaristein) and gave them to the crowds. Likewise in the Eucharist Jesus begins with what we give him — the bread and wine that are not only God’s gifts but the “work of human hands” — and multiplies those efforts in an even greater miracle. Finally we see the “leftovers.” Clearly Jesus could have worked the miracle without leftovers, but there were twelve wicker baskets left, one for each apostle, to remind each of them in a sense of what we’re supposed to do with the Eucharistic food we’ve received, to go and give our own bodies and blood, our own love to the extreme, our own compassion for others’ deepest hungers to those in need. There’s no need for us to “horde” the Eucharist, to keep our relationship to ourselves; rather Jesus fills our baskets to overflowing so that we may lavishly share his gifts with others.

* This gift of risen life through communion with the Risen Jesus is what makes us strong. And it’s what in turn makes us a sign. Today we see those consequences in the apostles brought before the Sanhedrin. The Rabbi Gamaliel, the teacher of Saul of Tarsus, talked the members of the Sanhedrin out of their desire to do to the apostles what they had conspired to do to Jesus. This was a totally different theology than that which Caiphas had enunciated weeks e...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Thursday of the Second Week of Easter

April 20, 2023

Acts 5:27-33, Ps 34, Jn 3:31-36

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/4.20.23_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* The Easter Season is meant to be a post-baptismal mystagogy, the period in which the Church helps the newly baptized — and those baptized many years before — enter into the reality of the mystery of Christ’s risen life received in the Sacraments, pondering his words, and living the truth so that all our works may be seen as done in God, as we heard earlier this week. Throughout this Second Week of Easter, we have been pondering the mystery of our baptismal sharing in Christ’s risen life through Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus about spiritual rebirth. Tomorrow we will begin eight days of focus on the Eucharistic reality of the Christian life, our ability to receive Jesus’ risen Body and Blood each day. And all of these truths we’re able to see enfleshed by the members of the early Church in the readings from the Acts of the Apostles.

* Today we have the concluding words of the chapter of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in which Jesus — or St. John, the text is a little ambiguous and scholars go back and forth about whether St. John is quoting Jesus or whether he is giving his own theological reflections on why Jesus said what he said — describes his own mission and the life of anyone born anew from above, as we have been in Baptism. St. Paul told us on Easter Sunday morning, as he told the Colossians, “If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Today Jesus describes this difference between living with Him risen from the dead or living according to the old Adam: “The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things,” Jesus says, “but the one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard.” Jesus testifies to what he has seen and heard and a Christian must be a witness to what he has seen and heard in his encounters with Christ in person, in prayer, in the Sacraments. The disciple and apostle of Jesus must be someone who seeks, thinks and testifies to what is above. Jesus describes that not everybody wants to live with hearts aloft. He says that he came as light into the world but many preferred the darkness. “No one accepts his testimony,” Jesus says, referring in general to the fact that most don’t seek the things that are above, most don’t leave the darkness to enter the light, most don’t allow Jesus to change their fundamental orientation at its root, most don’t really convert and continue to lift up their hearts to God. But, Jesus adds, “Whoever does accept his testimony certifies that God is trustworthy for the one whom God sent speaks the words of God. He does not ration his gift of the Spirit.” We believe what Jesus says on the basis of our faith in God. Because we trust in God we trust in what he says and gives witness to. The one born from above allows the Holy Spirit to give witness within him, not putting up any resistance to what God is doing. The Holy Spirit is a witness — just as much as the apostles — to Jesus’ risen life and when we are reborn from him, we give witness together with him. We don’t ration the Holy Spirit’s work, and he helps us, as St. Paul described to the Galatians and the Romans, to “live by the Spirit,” which allows us to be “concerned with the things of the Spirit.”  And for that reason, Jesus says,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter

April 19, 2023

Acts 5:17-26, Ps 34, Jn 3:16-21

 

To listen to today’s homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/4.19.23_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in today’s homily: 

* Today in the readings we see illustrated for us in words and deeds the great Christian paradoxes between love and rejection, salvation and judgment, light and darkness. We see the full meaning of Jesus’ resurrection but at the same time we witness how some people prefer to continue to live as spiritual cadavers rather than experience the risen life Jesus has come to give us. This is the essential drama of human life.

* St. John begins today by giving us the most beautiful — and probably famous — synthesis of the Gospel: “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” God loves us so much that he himself died so that we would live forever. He didn’t want to lose any one of us. The incarnation, life, preaching, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus were all one big rescue mission. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,” St. John continues, “but that the world might be saved through him.” That salvation comes ultimately through our participation in his life through the Sacrament of Baptism, about which Jesus has been speaking to Nicodemus this week. It’s a theme particularly relevant for me today on the anniverary of my baptism.

* Despite Jesus’ not coming into the world to condemn it, there is still a condemnation, however, there’s still a judgment. It’s the condemnation and judgment that happens when we refuse to accept Jesus’ rescue. St. John describes it in these terms: “Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed.” We see so much here. Everything begins with faith but faith must become operative, it must be faith working through love (Gal 5:6). The work of the evil one is often the reverse: he starts with getting us to do deeds contrary to our faith — with “works” that are “evil” — and then to have the shame over such Christian misbehavior start to lead our whole life into darkness. We do one deed of darkness and prefer to keep it hidden. That leads us more and more into a life of darkness such that we begin to hate the light.

* Later Jesus would add, in an excised passage, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.” Judgment, condemnation and the wrath of God sadly remain on the one who does not respond with faith to Jesus and enter into his light and life, not because that’s what God wants — he wants all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth — but because in freedom someone chooses to reject God’s work of salvation. The “wrath” of God basically means a state of alienation from God, brought about not by the act of divine punishment but by the choice of people to live and walk in darkness out of a self-love so strong that it turns on God and “hates” his light. Those who live in the peace of God, on the other hand, believe in Jesus, believe in what he says, choose to align their life to the truth he reveals and come to see and experience all things in his holy...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Tuesday of the Second Week of Easter

April 18, 2023

Acts 4:32-37, Ps 93, Jn 3:7-15

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/4.18.23_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily:

* Today in the Gospel, Jesus continues his dialogue with Nicodemus, the “reluctant disciple,” who came to Jesus by night because even though he knew that God was working through Jesus, he wasn’t courageous enough to make a commitment and risk being seen with him during the day, something that might compromise his prestige and status among the members of the Sanhedrin. In yesterday’s excerpt of their conversation, Jesus told him that unless one is “born from above” he cannot see the Kingdom of God. But rather than trying to assimilate what Jesus was indicating with images and to understand how the analogy of physical birth related to the mystery of spiritual regeneration, Nicodemus responded by trying to treat the mystery of rebirth as an absurdity: “How can a man once grown old be born again?,” he asked. “Surely he cannot reenter his mother’s womb and be born again, can he?” Nicodemus was too smart not to grasp that that was not what Jesus was implying.

* So Jesus tried to help him to accept the fact of the need for rebirth from above without the necessity of understanding how by means of another analogy, the one that begins today’s reading. “Do not be amazed that I told you, ‘You must be born from above,’” Jesus said. “The wind blows where it wills and you can hear the sound it makes but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” When we feel a cool breeze outside, we don’t spend time wondering whether it originated in Chicago or Philadelphia or whether it’s on its way to Connecticut or to New Jersey. We just acknowledge the breeze and are grateful for it. Jesus says we should approach the way the Holy Spirit blows with the same acceptance and not get distracted by how the Holy Spirit is bringing about our spiritual rebirth or where he wants to blow us later. We’re called to acknowledge what he’s doing with trust.

* But Nicodemus doesn’t buy that either. “How can this happen?,” he retorts. That’s where Jesus seeks to humble him, because it was his pride that was preventing him from being a true disciple in the light. “You are the teacher of Israel,” a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, “and you do not understand this?” … If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?” He wasn’t really even buying what Jesus was saying about the wind; how could he accept what Jesus was saying about the divine Ruah (Holy Spirit)? Jesus indicated the reason why he wasn’t understanding: because he wasn’t accepting Jesus as a witness who spoke the truth. “Amen, amen, I say to you, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony.” Because he wasn’t humbly accepting Jesus as a divinely sent witness to these things, he wasn’t accepting what Jesus said. Jesus would point to a similar truth elsewhere in the Gospel with regard to his teaching by parables. He taught spiritual truths by using images of mustard seeds, yeast, soil, and wedding banquets so some may understand but others may “hear but not understand [and] look but never see” because their heart was “fat” and didn’t want to convert (Mt 13:10-17). Jesus used images as spiritual litmus tests to expose people’s hearts and see whether people would put in the time to search for the truth the images contained, whether they really wanted to convert or just to have a “dialogue” or “...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Monday of the Second Week of Easter

April 17, 2023

Acts 4:23-31, Ps 2, Jn 3:1-8

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/4.17.23_Homily_1.mp3

 

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Today there’s a huge contrast between the spiritual timidity of Nicodemus, a powerful member of the Sanhedrin, in the Gospel and the spiritual audacity of the humanly powerless apostles and members of the early Church in the Acts of the Apostles. These readings are given to us as we begin, with this second Monday of Easter, the period of mystagogy in the Church, helping all of the newly baptized, along with all baptized members of the Church, to appreciate the change that has occurred in us through baptism, the change that’s supposed to take place from an unbaptized Nicodemus to a Christian like Peter and John and the other first disciples.

* Let’s begin with Nicodemus. He comes to Jesus at night. He’s too afraid to come to Jesus by day because Jesus was a controversial figure and he didn’t want publicly to be associated with him. We’ll see the same thing when Jesus is being tried. He’ll ask a question to try to slow down the proceedings, but he doesn’t defend Jesus publicly, even though he knows Jesus is innocent of the charges being made against him. He’s obviously struggling with understanding the full import of Jesus’ miracles. He admits, “No one can do these signs that you are doing unless God is with him,” and it seems he wants to believe, but his main problem — like we were analyzing with the apostles after the resurrection last week — is not of his mind but of his heart: he doesn’t yet have the courage to become a disciple in the light. Jesus points to the reason why: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” He needs God’s help. He can’t process what’s happening by former categories. He needs new wine skins. Nicodemus seeks to ask a question about entering anew into a mother’s womb — which was not a question of curiosity or modality, as if that were possible, but one in which he seemed to be suspending disbelief to engage in silly talk —  but Jesus was describing the rebirth God needs to give us, so that one may live by the Spirit rather than by the flesh. This is what happens to us when we are reborn by water and the Holy Spirit in baptism. As St. Paul told us during the Easter Vigil, “Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.” That’s our rebirth. And it’s carried out by the work of the Holy Spirit, the “pneuma” (Greek) or “ruah” (Hebrew) — words meaning both “spirit” and “wind” — who “blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” To be a disciple of Christ is to put up our sails to allow the Holy Spirit to blow us where he wishes us to go. It’s a docility, confidence and boldness that comes from life according to the Spirit. It’s something that the future Pope Francis, in a 2006 retreat to Spanish Bishops, said in very strong language that Nicodemus, “the reluctant disciple,” did not have. Baptism is supposed to make us bold, because, by the power of the Spirit, we’ve entered in Christ’s death — and therefore death has lost its sting and fearsomeness! — and into his triumphal new life.

* We see that type of Spirit-led boldness in the members of the early Church.