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A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

Jesus answered, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born of water and Spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit.”

In today’s Gospel, Nicodemus acknowledges that Jesus is a teacher who has come from God, and he asks him how a person can be born again. Jesus explains that no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, he tells him, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. Nicodemus is confused and asks how this can be, but Jesus compares it to the wind, which blows where it pleases and is not seen. Not through our own power do we enter the kingdom of God but by being born again of the Holy Spirit, which transforms us from the inside out, making us new creatures in Christ. Nicodemus’s response to Jesus is almost comical—that it isn’t possible for a man once grown old to be born again. Yet, Nicodemus merely reflects on the natural order, following common sense. But the divine order—the Holy Spirit—is outside of the natural order and blows where it wills.

God, help me break free from the confines of the natural order. Most of the time things happen according to it, but if I come to believe that is always true, I miss taking part in the boldness that faith in your Son allows. As Peter and John prayed in the first reading, let me be confident in the wonders you can work that defy logic: “And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and enable your servants to speak your word with all boldness, as you stretch forth your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

Blessed are all who take refuge in the Lord. Lord, give me the grace to turn to you to take refuge.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.