Daily Gospel Reflection
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April 13, 2021
Jesus said to Nicodemus:
“‘You must be born from above.’
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.”
Nicodemus answered and said to him,
‘How can this happen?”
Jesus answered and said to him,
“You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this?
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.
If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe,
how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
No one has gone up to heaven
except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
In today’s gospel, Jesus tells Nicodemus how important it is to live in the Spirit. Jesus chastises him for not understanding what he is saying and re-emphasizes the enigmatic notion of a Spirit that “blows where it wills.”
I had a similar experience in my own life. Like Nicodemus, the Holy Spirit was not something I understood well or reflected on often. My own baptism and confirmation were more events of the past than sources of ongoing grace in my spiritual life. Then, my nephew asked me to be his confirmation sponsor. I was honored, of course, and agreed. It was only in sponsoring him for this sacrament that I found an occasion to think more about the Holy Spirit in my own life. I re-learned the gifts of the Holy Spirit so that I could ask him what they meant to him in his experience and I found that I was reflecting on their meaning in my own life for nearly the first time. I was going through a difficult time at work and I didn’t realize that I could turn to the Holy Spirit for what I needed most in that situation, which was fortitude. A short while later, when I was at a crossroads in my life, I knew that I could pray to the Holy Spirit for the gift of counsel.
In today’s reading, Jesus says, “If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?” For me, the best way to understand the movement of the Spirit in my life was to relate it’s heavenly gifts to my earthly experience.
Prayer
Loving God, your Son, Jesus, was lifted up on the wood of the cross to bring spiritual healing and new life to those suffering from sin and death. Help us to always be mindful of those who suffer physically and spiritually. Amen.
Saint of the Day
In the four years during which he was pope, St. Martin I created powerful enemies with his stout-hearted defense of truth.
After he was elected pope in 649, one of his first acts was to convene a Church council to confront a heresy that distorted the way in which we understand Jesus. Monothelitism declared that though Jesus has both a human and divine nature (as is orthodox), he has only one will, which is divine.
In the controversy over this heresy, the emperor refused to support one side or the other, and commanded that the matter was not to be discussed.
Under Martin’s leadership, the council denounced Monothelitism, and proclaimed that Jesus has both a divine will and a human will to correspond to his two natures. Moreover, the council condemned the emperor’s edict, in essence saying that it was throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
The emperor was furious and sent soldiers from Constantinople to arrest Martin; he was imprisoned for months in a cold and dirty cell. He was fed little food, was not allowed to wash, and suffered from dysentery. When he was brought to trial, he was not allowed to speak and was convicted of treason.
He was eventually exiled to Crimea, where conditions did not improve. In fact, people there were under a famine, which made his situation worse. He died after two years, and is honored as a martyr for the faith.
Pope St. Martin I, you faithfully proclaimed the truth and died in prison for it—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of Pope St. Martin I is available for use under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Last accessed February 21, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
