for April 20
Monday of the Second Week of Easter

The readings for today continue to revolve around the Holy Spirit as the followers of Jesus both before and after his death are coming to know the way the Spirit is at work in the world. The first reading from Acts concludes the story of the crippled man healed by Peter and John that we have been reading for the past few days. The Gospel passage returns to the early days of Jesus’s ministry where we find the Pharisee Nicodemus seeking out Jesus for instruction. Both the overlaps and the contrasts in the two stories are instructive for our own attempts to understand the Spirit.

The healing of the cripple is the miracle that gets the attention of the temple authorities and puts the apostles squarely on the same path of conflict with them that Jesus trod. The authorities find themselves in the same situation they had with Jesus. Their own authority is being threatened by these miracle workers, but they can’t afford to antagonize the people who have seen this sign of God’s working through the apostles and are praising God for it. So they berate them, forbid them to speak or act in the name of Jesus, and let them go. But the cat is out of the bag. The apostles have recognized the Spirit that has entered into them and can no longer deny its promptings. This is the power of the Holy Spirit—people who not long ago were huddling in fear for their own safety are now speaking out and acting in confidence, bolding confronting the risk they are taking.

Moreover, the rest of the followers, when told by Peter and John of what transpired, likewise are filled with the Spirit and pray for the courage to follow their example. The Spirit enabled Peter and John to embrace the authority derived from God even though it might bring the authority of misguided human rulers down upon them as it did on Jesus. In embracing God’s movement within themselves, they become channels of that movement for the others, enabling them to likewise take heart and speak out. They have now come to understand, as Jesus promised them they would, that the building of the Kingdom is not just being righteous and doing good work. It is also about confronting what is not of God and accepting the consequences that brings. We are all called to this. Sometimes we can do good things and bring about healing. Sometimes we have to stand up to recalcitrant sin, trusting that even if we don’t prevail, our example will inspire others to take up the struggle.

In the Gospel passage, Nicodemus hasn’t yet understood this. He believes Jesus has come from God, yet he isn’t willing to jeopardize his position as one of the temple leaders to make an example of himself. He comes to Jesus under the cover of night and praises him as a man of God who can teach him. But Jesus challenges him to come out from under his cover and become a man of God himself by being reborn in the Spirit. Faith isn’t a guarantee that things will go as we would like. It doesn’t give us control over the world, but it does give us the inner peace and resolve to deal with the world’s vicissitudes. As Jesus tells Nicodemus, “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 and Peter both struggled to be worthy followers of Jesus. Today’s readings show us Nicodemus still wrestling in the darkness with what that entailed while Peter has emerged into the light and become a beacon for others. The psalm response tells us, “Blessed are all who take refuge in the Lord.” We can count on God’s blessing if we remember that, in a world in need of healing, he offers a refuge for the spirit whatever our external circumstances.
—Christine Szczepanowski

The readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops website.