JOHN 3: 8

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Tuesday in the Second Week of Easter is, “John 3: 8.”

We often see signs - bumper stickers - and magic marker signs held up in the air at football games -  that say, “John 3: 16.” That’s the beginning of tomorrow’s Gospel reading.  We know that text: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost - but may have eternal life.”

The title of this brief reflection for today is, “John 3: 8.”

It has to do with Nicodemus  as well. It’s this 3^rd Chapter of John and the section where we heard Jesus say, “The wind blows  wherever it pleases; you hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. This is how it is with all who are born in the Spirit.”

Last night that got me thinking about the wind - and it was windy these past few days. Isn’t it March winds and April showers?

ONE OF LIFE’S GREAT LESSONS IS GOD IS A GOD OF SURPRISES

One of life’s great lessons is that God is a God of surprises - a God of amazement - a God who keeps us in existence for all our life.

John 3:8 talks about the wind.

I wasn’t too good in the sciences - but I do know the value of air, breathing, oxygen.

We wouldn’t be on this planet without air - oxygen. It’s  in our plants. It’s even in our rocks - somehow. In fact that’s one of  the plans if we settle down more on the Moon or get to Mars. They can get oxygen out of rocks and soil.

Oxygen in varying amounts is around.  It’s in our water. It’s in our blood.

In other words, it needs to be around if we are to live - breathe - and be.

SECOND BIRTHS

Conversion, change, is all about a second birth.

I always like the comment in The Natural - the baseball movie. Iris Gaines, played by Glenn Close, says to Roy Hobbs, played by Robert Redford, “We have two lives... the life we learn with and the life we live after that. Suffering is what brings us towards happiness.”

Some say the big life change is around 33. It’s earlier for women than men. Augustine was around 33.

At our first birth they get us breathing.  The foetus has practiced that - but she or he gets their oxygen from their mom through the cord.

Spiritual writers talk about this invisible thing called wind, air, breath, the spirit as the reality we got to get moving - in a new way.  It’s called ki, prana, ruach, atman, and when we take a new breath - a breath of fresh air, we can start again.

My sister in law named her boat Second Wind. It had another name, but she changed it  when she remarried after my brother had died.

Life is lots of new beginnings…. fresh starts …. second winds ….  small ones - but some significant big new ones.

Jesus comes to give us that new breath, new birth, new life.

Open up the windows and let in the fresh air.

Francis is calling us to open doors and let in new life - especially mercy where mistakes get us hiding in stale air in locked upper rooms.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, "John3:8."

It's the text where Jesus talks about the wind. 

It's invisible. 

Breathe it in.  Breathe out the bad. Breathe in the new. 

Today - let today be a fresh start, a new birth, with a new wind at our back. 

Like Nicodemus it takes a while to get all this - but hopefully like Nicodemus we get it.