In the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit
Glory and praise forever!
1. Let us open our hearts to receive God’s Word
Jesus said to Nicodemus: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (Jn 3, 16-18)
i. Jesus said to Nicodemus: “God so loved the world …
In the darkness of the night,
the light of the day obstructing a deeper vision;
In the darkness of the night
in the silence hovering the formless and empty earth
Nicodemus encounters the Word coming from the Father
who takes initiative, creates, loves the world.
“the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you” (Psalm 139, 12)
Reflect:
Contemplate the fruits of God’s creativity.
ii. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Where we turn ourselves into gods
when “god is our stomach, and our glory is in our shame” (Cf. Fil 3, 19)
and we use the other as our ladder
God gives his only Son
Gives his son
and whoever receives Him
also receives freedom, direction,
life, and more life
because God’s mystery is not suffocating self-referentiality
but openness, self-giving, receptivity, relation
Jesus, God-man-for-others.
Reflect:
Where have you experienced the beauty of life in a generous act?
iii. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
Love does not seek to win over
to cancel the other
to stay under the spotlight
to absorb the other
enmeshment or dependency
Love generates relations, not pique
encounters, not isolation
complementarity not uniformity
authority raising the other, not a suffocating controlling power
Holy Spirit, Lord, giver of life
Pray:
Come Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son!
3. Our Father
Thanks to Fr Jimmy Bonnici for this reflection