In talking to Nicodemus, Jesus talks to us!

Our Sunday gospel today teaches us about the Love of God for his creation … humankind and it is a lesson that people throughout the ages still could never fathom after all man thinks like man and doesn’t think like God. This was told by John the evangelist on a meeting that our Lord Jesus Christ had with the Pharisee Nicodemous. You’ll find this passage in John 3, 14-21.

[Jesus said to Nicodemus;] 14 Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.” 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish, but might have eternal life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 Whoever believes in Him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

19 And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come towards the light, so that his works might not be exposed. 21 But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.”

Once more we need to reflect what this Bible passage mean in our lives for this Lenten season. In this conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus tells him quite clearly that God truly loved his creation, the human race despite the fact that we have gone against God by our evil ways. God shows this love by sending his only beloved Son, not to condemn the world, but that the world might not perish and have eternal life… that God wants us to enjoy.

The problem is, it is quite difficult to love a God that man has never seen. There are those of us who have already read the Bible or at least heard the sermons of many priests about the numerous signs or miracles that our Lord Jesus Christ has performed yet, many still doubt God’s existence during his life here on earth. Our lack of faith always points us to look for signs of the divinity or at least some kind of minor miracle before we truly say that God has truly touched our lives.

So do we still doubt that God loves us as it has been clearly taught in today’s Gospel reading? Perhaps the question to ask ought to be, “How do we repay this Divine Love that our Lord Jesus told us?” Well, if you read last Friday’s Gospel on Mark 12:28-14; allow me to reprint this, as it is one of my favorite Gospel readings.

“One of the scribes, when he came forward and heard then disputing and saw how [Jesus] had answered [the Sadducees], asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments? Jesus replied, “The first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” The second is this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself!’ There is no other commandment greater than these!”

The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, ‘He is One and there is no other than he.’ And “to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that [he] answered with understanding, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dare ask him anymore questions.”

This passage is from the “Shema” or the Jewish Torah and every devout Jew has to pray this prayer every single day. Yet the Jews are still waiting for the coming of the Messiah, while we Christians know and believe that Jesus already came to us.

As the old song says, “Love is a many Splendor Thing.” We know for a fact that Love is a two-way street… one cannot love another unless we also get that other person to love us. But as I said earlier, we always think of life in human terms. We must try to learn the way God thinks, and then we can truly be a Christian. There is no question that amongst the religions of the world, Catholicism is the most difficult to follow. Imagine that we have been taught to even love our enemies, as there’s no recompense in loving only our own people or race, as that’s what pagans always do.

Today there is a new morality, there are no such things as absolute truth, no absolute good everything is relative. The truth is often decided by public opinion, when but in reality it is the same old morality, condemned by sacred scriptures a long time ago. Whatever you think feels good just do it… don’t worry about the Ten Commandments, as they are mere “suggestions”. Let’s hope that this Lenten Season, we can start thinking the way God does, after all, we were created in God’s splitting image, therefore there’s even more reason why we should think like God.