“One step taken in surrender to God is better than a journey across the ocean without it.”[i]

In today’s Gospel passage (JN 3: 1-8), coming in the middle of the night to converse with Jesus, the Pharisee leader, Nicodemus, begins to question Jesus, and the idea of being born again comes up…

“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God,
for no one can do these signs that you are doing
unless God is with him.”…

The resurrection stories are fast-paced and frenzied with feelings of loss, emptiness and confusion.  The empty tomb means different things to different people.  Where is Jesus?  Is He risen?  The disciples on several occasions fail to recognize Jesus in their midst, until some clue tips them off…the breaking of the bread,  breakfast prepared for them on the beach after they tried to return to their lives as fishermen, shared scripture stories by a stranger walking with them outside of Jerusalem. …

In our current day-to-day life, we live and literally breathe contagion!  We live within proscriptions of closed proximity and requirements of social distancing and sanitation practices intending to ‘flatten the curve’ of the COVID19 pandemic that is spreading exponentially.  The difficulty in staying the course of social distancing and its effects have other risks and costs as well; the emotional and psychological cost in the distancing from close proximity with elderly loved ones who are compromised; the risk of economic viability in our family, local, state and national realms; the risk for those prone to addictions and psychological impingement that can be exacerbated by the stress of isolation. …

This month marks the two year anniversary of the 2018 brutal crackdown against nationwide anti-government protests in Nicaragua.  Since 2018, thousands of people have fled Nicaragua, and now, along with other Central American countries, Nicaragua is facing the global coronavirus pandemic. …

What I want, my God, is that by a reversal of forces which you alone can bring about, my terror in face of the nameless changes destined to renew my being may be turned into an overflowing joy at being transformed into you.…