Born from Above: The Courage to Begin Again

Voice over by Eliz

Acts 4:23-31, Psalm: 2, Jn 3:1-8

My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

In the tender light of this Easter season, the Church presents us with two movements of the Spirit. One is the prayer of a community under pressure, finding courage in unity. The other is a nighttime conversation, an individual soul seeking truth in the shadows. Both reveal that the Risen Lord breathes new life into us—calling us to be born again, not from below, but from above.

In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter and John have just been released from the Sanhedrin’s threats. They return to their community, and together they lift their voices to God. They do not pray for safety or comfort. They pray for boldness: “Enable your servants to speak your word with all boldness.” They quote Psalm 2, acknowledging that the rulers of this world conspire against the Lord. But their confidence is not in their own strength; it is in the sovereignty of God. As they prayed, “the place where they were gathered shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” The shaking of the room echoes the shaking of Sinai, the presence of the living God. The Spirit comes, not to give them an easy path, but to make them fearless witnesses.

In the Gospel of John, we meet Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews. He comes to Jesus under the cover of night, perhaps afraid of his colleagues, perhaps genuinely seeking. He acknowledges Jesus as “a teacher who has come from God.” But Jesus cuts to the heart: “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus is baffled. How can an adult be born again? Jesus explains that this is not a physical rebirth, but a spiritual one—born of water and the Spirit. “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, the cautious seeker, will eventually be transformed. Later in John’s Gospel, he will defend Jesus before the Pharisees. And after the crucifixion, he will bring a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes to anoint Jesus’ body. The nighttime seeker becomes a bold disciple.

Pope Francis often reminds us, “The Christian life is a constant beginning again, every day, because every day the Lord calls us to start anew.” St. Augustine, reflecting on this Gospel, wrote, “To be born of the Spirit means to become what you were not, to begin to be what you were not.”

For us, these readings are a double invitation. First, like the early Church, we are called to pray together, to support one another, to ask not for an easy life but for boldness in witness. Second, like Nicodemus, we are invited to let the Spirit blow through our lives, to be born again from above—again and again. This Easter, let us not remain in the shadows. Let us step into the light of the Risen Lord. Let us pray for the courage to speak His word. And let us allow the Spirit to make all things new in us. Amen.

May God bless you all!