Tuesday of the Second Week of Easter
An important aspect of the Christian life is that we continually work to make ourselves receptive to the ways that Christ presents Himself to us. As human beings, it can be very easy for our preconceived expectations to prevent us from seeing Him clearly. In the Gospel today, for example, Nicodemus appears to have to have some difficulty wrapping his head around what Jesus is telling him. Despite being a “teacher of Israel”, Nicodemus’ framework of understanding was not broad enough to contain or make sense of the truths revealed to him by the Lord.
These observations are not meant to be a condemnation of Nicodemus. Rather, the point is that we need to constantly cultivate dispositions of receptivity to the voice of the Lord. If Jesus’ teaching somehow seems incompatible with our way of understanding the world, we need to pay attention because it means that there’s something wrong on our end. In such situations, how open are we to receiving the words of the Lord when they seem to contradict what we think we know? Are we disposed to receive the things that God desires to teach us? How willing are we to change, bend, and flex so that we can grow more fully into the knowledge, truth, and charity that Jesus desires for us?