Pneuma - Wind and Spirit

Homily for Tuesday of the Second Week in Easter

The verses which we proclaim from St. John’s Gospel today depend upon the Greek word “pneuma.” This is the word for spirit, but it also is the word for wind. John writes, “The wind blows where it wills… so it is with everyone that is born of the spirit.” In other words, we may not understand how and why the wind blows, but we can see what it does. The spirit is exactly the same. You may not understand how the spirit works, but you can see the effect of the spirit in human lives.

Jesus chides Nicodemus because he has deliberately shut his mind to the truth which he does not wish to accept. “If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?” Although Nicodemus states that he does not understand, what he really means is that he does not wish to understand. The teaching about a new birth from God should not have been strange to him. Ezekiel, for instance, had spoken repeatedly about the new heart that must be created, must be reborn, replacing a heart of stone. Nicodemus was an expert in the Scriptures and should have understood the words that Jesus has spoken. However, if someone does not wish to be changed, that one will deliberately refuse to be reborn.

The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles illustrates the teaching of Jesus. The Acts of the Apostles, written by St. Luke the evangelist, has a threefold purpose: to illustrate the community life of the early Christians, to record the witness and preaching of the apostles, and to record the growth of the community. The first reading of today’s liturgy is an obvious illustration of the community life of the early Christians. The Spirit has moved the community to share its resources so that no one goes without. Highlighted in this story is the man known as Barnabas who sold a piece of his property and laid the proceeds of the sale at the feet of the apostles. This extraordinary illustration has been mirrored in the lives of many of the saints in our history: St. Francis of Assisi, St. Rose of Lima, St. Martin de Porres, St. Vincent de Paul, St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, and St. Kathrine Drexel, to name a few.

The effects of the Spirit, like the effects of the wind, have moved these people to change, to be reborn. Each time we ponder the exchange between Jesus and Nicodemus, we are called to be changed, to be reborn. Through the gift of the Eucharist, Jesus has taught us about rebirth in the Spirit.