“Never allow your ego to diminish your ability to listen.”

It was the Lord who put into my mind that fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies. All who heard of my project rejected it with laughter, ridiculing me. There is no question that the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit, because He comforted me with rays of marvelous inspiration from the Holy Scriptures. ~ Christopher Columbus: (1451 – 1506: was an Italian explorer and  navigator)

Gospel text: (JN 3:7-15)

Jesus said to Nicodemus:
"'You must be born from above.'
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 answered and said to him,
'How can this happen?"
Jesus answered and said to him,
"You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this?
Amen, amen, I say to you,
we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen,
but you people do not accept our testimony.
If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe,
how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
No one has gone up to heaven
except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

In today’s gospel, we have Nicodemus who is a very learned man, strong in his beliefs and convictions. Then along comes Jesus who is asking him to think differently. Nicodemus struggles to understand because what Jesus is saying doesn’t align with what he has come to believe. He is having a hard time embracing these new ideas, which is why Jesus is asking him to let the Spirit in, be born anew.

-->

Many times, when we think about letting Spirit in our lives, the word surrender surfaces, but I think what Jesus is trying to tell us today is that it isn’t so much about letting go as it is in opening up.