John 3.7-15 – Tuesday of the Second Week of Easter
“If I have spoken to you of things of the earth and you do not believe, how will you believe if I speak to you of things of heaven?”.
These are words that Jesus still addresses to Nicodemus, accompanying him step by step on a journey of conversion. However, one has the impression that Nicodemus remains outside of full understanding. Listen, question, but he is unable to fully grasp the meaning of what Jesus is telling him. And, if you look closely, this is also our experience.
How many times do we realize that we don’t really understand the Gospel, especially when Jesus talks about the cross. In fact he immediately adds: “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Jesus introduces Nicodemus, and each of us, into a mystery that is difficult to accept: life passes through the cross. It is not an accident along the way, but a decisive step. Ultimately, however, Jesus is right. Life truly changes when you go through the experience of the cross. It is there that a profound conversion takes place. Not a conversion made of ideas, but a real transformation. The cross, in fact, puts us before the truth: it unmasks illusions, reduces expectations, forces us to come to terms with what we are and what we live. And it is precisely there that a new look can be born.
As much as it scares us that the life is not as we imagined itit is precisely by welcoming it as it is that we can embrace our cross. Not as resignation, but as possibility. Because it is within this welcome that the perspective changes. And what once seemed like just loss can become a place of new life. Nicodemus struggles to understand, and so do we. But the Gospel does not ask us to understand everything immediately. He asks us to trust, to let ourselves be led. Because only by going through this passage can we get to what we are really looking for.
Tuesday 14 April 2026 – (Tuesday of the Second Week of Easter)
