It is no wonder that Jesus' words shocked Nicodemus so much. In his view, a place in the Kingdom of the coming Messiah was guaranteed to him by the very fact of being born to Jewish parents and belonging to the chosen people. But the Lord tells him, and us, that what is born of the flesh (that is, of people, even Jewish people) is flesh, and that in order to enter the Kingdom of the Spirit one must be born of water (receive baptism) and the Spirit (receive that gift of the Spirit which, according to the word of the Lord, everyone who believes in Him receives - John 7:38).

Of course, it is easy for you and me to smile at an authoritative Jewish teacher who does not understand such simple things, since we know what the Lord Jesus is speaking about. Yes, thanks be to God, unlike Nicodemus, we understand when the Teacher speaks "of earthly things"; but does that mean we will understand when He begins to speak "of heavenly things"? If He calls birth from the Spirit "earthly," what then is "heavenly"? Perhaps we should not exalt ourselves so much over Nicodemus; beside the Lord Jesus we always remain slow-witted disciples...

As often happens, the most important thing in today's Gospel reading is its direct meaning. In the conversation taking place at night with Nicodemus, a man no longer young and wise with experience, the Lord speaks about a new birth, about the fact that a new life can begin for a person who has believed in Him. And this life, He says, begins as the result of birth from the Spirit of God, birth from above. It is frightening and sad when a person does not live this life born from above, given by the Spirit. But this fact should not lead us to despondency; on the contrary, Christ's direct command to the person is: be born and live. As God said through the prophet Ezekiel: I do not desire the death of the sinner, but that he turn and live.

From the Lord's words about birth from above, another conclusion follows clearly: this birth depends on you yourself. The Creator's will for your birth from above already exists and has been clearly expressed by the Lord. And this opens for us the joyful, paschal side of these words.

Today's reading from the Acts of the Holy Apostles begins with astonishing words: "Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul." Is such a thing possible? Can we even imagine it? Our unanimity, or even simply our like-mindedness, usually lasts for such a short time... More than that, it is often in the church community that we "relax" - and all our "home" problems crawl out into the light. It is well known that it is especially hard to maintain peaceful relationships with those closest to us. The same thing happens in the Church.

But the first Christians, it appears, did not have this problem. What is the point here? A special grace? Of course, without grace nothing is possible, but it seems that first of all the point is people's openness to this grace. The Lord is always the same, He is unchanging, and He not only can but wants to grant the same grace of unity to all of us, to our Church, and to our communities.