Part IV: DARE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN

26. To be Reborn

"In order to be my equal, he would need to be born again!" As much as to say: that is impossible! The Peruvian who made this wish, was expressing his disdain for the Indian about whom he was speaking. The English language is not accustomed to using the term rebirth about something impossible, while it is quite common in Spanish culture. The Bible uses the term in a very positive way, to emphasise how radical is the transformation effected by the faith.

To the old Nicodemus who comes to disturb him at night, Jesus does not mince his words: you have to be reborn! That is all you need to do. Young or old, age does not make the slightest difference. Will that be just for others? Must we also try? Be truly born again?

"How can that happen?" Asks Nicodemus. I can understand why he is puzzled. Jesus is not speaking of Baptism as though it meant a few drops of water on the forehead; nor is He speaking about moral rectitude. He tells him he must be born again, no more, no less, be completely reborn of water and the Spirit. Now Nicodemus is no child; he is even a great theologian. How can that come about when one is old, old in one's spirit, (which is a far more serious matter than to be sick or tired), a prisoner of one's little routine and as it were, mummified in advance in a rigid personality, bound up in compromises. How can this happen when one comes from an old civilisation, an old Church, an old religion? How can this be done? Asked a young girl from Nazareth. "The Holy Spirit will come upon you... for nothing is impossible with God." The promises of the living God, reach far beyond what we can or ever could dare hope for.

To see everything in a new light, to begin again, or rather to turn over a new leaf. Begin to live, to love, to believe, to breathe, to walk! All that far exceeds the exuberance one feels in Springtime! Begin to live a resurrected life, a saved life, a life of the sons and daughters of God!

Getting away from the flock, the "what everybody else is doing" mentality; the closed situation; the stock-in-trade thinking...to live truly your own life and not as someone else's clone... to slip out as unpredictably as the wind, yes, unpredictable as geniuses are, or artists, or inventors, "The wind blows where it will; thus it is of anyone born of the Spirit". Break-away, Solitude. Personality, originality. No disorderly individualists in search of "I don't know what" kind of disconnected autonomy, but a community of unique men and women, original and perhaps somewhat eccentric, because they are interconnected. In the first place with their origin, the Father, source of their lives and foundation of their liberty. Then as a result, united with each other. So there is no individualism, on the contrary, there is the coming to birth of the "we" which Jesus himself began to employ: "We speak of that which we know, we attest to that which we have seen."

What did we see? Not an invisible God hidden in the clouds, but the only Son, His image. Earth speaks of heaven. Heaven has descended on earth. Moses' serpent was not a zoo idol, while the golden calf was. Judas' kiss was not an expression of love, while the washing of the feet was. The High Priest's scruples were not a sign of fidelity, while the healings on the Sabbath day were. We must learn to see. We must be reborn and change our viewpoint, our behaviour, our Spirit.

Nicodemus, that old apprehensive theologian, whose dark and complicated researchings, could only be done at night - for fear of what one might think- he too will know rebirth. With Joseph of Arimathea, another secret Christian, he arrives at daybreak, to ask for the body of Jesus. He brought with him a mixture of myrrh and aloes - about a hundred pounds. They took the body of the Crucified, and bound it in linen with perfumes according to the Jewish custom... just as in traditional societies, a newly-born infant is wrapped in swaddling clothes...