+In Pope Francis’ most recent apostolic exhortation titled Gaudete et Exsultate (Rejoice and Be Glad) He writes that “God infinitely transcends us; he is full of surprises. We are not the ones to determine when and how we will encounter him; the exact times and places of that encounter are not up to us. Someone who wants everything to be clear and sure presumes to control God’s transcendence.”
It’s this very understanding of God, it seems to me, that Jesus is showing us in his words to Nicodemus we just heard in the gospel: “’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.” We are so often inclined to tie the work of the Holy Spirit to one way of acting when the Spirit is ever showing us how to live in the freedom of the children of God. We see this freedom in the first Christian community where all things we held in common and each was given as he or she was in need.
This time of Easter celebration is a fresh invitation to live in that life that was freely given us at baptism and is ever at work in our daily lives if we are open and responsive.