Light in the Darkness

John 3:1-21

Today, I want to reflect on Baptism and the movement of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Believer. Given the sacramental nature of baptism, one could make many different observations on the passage for today’s reflection, John 3:1-21.

God’s Enters Our Darkness First

Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of the spirit is spirit.

— John 3:5 —

Man is in darkness. His only hope is that the light moves into his plight and reveals a way out. Jesus says, “And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil.” We are trapped within our bondage, and we are hopeless without Christ’s movement. Without God, we are also unable to know the fullness of God’s revelation to mankind.

During Lent, we should reflect on the darkness of our lives and recognize that the light of the world did not merely shine a light on the darkness but entered into and illumined it; he is with us in the suffering, whatever that may be.

When we look at sacred art of the Nativity, this is what we see. Christ is often depicted as “illuminated,” and Mary’s face is nearby. The beauty of the mother is illuminated by the Light of the World.

The Catechism summarizes God’s movement in the life of the Christian this way,

Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. “Before this faith can be exercisesd, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the yes of the mind and ‘makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth” (CCC., 153).

Just as Chess requires White to move first, Black must respond. Otherwise, there is no game to be played. Analogously, in the “game” of salvation, God moves first. If black never moves, then the “game” can never be won. It requires our cooperation, but having been in darkness for so long, it can be difficult to submit to the full teaching of Christianity.

Christ says this about those who live in the darkness: “For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed” (Jn. 3:20). When one begins to consider the moral teachings of Christianity, that is the teachings of the Church, one begins to feel this desire to avoid the light. As a former protestant, reading this passage as a new Catholic reminds me of my first confession.

After a life of moral relativism of the Protestant variety, becoming Catholic is both a relief and a burden. First, you realize that sins of ignorance, while less severe, still leave a mark on your life. But on the other hand, you like living a kind of Frank-Sinatra Christianity; it’s easier to see yourself as more objective because you’re not tighed to any one way of doing Christianity. You can take a little St. Thomas Aquins here, a little R. C. Sproul, maybe a little bit of apologetics from this guy over here, and make child-like Lego creations and call it Christianity.

But when you’re in confession for the first time, and your sins are laid before God, you are crushed by the weight of your sin. The light of God reveals that the darkness really did have a hold on you, but thank God he shines into the dark and does not remain a glowing dot far removed from our sinful battles on earth.

When I came out of the confessional, I realized that sin really does have an effect. Darkness is not merely a void, it’s a force that actively seeks to blind people to the remedy they need, which is Christ truly present in the Eucharist. The Church is a light on a hill, always shining into the darkness of moral and theological relativism. But God must move first in order for anyone to embrace the whole truth that God gave mankind.

The Catechism continues,

Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed. (CCC., 150).

Is belief required for salvation? Yes. Is it sufficient? Christ’s words clearly indicate it is not. These are echoed by James as well when he says, “faith does not justify.” God has set up an “economy” of salvation. The Old Covenant was not abolished; it was made new.

When we, born of flesh and darkness, enter into the Trinitarian waters of Baptism, we are born of the Spirit and are participants in the divine life of Christ. We become citizens of the Kingdom, on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Christ was born of the immaculate flesh of Mary and conceived by the Holy Spirit. So, even in the Incarnation, we see a prefigurement of Baptism: “What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit.” Christ, at his birth, was born of both flesh and the Spirit, and it is baptism that allows us to become children of God, born of flesh, but born of the Spirit through Baptism.

— DR