Homily: Tuesday of the 2nd Week of Easter - Jesus the Teacher

Over the course of four days this week, we are presented with the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus the Pharisee from chapter 3 of St. John's Gospel.

Now remember, the Pharisees presented themselves as men who knew everything there was to know about the Law and Sacred Scriptures. Over and over  they present themselves as know-it-alls, and Nicodemus is not immune to this behavior. At the beginning of the conversation, as we heard yesterday, Nicodemus called Jesus “a man coming from God as a teacher”. Jesus however does not even acknowledge the complement, he knew it was mere flattery, lip-service.

In fact, in today's Gospel, Jesus rebukes Nicodemus: “you claim to be a teacher, yet you do not understand.”

Nicodemus, initially gave no sign that he was even interested in being taught.

However, as the conversation ensues, notice how Nicodemus' remarks get shorter and shorter, while Jesus' answers get longer and longer. Tomorrow and thursday, Nicodemus doesn't even get a word in, as Jesus, the Word-made-flesh teaches about the love of God, the nature of his mission, and the importance of believing in his message.

There are many in our culture who treat Jesus and the Church with similar Pharisaical intellectual snobbery. “What could Jesus or the Church possibly have to teach me?” Even many “adult Catholics” refuse to crack open the Bible or the Catechism believing that they know it all or have nothing to gain from coming to deeper understanding of the faith.

The Christian, however, is perpetually a disciple—a student. And our Christian faith is an inexhaustible source of knowledge. The Church is “Mater et Magistra”, Mother and Teacher, and too many of us refuse to sit in mother's lap and learn.

The renewal that God may want for us this Easter may be to learn how to learn: how to be enriched more deeply by the teaching of the Church, or how to encounter His timeless wisdom in the Scriptures in a new way.

By the end of his conversation with Jesus, Nicodemus seems to learn a very important lesson: he learns how to stop talking and how to listen.

Jesus doesn't want flattery, he doesn't want lip service; he wants to teach us.

May the Holy Spirit help each of us to take once again the posture of the student—the disciple—and learn from Jesus the Teacher, who yearns to instruct in the ways of righteousness and self-sacrifice for the glory of God and salvation of souls.