It is 20th April 2020. The readings are from Acts 4:23-31; and the Gospel from John 3:1-8. Proclamation without the personal encounter and relationship with the Risen bring sufficient conversion. When we have had this significant connection with Jesus, we cannot but talk about it, behave accordingly. Our kerygma is about the person of Jesus. Criticism, opposition and ridiculing the Good is the bound to come. We cannot change someone with all our skills, talents and personal charisms but surely with the help of the Holy Spirit. A foretaste of a Pentecost is unfolding in the first reading. Courage to bear witness to the truth comes by being born in the Spirit of God. “When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.” (Acts.4:31). The Responsorial Psalm praises, “Happy are all who put their trust in the Lord.” (Ps.2:12). The Gospel invites us to be born again in order to be the instrument of love. We all need to be born again. Unless we are born in the Spirit, we cannot continue be a witness to Jesus. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). the new birth phenomenon is also described as receiving new life (Rom. 6:4), receiving the circumcision of the heart (Rom. 2:29; Col. 2:11–12), and becoming a “new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). We are baptized with water, symbolizing our dying with Christ (Rom. 6:3) and our rising with Christ to the newness of life (Rom. 6:4–5); we receive the gift of sanctifying grace and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:27); and we are adopted as God’s sons (Rom. 8:15–17). Fearlessness comes by the anointing as that in the first reading. People who are born in the spirit cannot remain silent and doing their daily chores as usual forgetting God. The proof of being born again means to proclaim the goodness of the Lord with enthusiasm and interests. Listening and guided by the Spirit of God is the new life in Christ. May we be born again to proclaim the person of Jesus. Have a good day.

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