In today's Gospel we hear people wondering who Jesus was. We see confusion and division in the crowd and the amazement of the temple guard. We witness hatred of the chief priests and Pharisees but we also admire Nicodemus defending Jesus. How to discover the whole truth about Jesus? How to experience the mystery of Him?
The first way to do that is through simplicity of heart. The guard sent by the Sanhedrin to arrest Jesus refused to bring Him back because they were deeply moved by the words of Jesus. They gave this witness to the chief priests and Pharisees: "Never before has anyone spoken like this man". It is simplicity of heart that makes us open out to the mystery of Jesus and His word.
The second way that helps us to know Jesus better is shown to us by Nicodemus. As the only member of the Sanhedrin, he defended Jesus from the unjust charges of the chief priest and Pharisees. Why did he do that? Was it only because of his righteousness? Nicodemus discovered that Jesus was truly the Son of God because he met and spoke to Jesus personally at night. Like Nicodemus we also need to meet Jesus personally during our prayer in order to accept Jesus as our only Lord and Saviour.
Lent is a time when we are called to conversion.
Lord, may our Lenten penance help us to cleanse our hearts and make us pure and simple. May our prayer be a time when we will experience the mystery of Jesus' presence among us.