Trust, or even any belief in God, for many people in our modern world is a big problem. Not only personal prayers and questions seemingly not answered, but natural disasters, massacres, extreme suffering, brutality between people - God seems to "allow" it all to happen. Why? How can this be, how can there be a loving God?

In contrast, we hear the gospel today saying that "God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son." And St Paul talking about God loving us with so much love, and that we are "God's work of art."

That gospel is part of a conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus, the learned and religious man who came to meet with Him at night-time. Coming to the Light, Nicodemus had to tear himself away from the darkness, and so come to believe and to have eternal life. He was, like all of us, a mixture of shadow and light, but wanting to be enlightened.

The bible isn't an "answer-book" for my questions, but Jesus in the gospels is the visibility of God among us. His cross is the brightest sign of how much God loves, showing how Father and Son each give to each other, to the full. Jesus submits to suffering and death, His Father submits to watching Him die. There is separation and desertion; but also communion and intimacy.