Pope Francis: Nicodemus finds hope in encounter with Jesus

By Christopher Wells

Pope Francis on Wednesday began a series of reflections on Jesus’ encounters with various individuals in the Gospel, as part of his larger catechetical cycle on the life of Jesus our hope.

“There are encounters that enlighten life and bring hope,” the Pope writes, beginning with the meeting of Jesus and Nicodemus, “a man whose story shows it is possible to come out of the darkness and find the courage to follow Christ.”

Jesus illuminates the darkness of the heart

In the Gospel of St John, Nicodemus, a pharisee and a leader of the Jewish people, first comes to Jesus in the night, but ultimately comes boldly to Pilate to request Jesus’ body after the crucifixion.

Pope Francis explains that in John’s Gospel, the night likely symbolizes the darkness of the doubts in Nicodemus’ heart. “If you are in the dark,” he says, “of course you look for the light... Nicodemus therefore seeks Jesus because he has sensed that He can illuminate the darkness of his heart.”

At first, however, Nicodemus cannot understand what Jesus tells him “because he continues to think with his own logic and categories... he feels the need for change, but does not know where to start.”

Finding new ways to love

Pope Francis says, “This happens to all of us at some point in our lives.” Life, he says, “lies in the ability to change in order to find a new way of loving,” which Jesus calls “a new birth” in His conversation with Nicodemus.

“If we allow the Holy Spirit to generate new life in us, we will be born again,” the Pope says. “We will rediscover the life that perhaps was fading within us.”

Nicodemus “shows us that this change is possible,” the Pope concludes. Although we sometimes fear change, the Holy Spirit encourages us to face our fears. “Nicodemus, like all of us, can look on the Crucified One, the One who defeated death, the root of all our fears,” Pope Francis says. “Let us lift up our gaze to the One they have pierced; let us also be met by Jesus; in Him we find the hope to face the changes in our lives and be born again.”

As Pope Francis is continuing his recovery from pneumonia in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, the text of Wednesday’s reflection for the General Audience was released by the Holy See Press Office.