2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23 / Ephesians 2:4-10 / John 3:14-21
If we were to look at the little red book that is in the pews, it is called "The Order of the Mass". And at the bottom, in smaller letters it reads “New English Translation”.
The artwork on the cover is a symbol of the cross, and on the spaces in between the arms of the cross are the letters IC, XC, NI and KA.
IC, XC are the initials for Jesus Christ.
But what about NI and KA? Actually it is one word NIKA. It is a Greek word, and it means victor or conqueror.
So the letters around the cross stands for Jesus Christ the Victor or Jesus Christ the Conqueror.
We may not have known what NIKA stands for because it is a foreign word. But we know of a word that is derived from it “NIKE” a famous brand in sports.
So we know what NIKA stands for and what Nike might mean (besides the “Just do it”). But we may not know what the name Nicodemus means.
It is a foreign sounding name, and not many people have that name, and maybe for a good reason.
In today's gospel, the man who came to look for Jesus at night is called Nicodemus. He was also a Pharisee.
But what does the name Nicodemus stands for?
There are two parts to the name : nico and demus.
Nico means "victory", and demus means "the people".
So Nicodemus means "he is the victory of the people", or "he who claims victory for the people".
So it is actually a meaningful and also a powerful name.
Yet the Nicodemus in the gospel came to see Jesus under cover of darkness because he was afraid for his reputation and status as a Pharisee.
The man whose name means “victory of the people” has come to see the man who is the Victor and the Conqueror.
And out of the strange meeting in the night, a very profound and enlightening truth is proclaimed.
In fact, this truth is often called the summary of the whole Bible, the very gist of the good news of salvation.
And it is this: God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so that anyone who believes in Him may not be lost but may have eternal life.
For God sent His Son into the world not to condemn the world but so that through Him the world might be saved.
That is the powerful and profound truth. That is also the truth about God and His deep love for us.
Jesus shines His light on us so that we live in the light of truth and love.
Some of us are afraid of the dark. The dark can be quite frightening.
But are we afraid of the light? We may not think so. But our reaction to the light can tell us otherwise.
We shield ourselves from the light; we squint or even close our eyes from the light.
“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” (Plato)
When men are afraid of the light, then tragedy happens as what we heard in the 1st reading.
The heads of the priesthood right down to the people added infidelity to infidelity and defiling the Temple that the Lord had consecrated for Himself in Jerusalem.
The Lord God tirelessly sent them messenger after messenger since He wished to spare His people and His house.
But they ridiculed the messengers of God, they despised His words, they laughed at His prophets, until at last the wrath of God rose so high against His people that there was no further remedy.
Their enemies burned down the Temple of God, demolished the walls of Jerusalem, set fire to all its palaces, and destroyed everything of value in it.
It was a national tragedy that went down into history.
As Jesus said in the gospel – though the light has come into the world, men have shown they prefer darkness to the light because their deeds were evil.
An interesting fact is that “where the light is brightest, the shadows are deepest” (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe).
This coming Friday evening, our parish is having the Reconciliation service. The priests of the City District are coming to our parish to hear our confessions.
An often-asked question is this - Should I go to confession if I haven’t committed any sins since my last confession?
A rather candid answer given is this - No, you should stay at home and wait for your canonization papers to arrive!
But seriously, if it’s been several weeks since your last confession, you have probably not examined your conscience very carefully.
“The just man falls seven times a day” (Prov 24:16). So if we’re thinking that we don’t have any sins to confess, then Jesus has got nothing to conquer and there will be no victory for Him.
But we know that under the light, there will be shadows, and the brighter the light, the deeper the shadows.
Jesus is the light that will scatter the shadows of our sins.
When we confess our sins and are reconciled to God, we turn away from tragedy and with Jesus we march into the light of victory.