Acts 4:23-31 / John 3:1-8
Every time when we hear Jesus saying "I tell you solemnly ..." He is not just saying that we should take Him seriously, or that some times He is just joking but whenever He uses that phrase we must take Him seriously.
And when Jesus used this phrase twice in the gospel, Nicodemus still thought that Jesus was not serious and hence, he had to ask Jesus to clarify how can a grown man be born again or how can a man go back into his mother's womb and be born again.
Whenever Jesus uses the phrase "I tell you solemnly ..." He is teaching a doctrine as well teaching a truth that can be difficult to understand.
Of course we now understand what Jesus meant by "born from above" and "born through water and the Holy Spirit".
Yes, we may understand but what is our experience of "born from above" and "born through water and the Holy Spirit"?
In the 1st reading, when Peter and John were released and when they went back to the community and told them everything, they lifted up their voices to pray.
There are many things that we can learn from their prayer. They praised God, they remembered what God had promised them through the Scriptures, they thanked God for fulfilling those promises in Jesus.
And as they prayed, the house where they were assembled rocked; they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to proclaim the Word of God boldly.
That was their experience of being "born from above" and being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Every time when we pray, we are also being filled with the Holy Spirit. Let us remember how the disciples prayed and our hearts will be rocked and we will know what it is to be "born from above".