Where Are You From?

Washington is full of people who are from somewhere else.

So it's not uncommon to find yourself asking or being asked,

Where are you from?

My standard answer would be that I've been in DC for 40 years.

And I'd lived in Cincinnati and Hartford and Boston before that.

If they went on to ask,

But where did you come from originally?

I'd say, Covington, Kentucky.

… And I'd probably be right.

Probably right, because that question usually means:

Where were you born?

Where did you spend your early years?

If I was engaged in a deep philosophical or spiritual discussion

And someone asked,

Where did you come from—originally?

I'd probably seem wiser and more thoughtful

If my answer was more lofty than ... Kentucky.

We're a lot like Nicodemus.

We're usually focused on this earthly, physical, material life we're living.

We're not usually looking beyond that day-to-day life

To the bigger questions and meanings.

Jesus can't seem to pull Nicodemus up

To that higher plane of discussion.

Even with his poetic words: You must be born from above.

The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes,

but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes;

so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

We're born of the Spirit.
We're like that wind.

Where did we come from?

Where are we going?

Science tells us a lot about where we came from.

Biology shows us that, most directly, we came from a fertilized egg.

And further back, our species evolved from earlier, simpler life forms.

Chemistry and astronomy might take us even further back.

They make a good case that we're originally from stardust.

That takes us all the way back to the beginning, the Big Bang.

At least as the source of our animated, physical, material being.

But where did that Big Bang come from?

And where did our individual, intelligent spirits come from?

Two thousand years ago,

Nicodemus already knew the basic answer to that—from God.

But neither he nor we know the full, detailed specifics.

Only Jesus has the experience and complete knowledge

Of spiritual, heavenly things.

And he wants to share some of that knowledge with us.

He wants us to ponder those bigger questions and meanings.

And as we listen to him and talk with him,

We grow in understanding of the Spirit.

We gain some insight on those big questions.

A better grasp on where we're originally from.

And where we're ultimately going.

Monday, 2nd Week of Easter

Jn 3:1-8   Read this Scripture @usccb.org