In the forty days after Christ's resurrection, he explained to the disciples the mysteries they failed to understand before his death and resurrection.
This instruction began on the road to Emmaus.
Because the liturgy makes present events of salvation history, during Easter time, we too receive the grace of understanding the mysteries.
So from the first centuries, the Church has used this period to teach those who were baptized at the Easter vigil about the sacred mysteries, and especially the sacraments.
Following this ancient tradition, the Reformed liturgy reads during Easter time passages from the Gospel, according to John, that shed light on the mysteries.
At Pentecost, Christ sent his Spirit, who continued to guide the Apostles and the Church into all truth.
During Easter time, we also follow that story, reading the early history of the Church and the Acts of the Apostles.
Today's reading from the Acts tells us that the Apostles recognized in the events they were living through a fulfillment of Psalm 2.
They unanimously declared this, quoting the Psalm, which predicted the opposition of both pagan and Jewish leaders to Christ.
Those leaders blotted against him, thinking that they were in control of his events.
That their wicked plans had been foreseen by God long before, and he had declared them folly.
They would not stop his Christ by persecuting him, but would rather bring about his glorification.
Like Jesus' disciples before the resurrection, those leaders did not understand the mysteries of God, but unlike the disciples, they had an ill will to ignorance.
The Jewish leaders continued to oppose Christ after Pentecost, by trying to stop the two Apostles, Peter and John, who were preaching about him.
And so the Apostles asked to be able to continue to speak God's word and work signs and wonders by the name of Jesus.
God made the place where they were gathered shake to show that their prayer had been heard.
In the fact that they prayed unanimously, prayed with one voice, we see how true it is that they were of one mind and one heart.
And this is the full fruit of these mysteries which we consider in these early days of Easter.
We begin with the mysteries of baptism, followed later this week by those of the Eucharist.
These three sacraments are symbolized by the blood of water that flowed from the pierced heart of the Savior.
Some too foretold that the princes would ally themselves against the Lord and his Christ, but that they did so freely, that they chose freely to oppose the Christ, is clear from today's Gospel in which a prince of the Jews becomes a disciple of Christ, albeit secretly.
In fact, it's the same word, both of the word translated ruler of the Jews in the Gospel and the word translated princes in the Acts of the Apostles.
Nicodemus, this prince of the Jews, begins by recognizing that Jesus is a teacher who has come from God, as is demonstrated by the miracles that he's working.
Those who believe must be prepared for baptism.
And so Jesus begins by teaching him that he needs to receive it.
He says, amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born again, or from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
The double amen marks this as a solemn declaration.
Jesus insists on the need to be born anota, which can mean either again or from above.
Nicodemus understands Jesus to mean born again, so he asks how a full-grown man can get back into his womb, back into his mother's womb, to be born again.
It seems like nonsense, and indeed it is, if it is misunderstood as Nicodemus did.
It is necessary to be born again, but not born again in the same way, not the way that we were born the first time.
Jesus explains, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
What is born of flesh is flesh, and what is born of spirit is spirit.
So we are born of flesh, we are born of our earthly mother, that is enough to give us flesh, but it is not enough to make us spirit, to make us the spirit of God.
For that we need to be born in a different way, born again, yes, but born not in the same way.
We must be born of water and the Spirit.
So we must be born again, so Jesus, when he was speaking to Nicodemus, said born again and not born from above, since this is a conversation between two Jews who would not be speaking in Greek where there is that ambiguity, but in Aramaic or in Hebrew way where there isn't.
So by choosing to render born again with an ambiguous Greek term, Saint John is hinting that there is something more to this being born again, that this being born again is in fact a being born from above as well as being born again.
We must be born again and above of water and the Spirit, so we must receive the baptism instituted by Christ.
We are washed by the water and sanctified by the Spirit.
The water makes contact with our bodies and the Spirit makes us partakers of his divinity.
So in this way we are born of spirit and become spirit, not spirit alone, but we become spirit enough to be partakers of the kingdom of God.
So this is what makes us sons of God in the proper sense, or if you prefer we could say sons and daughters of God.
But I prefer to say sons of God because even females become like the son of God.
This is what we mean by saying that we are sons of God, that we are like the son of God.
In this respect there is not male and female because as partakers of the divine nature, it is as partakers of the divine nature that we are sons of God.
And in this gift of grace there is no distinction of sex.
Anyone who has this gift, no one who lacks it, can see the kingdom of God, that it can possess the kingdom of God and enjoy it.
They are born and so where there is a birth there is a mother.
Mary is our mother and because Mary is the type of the church, the church is also our mother.
We are born of Mary at the baptismal font because she is the mediatrix of all graces.
So she mediates all graces, she mediates also the graces of baptism.
We are born of the church.
The church is our mother because the church baptizes us at the font.
In baptism we receive the spirit, which in Greek is the same word as wind.
And as the wind's origin and destination are mysterious, so it is mysterious how the spirit enters us and where he is leading us.
We know that the spirit enters us at baptism, we know that the spirit is leading us ultimately to heaven.
But how he will lead us to heaven and how exactly the spirit comes to dwell in our soul, these things remain mysterious.
So while we have been enlightened about the mystery of baptism, we do not have a complete understanding of its nature.
It is and must always remain a mystery, something about which we know something but do not know everything.
Praise be to Jesus and Mary.
The power of the Spirit.
Amen.