Daily Meditation: Sunday, December 18, 2005

‘Unless a man be born of water and the spirit’ - commentary

12/18/2005

To Nicodemus, the Israelite doctor who came one night to question him, Jesus responded: ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.’ This verse corresponds to a verse in the beginning of Genesis: ‘And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.’ In both of these, it is the phenomenon of birth which is evoked: the birth of the universe and the spiritual birth of the human being. In both we find the same elements: fire (spirit) and water (matter). Just as the universe was born of fire and water, human beings must also be born of fire and water in order to enter into this higher state of consciousness called the Kingdom of God, because transposed onto the spiritual plane, fire represents wisdom and water represents love.