4th Sunday in Lent

Jesus says to Nicodemus, who has come to him under the cover of darkness: "... those how do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God." (Jn 3: 21) This is clearly a challenge to Nicodemus and to rest of the Jewish leadership. Many of them would have been good men who sympathized with the ministries of St John the Baptist and Jesus in their hearts but never did anything about it. We can also think of England at the time of the Reformation when St John Fisher and St Thomas More stood up to King Henry VIII. Standing up for the truth is not easy and can be dangerous as the latter two found out on the scaffold. And yet, their names live on and they have treasure in heaven. We do not know what happened to Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who assisted to obtaining Jesus' body after the crucifixion (Jn 19: 38-40), however, we can hear the challenge of Jesus for ourselves which prompts us to speak up for the Gospel and to share the joy of knowing the risen Christ with those meet. Let us, too, walk in the light so that what we do in our own lives can be seen as being done "in God."