The readings today show us two things that belong together.

New life in Christ.
And a new way of living with one another.

In the Gospel, Jesus continues speaking to Nicodemus.
And He says again: “You must be born anew.”

That is the centre.

The Christian life is not a slight improvement of the old one.
It is not the old life polished up.
It is not religion added on top.

It is new birth.

That is why Jesus speaks so strongly.
He is not giving Nicodemus a few useful ideas.
He is telling him that something radical must happen.
A man must be made new.

And then Jesus says something else:
“The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.”

The Holy Spirit is like that.

You cannot see the wind.
But you can see what it does.

You cannot see the Spirit with your eyes.
But you can see His work.

A tree bends.
A door moves.
A fire catches.
And you know the wind has been there.

So too with the Spirit.

A sinner repents.
A fearful man becomes bold.
A selfish person becomes generous.
A divided people become one.
And you know the Spirit has been there.

That is exactly what we see in the first reading.

The community of believers is described in a remarkable way.

“They were of one heart and soul.”

That is not natural.
That is supernatural.

Left to ourselves, people divide.
They compare.
They compete.
They cling.
They protect what is theirs.

But here the Spirit has created something new.

“No one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own.”

That does not mean the abolition of all personal property by force.
It means something deeper.
The grip of selfishness is being broken.
People are no longer living as closed individuals.
Grace is making them generous.

And the apostles are giving their testimony to the Resurrection
“with great power.”

Notice again how these things belong together.

The preaching of the Resurrection.
The life of the Spirit.
The unity of the Church.
The generosity of believers.

This is what Easter produces.

Not just inner feelings.
A new people.

And then Barnabas is named.
A man who sells a field and lays the money at the apostles’ feet.

That is not just about money.
It is about freedom.

The Spirit has made him free enough
not to cling.

That is always a sign of new birth.

A man is born anew when he no longer has to hold everything tight.
When he no longer treats himself as the centre.
When what he has becomes available to God.

And that is searching for us.

Because it is easy to admire the language of Easter.
It is harder to let Easter change the shape of our lives.

Jesus says:
“You must be born anew.”

The first reading shows us what that looks like.

People become one in heart.
People become generous.
People stop clutching.
People begin to live as though Christ is risen
and as though grace is real.

That is the challenge.

Can the Spirit be seen in us?

Not in theory.
In reality.

Can He be seen in the way we speak?
In the way we share?
In the way we forgive?
In the way we use money?
In the way we treat one another?

Because if the wind of the Spirit is really blowing through the Church,
then something should move.

Hard hearts should soften.
Closed hands should open.
Fear should give way to courage.
Self-protection should give way to charity.

That is what we are seeing in Acts.
And that is what Christ is speaking about to Nicodemus.

The Resurrection is not only the announcement that Jesus is alive.
It is the beginning of a new creation.
And the sign of that new creation
is that people begin to live differently.

So the question today is simple.

Have we really been willing to be made new?
Or are we still trying to live Easter with the old self intact?

Because Christ does not offer us a little improvement.
He offers new birth.
And where that new birth is real,
the Spirit can be heard like the wind,
not because we see Him directly,
but because we see what He does.