Daily Gospel Reflection for April 13, 2026

One of the highlights of my priesthood was working World Youth Day for Holy Cross Family Ministries in 2023. While the Portuguese hosted the event well, I will always remember the Spanish youth who came in the tens of thousands. They were faithful, intelligent, spoke excellent English and were almost too proud of their home country. I say too proud because one young lady told me the United States was not very Catholic a country. I knew she meant in a numerical, cultural sense it wasn’t vastly Catholic like her Spain. I replied in humor that all that changed in 2008. She asked how. I pointed to my friend, Fr. Drew, who was ordained that year. "And later that year, I took final vows,” I told her. She laughed, the spiritual point registering with her. It’s not so much the moments of when we are born and in what supportive spiritual context we grew up in, but the greater vocational benchmarks like choosing a permanent life path and deepening one’s baptismal promises with religious vows.

 

In this Gospel, while Nicodemus claims to be interested in Jesus who comes from above, he’s still overly concerned with what’s below or what came before. He’s obsessed with blood lines and birth as it’s traditionally know to him: a person is born once and it’s to his or her mother. Beyond a natural birth, however, our Lord calls us to a spiritual rebirth marked by water and Spirit.

 

We know water and Spirit to be formalized as the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation. Maybe an annual reminder of these dates would serve Catholics well of what’s truly spiritually important. They’re more important than birthdays, when you think about it.

Come, Holy Spirit.

Veni, Sancte Spiritus.