The WORD in Other Words by Fr Dante Barril SVD
Wednesday Easter Week 2
Acts 5:17-26
John 3:16-21
Today‘s gospel, especially the first part, is one of the most familiar verses in the Bible. Ask anyone and chances are, “For God so loved the world…” will be a favorite Bible line. And who doesn‘t know the song “Tell the Word of His Love”?
What is often ignored is the context in which this famous line was spoken by Jesus. He did not recite it in a speech nor did he deliver it in a teaching engagement, instead he told it to one man, the Pharisee Nicodemus, in a private conversation at night, in a “nameless” place.
When things confided to us in private are shared for the world to know, we would be labeled as “tsismoso(a)”. I remember a notice in my university‘s ROTC office which says something like, “What you see, what you hear…when you go, leave it here.”
Can you imagine what (bible passage) the world would have missed had Nicodemus decided to keep everything in his heart, avoid “tsismis ‘, be a good “cadet” and just leave everything that Jesus said in that nameless place?
I declare today as Tsismoso(a) day in honor of Nicodemus‘ “holy tsismis.” And more importantly, we are reminded that we can put our favorite pastime to good use and make it good news rather than fake news. That like Nicodemus, we can actually gossip the Gospel away to our hearts‘ content and “tell the world of His love.”
