examination of the heart 364 2. “This man came to Jesus by night” (Jn 3:2). Consider the reason why Nicodemus came to the Lord by night: he feared the hatred and harassment from the Jews, and especially from those of the Pharisaic affiliation. If they saw him listening attentively to Christ’s words, they would undoubtedly persecute him very severely, as they had already done to others. Thus, base fear sometimes takes away morally upright people’s courage so that they neither dare to hear or say the truth because they believe that they would be in some sort of danger. Therefore, ask the Lord to completely remove and eliminate from your heart, after He enters it, the groundless fear both of hearing and of saying the truth. [f.115r] 3. “came to Jesus by night” (Jn 3:2). Evidently, Nicodemus was living then through a double night: natural and mystical; but the second was more serious than the first. However, the “Light,” which illuminates every man coming into this world (cf. Jn 1:9), dispersed the darkness of his soul. Entreat this Light during the Holy Communion to take away the night from the eyes of your soul and disperse whatever cloud is darkening your intellect. Entreat, I say, with the king: “lighten my eyes,” O Lord, “lest I sleep the sleep of death; lest my enemy say, ‘I have prevailed over him’” (Ps 13:3-4). But beseech an even better life from the Lord of Life on this most opportune occasion; namely, when we celebrate the day of the Finding of His holy Tree, on which death died, when Life had died.169 So that you may obtain it more easily, greet Jesus in this way, once crucified for you, now present in the Most Holy Eucharist: “Hail, saving Sacrifice, offered to the eternal Father on the Cross for me and for the entire human race; hail, glorious Pelican, my 169 Cf. LHE, vol. IV, p. 1396 (Sept. 14 — Feast of the Triumph of the Cross: Evening Prayer II — Antiphon 1): “Death itself died when life was slain on the tree.”
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