Daily Retreat 03/05/06

2006 Mar 5 SUN: FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT

Gn 9: 8-15/ Ps 24(25): 4-5. 6-7. 8-9/ 1 Pt 3: 18-22/ Mk 1: 12-15

From today’s readings: "God said to Noah and to his sons with him: ‘See, I am now establishing My covenant with you and your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you....’ Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep Your covenant.... This prefigured baptism, which saves you now. It is not a removal of dirt from the body but an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.... This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand - Repent, and believe in the gospel!"

Noah and the Ark of Salvation

Even though Noah is, without a doubt, one of the most memorable characters in the whole Bible, this is, in fact, the only Sunday, out of the entire three year lectionary cycle, which features a reading from those four chapters (6-9) in Genesis that focus on Noah and the Ark, and the Flood. Today, the Second Reading as well, from the first letter of Peter, mentions Noah by name, and even the Responsorial Psalm alludes to God’s covenant, which was first established with Noah.

The short Gospel reading, from St. Mark’s account, attests that, at the beginning of His public ministry, Jesus taught about the imminent advance of the Kingdom of God. In the final days of His life, the Lord was heard teaching about the culmination of the Kingdom of God, when the Son of Man would come again in glory: "For as it was in the days of Noah," Jesus noted, "so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man....."

Ezekiel and Isaiah made reference to Noah in the course of their prophecies, and not surprisingly, his name also comes up in the compelling meditation of the faith of our fathers outlined in Chapter 11 of the Letter to the Hebrews: "By faith Noah, warned about what was not yet seen, with reverence built an ark for the salvation of his household. Through this he condemned the world and inherited the righteousness that comes through faith."

Considering all this, it only seems logical to conclude that the example of this man Noah could provide some timely direction for our cruise through this penitential season of Lent, for since he was able to successfully navigate through the deluge which began with those torrential rains of 40 days and 40 nights, surely his course is a good starting point for charting our own 40 days of Lent!

The first thing we note about Noah is that he was an upright, God-serving man living in an evil age - in other words, a non-conformist of the best type! Rather than compromising his morals as everyone else was doing at the time, Noah faithfully lived a life of righteousness, thereby "walking with God," according to the beautiful biblical idiom. Noah put his faith into action, and because of his commitment to prayer, even built the first altar recorded in the Bible. Following that example, this Lent is indeed the acceptable time for you and me to do a reality check of our moral character and the extent we’ve inexcusably conformed to the prevailing immoral norms of this age or have been lax in our prayer and worship of God! Now, note that the Bible doesn’t just say that Noah wasn’t nearly as bad as the worst men of his generation - no, Noah was positively upright and blameless, and put worship of God first! So, it’s obviously not enough for you and me to soothe our consciences with the platitude that we’re not as bad as the worst of our generation - no, we need to strive for that standard of being positively upright and blameless, and putting God first in our lives!

Noah was also a family man - and obviously, his whole household. was completely onboard with his high moral standards. Evidently, Noah wasn’t the spineless kind of man who abdicated religious leadership in the family and left that all to his wife - Noah wasn’t the irresponsible type of father who always had better things to do than pray with his sons and be their role model for walking faithfully with God. Following that example, this Lent is the acceptable time for you and me (especially the Christian husbands and fathers among us!) to re-commit ourselves to living our faith fully in the context of our family, for God want us to embrace His salvation, not just individually, but with our whole family, gathering together around the holy altar, just as Noah and his whole family did.

Furthermore, Noah was faithful to his vocation and obedient to the will of God, in spite of all difficulties. It wasn’t enough that Noah was an upright family man in a general sense - God specifically called upon him to build and man that ark of salvation. We can just imagine the ribbing that Noah’s neighbors and cronies heaped on him as he set about the task of building the huge ark! And note that, because God knew best, He spelled out specific details for the construction of the ark, and didn’t even allow Noah the unbridled freedom of doing his own thing and designing the ark according to his own human preferences. Following that example, this Lent is the acceptable time for you and me to take a more active role in building up and manning the new ark of salvation, which is the Barque of St. Peter, Christ’s Holy Church! God, who always knows best, has designed His Church as the infallible vessel of His redemption - left to our own unbridled freedom and imagination, we would have doubtlessly constructed a softer, laxer church. Some, indeed, have done just that, eliminating the bothersome unbending beams of biblical ethical demands, and whittling down the hull of authentic worship of God, and thus forfeiting the true Church, the one divinely-designed, seaworthy Ship of salvation, in favor of a fallible, rickety raft of man’s own making.

How blessed and beneficial, then, can our Lent be, if we just spend these 40 days being like Noah, that memorable man sealed with God’s covenant, and decorated with the highest mettle, that of the rainbow, forever honoring Noah’s flying colors in his faith, morals, family commitment, and most prominent position in the Ark of Salvation.