As if the coronavirus pandemic isn’t enough of a worldwide crisis, now we’re struggling with extreme temperature swings and ongoing storms not only here but in unusual spots around the world. Did you see the photograph of the Pantheon in Athens covered with snow? It’s such an unusual event that the place has been packed not with tourists but locals coming to take a look. And, on the other hand, there was recently a tragedy in India where dozens of people lost their lives due to flooding caused by heavy rains and melting glaciers. All of this certainly reminds us that, even though we can land another Rover on Mars, we’re really not in charge of nature – God is. And, we will always have pandemics, earthquakes and floods. In fact, every ancient civilization records a great flood occurring in their distant past. We now know it was the result of the end of the last Ice Age some 10,000 years ago. You can imagine the great destruction caused by the receding glaciers around the world and the floods that ensued as they melted. As you know, the Great Lakes were carved out and filled in at this time. That’s just one example of the significant effects the floods had on our world.
It was just another moment in the evolution of our planet but, like many other ancient civilizations, Israel saw a divine lesson in this natural phenomenon. It is presented in the story of Noah and his ark; we’re all familiar with it. According to this story, which is part of the divine revelation of the Bible, humanity had become so depraved that, as we read in chapter six of the Book of Genesis, “no desire that his heart conceived was ever anything but evil.” And so, God decided to destroy the earth and all humanity except Noah and his family, of whom God said, “you alone in this age have I found to be truly just.” We all know how the story unfolds. After Noah built the ark and led his family, along with pairs of animals, into the ark, it rained for 40 days and 40 nights so that the entire earth was covered. Slowly, the waters receded and Noah and his family were able to settle on the land. As they did so, God established a covenant with them; that’s where today’s first reading picks up. It is a very important moment in God’s re-establishing a relationship with humanity. Ever since Adam and Eve had sinned by trying to become like God, we had been estranged from God. Now, God, out of the abundance of his love and care for man – whom he had made in his image and likeness – establishes a covenant with humanity. This is the first of four times that Sacred Scripture records God making a covenant with humanity. The other three occur when he made a covenant with Abraham, then with the people Israel at Mount Sinai and finally through his son, Jesus Christ, at the Last Supper. In all of these covenants, God promises that he will care for us. And all he asks of us is to be faithful to him and to love him above all things.
This teaching about God’s covenant will be part of the Sunday readings for the next several weeks, culminating in the establishment of the new and everlasting covenant at the Last Supper, ratified by our Lord’s sacrifice on the cross so, as we begin in earnest our observance of Lent on this, the first Sunday of Lent, I invite you to reflect on it with me for a few moments.
As you may know, the idea of a covenant is not unique to the Bible. It was developed in the ancient Near East as a way for tribes and clans to live in peace with each other. As they wandered around as nomads, searching for food and water for themselves and their flocks, they established covenants with relatives so that they would not fight each other when they happened upon each other in their wanderings.
God used this practice among the people to demonstrate his care for his people. After all, he had chosen Israel to be his special people and he wanted them to know that he would care for them. At the same time, he wanted them to enter into this covenant, being faithful to him and his commands. Beginning with today’s account of God’s covenant with Noah and his family, the Bible can be read as the story of man continually abandoning this covenant and God continually calling us back to himself.
And, just as the Bible can be read in this way, so each of us can read our hearts and, if we are honest with ourselves, recognize that we, too, continually stray from God and his ways and need to be called back to God. And so, we should listen carefully to our Lord’s proclamation in today’s Gospel: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand.” There is no better time than now to allow God’s love to take hold of our hearts. No matter how close we are to God now, we can always get closer. And, if we are aware of ways in which we have wandered from God, we need to listen to our Lord when he calls us to “repent, and believe in the gospel.” God wants us for himself and he will take care of all of our needs. We need only to be faithful to him and to love him above all things. Let’s make that our resolution as we begin this sacred Lenten season.