The baptismal font, hand and paschal candle in the lower section of the Noah panel recall the first letter of St. Peter where it is written that “this [ark] prefigured baptism, which saves you now” (1 Pet 3:21). The paschal candle is a reminder of the reception of the sacrament of Baptism and is always lit when Baptism is celebrated. Octagonal baptismal fonts were quite common in the early Church. They represent the seven days of creation followed by the eighth day, the first day of eternity. The hand of God next to the font directs Noah to build the ark. Above this, you find the ark and its inhabitants, the open hatch from which Noah sent the dove that returned with the olive branch in its beak, and the rainbow signaling the end of the deluge. The fire on the altar below and to the right of the rainbow recalls the holocaust of animals and birds that Noah offered to God after coming to dry land. The grapes recall the vineyard that Noah planted as he and his family resettled in this new region. At the very top of this first panel, you will see the tower of Babel. The lightning coming from a hand symbolizes God destroying the tower lest nothing “stop them from doing whatever they presume to do” (Gn 11:6).
The center panel tells the story of Abraham, our father in faith. The story begins in the two center sections. The bread and wine on the altar, along with the crown below it, signify the encounter between Abraham and Melchizedek, King of Salem who was also a priest of God. Abraham holds a knife symbolizing the covenant God made with him and his descendants that was ratified by circumcision. The Hebrew letters above Abraham’s left shoulder – יהוה – spell Yahweh, the Hebrew name for God. In Genesis 12:8, we read that Abraham built an altar to the Lord “and invoked the Lord by name.” To Abraham’s right you see the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed by fire after the departure of Lot, Abraham’s nephew.
In the bottom section the three angels who are entertained by Abraham and Sarah announce that she will bear a son after a lifetime of barrenness. The upper section depicts the testing of Abraham. Isaac, his only son, carries the wood for his own sacrificial fire because God had commanded Abraham to offer his son, as a holocaust. The wood that Isaac carried is in the form of a crossbeam to foretell Jesus, the only Son of God, carrying his cross for his own sacrifice on Calvary.
The third panel tells the story of Moses and the Exodus. In the top section, you see the burning bush from which God spoke to Moses while he was tending the sheep of his father-in-law in the land of Midian, a hilly country to the east of Israel; you see the hills and the rising sun to the right of the burning bush. Below this, you will find Moses extending his hand over Egypt (represented by the ankh, the Egyptian symbol for eternal life) as well as representations of three of the seven plagues God inflicted on Egypt: the river turned to blood; the darkness; and the death of the first-born of the Egyptians. You also see the home of an Israelite marked with the blood of a lamb on the door lintel so that the angel of death would pass over. The full moon of the Passover shines down on the scene.
Moses also strikes the waters of the Red Sea and they part to allow the Israelites to pass through and he strikes the rock in the desert to supply water to the Israelites after they grumbled against him and the Lord about their lack of water; there is an allusion to these two incidents with the water that flows over some brown earth in front of Moses. In the next two lower sections you see the tents used by the Israelites as they wandered in the desert, the manna with which God fed them, the cloud which preceded them in the day, the fire at night, and the seraph serpent which Moses erected on a pole to cure those bitten by the serpents which God sent as punishment for their complaints. The tablets of the Ten Commandments are prominently displayed and then shown again as God hands them to Moses on Mount Sinai. Moses grasps the tablets with the veil he uses to cover his glowing face while addressing the Israelites after he has spoken to God.
All of these images portrayed in this window recall for us some of the important events of Salvation History: the Great Flood, God’s covenant with Abraham and the Exodus. They prepare us for the events depicted in the next window: David, Solomon and the prophets.