6th Week, Wednesday, Feb 15th
Genesis 8:6-13, 20-22 / Mark 8:22-26
The flood subsides; The ark came to rest.
Since 1961 biblical fundamentalists have sponsored nearly three dozen expeditions up Mt. Ararat in Turkey to search for the 450-foot ark.
In 1955 an L-shaped piece of timber was found 13,500 feet up the mountain. Using the carbon-14 dating process, UCLA's Rainer Berger dated it at A.D. 700. One theory is that it is a remnant of a shrine built by early monks to celebrate the biblical account of the flood.
Scripture scholars point out that the flood story belongs to the prehistory part of the Bible and, therefore, should be interpreted as a symbolic story. Its purpose is to teach that sin leads people down a one-way street: the destruction of themselves and of their world. God alone can save them.
***
How keen is our own personal sense of sin? "Our sense of sin is in proportion to our nearness to God." Thomas D. Brainard
***
The deluge ends. God and people are reconciled again. The dove returns with an olive branch in its beak. Noah thanks the Lord.
As a sign that he came to heal – that is, to make whole again – to bring forgiveness and life to the whole person, Jesus restores the sight of the blind, makes the deaf hear again, even raises the dead back to life. He does not only bring good news of hope and healing, he is that Good News, he embodies it in himself and shares it with people in word and deed.
***
We don't have to know a lot about birds to know the difference between a dove and a raven. Doves are generally white in colour and associated with good luck or good omen. In fact, doves are also a sign of peace.
In the first reading, when Noah sent out the dove the second time, it returned with a new olive branch, to indicate that the waters were receding from the earth. And when he sent out the dove the third time, it returned to him no more, to mean that the surface of the earth was dry. So much of that lovable dove in the 1st reading. Now, what about the raven? If we had paid attention to the 1st reading, Noah sent out the raven first, and it flew back and forth until the waters dried up from the earth. But after that, there was no further mention of the raven. Ravens are black in colour and they don't make a nice sound, and they are often seen as a bad omen and luck, maybe because of their colour, the sound they make and generally their looks. But surprisingly, ravens are mentioned in the Bible at significant moments. Besides being sent out by Noah, it was also a raven that brought food to the prophet Elijah, and also in other parts of the Bible.
So as much as ravens do not have glamorous roles in the Bible, they have significant roles in the plan of God. It also reminds us that God chooses what is humble and lowly to do His work. So may we not despise what is humble and lowly for God often works through them.
***
Prayer
Healing God, each of us too could say: let me see again, for I am blind to the love you show me in the people around me. Let me see again, for I am blind to your splendor and beauty that you reveal to me in your creation and in the events of life. Open my eyes to your goodness and mercy that you display in good people. May we hear from the lips of your Son: “your faith has saved you.” We ask this through Christ, our Lord.
