Sunday Gospel Reflection, February 18, 2024: This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come...

This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come…

How do we know when the Lord is with us? 

    After the great flood, described in chapter 9 of the Book of Genesis, God establishes God’s covenant with Noah and his sons and their descendants after them, and with every living creature that was with them. It is a promise of safety and security for all God has created, and it is unilateral: God requires nothing from creation; God simply wants to show mercy and care to God’s people, as described in Psalm 25: Your compassion, O Lord, and your love are from of old. God’s promise is sealed by the bow set in the clouds, God’s battle gear reconfigured as a rainbow, which will appear whenever God brings clouds over the earth, a reminder to God and, hopefully, to humankind, of God’s enduring covenant with all creation, a sign that God is always with us. 

    In some ways, Jesus’ time in the desert, in Mark’s Gospel, is rather reminiscent of the story of Noah and the ark: Jesus remains in the desert for forty days, as Noah and his family spent forty days on the ark. Jesus, too, is among wild beasts who do him no harm, as was the case with Noah. Most significantly, however, Jesus, like Noah, knows that the Father’s love, in the form of the Spirit, will get him through, whatever he might face, no matter how dangerous life might become, for the angels minister to him throughout his forty days, while in the meantime he is tempted by Satan. And danger there will be: the First Letter of Peter reminds us that Christ suffered for sins once, that he might lead us to God. But Jesus is never alone; his Father is always with him.

 

   Our baptism is a sign of our fidelity to covenant; we pledge to God a clear conscience, and seek to be humble as we open to God’s presence with us and God’s action in our lives. Like Noah, like Paul, we are given an opportunity to cultivate an open heart; it is up to us to maintain that openness to the Lord, who is with us always, guiding us in his truth and teaching us his way. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 

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