Why do we have the readings we have for this Sunday?
Noah and the ark; deliverance through water; baptism.
Our Lord--who is a man like us--
driven to the desert to wrestle with evil.
The readings make sense when you remember
that there are people preparing for baptism.
We have three people from each parish
who look forward to baptism this Easter.
Lent is their time
to wrestle with that decision for 40 days.
For those of us who are baptized,
we wrestle with the things that are in our lives
that are at odds with our Faith--which pull us away.
Remember: when our friends are baptized at Easter,
all of us will renew the promises of our own baptism
at the same time.
And while the sacrament of confession
is a good idea all year long,
this time of year reminds us
that confession is a kind of second baptism.
Fresh and clean. New life. Start over.
There’s something else.
God chooses us to be like Noah,
offering life to a world inundated by evil.
Here’s a curious fact about the story of Noah.
You have to go read the whole story in Genesis 6 and 7.
Now, everyone knows that God sent Noah
to get a pair of every animal.
What many don’t notice is that God send Noah
a second time to get more animals.
You can see for yourself in chapter 7 of Genesis.
Why would God send Noah for even more animals?
Clearly there was more room
in the ark than originally intended.
Perhaps God was hoping for more people
than only Noah’s family?
Our Church, our Catholic Faith,
is the ark of our salvation.
Those folks preparing for baptism,
not just in our parish, but worldwide,
are the folks we’ve drawn to the ark.
Good work!
But look around: there’s a lot of room
in this ark for more people!
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