The Covent Bow

Reflection for Thursday of the 6th Week in Ordinary Time
(Gen 9:1-13; Mk 8:27-33)
After the flood, God continued to open new frontiers of relationship with man through Noah. In the flood, God rained down His anger on man for his increasing wickedness. But the flood did not recreate man or wash off his inclination to evil. As ‘prince' of all creation, the punishment on man affected all other creation consequently. Yesterday we saw how God tried to untie this tight bond such that man's punishment or blessings would not automatically affect other creation. The ark of Noah became a sort of Garden of Eden from which man received a new mandate that would define his relationship with God.

Once more, God imparts His blessings and authority on man—The man of the Ark! “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.” God expressed certain disparity between God and other creatures. Again, He opened for man the frontiers of freedom; man could freely use any living creature as food. But God re-enforced the borders of man's freedom. “Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is , its blood.” This new frontier of relationship was sealed with a covenant, in which God promised never again to destroy the earth by the flood. He set a bow in the cloud as a sign of this covenant...

The work restoring creation completely back to God must be accomplished. This would require an everlasting covenant, with its perfect sign lifted up. “And Jesus began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” The Cross of Christ, therefore, is the perfect bow lifted up that assures that God has saved His people. The Blood of Jesus Christ now defines the borders of our freedom. A new frontier of relationship with God has indeed been opened for us in Christ Jesus. 

Fr Jude Chinwe Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Mater Domini Community,
Alulu-Nike, Enugu.
Thurday 21st February, 2019.