Wednesday, February 15, 2023

15 February 2023 - extending an olive branch


At the end of forty days Noah opened the hatch he had made in the ark,
and he sent out a raven,
to see if the waters had lessened on the earth.

The raven, being an unclean bird, was probably a lower steaks way to investigate the condition of the earth outside of the ark. But unfortunately, its unclean status made the results unreliable. It did not return to the ark but this was not because the world was ready for habitation.

But for the present we need to explain the reason why the bird [the raven] did not come back. Perhaps, with the waters subsiding, the bird, being unclean, happened upon corpses of men and beasts and, finding nourishment to its liking, stayed there!

- Saint John Chrysostom¹

The raven was therefore was a type of those who "although they have been cleansed by the waters of baptism, nevertheless neglect putting off the very black dress of their old selves by living more faultlessly" according to Saint Bede².

The dove, by contrast, was a clean animal, could not feast on carrion refuse, and could not find rest until the waters subsided more and vegetation began to grow. The dove was faithful to return to the ark after its first pass revealed that the world had not yet sufficiently healed. Nor did it abandon Noah immediately once it discovered things growing once more, but rather returned with a final sign that the earth was again ready for human inhabitants, an olive branch, a sign of peace at least restored between God and his creation. Only after bringing these tidings of freedom did the dove fly freely and not return.

Never again will I doom the earth because of man
since the desires of man’s heart are evil from the start;
nor will I ever again strike down all living beings, as I have done.

Peace was restored, but it was still an external peace, a temporary patient awareness of the evil condition of the heart of man. It was a peace that recognized that even drastic external remedies could not resolve the condition of the human heart, and a decision to bear with them in spite of those limitations. It was a marvelous example of the mercy of God. There was as yet not terrain within the heart of man to which the Spirit could descend to make a dwelling place.  For the Spirit to find his place in the hearts of women and men would require a different sort of flood, that of baptism, which was finally able to address the heart itself, to drowned the old sinful self, while giving life to a new self, which was in fact a new creation (see Second Corinthians 5:17 and Galatians 6:15), and full of good fruits which were the gifts of the Spirit himself.

a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (see First Peter 3:20-21).

Baptism is also known as the sacrament of enlightenment, the place where those who were spiritually blind receive new vision. But like the blind man healed by Jesus in today's Gospel we do not tend to immediately receive the fullness of this restoration. It is rather a process by which Jesus gradually takes us from what is at first of necessity only a vague knowledge of the faith and the spiritual path to one in which the edges are sharper, the colors are more rich, to a world in which we can at last walk without stumbling.

Then he laid hands on the man’s eyes a second time and he saw clearly;
his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly.

¹ Genesis 1-11: OLD TESTAM (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture) (p. 145). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 

² ibid.

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