God Initiates a Covenant with Noah and All of Creation

Homily for Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

The story of Noah and the Ark takes up more than three full chapters of the Book of Genesis. No one before Noah received this much consideration in the story of Creation. From today’s reading it is clear that the story of Noah is either another story of creation or a concluding episode. Twice in this story after the ark has come to arrest on the top of Mount Ararat, God tells Noah and his sons and all of the animals to “be fruitful and multiply,” just as he had told Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. In contrast to the story at the beginning of the Book of Genesis, God no longer considers the human race to be good. Now God says that the desires of human hearts are evil. Nonetheless, God promises never again to bring about the extermination of life. This promise is sealed with a covenant made not only with Noah and all of his family and all of the animals but also with every living creature that was with them in the ark. Whereas he gave Adam and Eve all of the vegetation to eat, God now tells them that they may eat of the animals of creation as well. God will also hold every living being accountable for any human blood that they spill.

The covenant that God makes with creation is a foretaste of the covenant that God will make with Abraham as well as the covenant that will be made with the children of Israel at Mount Sinai. “When the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature—every mortal being that is on earth.”

Just as God made a covenant with all of creation, we too have that same relationship with God as a result of our baptism. This covenant as well as those that will come as we continue to read the Hebrew Scriptures, all lead us to the New Covenant that God establishes through Jesus. The Gospel text that we read today tells us that this covenant will involve the suffering and death of Jesus. As Jesus tells Peter to get behind him, we are reminded that Jesus is the leader, Jesus is the one that goes before; it is our responsibility to follow.