Today is Feb. 18, Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time.
Today we read at Mass, “Then the LORD said to Noah: ‘Go into the ark, you and all your household, for you alone in this age have I found to be truly just'” (Gen 7:1).
As we continue on in Genesis, today we arrive at the story of Noah’s ark. For the Church Fathers, Noah’s ark is a sign of many things. It prefigures, for example, the Ark of the Covenant. Remember that the Israelites were able to cross the Jordan River because the ark of the covenant held back the waters. Just as Noah’s ark delivered his family through the waters of the flood to safety, so the Ark of the Covenant led the Israelites to the promised land.
But the ark can have many profound spiritual meanings. “Thus it seems to me that through the image of the Ark, God wanted to show us how we are free from this particular flood,” says St. Ambrose. “For corruption is the cause of the flood.”
Remaining faithful to virtue
For St. Ambrose, the floods of corruption overwhelm the soul and submerge it in a sea of vices. But the virtues buoy the soul, making it possible to float through these waters. “Thus the greatest cure in this flood is that you prefer justice and you choose it as the fulfillment of heavenly commands,” St. Ambrose says. “What is justice in us if not the acuity of soul, which encloses inside the Ark every kind of living being that is above the earth?”
The ark offers the image of the virtues we need to cultivate, as St. Ambrose says, to deliver us through the storms of corruption. But think especially about the construction of the ark. Noah was mocked for building it. How many Christian virtues does the world mock? How often has doing the right thing led to others belittling or misunderstanding us? Despite the ridicule of those around us, remaining faithful to virtue will carry us through the storms and rains of life!
Let us pray,
O God, who teach us that you abide in hearts that are just and true, grant that we may be so fashioned by your grace as to become a dwelling pleasing to you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
