The Ark

“Noah built an altar to the Lord.” Genesis 8:20

It says in Genesis that when God smelled the sweet odor of Noah’s burnt offerings, He promised that He will never again destroy all living things. He made a covenant with Noah and his sons and he set a rainbow in the sky as a sign of that promise. 

When I see the evil around the world, I wonder if all that is keeping God from destroying us is His promise. Surely he hates the hundreds of thousands of His little children killed in the womb. Surely He abhors the tens of thousands of extrajudicial killings and the homicide cases under investigation here in the Philippines. What about plunderers and thieves and liars going scot free and running for Senate positions? 

But just like in Noah’s time, God has provided a safe haven, a bulwark, an ark, for His people. Noah and His family were saved from destruction in the safety of the ark. The Church, the barque of St. Peter, is also our safety. 

St. Augustine, in the “City of God”, compares the ark of Noah to the body of Christ. He said that just like Noah and his relatives entered through the door at the side, we enter the Church through the side of Christ, which was pierced pouring forth blood and water, symbolizing our baptism and the Eucharist. 

In Genesis 7:16, we learn that it was God who closed the door to the ark to keep the family and animals inside. Is it not God who ensures our complete safety and well-being within the body of Christ?