Thursday, OT 6 February 20, 2025
Fr. Alexander Albert Vermilion Catholic, Abbeville
Anyway, the point is that for most of human history, when someone talked about a “bow,” everyone understand they meant the tool, the weapon. What did you think of when, in the first reading, God said, “I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth?” Did you imagine a bow like you tie in a ribbon? As a kid, I never really thought it through, but the point is that God is talking about his bow & arrow. Now, if you study the science, you’ll know that a rainbow is the effect of sunlight being dispersed by water droplets in the air after it rains. Still, who created rain and light and the laws of physics? God did. So yes, he made the rainbow. Obviously, it’s a metaphor. God’s rainbow and arrow is a symbol for God saying “I will not declare war on the whole earth again.” The covenant he makes with Noah is a cease fire, a peace treaty.
Or is it? The thing about covenants is that they usually come with both a promise and a threat. A promise if you keep it and a threat if you break it. That’s why it usually involves some kind of animal sacrifice – it’s kind of like saying “if you don’t keep this covenant, you’ll end up like this animal here.” Now think again about the bow & arrow. When you aren’t using a bow & arrow, what shape is it in? It’s flat, mostly a straight line or perhaps a slight curve. But what shape is a rainbow? It doesn’t look like an unused bow, it looks like a bow being drawn and aimed, ready to fire. But which direction is it aiming? Upward.
God “hangs up his bow” as a sign that he won’t destroy everyone with a flood. But he also hangs his bow so that he’s aiming at himself. It’s God’s way of saying “I would die rather than betray my promise to you.” There are two problems with that promise.
First, God can’t die so the threat doesn’t mean much. Secondly, the whole reason God flooded the earth in the first place is that human beings were sinful. They hurt each other and kept destroying the earth he created. The problem is that human beings are still sinful. We still find ways to hurt each other, to wreck the environment, and to really just make a mess of everything. If God isn’t allowed to wipe us out, to give the earth a good bath and start over, how in the world is he going to stop all the destruction we keep causing? Just look at history. There’s always a war somewhere. Genocides, slavery, nuclear weapons, destruction of the unborn… the list of things human beings do wrong is… very long. And it’s just getting longer.
So, if God can’t wash us away and the bow & arrow are pointed at him, what can he do to stop us? God became Man, which meant he could now die. The Son became Jesus and walked among us. It took the apostles a little while to figure it out, but we see them get there in the gospel today. “Who do you say that I am?” Not just a prophet, but the Messiah, the son of God, the Christ.
Then what? What does Jesus do immediately after they figure out who he is? He starts talking about how he’s going to get killed. The rainbow is still in the clouds, it is still aimed toward heaven, and sin is still destroying us and the world around us. So Jesus reveals that God is going to take the shot. He is going to keep his promise to Noah and still wipe out sin. By taking the shot, by being the one who dies instead of kills, God shows us a different way to stop evil on the earth.
Why do you think Jesus gets pierced by a lance on the cross? You know, the same kind of thing an arrow would do. And what comes out? Water and blood. Instead of God going to war with humanity to wipe out sin, God takes our violence on himself. Instead of God using water to wash wicked human beings away, he uses water from his side to wash sin away and turn wicked men into righteous men.
Jesus – God the Son – died on the cross once and for all. The water and blood from his side can wipe out an and all sin. Yet the rainbow still hangs in the clouds and it still aims to heaven. The reason is that we’re still here and we’re still sinful. Until the end of time, every human being can look at that rainbow and remember God’s promise, is given the chance to look upon Christ on the cross and to go to that cross to get our sins washed away by the blood and water flowing from his side.
God keeps his promises. He will not flood the earth to wipe out the human race ever again. But he will let us reap the consequences of our actions. He lets us hurt ourselves and the world around us all the time. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care. He has given and continues to give a way to wash away sin, to at least stop contributing to the destruction. Each and every Mass, each and every confession mystically connects us back to that moment on the cross, to the arrow of God piercing the heart of God so water and blood can wash away sin.
No, no more worldwide floods to end the human race. One, the world will end. Only, we don’t need to be afraid of that. Like the beauty of a rainbow after a mighty storm, the resurrection of Jesus Christ shines through that looming destruction. God no longer aims an arrow of destruction at us, but rather an arrow of mercy. If we let God take the shot, if we let his mercy pierce our hearts, we can look beyond the end of the world to salvation and eternal life. Fortunately, God is a perfect archer. He won’t miss; you have only to let him try.