What Have We Learned From The Flood Story?

First reading
Genesis 8:6-13,20-22 ©

The dove returns

At the end of forty days, Noah opened the porthole he had made in the ark and he sent out the raven. This went off and flew back and forth until the waters dried up from the earth. Then he sent out the dove, to see whether the waters were receding from the surface of the earth. The dove, finding nowhere to perch, returned to him in the ark, for there was water over the whole surface of the earth; putting out his hand he took hold of it and brought it back into the ark with him. After waiting seven more days, again he sent out the dove from the ark. In the evening, the dove came back to him and there it was with a new olive-branch in its beak. So Noah realized that the waters were receding from the earth. After waiting seven more days he sent out the dove, and now it returned to him no more.

  It was in the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life, in the first month and on the first of the month, that the water dried up from the earth. Noah lifted back the hatch of the ark and looked out. The surface of the ground was dry!

  Noah built an altar for the Lord and choosing from all the clean animals and all the clean birds he offered burnt offerings on the altar. The Lord smelt the appeasing fragrance and said to himself, ‘Never again will I curse the earth because of man, because his heart contrives evil from his infancy. Never again will I strike down every living thing as I have done.

‘As long as earth lasts,

sowing and reaping,

cold and heat,

summer and winter,

day and night

shall cease no more.’

Well, forty days and forty nights in a large vessel with a bunch of wild animals and finally the saga was over.  They were on dry land so Noah and the rest of the party were able to open the door and get out into the fresh air.  It had to have been a great relief to get out of the stench of the whole animal kingdom which had been cooped up for so long.  We see why Noah was chosen and why there was an extra clean animal available to him because the first thing he and his family did was to worship the Lord.  The Lord for His part noticed this and gave his promise that night would follow day as long as the earth shall last.

So out of chaos God once again establishes order and Noah and his family begin the job of populating the earth as do the animals released from the arc. This is a very colorful story but what relevance does it have to those that sit in the pew in today's world?  Is it more than just a story, perhaps a fairy tale?  Did this really happen? 

Almost all of the civilizations around the time of Noah have in their history a story of a great flood so the Hebrew writers may have adapted those stories into their religion to help keep the people in line.  Or, the story may have happened exactly as written.  There are physical indications of a great flood in the area so we cannot write it off as just a story.  I think for us in this twenty-first century, that this tale should serve as a warning.  It should show that God is patient and kind but is also a God of action when He needs to be. 

What we need to do is to look at where we as a people are going.  It is not a pretty sight.  I am filled with horror as I see a Catholic governor almost dancing with glee as he signs the first law that permits the murdering of babies at the time of birth and even after the child is brought into the world!  In Biblical times, children were killed to sacrifice to false gods such as Baal.  And this was one of the reasons for the flood of Noah.  We have chosen to sacrifice our babies to another false god whose name is "Convenience."   We have been killing babies under the guise of "Woman's Health" for decades now.  At this time we are slipping more and more into depravity and I have to ask, "Will God be able to ignore the situation much longer?"  

We need to repent.  We need to stop the bloodshed.  We Catholics have a large power base and yet we allow atheists, pagans, Wiccans, new agers, and gays to move their agenda with scant protest from us. Our silence will be our downfall. "God bless America" is what we ask for in that wonderful patriotic hymn, but we have lost track of which god we are asking the blessing from.