In today’s moral landscape, it is unpopular to even speak of sin, never mind condemn it.
But that is exactly what the story of Noah is all about, as we are reminded by the scripture readings for the first Sunday in Lent. The great flood is a testament to God’s hatred of sin and determination to wipe it from the face of the earth.
Of course, God offers a way to escape the destructive waters. He instructs Noah to build an ark which carries to safety eight people and a pair of every animal. With these, he provides the earth with a new beginning.
From the beginning, Christians have seen in this story a hint of a greater work of God. The first flood swept away the evil from the surface of the earth, but not from the hearts of the ark’s passengers.
So a more radical act of salvation was needed, one that penetrated to the very “root” of evil. God himself enters into our world and engages in hand to hand combat with the father of lies. First, the God-man is immersed in the waters, a sign of the destruction of sin. Next, he goes into the wilderness to strike at sin’s agent.
The forty days in the desert, however, is not the ultimate battle. Only by means of the cross can Jesus decisively vanquish sin and its patron, letting loose from his pierced side a stream more powerful than the ancient waters traversed by Noah. Through these mighty waters of baptism, sin can finally be scoured not just from the skin but from the heart, putting to death not men, but the old humanity, separated from God and infected with the disease of disobedience.
Lent is a time intimately linked with baptism. In the early Church, it was the season that catechumens prepared themselves for their paschal journey to the baptistry through prayer and fasting. The faithful prayed and fasted with them. Let us, through our Lenten penance, intercede for the catechumens and candidates, and, while we are at it, scour luke-warmness and compromise from our own hearts.
Marcellino D’Ambrosio, aka “Dr. Italy,” is the author of 40 Days, 40 Ways: A New Look at Lent. Connect with him at DrItaly.com or @DrItaly.
