The Bow of the Beautiful One
The first reading for the first Sunday of Lent this year is from
Genesis 9:8-15. This is the story of God establishing His covenant with Noah
after the forty days of rain and flooding that had destroyed all creation
except for those on the ark. The flood came because of the sins of humanity,
sins that separate us from God and rupture our relationship with Him. This
covenant that God makes with Noah is the first covenant God has ever made. God
tells Noah, "I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the
covenant…" In the bible there are other references to rainbows, and these are
always in relation to God. In the first chapter of the Book of the Prophet
Ezekiel the prophet has a vision of God: "Like the bow which appears
in the clouds on a rainy day was the splendor that surrounded him. Such was the
vision of the likeness of the glory of the LORD" (Ezekiel 1:28). In Rev. 4:1-3
we hear that John has a vision of heaven. There, he sees God and His throne. We
hear that "around the throne was a rainbow as brilliant as emerald…"
(Rev. 4:13); and in a later vision John sees "another mighty angel come down
from heaven wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow about his head…" (Rev.
10:1). Because God is love He always has us on His Mind. He desires each of us
to experience His love, goodness, beauty and truth. He desires each of us to
share in a life of loving communion with Him through His covenant.
In Genesis nine the rainbow is a sign of God's covenant love.
It is a sign that He has reconciled humanity with Himself. This has
significance for contemplative intercessors because God has "given us the
ministry of reconciliation" (2Cr. 5:18), which is a participation in the
redemptive mission of the Lamb of God to reconcile sinful humanity with our
loving God. Through our lives and our prayer, we are "distributors of God's
manifold grace" (1 Pet. 4:10) for others. If a rainbow is a sign of God's
covenant with humanity, then whatever covenant is it must be something
beautiful, captivating, awe-inspiring, vibrant, and attractive, bringing joy to
the heart. It is all of these, and even more the new and eternal covenant is
Jesus, himself, the God who saves, the beautiful Lamb who attracts and
captivates, inspires awe and brings joy to every heart! : "I formed you and set
you as a covenant of the people…" (Is.42:6). The rainbow expresses God's
merciful love towards the world He created. Centuries later St. John the
Evangelist will write: "God so loved the world that he gave his only son" (John
3:16). Jesus is, in himself, the new covenant of God's love for the world He
created. In the bible a covenant is a solemn agreement that forges a strong bond
of love between God and humanity. God establishes covenants because He wishes
to lead all of us to a life of communion with Himself, a communion of love, a
communion of hearts.
Covenant with God is
intended to be very intimate, personal, intense, and experienced through strong
bonds of love. The Psalm writer says, "The LORD'S love for us is strong" (Psalm
117:2). God is most interested in our hearts. As the Catechism of the Catholic
Church reminds us: "The heart…is the place of covenant" (CCC #2563). With
God covenant has a spousal reality associated with it because He is the
Bridegroom of His people. We are His Bride, and the Bridegroom desires union
with each of us. The Lord tells us in Is. 54:10, "My love shall never leave
you." This expresses God's desire to remain with each of us forever, and He
is with us forever through the gift of Jesus, who is our Passover: "I am with
you always" (Mt. 28:20). The Catechism goes on to say: "Christian prayer
is a covenant relationship between God and man in Christ" (CCC #2564).
It is a simple yet profound truth that when we are in love with God, we desire
to share our heart with Him. We desire to share our life with Him. This desire
is already prayer. "According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays"
(CCC #2562). Prayer, then, involves a 'Heart to heart' relationship with God,
the "Beautiful One". One of the first steps community leaders take in "His
Global Love" Ministry formation is to help new members enter into a personal,
intimate relationship with the God of love in prayer. This is done by teaching them
how to journal and by leading them through "Lexio Divina" exercises, so they
can experience a "rainbow relationship" with our awesome God.
Covenant is meant to engage the heart fully. Twice in this
passage from Genesis nine does God mention how personal His covenant is
intended to be: "and the bow appears in the clouds, I will recall the covenant
I have made between me and you…this is the sign…of the covenant between
me and you…" If a beautiful rainbow is a sign of God's covenant how much
more beautiful must the Covenant Maker, Himself, be, the One who gives us the
rainbow?! Indeed, God is Beauty itself. The Psalm writer speaks with passion
and longing: "One thing I ask of the LORD; this I seek: To dwell in the LORD'S
house all the days of my life, to gaze on the LORD'S beauty…" (Psalm
27:4). Indeed, the "Beautiful One" invites every heart to commit fully to a
"caffeinated covenant" of intense and fierce love, where the "paschal pulse" of
the Lamb becomes ours, where two hearts beat as one. In His thirst for our love,
He desires to draw every heart: "Prayer is the encounter of God's thirst with
ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him" (CCC #2560).
The rainbow in Genesis chapter nine also symbolizes a new
creation, a new beginning for all of those who were in the ark, a future full
of hope. The rainbow gives us a glimpse of creation as God intended it be,
beautiful and awe-inspiring. Likewise, Jesus is the new humanity. In him we
behold humanity as God intended us to be: "Whoever is in Christ is a new
creation. The old order has passed away. Now all is new" (2Cr.5. 17). By a "new
creation" is meant the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Each of us has been recreated in the Sacrament
of Baptism for a beautiful relationship with the Trinity. In nature rainbows
are formed by water and light. As contemplative intercessors don't we desire
every heart to experience both the Holy Spirit, the "living water", and Jesus, the
light of the world?! Don't we desire everyone to live under the "rainbow"
canopy of God's covenant love and mercy?! We desire all to experience "rainbow
renewal" in God's embrace. Because of our love for God and for humanity we
submit to and at times experience and endure spiritual dryness and interior
darkness in our prayer and in our lives so that others can experience the
spiritual "water and healing light" of God's love and be set free. One might
even say that our ministry of intercession is one of allowing God to use us in
such a way so others can have an experience of "water and light" that both
refreshes and enlightens the soul.
A beautiful rainbow in the sky can often seem to span heaven
and earth. On the cross Jesus's "arms were outstretched between heaven and
earth, to become the lasting sign of your covenant… (Roman Missal, p.611). Jesus
established a new and eternal covenant through his own sacrificial death and
Resurrection. He "has obtained so much more excellent a ministry as he is
mediator of a better covenant" (Heb. 8:6). It is the new and everlasting
covenant which will never pass away.
Each of us now is invited to live in the "beauty" of this covenant love.
Rainbows often appear after storms. In his passion Jesus entered the "storm" of
his suffering and death on our behalf—he bore the "storm" of Calvary--so that
we could experience the "Passover rainbow" of reconciliation with God. On the
cross the "Beautiful One" took upon himself all the disfigurement and ugliness
of our sins and the effects of our sins to that we could be restored to our
original beauty. Likewise, contemplative intercessors bear the "storm" of
burden bearing so others can be restored to their true identity as beloved sons
and daughters as they experience God's love, light, life, forgiveness and
freedom. As we are united to Jesus, who is our Passover, others can make a pass-over
from storm to stillness, darkness to light, death to life. Our intercessory
prayer is a participation in the New Covenant mission and ministry of the Lamb,
himself: "We are ministers of a new covenant" (2 Cr. 3:6).
Scriptures:
Jr. 31:33; Luke 22:20; Heb. 7:22-25;
Heb. 13:20-21
Questions:
Is my heart fully invested in my
covenant relationship of prayer with God?
How do I relate to God when I feel
spiritual dryness and a sense of inner darkness in my prayer?
