New beginnings

Gn 8:6-13, 20-22 At the end of forty days Noah opened the hatch he had made in the ark, and he sent out a raven, to see if the waters had lessened on the earth. It flew back and forth until the waters dried off from the earth. Then he sent out a dove, to see if the waters had lessened on the earth. But the dove could find no place to alight and perch, and it returned to him in the ark, for there was water all over the earth. Putting out his hand, he caught the dove and drew it back to him inside the ark. He waited seven days more and again sent the dove out from the ark. In the evening the dove came back to him, and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf! So Noah knew that the waters had lessened on the earth. He waited still another seven days and then released the dove once more; and this time it did not come back.

In the six hundred and first year of Noah's life, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water began to dry up on the earth. Noah then removed the covering of the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was drying up.
Noah built an altar to the LORD, and choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar. When the LORD smelled the sweet odor, he said to himself:"Never again will I doom the earth because of man since the desires of man's heart are evil from the start; nor will I ever again strike down all living beings, as I have done. As long as the earth lasts, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."

Mk 8:22-26 When Jesus and his disciples arrived at Bethsaida, people brought to him a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. Putting spittle on his eyes he laid his hands on the man and asked, "Do you see anything?" Looking up the man replied, "I see people looking like trees and walking." Then he laid hands on the man's eyes a second time and he saw clearly; his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly. Then he sent him home and said, "Do not even go into the village."

Both readings today got me thinking about Lily’s baptism coming up this Sunday, as well as the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist.

I think the “water that was all over the earth” can be likened to the waters of baptism in that God used it to basically start creation all over again with Noah and his family. The flood was Mankind’s “second chance” to try to get our purpose in existence right. It “opened our eyes” to what God is capable of and the mercy He bestows upon those who are faithful to Him. But in opening our eyes this “first” time, we still could not see the big picture of God’s eventual Incarnation in Jesus Christ that would free us from the bondage we were placed in under sin. It would take a second cleansing, with the Blood of Christ, to let us see clearly God’s plan for us.

It’s the same thing with our baptism in the Name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. We are given the gift of life from the Father and at Baptism we are cleansed of the sins of Adam and marked with the sign of faith in Christ the Son through the Holy Spirit. This is the first “healing”, as when the blind man “saw people looking like trees and walking”. He was not aware of details. After Jesus laid hands on him the second time, everything became clear. After Baptism, God uses our parents and Godparents and the Grace of the Holy Spirit to help us learn about our Creator and Jesus so that He may lay His hands on us (“dwell in us”) personally a second time (actually many times, through the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist)to heal us and to help us, if we have faith, to see clearly what we must do to spend an eternity of joy with Him, as was intended from the very beginning.