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The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday in the Sixth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 16 February 2023 Genesis 9:1-13 <*(((>< + ><)))*> = <*(((>< + ><)))*> Mark 8:27-33
Blessing. Blood. Covenant. Three things you repeatedly said, O God our Father, to Noah after the great floods to mark the new beginnings not only for him but also for us today. You blessed and consecrated man anew in Noah and his sons, telling them to go and multiply with all the animals at their disposal while assuring them with absolute respect for human life. With Noah, you gave the rainbow as the sign of your covenant to never again destroy bodily creatures on earth with floods.
How lovely, O God, are your blessings and covenant with Noah and his sons that reached its highest point in Jesus Christ who, upon his death on the Cross looked like a rainbow with arms outstretched between heaven and earth, establishing the everlasting covenant sealed with his own blood as he himself predicted at Caesarea Philippi after being identified as the Christ.
Everyday you ask us, Lord, like at Caesarea Philippi, who do we say you are? Unless we are able to recognize you truly in our own experience, in our own being as the Christ who suffered and died for us on the Cross, we can never experience the fresh new beginnings you offer us daily just like to Noah and his sons. Let us see in Christ's Cross - the new and perfect rainbow - the new beginnings you promised after the great flood, being fulfilled daily in Jesus. Amen.
