Memory of the Church
Memorial of Saint Peter Damian (†1072). Faithful to his monastic vocation, he loved the entire Church and spent his life reforming it. Memory of the monks in every part of the world.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Genesis 9,1-13
God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, 'Breed, multiply and fill the earth. Be the terror and the dread of all the animals on land and all the birds of heaven, of everything that moves on land and all the fish of the sea; they are placed in your hands. Every living thing that moves will be yours to eat, no less than the foliage of the plants. I give you everything, with this exception: you must not eat flesh with life, that is to say blood, in it. And I shall demand account of your life-blood, too. I shall demand it of every animal, and of man. Of man as regards his fellow-man, I shall demand account for human life. He who sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God was man created. Be fruitful then and multiply, teem over the earth and subdue it!' God spoke as follows to Noah and his sons, 'I am now establishing my covenant with you and with your descendants to come, and with every living creature that was with you: birds, cattle and every wild animal with you; everything that came out of the ark, every living thing on earth. And I shall maintain my covenant with you: that never again shall all living things be destroyed by the waters of a flood, nor shall there ever again be a flood to devastate the earth.' 'And this', God said, 'is the sign of the covenant which I now make between myself and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come: I now set my bow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The passage of the Genesis concludes the story of the flood. God performs three actions and leaves a sign of his presence in creation: He blesses, rejects violence, sanctions the covenant, and leaves as assign the bow in the sky. The blessing of God indicates the Lord's will to live in communion with men and women. It is life and fruitfulness. If human beings welcome it, they live, if they do not, they fall into "malediction," which is precisely the rejection of the Lord's offer of life. This is why life must be preserved and protected at all costs from the violence that wants to eliminate it. We always remember that the flood is the consequence of a land "full of violence", as we read in chapter six: "I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them"(6:13). So it happened from the beginning, when Cain killed Abel compromising all human history and the possibility of living together. The profound motivation of the rejection of violence by God recalls the origin of the human being: "In the image of God man was made." Hence the new covenant that the Lord establishes with Noah. God engages in a covenant of love with all living beings. All are placed under his protection, under the wings of his love that wants everyone's life. In the First Testament the Lord renews his covenant at other times, because human beings and his people often nullify it. His covenant expresses God's fidelity and the will to offer us his friendship. And finally the sign of this covenant: what we call the rainbow. In truth, in Hebrew we speak of "a bow in the clouds." The text uses the same word "bow," a symbol of war. God transforms the history of violence into a history of peace. Here is the sign of this will and this dream of God for the life of the world.