Explaining the Faith - Noah's Ark: What You Didn't Know

hi i'm father chris aylar from the national shrine of the divine mercy here in stockbridge massachusetts and we welcome you we're grateful that all of you from around the world could join us we are live coming to you from the shrine it's kind of fitting i guess because it's been raining and raining it won't stop so it's pretty fitting we're talking about noah's ark so today we're going to have a fun presentation we're taking you back to seminary not enough study is done on the old testament and the meaning of it in the understanding of it and today you're going to go back with us to seminary to learn about the old testament and a huge important story in noah's ark it's the things you didn't know and what we have to understand to help it help us in our life so let us begin with a prayer in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen heavenly father we ask you send the holy spirit down upon us to cleanse us as we were cleansed in the waters of baptism and in the waters of confession and the words of confession we ask that you give us the courage to persevere in our faith and to be able to learn you more of you so we can love you more and we ask all this through christ our lord amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen well thank you as you saw on your slide there now it's great i welcome the people we have some people here with us today live here at the shrine unfortunately um i'll probably do it next week but i'll set up the slides uh for the inside but today we'll only have the slides for you at home the viewer all right now noah's ark we all learned it as children but do we know the true story and what the meaning is of it other than a bunch of animals were put on a boat and saved from a great flood all right noah is the next biblical figure significant biblical figure after adam and eve the most significant after them he became he came before abraham before moses before david he is right up there now we're science is telling us about 5 000 to 7 000 years ago and this is based on scripture tradition and even science what happened okay you all know the story the world became so wicked in sin that god had to intervene so that man wouldn't destroy himself so he told uh noah what was going to happen that the floods were going to come and he told him to build the ark you all know the story so noah built the ark made enough room for it for uh two of the animals of all the types of species actually more we'll talk about that later and they were on the boat for 40 days and 40 nights of rain the waters remain for 150 days and they actually stayed on the ark for a year could you imagine being on that thing for a year with all those animals we're going to talk about all of that then the good news he gave the dove uh left uh released a dove and the dove came back with an olive branch showing that there was land but once they landed was everything good now was everything cleansed by the waters not exactly there's a lesson for us and that's what we're going to talk about today all right so let's look at our next slide this story of noah comes from genesis chapter six through nine and look at your slide on your screen noah was spared with his sons he had three sons now wait a minute father there's eight people in that picture all right so he had noah and his wife right then you had three sons shem s-h-e-m ham h-a-m and japheth j-a-p-h-e-t-h these were the three sons of noah so you had noah and his three sons that's four men and their wives so there were eight people in the ark and this will explain well later we'll explain how the human race was able to be saved from eight people of the same family well father what about incest we'll talk about all that all right now this is important because ark the term ark is a generic term used in the bible that's applied to two different things the first is noah's ark the refuge of noah that saved him from destruction and it's a type of church it it prefigures the church the second ark which we're going to talk about next week actually is a type of mary mary the typology it prefigures mary the new ark of the covenant so the old ark of the covenant we're going to talk about next week so today we're talking about the arkanoa next week we're going to talk about the ark of the covenant and how that prefigures mary this ark today of noah prefigures the church so god is preparing us for the church and for mary we're in the church with mary so this is what it's all about so we hope you can join us next year now that ark that we're gonna talk about next week was the housing of the ten commandments you might know that and again we'll go into more detail now for today though we're going to talk about as i said noah now look at your next slide the ark was commanded by god to be 300 cubits long by 50 cubits wide by 30 cubits high now on that article or that little um drawing i'm showing you there that is the time it took oh noah to build the ark took him 75 years to build it well remember the guy was 600 years old and we'll talk about that in a moment so 75 years wasn't that that much for him but we'll talk about he lived in 950 so we'll talk about that but we'll look on the screen at this slide here this was based on a cubit being 20 and a half inches long so that would have made the ark about 515 feet the size of a battleship so could you imagine noah's basically building a battleship now let's look at our next slide however the most traditional size of a cubit you know how big a cubit is put your hand up from your elbow to the tip of your finger right here from your elbow to your tip of your finger is a cubit that's the traditional length about 18 inches that is the traditional form so in that case the arc would have been about 450 feet long that's one and a half football fields so let's take a look at our next slide to compare as you see it is longer than two jumbo jets look at the arc there longer than a submarine right longer than two jumbo jets as you can see it's sitting there and let's go to our next slide because another comparison is that it's the length of a football field and a half so look at that they put the football field next to the ark of the covenant to give you a scale it would have taken two and a half football fields now i'm sorry one and a half football fields now i'm going to show you a lot of slides here in the beginning but then the slides calm down next let's look at our slide of noah building the ark jewish tradition says that god placed lions and wolves and tigers and ferocious animals to guard noah when he built the ark because the wicked people were mocking him and we're gonna really probably attack him so to guard noah and his family from the wicked people god gave them the tradition of the animals to be able to protect him now what was the ark made out of the bible tells us it was made out of gopher wood and nowhere else is that ever mentioned so what does gopher would it's like a cypress the cyprus is mentioned a lot in the bible and it had three stories so the ark had three levels and we'll talk about the importance of that in a minute now let's take a look at this here's a picture of those three levels our next slide now some say that wild animals were on the first level so you have the first level where some theologians say that was the wild animals on the second level was birds and domestic animals like your cats right so you had your dogs and your cats and your birds on that second level i'm one of the few guys that likes cats so i had to laugh the domestic animals and the birds were on the second level and humans and the supplies were on the third level so noah and his family and all the supplies were on the third level this is what some say now then what happens so they get ready to launch the rains begin 40 days and 40 nights now in biblical terms that just means a long time doesn't necessarily mean exactly 40 24-hour days it could we are free to believe that but it rained for 40 days and 40 nights and the waters as i said remain for 150 days now after a full year on the ark it came to rest on our next slide mount ararat mount ararat so there's a picture of the sacred mountains and mount ararat there on your screen why is this important all right let's look at our next slide again i'm throwing a lot of slides at you sorry in the beginning here this is the headwaters of the tigris and the euphrates river you've all heard about that in the bible way down into the holy land or egypt and whatnot but do you know where it comes from the headwaters are right there look at our slide you see that land there there's a picture of the site of noah's ark where the red middle is now let's look at this turkey is to the west all right now iran is to the south it's actually in armenia this is where noah's ark landed in mount ararat so we're looking at the slide right now now the picture of noah's ark is over the black sea the black sea is important because that's what flooded and we'll talk about that in a moment so you see the black sea above where it's kind of covered with noah's ark's picture but it's there at the border of turkey and armenia and this is where it landed all right now let's go to our next slide again a couple more there have been many claims for people finding the ark but no definite scientific proof no scientific proof definitely that noah's ark has been discovered yet however look at that slide there's a lot of pictures of things that look like could be an ark here you have a front of what looks like a boat the rear of what looks like a boat and the fact that it's the exact biblical length of the ark you even see the sides where they have timbers and so this is very possible that these could be the ark but it's never been proven all right so many claims now let's keep going whether or not the story of noah's ark here's the key point when people mock the christian faith for believing in fairy tales and they say science has never proved noah's ark is true here's what you got to say it sounds strange but it's true here's what you say whether or not the story of noah's ark is 100 factual that's debatable we embrace it as true wait a minute father true and factual are the exact same thing no they're not what are you talking about all right something can be true without it necessarily being factual all right after my talk today i got a million things to do am i lying no it's true but if you went around with a paper and pen and actually wrote down the exact same things there wouldn't be a million so it's true that i have a million things to do but it's not factual that there's actually exactly a million we use figurative speech metaphors i have a ton of work on my desk that doesn't mean it's 2 000 pounds it means there's a lot it's metaphor it's figurative language right so the church insists that the bible is inspired and inerrant it's true that is what it teaches is the truth but it uses in the truth of god and our relationship with him it uses figurative language now what's the truth then father all right it's truth about god and our relationship with him when we sin it's as is it's as if we're drowning it's as if we're drowning and so god will spear us how through the wood like the ark for us now it's jesus on the cross and through water in the old testament it wiped out all the evil and brought a new creation now in the church the water brings us baptism it wipes out the old sin so you see the point noah was saved through wood and water the wood of the ark and the water that wiped out the evil of the land we are safe through wood the wood of the cross and the waters of baptism just like noah we can be saved our church is now the ark for the people who are here with us today they could look up and see the church is actually like a shape of an ark this is powerful stuff the flood brings about a new creation cleansing the old world of the bloodstain of violence what was the violence that the world had to be cured of cain killing abel spilling blood now mankind was defiled the story of noah and the bible use as i said a lot of figurative language but it doesn't mean it isn't true it does express a truth maybe not literal in the sense that we think of it but it is the truth so when scripture says i'll give you an example scripture says god is my rock psalm 18 verse 2. are we to believe that god is actually a rock hmm it's figurative language like a rock god is strong steadfast solid and he can be leaned on just like a rock in the bible we treat god like a man so that we can understand him because we are men all right but it says god can't be moved by emotions god cannot be moved by emotions or repent he can't god never changes but the bible says god was angry and then after the flood repented that's because we put him into our terms it's figurative language that explains him so that we can understand him but god doesn't change he didn't literally repent but it helps us to understand him all right god does not change as man does that's malachi 3 16 or 3 6 and god does not repent as man does that's numbers 23 19. so does the bible lie when it says that god was upset or that he later repented no because again we're explaining him in our terms all right so do we read the question then is do we read the bible is literally true well father based on what you just said no yes we do read the bible as literally true it is true that mankind was sinning and god had to correct it and god had to bring about a cleansing of the earth whether how he did it is figurative but the fact he did it is true so we read the bible as literally true okay if that's the case then go home tonight and cut off your right hand right why well the bible says if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off father you're telling me that that's literally true okay we read the bible as literally true yes meaning if something in your life is causing you to sin get rid of it that's what it means in that passage but we don't read the bible as literal lists meaning i actually get out a saw and cut off my right hand that's reading the bible as literal lists we don't do that it's literally true if something in your life is causing you to sin get rid of it but you don't read it as a literal list that you actually saw your hand off you get the point okay this sets the stage for noah all right now we read the bible as i said as literally true so it it is true in the bible that noah his story that sin was offensive to god that's true and god had to do something about it so while it is true that god was not pleased we can't be literalists and think every single little essence is exactly historical fact it's truth but spoken in figurative way now the bible puts thoughts and actions of god into human terms so we can understand i just explained that we are anthropomorphizing god anthropomorphic what does that mean we take god and give him physical features like us physical mind like us to help us to know him and trust him it says in exodus god had hands in hosea he had arms in exodus he had feet in daniel he had white hair psalm 27 he had a face now does god have hands feet arms hair no not the father not the holy spirit they weren't incarnate now you could say jesus was because he was incarnate but god is the spirit the father and the holy spirit especially and so they are one god but this is not the way we think of god but it's the way we understand him all right now god is obviously upset it says in the bible so it rained for 40 days upset meaning in human terms so god is upset it reigns 40 days this is symbolic of a long time all right a period of testing it's also not just a long time but it's a period of testing god is going to test us that's why the jews were in the desert for 40 years it was a period of testing that's why moses was on the mountain for 40 days it was a period of testing that's why christ went into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights it was a period of trial for him testing it's a long time our pilgrimage on earth is a time of testing so it floods right but the waters recede and we bring about a new creation this closely parallels the story of adam and eve creation it's a cycle of creation destruction and recreation what happened to adam and eve they were created what happened sin destroyed them what happened god recreated them breathed life then they got broken then god recreated with the promise of a savior and the gift of a mother we see the same thing with noah this same kind of thing it cleanses there's a cleansing of the old and the bloodstains of violence with king killing abel so there are parallels to the creation story they're very similar how the land forms out of the deep water in both adam and and noah noah and his family are blessed made fruitful and told to multiply just like adam man's dominion over the animals is reaffirmed he said into your hands they will be delivered guess what noah also tills a garden noah's put in charge of a garden just like adam and everything is given to you as food the animals so it's a new creation just like adam and eve they broke it they came back but man sinned again so god has to recreate it this is what we see going on now god brings a greater good out of this evil the flood foreshadows as i said baptism to cleanse man of sin and this is the most powerful lesson we have to learn the family of noah as i said is saved now in the same way we are saved how are we saved same way water and wood baptism and the wood of the cross baptism cleanses our heart from sin and renews us in the spirit what is that spirit the church the ark is a foreshadowing of the church father we don't need the church the bible doesn't say we need the church really if you say the bible doesn't say we need the church you don't understand the bible christ makes it clear that i founded the church christ makes it clear but even before that noah's ark was preparing us for the church there's no salvation outside of it so let's go on here this is important now what happened every kind of animal was brought into the ark just like every kind of believer from all nations is brought into the church let's look at our next slide here you see the animals getting on to the ark it says in the bible to bring seven pairs of animals wait a minute i thought the bible always said two pairs now you're telling me it says seven pairs yes seven pairs while other animals they were to bring one pair why the single pair are unclean animals and they will go to repopulate the earth the seven pairs are clean and they are needed for sacrifice on the ark and when they land when they land noah begins to offer sacrifice so here's what's going on tradition tells us that when the animals were lining up for the ark there was no designation back then between clean and unclean but now god is making a designation some are clean some are unclean you know how they knew tradition says when the animals lined up the clean animals bowed they bowed down before noah before they went into the ark and this was to tell which ones were clean and unclean now what's interesting is scientists at the university of lychester determined that it was possible to hold over 70 000 animals in an ark this size so it is possible let's look at our next slide actually you know what no it's not a slide it's a video this video is three and a half minutes and it tells you the scientific support for the ark and even how all the animals could fit in it because we only needed one of a species and all the species we know today come from single sets of animals so let's watch this video clip it's only three and a half minutes long some people believe noah's ark is on the top of mount ararat and turkey what's interesting is on mount ararat itself they found pillow lava which is a unique formation that occurs only when molten lava emerges from the earth below water and they've also found salt crystals on mount erat which could only be formed underwater is there any written evidence for a worldwide flood well the flood account is found on babylonian acadian and sumerian uniform tablets and these all date back to about 700 bc in fact a study of universal flood traditions reveals that there are over 200 accounts in every civilization and culture around the world including the inc inca and aztec cultures they've gone back to many of these ancient civilizations and found that they're very advanced having things like natural ventilation air conditioning you could go back to egypt and found it and find that they knew how to make batteries and generate electricity uh people that's electroplating didn't they yes electroplated artifacts they found the size of the ark they took a model of the ark and they tested in marine laboratories and they duplicated 200 foot tidal waves and they found that the ark was not only sea worthy but extraordinarily stable and during world war ii the uss new mexico and oregon were built on the same proportions as noah's ark six times longer than it is wide and someone says that how could you get all the animals on on the ark and well first of all you take the very smallest animals dr kenneth ebell professor biology says quote each family of creatures on earth have a single pair of ancestors he says there are over 300 variety of dogs in the world today but they all have a single common ancestor and he says that there would have been ample room to load ancestors of all the species we know of today with room left over for noah's family food and supply and due to the darkness uh due to the storm above the animals would probably eat less sleep more and be in a state of hibernation many hundreds of people have claimed to see the noah's ark on top of mount erat one man was fernand navarra a french demolition expert and he brought back wood that he claimed is from mount ararat and the interesting thing is mount ararat is a totally treeless volcano peak volcano peak and uh they found that the wood he brought back doesn't grow near mount era in fact there's not a forest within 300 miles of the mountain jim irwin was a former astronaut and he took a very interesting picture when he was traveling with a dutch tv crew and they took this amazing photograph and you can see to the left what they believe to be noah's ark a french spot satellite identified a 200 foot piece of wooden object 86 feet wide extending over a crevasse all this being under 60 feet of ice and snow and so someone would say how come someone just doesn't go on top of mount ararat and get the ark well the problem is that climbers have claimed that mount ararat is one of the hardest mounds to climb may be the hardest and the ark is covered with ice so you could walk right on top of it or over it and not know it's there and when the turkish government grants research permits it's for the south side of mount ararat well the ark is believed to be on the north side and people caught on the north side are usually arrested and it's also the mounds too high into treacherous to land a helicopter expedition and on the in the ongoing battle between the turkish government and the soldiers there six thousand people have died on the slopes of eret during the 1990s okay that's a really good video clip of a seminarian somewhere that i found and i thought was very powerful because it shows both scientific explanation as to how the ark could have happened we are required as catholics to believe the truth in the message but how it happened also could literally be true or as a literalist reading we could see that there is absolutely scientific proof of uh noah's ark now however some dispute this is the story of noah's ark then something that contradicts science you know when i was a kid i used to watch bill nye the science guy and i i used to watch it now i'm disappointed in him because he is set out to disprove anything based on religion science doesn't have to contradict religion in fact i'm going to give a future talk about that evolution galileo these things are the church gets a black eye it is not what you hear in popular culture i'm going to talk about that the bible and the catholic teaching does not go against science it doesn't and so here bill nye says it does well let's look at why he says that the passages in genesis describe a whole covering of the earth meaning that the whole entire planet was covered in water and there's no scientific evidence of a full flood that covered every square inch of the earth so therefore the science contradicts the bible no it doesn't in the bible it says the earth okay well the earth doesn't necessarily have to mean at that time it was what the people saw i've never seen the whole earth to me what i see is my whole existence now what do i mean by this all right yes significant geological evidence disproves that there might have been a flood over the entire planet but there's evidence of a great flood there's evidence of a black sea flood or maybe mesopotamian flood at this time back then many understood the earth to mean the land or region that they were familiar with all right so think about the account of the flood like an eyewitness think about this you look out the window what do you see as far as i can see there's water to me it looks like the whole earth is covered everything i can see north south east or west is water it looks like it's entirely covered from horizon horizon the water's covered in water it's true of what the survivor saw it's true that that's what noah's family saw what looked like to them the whole earth was covered in water they didn't have gps they didn't have satellite now you can go on your phone and see where it's raining or not you can see it's raining here does it literally mean that the whole globe was submerged it doesn't have to that's not the point all right a large local flood could also explain what noah and his family went through in fact it also explains that that's why the ark didn't have to have every single animal on the earth if the flood was in the big region around noah you didn't need penguins there would have been no need for penguins in the ark because penguins were a totally different part of the earth so we have to understand that's not against church teaching to believe that all right but i always say i think it is true why because dr ballard you know the guy that discovered the titanic right dr ballard he discovered flooded living civilizations in the black sea near turkey here's what he found he said that the salty black sea because the black sea today is salt was once fresh water and they have proof of that and it was suddenly and instantly flooded by the sea whoa they dated it around 5000 bc we believe noah was between like 5000 7000 bc where there were towns of people that disappeared instantly geologists have discovered that melting glaciers near the black sea could have caused the collapse of giant ice dams and would have released tons of water they think this happened about seven thousand years ago such an event would have triggered sudden massive flooding across the entire area which would have looked like everything to noah and his family this would have served as the basis for all flooding accounts in the region another powerful example is god only had to wipe out where the evil people lived at this time there wasn't probably people living in antarctica so god didn't have to wipe out antarctica because mankind had not migrated down there yet and so we have to understand this so the catholic church this is important the catholic church please don't send me letters i am only giving you church teaching here all right my opinion is totally in line with it i totally agree with all church teaching but it's not just my opinion i'm giving you church teaching and the church does not require that you believe that it was an entire worldwide flood the church does not require you believe that also it does not prohibit you from interpreting it as a worldwide flood in other words you can choose to believe that or not the fact is that god had to cleanse and he did it through water how he did it and how much we don't know but the church says that's not what's important the fact that he cleansed us and he used water is what's important so we know that this is a true story but how is up for debate let's look at our next slide i think this is important others say this father this is story of i get this all the time people say the bible is false because it's just a copy it's a copy of gilgamesh look at your screen what is gilgamesh this is a telling of a babylonian all right and people will blame the bible for saying well the bible isn't true it's just a story of what already existed well there's not a problem with that what do i mean all right yes there's many similarities between the story of gilgamesh and the ancient cultures even before noah all right in that story of gilgamesh the council of gods flooded the earth and selected one man to survive who released a bird who found land then he landed and offered sacrifice to the gods that's exactly like noah well gee father that's why i'm not christian the bible's just a copy it's not a true story well that doesn't make it not true the fact that this is the way god works yes the author of genesis they think was moses plus the holy spirit may have used popular stories that existed at the time in other flood narratives in order to show how god of israel was superior to those pagan gods of gilgamesh it's by design god used that story it's not because it's not true it's because god did that for example as i said gilgamesh in that story the gods are afraid of the flood and they flee is that what happens in our story with noah no in genesis god is in complete control he's not afraid he's unaffected by it that's why look at our next slide are the words of pius xii pius xii said in humanity generous quote if the ancient sacred writers have taken anything from popular narrations which is other stories and he said and this may well be the case this may be conceded it must never be forgotten that they did so with the help of divine inspiration through which they were redeemed i'm sorry through which they were rendered immune from any error in selecting and evaluating those documents what does that mean basically pope pius xii is saying that the author of genesis could have used those other narrative stories to show our god as the real god to show that yes those things happen but they happen through our god not your god there is no your god there's only the god so god could have used these stories from which people were already familiar with the fact that the author chose to model his story noah meaning the author being moses and the holy spirit after existing stories does not disprove the message does it make it null and void people keep writing me telling me it makes the bible null and void no it doesn't that is the truth that was the truth that it was god and not any other pagan gods who intervened to save the survivors of the flood that devastated the land you get that god has taken an existing story and he's putting himself in it he's saying i want to tell you the truth to how that story happened just because gilgamesh told it doesn't mean it's not true it's true but what the bible is telling you is the truth of behind the scenes is god the god now from it we get the covenant with noah they call it the noah the noahic covenant let's look at our next slide here is the noaic covenant the covenant with noah now this is where we get interesting it's going to affect everybody today god promised never to destroy life on earth again by a flood and he created what you see it in the picture a rainbow a rainbow all right so when you take the slide down that is interesting god created the rainbow as the sign of this everlasting covenant between god and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth now in return noah and his descendants were required to never again shed human blood like king killing abel because mankind was made in the image of god we are not to shed it that's why even abortion is wrong so mankind was forbidden to consume meat even from the animals with blood in it man was not to shed blood because blood is the life of the being the creature so blood must be drained from the animal before consuming it that's why the jews eat koshered meat that's what kosher means no blood now the covenant with noah was a renewal of the covenant with adam it was not a new one it was not an entirely new covenant it was a renewal now god took upon himself to maintain man despite our sinfulness and showing his love for us despite our brokenness this is why in your life today people say to me father god can't love me i'm too sinful i can't go to church i'm a hypocrite if god can turn around and show us how much he loves us by not destroying mankind but saving it which he did through water and wood then we can know that he can do the same for us now the water of baptism the wood of the cross now what about the rainbow the rainbow was a sign of the covenant with noah do you know where it comes from why the rainbow because genesis 9 13 says god hung up his bow in the sky so if god was like an archer with a bow that struck mankind he had to do it now he's hanging up his bow he is saying i will no longer like an archer strike i am hanging up my bow that in the sky is the rainbow this is genesis 9 13. but sadly the rainbow has been hijacked right we're entering june this week coming up and june is called pride month where homosexuality is celebrated and the rainbow is the symbol they claim that it is against christianity because they want to be inclusive and people who oppose it on moral grounds are subject to lawsuits fines and hate crimes i'm not going to talk about that today but all i want to say is this remember the church calls all people to chastity in marriage or out of marriage man or woman it is not discrimination the church calls all people to be sexually pure whether or not you're heterosexual homosexual married unmarried you are called to purity we have a church to guide us in all our matters of life so that we can be saved it's not discrimination it's salvation if anybody says to you the church does nothing but discrimination no the church does nothing but salvation so there's a total misunderstanding on that symbol topic for another time but we will say this the church fathers let's look at our next slide the church fathers showed the ways that the ark the ark of noah prefigures the church look at your screen that's what we see on the screen all right this is interesting how does the ark tell us that we need the church today all right there's no safety outside the ark you're outside the ark you're not going to make it stephen ray says non-catholics are kind of like on little life rafts outside the ark they're still with us but we want to get them on board because the ark is the catholic church now nobody can save who is not in some sense with the church if you're not in some sense with the ark either in it meaning in the catholic church or next to her like some non-catholic christians on life rafts there's no salvation we've got to get the safety of the ark saint cyprian said no one could escape the deluge outside of the ark and no one outside the church will escape life's deluge just as the ark was the means by which noah and his family were spared destruction so also the church is the instrument by which christians are saved especially through baptism this is powerful all right now let's look at our next slide first peter 3 20 a passage very few people ever think of but you can't get more powerful what does it say when god's patience now this is first peter chapter 3 verse 20. when god's patience waited in the days of noah this is peter talking saint peter when god's patience waited in the days of noah during the building of the ark in which a few that is eight persons were saved through water baptism baptism which corresponds to this now saves you oh but father we don't need the church for salvation peter told you he's telling you right here baptism which corresponds to this meaning the waters of noah now saves you not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to god for a clear conscience through the resurrection of jesus christ how could you get more proof than that so when people say to you you don't need the church for salvation point to first peter 3 20. is powerful this is where the apostle writes it the flood itself anticipated the sacrament of baptism and you only get the sacrament of baptism through the church now in the case of death and others yes you could do it but that's a whole other topic now let's talk about what the church father said this is fascinating all right now to me one of the greatest church saints is saint augustine all right saint augustine said this the ark represents the primary means of salvation all right and it equates to the new testament as well the wood of the cross and the waters of baptism by which original sin is wiped away now he says noah and his family and all the animals entered the ark through a door on its side genesis 6 16 this in the same way is how we enter the church through the side of christ which was pierced on the cross releasing blood and water now augustine goes on and says something fascinating he says the ark matches the body of jesus and you know what they measured it on the shroud of turin and it matches do you know the ark is in the shape of the body of jesus christ what are you talking about father okay the ark from front to back was 300 cubits from side to side was 50 that is six times longer christ's body on the shroud from head to toe is six times longer than from side to side it also says augustine says that it is ten times from the height of the or the front of the ark to the end of the ark is ten times greater than the height of the ark the height of the ark was thirty ten times greater is three hundred now what's fascinating in the human body if you measure your body most average human proportion from head to toe is ten times greater than your girth and it is five times greater than your width now that doesn't supply to everybody because some of us even myself are a little bit overweight but we are working on that praise be to god my knee finally feels better i'm getting back into working out today actually so i want to get my ratio back into 10 to 1 and 10 and 6 to 1. because this matches christ on the shroud fascinating isn't it this is awesome all right augustine said the very ratio of the dimensions of the ark to each other suggest a human body specifically the body of christ for even its very dimensions in length breadth and height represent the human body in which he came as it had been foretold for the length of the human body from the crown of the head to the soul of the feet is six times its breath from side to side the exact way of the arc and ten times from head to toe is ten times greater than back to front and he says and ten times its depth or thickness measuring from back to front the ark is the church and the church is jesus christ the church is the body of christ the ark is measures to the body of christ in proportion now christ wasn't 300 cubits tall but you see the connection now what about the fact that no nails were used in building the ark kind of like the miraculous steers of loretto with saint joseph right no nails were used in the construction of the ark well how's that possible father it was held together by what they call pitch it's like a sealant for saint augustine this symbolizes the way the churches hold together by love now what's interesting is saint cyprian he went on to say there's only one church just like there was only one ark not a fleet of ships they didn't build a whole army or navy of ships there was one ark just as there is one church and noah was saved by it and so are you there's one church one baptism all right last bit here we're getting near the end hang in there with us hippolytus of rome he weighed in on this he said that the ark represents the christ because it had a door on the east side of the ark and christ will come from the east when he comes again now let's look at our next slide and hear what origen the church father has to say see the three levels of the ark all right origen said there's three levels of the ark and it matches church tradition of the spiritual life you've heard me teach you the three levels of the spiritual life purgative illuminative and unitive you can be saved by any one of the three but you want to progress up you want to climb up the levels of the ark the ark has three levels he said the first is purgative what is purgative purgative means you can be saved simply because you fear hell and you don't want to go there so you avoid mortal sin you can be saved that way it's not the best way because it's kind of a self-focus but it's enough to save you if you die in an unrepentant state of mortal sin so it's the first levels like the purgative way the second level is the illuminative i'm saved because i want to go to heaven because there's something good heaven is goodness and i want goodness i don't want evil i want goodness i want something in it for me so that's the second level it's not the best but it's enough to save you but the ultimate level is the unitive way which means you are saved solely and purely out of love of god you don't care about anything else you don't care you don't care about anything i know that means that it doesn't mean that you don't go to work and go get your education and and and have a home yes you got to do all those things it doesn't mean those are unimportant or you shouldn't do them of course not but they all lead you to union with god when union with god becomes your most primary point of existence you've now hit the top of the spiritual life and you fulfilled your telos which is the reason what you were created the baltimore catechism says why were you created to know god love him serve him and be united with him forever in heaven the ark represents this the ark is a prefigurement of the church in the church we we move from the purgative to the illuminative to the unity through the help of the saints and the sacraments you know some other saints said that the three levels of the ark represented hell earth and heaven it's kind of the same way you want to progress up and so this is very very important now saint jerome he saw the dimensions of the ark through 300 cubits by 50 cubits by 30 cubits as significant he says in the hebrew 300 is connected with the cross because the word for 300 and the word cross shared this very same root word because of a prophecy in ezekiel 9 4. then he went in and said 50 is an important number because it's penitential psalm 50 is penitential so he said 50 is important and finally he said 30 is important because 30 is how old christ was when he was baptized and began his ministry so in a sense these three numbers represent the whole compass of spiritual life 350 and 30. the ark was 300 cubits by 50 cubits wide by 30 cubits high this is interesting now in a sense these three numbers represent everything and quote he said through penance we arrive at the mystery of the cross and we reach the mystery of the cross through the perfect word that is christ jesus represents this all right now genesis 8 1. let's talk about this we're talking about the church now right we're talking about how the ark of the of noah prefigures the church you can go right to genesis 8 1. god made the wind blow over the earth and the water subsided what was the wind the holy spirit now how are we saved through the water and the water was birthed at the birth of the church remember when pentecost happened the church was born of blood and water blood is life water is cleansing so this is the holy spirit so the holy spirit is given to us through the church in the same way and so you see this connection is amazing you guys are doing great hanging with me we're almost done couple more minutes now this however raises a question father if everything you're saying is true why are we still in such a mess if the ark is everything you said it was and the church is everything you say it is why are we still in a mess all right good question the flood waters receded cleansing the earth cleansing the home of man but it didn't cleanse the heart they cleansed the home but not the heart that's why jesus said in scripture beware because you can cleanse your house and yet seven more demons will come and infect it if you don't clean the heart it's going to get messed up the problem was we didn't cleanse our heart our heart remained unchanged just as adam's family split how did adam's family split do you remember adam's kids kane abel and seth s-e-t-h what happened kane killed abel they split seth was a good man kane was bad so there were two children adam and eve kane kills abel he got kane the bad and you got seth the good and they split what happened with noah noah had children as well you had shem who was good and you had ham h.a.m who was bad they split now why is this make an important let's take a look at our next slide genesis tells us that there were problems noah got drunk and it says right in the scriptures noah got drunk and ham saw his nakedness what does that mean all right theologians tell us it means either he had homosexual incest relations and violated noah his own father he can't even imagine how vile that is or he had relations with his mother according to scott hahn so ham the son of noah they land noah's offering sacrifices but just like a sinner he falls he gets drunk ham sees his nakedness and it says ham violated that some scholars think he homosexually incestually violated noah again horrible to even think of other accounts scott hahn and say it was a motherly incest which is also horrible and then he had ancestral relations sexual relations with his mother now why why would ham do this he did it for power ham was the youngest son and he wanted to seize the power and the blessings that were meant for shem hashem was the firstborn son now a curse happened a curse fell upon ham because the sun that came out of that ancestral relationship this is why scott hahn thinks it was an incest with the mother the son that came from that was canaan you heard of the canaanites israel's forever enemy so a curse fell upon ham's son canaan because he was conceived through the sinful union of incest with the mother and that bred the canaanites the enemies of israel now what's interesting is the split continues because i told you hashem was good and ham was bad who came from the lion hashem abraham isaac and jacob and it was isaac or israel i'm sorry or jacob who descends from shem who was good and he removed the canaanites from the promised land so you see if we continue to turn our back on god we don't cleanse our hearts god will never trump our free will we still have free will if we cleanse our hearts then we can get our will to do the right thing so as we wrap up here i do want to mention another couple of interesting points let's look at our next slide you ever hear a melchizedek we say it in the eucharistic prayer from the line of melchizedek jesus was a priest from the order of melchizedek melchizedek was the high priest that actually bestowed a blessing upon abraham some believe that melchizedek was shem the firstborn of noah he was 460 years old we'll talk about age in a minute when abraham was 75. the genealogy in genesis shows that shem lived past abraham so shem could have been melchizedek hashem was given the priesthood what's the word for priesthood in hebrew kahuna i always wonder if that's where we get the word the big kahuna but that is hebrew he got it from his father because he was the first born of noah noah gave him his blessing hashem was the priest this form of priesthood is based on the order of the family the firstborn son now isn't that also how jesus got his priesthood the firstborn son so this models the heaven where jesus is the father's firstborn now to wrap up confusion over melchizedek was the fact that they couldn't understand the jews couldn't understand that he was both a king and a priest that doesn't happen you're either a king or a priest we don't get this it is solved by knowing that shem was both a priest because he was the firstborn of noah and he was blessed into the priesthood was also the progenator of the davidic monarchy meaning he was a king david came from shem so shem was both a priest and a king and when jesus comes god our savior he's priest prophet and king wow but what about the significance of the age this is where i wanted to finish because it says noah was 600 at the time of the flood and he said he lived another 350 years so he was 950 years old all right is that true let's talk about that theologians have suggested that the first generations of humans did live that long because they had not been fully corrupted by sin generation after generation after generation that we do we keep getting we always think it's great to live in this time in history and in one sense it is god's given us more mercy he's given us more revelation he's given us more saints but part of the reason he does that is because we over generation to generation have become weaker and weaker in sin where sin abounds grace abounds more that's why god is flooding the world with mercy right now because his generation goes to generation we're getting weaker and weaker and weaker in sin and god keeps pumping more grace upon grace upon grace into us and he does it through the church and so we have to understand the importance of this so theologians have said that the first generations of humankind were more perfect even physically because genetic defects hadn't been passed down then generation to generation that's why they believe adam and eve could have multiplied from just their children because you didn't have the genetic deformations like right now if a brother and a sister or a cousin have relations there's usually genetic defects it wasn't that way back then i know that's controversial but that's what theologians believe this was due to being close to the initial purity of man noah was way closer to the initial purity of man than we are we are way downstream of sin and it wasn't until over time as more sin and corruption set in that humanity began to physically decline that's why we are dying now not at 900 years old but at 100 if we're lucky many say the people did live that long because the effects of sin were not as prevalent back then sin had not worked its way between generation after generation this can explain why children would have been born possibly out of the children of noah even cousins they could have repopulated because there would have been that genetic defect that we think of today it also explains why adam and eve may have been thousands of years before noah even though only a few generations because if noah lived 900 years that's like 12 generations 13 14 15 generations other theologians and that doesn't mean now that that's the case because noah didn't live only 100 years or 80 years he lived 900 so instead of needing 15 generations to cover the time gap between noah and adam he only needed a couple generations because they lived so long i hope that makes sense all right so to wrap this up now remember the genealogy of luke and matthew may contain accuracy they are accurate but they may not have all the generations this is what church theologians have told us this is the importance though is that we know we come from adam and eve adam and eve are real people are not myth we have to believe it all right let's keep going other theologians and scholars note that ages were not meant to be taken literally but symbolic the church has no teaching regarding whether these ages should be taken literally or not it's up to you you want to believe noah was 950 years old when he died you can believe that you don't want to believe noah was exactly 950 years when he died you don't have to believe that what we believe is the message of what noah went through the church teaches that whatever scripture says is inerrant but must be understood in terms of the liturgy the literature that was used at the time including figurative language as i explained earlier in many ancient cultures long lives were given to people symbolically to show the greatness of the individual so if a person was great it said kings lived 10 000 years we see that in writing we have writing of that saying that the great kings lived 10 000 years that was symbolism to show that they were great however this is not something the church has taught all right god can keep alive people as long as he wants if he wants to keep you alive 900 years he'll do so but he usually keeps in line with the times so i don't think you're going to find a nine-year-old 900 year old grandma today all right last paragraph why would a merciful god kill nearly every human in a flood interesting question without the flood theologians tell us humanity would have destroyed itself on its own we wouldn't be here today without the flood mankind would have destroyed itself instead god used the flood for rebirth recreation the flood was the chance for renewal and you know he gave every human being a chance at that did you know this the flood was the chance for any human person with any goodness to start over and be saved noah's family was not the only example others had their chance to get on that ark but they mocked noah jewish tradition does not say god was uncaring god instructed noah to build the ark slowly remember 75 years you don't think 75 years is enough time for the other people who saw it to repent this meant it was a last warning and chance for others to repent to accept god and his mercy he's doing the same with us in our lives the average lifespan 75 years if you live natural it's lower than that because we have accidents and diseases and stuff like that but if we live on average of 75 years how ironic that that's the exact same time that god gave to all those at the time of noah to repent and say i want god's mercy it took him 75 years to build the ark all the people around instead they scoff they laughed they mocked what are we seeing in our world today in the lifetime of people they scoff they mock and they laugh and this is why we have to pray for them we are the ones building the ark the church and if we're the ones building the ark of the church for our safety we want our loved ones to be on that ark god's giving him every chance and he may be using you to help do that so this is the importance of the story this was meant as a last warning and a chance to repent god didn't block anybody from the ark but they had to clean up before they were allowed in it's the same with the church oh father i don't like the church it's discriminatory they're telling me that i can't live my decrepit lifestyle the church is saying please clean up before you get in the ark that's exactly what god said this was what it was meant to do everyone had a chance to turn from their old ways and enter into the ark you had the same chance today with the church well i don't like the church's rules you're doing the same thing then this church is the only ark that's going to remain when it gets worse in this world it's coming whether it be natural or god promised not by a flood but you know a lot of saints say that there'd be destruction by fire or whatever it might be pestilence be ready get in that ark the ark is the safety get in a board that ark is the church but people didn't do it that's why some saw the flood as god's tears the massive amount of water they said was the result of god's tears over man's sin so let's get aboard let's look to noah how many of us pray to noah do you ever hear saint noah pray for us well i want to show something or say something's interesting why isn't noah considered a saint is noah considered a saint how come we don't have saint david and saint moses saint abraham do we are they saints are they not saints all right formal canonization of saints didn't come to much years after the finding of the founding of the church before that righteous people like moses david abraham and noah were just considered by christian communities as holy good people we can call them saints but they're not canonized in the way that saint rita or saint padre pio or saint john vianney is but we still call them saints let's look at our last slide and that muddled nate saint noah pray for us and he's holding a little ark there's nothing wrong with that he's not a canonized saint so we don't call him saint in a canonized sense when we do a litany to saints we're talking canonized saints and this didn't happen until after the church was developed and as i said before that saints were just considered righteous people so that is why the old testament new testament saints even mary were never formally canonized mary didn't need to be formally canonized but we still call her a saint you know when we pray we usually say blessed mother mary we usually don't say saint mary but i bet you've been to a church called saint mary's that's awesome so noah he's one of these righteous people of the old testament who are generally considered to be in heaven that friends is the message of noah and you know the message of noah is really the message of god's divine mercy god's divine mercy was fully revealed in the new testament it was hidden in the old revealed in the new that's why i invite you to pick up a copy on our next slide actually this is the final slide my book you can get called understanding divine mercy and i tell the whole story from adam and eve of god's mercy starting in the garden you can get this for any donation father i don't have anything more than a dollar dollar you got it fine you can have it just visit thedivinemercy.org udm and you can get it for any donation or you can call 1-800-462-7426 and now i want to give you a final blessing to say please don't always just look at these beautiful stories of the old testament as just fairy tales pope benedict never used the word myth these aren't myths these are truths how they're told can be figurative but their truth and so we give you an opportunity now to read all about noah in our new divine mercy bible at the end of this blessing we're going to play a video clip that shows how you can get this awesome divine mercy bible from shopmercy.org if you want to read about noah and in this bible the reason it's called the divine mercy bible is because we take the passages of the bible old testament two and explain where god's mercy is so you can go to the bible read about noah and then read a little summary of what i kind of just taught today about that passage of noah and where was god's mercy in the destruction of mankind it's all in there so at the end stay tuned because i'm going to show that video it's only a minute minute and 20 seconds to get a copy of that divine mercy bible until then join us next week as we're back with you to talk about another ark the ark of the covenant and that ark like the ark of noah prefigured the church the ark of the covenant prefigures mary so if you know anybody that doesn't believe in the role of mary have him tune in next week next saturday 11 we'll be back here live we had a nice crowd here today hopefully we'll see you again next week as we talk about the ark of the covenant and until then may almighty god bless you in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen hi i'm father chris aylar and i'm super excited to tell you about something you're not going to want to miss we all need the bible and often i get questions for people father what's the best version of the bible to read there are many out there and i always say the r s v c e which is the revised standard version catholic edition now not only do you have that best of versions but now we have created together with our friends of ascension the divine mercy catholic bible this is a beautiful leatherette bible that has just an absolutely important message for you not only is it all the words of scripture that you're familiar with but in it we have great contributions from people like father seraphim dr robert stackpole and others that explain exactly where you see god's mercy in each of the passages of both the old and the new testament so please join me and get a copy of this incredible new divine mercy bible and help you to understand the bible from the perspective of god's divine mercy so you can get your copy at shopmercy.org or please call us at 800-462-7426 so remember the word of god is imperative for salvation and now you can get it from the perspective of god's mercy thank you and we hope you'll pick up a copy you

Channel: Divine Mercy

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Keywords: Divine Mercy, Mercy, Jesus, Christ, Marian, priest, catholic teaching, spiritual, spirituality, grace, pray, prays, praying, chris alar, alar, fr. Chris, fr. alar, Catholic, Church, God, fr. chris alar, divine mercy, mary, sacraments, service, salvation, faith, death, judgment, judgement, heaven, state of grace, resurrected, resurrection, catechism, free will, condemnation, flood, noah, ark, noah's ark, gilgamesh, ham, shem, cubits, 40 days, ararat, mount ararat, covenant, rainbow

Id: igIcWzl7z20

Length: 81min 19sec (4879 seconds)

Published: Sat May 29 2021