Over the Rainbow

Introduction

The movie Wizard of Oz starts with the young girl Dorthy wishing there was a place she could go to where there were no troubles. Looking up at the sky, she starts singing the famous song " Over the Rainbow." And perhaps it’s there where the sky is blue.

Body

But we don’t need to guess every time we look up in the sky and see a beautiful rainbow after a cleansing rain shower where that place is from the everlasting covenant God made with Noah. A covenant is God’s oath to humanity of kinship and family that God will never break. God made a covenant with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. Each time, God kept his end of the bargain, but man kept failing to keep his end. God made his last new covenant in the blood of his only begotten Son so that man can keep his end of the bargain once and for all. In our second reading, St. Peter says Christ suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God, and says the waters of Noah’s Flood prefigure Baptism, which saves us. And Jesus tells us in the Gospels (Mt. 7:13-14. Lk 13:24), “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way easy that leads to destruction, and many enter it.” I would not want to risk being wrong, speculating on Christ's words here, and presuming on God's mercy.

Conclusion

In the movie, Dorthy doesn’t find the fulfillment and joy in the fantasy Land of Oz, so she returns home to her old troubles. But we don’t need to return we can be delivered from our troubles by the new covenant in the blood of Christ, in sacramental reconciliation, renewal of our baptismal promises, and kinship with God today. So, on this 1st Sunday of Lent, let each beautiful color of the rainbow be a virtue sought by grace from God, to cultivate true freedom and happiness in our lives. And let us say yes to the Spirit of the Lord calling us to chastity and holiness, to live in the divine life of the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen +