Mary foreshadowed by Noah’s dove and the rainbow, Mary: Day 006

Mary foreshadowed by Noah’s dove and the rainbow

The Fathers of the Church began a long tradition of discovering in the Old Testament figures and events that foreshadow Mary. Here, St. Alphonsus tells how earlier theologians saw Noah’s dove as her symbol.

Mary was foreshadowed by the dove that returned to Noah in the ark with an olive branch in its beak as a pledge of the peace that God granted to men (see Gn 8:11). With this in mind, St. Bonaventure addresses our Blessed Lady this way: “You are that most faithful dove.” “Mary,” he adds, “was the heavenly dove that brought to a lost world the olive branch, the sign of mercy, since she in the first place gave us Jesus Christ, who is the Source of mercy, and then, by his merits, obtained all graces for us.”

Again, the rainbow described by St. John in the Book of Revelation, which encircled the throne of God, was an express figure of Mary: “And round the throne was a rainbow” (Rv 4:3). St. Bernardine of Siena says that “it was of this rainbow that God spoke when he promised Noah that he would place it in the clouds as a sign of peace, so that upon looking at it, he might remember the eternal peace that he had promised in his covenant with man: ‘I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth . . . I will look upon it, and remember the everlasting covenant’ ” (Gn 9:13, 16).

“Mary,” says the saint, “is this bow of eternal peace. For just as God, when he sees it, remembers the peace promised to the earth, so does he, at the prayers of Mary, forgive the crimes of sinners, and confirm his peace with them.” —St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

How do the parallels between the figures and events of the Old Testament and those of the New Testament help to enrich our understanding of the faith? What other Old Testament figures and events foreshadowed Mary?

CLOSING PRAYER

From a prayer of St. Tarasius: Mary, in you is the curse of Adam done away, and the debt of Eve is paid. You are the ark of Noah, and rainbow of reconciliation with God in a new generation.

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