Homilia de Noe et de arca

On Noah and the Ark, wherein the Ark became a prefiguration of the Church. Now the most holy fast has taken the middle of the sacred labors. Now it presses on toward the very peak of the sweats, toward the stadium of the blessed contests. For indeed, to speak generally, the middle is the peak: the peak of soldiers is the middle of the war; for those sailing on the sea, the peak of danger is the middle of the struggle and the heavy storm; the very middle of the span of human life is youth; the most intense part of the sun is the very middle of the day. So also the peak of the holy days is the very middle of the fast. Where the middle reaches its peak, there God dances in the midst. Therefore he says: "Be strong," says the Lord, "and let the hands of your people be strong; and I have taken my stand among you, and my spirit has taken its stand in your midst." So the most holy fast is at its peak, having taken the very middle of the labors; and just as the sun in the very middle of the day sends forth its hot rays, so also the fast sends forth its bright rays.

The rays of the fast are the divine scriptures; these enlighten us, these brighten our reason, these depict the histories of the ancients, not for the praise of those who have passed, but for the emulation of those who follow. Today, in the middle of the fast, it was read to us how he rescued Noah from the midst of the deluge, Noah the wondrous one, who swam against the all-painful destruction of perdition. For just as he did not share in the sins, so also he did not perish with those being punished. A deluge occurred to wipe out the sinners, and God washed away sin with water. But then he destroyed sin and the sinners with water, whereas now grace has been introduced in place of water, washing away sin, while at the same time both saving sinners and preserving them. A deluge came upon the inhabited world at that time, in order to quench the prevailing impiety of the inhabited world. Noah found favor beyond all, not because he was of a different nature, but because he was found to be of a different choice. For he had nature in common with all, but a disposition distinct from all; associating with them and mingling with none, dwelling as a sojourner in the world and cohabiting with its ways, and being at the peak of righteousness, he receives a commission and himself […]

[…] an image of Christ. Just as Jacob was shown in the earlier passage, having completed the history in a bodily sense and having delineated the image of the Savior in a spiritual sense, so also Noah became a type of the Savior. It is necessary, before the demonstration of the theorems, to present the Savior as a witness, who took Noah as an image of his own coming. For he says: "Just as in the days of Noah they married and were given in marriage, and the flood came and carried off all, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." Do you see how he set forth the type first and then brought in the truth? In what respect is Noah a type of the Savior? Noah himself builds the ark and himself dwells in the ark and came forth from the ark; and his work was his mother. For the ark he had built became his mother. And observe the wonder. He builds the ark over many years, but is carried by the ark for one year; the Savior prepared the virgin over many years, and was carried by the virgin while being gestated for not even a whole year. Do you see an image of Christ shining forth? Take also another image of him.

In Noah’s ark, by him, four-footed animals, reptiles, birds, and the entire administration of the world were shut up, and all creation was with him. So also the Savior: he is born from a virgin and is conceived from a virgin; and under his administration he bears the heavenly, the earthly, and the subterranean. For the ark was a type of the virgin and of the church; and just as then, during the flood, if anyone was outside the ark, he could not live, so also now, he who is outside the church cannot live. The ark is large, but it has two-storied and three-storied sections […] because every knee of heavenly, earthly, and subterranean beings will bend to him. But let us come to the history itself. God saw that sin was prevailing upon the earth and says to Noah: “Construct for yourself an ark for salvation, and make the ark from imperishable woods.” And the command was brief, but the work was easy. Yet he spends much time in the construction of the ark, not because so much time was needed, but because the benevolent one was postponing the punishment, awaiting repentance. For sin did not condemn the world as much as the ark, being built and not believed, condemned it. How did they not lament when they sinned? But they did not even shudder when they saw the ark being constructed. And we are punished, not only because we sin, but because we do not extinguish sin with repentance. That the ark condemned the world, the apostle says. Therefore, it was not sin that condemned the world, but the ark, not frightening man, nor terrifying him.

This condemned the world: not the sinning, but the failure to help in the punishment. For a hundred years Noah preached, not with his tongue, but with the adze and the auger and the saw, crying out to the lifeless things. For who would not have asked Noah: What does this construction mean? What does the breadth of the ark mean? For he would have said: God, who commands, has threatened a flood; he has announced destruction to the world. Therefore I do this, that I may be saved. If they had been well-disposed, they would have said: The ark is narrow compared to the threat, and: What place will there be for us with you? If they had asked these things, they would have quenched the wrath and reaped the salvation of repentance. But they despised Noah. Consider also their laughter. Some, mocking Noah, said: Since the flood was threatened, so much time has been wasted. Do not, because the words pass by, let the meanings pass you by. Consider what it was: a hundred-year period passing by and the threat nowhere fulfilled. Was Noah not laughed at as a fool? Was he not laughed at as one who did not even preserve common sense, but because, since the flood was threatened, so much time had passed?

This now the church suffers at the hands of the enemies of piety. From the time Christians say, "The kingdom has drawn near; it is coming," so many years have been consumed and nothing has come to pass. But Noah endured reproach, and the enemies of piety persisted in laughing. But they received as the end of their laughter destruction, while he received as the reward of his reproach salvation. "For the sake of your name I endured reproach." And what does God do? When he saw that the time had matured but repentance was not forthcoming, he says to Noah, "Enter, you and your sons and your wife and the wives of your sons." Do you see modesty and a rule of continence? Since it was not necessary for conjugal union to be recognized in the ark, nor for man and woman to acknowledge the laws of nature, he separates the male and the female into one part, saying, "Enter, you and your sons and your wife and the wives of your sons." But when he calls him after the flood, since there was then need of intercourse and childbearing and the increase of the inhabited world, he says, "Come out, you and your wife and your sons and the wives of your sons." And he leads them forth to childbearing and increase. And immediately, to show that he is impelling them into the desire for childbearing, he adds, "Increase and multiply and fill the earth.

The flood of waters passed—for I must be brief—and the ark came to rest on the peaks of the mountains. For it was an image of the church. Concerning it the prophet said, "In the last days the mountain of the Lord and the house of God will be manifest on the peaks of the mountains." Noah came forth, having swum through the common destruction, he the shipwright of the great vessel, he the helmsman of the great hull, bearing his body within the ark and bearing the ark without by his righteousness. The ark advanced, lifted above the waters, floating and not sinking, shaken by the waves but not plunged into the deep. This the church now suffers, being troubled but not destroyed, drenched by the waves of the heretics but guided by the wise helmsman. The ark was an image of the church. Now a new ark has entered, the church, and water that floods not the sinners but sin. Earlier we heard that much water covered the seas so that the Lord might know them. Here direct your mind: how great an evil Noah opened up; you heard how great a trophy he raised against sin. And remember the question that was raised before us in the previous homily. I know that some, by contradicting what was exercised among us yesterday, seemed to exercise us further for the present contemplation. For some said that, having touched upon the discourse concerning Adam, he was at a loss and transferred the contemplation to another subject. But you said, "If God foreknew that Adam would sin, why did he create him?

I, however, know that I have left the contemplation complete, full, lacking nothing, and perfected according to the true account. But since some have thought, having the lameness of their own mind before their eyes, that the account is defective, it is necessary, not that we fill up our own things, but that we fill up the deficiency of faith. For I know that you remember the things said, that God, foreknowing, does not foreknow partially, but embraces all things together in his knowledge. And it was said to you that God foreknew that Adam would sin, foreknew that he would fall and not abide by the commandment, but he foreknew the creation not looking only at that, but also considering those who were to come, who were to become fulfillers of the divine law. For God foreknew, as I said earlier, the beauties of the patriarchs, the flowers of the prophets, the divine teaching of the apostles, the flower of the economy, and the myriads of martyrs; and looking to those, he permitted the one not fulfilling the law to shine forth into these fulfillers of the law. For it is not just that the course of those who succeed be hindered because of the foreknowledge of the one who sinned. He foreknew that Adam would sin; he foreknew that Noah would succeed; and in order to show that it is not nature that sinned, but choice that was perverted, immediately from Adam came forth a fruit bearing witness to nature that it is good: Abel came forth, attested by righteousness. And yet, if the root is base, how did it bear a holy fruit? If nature is evil, how did it blossom with fruits of piety? Hear the Lord saying: A rotten tree cannot produce good fruits.

If the nature were evil, it would not have blossomed with so many fruits of righteousness. But from the first righteous man who blossomed, both the child was attested and the choice was refuted. Therefore God, foreseeing everything together, acts. He foreknew that Adam would sin, but he foreknew that he himself would be the root of all good things. For this reason the apostle, wishing to show that the fruits plead on behalf of the root, says: Adam was not deceived, but Eve, having been deceived, came into transgression; she will be saved through childbearing. Could not God, it is said, have restrained the one who sinned? He could; but there is no reward for those who are prevented by necessity. Nebuchadnezzar, once king of the Babylonians, drunk with arrogance and great power, came to such a degree of madness that he set up an image of himself, and compelled those who were made in the image of God to come and worship the image. But God, wishing to show that he is able not only to cast him out of the kingdom, but also to banish him from nature itself, having taken away his kingdom, also took away his rational dignity; for he no longer lived as a rational man, but ate grass like an ox, and the mind of a beast was given to him. He cast him out of his dominion by necessity, and there is no reward for the one who is compelled. He no longer sinned, and he received no reward. For it is one thing to be deprived by necessity, and another to be restrained by choice.

Again, Pharaoh took Abraham’s Sarah away; and as he was about to sin against the holy woman, God afflicted Pharaoh with great and grievous afflictions, and the force of the afflictions and the necessity restrained the lawlessness. But no praise for self-control was given to the tyrant; for the self-control was not from his own choice, but from necessity and whips. Therefore Joseph is rightly celebrated, who was restrained from sin by choice, because he overcame necessity by choice. Neither Pharaoh touched Sarah, nor Joseph the Egyptian woman; and the deed is equal, but the praise is not equal. Thus, brothers, there is no reward for necessity; all praise is for choice. Therefore God says: If you wish and listen to me, you will eat the good things of the land; but if you do not wish and do not listen to me, a sword will devour you. In willing and not willing he established both virtue and vice, not because it was impossible to restrain the one sinning by nature, but because there was no reward for necessity; he granted the praises to choice.

If you are ungrateful to the divine law that benefits you, the external law persuades you. If we do not sin by choice, but sins were by nature, why do the Roman legislators punish wickedness? Why do they praise and crown those who achieve virtue? For if nature compelled and not choice directed, it would be superfluous to praise the virtuous and punish those who sin. We know for ourselves, brothers, that we willingly do evil, and in the things we willingly sin, we are not led by necessity. Do you wish to learn that each of us knows that sins are by choice and not by nature? When a servant sins against you, why do you not say that the evil is from fate? Why do you blame the innocent one? But when a servant sins against you, you punish him as sinning by choice. When you sin against God, do you contrive an excuse as if led by necessity? But let these matters be so far. Let the discourse concerning choice and free will be preserved for us. And why did God harden Pharaoh's heart? For this notion is entangled with many to their ruin, though it occurred for the correction of souls. But let us hold this above all: the fear of God, peace. Let us receive these words as arrows of righteousness, not fixed in the body, but cast into the soul. The arrows of enemies are for destruction, but the arrows of God are for salvation. Do you wish to learn that even warlike names are peace with God? Speaking to Noah, he says: Increase and multiply and fill the earth; I will no longer add to curse the earth.

This is the sign for you: "Behold, I place my bow in the cloud." Behold, the bow is a pledge of peace. Consider the excess of grace, of which may we all be deemed worthy in Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom glory is to the Father together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.