Noah And The Son Of Man

Et sicut factum est in diebus Noe, ita erit et in diebus Filii hominis. Hoc enim congruum erat quia Noe figuram gerebat Christi, qui se vocat Filium hominis: Noe enim interpretatur requies, et in solo Christo est requies et pax. Nam, ad Ephesios secundo, ipse est pax nostra, qui fecit utraque unum; et loannis decimo sexto: In mundo pressuram habebitis, in me autem pacem. Unde Augustinus: Inquietum est cor meum, Domine, donec quiescat in te. Ideo ipse dicit: Tollite iugum meum super vos, et invenietis requiem animabus vestris. Non tantum nomine Christum significat, verum etiam facto. Nam sicut Noe salvavit semen hominum per lignum, sic Christus et per crucis patibulum; Sapientiae decimo quarto: Spes orbis terrarum, ad ratem confugiens, remisit saeculo semen nativitatis, quae manu tua erat gubernata. Benedictum est enim lignum, per quod fit iustitia. Unde et praemittit: Exiguo ligno committunt homines animas suas etc. Et sicut Noe fabricavit arcam, sic et Christus Ecclesiam, quae ad modum arcae de lignis levigatis bitumine caritatis contextae aedificatur, habens coenacula et tristega propter diversitates officiorum, graduum et dignitatum; ad Ephesios quarto: Ipse dedit quosdam Apostolos, quosdam quidem Prophetas, alios vero Evangelistas, alios vero pastores et doctores, ad consummationem Sanctorum, ad aedificationem corporis Christi, donec occurramus omnes in virum perfectum, in mensuram aetatis plenitudinis Christi; in qua scilicet erit longitudo, latitudo et altitudo arcae nobilissime consummata. Sicut etiam qui intra arcam fuerunt salvati sunt, sic qui intra Ecclesiam sunt salvantur per aquam et baptismum; primae Petri tertio: In diebus Noe, cum fabricaretur arca, in qua pauci, id est octo animae salvae factae sunt per aquam. Quod et vos nunc similis formae salvos facit baptisma, non carnis depositio sordium, sed conscientiae bonae interrogatio in Deum , per resurrectionem Domini nostri lesu Christi. Et sicut qui extra arcam fuerunt deleti sunt, sic omnes, qui extra Ecclesiam sunt, per finale iudicium damnabuntur; in cuius designationem Actuum vigesimo septimo dixit Paulus: Nisi hi in navi manserint, vos salvi fieri non potestis. Sanctus Bonaventura, Commentarius in Evangelium Lucae, Caput XVII Source: Here, p440

And as it was in the days of Noah, so it shall be in the days of the Son of Man. 1 For this was fitting because Noah bore the figure of Christ, He who calls Himself the Son of Man. Noah is interpreted 'rest' and only in Christ is there rest and peace. For in the second chapter of Ephesians: 'He is our peace, who has made both one.' 2 And in the sixteenth chapter of John, 'In the world you shall have tribulations, but in me peace.' 3 Whence Augustine says: 'My heart is troubled, O Lord, until it shall rest in you.' 4 And He Himself says: 'Take my yoke on you, and you shall find rest for your souls.' 5 Not only is Christ signified by the name but even by the deed. For as Noah saved the seed of men through wood, so Christ through the gibbet of the cross. In the fourteenth chapter of Wisdom: 'The hope of the whole world, fleeing to a boat, preserved for the world the seed of birth, which your hand steered. Blessed is the wood through which there is righteousness.' And before this: 'Men entrust their souls to a little wood.' 6 And as Noah built the Ark so Christ the Church, which in the manner of the ark is built up from smoothed wood coated with the pitch of love, and it has upper rooms and lower rooms according to the differences of office, grades and dignity. 7 In the fourth chapter of Ephesians: 'He gave some to be Apostles, some to be Prophets, others to be Evangelists, others to be shepherds and teachers, for the perfection of the holy, and the building up of the body of Christ, until we all come to the perfect man, in the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ.' In which evidently there shall be length and breadth and height in the perfection of the most noble ark. 8 Indeed as those who within the ark were saved, so those within the Church shall be saved through water and baptism. In the third chapter of the first letter of Peter: 'In the days of Noah when the ark was fashioned, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. And now you likewise are saved by the form of baptism, not as dirt is removed from flesh, but as an interrogation of good conscience in God, through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.' 9 And as those who were outside the ark were destroyed, so all who are outside the Church are damned in final judgement, to which witnessing, in the twenty seventh chapter of Acts, Paul said, 'Unless these men remain in the ship, you cannot be saved.' 10 Saint Bonaventura, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Luke, Chapter 17 1 Lk 17.26 2 Ephes 2.14 3 Jn 16.33 4 August Confes 1.1 5 Mt 11.29 6 Wisd 14.6,5 7 Gen 6.14,16 8 Ephes 4.11-13, 3.18 9 1 Pet 3.20-21 10 Acts 27.31