Noe, This Same Shall Comfort Us: the Rest of the Weary
Old Testament: Genesis 5:29
And he called his name Noe, saying: This same shall comfort us from the works and labours of our hands on the earth, which the Lord hath cursed.
Old Testament, also: Genesis 8:21
And the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and said: I will no more curse the earth for the sake of man: for the imagination and thought of man's heart are prone to evil from his youth: therefore I will no more destroy every living soul as I have done.
New Testament: Matthew 11:28-29; 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
Come to me, all you that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. ... Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. Who comforteth us in all our tribulation; that we also may be able to comfort them who are in all distress, by the exhortation wherewith we also are exhorted by God.
The connection
Lamech, ninth from Adam, named his son for a hope: "he called his name Noe, saying: This same shall comfort us from the works and labours of our hands on the earth, which the Lord hath cursed" (Genesis 5:29). The curse was the one laid on Adam, "cursed is the earth in thy work; with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof" (Genesis 3:17). Noe gave a first taste of that comfort: after the flood he offered sacrifice, "the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and said: I will no more curse the earth for the sake of man" (Genesis 8:21). But Noe did not lift the curse from the labour of men's hands. The one who does speaks Lamech's words back to the weary: "Come to me, all you that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you ... and you shall find rest to your souls" (Matthew 11:28-29). His sacrifice is the true sweet savour, for Christ "hath delivered himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness" (Ephesians 5:2), and "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13). So St Paul blesses "the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation" (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). St Ephrem the Syrian hears Lamech waiting for Christ: "For Him Lamech also looked who might come and lovingly give Him quiet from his labour and the toiling of his hands, and from the earth the Just One had cursed. Lamech then beheld his son, Noah, him, in whom were figured types relating to the Son. In the stead of the Lord afar off, the type at hand afforded quiet." The Catechism hears in "learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart" the Word made flesh given as our model (CCC 459).
Moral sense
Jacob, shown the bloodied coat of Joseph, "would not receive comfort" (Genesis 37:35); the Hebrew uses the same root as Lamech's comfort. There are griefs in which no one can console us, and Jacob's ended only when he saw his son alive. Ours end in the same place: in the Son who lives. And the comfort is given to be passed on, "that we also may be able to comfort them who are in all distress, by the exhortation wherewith we also are exhorted by God" (2 Corinthians 1:4). His yoke is not taken off the weary but shared with them: "my yoke is sweet and my burden light" (Matthew 11:30).
Anagogical sense
The dove Noe sent out "not finding where her foot might rest" came back to the ark (Genesis 8:9). The soul finds no rest on the waters of this world, only in the One who calls it home. The full comfort is kept for the end: "Blessed are the dead, who die in the Lord ... that they may rest from their labours" (Apocalypse 14:13), and "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes" (Apocalypse 21:4), where "there shall be no curse any more" (Apocalypse 22:3).
The Fathers
St Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns on the Nativity, Hymn 1: "For Him Lamech also looked who might come and lovingly give Him quiet from his labour and the toiling of his hands, and from the earth the Just One had cursed. Lamech then beheld his son, Noah, him, in whom were figured types relating to the Son. In the stead of the Lord afar off, the type at hand afforded quiet."
Warrant
Patristic. St Ephrem, in the first of his Hymns on the Nativity, says Lamech looked for Christ to give rest from the toil of his hands on the cursed earth, and that Noe, in whom were figured types of the Son, gave that rest in figure. Checked in the languages: the Hebrew name Noach is played against yenachamenu, he shall comfort us, from nacham, the root of the refused comfort of Jacob at Genesis 37:35. The Septuagint renders it dianapausei, he shall give us rest, and Christ's I will refresh you at Matthew 11:28 is anapauso, the same verb without its prefix; the dove's rest at Genesis 8:9 is anapausis. St Paul's comfort at 2 Corinthians 1:3 is paraklesis, and Isaias joins the two: Be comforted, be comforted, my people (Isaias 40:1) is nachamu, the root of Noe's name, in the Hebrew and parakaleite, St Paul's word, in the Septuagint. The lead was Dunk's, from Genesis 5:29 read beside Genesis 37:35, 2 Corinthians 1:3 and 1 Peter 3:20.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 459.
The verses
Genesis 5:29 · Genesis 8:21 · Matthew 11:28 · Matthew 11:29 · 2 Corinthians 1:3 · 2 Corinthians 1:4
