Christ caresses his spouse: he invites her to him.
1I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys.Io fiore del campo, e giglio delle valli.I AM the flower of the filde, and the lilie of the valley,Ego flos campi, / et lilium convallium. 2As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.Come il giglio in mezzo alle spine, così la mia diletta tralle fanciulle.As the lilie among the thornes, so is my loue among the daughters.Sponsus. Sicut lilium inter spinas, / sic amica mea inter filias. 3As the apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow, whom I desired: and his fruit was sweet to my palate.Come il melo tralle piante salvatiche, così il mio diletto trai figli; all'ombra di lui, che è il mio desiderio, io mi assisi, e il suo frutto al mio palato fu dolce.As the apletree among trees of the woddes, so is my beloued among the sonnes. Vnder his shadow, whom I desired, I sate: and his fruite was sweete vnto my throte.Sponsa. Sicut malus inter ligna silvarum, / sic dilectus meus inter filios. / Sub umbra illius quem desideraveram sedi, / et fructus ejus dulcis gutturi meo. 4He brought me into the cellar of wine, he set in order charity in me.M'introdusse nella conserva dei vini: contro di me pose in ordinanza la carità.He brought me into the wineceller, he hath ordered in me charitie.Introduxit me in cellam vinariam; / ordinavit in me caritatem. 5Stay me up with flowers, compass me about with apples: because I languish with love.Sostenetemi co' fiori, stivatemi co' pomi, perchè io languisco d'amore.Stay me vp with flowers, compasse me about with apples: because I languish with loue.Fulcite in me floribus, / stipate me malis, / quia amore langueo. 6His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.La sinistra di lui sotto il mio capo, e la destra di lui mi abbraccerà.His lefthand vnder my head, and his righthand shal embrace me.Læva ejus sub capite meo, / et dextera illius amplexabitur me. 7I adjure you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and the harts of the fields, that you stir not up, nor make the beloved to awake, till she please.Io vi scongiuro, o figliuole di Gerusalemme, pe' caprioli, e pe' cervi de'campi, che non rompiate il sonno della Diletta, e non la facciate svegliare sino a tanto, che ella il voglia.I adiure you ô daughters of Ierusalem, by the roes, and the hartes of the fildes, that you rayse not, nor make the beloued to awake, vntil herselfe wil.Sponsus. Adjuro vos, filiæ Jerusalem, / per capreas cervosque camporum, / ne suscitetis, neque evigilare faciatis dilectam, / quoadusque ipsa velit.
8The voice of my beloved, behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills.Voce del mio Diletto: ecco, ch'egli viene saltellando pei monti, travalicando i colli.The voice of my beloued, behold he cometh leaping in the mountaines, leaping ouer the little hilles:Sponsa. Vox dilecti mei; ecce iste venit, / saliens in montibus, transiliens colles. 9My beloved is like a roe, or a young hart. Behold he standeth behind our wall, looking through the windows, looking through the lattices.Il mio Diletto è somigliante ad un capriolo, e ad un cerbiatto: eccolo che si sta dietro alla nostra parte riguardando per le finestre, e osservando per le gelosie.my beloued is like vnto a roe, and to a fawne of hartes. Behold he standeth behind our walle, looking through the windowes, looking forth by the grates.Similis est dilectus meus capreæ, / hinnuloque cervorum. / En ipse stat post parietem nostrum, / respiciens per fenestras, / prospiciens per cancellos. 10Behold my beloved speaketh to me: Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come.Ecco, che il mio Diletto mi parla. Sorgi, affrettati, o mia Diletta, colomba mia, speciosa mia, e vieni.Behold my beloued speaketh to me: Arise, make hast my loue, my doue, beautiful one, and come.En dilectus meus loquitur mihi. / Sponsus. Surge, propera, amica mea, / columba mea, formosa mea, et veni: 11For winter is now past, the rain is over and gone.Perocché già l'inverno passò, i tempo piovoso andò via, e sparì.For winter is now past, the rayne is gone, and departed.jam enim hiems transiit; / imber abiit, et recessit. 12The flowers have appeared in our land, the time of pruning is come: the voice of the turtle is heard in our land:I fiori apparvero sulla nostra terra, il tempo di potare è venuto: la voce della tortorella si udì nella nostra campagna.The flowers haue appeared in our land, the time of pruning is come: the voice of the turtledoue is heard in our land:Flores apparuerunt in terra nostra; / tempus putationis advenit: / vox turturis audita est in terra nostra; 13The fig tree hath put forth her green figs: the vines in flower yield their sweet smell. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come:Il fico ha messo fuora i frutti suoi primaticci: le vigne fiorite han dato il loro odore: sorgi, o mia Diletta, mia speciosa, e vieni.the figgerree hath brought forth her greene figges: the florishing vineyards haue geuen their sauour. Arise my loue, my beautiful one, & come.ficus protulit grossos suos; / vineæ florentes dederunt odorem suum. / Surge, amica mea, speciosa mea, et veni: 14My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow places of the wall, shew me thy face, let thy voice sound in my ears: for thy voice is sweet, and thy face comely.Colomba mia nelle fessure della pietra, nell'apertura della maceria: fammi vedere il tuo volto, la tua voce si faccia sentire alle mie orecchie; perocché dolce è la tua voce, e bello il tuo volto.My doue in the holes of the rocke, in the holow places of the wal, shew me thy face, let thy voice sound in mine eares: for thy voice is sweete, and thy face comely.columba mea, in foraminibus petræ, in caverna maceriæ, / ostende mihi faciem tuam, / sonet vox tua in auribus meis: / vox enim tua dulcis, et facies tua decora.
15Catch us the little foxes that destroy the vines: for our vineyard hath flourished.Pigliateci le piccole volpi, che danno il guasto alle vigne; perocché la nostra vigna è già in fiore.Catch vs the litle foxes, that destroy the vineyards: for our vineyard hath florished.Sponsa. Capite nobis vulpes parvulas / quæ demoliuntur vineas: / nam vinea nostra floruit. 16My beloved to me, and I to him who feedeth among the lilies,A me il Diletto mio, e io a lui, il quale tra i gigli pascola. Fino a tanto che il giorno spunti, e le ombre declinino.i My beloued to me, and I to him, who feedeth among the lilies,Dilectus meus mihi, et ego illi, / qui pascitur inter lilia, 17Till the day break, and the shadows retire. Return: be like, my beloved, to a roe, or to a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.Ritorna: sii tu simile, o mio Diletto, al capriolo, e al cerbiatto sui monti di Bether.til the day breake, and the shadowes decline. Returne: be like, my beloued, to a roe, and to the fawne of hartes vpon the mountaynes of Bether.donec aspiret dies, et inclinentur umbræ. / Revertere; similis esto, dilecte mi, capreæ, / hinnuloque cervorum super montes Bether.
2:1
Origen † AD 253
I am. The spouse compares herself to a lily, as she is the fairest flower on the bed, (Calmet) or Christ may here speak. (Worthington) (Isaias 11:1.) (Origen)
Menochius
He praises himself first, that his spouse may hear her own eulogy. (Menochius)
2:2
Calmet
Thorns. The bridegroom enhances the praise of his spouse. The Church, surrounded by infidels and persecutors, maintains her beauty and station. Heretics, etc., are no better than thorns. (Origen) (Calmet)
The Church excels all other societies. In her communion the innocent are preferred before sinners, and among the former, the blessed Virgin [Mary] surpasses all.
2:3
Worthington
As. The Church praises Christ, resting secure under his protection. (Worthington)
2:4
Calmet
Cellar. This was not under ground. Homer (Odyssey b. 237.) places the wine near the nuptial bed. (Calmet)
Haydock
In me. Hebrew, "he brought me to the banquetting-house, and his banner over me was love." (Protestants) (Haydock)
Haydock
He has shewn me the greatest tenderness. Only the religion of Christ lays before us our duties to God, to ourselves, and neighbours. (Calmet) (St. Thomas Aquinas, 2:2. q. 26.) (Haydock)
Menochius
The holy Spirit came on the assembled disciples, who were deemed to be drunk, and Christ nourishes the pious soul with the wine of his own blood. (Menochius)
2:5
Flowers. Hebrew, "bottles."
Haydock
Languish. Septuagint, "am wounded." (Haydock)
Calmet
Those who enter upon the paths of virtue, are often deprived of consolations. (Calmet)
2:6
Calmet
Hand. After peace comes affliction: grace is followed by glory, Proverbs 3:16. (Calmet)
2:7
Worthington
1:Christ permits not his Church to be persecuted, till she be able to bear it. (Worthington)
Haydock
Roes. Septuagint, "armies and power;" the angels and apostles, who have spread the gospel through the world. It would seem that the Jewish women loved hunting, (Calmet) like those of Phoenicia and Lacedaemon. (Virgil, Aeneid i.) They were going to sing, (Calmet) the morning epithalamium, (Theocrit. xviii.) after the first night of the marriage. The second meeting takes place, ver. 8, 17. (Haydock)
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Worthington
The. Feeling the protection of Christ, the Church preacheth boldly the truth against pagans and heretics. (Worthington)
She knows the voice of the shepherd, (John 8:47., and 10:2.) and keeps at a distance the wolves in sheep's clothing, or pretended reformers, who would scatter the flock.
Hills. She sees him returning in the evening with the utmost speed of a stag, as the Hebrew implies, Canticles 2:9., and 8:14.
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Xenophon
Hart, (Proverbs 5:18.) which is swifter that the dogs. (Xenophon, Cuneg.)
Theodoret
This animal is said to destroy serpents, as Christ did the power of the devil. (Theodoret)
St. Ambrose
Wall. Under the old law, Christ was only seen in figure. He manifested himself in the new. Yet our sins separate him from us, Isaias 59:2. He is concealed in the sacred mysteries, (Calmet) and his humanity keeps from our sight the glory of his divinity, which alone can impart full content. (St. Ambrose; St. Bernard)
Menochius
He shewed a glimpse of it at his transfiguration, and by his miracles. (Menochius)
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Arise. He sings under the window, to ver. 16.
Calmet
My dove, is taken from the Septuagint. (Calmet)
Worthington
Christ invites his spouse to approach, though he shews not himself as yet; and orders his pastors to root out heresies, ver. 25. (Worthington)
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Origen † AD 253
Winter. The rigour and darkness of the old law give place to that of light and love. (Origen)
Calmet
After persecution had ceased, pruning became more necessary. (Calmet)
Menochius
The Israelites and the world were redeemed in spring, and the ceremonies of the law were abolished at the same season. (Menochius)
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Haydock
Pruning. Protestants, "singing of birds." (Haydock)
But the former version is better. (Septuagint, Symmachus, etc.)
Calmet
Turtle. Which returns in spring, Isaias 8:9. (Calmet)
It denotes the preaching of the gospel, (St. Cyril, ador. 15.) or rather the sighs of a holy soul in exile.
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Calmet
Rock. Wild pigeons retire thither. (Varro, 3:7.) Koilen eiseptato petren. (Il. 20. Ser. 48:28.) (Calmet)
St. Gregory
Holy souls seek protection in the wounds of their Saviour. (St. Gregory; St. Bernard, ser. lxi.)
Menochius
Wall. In the holy Scriptures, which defend the Church. She is brought to light for the edification of all. (Menochius)
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Psalm lxxx
Foxes. They hurt vines, (Theoc. 5.) and denote false prophets, Ezechiel 13:4. (St. Augustine) (Psalm lxxx.)
Calmet
For. Hebrew, "and our vines of Semadar," ver. 13. (Calmet)
Foxes breed in spring, and greatly infested the country, Judges 15:4.
2:16
Calmet
Feedeth. "His flock." (Septuagint) He still retains the fragrancy of lilies. As married people are two in one flesh, (Ephesians 5:31.) Christ and his Church are irrevocably united. (Calmet)
Worthington
She reposes in him. (Worthington)
2:17
Break. Or "yield a refreshing air," (aspiret) in the morning, (Haydock) and evening, when she begs he will return, (Theodoret) as she could not enjoy his company in the day-time, Canticles 1:1., and 4:6.
Calmet
Bether. Or the lower Bethoron, near Jerusalem. These short visits in the night, shew the vicissitudes of comfort and dryness in the most perfect. Those who are still addicted to their passions, and to the world, can have no pretensions to such favours, which amply repay any passing desolation. (St. Bernard, ser. lxxiv.) (Calmet)
2:1
2:8
The voice of my beloved: that is, the preaching of the gospel surmounting difficulties figuratively here expressed by mountains and little hills.
2:15
Catch us the little foxes.... Christ commands his pastors to catch false teachers, by holding forth their fallacy and erroneous doctrine, which like foxes would bite and destroy the vines.
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Christ professeth himself the floure of mankinde: yea Lord of al creatures.
The Church excelleth al other societies: In the Church the godlie excel sinners, Among the innocent and holie, the virgin Marie surpasseth al.
2:3
The Church praising Christ resteth secure vnder his protectiō.
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He for the weakes sake permitteth her not to be molested, til she be prepared to suffer vvith patience.
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She feeling Christs assistance, confesseth, & preacheth boldly his Gospel, & truth against al Paganes, and Heretikes.
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VVho though he shew not himself visibly:
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yet encorageth her to approch vnto him:
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commandeth his pastors to destroy heresies. i And so she reposeth in him.
2:1
St Ephrem the Syrian † AD 373 Ephraim Syrus: Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh 11
The little flower was faint, because the smell of the Lily
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Holy Spirit 2.5
… “I am the flower of the plain, a lily of the valley.”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Virgins 1.8
43. And I also point out to you what flower is to be culled, that one it is Who said: “I am the Flower of the field, and the Lily of the valleys, as a lily among thorns,”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.19
… “There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a flower shall grow out of his roots.” The rod is the mother of the Lord—simple, pure, unsullied; drawing no germ of life from without but fruitful in singleness like God Himself. The flower of the rod is Christ, who says of Himself: “I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 75.1
… and He says Himself in the Song of Songs, “I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 130.8
… “let thy garments be always white.” As the author and prince of virginity He says boldly of Himself: “I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys.”
St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 1.30
… As for the silver, however, which she professes to have at the marriage, she not only had silver ornaments, but she had them in variety—in widows, in the continent, and in the married. Then the bridegroom makes answer to the bride, and teaches her that the shadow of the old law has passed away, and the truth of the Gospel has come.
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St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 7.1
… And this is quite clear, in the Song of Songs, to any one who is willing to see it, where Christ Himself, praising those who are firmly established in virginity, says,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 93.28
… For it is of the Church that it is said,“As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Concerning Faith of Things Not Seen 11
… For, lest on this subject also the weak should be troubled, divine prophecy hath not been silent, where in the Song of Songs the Bridegroom speaking unto the Bride, that is, Christ the Lord unto the Church, saith, “As a lily in the midst of thorns, so is my best Beloved in the midst of the daughters.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Reply to Faustus the Manichæan 13.16
… As this is taught in the Gospel, so is it foretold by the prophets. We read, "As a lily among thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters;"
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 5.27
… For if they both are themselves there, and are themselves the bride of Christ, can she then be as she is described "without spot or wrinkle," and is the fair dove defiled with such a portion of her members? Are these the thorns among which she is a lily, as it is said in the same Song?
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 48.8
… are both said to be His, and to be strangers: His because of His own Sacraments, strangers because of their own vice. So also strange daughters:
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 139.19
19. Since then the Body of Christ is in the end to be severed in body also from the unholy and wicked, but now meanwhile groaneth among them, what doeth the “love of Christ among the daughters, as the lily among thorns”?
2:3
St Ephrem the Syrian † AD 373 Ephraim Syrus: Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh 12
The free woman, my Son, is Thy handmaid: also if she who is in bondage serve Thee, in Thee she is free: in Thee she shall be comforted, because she is freed; hidden apples in her bosom are stored up,
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Virgins 1.9
… “Set a watch before thy mouth, and a door to thy lips,” that you, too, may be able to say: “As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons. In His shadow I delighted and sat down, and His fruit was sweet to my palate.
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 97.1
… as it is written, “God shall come from the south and the Holy One from Mount Paran, even a thick shadow.” (Hence in the Song of Songs the joyous cry of the bride: “I sat down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my taste.”
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St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 46.3
… If so, we say once more what we said at the outset: love has no logic, and impatience knows no rule. In the Song of Songs the precept is given as a hard one: “Regulate your love towards me.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 15.22
… for love itself is to be ordinately loved, because we do well to love that which, when we love it, makes us live well and virtuously. So that it seems to me that it is a brief but true definition of virtue to say, it is the order of love; and on this account, in the Canticles, the bride of Christ, the city of God, sings, “Order love within me.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 50.2
… How can they lay him out, if they are dead? How can they carry him, if they are dead? How can they bewail him, if they are dead? Yet they do lay him out, and carry, and bewail him, and they are dead; because they are unbelievers. That which is written in the Song of Songs is a lesson to us, when the Church says, “Set in order love in me.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 7.14
… Which arrows “He has wrought for the burning,” arrows, that is, whereby being stricken they might be inflamed with heavenly love. For by what other arrows was she stricken, who saith, “Bring me into the house of wine, place me among perfumes, crowd me among honey, for I have been wounded with love”?
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 16.14
… And therefore it is marked by exceptional treatment, as being something more sublime, because no hateful comparison with others, but a richer grace of superabundant love singled it out. Something of this sort too we have in the character of the bride in the Song of Songs, where she says: “Set in order love in me.”
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Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John 1.36
… Hence, according to the prophetic word, He made His mouth as a sword, as a sharp sword. Can any one behold so many wounded by the divine love, like her in the Song of Songs, who complained that she was wounded:
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 6.16
… But God forbid that any in this fair assembly should appear there suffering such things! but by the prayers of the holy fathers,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 20.21
… And the cloven tongues appeared to them as fire when the Holy Spirit came. And our Lord says, “I am not come to send peace on earth, but a sword.” And Scripture says that the word of God is a doubly sharp sword, on account of the two edges, the two Testaments. And in the Song of Songs the holy Church says that she is wounded with love,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 45.14
14. “Thine arrows are sharp, are most powerful” ( ver. 5 ); words that pierce the heart, that kindle love. Whence in the Song of Songs it is said, “I am wounded with love.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 140.13
… For these I see avail for punishment, those that I am about to speak of, for salvation. For we have spoken of certain coals, when man was seeking aid against a treacherous tongue.…The examples of the “coals” are added to the wound of the arrows (for I need not fear to say “the wound,” when the Spouse herself saith, “I am wounded with love”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 144.7
… and let them say, being set now in the Church, in the Body of Christ, let them say with the Church, “I am wounded with Love.”
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St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.19
… “I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys.” In another place He is foretold to be “a stone cut out of the mountain without hands,” a figure by which the prophet signifies that He is to be born a virgin of a virgin. For the hands are here a figure of wedlock as in the passage: “His left hand is under my head and his right hand doth embrace me.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 66.8
… Wash her with the nitre of which the prophet speaks, and then take your ease with her and say “Her left hand is under my head, and her right hand doth embrace me.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 99.3
… and Christ our God saith, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me.” There is also that divine sense of touch, in accordance with which the spouse saith of the bridegroom: “His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 121.8
… Is there any one in Africa, my brethren, who knoweth her not? For she was most illustrious, noble in birth, abounding in wealth: but all these things were in her left hand, beneath her head. An enemy advanced to strike her head, and the left hand was presented to him, which was under her head. Her head was above, the right hand embraced her from above.
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 6.10
… “Through the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, through honour and dishonour, through evil report and good report, etc.” And of this right and left hand Solomon speaks as follows in the Song of songs, in the person of the bride: “His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.”
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.26
… and we, who see ourselves to be wretched in our severance from the things that are eternal, may not rejoice as though we were happy in the things that are transitory. For hence it is that the Church says by the voice of the elect, His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me (
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St Melito of Sardis † AD 180 Melito, the Philosopher 9
The transition of the Lord —His assumption of our flesh, through which by His birth, His death, His resurrection, His ascent into heaven, He made transitions, so to say. In the Song of Songs: “Behold, He cometh, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills.”
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 13.15
… but Thy Word remaineth for ever, which now appeareth unto us in the dark image of the clouds, and through the glass of the heavens, not as it is; because we also, although we be the well-beloved of Thy Son, yet it hath not yet appeared what we shall be. He looketh through the lattice
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St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 14
9. And whence hath the Saviour risen? He says in the Song of Songs: Rise up, come, My neighbour
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Thessalonians 6
… And again, “Turn unto Me” ( Isa. xlv. 22 .); and again elsewhere, “Turn unto Me, and thou shalt be saved.” ( Isa. xliv. 22 .) And if one was willing to select too from the Canticles, taking them in the more mystical way, he will hear Him conversing and saying to every soul that is fitted for Him, “My fair one, my dove.” (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.41
… “Sing ye unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.” Then shall Thecla fly with joy to embrace you. Then shall your Spouse himself come forward and say: “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away, for lo! the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 108.29
… The entire monastery was filled with bodies of virgins and monks. As soon as Paula heard the bridegroom saying: “Rise up my love my fair one, my dove, and come away: for, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone,” she answered joyfully “the flowers appear on the earth; the time to cut them has come”
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St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 14
10. At what season does the Saviour rise? Is it the season of summer, or some other? In the same Canticles immediately before the words quoted He says, The winter is past, the rain is past and gone
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St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 14
10. At what season does the Saviour rise? Is it the season of summer, or some other? In the same Canticles immediately before the words quoted He says, The winter is past, the rain is past and gone ; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the pruning is come
St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 1.30
… Once more he speaks of the Gospel and of virginity: “The flowers appear on the earth, the time of the pruning of vines has come.” Does he not seem to you to say the very same thing that the Apostle says: “The time is shortened that henceforth both those that have wives may be as though they had none”? And more plainly does he herald chastity:
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St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 1.30
… Let us read the works of naturalists and we shall find that it is the nature of the turtle-dove, if it lose its mate, not to take another; and we shall understand that second marriage is repudiated even by dumb birds. And immediately the turtle says to its fellow:
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St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 14
9. And whence hath the Saviour risen? He says in the Song of Songs: Rise up, come, My neighbour : and in what follows, in a cave of the rock
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St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to the Philadelphians: Shorter and Longer Versions 3
… and if any man does not stand aloof from the preacher of falsehood, he shall be condemned to hell. For it is obligatory neither to separate from the godly, nor to associate with the ungodly. If any one walks according to a strange opinion, he is not of Christ, nor a partaker of His passion; but is a fox,
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 1.31.4
4. Wherefore I have laboured to bring forward, and make clearly manifest, the utterly ill-conditioned carcase of this miserable little fox.
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 32
… And with it is that of Peter. For he honored him while alive. For he “went up to see Peter,” ( Gal. i. 18 ) and therefore even when departed grace deigned to give him the same abode with him. Fain would I see the spiritual Lion. For as a lion breathing (Gr. sending,) (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 15.1
1. Since the East, shattered as it is by the long-standing feuds, subsisting between its peoples, is bit by bit tearing into shreds the seamless vest of the Lord, “woven from the top throughout,” since the foxes are destroying the vineyard of Christ,
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St Methodius † AD 311 Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna On the Day that They Met in the Temple 1
… noxious diseases depart now that salvation looks forth; and the whole universe has been filled with the pure and clear light of truth. To which things Solomon alludes in the Book of Canticles, and begins thus: “My beloved is mine, and I am his; he feedeth among the lilies until the day break, and the shadows flee away.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 130.8
… and thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee.” We are told that the bridegroom feeds among the lilies,
St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 1.30
… I said, “Yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear.” But now with unveiled face behold my glory, and shelter thyself in the cleft and steep places of the solid rock. On hearing this the bride disclosed the mysteries of chastity:
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus 147
… blessed by the boons of God and have learnt to know these passages and others like them, kindled with warm love for their bountiful Master, constantly carry on their lips this His dearest name and cry in the words of the Song of Songs “My beloved is mine and I am his;” “I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.”
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St Ephrem the Syrian † AD 373 Ephraim Syrus: The Pearl. Seven Hymns on the Faith 6.2
… He pitied sinners, and restored them without cost: and made low the mountains of their sins: He proved that God is not to be arraigned by men, and as Lord of Truth, that His servants were His shadow; and whatsoever way His will looked, they directed also their own wills; and because Light was in Him,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 13.14
… hope thou in God;” His “word is a lamp unto my feet.” Hope and endure until the night,—the mother of the wicked,—until the anger of the Lord be overpast, whereof we also were once children who were sometimes darkness, the remains whereof we carry about us in our body, dead on account of sin, “until the day break and the shadows flee away.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 68.8
… Although even if in the sons of them that inheritance be said to have been perfected, we ought more readily to hold to a spiritual sense. For all those things in a figure did happen to them; until the day should break, and the shadows should be removed.
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I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys. — The Arabic version reads "of the torrents": for lilies, because they are dry, delight in waters; the Septuagint translates as our version does; but the Zurich Bible reads, I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily rejoicing in the valleys; Vatablus interprets Sharon as satiety, or rather abundance: just as God, he says, is called Shaddai, that is, the breast and abundance of all good things: for Sharon, says Adrichomius, is a city and a level region, rich and most fertile, very suitable for fattening cattle, and therefore the king's animals were pastured there. It extends from Caesarea of Palestine, and reaches as far as Joppa. This, according to St. Jerome, according to the quality of the soil, when Peter preached, immediately brought forth the fruit of faith, Acts ii, 41, to which Solomon here alludes. For "flower" in Hebrew is חבצלת chabatstelet, which Pagninus, Marinus and Vatablus translate as rose; the Septuagint and St. Jerome here translate it as flower; the same translators, in Isaiah xxxv, 1, translate it as lily; whence the Syriac version for "flower of the field" renders it lily of the most fertile place; others render it bilberry, concerning which Virgil writes: White privets fall, black bilberries are gathered. Certainly Hebrew names of trees, flowers and gems are polysemous, common to many species. For "lily" in Hebrew is שושנה schoschanna, which Guidacerius here translates as violet; but the Chaldean and Galatinus, lib. VII, cap. v, translate it as rose, because this flower grows among thorns, not a lily. Whence for what follows: "As a lily among thorns," they translate it as, as a rose among thorns. But the Septuagint, Aquila, Symmachus in Psalm xlv, 1, and St. Jerome, Aben-Ezra, R. Solomon, the Zurich Bible, Vatablus and others here translate sosanna as lily, from שוש sches, that is, six, namely the leaves with which it is adorned, says R. David. Hence also the Phoenicians and Arabs call the lily susana. Whence Susa, the royal city of the Persians, was thus named from the abundance of lilies growing there, as Athenaeus testifies, lib. XII, and Eustathius in Dionysius, and others: just as the island Rhodes was named from the rose, because it exhibits the appearance of a rose, and Florence from the flower; from Susanna also was named susine oil, which is made from lilies, concerning which Pliny, lib. XIII, cap. i. Furthermore the Chaldean version, inverting the words, translates thus: the assembly of Israel said: At the time when the ruler of the world places his majesty among me, I am like a green lily from the garden of delights, and my works are beautiful as the rose, which is in the field of the garden of delights.
THE FIRST SENSE PROPERLY UNDERSTOOD, Concerning Christ and the Church. Theodoretus, Nyssenus, St. Ambrose in Psalm. 118, sermon 5, the Chaldean, the Hebrews, Philo of Carpathus, likewise Genebrardus, Vatablus, Luisius of Leon and Osorius hold that these are still the words of the bride, not the bridegroom. For she herself had said: "Our bed is flowery;" now she shows whence it is flowery, namely, because "I," she says, am "the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys." Or, as our Sanchez holds it, in a sense reflected from Christ into the Church, as though Christ says to her: You, O bride, say that the bed is flowery, and that the beams of our house smell sweetly, as if made of cedar and cypress; but I ought to be the flower to you, than which nothing ought to please you or smell to you except me. To this exposition it is favorable that immediately is added: "As the lily among thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters." As if the bridegroom says: What wonder is it, if I demand of you, O bride, that you hold me as a flower, as cypress and cedar for you, and that nothing flower or smell to you except me, when you are to me in such a place that other daughters of Jerusalem are thorns and prickly shrubs compared to you, composed with the odor and whiteness of lilies; wherefore I ask or desire nothing great or undue, when I wish you to appear to me such as you yourself appear to me. To this voice the faithful bride often obeys, singing in this epithalamium: "My beloved is mine, and I am his." Furthermore, the Church is called the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys for various reasons: first, Philo of Carpathus brings forward this, as if to say, I the Church am the flower of the field on account of the prophecies of the prophets, but the lily of the valleys on account of the Gospel which I preach; for this smells more sweetly and more healthfully, since it suggests not only precepts, but also counsels of perfection, saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are they that mourn," etc. And therefore Christ: "Consider," he says, "the lilies of the field how they grow: they labor not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was covered as one of these," Matt. vi, 28. Secondly, St. Ambrose, sermon 5 in Psalm 118, verse 1: The Church, he says, is the flower of the field on account of the odor of faith and other virtues; but the lily, on account of the splendor of works. The same, book On the Institution of Virgins, chapter 15: The Church, he says, is the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys, because in the valley of this world she exhales the grace of good odor by diligent confession of sin. Thirdly, three Fathers according to Theodoretus hold that the Church is the flower of the field among the Jews, but the lily of the valleys among the gentiles, as if to say, The Church: "I as regards the gentiles, who through infidelity were deprived of natural equality and depressed by the whirlwind of vices, were as it were a lily rising from the depths to the heights, and ascending from the root to suitable magnitude by the stem, lest it be hidden by the depth of valleys, but display its lofty beauty, I lean upon faith in Christ, and through purification have emerged from the confusion of vices, and am adorned in the pinnacle of contemplation with the beauty of virtues." Fourthly, others hold that the Church here invites the bridegroom to the bed, that is, to the leisure and secrecy of contemplation, from the fact that she herself, wandering about in action evangelizing the gentiles, is despised and trampled by them like a flower which is born in an open field, and like a lily in valleys is trampled or plucked by all men equally as by beasts. Finally, some explain it thus by antithesis, as if to say, I indeed, who am the bride, that is, the Church of Christ, am a flower, but of the field, not of a garden, that is, common, vulgar, vile and abject; but you, O my bridegroom, shine forth with splendor equally as with odor like the lily of the valleys, most white and most fragrant. But it is better that the same Theodoretus, Origen, Aponius, Cassiodorus, Bede, Anselm, Rupertus, Honorius here, and St. Ambrose, book On the Soul and Isaac, chapters 4 and 5, Cyril, On the Incarnation of the Only-Begotten, chapter 9, hold that these are the words of the bridegroom, not of the bride, and this is required by what immediately follows: "As the lily among thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters;" which words are those of the bridegroom, not of the bride, no one doubts. Christ therefore is the flower of the field, or, as it is in Hebrew, the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys, and therefore he makes his bed with the Church flowery (for he alludes to this), as he said a little before, as if to say, You spoke rightly, O bride: "Our bed is flowery," but know that it is flowery, not from you, but from me: "for I am the flower of the field," etc. Thus Bede: Christ therefore is the flower of the field. First, because just as a flower is the ornament of the field, so Christ is of the world, as Origen, St. Ambrose, Bede and others say: for Christ is so much the flower and beauty of the world, that in himself he contains the form, amplitude and excellence of all flowers and beauties. Whence Justus Orgelitanus thus expounds: "I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys, that is, I am the beauty of the world in the virginity of the humble." Christ therefore is a flower, by reason of his singular beauty and fullness of grace, by which he is fairer than the sons of men. That flower, namely, of which it is said in Isaiah, chapter xi, 1: "There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him." A flower that never withers, whose beauty never fails, whose fragrance never diminishes, whose vigor never perishes, ever equally white and ruddy, ever equally fragrant, ever full of grace and truth. Thus Titelmannus. Second, because just as the flower of the field is many and manifold, and is not confined to a garden, but is exposed to be plucked and cherished by all, so also is Christ. Hear Alan: "The field is called the human nature of Christ; for just as in a field the variety of flowers springs forth, so in the human nature of Christ a plurality of virtues. In it was the violet of humility, the rose of patience, the lily of chastity. The flower of this field was Christ, that is, beauty according to the divinity, because from the power of the divinity he had in the human nature the fullness of gifts. Elegantly indeed the human nature of Christ is signified by a field, on account of its amplitude and plainness, because in it there was no scruple of error. Whence also it is said of him: The lily of the valleys. Because perfect humility was in Mary, and in the human nature of Christ, therefore the person of the Virgin, and the human nature of the Word are called valleys, on account of the eminence of humility; and not only valleys, but also dales by reason of likeness, because the Virgin was specially like to Christ." For this reason Christ wished to be born outside the city in a field and country, just as the Blessed Virgin was born in a field amid the bleating of sheep, says Damascene, book IV On the Faith, chapter xv. Third, just as a flower in the field springs forth spontaneously without seed, without ploughing, so also Christ was born of a virgin without the work of man. Just as therefore a flower has the sun as father in heaven, and a plant as mother on earth: so Jesus has God as Father in heaven, the Virgin as mother on earth alone. And just as flowers are generated by the heat of the sun and the falling of dew: so without the work of man, the Holy Spirit overshadowing, and the dew of divine grace flowing down, this flower of Jesse came forth; a flower, that is, the beauty of the field. Again, just as a flower is born from earth and mud: so Christ from the earth polluted with sins, like a most pure flower, germinated. Whence he himself is called צמח tsemach, that is, rising, namely a sprout and flower, Zechariah iii and vi. Hear St. Ambrose, book II On the Holy Spirit, chapter v: "The flower," he says, "of Mary is Christ, who was about to spread the good odor of faith throughout the whole world, germinated from a virginal womb. A flower preserves its fragrance when cut off, and accumulates it when crushed, and does not lose it when torn away; so also the Lord Jesus on that cross of suffering neither withered when crushed, nor vanished when torn away; but by that lance-wound cut off, he bloomed more glorious with the sacred color of spilled blood, himself ignorant of dying, and breathing out to the dead the gift of eternal life." Fourth, Christ is the flower of the field, in Hebrew sharon, that is, of the plain, because on level ground he was born of a humble virgin in humility. Again sharon, that is, most beautiful, because in Sharon, as being the richest and most fertile, as I said a little before, roses and flowers were more beautiful and fragrant than in other places, according to that passage, Isaiah xxxv, 2: "The glory of Libanus is given to it, the beauty of Carmel and Sharon." Fifth, flower denotes that the time of the incarnation of Christ would be spring: for in spring flowers burst forth. Thus Christ was conceived and incarnate on the 25th day of March, for which reason on that day the Church celebrates the feast of so great a mystery under the name of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin. Thus Cassiodorus, Honorius and St. Bernard. Sixth, this flower is a rose, as Vatable and others translate it. But what is more beautiful, what more fragrant, what more healthful than a rose? So also Christ is the beauty, fragrance and health of the world. See what I said concerning the rose at Ecclesiasticus xxiv, 18, at those words: "And as a plantation of the rose in Jericho." Therefore the bridegroom Christ is fair like a purplish rose and a white lily, according to that passage, chapter v, 10: "My beloved is white and ruddy."
AND THE LILY OF THE VALLEYS. But understand here by lily, not that fragrant little flower which the common herd of herbalists now abusively call the lily of the valleys. This lily is called of the valleys, because lilies in valleys, to which dew and rain flow down from the mountains, more easily grow, and there are more fragrant and more beautiful; for since they are dry, they need much moisture. So also Christ is a white and fragrant lily, born from humble earth and a virgin. "In the lily," says Honorius, "five things are considered, because it is white, having a golden color standing out, and it is fragrant, and spreading, and always curved: so Christ is white in his humanity, golden in his divinity, fragrant in his preaching, spreading in receiving penitents, curved in condescending to sinners, and lifting them up;" he himself is the lily of the valleys, namely the ornament of the faithful. For just as valleys are between two mountains, so the faithful are between two laws, or between two peoples, Jews and Gentiles. Secondly, the leaves of the lily are on the outside most white, but inside in the middle of the flower a threefold ray of yellow, and plainly golden color appears: so Christ on the outside displayed the purest humanity, but inside contained the golden divinity, indeed the whole Holy Trinity: "Because in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead corporally," Colossians ii, 9. Thus Aponius: "The flower of the field," he says, "was Christ before the incarnation, because in the whole field of the heavens shining among the heavenly spirits he stood forth admirable; but after the incarnation he became the lily of the valleys, when he descended into the valley of tears, and brought three things, the abolition of sin, the cleansing of falsehood, and the cooling of concupiscence: just as the lily exhibits three things from itself, whiteness, fragrance, and a remedy for all things burned by fires." And Bede: "Beautifully," he says, "in the lily first the outer whiteness gradually opens, and thus at last the grace of golden color, which lay hidden within, is revealed: because the Lord born in the world, first appeared as man sublime to those who truly believed in him; but as time proceeded, the true God became known." St. Ambrose however in Psalm cxviii, sermon 5, inverting the comparison: In Christ, he says, just as in the lily there was the whiteness of divinity and the redness of humanity. To this Cyril of Alexandria adds, in his book On the Incarnation of the Only-Begotten, chapter ix, who thus explains it, as if to say: Just as the odor is invisible in the visible lily, so the incorporeal divinity in Christ the man through hypostatic union was as it were made corporeal. Thirdly, St. Ambrose, book II On the Holy Spirit, chapter v: "Christ," he says, "is the flower of the field, because like a flower in his passion crushed and torn he gave forth a greater fragrance." Fourthly, great is the fruitfulness of the lily. For "nothing is more fruitful than it," says Pliny, book XXI, chapter v, "one root often sending forth fifty bulbs." So what is more fruitful than Christ, from whom so many thousands, indeed millions of Christians have been born? Fifthly, no flower is loftier than the lily: so nothing is loftier than Christ. Hear Pliny graphically depicting the glory of the lily, book XXI, chapter v: "Nor is there greater height in any of the flowers, sometimes three cubits, always with a weak neck, and not sufficient for the burden. Its whiteness is remarkable, with leaves striated on the outside, and gradually loosening themselves from narrowness into widths, in the form of a cup, with lips turned back around the edge, and with a thin thread and seed; standing in the middle are saffrons. Thus the odor and color are twofold, and one of the calyx, another of the stamen, a narrow difference." Mystically, Origen: Christ, he says, was a flower inglorious to the Jews, because despised by them; but a lily glorious to the Gentiles, because they themselves recognized and honored the glory of Christ. Symbolically, Honorius: The field, he says, that is uncultivated earth, is the order of virgins in the Church, whose flower is Christ, because he is its delight, crown and reward. But the valley is the order of the married, situated between virgins and the continent, as between two mountains, whose lily is Christ, namely the whiteness and joy. "And as the lily is among thorns," in beauty and fragrance: so the Church of the perfect is among the daughters of Jerusalem, that is among the imperfect, excelling in the beauty of life and the fragrance of doctrine. The perfect are called so, because they have left all worldly things, the Lord saying: "If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor," Matthew xix, 21. The imperfect are called so, because they still use the world, of whom it is said: "Thy eyes have seen my imperfect thing, and in thy book all shall be written," Psalm cxxxviii, 16. Fifth, Christ is the lily of the valleys because in valleys, that is in the humble, He stirs up hope of future glory: for God exalts and glorifies the humble. For the lily is a symbol of hope. I gave the reason, Hosea xiv, 6, to those words: "Israel shall spring up as the lily." Therefore the valley of humility is a lily-bed of virginity, grace and glory. Finally, Christ in all the saints flowers and is fragrant as a lily, namely as a lily of purity in virgins, of patience in martyrs, of humility in monks, of penance in penitents, of doctrine in doctors, etc. Whence St. Gregory: "Well," he says, "Christ names himself a flower, who while he destroys the thorns of sins, adorns the mind of the bride with the beauty of his justice, and while he applies heavenly desire to the nostrils of the heart, refreshes the inner parts of the soul as it were with fragrance." More clearly St. Bernard, sermon 47: "A flower," he says, "is virginity, a flower is martyrdom, a flower is good action. In the garden virginity, in the field martyrdom, good work in the bridal chamber." And after some remarks: "He himself is the flower of the garden, a virgin born of a virgin branch. He is the same flower of the field, a martyr, the crown of martyrs, the form of martyrdom. Finally he was led outside the city, suffered outside the camp, was lifted up on wood to be seen by men, mocked by all. He himself is also the flower of the bridal chamber, the mirror and example of all beneficence."
SECOND PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the holy soul. First, Nyssenus, homily 4, teaches that Christ is the flower of the field in holy souls, whom his grace makes fruitful, so that they become like a very broad and fertile field, which produces all kinds of flowers. Origen adds, homily 3 from four, that Christ is the flower of the field to beginners and the simple, but to those making progress the lily of the valleys on account of the brightness of wisdom and modesty. For he himself is the brightness of eternal light, the splendor and figure of the substance of God, Wisdom vii, 26. Second, Cassiodorus, Bede and St. Ambrose, in the place already cited, say that Christ is the flower of the field in any of the faithful; but the lily of the valleys, that is of the humble, because in the humble his grace shines forth more. Third, Ambrose, book III On Virgins: "The flower of the field," he says, "is Christ, because he frequents the simplicity of parents with a pure mind; but the lily of the valleys, because he is the flower of humility and simplicity." Fourth and most fittingly, Christ is a lily in chaste and pure minds, such as are of the valleys, that is of the humble: for chastity and virginity are the germ and flower of humility. Thus St. Jerome, epistle 8 to Demetrius: "Christ," he says, "as the author of virginity and prince speaks confidently: I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys." Again the soul itself that is chaste is a lily. For, as Theodoret explains: "The lily shines both with outward beauty, and contains within a golden little flower. Such is a soul surrounded with the splendor of justice, and bearing in its innermost recesses the spiritual gift of wisdom and knowledge." Hence also chaste and virgin bees, inasmuch as they produce offspring without intercourse and make honey, delight in the lily as it were virginal, as Pliny testifies, book XXI, chapter xii. For this reason an angel brought down from heaven to St. Cecilia and St. Valerian, who preserved virginity in marriage, crowns of roses and lilies, as their Life has it. The same happened to SS. Julian and Basilissa, as appears from their Life in Surius, on the 9th of January, and to others of the same kind and virtue. Therefore give lilies in full baskets to virgins. Anagogically, Eucherius in book III of Kings: "Christ," he says, "is a lily on account of the glory of resurrection, white without on account of the glory of the body, but golden within on account of the brightness of the soul. And before the passion indeed a lily as it were closed, on account of the passion truly he was crowned with glory and honor; after the passion however a lily opened out, inasmuch as in the assumed humanity he showed the power of divine brightness, which he had with the Father before the world was." But Theodoret asserts that Christ was the flower of the field in the incarnation, but the lily of the valleys in the descent to hell: for in hell are the lowest valleys of the world.
THIRD PRINCIPAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin. All these things belong most excellently to the Blessed Virgin above all. Singularly indeed, that from her as from an unploughed field there came forth a beautiful flower, namely Christ, and from her womb as from the most humble valley was born a most beautiful and fragrant lily, namely the same Christ, as I said a little before from Alan and others.
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For lily, the Chaldean, Vatablus and others translate rose, because this is thorny, and is born from a thorny branch, not a lily. But Solomon does not say this lily is born from a thorny branch, but simply that it is among thorns, that is to say, Just as a lily placed among thorns shines forth, so my beloved, that is my bride, gleams among other women. Again, lilies often grow among brambles and thorns, as when they are planted or sown near thorny hedges. Whence the Septuagint translates, as a lily in the midst of thorns, so my neighbor (Aquila beloved, fifth edition beloved) in the midst of daughters. The Chaldean, explaining this of the Synagogue, that is of sinning Jews in captivity, thus expounds it, that is to say, Just as a lily is pricked by thorns, so the Synagogue on account of sins is punished by Babylonian or Roman captivity; whence he himself, taking these as words of the bride, that is of the Synagogue, thus translates, But in the time when I turn aside from the ways which are right before him, and he himself takes away the majesty of his holiness from me, I am compared to a rose, which germinates among thorns, by which its leaves are pierced and torn: thus I am wounded and torn on account of the worst impositions in captivity, among the provinces of peoples.
THE FIRST SENSE PROPERLY ADAPTED, Concerning Christ and the Church. The Bridegroom, verse 1, called himself a lily; now the same name and praise he transfers to the bride, but with the addition of among thorns. I explained lily in verse 1; here I shall explain among thorns. First, three Fathers in Theodoret explain it, that is to say, Just as a lily sown among thorns, from those it rises up and is born, so the Church of the Gentiles was called and born from the thorns of infidelity and of infidel Gentiles. Christ therefore acted as a hunting dog, says Hugh, who pursuing a beast thrusts his head within the prickles of thorns, not fearing laceration, in order to catch the beast: he drew out the Church as a beast lurking within thorns, that is within the reprobate, but he endured the prickings of thorns even unto the shedding of blood, in sign of which he wore a crown of thorns on his head upon the cross. Second and more properly, that is to say, Just as a lily among thorns far surpasses them in beauty, odor and whiteness: so the Church surpasses all other sects of Jews, philosophers, politicians, etc. Thus Origen, Theodoret and Justus Orgelitanus. Third, that is to say, Just as a lily grows and thrives among thorns, so the Church thrives and flourishes in the midst of heretics and wicked Christians, who prick and lacerate her as thorns; but she herself nevertheless, as a lily in her whiteness, odor and splendor of doctrine and holiness, remains, indeed amid persecutions shines forth with greater odor and brightness of fame. Thus St. Gregory, Aponius, Philo Carpathius, St. Bernard here, and St. Augustine, book On the Unity of the Church, chapter xiii. Hear Honorius: Just as I am, says the bridegroom, a lily of the valleys, namely the ornament of the humble: so shall you be, my beloved, a lily of thorns, that is the glory of the Gentiles; and just as I am a lily among thorns, namely Jews pricking and lacerating me: so shall you be, Church my beloved, among the nations, daughters of Babylon, that is of confusion, which shall prick you wounded with many thorns, and shall lacerate you with many punishments. In a thorn three things are noted, it flowers quickly, it withers quickly, it pricks with prickles: thus the wicked flourish quickly in riches, wither quickly in virtues, and are fit for fire, and prick the good with evil morals. Anagogically, St. Augustine, book V On Baptism against the Donatists, chapter xxvii, by the bride understands the Church of the elect, by thorns the assembly of the reprobate, that is to say, Just as thorns surround a lily, so the reprobate surround the elect; but these flourish among the reprobate in grace and glory, as a lily among thorns: "for daughters, says Rupertus, when said absolutely, almost never have a good signification, as in these: Daughters ran about upon the wall. But they exasperated, etc., Gen. xlix, 22, and elsewhere: Many daughters have gathered together riches, etc. Proverb., chapter xxxi, verse 29. Therefore thorns and daughters are blasphemies of Jews, sects are of heretics." Moreover by daughters he chiefly denotes Sionides, that is Hierosolymitans and Jews.
THE SECOND PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Holy Soul. First, Origen, homily 3 from the four, thus explains it, as if to say: Among the daughters, that is, worldly and carnal souls, which are made effeminate by the pleasures of the flesh, and are pricked and tormented by them as if by thorns, and as daughters are born from the father the devil: the holy soul flourishes like a lily, which has no care or concern for food or clothing, but transfers all of that to God; wherefore by Him it is marvelously clothed and fed with fragrance and beauty. For in a similar manner the pious soul is touched by no care of the flesh, but resting in God's providence is nourished, adorned and illuminated by Him. Whence Christ with this lily similitude persuades the faithful not to be anxious about food and clothing, Matt. vi, 28. Origen has similar passages, homily 3 from the four. Second, St. Ambrose, book III On Virgins, understands by the lily among thorns the contrition of the heart; for thus he says: "As a lily among thorns. Is not among the harshness of labors and the contritions of souls a good flower of fragrance raised up, because God is pleased with a contrite heart?" Third, St. Gregory understands by the lily among thorns the innocence of life among the wicked: "Well," he says, "as a lily among thorns, the bride is said to be among the daughters; because when there are many in the Church who confess Christ by words alone, but by works pursue nothing but human concerns, she alone is reckoned in the dignity of a lily, who rises from the root of mortality to heavenly beauty, and preserves the whiteness of purity in heart and body for herself, and refreshes her neighbors with the fragrance of good reputation." Fourth, Gregory of Nyssa, homily 4, thus explains it, as if to say: Just as a lily is born and flourishes among thorns, so the holy soul grows in virtue amid tribulations, and shines forth more brightly. And St. Ambrose, On the Institution of Virgins, chapter xiv: Christ, he says, was a lily in the midst of thorns, when He was in the midst of Jews who slandered Him, accused Him and crucified Him. By His example therefore He stirs up the faithful to bear and overcome persecutions and tribulations of any kind with a strong spirit. Thus Cassiodorus, Aponius and Anselm. For God has surrounded this whole life with so many thorns, that is, tribulations, so that the soul, seeing itself pricked by them everywhere, may turn its love away from all the goods of the world, as being thorny, and place it wholly in God the Spouse. Thus the thorns preserve the lily, that is, the purity and virginity of the soul. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 48, treating this matter most excellently and wisely: "I am turned in my anguish, while the thorn is fixed, Psalm xxxi, 4. The thorn is guilt, the thorn is punishment, the thorn is the false brother, the thorn is the wicked neighbor. As a lily among thorns, so my beloved among the daughters. O shining lily, O tender and delicate flower! the unbelieving and subversive are with you: see how carefully you walk among thorns. The world is full of thorns: they are on the earth, they are in the air, they are in your flesh. To move about in these and be not at all harmed is the work of divine power, not of your virtue. But be confident, He says, because I have overcome the world, John xvi, 33. Although therefore you see tribulations threatening you from all sides like the prickles of thorns, let not your heart be troubled, nor let it fear, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience trial, and trial hope, and hope confoundeth not, Rom. v, 3. Consider the lilies of the field, how they thrive and shine among thorns. If the hay, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, God thus preserves, how much more beloved and dearest spouse? Finally, the Lord keeps all those who love Him, Psalm 144:20. As a lily among thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters. He then adds something which wonderfully exaggerates and perfects the force and splendor of this lily: "Truly no small title of virtue, to live among the wicked as a good person, and to retain the whiteness of innocence and gentleness of character among the malignant; but especially if you show yourself peaceful and friendly to those who hate peace and the peacemaker and yourself to enemies. This will indeed justly vindicate for you the likeness given of the lily by a certain right of special property, in that it ceases not to illuminate and adorn the very thorns that prick it with its own whiteness. Does not the lily therefore seem to you to fulfill in some way the perfection of the Gospel, by which we are commanded to pray for those who calumniate and persecute us, to do good to those who hate us, Luke 6:23. Therefore do likewise also in your face, and your soul will be the friend of the Lord, and will praise you, saying of you: Because as a lily among thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters. Is not this great force of the lily, great, I say, virtue of a holy and apostolic soul, that it not only overcomes thorns but converts them into lilies, so that it makes a Paul out of Saul, a preacher out of a persecutor, an angel out of a demon? St. Jerome fittingly, in epistle 140 to Principia, compares St. Marcella and Asella to the lily: "You have, he says, in the study of the Scriptures and in the sanctity of mind and body Marcella and Asella: of whom one may lead you through green meadows and the various flowers of divine volumes to Him who says in the Song: I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys (for Marcella was indeed learned in Scripture, as the same Jerome teaches in epistle 16); the other herself the flower of the Lord (Asella) may merit to hear with you: As a lily in the midst of thorns, so is my beloved in the midst of the daughters."
THE THIRD PRINCIPAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin. Rupertus thus expounds it, as if to say: Just as Christ like a lily was pierced by the thorns of the Jews and heretics, so also the Blessed Virgin was pricked and pierced by the same. "Therefore, he says, these thorns and daughters are the blasphemies of the Jews, the sects of the heretics: whatever thorns of this kind lacerated me: whatever daughters of this kind envied you and detracted from me. Where I was pricked by thorns, indeed even fixed by nails, you present suffered with a wounded mind; and where your virginity is disparaged by the daughters, to me also it is enviously detracted. But just as I indeed endured thorns, but overcame them: so also of you it will be truly proclaimed, that you destroyed all heresies." Hence St. Augustine says: "Christ Jesus offers flesh, Mary the virgin offers mind." In the Revelations of St. Bridget, book VI, chapter 30, St. Agnes revealed to her, as if the Blessed Virgin sustained as many blows of the sword through compassion as she foresaw and saw wounds and plagues in her son. Hear what St. Bridget writes concerning the Blessed Virgin in the Angelic Sermon, chapter 16: Just as a rose is accustomed to grow among thorns, so the Blessed Virgin grew in this world among tribulations; and just as, the rose growing, the thorns also grow, so this most elect rose, Mary, the more she grew in age, the more sharply was she pricked by the thorns of stronger tribulations: what these tribulations of hers were, he explains in what follows. Again from this place Galatinus and Bellarmine, vol. III, book IV, chapter 15, hold that the Virgin was conceived without any original stain: for just as from a thorny plant is born a rose without thorns, in which there is wonderful beauty pleasing to the sight and sweetness pleasing to the smell, so from so many sinners was born the innocent and holy Blessed Virgin. You would say the same of the lily. Wherefore, as Blessed Peter Damian says, sermon 3 On the Nativity of the Virgin: "From the thorny lineage of the Jews was born the whiteness of virginal chastity shining in body; but it burned with the fire of twofold charity in mind, it gave forth everywhere the fragrance of good work, it tended to sublime things by the continuous intention of the heart." For the thorns, among which the lily is said to be, and from which the rose derives its origin, the Fathers interpret as the lineage of the Mother of God, from which she herself contracted nothing harsh, nothing horrid, but was altogether sweet and pleasant, not otherwise than as a lily and rose. Wherefore Sedulius, book II On the Most Holy Virgin, thus sang: And as a soft rose arises among sharp thorns, / Having nothing that harms, and obscures the mother with honor: / So from the sacred stock of Eve coming Mary, / The new Virgin atoned for the deed of the ancient Virgin: / As a thorn bore a rose, Judaea bore Mary. The Church, praised by the bridegroom in the manner of praise, returns praise to him in turn; each does this in the bucolic manner, that is pastoral and rural, seeking a likeness from the countryside and trees. For here the bridegroom is introduced as it were a shepherd, and the bride as a shepherdess, pasturing a flock, and tending gardens, fields and vineyards. She therefore says: You praise me, O bridegroom, because I shine forth as a lily among thorns; but I have this from you, who first shone forth as an apple tree among the barren trees of the forest: for you communicated to me, as a bridegroom to a bride, your beauty and preeminence. For a bridegroom makes his goods common to his bride, indeed his own.
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LIKE AN APPLE TREE AMONG THE TREES OF THE FOREST. — The Arabic version: like a pomegranate apple in a tree of the forest, so is my beloved among the sons; Vatablus, among young men, that is to say: By as much as the apple tree excels and stands out among other wild forest trees, and by as much as it imparts a useful and healthful air where it provides shade, and by as much as its apples are better than acorns, and by as much as man, who feeds on these, surpasses all other living creatures that feed on them: by so much, and indeed far more, does my heavenly spouse excel all other men and the beloved, that is, those who are loved and lovers. Moreover, the Chaldean version translates it thus: behold, like a fair and praiseworthy citron apple among barren trees, and the whole world knows it: thus the Lord of the age was praiseworthy among the angels at the time when he was revealed on Mount Sinai, when he gave the law to his people. In Greek mallon, in Latin malus or melum, or word for word melum (as the interpreter of Origen has it, whence also the Italians call apples mele), is a tree, the apple tree, bearing apples. Now apples generically are all fruits in common which have a soft rind; just as nuts have a hard one: wherefore figs, pears, grapes, peaches, cherries, plums, service berries, medlars, olives, dates, etc., are reckoned as apples. Dionysius the Carthusian adds here: "Although, he says, there were many holy virgins, yet in comparison with the most blessed Virgin they appear as it were thorns, inasmuch as they had something of fault; and although they were clean in themselves, yet the tinder of concupiscence was not wholly extinguished in them: and they were thorns also to others, who from the sight of them were pricked by concupiscence. But the Mother of God, the Virgin, was wholly immune from all fault, the tinder of concupiscence was fully extinguished in her; and yet she was filled with intense charity: wherefore she so penetrated the hearts of those who beheld her by her inestimable virginal chastity, that she could be desired by none; nay, rather she extinguished their lust for a time." Again, just as the lily avails against serpents and poisons, so the invocation of the Blessed Virgin is a singular remedy in every temptation of vices, and especially of lust, as experience shows. Hear Pliny, book XXI, chapter xix: "The roots, he says, of the lily have this property, that they bear fruit against the bites of serpents when drunk in wine, and against the poison of fungi." But Dioscorides, in book III, chapter xc, where he treats of the lily: "The leaves, he says, of the herb applied to the bites of serpents bring relief; the same boiled in water for burns from fire, and when preserved with vinegar for wounds." The same Dioscorides, in book XV, chapter i, concerning another species of lily, which in Latin is called iris, and in Italian the heavenly lily, teaches that its root drunk with vinegar brings healing to the bites of venomous animals. And Peter Matthiolus in his Commentary adds that the same root crushed into powder and drunk with vinegar is universally beneficial against all poisons. First therefore the Church compares Christ the spouse to an apple, that is, to an apple tree, because just as the apple tree is fruitful and excels the other barren and unfruitful trees of the forest, so Christ excels all angels and men: for all of them are from themselves as it were unfruitful trees, but from the grace of Christ and God they have in many ways ennobled their flower against the bites of serpents, and have that they may bear fruit of the virtues of grace and glory. Thus Origen, Cassiodorus, Bede and others. But St. Bernard, sermon 48, contends that Christ is here compared and preferred to men only, not indeed to angels, and this is true in strictness, as Nyssenus, Aponius, Philo Carpathius, Rupertus and others also hold. Secondly, just as apples exhale a sweet odor, so also Christ by his odor and fame draws all to himself. Hence the apple in Hebrew is called תפוח tappuach, from the root פוח puach, that is, he breathed forth, he exhaled, because apples exhale a sweet odor. Hear St. Ambrose, sermon 5 on Psalm cxviii, verse 1: "Like an apple among the trees of the forest. Such an apple has a pleasant odor, so that it surpasses the fragrance of other apples. Christ therefore affixed to the wood, like an apple hanging on a tree, poured forth the good odor of the world's redemption, which wiped away the foul stench of sin, and poured forth the ointment of the drink of life." Thirdly, the apple tree, or apple, has various species of trees under it, which accordingly bear apples and fruits of different species, and these of excellent taste, color and odor, such as golden apples, medlar apples, pomegranates, peaches, quinces, apricots, citrons: so also Christ germinates all species of virtues and graces, so that in virgins virginity, in martyrs martyrdom, in the contemplative contemplation, etc. Fourth, Christ is truly to us a fruit and apple, that is, food by which we are nourished and fed, both in the doctrine of the Gospel, as Theodoret, St. Ambrose, Bede, Aponius and St. Bernard hold; and properly, as Philo of Carpathus, Origen, Gregory of Nyssa and Anselm believe, in the Eucharist. The apple, says Gregory of Nyssa, delights your senses, namely sight by its color, smell by its odor, and taste by its flavor. Christ does the same. Philo of Carpathus adds that the apple gives food and also gives drink: thus also Christ, he says, in the Eucharist gives his flesh as food, his blood as drink. Whence Aponius and Psellus understand by apple here the pomegranate, from which red and watery juice is expressed, just as from the side of Christ on the cross flowed blood and water. Hear St. Gregory: "Rightly therefore by the apple Christ is figured, but by the wild trees other men are figured: because in Christ alone, whenever we seek the food of salvation, we find it; in his words and examples, we refresh our souls with sweet and healthful fruit. He is indeed the tree of life, which he bestows upon us. He is the one who, while he inspires himself into us, feeds the soul. In others, however, if we find anything of refreshment, we take from them not what is theirs, but what is Christ's, because whatever in them is apart from God, we assuredly find to be deadly to us." Fifth, Gregory of Nyssa, homily 4, teaches that Christ descended into the forest of this life, so that from wild trees he might make fruitful ones, namely from unbelieving men he might make believers, from impious men pious, from unchaste men chaste, from proud men humble: just as a branch of an apple grafted into a beech or another wild tree, in it and from it produces its fruits and apples. All these things, with the name changed, apply to the holy soul and the Blessed Virgin. Finally, "the apple among the trees of the forest" is the cross, and Christ crucified in the midst of thieves, says Aponius, Psellus, Theodoret, Rupert and St. Bernard. And this first, because, just as Adam sinned in the apple, eating the fruit forbidden by God: so Christ made satisfaction hanging in the apple on the cross, so that where the fault had been committed, there also satisfaction might be made; and he who "conquered in the tree, might also be conquered in the tree." Second, because the apple has the form of a cross (as much as the apple in a ship, with its masts and sails): for the trunk has the form of a beam; the branches, however, of the crossbeam in the cross: for in the branches of the apple spread out, just as in the crossbeam, nails can be driven through the outstretched arms of the crucified one. Third, because this very thing confirms what follows: "Under the shadow of him whom I desired, I sat: and his fruit was sweet to my palate," that is to say, Under the apple, that is under the cross of Christ I sat, and I tasted its fruit. Fourth, because it is the opinion of many that the cross of Christ was made from the palm: but the palm is an apple, because it produces dates, which, since they have a sweet and soft rind, are called apples. Fifth, because this is signified, chapter viii, 5, when it is said: "Under the apple tree I raised thee up," where there is more on this matter. Whence alluding to this, Fortunatus, and from him the Church in the Office of the Passion and Cross, thus sings: O faithful Cross, among all / One noble tree: / No forest brings forth such / In leaf, flower, and fruit: / Sweet wood, sweet nails, / Sweet weight dost thou bear. The bride therefore says: "As the apple among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the sons," that is to say, with St. Ignatius: "My love is crucified;" I love none except Christ crucified. And with St. Paul: "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world," Galatians vi, 14. Hear St. Ambrose in Psalm cxviii, sermon 5, verse 1: "These are the dwellings of the cross of Christ and of the sepulcher, in which the Church was wounded, but with a wound of charity. For it is a wound which Christ received; but it is a salve which he poured forth; it is an apple which hung. This apple the Church tasted, and said: And his fruit was sweet in my throat. And that you may know that the Lord is an apple, you read above: As an apple among the trees of the forest, so is my kinsman."
I SAT DOWN UNDER HIS SHADOW WHOM I DESIRED: AND HIS FRUIT WAS SWEET TO MY PALATE. The Septuagint, in Symmachus, under his shadow I desired and sat, that is, I ardently desired his shadow, and having desired it I enjoyed it, and under it I sat most pleasantly; Vatablus, whose shadow I sought, and under it I shall sit; the Arabic, I desired to be shaded by his shadow, and I sat. He persists in the similitude of the apple tree: for the apple tree gives a better shade than the plane tree, whose shade nevertheless is esteemed most pleasant, as Pliny testifies, and Plato in the Phaedrus, where he introduces Socrates disputing under a plane tree: "For this plane tree," he says, "is spread out with very broad branches, and is tall, and its height and shadiness are exceedingly beautiful and pleasant," etc. For fruit-bearing trees, such as the apple tree, inasmuch as they are in themselves more temperate and more pleasant than barren and wild trees, so also they emit a more temperate and more pleasant shade than those: add also the fruits, by which they lighten the hunger, heat and thirst of travelers dwelling under them. Note, that under the shadow signifies the betrothal of the bride: for the bride was formerly accustomed to be covered by a canopy, or shade, or mantle of the bridegroom, by which it was signified that she was under the care and protection of the bridegroom as a bride. Whence Ruth, chapter iii, 9, desiring marriage with Booz, who as a near kinsman according to the old law was bound to take her, says to him: "Spread thy mantle over thy handmaid, because thou art a near kinsman," that is, take me into thy shadow, namely into thy family, house, care and protection, take me as thy wife, betroth me to thee, and as a sign of betrothal associate me with thee under the shadow and covering of thy mantle. And God to the Synagogue, Ezech. xvi, 8: "Behold thy time," he says, "the time of lovers: and I spread my garment over thee." The same was the rite of the gentiles. Whence Euripides in Stobaeus introduces a father thus instructing his daughter: "When thou shalt come under the mantle of an excellent man, leave the rest of thy studies to thy husband." Finally, the Angel Gabriel said to the Blessed Virgin, Luke i, 35: "The power of the Most High shall overshadow thee," that is to say, the Holy Spirit as a bridegroom shall receive thee with his shadow, and shall work in thee the mysterious incarnation of the Word. The Chaldean, receiving these things according to the custom of the law given by Moses to the Synagogue and the Jews, thus translates: in the shadow of his majesty I desired to dwell for a time; and the words of his law were sweet to my palate; and the rewards of his precepts are kept for me in the world to come.
THE FIRST SENSE PROPERLY ADAPTED, Concerning Christ and the Church. You will ask, what is that shadow of Christ which the Church seeks, and under which she sits happily and rests, and the holy soul? They answer, first, that some say it is the incarnation, or the Word incarnate: for the Church most eagerly awaited this as the unique remedy for her countless evils through so many thousands of years. For the Word is light and immense brightness, whose shadow is the body and humanity assumed by him; for this as it were conceals and veils the divinity and majesty of the Word. Humanity therefore is the shadow of divinity, which through its thin veil shines forth and gleams obscurely. Second, properly and genuinely the shadow of Christ is the providence, care and protection of the Church and the holy soul, as his bride, according to that of Isaiah, chapter li, 16: "In the shadow of my hand have I protected thee, that thou mayest plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth." Thus Origen, the Nyssen, Cassiodorus, Ambrose, Philo, St. Anselm and others. From this power of Christ as it were animated, the shadow of St. Peter healed any sick persons whatsoever, Acts chapter v, 15. Hence concerning Christ Jeremiah says: "In thy shadow we shall live among the nations," Lamentations chapter iv, 20, and Hosea xiv, 8. The Septuagint translates it as to our shaded bed, namely Christ the bridegroom. And the Psalmist: "And in the shadow of thy wings I will hope," Psalm lvi, verse 2. Third, the shadow of Christ is the Holy Spirit: for just as a body casts a shadow, and is veiled and overshadowed by it: so Christ, as God, breathes forth the Holy Spirit, and is as it were veiled and covered by him. Hence the Holy Spirit, overshadowing the Blessed Virgin, formed, organized, animated in her womb the body of Christ as man, joined it hypostatically to God the Word, Luke chapter i, 31; just as a hen, brooding over eggs in the shadow of her wings, by her heat forms the chick, animates, vivifies and hatches it, as Theophylactus says in Luke i. Hear St. Gregory: "The shadow of Christ is the protection of the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit overshadows the mind which it fills, because it tempers all the fervor of temptations; and while the breeze of its inspiration gently touches the mind, it expels whatever harmful heat it was suffering; and the mind which perhaps excessive heat of vices had already made faint, the shadow of the Holy Spirit protecting recreates it, so that, while sitting in his inspiration it rests, it gathers strength by which it may run more robustly toward eternal life." Fourth, Origen, Theodoret, Philo of Carpathus and St. Ambrose in Psalm cxviii, sermon 5, understand by shadow the old law, in which the Church says she sat before Christ, when she still dwelt in the Synagogue of Moses: for the law was the shadow of the Gospel, just as Moses was of Christ, and the Synagogue of the Church. Fifth, fittingly St. Bernard, sermon 48, understands by shadow faith, which is shadowy and obscure: for by faith we walk and not by sight, but faith leads us to clear vision in the heavens.
THE SECOND PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the holy soul. A holy soul does not stand under the shadow of the crucified Christ, but sits, that is, dwells continually through meditation, prayer, contemplation, especially when tormented and pressed by some temptation or tribulation, as if by the heat of the sun: for the crucified Christ communicates to her both the strength of His cross and a share in His power, indeed often refreshes her with great and wonderful consolations from heaven, so that she prefers to be on the cross with Christ than in delights with the world. Whence also Blessed Francis Xavier in the labors and hardships of the Indies was so abundantly filled with heavenly sweetness that he cried out: "It is enough, O Lord, it is enough; for my mind in this life cannot bear so great a weight of joys." Thus St. Ambrose in Psalm. cxviii, serm. 5. This is what the Psalmist sings: "But the children of men shall put their trust under the covert of thy wings. They shall be inebriated with the plenty of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of thy pleasure," Psalm. xxxv, 8. Theodoret notes in the Philotheos, or History of the Holy Fathers, cap. ix, that a soul devoted to the crucified Christ reveres, loves and honors not only Christ, but also His garment, His house, His shoes, and whatever bears, however faintly, some shadow of Him. Secondly, the shadow of Christ is the sacrament of the Eucharist, for in it under the species of bread the divinity and humanity of Christ are hidden: which therefore the faithful eagerly desire, and under it rest securely: thus St. Bernard, serm. 48. Thirdly, the shadow of Christ is the saints: for just as a shadow is an image of the body, but faint and inadequate, so the life of the saints is an image of the life of Christ, but only shadowy, and does not equal it: wherefore a pious soul, while living in the assembly or congregation of the faithful and saints, is protected by it as if by a shadow, and is warmed by the examples and counsels of those saints. Thus three Fathers in Theodoret. Fourthly, Origen thinks that by shadow is signified progress in virtue: for just as a shadow grows from midday toward evening, so also the virtue of a holy soul grows and advances day by day. Again, shadow leads to the body. "Therefore strive, when you shall be worthy of the shadow, says Origen, that you may be able to receive His shadow, and the effect will come to you (so to speak) His body, from which the shadow is born, and then you will feel the sweetness of His fruit, and you will say: And His fruit was sweet to my throat."
THE THIRD PRINCIPAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin. Shadow denotes the betrothal of the Blessed Virgin, as I said a little before, according to that passage, Luke i, 35: "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore that which shall be born of thee shall be called holy, the Son of God." This overshadowing therefore as it were betrothed her to the Holy Ghost, who accordingly formed in her Christ, the Holy of Holies, and then filled her with the sweetest fruit of consolation and contemplation. Again, the shadow of the Blessed Virgin was not only the Holy Ghost, but also Christ: for He is called her beloved, that is, her spouse. The Blessed Virgin most earnestly desired His coming and incarnation: wherefore before His coming she sat under His shadow, both because from faith in Christ incarnating Himself in her she drew all her grace, even the incarnation itself in advance; and because all her hope, desire, consolation, protection, and every good was to hope for Christ to be born, to see and love Him being born, and to enjoy Him already born.
AND HIS FRUIT IS SWEET TO MY THROAT. The Septuagint: to my palate; Vatablus: and his fruit is most sweet to my palate. You will ask, what is this fruit of Christ? I answer: the first fruit of Christ is the remission of sins, justification, grace and virtues. Also the preaching of the apostles and the conversion of the gentiles: thus St. Ambrose in Psalm cxviii, sermon 5. The second fruit of Christ is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, which St. Paul enumerates, Galatians v, 22, saying: "The fruit of the Spirit is: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness," etc. For Christ, sending the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and the faithful at Pentecost, sent with him these his gifts and fruits together. Thus three Fathers in Theodoret. The third fruit, real and corporeal, sweet to the throat, both of body and soul, is the Eucharist, by which Christ feeds us, and with its sweetness, as it were of heavenly manna, inebriates the mind. Thus Aponius, Rupertus, and St. Bernard, sermon 48. For the love of Christ and his benefits, such as the Eucharist, are represented here by various figures and schemes. The fourth fruit of Christ is his word and heavenly doctrine, and therefore most salutary and most sweet: whence also the Gospel, that is the good and happy tidings, is called so, because it announces the kingdom of heaven and the way to reach it. Thus Nyssenus, homily 4, and St. Ambrose, annotation to chapter xvi of Exodus. The fifth fruit is continuous meditation on the law of the Lord, says Origen; and more so contemplation of Christ, his divinity, incarnation, passion, etc. Thus St. Gregory, whom hear: "The fruitful tree is Christ himself planted in our heart through faith, whom if our mind loves worthily and cultivates earnestly, it surely produces fruits inwardly beautiful and useful. Which while the mind grasps and eats eagerly, it sets aside all the pleasures of the world for its sweetness. For it is very sweet to think on heavenly things, to fix the inner eye on eternity, so that sometimes even in tears the mind inflamed is pricked with compunction, and lifted up among tears by the food of angels, namely wisdom itself, feeds itself the more sweetly, the more eagerly. Hence it is that what follows is added: He brought me into the cellar of wine." Thus by contemplation of Christ as with heavenly manna St. Magdalen was fed, sitting at the feet of Jesus; whence she merited to hear from him, Luke x, 42: "Mary hath chosen the better part, which shall not be taken away from her." And St. Augustine in Soliloquies, chapter xxii: "I beseech, he says, that all things become bitter to me, that thou alone mayest appear sweet to my soul." The same in the Manual, chapter xx: "The loving soul, he says, is drawn by vows, borne by desires, conceals merits, closes its eyes to majesty, opens them to pleasure, placing itself in salvation, and acting confidently in it. By love the soul withdraws and rises above bodily senses, so that it does not feel itself, which feels God. This happens when the mind, drawn by the ineffable sweetness of God, in a certain way steals itself from itself, nay is seized and carried away from itself, so that it may enjoy God for joy. Nothing is so joyful, unless it were so small. Love gives familiarity, familiarity with God gives boldness, boldness gives taste, taste gives hunger. The soul which love of God touches can think of nothing else, desire nothing else, but frequently sighs saying: As the hart panteth after the fountains of water, so my soul panteth after thee, O God. And after some things: Safe and firm rest is for the weak and sinners in the wounds of the Saviour. I dwell secure there: the bowels are opened to me through the wounds: whatever is lacking to me from myself, I take for myself from the bowels of my Lord, because mercies abound, nor are there lacking openings through which they may flow. Through the openings of the body, the secrets of the heart are opened to me, the great sacrament of piety is opened. The bowels of the mercy of our God are opened, in which he hath visited us, the Orient from on high. The wounds of Jesus Christ are full of mercy, full of piety, full of sweetness and charity." Thus St. Bonaventure, visited by St. Thomas Aquinas, and asked from what book he drew such wise, pious and sweet senses and words which he poured forth in teaching and writing, showed him the image of Christ crucified, and said: "This is the book, Father, which suggests to me all that I teach and write. For at the feet of this crucifix my soul draws greater lights from heaven than from all reading, disputation and study." Thus our Father Ribadeneira in the Life of St. Bonaventure from the Chronicles of St. Francis. Anagogically St. Bernard, sermon 48: "He says, he says: And his fruit is sweet to my throat. Deservedly had she desired his shade, from which she would receive both refreshment and refreshment together. For the other trees of the forest indeed have the shade of comfort, but not the refreshment of life, not the perpetual fruits of salvation. For there is one author of life, one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who says to his spouse: I am thy salvation. Not Moses, he says, gave you this bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven, John vi, verse 32. Therefore she had especially desired the shade of Christ, because he alone is he who not only refreshes from the heat of vices, but also fills with the delight of virtues."
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HE BROUGHT ME INTO THE CELLAR OF WINE (In Hebrew, into the house of wine; for the Hebrews call a cellar, a stable, a chamber, indeed every vessel and receptacle a house), HE ORDERED CHARITY IN ME. — Aptly, following the sequence of the drama, after the bride said: "His fruit is sweet to my throat," she adds: "The king brought me into the cellar of wine," because the fruit, that is, food and eating excites thirst, which therefore, so that the bride might alleviate it, after eating the fruit she is brought into the cellar of wine. Again, as rightly St. Bernard, sermon 49: "Having," he says, "enjoyed a sweet and familiar conversation with the beloved according to her wish, when he departed the bride returned to the maidens, so refreshed and inflamed by the sight and speech of him, that she appeared like one intoxicated. And as if they, wondering at the novelty and seeking the cause, she answered that it would be no marvel if she were heated with wine, she who had entered into the cellar of wine; and according to the letter thus. According to the spirit also she does not deny being intoxicated, but with love, not with wine, except that love is wine." These words therefore are the bride's to her companions, or maidens, to whom she relates that she was brought by the bridegroom into the cellar of wine, and there drunk with the wine of charity, and likewise received the order of charity. Moreover the Septuagint translates, bring me (O maidens, or rather, O companions of the bridegroom, namely apostles and teachers) into the cellar of wine, order charity in me, that is to say, I burn with love of the bridegroom, and therefore I am parched and tormented with spiritual thirst: you therefore, O companions of the bridegroom, bring me into the cellar of wine, where I may quench this thirst, and at the same time, order charity in me, that is, adorn me with those garments, jewels, and all other things which may make me lovable to the bridegroom, and which befit a bride of so great a bridegroom, so that I may deserve to celebrate the nuptials with him devoutly. Hence also the Syriac in its manner
THE FIRST SENSE PROPERLY UNDERSTOOD, Concerning Christ and the Church. The bride is brought by the bridegroom from the shadow of evil into the wine cellar, that is, into a place of delights and nectar, where she drinks the wine of charity, so that she may receive the grace of mysteries and the sweetness of joy, says St. Ambrose in Psalm cxviii, sermon 5. You will ask, what is this wine cellar? First, Origen, homily 3 from four, Theodoret and others understand it as the house of wisdom, namely gymnasiums or temples into which the faithful people are brought, so that there they may draw from teachers and preachers the wine of true wisdom, that is, knowledge, fear and love of God. Hence St. Gregory and Aponius understand by this cellar Sacred Scripture, for this indeed dispenses to us the wine of heavenly wisdom; and through this, says St. Gregory, charity is ordered in the bride: because in its doctrine it is clearly learned how God and neighbor are to be loved in order. To this the Chaldean adds, who nevertheless in his manner adapts these things to the Synagogue and the law of Moses: "The assembly of Israel said, the Lord brought me into the house of the gymnasium of the doctrine of Israel on Mount Sinai, so that I might learn the law from the mouth of Moses, the great scribe." This is relevant to the fact that he calls the old law wine old; the new law and the Gospel, however, new wine, which they put into new wineskins, and both are preserved, Matt. cap. ix, vers. 17. Second, others more rightly understand by the wine cellar the altar: for in this priests consecrate, draw and distribute the eucharistic wine, namely the blood of Christ, according to the precept of Christ. Thus Nyssenus, homily 4, Psellus, Rupert and Paschasius Radbertus, tract. On the Eucharist, cap. xi. Thus the sense is, as if to say, The king himself, the bridegroom, brought me into the storehouse of wine, that is, commanded me to enter into the altar of God, and there to take the cup of salvation of the Lord, which gladdens God, which gives life to man: thus in place of the vineyard which I abandoned, I have obtained the cellars of better nectar. Solomon alludes here to that passage of Proverbs, cap. ix, vers. 1: "Wisdom hath built herself a house, etc. She hath killed her victims, mingled her wine, and set forth her table." See the remarks there. Third and most appropriately, the wine cellar is the congregation of the faithful in Zion, to which was given from heaven the fullness of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, by which he filled the apostles and the faithful with heavenly gifts, ardors and fervers, so that, as if drunk with the new wine of divine love, they might utter forth the great works of God, Acts ii. Thus Justus Orgelitanus and St. Bernard, sermon 49: "Is it not," says St. Bernard, "that wine cellar seemed to you to be that house in which the disciples were gathered together, Acts ii, 2, when suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting, and fulfilled the prophecy of Joel? And did not each one of them going out, drunk from the abundance of that house, and having drunk from the torrent of such great pleasure, not merit to say: Because the king brought me into the wine cellar?" See the same St. Bernard, sermon 3 On Pentecost. The wine cellar therefore is the fullness of the Holy Spirit, or of charity and zeal. Symbolically, three Fathers in Theodoret understand by the wine cellar the mystery of the Incarnation, as if the Church were to say to the angels, or to the apostles and teachers: "Bring me into the wine cellar, that is, teach me the divine reasons of the Incarnation; for God the Word is called wine, because it affects the souls of those who taste it with joy, and leads them to divinity. Its cellar is the flesh assumed by him; into which indeed the Church is brought, about to become one flesh with Christ. For thus the Apostle interprets that passage: And they shall be two in one flesh, Ephes. v, 32: But I, he says, speak in Christ and in the Church; for the Church of the faithful, while it becomes a partaker of the flesh and blood of Christ, and becomes one body with him, and learns the reasons of the Incarnation from the angels, and proves them by its conduct, enters into the wine cellar. In me brought in, order charity, namely that communion of divine grace, by which you enjoy in order, in me also, the individual faithful according to each one's capacity, instituting in divine mysteries, order." Mystically Theodoret, Cassiodorus, Bede and Anselm understand by the wine cellar the Church, in which we draw the wine of wisdom and divine love. See Hugh of St. Victor, sermon 45 Inst. monast., where he shows that individual souls of this cellar are wine vats. Whence Origen, homily 2 from two, introduces the bridegroom thus speaking to novices: "Bring me into the house of wine. Why do I remain outside so long? Behold I stand at the door, and knock: If any man shall open to me, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. He speaks likewise to catechumens: Bring me in, not simply into a house, but into a house of wine. Let your soul be filled with wine of joy, with wine of the Holy Spirit, and thus bring me into your house, the bridegroom, the Word, wisdom, truth."
SECOND PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Holy Soul. The wine cellar is the house of prayer and the study of prayer and contemplation; for in it God sets before the faithful the wine of consolation, exultation, divine love and fervor. Thus St. Gregory, Cassiodorus, Haymo, St. Bernard and others. Hear St. Gregory: "For what, he says, do we more fittingly understand by the wine cellar than the very secret contemplation of eternity itself? In this eternity the holy angels are made drunk with the wine of wisdom, while seeing God Himself face to face, and are satisfied with all spiritual delight. If the holy mind is introduced by the Bridegroom into this place, setting aside all temporal things, it enters in, where it tastes as much as is granted to it of those angelic delights. And if still, because it is held in a corruptible body, it is not perfectly satisfied: nevertheless from that smallest portion, which it quickly takes, it considers how much it ought to love what it loves." And St. Bernard, sermon 49: "If anyone, he says, by praying obtains the mind to exceed into that divine mystery, whence he soon returns most vehemently inflamed with divine love, and burning with zeal for justice, and moreover exceedingly fervent in all spiritual studies and offices, so that he can say, Psalm xxxviii, 4: My heart grew hot within me, and in my meditation a fire shall flame out, he plainly, when from the abundance of charity he shall begin to belch forth the good and healthful surfeit of the wine of gladness, will not undeservedly be said to have entered into the wine cellar. For since there are two excesses of blessed contemplation, one in the intellect, and the other in the affection; one in light, the other in fervor; one in knowledge, the other in devotion: pious affection indeed, and a breast burning with love, and the infusion of holy devotion, and even a vehement spirit filled with zeal, are brought back from no other source than from the wine cellar; and whoever is granted to rise from prayer with an abundance of these things, can speak in truth, saying that the king hath brought me into the wine cellar." The same St. Bernard, sermon 23, assigns three cellars to the Bridegroom, the aromatic, the ointment-maker's, and the wine cellar: he says the first is of discipline; the second, of nature; the third, of grace. And he adds that it is called the wine cellar, "because in it the wine of zeal burning in charity is stored. Nor should he at all preside over others who has not yet merited to be introduced into it. It is absolutely necessary that he who presides over others should burn with this wine, just as the Doctor of the Gentiles burned when he said, II Corinthians xi, 29: Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is scandalized, and I am not on fire? Otherwise you would be presiding most improperly over those whose welfare you do not care to promote; and you most ambitiously claim for yourself the subjection of those whose salvation you do not zealously seek." "Moreover, the wine which is drunk in the cellar of God is charity and love, says William. Nothing is more chaste than this wine, more savory, more ardent: more chaste, because the more it is drunk, the more it extinguishes the thirst of concupiscence; more savory, because it affords a taste of how sweet the Lord is, and therefore gladdens the heart of man; more ardent, because like fire it inflames the minds of the pious, burns the reins and hearts, powerfully intoxicates the soul, and leads it even to forgetfulness of itself: plainly such drunkards shall possess the kingdom of God." The mystics, or contemplatives, understand by the cellars the intimate and supreme union of the soul, not of any soul, but of the Bride, that is of an exceptionally holy and contemplative soul with Christ in the Eucharist, which takes place not only through the common affection of charity, but also through the effect and real conjunction of the purest minds with Christ; which is perfected in the depth of the heart, and as it were in the innermost center of the soul in an ineffable act of love and mutual embrace, to which from that state one is happily sometimes led by singular divine goodness, just as in divine prayer one sometimes passes from contemplation to real union and embrace with God. This most blessed union they say is nothing other than the intimate manifestation of the very presence of Christ hidden in this Sacrament, not so much through vision and revelation, as through the sweetest embraces, by which He binds the soul so ineffably and sweetly that it most certainly perceives His real presence, His kisses and embraces, and tastes His goodness and ineffable sweetness in its source. This wonderful union, if it be considered on the part of Christ, is nothing other than an infusion, or a manifestation of Christ himself existing hidden in the Sacrament, yet revealing himself to the most purified minds under the aspect of supreme light, and with a certain ineffable contact pertaining to flesh and spirit: which contact is nothing other than the sweetest embrace and kiss of Christ, by which he caresses his most beloved bride. But on the part of the soul it is a mutual embrace, which is followed by an experimental perception of Christ himself, through which spiritual sweetness is possessed in God himself. Moreover, that perception corresponds to no man's merits or disposition, since it is grace freely given and granted by the mere liberality of Christ to very few. Thus from St. Cyprian, St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure and others, our Salianus, book XI On the Love of God, chapter xii. Far more intimately, more profoundly, more joyfully, more ineffably are blessed souls united to God through beatific vision and love, by which in the divinity, as in a sea of happiness and all goods, they are plunged and absorbed, so that they can think, will, love, or desire nothing other than God or for the sake of God.
THE THIRD PRINCIPAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin. Rupertus asserts that the Blessed Virgin was brought into the wine cellar, when, wine failing at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee, most delicious wine was procured for the guests through the miracle of Christ; and at the wedding of the whole world, that is in all mankind, she procured through Christ the mystical wine, namely the incorruptibility of souls and the immortality of bodies. "He brought me therefore into the wine cellar, she says, and ordained charity in me, that is, he made me understand that he came for this purpose, that he might convert the watery weakness of the human race into his wine, that is into the strength of his immortality, and that I ought to prefer the divine will to my affections. For this is to have ordered charity, to wish indeed that such a beloved should not die, but rather to desire the salvation of all mankind."
HE ORDAINED CHARITY IN ME. In Hebrew דגלו עלי אהבה dighlo alai ahava, that is, his standard over me is charity; the Septuagint appears to have read (as indeed some now read) with a different pointing דגלו dighlu, that is, set in order or arrange; whence they translate, arrange charity over me; and Symmachus, heap up charity over me; and St. Ambrose, sermon 5 on Psalm cxviii, establish love in me; and the ancient rabbis, make notable, or magnify charity over me. Our author, omitting the final letter ו vau, appears to have read דגל dagal, that is, he set up a standard, that is, he ordained charity in me. But it is not necessary to resort to this: for from the Hebrew dighlo alai ahava, that is, his standard over me is charity, if you supply the present verb, you rightly translate, his standard over me is charity, that is, he set up a standard of charity over me, which Our author aptly translates, he ordained charity in me, in the sense which I shall presently give; the Septuagint, however, supplying an optative or imperative, or let it be, translate, his standard over me be charity: supply and propose: Make his standard over me be charity, that is, set in order or arrange charity over me. The Septuagint are followed by Symmachus, St. Ambrose and the rabbis; St. Jerome, however, in book III on Zechariah chapter xiv, reads, place charity over me; the Syriac, they ordained toward me, or against me love; finally the Arabic, they ordained against me temptation, or trial. You will ask, why does Our author and the Septuagint translate the Hebrew דגל dagal, that is, he set up a standard or raised a standard, as ordained? I answer, because the word ordained here has the force of a military term, and signifies the ordering of armies, camps and battle lines. For the whole force and entire strength of an army consists in its proper ordering, which if it be maintained, there is certain hope of victory: but if the ranks be thrown into confusion, its destruction and ruin are certain. Hear Vegetius, book II On Military Science, chapter xiii: "The ancients, because they knew that in battle, when combat was joined, ranks and battle lines were quickly thrown into confusion, lest this could happen, divided cohorts into centuries, and appointed a single standard to each century, so that from which cohort or which century it was, was written in letters on that standard, which the soldiers reading or observing could not wander from their comrades in any tumult." The same author, chapter xx, teaches that the Romans deposited part of the pay of soldiers at the standard of each cohort, so that soldiers would fight more bravely for it, knowing that they were fighting for their pay. The bride therefore says: The bridegroom, leading me into the wine cellar and giving me to drink of the wine of charity, so filled and strengthened me with it, that he seemed to have drawn up and ordained from it a strong army and a robust battle line in me, by which against all enemies, persecutions, temptations, tribulations, concupiscences and vices I might fight bravely and wisely alike, overcome them, and triumph over them unconquered. For the various offices and acts of charity are as it were many soldiers of charity, which joined together form its army. Whence Symmachus translates, heap up charity over me. Moreover, just as in an army strength consists in the correct disposition and ordering of soldiers, so also the strength of charity consists in the correct distribution and ordering of its duties and acts. For first God must be loved, then on account of God one's own soul, third one's neighbor, and he in his own degree and order: for first must be loved bodily and spiritual parents, then brothers, next relatives, then other men, each in his own degree and order. But if you invert the order of charity, you lose and overturn charity. Therefore, He ordered charity in me is nothing other than if He had said: He placed me under the standard of charity, He commanded me to serve in this order. Our author rightly used the word of ordering, as also the Septuagint did, both because, as St. Augustine says, book XV, chapter xxii of The City of God, "nothing else is perfect and true virtue than the order of love"; and because the bride by these words meant this: I am not maddened by that sweet nectar, concupiscence does not boil up in me, I am not driven into frenzy or wander about in bacchanalian fashion; but I am well composed in myself, my love is sober, and I fully hold the proper estimation of things and persons, and their dispositions and order, because I follow charity as a guiding star; this has always been ordered, no less than a battle line arrayed with its standards. For thus charity places God in the first place, itself in the second, neighbors in the third; and these very ones some in the front ranks, some in the middle of the line, some in the rear guard. Thus the Nyssene, Aponius, Honorius, and others here, and St. Fulgentius, book I to Monimus, chapter xx, St. Augustine or whoever is the author (for the style differs from St. Augustine's), book On the Substance of Love, chapters iv and v, and from these Delrio. To this pertains the distribution of duties, as it were of soldiers, in the Church and the distributed order, concerning which the Apostle, I Corinthians xii, 4: "There are diversities of graces, but the same Lord: and there are diversities of operations, but the same God, who worketh all in all." And after some things, verse 28: "And God indeed hath set some in the Church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly doctors, after that miracles, then the graces of healing, helps, governments, kinds of tongues, interpretations of speeches." Furthermore, from the Hebrew דגל dagal, that is, he set up a standard, manifold and indeed wise and profound senses can be drawn out. First, Vatablus translates: whose (the bridegroom's) standard toward me is love. For commanders are accustomed to draw soldiers after them by a standard, so the bridegroom drew the bride to himself and his camp by love as by a standard. Second, just as in a captured citadel the victor's standard is raised, in which his insignia are displayed: so the bride, conquered by the bridegroom's benefits and captured and possessed by them, so that charity, which is the bridegroom's standard, is now raised over her. Whence the Chaldean translates: and I received the standard of his precepts over me in love, and I said: All things which the Lord hath commanded, I will do and hear. Third, Gislerius, as if to say: The bridegroom, introducing me into the house of wine, into the house of love and pleasure, raised up in me, whom I follow in all things, love, which he proposed to me, which I should follow, and which I should keep unharmed continually, just as soldiers follow and protect a standard. Fourth, Sotomayor, as if to say: Just as in a well-ordered battle line soldiers, legions, cohorts and squads are accustomed to look to the standard or standard-bearer for victory and glory: so I always have my bridegroom as the aim proposed to my love, and I direct all my actions toward him and exact that they be pleasing to God, honorable and well-ordered, and finally worthy of glory, according to that which Paul commanded, I Corinthians chapter x, 31: "Whether you eat or drink, or do any other thing: do all to the glory of God." Moreover, the standard of the charity of Christ is the standard of the cross. For on the cross Christ showed invincible and supreme charity, both toward God and toward men; whence through it He triumphed over sin, death, the devil and hell. For which reason Constantine the Great had this standard of the cross shown to him in the sky with this inscription: "In this sign thou shalt conquer," and he carried it before his camps against Maxentius and other tyrants, and called the labarum as it were the end of labors, that is, the end and limit; for through it he prostrated all enemies, as Eusebius testifies, book I On the Life of Constantine, chapter xxii and following. Fifth, Titelmannus from the Chaldean translates: his glue, or joining to me is charity, as if to say: The bridegroom is intimately joined to me through charity, and is as it were glued together through glue, just as papers are glued together. Sixth, the Rabbis translate it, He marked in me charity, or His mark toward me is love, that is to say, the Bridegroom loves me not in an ordinary way, but in a remarkable way; for He has shown me remarkable and singular offices of love. Or He has poured into me great, remarkable and ardent charity by which I may love Him in return. Seventh, our Sanchez argues forcefully with the Syriac version, translating it, He arranged love against me like an army arrayed in battle, that is, arranged by ranks and standards, that is to say, I could not resist the strength of the Bridegroom, because He poured forth all the forces of love upon me, because He overwhelmed me with His offices and benefits, and as it were pierced and wounded me with the arrows of love: overcome therefore by love, pierced and overwhelmed, I give and devote myself entirely to my conqueror. Now the ranks which the Bridegroom arranged in me, and by which He armed Himself to assault my soul, are those things which powerfully attract to loving in return: first of all the most gentle manners of my Bridegroom Himself, His singular care for me, His generous nature, His remarkable beauty, His amorous caresses, His exquisite gifts, my dowry vineyard. Of the standards: one is Christ's, the other Lucifer's, and each enrolls soldiers, and calls to his standard those whom he can. The standard of Christ has charity as its insignia, Lucifer's has cupidity. Moreover in the wine cellar of each, both are drunk; where again there is an allusion to those who enroll soldiers: for these lodge in taverns, and there, offering wine to those who come, thus allure them to enlist in the name of military service. Again the Cossacks, the Dutch, and many others, when they wish to undertake something arduous and dangerous, are accustomed to set before soldiers casks of wine (and sometimes burnt wine at that), so that, heated by wine, they may put aside the fear of death, and rush boldly upon the enemy. Thus Christ gives us drink with His blood in the Eucharist, so that, drunk with His love, we may generously run to death and martyrdom, if need be. Tropologically, charity excels the other virtues, and raises its standard above all, and calls all to it; which if they follow, they transcend all things, and heap themselves with great praise and merits, as the Apostle teaches, 1 Corinthians xiii, 4: "Charity," he says, "is patient, is kind," etc. Hence charity arranges the other virtues like the ranks of God: In the first place it puts faith; in the second, humility; in the third, hope; in the fourth, penance; in the fifth, patience; in the sixth, mercy, etc. Again this order of charity establishes the virtues themselves, and makes them firm and solid. Whence St. Ambrose, Psalm cxviii, sermon 5, verse 1, reads, establish in me love, and thus explains it: "A good garrison (a military station and fortification) where there is fullness of charity." But the Nyssene, homily 4, referring the Greek τάξατε to military ranks, translates it, then ordain, then establish and confirm: "Since," he says, the bride, who at first was beloved, through disobedience was reckoned among enemies, now having returned to the same life, joined to the Lord through charity, now says this: Confirm for me this grace, and make it stable and immovable, you friends of the Bridegroom, preserving for me by study and diligence the inclination toward what is better." Finally the arms, that is, the offices of charity, are invincible, nor can anyone resist them, according to that passage, chapter viii, 6: "Strong is love as death, hard as hell is emulation, etc. Many waters could not extinguish charity, nor shall rivers overwhelm it." Indeed even philosophers felt the same: "If you wish to be loved," says one, "love." That I may prove myself a Pylades, let someone prove himself an Orestes: This is not done by words; Mark, that you may be loved, love. Do you wish therefore to overcome an enemy, nay to subdue him, and make him your friend, anticipate him with offices and benefits: for thus you will "heap coals of fire upon his head," Romans xii, 20. Hence St. Augustine, book XV On the City of God, chapter xxii, teaches that virtue is nothing other than the order of love, nor vice anything other than the disorder of love. For every creature, he says, since it is good, and can be loved well and badly: well, namely with order preserved; badly however, with order disturbed, etc. Whence it seems to me that the brief and true definition of virtue is the order of love, for which reason in the holy Song of Songs the bride of Christ, the city of God, sings: Order charity in me. Therefore, with the order of this charity, that is, of dilection and love, disturbed, the sons of God neglected God and loved the daughters of men. By these two names the one and the other city is sufficiently distinguished. For in the city of God there is order of love, but in the city of the devil there is disorder of love: because the pious love God above all things, all creatures for the sake of God; the impious however love creatures more, for example honor, gold, delights, than the Creator. Moreover, because this order of charity is difficult, therefore the Church and the holy soul asks of angels and holy men: "Order charity in me," according to the Septuagint. Whence St. Jerome, epistle 8 to Marcella: "Dilection," he says, "has no order, and impatience knows no measure; whence in the Song as if something difficult is commanded: Order charity in me." To this St. Bernard accedes, sermon 49, who by the ordering of charity understands discretion, which tempers and directs zeal: "Zeal without knowledge," he says, "is always found to be less effective and less useful; often moreover it is felt to be very harmful. The more fervent therefore the zeal, and the more vehement the spirit, and the more abundant the charity, the more vigilant knowledge is needed, which may suppress zeal, temper spirit, order charity." Moreover Aponius teaches that charity is ordered in the Church, when she herself learned it from the contemplation of the highest order, which is in the Holy Trinity: "In which order of charity," he says, "what else must be believed to be first imbibed, except that he believe and acknowledge that the Father must first be named, in whom the Son always, as the word in the voice; second the Son, in whom always the Father; third the Holy Spirit, who by true reason is proved to proceed from the voice and word of the Father and Son, according to that at the beginning of the Decalogue: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart; the second order is: With thy whole soul; the third order is: With thy whole strength." More concerning order and charity to be ordered, see in St. Bernard, sermons 49 and 50, where he assigns this order of dilection, so that the dilection of God be preferred to the dilection of man, and among men themselves the more perfect to the weaker, heaven to earth, eternity to time, soul to flesh. And he adds that charity always prefers the better in affection, but not in act: for in act greater dilection and care must be shown to those more in need, and to those whose care is committed to you, than to strangers, although holier. But hear a few things from many: "Give me a man, who with ordered love may intend, despising earth, looking up to heaven, using this world as if not using it, and between things to be used and things to be enjoyed discerning by a certain intimate taste of the mind. All these things are easy to apply, both to the holy soul and to the Blessed Virgin, in whom charity was so ordered that she would rather her son die than souls perish. Hear Rupert, who introduces her speaking thus: "Long ago the order of charity had taught me, so that I would indeed bear sorrow, and the sword of just sorrow in mind or soul, yet I would not wish the purpose of God to be turned aside, which was to result in glory and honor to him, and to the human race eternal salvation."
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For "sustain me with apples," in Hebrew it is "spread me out in apples"; the Zurich Bible, "lay apples under me"; Vatable, "strengthen me with apples"; the Septuagint, "constrain me with apples"; the Scholastics, "surround me with apples"; others, "heap apples upon me," namely fragrant ones, such as golden apples, citrons, pomegranates; the Syriac, "they placed me in delights, they surrounded me with apples, because I am weak with love." For "flowers" in Hebrew it is אשישות ascischoth, which those who Hebraize translate as "flagons, cups, chalices of wine." But indeed the bride was already filled with wine in the wine cellar. Why then does Our translator better render it "flowers," both because flowers correspond to apples, and because those suffering from fainting are accustomed to have their soul and breath recalled by a mild and sweet odor, such as that of flowers. Whence also the Septuagint translates it as μύρος, that is, unguents, which are made from fragrant flowers: where however Origen notes: "In the Greek," he says, "it is found: Confirm me with myrrhs; naming myrrh a certain kind of tree, which the Latins, thinking it was called myrrha, interpreted as unguents." Origen therefore for μύρος, that is, unguents, reads μύρραις, that is, myrrh trees, that is, the flower or tear of myrrh: for the flower by its odor refreshes the faint, not the tree. But in the homily translated by St. Jerome it is reported from another interpreter as "ananthine"; and ananthe is the flower of the vine, or wild vine, when it blooms. See Dioscorides, book V, chapter iii, and book I, chapter lvii. Again, Symmachus clearly translates, "make me recline in flower." It appears therefore that Our translator, equally with the Septuagint and Symmachus, interprets the Hebrew asisoth as flowers, perhaps from the root שוש sos, that is, "he rejoiced"; for flowers are the joy of spring, the laughter of fields, the gladness of nature and man. Thus, Isaiah xvi, 7, it is said: "Those who rejoice" (in Hebrew it is אשישים lauscischim) "over the walls of baked brick," as Our translator and Symmachus render it, so that asisoth is called whatever exhilarates and brings joy. Or certainly Our translator took אשישות asisoth for ציצות tsitsoth, that is, flowers: for the letters ש and צ, since they are akin and of nearly the same sound, are sometimes exchanged for one another. But the initial Aleph is taken as a wintry and formative element of the name, not as a radical: wherefore asisoth here is the same as tsitsoth, that is, flowers. Finally, asisoth properly signifies foundations or supports, which in this place are to be understood as those of languor, namely as refreshing, and recalling the soul from fainting to itself: but such are flowers and similar fragrant things. The bride in the wine cellar so filled herself with wine of divine love that, when the bridegroom withdrew, she was left fainting from the vehemence of love, grew faint and collapsed. She therefore calls upon her companions, and cries out to them: Bring help, bring flowers and apples to her who is failing, by whose fragrance I may recall the fleeing spirit, and by their presence as it were on a throne and pillows may I be raised up and sustained upright. Thus the Church began to languish after Jesus, having instituted in her the venerable Sacrament of his body and blood, sent the Holy Spirit, who inflamed the hearts of the faithful with incredible ardor of charity and of martyrdom and with fervent zeal to lead many others with him to eternal glory. Hence those words bursting forth from the depths: "I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me. Thou knowest, Lord, that I love thee." Thus St. Bernard, sermon 51: "After all these things," he says, "the bridegroom withdrawing in his manner, she declares herself to languish with love, that is, from love. For the more gracious a presence she had experienced, the more burdensome an absence she subsequently felt. For the withdrawal of a thing which you love is an increase of desire; and what you desire more ardently, you bear the loss of more painfully. She therefore asks to be cherished in the meantime with the fragrance of flowers and fruits, until he returns whom she bears most painfully to be delayed." apples, concerning which here, to be sustained and supported: because upon flowers and apples, that is, upon the bridegroom's breast, she reclines and rests. Moreover, John the Carmelite explains it thus, as if the bride says to her companions: To my Spouse, who is the flower of the field and the apple tree among the trees of the forest, sustain me in my soul's fainting on account of him. Surround me with apples, that is, encircle me with my Spouse as with a fiery rampart, so that I may be gradually burned by his fire, until like the phoenix devoting itself to death, the desired fire consumes me. It appears therefore that the bride emulates the phoenix, whose nature, when it is about to die, is such that it gathers twigs of aromatic trees and the tops of flowers, so that it may build a nest, in which lying down it is burned by the kindled fire. It plucks twigs of cinnamon, amomum, frankincense and similar shrubs, nard ears and similar flowers. Thus the bride from the apple tree and the flowers of the field, according to the sense expounded, seeks to prepare for herself a nest, in which lying down she may await death, passing through the fire of the Spouse, dying to herself, and being transferred into the life of the Spouse. Secondly, three Fathers in Theodoret, Philo of Carpathus and Nyssenus understand by flowers and apples virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit, and especially the gift of fortitude, which strengthens the wavering soul. Moreover, Philo explains "Surround me with apples" as if to say, "Bury me in the number of the just." Others understand by flowers and apples the heavenly consolations which God sends to holy souls in desolation. Thirdly, plainly and genuinely Titelmann: Flowers, he says, and apples are the most sweet and honeyed words and deeds of Christ, by the memory and meditation of which the Church and the pious soul languishing in his desire sustains and strengthens itself, until it sees him face to face and enjoys his presence, just as the bride languishing in love for her absent spouse consoles herself with his words and promises and letters and little gifts which she keeps with her, and passes the time until he returns and speaks with her mouth to mouth. To this Theodoret adds, who understands by flowers, or as he himself reads from the Septuagint, ointments and apples the memory of Christ: "Sustain me with ointments," that is, he says, strengthen me and share with me the sweetness of the Spouse, so that nothing may shake and weaken me. Heap upon me that constant fragrance, so that I may not forget the Spouse and wander to other things. With apples, that is, with the fruits of the Spouse, surround me, so that sitting under his shadow and anointed with his ointments and surrounded with his fruit, I may preserve perpetual memory of him: for I am wounded by love of him, since he is the chosen arrow that pierces souls. To this also pertains the explanation of St. Ambrose in Psalm 118, sermon 5, who understands by flowers and apples the memory and meditation of Christ crucified; for these sustain and strengthen the failing soul, as being fixed on the cross of Christ: "These," says St. Ambrose, "are the dwellings of Christ and his sepulcher, in which the Church is wounded: the ointment is what he poured out; the apple is what hung." And St. Bernard, in the tract On Loving God, at the beginning, understands by apples the passion, by flowers the resurrection of Christ. Tropologically, St. Gregory understands by flowers the faithful beginning, by apples those making progress and the perfect: "By flowers," he says, "the tender and beginning ones; by apples truly the perfect faithful are designated. The bride indeed, because she languishes in love, desires to be sustained by flowers and surrounded with apples, because while she affects herself with the desire of eternity, while with all anxiety she seeks how she may arrive there, in that she finds perfection not at all while living in the flesh, wearied in her desire she rests. And in this alone she rejoices, if she looks around herself, either at those in whom she may make progress, or in whose progress she may receive consolation from her languor." The same he has more fully, book II on Ezekiel, homily 15. Thus also Cassiodorus, Justus, Anselm and St. Bernard, sermon 51, whom hear: "Sustain me with flowers, etc. When that which is loved is at hand, love flourishes; it languishes when it is absent. Which is nothing other than a certain weariness of impatient desire, by which the mind of one vehemently loving must necessarily be affected when absent the one he loves, while wholly in expectation, he reckons any delay however swift as tardiness. And therefore she asks that there be accumulated for her the fruits of good works with the fragrances of faith, in which while the Spouse tarries she may rest for a time." To this Origen adds, who says the Church leans upon catechumens as upon flowers, and upon holy faithful as upon apples and trees. And Aponius: The Church, he says, desires to be sustained by flowers, that is by pure and chaste souls: and by apples, that is by the apostles, who from Christ as from an apple tree germinate through doctrine. Finally Rupert, adapting these to the Blessed Virgin, asserts that she desires to be sustained by flowers, that is by acts of faith, and by apples, that is by good works. BECAUSE I AM SICK WITH LOVE. In Hebrew, because I am weak with charity; in the Septuagint, because I am wounded with charity; in Symmachus, because I am wounded with love-charm. These derive the Hebrew חולה chola, not from חלה chala, that is, he was weakened, but from חלל chalal, that is, he wounded, he killed: for often verbs with quiescent aleph and vav are exchanged with verbs doubling the aleph, that is the second radical, for instance chol or chala are exchanged with chalal, and vice versa, and one borrows its tenses, conjugation, and inflection from the other. Moreover, that languor arises from vehement love, and thus a disease by which the body wastes away, withers, and decays, which is therefore called ἔρος, that is love, or the disease of love, physicians teach, and it is evident from the example of Amnon, who was pining away for Thamar, II Kings xiii, 2. Thus also the son of Seleucus, sick with love, was wasting away, which disease unknown to all others, the physician Erasistratus shrewdly detected from the unusual pulse of the arteries, as Plutarch testifies in his Life of Demetrius, and Valerius Maximus, book V, chapter vii. Moreover, that the animal spirits are nourished by fragrant things such as flowers, and that failing strength is restored and renewed through the sweet breath of a fragrant thing drawn in by smell, physicians and natural philosophers teach, such as Hippocrates, book On Foods, near the end; and Galen, On the Utility of Respiration, chapter v, where he asserts that it is necessary that from great inspiration through the nostrils, a principal part of nourishment be supplied to the animal spirit; and Avicenna, treating of the cure of syncope, affirms that the spirit is nourished especially by good odours. You will ask, what are the flowers and apples by which the bride seeks to be supported? First, our Sanchez and John the Carmelite understand Christ himself, who in verse 1 called himself the flower of the field, the lily of the valleys, and the apple among the trees of the forest. The bride therefore says: "Sustain me with flowers," etc., that is to say, Place me in the bosom and embrace of the bridegroom. Which he immediately explains more clearly and describes what that support of flowers and the arrangement of apples will be, when he says: "His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me." Which is nothing other than with flowers and Note, this languor arises from liquefaction; but liquefaction is the effect of love, by which the soul itself is soothed and softened, so that the thing which it desires most ardently may be impressed upon itself through embrace and a certain penetration. In order that this may happen, that soul opens up entirely and lies open so that, as it were with open pores, it may draw in the beloved thing, just as fresh bread is accustomed to draw in water. But this liquefaction, by which the soul gapes toward the bridegroom, is followed by another effect of love, truly most troublesome, which is called languor, which she distinctly marks, saying: "Because I am sick with love." This languor therefore arises in the faithful soul, when she is so entirely carried toward the love of the bridegroom, and as it were liquefied is dissolved, so that, utterly forgetful of herself, she knows not what to do about herself, and lies as it were stupefied and insensible to all things that are done here below, so that she can neither see anything else nor wish to, nor hear, nor taste, except her beloved; so that she may say with the Apostle, Galatians ii, 20: "And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me." This languor of love is also seen to be signified in what follows through the liquefaction of the soul, the same bride saying: "My soul is liquefied, when my beloved spoke," Canticles v, 6. Indeed, Plato thus defines love: "Love is the ardor of the mind dead in its own body, living in another's." The bride drew this languor of charity from the wine cellar of the Eucharist and of the Holy Spirit: just as the same St. Catherine of Siena felt after the sacred synaxis, and similar holy virgins. Wherefore St. Felicula, foster-sister of St. Petronilla, when the torturers said: "Deny that you are a Christian, and you will be released," answered: "I will not deny it, now I have begun to see my lover, in whom my love is fixed." Boethius speaks excellently: "O happy race of men! if love, by which heaven is ruled, ruled your minds." Blessed Philip Neri: "Wounded by the charity of God," says the Author of his Life, "he languished continually: and so greatly did his heart burn with ardor, that when it could not be contained within its bounds, the Lord miraculously enlarged its cavity, by contracting and raising up the two ribs." Moreover, St. Bernard here and more clearly, in his tract On Loving God near the beginning, explains this languor as a defect of love: "These evils," he says, "these flowers, by which the bride asks to be supported and sustained in the meantime, I believe, easily sensing the force of love in herself to be able to grow lukewarm, and to languish in a certain way, if it is not continually fostered by such incentives." But others generally interpret this languor as an excess of charity, by which the soul wastes away from desire for God and grows thin in the flesh, according to that: "My flesh hath fainted away, and my heart, O God of my heart," Psalm lxxii, 26. Hear St. Gregory, lib. II in Ezekiel, serm. 15: "What therefore are in the holy Church the chambers, except the hearts of those in which the soul is joined through love to the invisible spouse, so that it burns with desire for him; it no longer desires anything that is in the world, it considers the length of the present life a punishment, it hastens to depart, and to rest in the embrace of love in the vision of the heavenly spouse? Death therefore of such a one is now such that it receives no consolation of the present life, but sighs deeply, burns, pants, and is anxious for him whom it loves. The very health of its body becomes vile to it, because it is pierced through with the wound of love. Whence also in the Canticles it says: I am wounded with charity. But that is an evil health of the heart which knows not the pain of this wound; when however it shall have begun to pant toward heavenly desire, and to feel the wound of love, the soul becomes healthier from the wound, which before was sick from health." Thus also Aponius, Justus of Orgelitanus, Anselm and others judge that this languor proceeds from great desire for eternal life and union with Christ in heaven. Whence it is clear that this languor of the bride was joined with sleep and ecstasy, from the fact that the bridegroom adds: "I adjure you, etc., that you stir not up, nor awake my beloved." To this pertains that of St. Jerome, epist. 22 to Eustochium: "Let us also love Christ, and always seek his embraces, and every difficulty will easily appear easy, and wounded by his arrow, through the moments of hours let us say: Alas for me, because my sojourning is prolonged!" Thus was St. Augustine wounded with charity, as is evident from Solilog. cap. i, and lib. IX Confess. cap. ii: "Thou hadst," he says, "pierced our heart with thy charity; and we bore thy words transfixed in our bowels, and the examples of thy servants, whom thou hadst made bright from dark, and living from dead, heaped in the bosom of our thought burned us and consumed the heavy torpor, lest we should sink to the depths, and they kindled us mightily, so that every blast from a deceitful tongue of contradiction could inflame us more keenly, not extinguish us. Tropologically, Philo of Carpathus and Ambrose in Psalm. cxviii, serm. 5, teach that the Church and the pious soul are wounded with charity, when they willingly endure persecutions, beatings, wounds and martyrdom for the love of Christ. Finally, the Blessed Virgin after Christ's ascension into heaven, languished from desire and love for him, says Rupert, and so gradually dissolved by this languor, and at last died without fever or any other disease, as Francis Suarez and other grave theologians hold. The Blessed Virgin herself revealed this same thing to St. Bridget, lib. VI: "I prepared myself," says the Mother of God, "for my departure, going about all the places in my manner, in which my Son had suffered: and when one day my soul was suspended in admiration of divine charity; then my soul in that very contemplation was filled with such exultation, that it could scarcely contain itself, and in that very consideration my soul was loosed from my body." Mystics and contemplatives refer these things to the highest degree of contemplation and love, as it were ecstatic: for, as Denis the Carthusian says, tract. De Fonte lucis, art. 18: "From such great excess of contemplation, and impulse of love, ardor and ebullition, there are generated by redundance a certain languor, weakness, sadness, and wasting in the sensitive part and body, a loathing of bodily food, an inability to use and move the limbs and senses, and a rigidity of the whole body. Nor in these holy acts does the mind notice time, perceive delays; rather in these it marvels most vehemently, nor is it sufficient for the holy soul to marvel at the charity, piety, condescension, and munificence of God toward itself and in itself, which He shows Himself to it so lovingly and familiarly, so graciously and munificently, communicates, applies and infuses. See our Alvarez de Paz at the end of vol. III, where he treats extensively of contemplation and assigns fifteen degrees of it: the first is intuition of truth; the second, withdrawal of powers to the interior of the soul; the third, spiritual silence; the fourth, rest; the fifth, union; the sixth, hearing the speech of God; the seventh, spiritual sleep; the eighth, ecstasy; the ninth, rapture; the tenth, bodily appearance of Christ and the saints; the eleventh, imaginary appearance of Christ and the saints; the twelfth, intellectual vision of God; the thirteenth, vision of God in darkness; the fourteenth, wondrous manifestation of God; the fifteenth, clear and intuitive vision, which St. Augustine, St. Thomas and some others attribute to St. Paul, when he was caught up to the third heaven, where he heard secret words which it is not lawful for man to speak. Thus St. Francis, languishing and dying from desire of God and heaven, like a nightingale and swan sang a swan-song: "Bring my soul out of prison: the just wait for me until Thou rewardest me;" and failing in the languor of love and yearning toward Christ, he died immortally. By a similar languor from vehement desire of Christ, Blessed Theresa is written to have died. O holy! O joyful! O blessed death! which vivifies the dying, blesses the lovers and glorifies them! Wherefore he who truly loves Christ and languishes from love of Him, let him frequently sigh toward Him, and through ardent affections of mind aspire toward Him, and like the bride, let him ceaselessly hurl forth javelin-like prayers of love toward Him as fiery arrows. Again, Richard of St. Victor asserts that the summit and apex of charity is insane or violent love, of which he assigns three degrees: the first is love wounding. The heart is said to be wounded by love when pierced by the arrow of love, it burns inwardly, seethes, yearns, groans, sighs, unable to restrain itself on account of the vehemence of love; whence also it often happens that it grows pale and wastes away from love; the second is called binding love, namely when the mind is so bound by the love of God that it meditates on nothing else, forgets all others, whatever it does, whatever it speaks, it always offers to the present Lord; for it beholds Him in mind, retains Him in perpetual memory, thinks of Him sleeping, thinks of Him waking, therefore this binding and most strict union follows the wounding, by which the mind thirsts for God alone, beholds Him alone, nothing is sweet to it except the one Lord, it rests in one alone; it is refreshed by one, if any other thing should occur which does not serve this one, it immediately expels it; it suppresses and violently repels all desires, studies, exercises which do not conduce to grasping the longed-for goal of its desire. But when it is given to enjoy its one, then believing itself to abound in all goods, it admits nothing else. After this follows the third degree of violent love, causing languor: which languor arises when from this vehemence of love the mind is rapt into God, who is an abyss of light, so that the human soul at this moment, forgetful of all external things, knows itself not at all, and is wholly transformed into its God.
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WILL EMBRACE, that is, let him embrace, as the Syrian translator rendered it. For the Hebrews often place the future tense for the optative, which they lack. Whence Vatablus translates, let his left hand be put under my head, and let his right hand embrace me as a spouse: for lovers are accustomed, for example parents with their little children, whom they love to hold, to place the left hand under their head, and then to embrace their whole body with the right hand, and to press them to their bosom and breast, as if to say, In like manner let the spouse embrace me with his left and right hand, and thus join and bind me to himself most tightly in the circle of his arms, equally as of his loves. Whence Symmachus translates, let his right hand be wrapped around me. He alludes to dining couches and nuptial beds, in which guests reclined in such a way, that is lay down, that the one before would place the head of the one following under him, and thus receive him in his bosom, so that then with the right hand, if he wished, he could embrace him. Thus St. John at the Last Supper reclined in the bosom of Christ, which was a sign of the greatest love. The bride, languishing from love and having fainted, as if in ecstasy wishes to be supported by the scent of flowers and apples, but being not content with these as of moderate virtue to overcome languor, immediately sighs for her beloved, as one who alone is able to cure languor. She says therefore, says Hortolanus: Alas for me, I am fainting, my spouse, bring help, save me, I beseech you! My head nods, your left hand, I pray, place beneath it: my limbs are loosened by cold, your mighty right hand, I beg, embrace me in the middle, in your bosom, lest I fall, cherish me: in you alone do I cast myself: in you do I place all my faith and hope. You, who alone are able, my spirit broken by fear of impending evils, support with your spirit: my weak flesh strengthen with your immense power, so that my whole spirit, my whole soul and body may remain yours always, and may be preserved for your return to me.
THE FIRST ADEQUATE SENSE, CONCERNING CHRIST AND THE CHURCH. You will ask, what do the left and right signify? The left denotes lesser benefits; the right, greater ones: therefore first, the left denotes the humanity of Christ, the right his divinity: for the left is indeed the symbol of weakness and of weak humanity; but the right is the symbol of strength and of most strong divinity. The humanity of Christ sustained the head of the Church, that is Adam, when it raised him and his descendants fallen into sin, and restored them to grace and justice. Again, the same humanity sustained the head, that is the faith of the Church, to acquire the remission of sins, justice and salvation; for the humanity and passion of Christ conferred all these things: thus Origen and St. Bernard, sermon 4 on the Feast of All Saints. Secondly, the left designates grace in the present life, the right the glory of the future and eternal life, as if to say: May Christ by his grace in this life direct me and promote me to the glory of eternal happiness, so that there the right hand of his divinity may embrace me and grant me the crown of eternal kingdom. The left hand of the bridegroom is therefore supposed under the head for merit, the right hand embraces for the crown. Thus Cassiodorus, Carpathius, Bede, and St. Bernard, sermon 4 On the Vigil of the Nativity of the Lord, where he thus says: "The left hand indeed lifts up, the right hand receives. The left hand heals and justifies, the right hand embraces and beatifies. In his left hand are merits; in his right hand truly are rewards contained; in the right hand, I say, delights, in the left are medicines." Hence again the same St. Bernard here, sermon 51, taking this verse not optatively but effectively, thus explains it, as if to say: The left hand of Christ now sustains my head through grace; but his right hand in heaven will embrace me through glory; for present grace is a sure pledge of heavenly glory, and the merits of this life give sure hope of future reward: "He does not say, says St. Bernard, embraces but will embrace me, so that you may know that she is not so ungrateful to prior grace that she has not anticipated the second with thanksgiving." Thirdly, St. Ambrose in Psalm 118, sermon 14, at verse 5, understands by the left earthly and temporal goods, by the right heavenly and eternal ones: "Both, he says, the bridegroom's arm is extended to useful things; yet each hand has something proper to itself. In the right hand is length of days; in the left hand truly are riches and glory." Proverbs 3:16: "The left is the rewarder of present things, the right of future things: the left hand of the bride is under the head, the right hand above, which embraces the whole bride. And so that one is as it were the support of present rest, and therefore the Son of Man had not where to lay his head, because, though he was rich, he became poor." These things St. Ambrose scattered in that place. Thus also Bede and St. Thomas, who understands by the left the prosperity of this life, by the right eternal life. Where he notes that the head of the bride is sustained by the left hand; yet so that it is not abandoned by the right, and the left is under the head, the right above; because these lower things ought thus to be subject, so as not to call away from eternal things, not to depress the head, but rather to lift it up, and to stir us to love of him who has granted them to us so liberally. Thus also Justus Orgelitanus, St. Anselm, and St. Gregory, whom hear here: "By the left hand of the bridegroom the present life; by the right hand truly eternal life is designated. By the head of the bride, however, the mind, which rules the soul, is understood. But the left hand of the bridegroom is said to be under the head of the bride, and his right hand will embrace her, because he always places temporal life under his mind; but eternal life he desires to embrace in every way. For these things, which he sees, he magnanimously tramples under with sublime mind, he occupies himself with heavenly duties. These he tolerates by necessity, to those he sighs as if bound by the right arm of the bridegroom with supreme desire. Into which, when he enters somewhat, he rests delightfully, by the love of which rest he utterly despises worldly tumults. Thus the bridegroom truly loves her resting, and from her stirring repels any wicked ones," saying: "I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem," etc. To this pertains that of Proverbs 3:16: "Length of days in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and glory." See the things said there. Fourthly, the left indicates adversities; the right truly prosperity: but the head of the Church are bishops and prelates, the body are the other faithful: therefore Christ embraces holy prelates with the left hand, that is exercises and perfects them with adversities; but the faithful truly with the right hand, that is soothes and advances them with prosperities and consolations. This is relevant to what Xenophon writes in Book VIII of the Cyropaedia, that Cyrus wished the princes faithful to him to recline at his left, because the left side is more exposed to treachery than the right, or rather so that they might be closer to his heart, for the heart inclines toward the left: in a similar manner pastors and prelates are at the heart of Christ, because they are supremely dear and of concern to Him, inasmuch as the salvation of the faithful depends upon them. Fifth, the left is the old law, because it sustains the head of the Church, because it points out the true Messiah, that is Christ the Saviour, and bears witness to Him; the right is the new law, whose grace embraces and binds the whole Church, so that its efficacy preserves and fulfils the whole law: wherefore the new law supplies and perfects the old, just as the right hand supplies and strengthens the weakness of the left, as is evident in Matthew v and following. Again, the old law is signified by the left, because it was a law of fear and penalties; the new law by the right, because it is the law of love and grace and eternal glory. Thus St. Jerome in chapter iv of Zechariah, and Eucherius, Book II on Genesis. Finally, the primary bride in the Canticles is the humanity of Christ, which the Word espoused to Himself as a beloved and bride in the Incarnation, and embraced with left and right, that is on all sides, as I said in the Proem, chapter viii.
SECOND PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the holy soul. First, Theodoret, and three Anonymous writers cited by him, and St. Bernard, sermon 51, understand by the left hand the threat of punishment; by the right hand, however, the promise of the kingdom; for by both Christ draws the soul to himself and unites it to himself: "It is indeed the case," says St. Bernard, "when our mind is pressed down in servile fear of punishment; and then the left hand is not to be said to be under the head, but over the head: nor can the soul so affected say at all: Because his left hand is under my head. But truly, if one making progress from this spirit of servitude should pass over into a certain more worthy affection of willing obedience, namely insofar as one is provoked rather by rewards than constrained by punishments; but especially if one is moved by love of the good itself: then without doubt one will be able to say, because his left hand is under my head: for one who has overcome that servile fear, which is on the left, by a better and more excellent disposition of mind, and has approached even to the right hand with worthy desires, in which are all the promises, the Prophet saying to the Lord: The delights are in thy right hand even to the end, Psalm xv, 11; whence also with certain hope conceived with confidence one speaks: And his right hand shall embrace me; and then exulting one says with the Psalmist, Psalm iv, 9: In peace in the selfsame I will sleep, and I will rest: especially when the cause which follows is at hand: Because thou, O Lord, hast singularly set me in hope. Thus St. Bernard. The same writer in the same place understands by the left and right hand in a more literal sense all manner of protection, by which God guards and embraces the soul yearning toward him. "Therefore," he says, "he does not permit trouble to his beloved: he is present, nor indeed can he delay when called by such great desires. And because he had found her, while he was absent, faithful to works, and solicitous for gains, in that which he had commanded flowers and fruits to be gathered for him; he has also returned with more abundant recompense of grace. Finally, with one of his arms he sustains the head of her who lies down, preparing the other to embrace, so that he may cherish her in his bosom. Happy is the soul which reclines on the breast of Christ, and rests between the arms of the Word." To this pertains the version of the Chaldean: When, he says, the people of the house of Israel walked through the desert, there were clouds of glory surrounding them on the four winds of the world, so that heat might not have dominion over them, neither sun, nor rain, nor hail. For the pillar of cloud protecting the Hebrews in the desert was a type of the protection by which the Holy Spirit protects the faithful of Christ in the Church. Second, Aponius expounds these things in three ways: first, he refers them to the martyrs, whom Christ sustains with his left hand, that is, with the promise of the heavenly kingdom, and with his right hand, that is, with his grace and aid, embraces and strengthens: "For all torments," he says, "and death itself undertaken for Christ are delights to holy souls for acquiring eternal joys; where the Church, dissolved in delights, rejoices to be held in the embrace of her beloved Christ, so that she may be worthy to endure the atrocity of torments for her maker. Second, to the holy soul, as if she herself should say: Christ sustains me with the left hand of compunction, lest I turn aside to the left of the flesh and concupiscence, the right hand of tribulations holds me, lest I spread out to the right of pride. Third, as if to say: The left hand of Christ, that is, the shield of faith, is under my head; the right hand, however, that is, the sword of prayer, embraces and arms me. The mystics and contemplatives understand this passage concerning the highest degree of contemplation, by which the soul is intimately united to God through the contemplation of the intellect, and through the ardor of the will, and reciprocally binds and embraces him as it were with these two arms. For then God draws the heart, and with his arms as it were of illumination and inflaming, drawing it gently, draws it to a higher and purer embrace of love. And just as here a more subtle knowledge, so also a more noble affection prevails, which does not cling to divine delights, but, all these things being left behind by the soul, desires to rest in the naked arms of God. In these, beyond the magnitude of pleasure, the heart is dilated, and as it were with opened pores it gapes open, and is wounded; and this wound is wont sometimes to become so grave, and the impulse of love to be so increased, that the human heart is not equal to such increments; but succumbs to it by the happiest death, which kind of death happened to some, the most blessed Mother of God, St. Teresa, and certain others.
THE THIRD PRINCIPAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin. First, Rupertus understands by the left arm the consolations which God granted to the Blessed Virgin in this life; such as to see the Holy Spirit descend upon herself and the apostles, the Gospel to be preached throughout the whole world, the nations to be converted to Christ, etc. "And his right hand shall embrace me," that is, the glory of the Father, in which he himself is, shall wholly surround and fill me, when he shall have led me out of this present world and taken me up: that very right hand, such as the Psalmist hints at, saying: "Pleasures are in thy right hand even to the end," Psalm xv, 11. Secondly, William the Little, and from him Delrio, understands by the left arm the bitterness of the passion of Christ, by the head the mind of Mary, by the right hand the joy of the resurrection: she therefore said: "I languish with love," because in the passion this languor of the mother openly revealed itself. He sees, he says, a mind divinely illuminated, how usefully and healthfully the sweetest son dies; how brief the delay in death shall be, and how gloriously after a little while he shall triumph. And behold for this reason: "His left hand is under my head;"; for it does not go beyond my head, so that reason might yield to affection, and my son might be mourned by me as if descending into corruption, not as having the power to lay down his soul, and to take it up again. But I am most certain that his right hand shall embrace me, that the glory of his resurrection shall soon gladden me, it shall not merely touch, but shall embrace me, not as the passion saddened me for a little while, so also the resurrection shall gladden me perfunctorily and for an hour; but, my sack of sorrow being rent, perpetual joy shall surround me. From his death brief mourning for me, but because rising from the dead he dies no more, maternal charity in me shall enjoy immortal joy.
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For beloved, in Hebrew it is אהבה ahava, which signifies both beloved and love; whence Vatablus translates it, do not awake love, that is, the bride supremely loving and beloved; for the abstract is put for the concrete by emphasis to signify the vehemence of love in the bride, which is so great that she herself seems to be not so much loving and beloved, as mere love itself. Whence the Syriac for beloved translates the essence of love, or love itself; the Arabic, love. The bride languishing with love fell into sleep and a swoon of the soul, wholly carried away in longing for the bridegroom; wherefore by the maidens she was brought into the bed, and fell asleep in it. The bridegroom therefore adjures her companions, that they do not awake her from this holy and sweet sleep, but let her rest in it until she herself awakes of her own accord, by which adjuration he shows how much this sleep of love pleases him. For the languor of love is the sweet sleep of love; wherefore in the bed of this sleep she remained, and did and said all that follows in this chapter to the end; for in the following chapter, namely iii, verse 1, she says: "In my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth." Thus Origen, Aponius and others. The Septuagint translates, I adjure you by the virtues and strengths of the field, if you stir up and awaken (Ambrose, in Psalm cxviii, sermon 3, lift up and stir up; the Scholiast, awaken from sleep) charity until she pleases. By virtues, or powers and strengths, or fortitudes of the field, understand plants, trees and shrubs, and whatever is beautiful and excellent in the field. The Chaldean, after his manner referring these things to Moses and the Hebrews tending toward Chanaan, thus translates: "After these things it was said to Moses in prophecy from the face of the Lord, that he should send messengers to spy out the land, and when they returned from spying, they detracted from the land of Israel, and tarried forty years in the desert. Moses opened his mouth, and thus said: I adjure thee, O church of Israel, by the Lord of hosts and by the fortitudes of the land of Israel, that you do not proudly strive to go up to the land of Chanaan, until it be the will from the face of the Lord, and the whole generation of men of war be consumed, and they die from the midst of the camps; as your brothers the sons of Ephraim were proud, who went forth from Egypt thirty years before the end came, and fell into the hand of the Philistines, who dwelt in Geth, and slew them: but wait until the time of forty years, and afterwards your sons shall enter, and shall possess it."
THE FIRST SENSE, PROPERLY UNDERSTOOD, CONCERNING CHRIST AND THE CHURCH. He adjures, that is, he beseeches with a threat or curse, the bridegroom, namely Christ, the daughters of Jerusalem, that is, the Jews, scribes and princes (whence in Hebrew for "you" is אתכם etchem, masculine, as if to say: You, O citizens of Jerusalem, you O Jews) lest they rise up in Judaea against the Church, but fervent in faith, peace and progress, disturb it, as if to say: It suffices you that I have been treated savagely, as it pleased you. I do not yet permit you to rage against my most sweet bride, whom I have received into my faith and protection, and I have commanded her to be at peace of mind. Behold, in her own house she prays, surrounded by the protection of angels: by these holy minds I beseech you, do not disturb her as she prays, and do not make a noise against my faith made peaceful and sleeping in my promises, nor cause any disturbance, unless you wish to provoke the heavenly hosts, to whom you will pay the penalties of your crimes. For the very gazelles, when they perceive them, discern your counsels, however hidden. Swifter than gazelles and deer, they run to her most swiftly, and bring aid to their clients. All are ministering spirits sent by me for the protection and ministry of my Church on behalf of those who shall inherit salvation, Hebrews i, 14. For just as once through angels I drove out the Canaanites from Judaea for your sake; so through them likewise I shall drive you out from it for the sake of my Church, if you resist them, namely her apostles and faithful Christians. Allow therefore my Church to take a just sleep of peace and devotion, and to rest as long as she wishes, to obtain the kingdom of heaven, and to reign in it peacefully. Thus Hortolanus, Titelmannus and others. Again, you may adapt this sense to the apostles sitting in Sion after the ascension of Christ, and devoting themselves to silence and prayer until the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, by which filled, having broken silence of their own accord, they began to preach publicly the great deeds of God and Christ, and this by the command of Christ: "Sit, he says, in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high," Luke xxiv, 49. Christ therefore forbids that anyone disturb the rest of the apostles, until the coming of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, Christ specifically admonishes the daughters of Jerusalem, that is, individual faithful, especially the more imperfect and lighter ones, lest they disturb the peace of the Church by unseemly conduct, scandals, schism, or tumult, as long as she wishes, that is, perpetually -- for she will always wish peace. Thus Delrio. Furthermore, take the gazelles and deer of the fields in the literal sense as it sounds: for this is a hunting oath, by which the bridegroom, as a pastoral and rural shepherd, adjures the hunters by the deer and gazelles, which they themselves hunt in the fields and woods, after the manner of the daughters, that is, the virgins of Tyre, who are neighbors to the Judaeans, and who devoted themselves to hunting, according to that saying of Virgil, Aeneid 1: It is the custom of Tyrian maidens to bear the quiver. Such was Diana. For we are accustomed to swear by things most beloved, such as deer are most beloved to hunters, Genesis xlix, 21. Hence the Septuagint translates it as: in the virtues and strengths, or fortitudes of the field, that is, by all that is mighty or strong in the fields and woods, or by all the fruitfulness of the fields, and whatever is born or nourished from them, or by all that is dear and pleasant to you (for this is what the Hebrew צבי tsevi signifies) in the field, as if to say: If you violate this execratory adjuration of mine, O Jews, by persecuting the Church and faithful Christians, it will come to pass that the deer will perish for you, the gazelles will be barren, the fields likewise will turn to stone and become barren, and what you have sown Titus and the Romans will reap, finally your whole region will be laid waste and overthrown, as indeed came to pass. Mystically, by gazelles and deer understand either angels, who like young stags run with wondrous swiftness through the fields of the world, and through all the corners of the Church, for the ministry of the faithful, and the salvation of the elect, and dwell in the mountains, that is, in the heavens, and as gazelles see most acutely all things that are done in the Church, and provide the faithful with all things opportune for salvation: thus Origen, Philo of Carpathus, Nyssenus and others. Or the prophets and patriarchs, on account of the eminence of knowledge and sublimity of conversation, by which like deer they ascended the mountains of virtue with the Blessed Virgin: thus Theodoret and Rupert. Or the apostles and doctors, who teach heavenly things, and strive to transmit men to heaven: thus Aponius. Or "holy souls stripped of bodies, says St. Bernard, on account of the excessive acuteness of sight, and the swiftness of leaping:" for they leap in mind to the mountains of the heavens, and the hills of eternity: thus Rupert. Moreover, St. Anselm explains it thus, as if to say: If you wish to have the natures of gazelle and deer, which the saints have, I adjure you not to sin, and by your disobediences do not move away from that rest the soul languishing in love, and persisting in contemplation. Then he pursues at length the nature and gifts of the gazelle, and adapts them to the saints and those contemplating.
SECOND PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the holy soul. Christ adjures everyone first, that they do not hinder or disturb by words or deeds the peace of the holy soul, the study of virtue and the progress by which she strives toward the heavenly Jerusalem, as its citizen and daughter, but that each one rejoice in the progress of another as in his own, says Aponius. Justus Orgelitanus adds that here it is taught that good works ought to be voluntary, not forced: "For then," he says, "the beloved is not raised up, unless she herself wishes it, when the vows of the saints are offered to the Lord with spontaneous willingness." Secondly, the sleep of the soul is forgetfulness of human things, so that she may be wholly intent upon God and heaven, such as anchorites, monks, and religious practice: for, as St. Basil says, in the 6th distinction, in the Longer Rules more fully discussed: "Self-denial is nothing other than the highest forgetfulness of all things of the life above, and a withdrawal from one's own will." God loves such sleep greatly, and commands others with severe denunciation not to disturb it in any way whatsoever. But if you understand by the stags the angels, it is a pious thought, says Sanchez, which meditates that by this adjuration it is asked of the maidens that they bring no trouble to the angels who with great zeal, and perhaps for a long time, have brought the bride to this place, so that she may rest in the bosom of the bridegroom: nor deprive them of great joy and the fruit of their labor. Let those see here who are a scandal to others, how gravely they offend God, from whose embrace the bride is torn away, and the angels, by whose work it came to pass that, forgetful of others, she loves and cares for one bridegroom alone. Thirdly, the sleep of the soul is prayer, meditation, contemplation, ecstasy. Christ therefore forbids that anyone should call away from this sleep of piety his Magdalene, as if she were idle, like the busy Martha. Whence John the Carmelite thus expounds it, as if to say: "I beseech you, daughters of the Church, by myself, who am like the gazelles and stags, that you dare not rouse the soul, which I snatch away in ecstasy, or in any vital sleep to myself, to the care of the salvation of others, until she herself wishes it at my command." Thus Cassiodorus, Bede, Anselm, and St. Gregory, whom hear: "Stags and does are said to be clean animals. What therefore do we understand by stags and gazelles except faith, hope, and charity? Which, while we keep them clean for ourselves, by these same we ascend the high mountains of contemplation. But the holy soul of the bride of Christ desires to rest from all the disturbances of the world, wishes to sleep in the bosom of the bridegroom with earthly desires put to rest in holy leisure, so that she even sometimes disdains necessary conversation, and is gladdened by the colloquy of the bridegroom alone, the more quietly, the more serenely and cheerfully. But this sleeping one, those who are carnal in the Church sometimes importune by rousing her, desire to implicate her in the business of the world: because they judge her life useless, while they see her abstaining from their cares." And after some things: "These are forbidden to rouse the beloved under the weight of the adjuration, namely lest they disturb the mind, which is preparing itself to be vacant for God, and strives to adhere to spiritual studies alone toward the heavenly Jerusalem, as its citizen and daughter, in any way hinder or disturb by words or deeds, but let each one rejoice in the progress of the other as if it were his own, as Aponius says. And yet not all care for the neighbor is forbidden to her: for truly it must be discerned by every perfect soul, both when she should devote herself to heavenly contemplation, and when she should serve the utilities of neighbors. The bride most willingly receives this license to be vacant for God, and straightway embraces the word of the bridegroom, and says: "The voice of my beloved," etc. And St. Bernard, sermon 51: "Great," he says, "and wonderful is the condescension, that it makes the soul contemplating rest in his bosom, and moreover guards it from troublesome cares, and protects it from the disquietudes of actions and the molestations of business, nor does it suffer it to be roused at all, except truly at his will." The same pursues this at length, sermon 51: "Let my soul die," he says, "the death of the just (as Balaam said, Num. cap. xxiii, 10), even if it can be said of angels, so that exceeding the memory of those present, it may strip itself of things lower and corporeal not only from desires, but also from likenesses, and may have pure conversation with those with whom there is likeness of purity. Such, in my opinion, is called an ecstasy, or at least, or especially contemplation. For to live not held by desires of things is the work of human virtue: but to be not involved in the likenesses of bodies in contemplating is the work of angelic purity." And after some things: "You err, if you think to find a place of rest short of this, the secret of solitude, the serene light, the dwelling of peace; but give me one who has arrived there, and I unhesitatingly confess that he rests, who may rightly say: Return, O my soul, into thy rest: for the Lord hath been bountiful to thee," Psal. cxiv, 7. Furthermore the Septuagint translates, I have adjured you, daughters of Jerusalem, in the virtues (others, in the exercises) and in the strengths of the field, if you shall raise up and rouse up his charity, as long as he wills, as if these were the words not of the bridegroom, but of the bride, by which she adjures the maidens, that they stir up her love, and not suffer it to sleep or be torpid as long as he himself wills, that is, that they subject his charity to the will of the bridegroom. But the bridegroom desires to be loved by all; for he came to cast fire upon the earth, and what does he will, except that it be kindled? Luke xii, 49. Thus Origen, Theodoret and three Fathers. But these are discordant from the Vulgate, as well as from the Hebrew, in which it is clear that these are the words of the bridegroom concerning the bride: תחפץ technais, that is, she will wish, which is feminine. Wherefore, the exposition of Psellus also responds less to the Hebrew and the Vulgate, who following the Septuagint, thinks here that the holy soul begs aid from the gazelles, that is, from the angels, that she may be able to attain to salvation and the perfection of charity (which God alone wills); and of Nyssenus, hom. 4, who thinks it is signified here, that in the study of charity we ought to imitate the angels as long as the will of God, which is that all men be saved, is fulfilled. And St. Augustine (or whoever is the Author) in the Mirror, cap. iii, tom. III, who thinks here that the Church stirs up the faithful to martyrdom, which is the apex of charity, to which Christ wishes to promote them. And of three Anonymi with Theodoret, who think here that the wise soul exhorts the weaker, that they bear Christ in mind as long as he himself wishes to impart to them the clear vision of himself. And of St. Ambrose in Psalm. cxviii, sermon 5, who thinks it is said here, that Christ through the Incarnation was raised up into light, but through the Resurrection was roused up: whence through the gazelles and stags he understands Christ himself: "Or," he says, "Christ is raised up in those who first approach, he is roused up in those who after they have approached, have slept: Therefore Christ sleeps in the negligent, he is raised up in the saints." The mystics and contemplatives refer these things to prayer, which they call the prayer of quiet, because in it all the faculties of the soul rest: in which, says Blessed Teresa, the soul understands God in a wonderful manner to be already near to it, and as it were contiguous, so that with slight effort it can attain to divine union. Prayer of quiet therefore is that by which the mind as it were sleeps in God, with only the edge of the will operating almost imperceptibly in the lover, just as an infant half-sleeping sucks the breasts of its mother, which if they be removed, it awakens, and weeps, and by weeping shows how great a good it has lost, which sleeping it did not seem to esteem or feel. For the whole soul enters into itself, and gathers itself about God, so that it seems neither to feel nor to hear, and to be sleeping and half-dead, until it returns to itself; then having experienced it, it feels how great a good it has lost. In this prayer therefore it sleeps as it were, and its own mind and will die, and pass into the divine, and are moved and acted upon by it, just as one who sails is moved not by himself (because he rests, and sometimes sleeps), but by the ship, as it were resting, is carried into his homeland, and the desired port. Such therefore is as it were a sleeping child
HERE IS DESCRIBED THE ADOLESCENCE AND GROWTH OF THE CHURCH, UP TO CAP. III VERSE 6, JUST AS HE DESCRIBED THE INFANCY OF THE CHURCH FROM CAP. I UP TO THIS POINT. This adolescence of the Church was after Pentecost, when the apostles, having received the Holy Spirit, went forth to the nations, and everywhere founded churches. See the things said in the Proem, cap. iii.
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THE VOICE OF MY BELOVED, BEHOLD HE COMETH LEAPING UPON THE MOUNTAINS, SKIPPING OVER THE HILLS. The Hebrew מקפץ mekappets, that is, contracting himself upon the hills: for those who wish to leap strongly and far contract their limbs and strength so that they may leap more powerfully. Vatablus: running toward the hills. MY BELOVED IS LIKE A ROE, OR A YOUNG HART. The Chaldean, after his manner, refers these things to the liberation of the Hebrews from Egypt: "When," he says, "the people of the house of Israel dwelt in Egypt, their cry ascended to the high heavens; then the glory of the Lord was revealed to Moses upon Mount Horeb, and He sent him into Egypt to redeem them and lead them out from the oppression of the subjection of the Egyptians: and the predetermined time was shortened on account of the merits of the fathers, who were compared to mountains, and He diminished from the time of servitude one hundred ninety years on account of the justice of the mothers, who were compared to hills, verse 9. Israel said with certainty: In the time when the glory of the Lord was revealed in Egypt in the night of Passover, and He slew every firstborn, He ascended upon the swiftest lightning, and ran like a roe and like a young hart of deer, and He protected our houses."
THE FIRST ADEQUATE SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Church. The bride, carried away in her languor of love to her bed, and there falling asleep, heard confusedly and faintly the voice of the bridegroom coming and leaping over mountains, so that he might hasten to the bride languishing in love; wherefore this voice of his was sent from afar, and therefore it was thin and subdued, as St. Ambrose teaches, sermon 6 on Psalm 118, verse 1. Or this voice was that of the bridegroom indicating to the young maidens silence, lest by any noise they awaken the bride, as St. Gregory and St. Bernard wish. Or some other, as Origen wishes. Whence the bride, recognizing the voice of her beloved, indicating love, and exulting, cries out: Behold my beloved is present; for this is the voice of my beloved whom I hear, who, as I see, takes the greatest care of me, and does nothing other than to care for and promote my love, tranquility, peace, and every good: wherefore like a young hart and a roe he leaps over mountains and hills most swiftly, so that he may be present to me and come to my aid. Thus John the Carmelite: "The voice," he says, "of my beloved, which alone can do this, sounded by its divine power, and awakened me." This saying can be expounded in three ways; first, concerning the incarnation of Christ, as if to say: I, the Christian Church, now that Christ is being born, arising in the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, the apostles and disciples, languishing and sighing with love of Christ, so that he himself might redeem mankind from sin and death, now begin to hear his voice both through himself preaching and through John the Baptist, as three Fathers wish according to Theodoret: for his voice was the voice of Christ; whence he himself says: "The voice crying" (namely of Christ) "in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord," Isaiah 40:3 and Matthew 3:3. Behold therefore the Son of God comes in the flesh, so that he might redeem me and betroth me to himself: "Leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills." By mountains and hills understand all the orders of angels, whom Christ leaping from heaven to earth skipped over, and placed himself beneath all, made man, according to that of David: "Thou hast made him a little less than the angels," Psalm 8:6, and Hebrews 2:7; and as St. Bernard says, sermon 55: "For he appeared as a young hart, namely, he who was born for us." Thus also Cassiodorus and Bede: Christ, they say, is a young hart, because he became the most humble among men, and as Isaiah says, chapter 53:3, the last of men. St. Anselm adds that Christ is a young hart because oppressed by no weight of flesh, and adorned with all virtues, as a young hart is distinguished by spots. The same is said to be a roe, says Justus Orgelitanus, on account of the likeness of the flesh of sin, which he assumed. Or by mountains and hills understand the holy patriarchs and prophets: because through many generations, says Titelmannus, after a long series of preceding Fathers, at length born of a virgin he appeared to the world. For he leaped over as many mountains and hills as the different generations of preceding Fathers who preceded him, from whom according to the flesh he proceeded. He leaped namely from that sublime mountain, the father of our faith Abraham to his son Isaac, from this one to his son Jacob, and thence to others, and as it were by individual leaps he became closer to our mortality: at length he appeared manifest in our mortal flesh. The principal leap, therefore, of which mention is made here, is that of God to men admi- See Rupert, who adapts all these things to the silence, contemplation and ecstasy of the Blessed Virgin. Again adapt these to the same confidence and resignation in God's providence, by which, knowing herself to be supremely dear and of concern to God and to Christ His Son, she rested secure in his arms and as it were slumbered in his bosom, both in Christ's passion and cross, and in the persecution of the apostles and Church made after Christ's death by the Jews, and in any doubts and adversities. Christ therefore, like lightning passing over mountains, that is, angels, and hills, that is, patriarchs, and all the generations of the fathers, as St. Bernard says, Sermon 54, leaped into the most pure womb of the Virgin in the manger: from there he leaped into Egypt, as Nazianzenus says, returning from there he leaped onto the cross: from the cross and the sepulchre he leaped into heaven. Hear St. Ambrose on Psalm CXVIII, Sermon 6, verse 1, who thus introduces the bride speaking: "I desire that charity be stirred up for me, I think myself wounded by charity, and charity itself hastens toward me more. I said: Come; he leaps and passes over: I ask him to come with grace, he works increases of grace; and while he comes, he brings increments of grace with him; and by coming he acquires, because he himself also strives to please his beloved. He leaps over the heights, that he may ascend to the bride: for the bride's chamber is the throne of Christ. He leaps over the Church, he passes over the Synagogue. He leaps over the nations, he passes over the Jews. Let us see him leaping. He leaps from heaven into the Virgin, from the womb into the manger, from the manger into the Jordan, from the Jordan into the cross, from the cross into the tomb, from the sepulchre into heaven." And after many things which he interjects: "He leaps over the Church, which is the house of bread, in that he strengthens the hearts of the faithful. Deservedly as a roe, because a roe feeds in high places. She is called Dorcas from derkein to see, for the sight of roes is keener. What is this more fitting to Christ, who saw the Father, whom no one saw? Or if anyone saw in Christ, the Son himself revealed him. Deservedly as a young hart, as a son to whom the force of paternal nature has become ingrained, so that hidden things do not escape him, serpents flee, poisons do not harm." Christ therefore leaped down from heaven into the ground and into the mire, and from the mire leaped up into heaven. Thus Cassiodorus, St. Gregory, Bede and others. Secondly, it can be expounded of the mission of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, that is to say, the Apostles and the faithful after Christ's ascension into heaven, shut up in Sion on account of fear of the Jews, and devoted to prayer and contemplation, on the day of Pentecost felt the aid and voice of Christ coming, when he sent the Holy Spirit upon them. For then "suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them: and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak with divers tongues, according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak," Acts II, 2. Wherefore armed with this spirit they annulled and overcame the threats of the Jews and the high priests, indeed they subjected all nations to Christ. Moreover with the Holy Spirit descended the Son himself, equally as the Father into the apostles: for the three persons are consubstantial with one another, and what one operates externally, this the two others also operate. Whence Christ about to go into heaven promised the apostles, saying, John XIV, 18: "I will not leave you orphans: I will come to you;" namely with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, say Rupertus and St. Cyril, book IX on John, chapter XLV. Finally the Holy Spirit was as it were the voice of Christ, which through the mouth of the apostles preached and propagated the faith of Christ throughout the whole world; whence Christ says of him: "He shall glorify me: because he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it to you," John XVI, 14. The Holy Spirit finally made the apostles, mountains and hills, that is, all the windings of the way, all difficulties, all persecutions and tribulations, all impediments to the Gospel, to pass over, so that they might disseminate the faith of Christ and the Church throughout the whole world. Whence St. Gregory here says that Christ is like a roe leaping in the mountains and passing over the hills, because he transcends all the saints by the patience of his working, while he raised himself from death, sent the Holy Spirit into the apostles, and converted the nations to himself. Nyssenus says that Christ leaped over the mountains, because he subjected demons to himself. Origen however, because he subjected to his faith all the kingdoms of the world and all kings, however exalted. Theodoretus however, because he overthrew the altars and temples of idols, which had been erected on the mountains. Whence Symmachus translated it, ascending against the mountains, leaping forth against the hills. Finally Solomon up to this point has described the infancy of the Church, here however he depicts its adolescence and growth up to chapter III, 6, as I said in the Proem: but these things began at Pentecost, and thereafter have been more increased. Thirdly, Christ passes over mountains and hills, when the Church in any persecution and adversity most swiftly is present from heaven like lightning, extends counsel and aid, and makes it that she herself overcomes and transcends all things, according to that promise and oracle of Christ: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it," Matt. XVI, 18. And: "I am with him in tribulation: I will deliver him, and I will glorify him," Psalm XC, 15.
SECOND PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the holy soul. Christ leaps into the soul through holy inspirations; mountains and hills are the powers of the soul elevated through God's grace, and yearning for heavenly things. First therefore Christ leaps into the intellect, when like the sun he sends forth rays of heavenly light to it, so that it may see how good, how useful, how beautiful, how pleasant is the work of virtue, for example charity, religion, contempt of the world, martyrdom, chastity, patience, humility, etc.; secondly from the intellect he leaps into the will, inspiring it with the impulses of heat, that is the impulses of holy love, by which it may love and ardently desire the work of virtue; thirdly, he leaps into the imagination and the sensitive appetite, pouring spiritual joy into it, so that it may not resist the intellect and will, but rather obey it and impel it to embrace this work; fourthly, he leaps into the hands and feet, and all the senses and members, while he impels them to carry out in deed the good work which the mind has conceived, however difficult and arduous, according to that passage of Isaiah, chapter XL, 31: "But they that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall take wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint;" overcoming and transcending all mountains and hills, that is all difficulties and obstacles, generously and cheerfully. Hear St. Ambrose on Psalm CXVIII, verse 6, sermon 6: "He exulted as a giant to run his course. From the highest heaven is his going forth: and his circuit even to the highest heaven: and there is no one that can hide himself from his heat. Therefore even now he leaps, and now runs from the heart of the Father over his holy ones, from the east over the west, from the north over the south. He it is who ascends above the setting sun, he above the heavens of heavens toward the east. He ascends above mountains, he above hills. Would that I, wretched one, might say; let my soul say: Behold he comes, and he comes not over earthly things, not over valleys, but he comes leaping above mountains. For God is the God of mountains. Where therefore does he leap? Above mountains he leaps. If you are a mountain, he leaps above you. He leaps above Isaiah, he leaps above Jeremiah, he leaps above Peter, John, James. Mountains are round about him. If you cannot be a mountain, nor prevail, be at least a hill, so that above you Christ may ascend, and if he passes over, let him pass over, so that the shadow of his passing may guard you." Wherefore Christ, leaping into the soul, is "like" "a roe and a young hart" first, on account of his swiftness, which he likewise communicates to the soul, while he makes it swift in carrying out a pious purpose. Secondly, because like a roe his sight is most acute, by which he looks around at all things, and provides for all things that will benefit the soul, and removes those that will harm it, and communicates the same to the soul itself, so that it may first look around carefully and examine all things that are to be done. Thus Theodoret, and St. Bernard, sermon 54. For roes have most acute eyes: whence in Greek they are called dorkades from derkein, that is to see. Thirdly, because just as stags by their breath draw serpents from their caves and devour them; whence they are called elaphos apo tou elain ophin, that is from drawing out the serpent: so likewise Christ manifests, strikes down, disperses and destroys all the temptations of the flesh, the world and the devil, which he himself suggests to the soul. Thus Philo of Carpathus. Fourthly, Christ as judge will be like a roe, because with most acute sight he will see and judge all the hidden words, thoughts and deeds of men. Whence St. Bernard, sermon 55: "But you who desire the coming of the Savior, fear the scrutiny of the judge, fear the eyes of the roe, fear him who through the Prophet says: And it shall come to pass at that time: I will search Jerusalem with lamps, Zeph. I, 12. His sight is acute: nothing will his eye leave unscrutinized. He will search the reins and hearts, and the very thought of man will confess to him, Psalm V, verse 10. What of a column in Babylon, if Jerusalem remains under scrutiny?" And after some things: "It is to be greatly feared when it comes to this, lest under so subtle an examination many of our justices (as they are thought) appear to be sins. There is one thing however, if we judge ourselves, we shall not certainly be judged, I Cor. XI, 32. A good judgment, which hides and removes me from that strict and divine judgment of his. Truly I shudder to fall into the hands of the living God." Hebr. chapter X, 31. Fifthly, Origen: Christ, he says, and the saints are roes in contemplation; stags in action, by which they kill serpents, that is mortify passions and vices. Physicians assert, he says, that there is within the viscera of a roe a certain humor which drives away the dimness of the eyes, and sharpens even duller sight. With good reason Christ himself is compared to it, because not only does he see the Father himself, but he also causes him to be seen by others, whose sight he has healed. Hear St. Gregory, homily 29 on the Gospel: "Behold, he comes leaping upon the mountains, for in coming to our redemption, he made, so to speak, certain leaps. Do you wish, dearest brethren, to recognize these leaps of his? He came from heaven into the womb, from the womb he came into the manger, from the manger he came to the cross, from the cross he came to the sepulcher, from the sepulcher he returned to heaven. Behold, that he might make us run after him, the truth made manifest in flesh gave us certain leaps. Because he exulted as a giant to run his way, that we might say to him from our heart: Draw us after thee: we will run in the odor of thy ointments. Wherefore, dearest brethren, it behooves us to follow him there in heart, where we believe him to have ascended in body. Let us flee earthly desires, let nothing now delight us in the lowest things, we who have a father in the heavens." Moreally, Aponius hence gathers that a pious soul ought always to have the ear of the heart erect and attentive in tranquility, that it may diligently receive the voice of Christ, whether speaking through preachers or inspiring good desires to the mind by itself, and therefore ought to be free for prayer, that it may obtain the grace by which it may execute those desires and bring them into action. For, as Nyssenus says, this voice and inspiration of Christ does not stand or remain, but like a young deer leaps over and passes by.
THE THIRD PRINCIPAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin. Christ, leaping over the mountains and hills of the patriarchs, sprang into the womb of the Virgin, and from her took on flesh, since "the Word was made flesh," as I have already said. Whence He Himself says: "Before the hills I was brought forth," Prov. VIII, 25. In which matter He surpassed the gazelles, that is the angels; and indeed the angel Gabriel himself the messenger in swiftness, the same archangel bearing witness, says St. Bernard, serm. 54, when he says: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. What? Dost thou find in thy womb Him whom thou hast just left in heaven, leaping? Nor did He merely fly and pass over on the wings of the winds. Thou art overcome, O Archangel, He hath leaped over thee, He whom thou wast sent before." The same St. Bernard, serm. 4 On the Ascension, teaches that Christ leaped on various mountains of virtues. He went, he says, from virtue to virtue, that God might be seen in Sion: hence on Mount Tabor He was transfigured, on a mountain He chose the apostles and promulgated the Gospel, on a mountain He spent the night in prayer, on Mount Calvary He was crucified, from the Mount of Olives He ascended into heaven, on Mount Sion He sent the Holy Spirit. Again, Christ caused the Blessed Virgin to leap on the mountains, when He impelled her continually to the lofty acts of virtues, and namely when He urged her to go into the mountains to greet Elizabeth. Tropologically, St. Bernard, serm. 54: Christ, he says, leaps on the mountains, that is on the humble; for humility alone exalts, humility alone is the mountain and true height: He leaps over the hills, that is the proud, whom pride hath made hills, but not mountains: "For God resisteth the proud, but to the humble He giveth grace," I Pet., cap. V, vers. 5. Otherwise John the Carmelite: Christ, he says, leaps on the mountains, when He visits the greater ones with charity; He leaps over the hills, that is the not so sublime, He doth not affect them with like pleasure, but passeth over them as it were. Thus also St. Bernard, in the place already cited, and Cassiodorus, Bede, Origen, and St. Ambrose, lib. On Isaac and the Soul, cap. IV: "Over souls of greater grace He leaps, he says, over the inferior He leaps over, etc., who with infirm heart cannot receive His virtue." And St. Anselm: "Leaping on the mountains, that is, he says, setting His feet and dwelling in the perfect, and He also maketh them to leap like Paul, whom from a persecutor He quickly made the greatest preacher: and leaping over also the lower hills inferior to mountains, in which although God doth not leap as in the perfect, yet He leapeth over them; because He showeth them a certain knowledge of His mysteries, although not so full." Again Origen says that Christ leaps on the mountains, that is on the doctors and eminent saints, while in them through the abundance of doctrine, He becometh "a fountain of water springing up unto life everlasting," John cap. IV, 14. And Cassiodorus: "In these mountains, he says, to give a leap to the beloved, to leap over these hills is said, because the Lord is wont to illuminate the hearts of the sublime with frequent grace of His visitation; and fitly not to remain in these hills, but to leap, or to leap over the same is said; because the sweetness of internal contemplation, as much as it is high on account of the knowledge of heavenly things, so much is it brief and rare on account of the heaviness of minds, still detained by the weight of flesh." Symbolically, Origen understands by the mountains the New Testament, by the hills the Old: for in the reading of Holy Scripture and its meditation Christ is found, and He leaps into minds. Hence Philo of Carpathus says that Christ leaped over the prophets, leaped over the apostles; but St. Bernard leaped on the mountains, that is on the angels, patriarchs and prophets; and on the hills, when He appeared to some of the people. Anagogically, Justus of Orgelitanus by the voice of the beloved understands the trumpet of the archangel, who at the end of the world shall cry out: "Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment." Whence Aponius: Christ, he says, is like the gazelle, which in its hinder part hath whiteness, because in the future age He shall exhibit His presence. And St. Bernard, serm. 55: Christ, he says, is like the young hart and the gazelle on account of mercy toward the elect, and judgment toward the reprobate: for the young hart signifies the desire of one leaping into high things; the gazelle, judgment. Morally, let Christians learn here from Christ to ascend like gazelles to the mountains of prayer and all virtues, and to be swift, cheerful and agile for all beneficence, and every good work: for, as St. Ambrose says: "The grace of the Holy Spirit knoweth not slow efforts;" for He Himself is a consuming fire, "who (therefore) maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire," Hebr. cap. I, vers. 7. Truly Ecclesiasticus, cap. XXXI, vers. 27: "In all thy works be swift, and no infirmity shall befall thee." See the sayings there.
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For "looking," in Hebrew it is maschgiach, that is, intently and with careful observation looking forth, that is, gazing, namely observing all the gestures, acts, and words of the bride, and that studiously and exactly. The Hebrew metsits, that is, blooming, or bursting forth and shining like a flower, and showing itself delicately, and presenting itself to be seen "through the lattices." Aptly the beautiful head, face and eyes of the bridegroom are compared to a flower; because the head is adorned with hair as with flowers; and the face is rosy in color, and the eyes gleam in their sockets, like flowers in their calyx. For as flowers, says Luysius, when they first burst forth, appear to us more cheerful and bright than when they have unfolded the circle of their leaves, nor do they then appear whole, but show only the points of their capitals: so indeed the bridegroom, more beautiful than every flower and rose, having thrust his head into the window, and having opened his rosy mouth, appeared thus. The Septuagint translates: ekkoptōn dia tōn diktyōn, that is, looking through nets, that is, through latticed windows, or through lattices. St. Ambrose, sermon 6 on Psalm CXVIII, reads, standing out through nets. St. Jerome, book III on Isaiah, chapter XII, appearing through nets. It signifies the bridegroom, running to the bride, having clearly inspected her through the cracks and lattices of the house, but not being seen by her, indeed showing himself to her only obscurely through the lattices, so that he might excite in her greater reverence and desire for him, and in turn present himself to her honestly, modestly and bashfully. Thus St. Bernard. For those who look through lattices see others clearly; but by them they can be seen only obscurely and faintly. Thus Origen. Whence the Arabic translates, looking through cracks.
THE FIRST SENSE FULLY ADEQUATE, Concerning Christ and the Church. This saying coheres fully with the preceding one; hence also in the Bibles it is joined with the same in the same verse. According to that one therefore it is to be expounded conformably. Therefore Cassiodorus, Bede, St. Ambrose, St. Gregory, St. Bernard and others, who expound the preceding saying concerning the incarnation of Christ, explain this one also concerning the same: For the wall of the incarnate Word, or of the Godhead, is its humanity, by which it conceals the Godhead, as if to say: The Son of God coming in the flesh, standing after it as after a wall through its eyes and senses, as through latticed windows, looks upon the Church and its faithful, and through the same the flower and beauty of its Godhead shines through and gleams, but thinly, obscurely, and in parts and as if halved. Wherefore Christ as God perceives us perfectly, clearly and immediately, but we see Him only through shadow, or through chinks and lattices, namely through His humanity His Godhead. God therefore being born in flesh was a man metsits, that is, emerging, sprouting forth and blossoming rose, which opening itself and gradually unfolding, the rosy countenance of Godhead and the sweetest odour lying within, as through nets of lattices, that is, through theandric operations, as St. Dionysius says in On Divine Names, that is divine and manly deeds, namely proceeding from man to God, or from the incarnate Word, was showing forth in shadow, when Christ as man after the wall, that is with body intervening, was hiding His Godhead, yet so that thinly and in part as through lattices He was exhibiting it to be seen, as He did in the Transfiguration, in miracles and other divine works. In heaven moreover He will exhibit His divinity without lattices, that is, clearly and face to face to the blessed. In this life therefore the lattices of His humanity were tempering the light and splendour of His Godhead, so that He could speak and act with men, lest their sight be dazzled; just as He appeared to Moses and the Hebrews covered with darkness and a pillar of cloud, Exodus chapter XIII and XX. Thus Cassiodorus and the others already cited, and St. Bernard, sermon 56, who also explains "stood": He stood, he says, by the power of Godhead, who fell by the weakness of the flesh, He Himself saying: The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak, Matthew chapter XXVI, verse 41. Hear St. Gregory here: "As after a wall our Christ incarnate stood, because in the assumed humanity the Godhead lay hidden. And because His immensity, if He should show it, human weakness could not bear, He put forward the obstacle of the flesh; and whatever great things He worked among men, He did as if lying hidden after a wall. But he who looks through windows and lattices, is partly seen, partly hides himself: So also the Lord Jesus Christ, while He both worked miracles by the power of Godhead, and endured rejection by the weakness of the flesh, looked forth as through a window and lattices: because lying hidden in one respect, in another He appeared who He was." And St. Bernard, sermon 56: "Moreover the lattices," he says, "and windows through which He is said to look, the senses (as I think) of the flesh, and human affections, he means, through which He made trial of all human necessities. Finally He took our infirmities, and bore our sorrows, Isaiah LIII, 4. Therefore in human affections and bodily senses, He used as if for holes and windows, so that made man He might know by experience the miseries of men, and might become merciful." And after some things: "So many holes therefore in our ruined and full of cracks wall He found, as many trials of infirmity and corruption He felt in His body." Secondly, you may expound this saying more aptly concerning the following things, of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit. For Christ Himself, through the Holy Spirit sent by Him to the apostles, was exhibiting Himself through fiery tongues as through lattices, through which He Himself clearly beheld the apostles; but the apostles saw Him obscurely. Again you may refer this saying to the Eucharist, which began to be frequented by the faithful especially after the coming of the Holy Spirit. For in the Eucharist Christ not only His Godhead, but also His humanity through the sacramental species of bread and wine as through lattices clearly beholds us, not only with the eyes of the mind, but also of the body, as many theologians think; but by faith and enigma only is He seen by us, namely through sacramental species, and much more through consolations, illuminations, and spiritual tastes, which He exhibits to those eating so great and so sublime, that they themselves seem to see Christ not only with their eyes, but also to taste and savour Him with the taste of the mind, as happened to St. Francis, St. Monica, St. Catherine of Siena, and other saints. To this pertains the version of the Chaldean, who explains these things concerning the paschal lamb; for in this the type of the Eucharist was expressly set forth: "And he protected," he says, "our houses, in which we were, and stood behind our walls, and looked through the windows, and beheld through the lattices, and saw the blood of the victim of the Passover, and the blood of circumcision which was impressed upon our doors, and beheld from the high heavens; and saw his people, who ate the victim of the solemnity roasted with fire with the entrails, and wild lettuce and unleavened bread, and spared us, and gave not power to the angel of destruction, that he should destroy us." Thirdly, you may take this meaning concerning any advent of Christ, by which he visits, protects, defends, and illuminates the Church and the faithful, especially in persecution or tribulation, as if to say: Christ after his ascension into heaven clothed with light as with a garment, thence as it were through lattices beholds the Church, and comes to her aid and provides for all things; and by her he is seen only through the effects of grace, protection and assistance. Thus Aponius, who likewise teaches the manner in which Christ now shows himself to the Church and to the afflicted soul, now hides himself: "The soul has," he says, "invisible enemies, who assail her invisibly and ceaselessly, encompassed within the enclosure of her own mind; whom thus they reduce into the prison-house of vices, so that she cannot at all proceed to run the way of the commandments of God, until recalled by her prayers, coming as it were hidden he stands and watches her struggle; and yet he does not show himself, lest, with the enemies entirely put to flight and the struggle ceasing, she perish in the torpor of idleness; but as it were through windows he looks, affording the help of his vision, so that the soul may recover strength to resist, and the assault of the enemy, diminished by his terror, may somewhat subside; but he looks through windows, namely through her senses, by which she carries out bodily thoughts, if they are not polluted with filth."
SECOND PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Holy Soul. The lattices here can be understood not only of the bridegroom, of which I have already spoken, but also of the bride, namely the soul. Christ therefore is as it were the sun, who desires to illuminate with his light, and to kindle with the heat of his charity all the faithful; but a wall stands in the way, both of the flesh and of concupiscence, and of our sins, which do not admit these rays: Christ therefore, on account of his immense thirst for souls, explores the cracks and lattices, that is, all occasions by which through pious images, sermons, discourses, inspirations into the eyes and ears, and thence into the mind, he may penetrate, and instil into it his light and heat. Thus Aponius, Bede, Rupert and St. Bernard, sermon 56. Hear Origen, homily 2, from the two, who reading from the Septuagint, shining through the lattices: "Where," he says, "the bridegroom does not look, there death is found ascending, as we read in Jeremiah: Behold death ascendeth by the windows of your houses. When thou seest a woman to lust after her, already death ascendeth by the windows of thy house. Shining through the lattices. Understand that thou walkest in the midst of snares, and passest under machines hanging over thee. All things are full of nets. The devil has filled all things with snares. But if the word of God shall come to thee, and shall begin to shine through the nets, thou shalt say: Our soul hath been delivered as a sparrow out of the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken, and we are delivered. Therefore the bridegroom shineth through the nets, making a way for thee. Jesus descended to the earth, subjected himself to the nets of the world." St. Ambrose has similar things, in Psalm CXVIII, sermon 6, verse 3, where among other things he says that Christ shineth above the nets, that is, sins; because he alone is immune from them, and therefore he dissolves all those of others. Hence St. Antony saw the whole world spread with snares, into which souls flying from earth to heaven fell, and were caught in them like birds and fish in a net: for which reason, groaning and crying out: "Lord, who shall escape these snares?" He heard: "Humility." Thus St. Athanasius in his Life. Again, just as parents and teachers pretend to go away, and then hide themselves behind the door and wall, so that through cracks and lattices, or bars they may see what their children and disciples do, when they think themselves free, and that no one is watching them, and, if they see them modest and intent on their studies, they reward them; but if on the other hand they see them with books cast aside chattering, playing, fighting, they punish them; so likewise Christ, going into heaven, there as it were hides himself, and from there observes all our deeds, words, and thoughts through cracks, so that seeing all, he himself is not seen, for this purpose, that he may reward those working well, and punish those acting badly. Moreover, Christ shows himself present to the soul from time to time through grace and consolation, by which he soothes it, and then the soul is carried joyfully to every good; for as St. Bernard says: "He rides sweetly whom the grace of God carries;" sometimes however he as it were departs from the soul and absents himself, while he leaves it in desolation of mind, dryness, temptation, so that it may see its struggle: which if he sees it constant in good, he immediately runs to it, comes to its aid and consoles it. Thus he seemed to abandon St. Antony for a short time in his fierce struggle with demons appearing in the form of wolves, lions, tigers, asps and serpents, but as he fought generously, he immediately appeared in bright light, and when he complained and said: "Lord, where wert thou?" he answered: "Antony, I was here, and I saw thee fighting." Thus St. Athanasius in his Life. So St. Stephen struggling with the Jews, "looking up to heaven, saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing (to fight for him) on the right hand of God," Acts VII. Mystically, Justus of Orgelitum: Christ, he says, looked through the windows and lattices, with his side pierced by the lance, and with blood and water flowing forth from it, he conferred the sacraments upon the Church. Symbolically, by the wall Origen, Theodoret and Philo understand Holy Scripture: for through its letter, as through a latticed wall, we behold God hidden in it and speaking, and God speaks through it to us, instructs us, consoles us, exhorts us, strengthens us, etc. Hence Philo of Carpathus understands by the wall the law, by the windows the prophets, by the nets the apostles, to whom Christ said: "Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men," Matt. cap. IV, 19. Again the same Origen and St. Ambrose in Psalm CXVIII, sermon 2, verse 3, understand by the wall the structure of good works: for Christ secretly observes this, directs it, promotes it and perfects it. Three Fathers however in Theodoret understand by the lattices or nets the connexion of virtues, for these, being mutually fortified by their texture among themselves, keep out the entrance of birds, that is, of demons.
THE THIRD PRINCIPAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin. Christ incarnate in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, as it were looked upon her from behind the wall of the womb, and was felt and seen by her. Again, Christ from the womb of his mother beheld St. Elizabeth and St. John the Baptist, and filled them with the Holy Spirit, by which it came to pass that St. John, hidden in the womb of Elizabeth, recognized Christ hidden in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, and honored and adored him, according to that: "Behold, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy," Luke cap. I, 44. Tropologically, St. Bernard, serm. 56, by the lattices, which are narrower, understands compunction: for through this and in this the bridegroom looks: because "a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise," Psalm. L, 19; but by the windows, which are wider, the voice of exultation and praise. "But if, he says, sometimes with a heart enlarged in charity on account of the consideration of divine goodness and mercy, it pleases the soul to relax into a voice of praise and thanksgiving, I think I open to the bridegroom standing behind the wall not a narrow window, but a very wide one, through which (if I am not mistaken) he looks so much more willingly, the more the sacrifice of praise honors him." Theodoret has similar things. Anagogically, Christ in this life stands behind the wall of our flesh; but when it is dissolved in death, he will show himself to our soul clearly, face to face, to be seen and enjoyed: thus Origen, Cassiodorus, Bede and St. Augustine, XIII Conf. cap. X. Hear St. Bernard, serm. 56: "Our sins, Scripture says, Isa. LIX, 2, separate between us and God. And would that only one wall of the body stood in my way, and I suffered only that obstacle which is sin in the flesh, and not many walls of vices intervened. For I fear lest, beyond that which is in nature, I have added very many things from my own iniquity, by the interposition of which I have removed myself far from the bridegroom, so that if I wish to speak the truth, I confess him to stand behind walls rather than behind a wall for me." And after inserting more: "Nothing of this sort was to be feared by the soul of Paul, to whom from the sight and embrace of the beloved only one wall stood in the way, namely the law of sin, which he found in his members. This is the concupiscence of the flesh, which he could not be entirely without, as long as he was in the flesh. With this one wall interposed, he did not wander far from the Lord; whence also he cried out, Rom. VII, 24: Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? knowing that by the shortness of death he would continually come to life."
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In Hebrew it is, my beloved answered, and said to me: Arise to thee, etc., come to thee, where twice "to thee" is redundant: for the sense is, arise and come. Note, "answered" suggests that the bride, when she had noticed the bridegroom standing behind the wall and looking through the lattices, had invited him with submissive words, or with nods or gestures, to enter the house and speak with her face to face. The bridegroom responded to this invitation that he did not wish to enter the house, but rather to call the bride out to himself into the field and vineyard, because now spring was approaching, in which all things grow green and flower: wherefore it was time for rustic work, pruning vines, gathering grapes, etc. Moreover, St. Bernard, serm. 57: "He comes, the bridegroom says, in angels, he hastens in patriarchs, he draws near in prophets, he is present in the flesh, he looks upon us in miracles, he speaks in apostles. Or thus, he comes in affection and zeal for mercy, he hastens in the eagerness of helping, he draws near by humbling himself, he is present more clearly, he looks upon the future, he speaks teaching and persuading concerning the kingdom of God. Thus therefore is the advent of the bridegroom." Then St. Bernard proceeds to teach how vigilantly we ought to observe the advent of the bridegroom with the bride. For he who with the Psalmist says, Psalm. XXIV, 15: "My eyes are ever towards the Lord; and because I foresaw the Lord in my sight always, Psalm. XV, 8: shall he not receive a blessing from the Lord, and mercy from God his saviour? Psalm. XXIII, 3. He will surely be visited frequently, nor will he ever be ignorant of the time of his visitation, however much he who visits in spirit comes secretly and stealthily, as a modest lover."
THE FIRST SENSE, FULLY ADEQUATE, CONCERNING CHRIST AND THE CHURCH. Christ the bridegroom calls upon the primitive Church, as it were his bride, namely the apostles, now having received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, to cultivate vineyards, that is, the churches of Judaea and of the other nations. He says therefore: Arise from the bed of thy rest, enough given to bed and sleep, hasten to preach the Gospel. "My beloved," that is, my bride, "come" to depart through Judaea and the other provinces, that thou mayest gain souls for me, and bring all nations to me, to my faith and worship; for it is fitting that thou be like unto me thy bridegroom, who am sent by the Father into the world to preach the kingdom of God, as Isaiah foretold, chapter LXI, 1 and 2: "The Spirit of the Lord, he says, is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me: he hath sent me to preach to the meek, to heal the contrite of heart, and to preach deliverance to the captives, and sight to the blind, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God: to comfort all that mourn." This therefore was the golden age of the Gospel, which succeeded the iron age and yoke of the Mosaic law, and therefore the Church is invited, that is, the apostles and apostolic men, to preach the Gospel fearlessly and ardently everywhere among the nations. MY DOVE. — The apostles preaching the Gospel are compared to doves, first, on account of whiteness, simplicity, according to that saying of Christ, Matthew X, 16: "Be ye wise as serpents, and simple as doves." Secondly, on account of swiftness, because they flew through the whole world most swiftly preaching the Gospel. Thirdly, on account of faithfulness, for a dove, associated with her mate as it were a spouse, keeps faith with him, and looks upon no other: thus the apostles were faithful to Christ in hunger, thirst, persecution, etc., even unto death and martyrdom. Fourthly, on account of fruitfulness, for a dove bears eggs and offspring every month, whereas other birds bring forth young only once a year: thus the apostles bore many sons to Christ, for "their sound went forth into all the earth," Psalm XVIII, 5; whence Isaiah, foreseeing them, chapter LX, verse 8, exclaims in admiration: "Who are these that fly as clouds, and as doves to their windows?" See the things said there. Fifthly, the dove is a symbol of purity, chastity and innocence: for the dove abhors mud, nor does it drink water unless it be pure and clear; whence Varro, On Agriculture, book III, chapter VII: "The water, he says, which flows in ought to be pure, so that doves may drink and wash themselves in it: for these birds are most clean." Sixthly, the dove is most indulgent toward her offspring and brood, whence she herself is a living image of the pious mother Church toward all, and especially toward the sons and members of the faith, whom she has brought forth through the bath of regeneration. For indeed (as those who have written on the nature of things relate) the dove does not hesitate to pluck out her own feathers to warm her offspring: for when nesting in severe cold, and placing her brood in the nest, she does not shrink from tearing out her own feathers, so that the little offspring may lie more softly: with the result that the mother herself often wastes away from the frost. The Church does the same. Hear Paul, I Thessalonians II, 7 and 8: "Although we might have been burdensome to you as apostles of Christ: but we became little ones in the midst of you, as if a nurse should cherish her children. So being desirous of you, we would gladly impart to you not only the Gospel of God, but also our own souls, because you had become most dear to us." MY FAIR ONE. — The apostles were fair in every grace, in the beauty of virtues, and therefore in preaching the Gospel they drew all to themselves and to Christ according to that saying: See the things said there. Most excellently St. Ambrose, in the book On Isaac and the Soul, IV: "Arise, he says, come, my near one, that is, arise from the delights of the world, arise from earthly things, and come to me, thou who still labourest and art burdened; because thou art anxious about the things of the world. Come above the world, come to me, because I have overcome the world. Come near to me now fair with the beauty of eternal life, now a dove, that is meek and gentle, now wholly full of spiritual grace." And St. Bernard, sermon 57: "For indeed, he says, she is rightly called beloved, who studiously and faithfully seeks the gains of the bridegroom by preaching, counselling, ministering. Rightly a dove, who nevertheless, groaning and supplicating for her own sins in prayer, ceases not to conciliate divine mercy to herself. Rightly also fair, who, shining with heavenly desire, adorns herself with the beauty of heavenly contemplation, at those hours at least when she can do so conveniently and opportunely." Then he teaches these three gifts to be represented through Martha ministering, Lazarus as it were groaning under the stone, and Mary contemplating.
SECOND PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the holy soul. First, Christ arouses the pious soul from the sleep of comfort, negligence and pusillanimity, and commands it to rise, so that it may ascend the more sublime degrees of charity and virtue, may strive toward higher things, and may always make progress in God's grace, love and obedience: for the perfection of this way and life consists in continuous and perpetual progress, namely so that the just soul may follow God calling, and day by day may strive to assimilate itself more and more to His purity and holiness, and thus may deserve to receive eternal rest and a more illustrious crown of glory in heaven. "Rise" therefore, that is, lift yourself up, in the manner of one rising strive toward higher things, run with haste, and like a dove fly into the nest through the increase of charity. O truly beautiful spouse, to whom both the beauty of virtue and the agility of deeds bring comeliness. Walk and come to me, that is: "In thy beauty and comeliness proceed prosperously." This is what the Psalmist says: "Blessed is the man whose help is from thee: he hath disposed the ascents in his heart, in the vale of tears, in the place which he hath set. For the lawgiver will give a blessing, they shall go from virtue to virtue: God shall be seen in Sion," Psalm LXXXIII, verse 6. Wherefore the holier anyone is, the more does he aspire to greater holiness and strive earnestly: for a sign of lesser holiness, indeed of failing and perishing holiness, is to be unwilling to progress in it, but to wish to remain in one's state and degree; which is impossible: for to be unwilling to make progress is to be willing to decline, as St. Bernard teaches, epistle 154. Whence St. Paul, Philippians III, 13, after so many struggles and races: "Brethren, said he, I do not count myself to have apprehended. But one thing I do: forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forth myself to those that are before, I press toward the mark, to the prize of the supernal vocation of God in Christ Jesus;" and he adds: "Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded." And Romans cap. XII, verse 11: "In carefulness, said he, not slothful: fervent in spirit: serving the Lord." Thus Origen, homily 2: "Why, said he, rise? why make haste? I endured for thee the rage of the tempest, I received the waves that were due to thee: my soul became sorrowful even unto death: I rose from the dead, breaking the gates of death and loosing the bonds of hell; therefore I say to thee: Rise and come." And Gregory of Nyssa, homily 5: "Rise, said he, come, my neighbor, my beautiful one, my dove. She hears the command, is confirmed by the word, is aroused, draws near, approaches. She becomes beautiful, is called a dove: beautiful, because drawing near to God, like a mirror she has received the image of divine beauty in herself; but a dove, because beautiful on account of the image of the Holy Spirit received. The soul becomes a beloved by knowing God; becomes beautiful by keeping Christ's humility; becomes a dove, however, because desiring nothing of earthly things except the vilest food and clothing of the body, but always holding to the simplicity of doves, she associates herself with the Holy Spirit." And St. Gregory: "On account of faith, said he, Christ calls his spouse beloved, a dove on account of simplicity, beautiful on account of her works, etc. He therefore exhorts her to rise and come, because it is fitting that whoever hastens to the love of Christ should cast off, as much as possible, the torpor of the flesh, and should quickly prepare himself to attain eternal things." Second, Cassiodorus, Bede and St. Anselm hold that here the soul is called forth from the leisure of contemplation to the business of action, from rest to struggle and dust, from the lot of Mary Magdalene to the lot of Martha, so that she may devote herself to the salvation of her neighbors and make them like herself and lead them to heaven. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 57: "Finally the spouse hears that she should rise and make haste, without doubt for the gain of souls. For true and chaste contemplation has this property, that the mind, which it has set on fire vehemently with divine fire, it sometimes so fills with zeal and desire of acquiring for God those who love him likewise, that she most willingly interrupts the leisure of contemplation for the study of preaching: and again, having obtained her wishes in some measure in this regard, she returns to the same thing all the more ardently, the more fruitfully she remembers having interrupted it; and likewise, having tasted the sweetness of contemplation, she returns with renewed vigor to acquiring the usual gains with her accustomed eagerness." Moreover, St. Bernard notes, sermon 58, that it is not said "go," but "come" (indeed Nyssenus reads "come willingly"; although "come willingly" is not in the Hebrew, yet it is understood), because Christ does not command imperiously, but sweetly invites to the labors of the active life. Then St. Bernard asks why the bridegroom, who a little before forbade the bride to be awakened from sleep, soon himself awakens her from sleep and calls her forth to labors: just as Christ in his passion, having allowed the apostles a brief sleep, weighed down by long vigil, immediately breaks it off saying: "Rise, let us go: behold he is at hand that will betray me," Matt. cap. XXVI, vers. 46; and he answers: "Recognize, he says, the alternations of holy rest and necessary action; and because in this life there is not abundance of contemplation, nor length of leisure, where the necessity of duty and work presses more urgently and insistently. Therefore in his manner the bridegroom, when he perceives that his beloved has rested a little in his own bosom, does not hesitate to draw her again to those things which seemed more useful. Yet not as if unwilling (for he would not do what he forbade to be done), but truly to be drawn by the bridegroom by the bride is to receive from him himself the desire by which she is drawn, the desire of good works, the desire of bearing fruit for the bridegroom: for to her to live is the bridegroom, and to die is gain." Anagogically, the dove is a symbol of the contemplative life, heavenly and blessed; hence Varro, lib. III On Agriculture, thinks the dove is named from the peaks of the farmhouse, in which it is accustomed to dwell. Hence in the Life of St. Marina we read that a dove placed a crown upon her in martyrdom, and said: "Peace to you, handmaid of God: now be confident, receiving a heavenly crown from the hand of the Most High." Again an angel in the form of a dove carried the soul of St. Amator to heaven, as is narrated in the Life of St. Germanus, cap. V. St. Benedict saw the soul of his sister St. Scholastica ascending to heaven in the form of a dove, as her Life has it. The soul also of St. Hope the abbot flew away like a dove to the heavens, so that "God by this very form might show how simply of heart that man had served him," says St. Gregory, lib. IV of the Dialogues, cap. X. Thus also a dove, gazing with fixed eye upon Blessed Beatrice of Este, was a herald to her of passage from this life to the heavenly; as Bernard Scardionius relates in her Life. Thus also a dove perched upon the head of St. Fabian, announced him worthy of the pontificate, and therefore to be chosen. The same dove, perching upon the neck of St. Chrysostom celebrating Mass, declared his sanctity and heavenly life. St. Radegund, invoked by shipwrecked men, flying about the ship in the form of a dove, freed them from danger, as her Life has it. Aldrovandus recounts more examples of this sort of doves in his work on the Dove, pag. 404, and seq. Finally, in the baptism of Christ, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descended upon him from heaven and rested, Luke III, 22.
THE THIRD PRINCIPAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin. Rupertus thinks by these words is signified the great desire of the Word to assume flesh from the Blessed Virgin, and therefore by them she is invited, so that to the angel Gabriel announcing to her she might immediately give her consent. "You, he says, my beloved through humility, my dove through charity, my fair one through chastity, etc. Come therefore, Mary, come: for Eve fled to hiding places. Come, and believe the angel evangelizing: for Eve believed the serpent whispering. Come and crush the head of the serpent: for Eve was enticed by the head, and delighted by the belly, and bound by the tail of the serpent. Come and say: Behold the handmaid of the Lord: for Eve hiding herself and defending herself: The serpent, she says, deceived me and I ate. This is the voice of my beloved, and thus he speaks to me: Rise, hasten and come. Rise through faith, hasten through hope, come through charity." Again by these words: "Rise, hasten," Christ calls forth the Blessed Virgin, first, so that although pregnant, she might rise and go into the mountains with haste to greet Elizabeth and to serve her. To these things so that she might hasten to Bethlehem, and there give birth to Christ, as being in the city of David, and in the house of bread: for Christ is the bread of angels, as much as of men. Finally, by these words many think Christ most sweetly invited his mother in death to himself in heaven: wherefore she breathed forth her most holy soul not in sorrow, but in the desire and love of Christ.
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This is a paraphrase of spring and vernal pleasantness, to which the bridegroom calls forth the bride from the bedchamber into the fields and vineyards for their cultivation. For in spring, winter with its cold, snow, frost and rain has passed away, flowers appear, vines and shrubs are pruned, and the turtledove and other birds sing: for turtledoves hide themselves in caves throughout the entire winter in such a way that there is no one who would assert that he has seen a turtledove in winter, as Aristotle testifies, lib. VIII Hist. Anim. cap. XVI; wherefore when the turtledove appears, it is a certain sign that winter has passed and spring is beginning. In a similar manner Ovid paints spring in lib. I Fastor.: Then all things bloom, then is the new age of the season, And a new bud swells from the pregnant shoot. And now the tree is covered with newly formed leaves, And the herb of the seed comes forth to the surface; And the warm birds soothe the air with their songs, And sport in the meadows, and cattle luxuriate. Then mild suns, and the unknown swallow appears, And beneath the lofty beam fashions yellow work. Understand flowers not of vines, but of violets, hyacinths, tulips, etc., for vines do not flower before they are pruned: for in Hebrew it is nitsanim, which word signifies not only flowers, but also first sprouts, or first berries and buds sprouting forth from stems and shrubs, such as can also be understood here in vines. For pruning in Hebrew is zamir: which Vatablus and other Hebraists translate as singing; for in spring the nightingales and other birds sing. For the root zamar properly signifies to prune, or to cut vines and trees: from this it is transferred by metaphor to musical cutting, or to song, by which voices are cut with certain inflections, measures and tones, so as to exhibit a pleasing modulation to the ears; whence mizmor is called a psalm and psalmody: hence also the Arabs call zambra a singing choir. But Our Author translates it better as pruning, both because the singing of birds is sufficiently signified by the voice of the turtledove; and because the Septuagint, the Chaldean, Aquila and Symmachus translate pruning; and because the bride is invited here to the cultivation of vines, namely to pruning, so that they may produce abundant grapes and wines; and finally, because we see at the beginning of spring vines are pruned before the vernal equinox, before they bud and flower, and Pliny teaches that this must be done by vinedressers, lib. XVIII, cap. XXVI: "Have the pruning completed by the equinox;" and he adds that this must be done before the cuckoo begins to sing; but the cuckoo sings at the beginning of spring, as Aristotle testifies, lib. IX Histor. anim. XLIX. Whence: Oppianus calls the cuckoo the first messenger of spring. And Columella, lib. IV De Re rustica, cap. X, and XIV: "There are two times for pruning; but the spring time is better (as Maro says), before the shoot sprouts, because being full of moisture it receives an easy, light and even blow, and does not resist the pruning hook." Furthermore, our Sanchez understands this pruning not of vines, but of balsam: for the balsam shrub when cut with bone or glass drips the most sweet and fragrant opobalsamum, as Pliny testifies, lib. XII, cap. XXV, and Hegesippus, lib. IV, cap. XVII. For Solomon's vineyards were most excellent in the field of Engaddi, in which soil balm was once found; but he understands pruning for the very tear or drop which flows down in pruning, namely for the opobalsamum itself by metonymy; but this drips not at the beginning of spring, but in advanced spring, namely about the solstice, when summer begins. This rightly applies to Christ, who dripped the opobalsamum of doctrine, charity and holiness in his life, and of blood and water, by which we are washed on the cross; whence Ecclesiasticus, cap. XXIV, 21, says: "As balsam not mixed is my odor." But here it seems to be a matter of the beginning of spring, when winter and rain have first passed, and when the turtledove and birds begin to sing; wherefore it seems that pruning of vines and shrubs should rather be understood simply here. I confess, however, that here spring is understood not only as beginning, but also as advancing and mature, and even summer itself: for the apostles, who are here signified, began to preach after Pentecost, as I shall now say. The Chaldean, after his custom referring these things to the Jews freed from Egypt, thus translates: "Because behold the time of subjection, which is like winter, has ceased; and the years which I said to Abraham in the divisions, are shortened; and the dominion of the Egyptians, which is compared to continuous rain, has passed and gone away, and you shall not add to see them forever." Vers. 12: "But Moses and Aaron, who are compared to palm branches, appeared, that they might work miracles in the land of Egypt; and the time of pruning of the firstborn came; and the voice of the Holy Spirit of redemption, which I said to Abraham your father. For now you have heard what I said to him, and also the people to whom they shall serve, I will judge, and afterwards they shall go forth with great substance; and now I will do what I swore to him in my word."
THE FIRST SENSE, FULLY ADEQUATE, CONCERNING CHRIST AND THE CHURCH. Christ the Bridegroom calls the primitive Church, as it were a bride, namely the apostles, having already received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, to cultivate vineyards, that is, the churches of Judaea and of the other nations. He therefore says: Now the winter, that is, the rigour and fear of the Mosaic law, according to Origen, Theodoret, and St. Gregory, and the cold and frost of the infidelity of the nations has passed away, the rain of errors and vices has gone, because the spring sun, namely the Holy Spirit, has shone forth, which by its heat has put to flight both the winter and the rain, and with the south wind of its grace has produced flowers of the saints, such as were the first believers and martyrs, as the Holy Innocents, St. James, St. Stephen and their companions, in our land: therefore the time of pruning has come, when you, O apostles, may cut away with the sword of faith the ignorance and infidelity of the Jews and nations, and all desire for temporal things, so that they may bring forth fruit of good works. THE VOICE OF THE TURTLE-DOVE HAS BEEN HEARD IN OUR LAND. — This turtle-dove, solitary, chaste and mourning, was St. John the Baptist, says the Nyssenus, whose voice and life was nothing other than groaning and the preaching of penance: "Do penance," he says, "for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," Matthew III, 2, and Luke III, 3. John therefore was the end of the old law, and the beginning of the Gospel, according to that saying of Christ: "The law and the prophets were until John: from that time the kingdom of God is preached, and all men do violence to it," Luke chapter XVI, verse 16. Again, "the voice of the turtle-dove" was the preaching of St. Peter and the apostles. Whence, when this was heard, the Jews, doing penance for the slaying of Christ by them, said: "What shall we do, men and brethren? But Peter said to them: Do penance, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost," Acts chapter II, verse 37. He said the same to Cornelius the Centurion, who, the first of the gentiles converted to Christ by St. Peter, opened the door to the apostles for going forth and converting all nations, Acts chapter X, verse 32. Therefore the time of the new law was the spring of the Gospel, when Christ, as the sun, by the heat of his grace dispersed all the winter of infidelity and concupiscence, and produced flowers and fruit of good works; whence then appeared the flowers of martyrs, prunings, that is, mortifications and austerities of religious and anchorites, turtle-doves of widows and virgins, who have castrated themselves for the love of Christ for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. For the turtle-dove is the exemplar of chastity, say Aponius, St. Bernard and others. Indeed St. Augustine, homily 33 among 50, and St. Jerome, book I Against Jovinian, and St. Ambrose, book On Isaac, chapter IV: "Where," he says, "there was formerly unchastity, there is now chastity." So also Cassiodorus, Bede, Anselm, Rupert and others. Moreover, by flowers Origen understands any believers, Aponius the innocent slain for Christ, St. Ambrose, in Psalm CXVIII, sermon 6, the apostles: "Good flowers," he says, "the apostles, who have poured forth the fragrance of their various writings and works." By the voice of the turtle-dove Cassiodorus, Bede and Rupert understand the preaching of the apostles; Paul, Philo Carpathius; Christ, St. Cyril, book XV On Adoration; the Church, St. Gregory.
THE SECOND PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the holy soul. First, Christ calls the sinful soul to penance and justice, saying: Rise from the bed of sin, for now the winter of sins and the rain of concupiscence has passed: for my grace has shone upon you, which may warm you with love, and produce the flowers and fruits of penance and virtues, so that you may become beautiful like a dove to your God. Wherefore three acts of penance are noted here, namely contrition through flowers, confession through the voice of the turtle-dove; satisfaction through pruning: for the act of contrition is as it were a shining flower of faith, hope and charity, from which is born the fruit of justification; the voice of the turtle-dove For the turtle-dove is most chaste, constantly persisting in lamentation for her dead mate, is a likeness of persevering love, as St. Basil teaches, homily 8 of the Hexaemeron, St. Ambrose, book V of the Hexaemeron, 13, and Nazianzenus, oration to the Virgin, says: The turtle-dove bereft of her mate. She seeks the extinguished one with constant lamentation and mourning. O truly wise bird! Thus St. Augustine groans, sighs and pants to God in the Meditations, especially chapter XXXVI, where among other things he says: "Give me a clear sign of your love, a spring of tears flowing perpetually, so that the tears themselves may testify their love in me, may reveal it, may speak it, how much my soul loves you, since from the excessive sweetness of your love it cannot restrain itself from tears, etc. Give me the upper spring and the lower spring, so that my tears may be to me bread day and night." turis is the groaning confession of the penitent; pruning is satisfaction, by which through fastings, tears, and other penitential works past guilt is chastised, and the occasion of future sin is cut off and removed. To this pertains the fact that the turtle-dove is a symbol of penance: for after the death of her mate she perpetually grieves and mourns; never does she rest on a green branch as before, but always on a dry one; never does she look at herself in water, lest the image and memory of her dead mate occur to her; nor does she drink clear and limpid water as before, but turbid and muddy water, indeed she troubles clear water with her foot before drinking, as natural philosophers relate, and among them Sanchez; whence Baptist Mantuan: Just as where the chamber's consort is lost, through the fields Alone the turtle-dove flies, nor drinks from shining waters, Lest she be saddened by the sight of her former mate's image, Nor is she borne to rest on a green trunk thereafter. Second, Christ calls the holy soul from idleness and torpor to the study of virtue and good works, namely that she may produce the flowers of almsgiving, the pruning of fasting and mortification, and the voice of the turtle-dove, that is prayer and meditation; likewise pious groans and sighs flowing from a devout and love-filled heart, by the instinct of the dove, that is the Holy Spirit, concerning which the Apostle says, Rom. chapter VIII, verse 26: "The Spirit himself asks for us with groanings that cannot be uttered." Whence St. Bernard, sermon 59: "The voice of the turtle-dove, why not of turtle-doves? Perhaps the Apostle solves this, where he says: Because the Spirit himself asks for the saints with groanings that cannot be uttered, Rom. VIII, 26. So it is: he himself puts on groaning, who makes those who groan, and however many you hear groaning thus, one voice sounds through the lips of all." He adds that the turtle-dove denotes those who love silence and solitude, and consequently prayer and groaning: for the turtle-dove loves solitude. In solitude indeed Christ speaks to the heart, says Origen, or rather Hosea, II, 14. Moreover, how through continual and constant mortification the desires, always sprouting again from corrupted nature, are to be mortified, St. Bernard beautifully teaches, sermon 58. Furthermore, as St. Ambrose says, book II of the Apology of David, chapter III: "There is a winter not of the season, but of the mind, which despoils the fertile field of the soul of every flower, when cold steals into the mind, when the vapor of the mind evaporates, when the vigor of sense is loosened, when excessive moisture overflows into the mind, when the inner sight grows dark." This winter Nyssenus graphically depicts, homily 5, where he also says that the soul sanctified through Christ's grace produces the flowers of virtues, and will produce fruit in its own time. Thus also Cassiodorus, Origen, Bede, Anselm, Bernard understand by flowers virtues, namely the first beginnings of sanctities. Third, the voice of the turtle-dove is to groan, and by groaning to sigh to God; whence Virgil: Nor will the turtle-dove cease to groan from the airy elm. Anagogically, the holy soul is here called forth from the exile of this life to the heavenly homeland and glory; Christ therefore says to it: Come into my chamber, my bride, O holy soul, now the winter of sluggish mortality has passed; the rain of fleeting concupiscence, as well as of hardships, persecutions, anguishes, anxieties, which into this life continually, as rain from heaven upon men abundantly pour down, has now gone away and departed; the flowers of heavenly glory now appear; the time of pruning has come, namely when all the roots of vices and miseries are cut away from you by death; the voice of the turtle dove, by which groaning you have sighed many times for this redemption of your body, has been heard; come therefore, enter into the place of glory and blessed immortality. Thus St. Gregory: "Flowers, he says, are said to have appeared on the earth, because holy souls when they depart from bodies are received in heaven. And because in this life although it was winter, they did not grow sluggish from good works, as soon as they departed, they flourished gloriously in the land of the living. It is therefore fitting that what follows is said: The time of pruning has come, because the greater the number of the elect gathered in heaven, the more swiftly the reprobate are cut away from the Church as useless branches, so that the world may end more quickly." And a little later: "What is signified by the turtle dove but the Church? What is signified by the land of the bridegroom but that blessed life? But the voice of the turtle dove is said to have been heard in the land of the bridegroom, because while the holy Church prays for its desire, it is most mercifully heard by Christ in heaven." Thus also Origen, Justus of Orgelitum, Theodoret and others, who understand by winter the disturbances and tribulations of this life, by rain the storms of vices. St. Gregory adds, in homily 16 on Ezekiel, that flowers are a foretaste of heavenly glory, which the saints in this life, and especially in death, draw from God: "Then, he says, flowers appear on the earth, because when the soul has begun to taste certain first fruits of sweetness from the life of eternal blessedness, as if already in flowers it smells departing what, after it has departed, it will have more abundantly in fruit." Moreover St. Ambrose, sermon 6 on Psalm 118, for "time of pruning" reads "time of reaping," "when, he says, ripe grain is stored in barns, and he who reaps receives his reward." Whence also Philo of Carpathus says this is the time of death.
THE THIRD PRINCIPAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin. At the beginning of spring, namely on the 25th of March at the equinox, the angel Gabriel announcing to the Blessed Virgin the conception of Christ, and she giving her consent, the Word was made flesh. Then therefore the long winter of the prophets and of the harshest law passed away, the rain of sins, and of God's wrath and threats departed, and the most delightful spring blooming with the flowers of grace, reconciliation and remission of sins, and the opening of heaven appeared, when the sun of justice Christ the Lord arose; then likewise it was the time of pruning, that is of grace and penance, by which the wicked habits of sinners are cut away, and the harmful delights of concupiscence are cut short: for through it spiritual circumcision is made in the spirit, of which that circumcision of the Jews in the flesh was a type and shadow, Rom. II, 29. Then the voice of the turtle dove, that is of the most chaste Virgin sighing for the incarnation of Christ, was heard: "Behold, she says, the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word," Luke I, 35: thus Rupertus. Again the voice of the turtle dove was the exultation of John in the womb of his mother, when she was greeted by the Blessed Virgin already pregnant with Christ, Luke I, 41. To these things the voice of the turtle dove was the voice of Anna the widow, who at eighty-three years old not departing from the temple, spoke of Christ to all who were looking for the redemption of Israel, says Justus Orgelitanus. The flowers of Judaea can also be called Christ, says Origen, and John in the womb of his mother already conceived. Moreover the Fathers hold that here is described the most blessed time, when Christ in the flesh (for the flesh and humanity of Christ is the primary spouse of the Word here, as I said in the Preface, cap. II.) conversed with the Jews, and in spring, namely at Easter suffered and rose again. Thus Cassiodorus, Bede, Origen, Theodoret, Gregory of Nyssa, Philo, Aponius, Rupertus, Bernard, serm. 58, who teaches that the time of winter was for the apostles from the passion of Christ until the coming of the Holy Spirit, who dissolved the winter, that is the cold of fear and torpor, by the heat of his charity, and converted it into divine spring and summer; but by the rain he understands the blasphemies of the Jews, the Pharisaic traditions, the loquacity of philosophers, the erroneous doctrines of heretics, and all turbulent spirits. "Christ, says St. Bernard, as a flower rose from the earth and appeared, and with him many bodies of saints, as many flowers, rose and appeared to many." Whence the Christian poet thus depicts the spring of nature and of Christ: In spring the fields renew with budding growth, The vine-shoots gem again, and verdant grows The foliage on the shrubs, the grass grows young In every garden. The spring season thrives before its time, All the beauty and grace of spring in the year, Spring is acceptable to the heavens above, the origin of All things and seasons. God sent to Mary The messenger of heaven in spring, then with the cross and enemies, He conquered the infernal regions, and from Lachesis' shears Christ took away the sword. Finally Hugh of St. Victor, serm. On the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, near the end of vol. II, teaches that the voice of the turtle dove is the voice of love, with which the Blessed Virgin burned: "The voice of the turtle dove, he says, sings to love and affection, and the turtle dove has a singular affection, to which it sings either joy to the present one, or affection to the absent one. Therefore the voice of the turtle dove is all about love, and the turtle dove knows nothing else besides love; and its singular love is that which joins no other to itself alone; and eternal, which is neither first nor second. Therefore the voice of the turtle dove sings to love, and the song of love is the voice of the turtle dove, and hearts burn at the voice of the turtle dove; one thing is what the voice of the turtle dove sounds, and always it sounds and resounds that, and never tires of it. Always it sings the same, which always loves the same. And who will be worthy to hear the voice of the turtle dove? In solitude it sings, and always the turtle dove loves solitude, because it seeks singular affection." And with a few things interjected: "O thou that art beautiful among the daughters of Jerusalem, thou hast heard the voice of the turtle dove, thou hast heard and understood. He spoke within, and thou wast within; therefore thou didst hear and understand, and thou didst say: The voice of my beloved! For thou didst understand that it was the voice of thy beloved, and it was of love; for thou wouldst not have understood unless thou hadst loved, because it was the word of love, and could not be understood except by one who loves. The beloved spoke, and to the beloved he spoke, and love was commended. Because therefore thou hast heard the voice of thy beloved, and hast understood love, delay no longer, rise quickly."
2:13
THE FIG TREE PUT FORTH HER GREEN FIGS, THE VINES FLOWERING GAVE A SMELL. ARISE, MY LOVE, MY BEAUTIFUL ONE, AND COME. — The Septuagint: the fig tree produced its buds, the flowering vines gave a smell. For "flowering" in Greek it is kyprizousi, that is, cypressing, that is, flowering and smelling like cypress. Green figs are called the first figs, which sometimes fall unripe, but give a specimen and hope of ripeness and perfection of the others; sometimes they ripen, and are sweet and pleasant, as Columella testifies, book V, chapter X; understand therefore green figs here as falling, or rather ripening: for in Hebrew it is pag, whence the Latin ficus; and pag some Hebrews derive from panag, with the middle nun elided, that is, he delighted: for fresh figs are delights of the mouth and stomach especially green figs, or first ripe ones, concerning which in Micah chapter VII, it is said: "My soul desired the early figs." For "flowering" in Hebrew it is semadar, which signifies the flower or follicle of the vine, when it now begins to grow large, and produces tiny grape seeds. Behold what I said in the preceding verse is noted here: not only spring beginning, but also advancing, or mature spring: for the fig trees put forth green figs, and the vines flower and grow large, in mature spring. He names before other trees the fig and the vine, because the fruits of these, namely figs and grapes, are most pleasant and excellent: for every fruit of other trees has something watery, raw and uncooked; the fig alone on account of heat has nothing raw, but all ripe and well-cooked; nor does it have any small stones or kernels, but pure juice, edible, and sugary, or honeyed. Whence someone said the fig was a purse of honey: with these fruits the bridegroom invites the bride from the bed into the field and vineyard.
THE FIRST SENSE, FULLY ADEQUATE, Concerning Christ and the Church. When the Apostles, truly in the time of Pentecost, and afterwards preaching, "the fig tree put forth figs," that is, many Jews were converted to Christ, and "the flowering vineyards (that is, the nations beginning to believe), gave forth their odour" of holy life, fame and example, and from this came hope of great fruitfulness, namely the conversion of all nations whatsoever. Moreover, just as some figs ripen, but very many unripe ones fall off: so few of the Jews were steadfast in faith; for very many of them fell away from the faith, and relapsed into Judaism; for Christ converted many from the crowd by preaching; but the greater part of them fell away through fear of the chief priests and scribes, especially when they saw Christ suffer, be crucified and die. Similarly John the Baptist converted many of the Jews by his austerity and the efficacy of his preaching, but many of them relapsed into their former crimes. Whence Christ, John V, speaking of John: "He, saith he, was a burning and a shining light; but you were willing to rejoice for a season in his light," as if signifying their conversion to have been but for an hour. But some whom John himself reproved as not believing sincerely: "O generation of vipers, saith he, who hath shewed you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of penance," etc. Moreover, concerning those who believed in Christ preaching, how few remained faithful is evident from this, that while he was still preaching, many of his disciples went back, so that he turned and said to the twelve: "Will you also go away?" John VI, 68. When also he was betrayed to his passion, he was abandoned even by these same twelve, and denied by almost all, with the whole multitude of the Jews crying out loudly before the face of Pilate: John cap. XIX, 15, and Matt. cap. XXVII, 25: "Take away, take away, crucify, crucify him. His blood be upon us," etc. Finally, how unripe that fruit of Jewish penance was and how immature, is evident from what Paul says to the Jews: "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first: but because you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold we turn to the Gentiles," Acts XIII, 46. But truly "the flowering vineyards gave forth their odour" most pleasing: namely because the peoples of the Gentiles dispersed throughout the whole world, who until the coming of Christ had been unfruitful, as it were in some perpetual winter of idolatry, at the preaching of the holy apostles straightway began to flower, and flowering poured forth in the nostrils of the Lord of Hosts an odour most sweet and most pleasing, which therefore by the breath of his virtue and fame far surpassed all the holocausts and incense of the old law. Thus St. Gregory of Nyssa, Cassiodorus, Bede, Philo, Anselm, Rupert and St. Bernard. Christ represented this very thing in deed, when being hungry he sought fruit from the fig tree, and finding none cursed it, saying: "No fruit shall grow on thee henceforward for ever: and immediately the fig tree withered away," Matt. XXI, 19; for this fig tree, equally as that which the master ordered to be cut down on account of its sterility, Luke XIII, 6, represented the Synagogue, namely the dryness and reprobation of the Jews in faith, as St. Jerome, Gregory, Hilary and the other Greek and Latin Fathers teach with unanimous consent. Hear St. Ambrose, lib. VII in Luke, cap. XIII, comparing the fig tree with other trees: "Others, saith he, bear flower before fruit and by the herald of their flower designate coming apples; this alone from the beginning germinates apples in place of flowers. In others the flower is shaken off, and apples are born; in this apples fall, that apples may succeed; therefore those earlier ones, barren of fruit, emerge in place of flower." Then applying this very thing to Jews and Gentiles: "Behold now, saith he, the cultivation and minds of the Jews who, as it were the first fruits of the poorly fertile Synagogue, fell by the likeness of falling figs, that lasting fruits above our age might succeed. For indeed the first people of the Synagogue, as if weak in the root of works and withered, could not draw the abundance of natural wisdom. And therefore like useless fruit it fell, that as it were from the same tendrils of the fruitful tree, from the richness of ancient religion, the new people of the Church might emerge. Therefore he who was ceased to be, that this one might begin who was not. Yet the first of Israel, whom the branch of stronger nature had raised under the shadow of law and cross, in the bosom of both, coloured with twofold sap, by the example of ripening figs, surpassed others for the sake of most beautiful fruits, to whom it is said: You shall sit also upon twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel," Matt. XIX, 28. To this pertains the exposition of St. Anselm: The fig tree put forth her green figs, that is, he says, the precepts of the old law, like useless fruit fell away. For, as St. Bernard says, sermon 60: "And truly what was not gross in that nation? Neither acts assuredly, nor affections, nor understanding, but not even the rite which it had in worshipping God. For acts were in wars, affections were wholly in gains, understanding was in the grossness of the letter, worship was in the blood of beasts and herds." He then adds that this production of green figs was perfected by the Synagogue of the Jews: "When it killed Christ, then its malice was completed, according to what He Himself had foretold to them: Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers, Matt. XXIII, 32; whence on the gallows about to give up His spirit, it is consummated, He says, John XIX, 30. O what a consummation this accursed fig tree gave to its green figs, and thereafter condemned to eternal barrenness!" And after inserting many things: "From that time therefore it could be said that the fig tree put forth her green figs, when namely the legitimate things of that people began to be as it were in their exit upon the summit, so that with new things, according to the ancient prophecy, the old things might be cast away, Levit. XXVI, 10. Not otherwise assuredly than as green figs fall away and yield to the rising good figs." St. Bernard then adds, just as serpents are put to flight by the odor of a flourishing vineyard, so demons were put to flight by the fervor of the first Christians; and he adds: "But if the vineyard is the soul, the flower is work, the odor is opinion, what is the fruit? martyrdom. And truly the fruit of the vine is the blood of the martyr." So also St. Gregory: "The fig tree," he says, "put forth her green figs, because the holy Church sent her martyrs ahead to the eternal homeland." So also Aponius. Symbolically, the fig tree is Christ and Christ's cross, first, because the fig tree has branches and leaves that are rare, scattered and vile: so Christ and the cross were vile and despised in external appearance to worldly men. Second, because the fig tree produces no flowers, but instead of flowers immediately gives fruit, and that most sweet; so Christ immediately gave most sweet fruit, when He saved Jews and gentiles. Third, because many believe the forbidden fruit which Adam ate was a fig: so Theodoret, Gennadius, Isidore and others whom I cited, Gen. III, 6; it was fitting therefore that Christ's cross either be made from fig wood, or be signified by it, so that the fig tree which had given death to disobedient Adam and his posterity, might give life to obedient Christ and Christians. Hence Bellonius, who traveled through the Holy Land and all the Orient, lib. II Observ. LXXXVIII, suggests that the material of Christ's cross was fig wood, because this tree was frequent in Palestine, and was also frequent in the workshops of craftsmen, although others think differently as I shall say cap. VII, vers. 8. The vines are the apostles, because vile ones transplanted from the whole world, they brought forth abundant grapes and wine of the conversion of the gentiles to God and Christ.
SECOND PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the holy soul. The fig tree and the vine, to be cultivated by any faithful person, is the soul: for this, if properly cultivated, will give figs most sweet of gentleness, patience, almsgiving, sweetness of manners and speech; and grapes, and wine of charity, which inflames the mind and inebriates it with the love of God. Hence that passage in Proverbs XXVII, 18: "He that keepeth the fig tree, shall eat the fruit thereof." See the things said there. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 60: "I say indeed by the grace of God, which is in us, that we have both fig trees and vineyards. Fig trees indeed, which are sweeter in manners; vineyards truly, because more fervent in spirit. Whoever conducts himself among us commonly and socially, and not only converses without complaint among the brethren, but also offers himself to all with much sweetness to be enjoyed in every office of charity, why should I not most fittingly say that he acts the part of a fig tree?" And with many things interjected: "Now those who are vineyards show themselves to us more severe than sweet, acting in vehement spirit, zealous for discipline, correcting vices most sharply, fitting to themselves most suitably their own voice: Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hated thee, and was I not grieved with those that rose up against thee? Psalm CXXXVIII, 21; likewise: The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up, Psalm LXVIII, 10. And to me indeed those seem to excel in the love of neighbour, these in the love of God." More generally Theodoret understands by the unripe figs the first fruits of the soul's faith, which will be followed by the fruits of good works. Moreover, what these unripe figs are, St. Bernard explains thus at the beginning of sermon 60: "Truly the fig tree is a people fragile in flesh, small in sense, humble in spirit, whose first fruits (as we allude to the name) are indeed unripe and earthly. For it is not the concern of the common people to seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, Matthew VI, 33; but, as the Apostle says, Matthew VI, 23, to think on the things that are of the world, how they may please their wives, or they their husbands: such shall have tribulation of the flesh; but in the end we do not deny that they will attain the fruits of faith, if they have had a good final confession, and especially if they have redeemed the works of the flesh with almsgiving. Therefore the first fruits of the common people are not fruits, no more than the unripe figs, which are useful for nothing, except that they are certain harbingers of the fruits to come, but they fall prematurely and give place to those that are ripening, themselves not at all fit for growth. Anagogically the fig tree and the vine represent the sweetness of the heavenly homeland: for there God will feed us with heavenly figs and divine wine, according to that promise of Christ: "And I dispose unto you a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table," Luke XXII, 29, and "I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of my Father come," Matthew XXVI, 29. Hence also Christ represented the end of the world, the day of judgment and resurrection by the fig tree: "See the fig tree, and all the trees: when they now shoot forth their fruit, you know that summer is nigh. So you also, when you shall see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is at hand," Luke XXI, 29. To this pertains the Version of the Chaldean, who refers these things to the entrance of the Hebrews into the Promised Land where each one sat quiet and joyful under his vine and his fig tree. For this entrance was a type of the entrance into the land of the living, namely into heaven. Hear the Chaldean: "The assembly of Israel, which is compared to early figs, opened its mouth, and sang a song over the sea of reeds, and also children and infants praised the Lord of the world in tongues: immediately the Lord of the world said to them: Arise for thyself, congregation of Israel, my beloved and my fair one, go hence to the land which I swore to thy fathers." Moreover, just as the unripe figs precede the ripe ones and foretell their fertility, so the good acts of virtue are harbingers of the sweetest fruits which we shall enjoy in heaven: thus the Nyssene. Hence again Origen, homily 4 from the four, understands by the flowering vines the angels, who "to men, he says, bestow their fragrance, that is the good of doctrine and instruction, by which they instruct and imbue souls, until they come to perfection, and begin to become capable of God." And after some things: "The angelic, he says, virtues, with which each of the elect and blessed in the resurrection shall be associated, who shall be as the angels of God, these themselves are flowering vines and vineyards, which impart to each soul their fragrance, and the grace which it received from the Creator before, and now again having recovered what was lost, and by the sweetness of heavenly fragrance finally drive away the stench of mortality and corruption cast off by them."
THE THIRD PRINCIPAL SENSE, CONCERNING CHRIST AND THE BLESSED VIRGIN. "The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel," says the prophet Isaias, cap. V, 7. The vineyards, that is the prophets and patriarchs, says St. Bernard, "adored Christ about to be born and to die in the flesh, but they did not then give forth their fragrance, because they did not exhibit in the flesh what they perceived in the spirit; they did not give forth their fragrance, because they did not make public their secret, waiting for it to be revealed in its own time. But they gave it forth afterwards, when through the succession of generations they brought forth from themselves Christ according to the flesh by virgin birth to the ages. Then indeed, I say, those spiritual vineyards gave forth their fragrance, when there appeared the goodness and humanity of our Saviour God, Tit. III, 4, and the world began to have present what few had yet perceived absent." And after some further remarks: "It was said therefore that the vineyards gave forth fragrance, either because faithful souls spread a good opinion of themselves everywhere, or because the oracles and revelations of the Fathers were made plain to the world, and their fragrance went forth into all the earth, the Apostle saying, I Timoth. III, vers. 16: And manifestly great is the sacrament of godliness, which was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, appeared to angels, preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the world, taken up in glory." Hence three Anonymous writers in Theodoret, by the vineyards, that is the flower of the Church, understand the three Magi, who were the firstfruits of the Gentiles believing, when they came to Bethlehem to the Mother of God, and offered to Christ frankincense as to God, gold as to a king, myrrh as to one mortal, and about to die for the salvation of men. ARISE, MY LOVE, MY FAIR ONE, AND COME. — By this repetition, says Nyssenus, the soul is stirred up to advance always in virtue, and to make progress in the spirit: "For indeed," says Nyssenus, hom. 5, "to him who truly rises, it will never fail to rise always; nor to him who runs to the Lord will the broad and wide expanse of the field ever be exhausted, for accomplishing the divine course. For it is necessary always to rise and be awakened, and by running approaching never to cease. Wherefore as often as he says: Arise and come, so often to that which is better, by that ascent which shall follow afterwards, are they added by the Word." St. Bernard truly, serm. 61: "The bridegroom commends," he says, "his great love by repeating the voices of love. For repetition is the expression of affection, and in that he again urges the beloved to the labour of the vineyards, he shows how solicitous he is for the salvation of souls: for you have already heard that the vineyards are souls."
2:14
MY DOVE IN THE CLEFTS OF THE ROCK, IN THE CAVERNS OF THE WALL (in Hebrew in the secret of that step or staircase, Vatablus says in the recess of the stairs or in the hidden place of the step, that is of the spiral staircase, that is of Christ, he says, by which we shall ascend to Christ), SHOW ME THY FACE. — The Septuagint of the Vatican, thou my dove in the covering (St. Ambrose and Origen in the veil) of the rock near the outwork; St. Ambrose, sermon 6 on Psalm CXVIII, near the fortification; the Complutensian, come thou, my dove, in the covering of the rock; the Syriac, in the veil of the hedge adhering to the outwork, show me thy countenance: for wild doves nest not in dovecotes as domestic ones do, but in the clefts of rocks and caverns of walls, that is of ruins, heaps of stones, ruined walls, as if to say, Remember, O bride, that thou art equally with me a rural shepherdess, who like a free and wild dove dwell in the country in ruins of buildings and rocks: wherefore go forth from the house and city, and come with me into the field, where we shall dwell happily, feed, and take delight. Whence Origen thinks that here not the point of departure but the point of arrival is noted, namely the place to which the bride, at the bridegroom's invitation, ought to come, as if to say, Come that thou mayest dwell with me in the clefts of the rock. "He adds this," he says, "to show her the place to which she ought to come, which place is situated under the covering and protection of rock; but let it be the same place, not so much near the wall as near a certain outwork; but an outwork is called such when, outside the walls which surround the city, another wall is built, and it is a wall before the wall." Thus the sense will be, as if to say, Come, O bride, and go forth from the house and city into the fields, there in shady dwellings hewn in the rock we shall dwell quietly and joyfully. Thus also Rupert and St. Bernard, whom hear: "Fear not, O bride, as if this work of the vineyards to which we exhort thee, the business of love, should have to impede or interrupt. It will certainly be, and there will be some use in it for that which we likewise desire. Vineyards indeed have walls, and pleasant lodgings for the modest." More aptly our Sanchez thinks that here the point of departure is noted: for the bride is called forth from the clefts of the rock into the open air of the vineyards, that she may draw a free spirit from the free and serene sky. The bride, he says, timid and devoted to her own comfort, on account of the harsh cold of winter keeping herself at home, like a dove hiding herself in the clefts of the rock, dreads the open sky and the hard sun, which she thinks to be a severe inclemency; she does not dare to spend the night in the open with the bridegroom, she loves her bed, and there she warms and indulges herself, just as certain beasts in their lairs, and the reptile kind of animals in their caverns avoid the inconveniences of winter time. From this retreat and softness therefore the bridegroom calls forth the bride, affirming that he has made sufficient provision that there be nothing in these nuptials which she might fear. For although in the field rains, heat, labors and sorrows, indeed death itself for the salvation of souls, must be endured, yet all these things are made sweet by the love of Christ crucified for you, and under the gall of the cross God has hidden honey and manna of wondrous pleasure: which having tasted and tried, the bride, feeling how sweet the cross of Christ is, of her own accord calls forth the bridegroom into the field of labor and the cross, cap. VII, 11. Moreover the Chaldean refers these things to the Hebrews shut in by mountains and rocks, when they crossed the Red Sea: "When," he says, "the impious Pharaoh persecuted the people of the house of Israel, the assembly was like a dove which is shut in the clefts of the rock, which a serpent presses from within, and a hawk presses it from without: thus was the assembly of Israel shut in from four parts of the world, because before them was the sea, and behind them the enemy pursued, and on two sides of them were deserts full of fiery serpents, which bit and killed the sons of men with their poison: immediately however he opened his mouth in prayer before the Lord, and a voice descended from the high heavens, and thus said: Thou congregation of Israel, which art compared to a pure dove, and art hidden in the enclosure of the clefts of the rock, and in the hidden steps, show me," etc.
THE FIRST SENSE, FULLY ADEQUATE, Concerning Christ and the Church. Christ calls forth the Church, struck with fear of the Jews, and hiding like a dove in the clefts of the rock, that is, the apostles lurking in Sion after Christ's ascension, and devoted to prayer and meditation on Christ's passion, made bold and strong by the Holy Spirit sent at Pentecost, so that they might go forth into public, and there in fields and villages show their face to themselves and others, and make the voice of their preaching heard, as being sweet to themselves and salutary to their hearers. Thus in former times, in the age of the emperors Decius, Gallienus, and Diocletian, who persecuted the faithful, bishops and Christians hid themselves in caves, caverns, and crypts, which still exist in underground Rome, and strike sacred awe into those who behold them. Wherefore through the holes of the rock, the Fathers symbolically understand the five wounds of Christ (for He is the rock, I Cor. X, 4); indeed Zacharias also, cap. III, 9, saw a stone with eyes, carved with sculpture, that is Christ carved in his passion with his wounds and stigmata: see what is said there. Thus St. Gregory: "Through the holes of the rock, I would willingly understand the wounds of the hands and feet of Christ hanging on the cross; but the cavern of the wall, the wound of the side, which was made by the spear, I would say in the same sense. And rightly is the dove said to be in the holes of the rock and in the cavern of the wall, because when she imitates the patience of Christ in the remembrance of the cross, while she brings those very wounds to memory for the sake of example, as a dove in the holes: thus a simple soul finds in the wounds nourishment by which she may be strengthened. Yet through the holes of the rock the sacraments of Christ's incarnation can be signified, and through the cavern of the wall the very protection of angelic custody can be figured." And Rupertus: "And they shall look (says Zacharias, cap. XII, 10) upon me whom they have pierced: for the nails of Christ and the spear are the wounds of my soul; in them I dwell and groan as a dove in the holes of the rock, on account of the piercing of the nails; in the cavern of the wall, on account of the wound of the side: for Christ is the rock and the wall, being mortal and passible was a wall, but when He rose from the dead, He is a most solid rock." Thus also Cassiodorus, Bede, Justus, Anselmus, and Aponius, who says that St. Thomas dwelt absorbed in these wounds of Christ, when, Christ appearing after the resurrection and showing them, he exclaimed: "My Lord and my God." Hear St. Bernard, serm. 61: "The holes of the rock, he says, are the wounds of Christ, quite rightly indeed: for the rock is Christ. Good holes, which establish faith in the resurrection and Christ's divinity. My Lord, he says, and my God, John XX, 28. Whence was this oracle brought forth, if not from the holes of the rock? In these the sparrow found itself a house, and the turtle dove a nest, where she might lay her young: in these they strike sacred awe into those who behold them. holinesses; thus also Aponius through the holes of the rock understands the four gospels, and through the cavern of the wall the doctrine of the apostles, through which the Church and the faithful soul comes to the knowledge and worship of God. And St. Ambrose in Psal. CXIII, serm. 6, following the Septuagint: "Come, he says (O Church, O soul espoused to Christ), according to the Gospel, the bulwarks of your faith have been made by Christ, your walls are the words of the Lord, the passion of the Lord's body is your strength." Similar things are held by Nyssenus and three Anonymi in Theodoret, and by Philo Carpathius, who says we are here called to the protection of the rock, that is to the Gospel, by which we are protected against all the snares of the devil, whose bulwark is the old law. By both laws therefore, both new and old, we are protected. St. Jerome, however, in book I Against Jovinian, says that Christ is to us the most firm rock as a bulwark, according to that passage, Isa. XXVI, 1: "The city of our strength is Sion; the Savior shall be set in it as a wall and a bulwark."
SECOND PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Holy Soul. St. Bernard, sermon 61, asserts that pious and religious souls dwell in the clefts of the rock (whence indeed the Essenes truly lived under St. Mark, and anchorites in caves and crypts devoted themselves to prayer and the praises of God), that is, meditating in the wounds of Christ; but martyrs truly by imitating, and suffering with Christ and for Christ: "He wills, he says, the benign leader that the devoted soldier's face and eyes be lifted up to his wounds, so that from this the soldier may raise his spirit, and by his example become stronger to endure. Truly he will not feel his own sufferings while he gazes upon his wounds. The martyr stands exulting and triumphing with his whole body torn; and with iron rending his sides, not only bravely but eagerly he sees the sacred blood bubbling forth from his flesh. Where then is the martyr's soul? Surely in safety, surely in the rock, surely in the bowels of Jesus, namely in wounds open for entering. If it were in his own bowels, iron searching them would surely be felt; he would not bear the pain, would succumb and deny. But now dwelling in the rock, what wonder if he has hardened like the rock?" Then, exaggerating the same thing, he adds: "But neither is this a wonder, if exiled from the body, he does not feel the body's pains. Nor does stupor do this, but love. For sensation is subdued, not lost. Nor is pain absent, but overcome, but despised. Therefore from the rock comes the martyr's strength, hence plainly powerful to drink the cup of the Lord. And how glorious is this cup that inebriates! Psalm 22:5. Glorious, I say, and joyful, no less to the emperor watching than to the soldier triumphing. For the joy of the Lord is our strength. Why should he not rejoice at the voice of the strongest confession? Finally he even seeks it with longing: Let, he says, your voice sound in my ears. Nor will he delay to repay in kind according to his promise: straightway he who confesses me before men, I also will confess him before my Father. Matthew 10:36. But by the cave of the wall, the same St. Bernard, sermon 62, with Cassiodorus, Bede and Anselm, understands the communion of saints, and the guardianship of angels and blessed men, who protect the pious and elect, so that through them the ruin of the fallen angels, namely demons, may be restored in the heavenly homeland, and this is done through the wounds and merits of Christ. In the meditation and invocation of these, therefore, he asserts that the pious soul ought to dwell. "It will be permitted, therefore, he says, to each of us, even in this time of our mortality, to provide for ourselves, in whatever part we wish, caves of the heavenly wall, now indeed to revisit the patriarchs, now to greet the prophets, now to mingle with the senate of the apostles, now to be inserted into the choirs of martyrs, but also to traverse and examine with all the eagerness of the mind the state and mansions of the blessed virtues from the least angel up to the cherubim and seraphim, as far as each one's devotion shall carry." Symbolically St. Anselm understands by the clefts of the rock the benign providence, mercy and protection of Christ, to which the holy soul flees, and under it lies hidden in safety. Anagogically St. Bernard understands by the rock and wall, and its cave and clefts, the secret of the heavenly glory of God and the blessed, in which the pious soul dwells contemplating. For thus he says: "It is clear that there are two kinds of contemplation, one concerning the state and felicity and glory of the heavenly city, by which either in act or in leisure that vast multitude of heavenly citizens is occupied. The other concerning the majesty of the King himself, his eternity, his divinity. That in the wall; this in the rock." And Origen following the Septuagint: "The soul, he says, is called out beyond the wall and is led even to the outwork, when casting aside those things which are seen and temporal, it strives toward those things which are not seen and are eternal: but this path is shown to it under the veil of the rock," that is, under the firm and solid dogmas of Christ. If therefore the soul is covered and veiled by the doctrine and faith of Christ, it can safely reach that secret place where, with face revealed, it may contemplate the glory of the Lord." Then, with several things interjected, he adds: "We can still add even this concerning the place of the outwork, that the outwork is the bosom of the Father, in which the only-begotten Son placed declares all things to his Church, whatever are contained in the secret and hidden bosoms of the Father. Whence also one taught by him said: No one has ever seen God; the only-begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, he himself has declared it. There therefore Christ calls his bride, so that he may teach her concerning all things which are held with the Father, and may say: Because all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. And: Father, I will that where I am, there also my minister may be, John 3:26.
THE THIRD PRINCIPAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin. Christ incarnate was in a cavern of the wall, that is, in the hidden place of the virginal womb, according to that passage, Isaiah LI, 1: "Attend to the rock whence you are hewn, and to the cave of the pit from which you are cut out," and was born in a cleft of the rock, that is, in the cave of Bethlehem, which had been hewn out of the rock, according to that: "And laid him in a manger: because there was no room for them in the inn," Luke II, 7. Whence St. Jerome, in epistle 18 to Marcella, inviting her to Bethlehem, where he himself dwelt with St. Paula: "How, says he, in what words, with what voice shall I expound the cave of the Saviour, and that manger in which the little infant cried out, which ought to be honored in silence rather than in the lowest speech." And after some further remarks: "Behold in this small cleft of the earth (Bethlehem) the Creator of the heavens was born, here wrapped in swaddling clothes, here seen by the shepherds, here shown by the star, here adored by the Magi," etc. Rupertus refers these things to John the Baptist, who, existing in a cave, that is, in the womb of his mother, hearing the voice of the Blessed Virgin greeting the mother of Elizabeth, leaped for joy, because through her, recognizing, loving, and adoring Christ conceived in her womb, he was cleansed from original sin and filled with the Holy Spirit. Finally, by the cleft of the rock can be understood the sepulchre of Christ, which had been hewn out of the rock, from which he gloriously rose. For the Blessed Virgin devoutly and frequently visited and went about this place, as well as Mount Calvary, where the cross of Christ had been fixed in the rock, and the other places in which Christ had suffered, so that she seemed almost to dwell in them.
SHOW ME THY FACE, LET THY VOICE SOUND IN MY EARS: FOR THY VOICE IS SWEET, AND THY FACE IS COMELY. Nyssenus, Philo, and Psellus hold that the bride speaks here, and seeks the presence and conversation of the bridegroom. Then, says Philo, Christ shows His comely face when the Word was made flesh and when He was transfigured; and His sweet voice when He called those who labour, restored health, and forgave sins. But all the others assert that these are the words of the bridegroom to the bride, who desires and requests that the bride uncover her veiled face and that which is covered by the veil of the rock, and show it naked and clear, says Origen, so that in it as in a mirror the bridegroom may behold his image, says Theodoret, and so that he may polish, paint and perfect it, and lead it to pure heavenly contemplation, as Origen wishes, according to that: "But we all beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord," II Cor. III, 18: for by these words Christ recalls the timid apostles hiding in Sion, so that at Pentecost they may boldly show His face to the people, and preach the gospel to them, as I said a little before: for whatever we do to our neighbours out of love of God, we do to God, according to that saying of Christ: "As long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me," Matt. XXV, 40. Whence St. Ambrose, Psalm CXVIII, sermon 6, verse 6, reading: "Show me thy face, and make thy voice heard, because thy voice is sweet, and thy face is beautiful: sweet, he says, is the voice, because by the mouth confession is made unto salvation; and the face is comely, because it does not blush at its author, is not confounded by its redeemer. He therefore shows His face, bearing the sign of the cross; and makes His voice heard, assuming the authority of preaching." Let preachers therefore, mighty like the apostles, come forth into the pulpit from the holes of the rock, that is from solitude of prayer and meditation of the passion of Christ, so that they may preach Christ crucified fearlessly with great ardour of piety and spirit. Let them therefore show their face, that is, with regard to Christ alone, let them not preach for their own gain, and let them turn their face away from all creatures, and turn it to God alone through prayer, so that they may be enlightened by Him, and conform their face, that is their conversation, to His, just as Moses speaking with God on Sinai received from Him a horned face, that is horns of light breathed upon his face. Whence the Chaldean translator renders it, show me thy aspect, and thy good works: make thy voice heard, because thy voice is sweetness in prayer in the house of the small sanctuary, and thy aspect is beautiful in good works. The bridegroom therefore here seeks to be shown by the Church purity of faith and works, as it were a comely face, and the preaching of heavenly doctrine, as it were a sweet voice. Thus Cassiodorus, St. Gregory, Bede, Origen, Theodoret, Anselm and others. Hear St. Gregory: "For what do we understand by face, except faith, by which we are known of God? And what by voice, except preaching? But the bridegroom commands that the bride show him her face, because whoever says he has faith, it is necessary that he exercise himself in good works, so that interior faith may be made known in exterior works, but it is also necessary that the voice of preaching follow, because whoever perfectly extends himself in holy works, it follows that he exhorts his neighbours to do the same. Therefore it follows: For thy voice is sweet, and thy face is comely. For then both the voice pleases and the face is beautified, when both preaching follows upon works, and again good works accompany preaching." And Cassiodorus: "Show me, he says, thy face," which I gave thee in baptism, and when I cleansed thee from all sin. "Thy voice, he says, let sound in my ears," so that it may proceed from sincere intention of my love, so that thou mayest preach for no other reason than for me. Aponius indeed refers these things to Jews converted by the apostles: "To the doctrine of the apostles," he says, "the Church, as if coming forth from the cave of unbelief, began to show her face to the Creator, now with a contrite heart, and what she had defiled with the collapse of so great a sin, pursuing the Lord of majesty and sprinkled with the blood of the just, which she had poured out upon herself with her own voice, saying: His blood be upon us, now converted to herself says: Show me thy face, let thy voice sound in my ears, etc. And thus her voice, which had recalled a horrible, interrupted, most bitter and lamentable voice with the hoarseness of impiety, saying: Crucify, crucify; with such a draught and medicinal cup of the blood of Christ which they had poured out, has been renewed to a melodious sweetness, confessing that she believes in God, whom as a man she had condemned before Pilate." Symbolically, a fair face signifies the beauty and comeliness of a holy mind conversing with God: for this is the face of man not external, but internal; voice indeed signifies the pious groanings of the mind and sighs to God: both are most pleasing and delightful to God, so much so that God feeds and delights himself in them, according to that: "And the bridegroom shall rejoice over the bride, and thy God shall rejoice over thee," Isa. LXII, 5. Both make a preacher powerful and efficacious. Hear St. Bernard, serm. 62: "For how much it pleases him when indeed with purity of mind the preaching of truth, he shows, when he then adds: For thy voice is sweet. Because indeed it does not please, if the face displeases, he demonstrates, when immediately he subjoins: And thy face is comely. What is the internal beauty of the face, except purity? In many this has pleased without the voice of preaching, that without this in no one. Truth does not show itself to the impure, wisdom does not entrust itself. What then do they speak, which they have not seen? That which we know, he says, we speak, and those things which we see we testify. Do you then dare to testify to that which you have not seen, and to speak what you know not? Do you ask whom I call impure? He who seeks human praise, he who does not put forth the gospel without expense, he who preaches the gospel that he may eat, he who esteems gain as piety, he who does not seek fruit, but payment." Furthermore, Rupertus most excellently applies these things to the Blessed Virgin: "Show," he says, "me thy face," and by showing correct what Eve sinned in, and hid her face from me in the midst of the tree of paradise, namely in the same in which she sinned, inasmuch as she was pleased with herself in her sin, and defended her sin. "She did not show me her face," when I said: Where art thou? her voice did not sound in my ears, the voice of confession which ought to have sounded at least when I said: Why hast thou done this? just as also when I blessed her saying: "Increase and multiply;" the voice did not sound in my ears, for she sang no song of thanksgiving for so great a benefit, by which I made her the mother of so great a generation, which was to possess so great an inheritance of the kingdom of God. Do thou show me, as indeed thou dost show, thy face. Let thy voice sound in my ears, the voice, I say, of confession and thanksgiving. For thy voice is sweet in that thou art my dove, and intent upon the holes of the rock; like a dove thou hast groaning instead of song, singing thou groanest, groaning thou singest, and that very exultation, by which thy spirit exulted in God thy Saviour, is full of groanings, full of tears." But thy "face" is "comely," because great is thy faith, great is thy humility. This is Rupertus word for word, but with some things cut away for the sake of brevity. Now according to the letter Nicephorus from St. Epiphanius, lib. II Hist., cap. XXIII, thus depicts the face of St. Virgin: "A face not round and sharp, but somewhat longer, etc. She was wholly free from pride, simple, and in no way feigning her countenance, bringing nothing of softness with her, but cultivating surpassing humility." The face of Christ was similar, for Christ lacking a father was mothered. Hear Nicephorus, lib. I, cap. XL: "He did not have a round or sharp face, but such as his mother's was, somewhat inclined downward, and moderately ruddy; bearing gravity and prudence joined with gentleness, and placability free from anger. In short, he was altogether most similar to his divine and immaculate mother." Anagogically, with these words Christ calls the pious soul forth from the cave of this life to heavenly glory, as I said above: for such a soul's face is purged from every stain, even venial, and therefore comely; the voice also is sweet, because the voice of thanksgiving, exultation and jubilation.
2:15
TAKE US THE FOXES, THE LITTLE FOXES, THAT SPOIL THE VINEYARDS (Septuagint: that destroy; Symmachus: corrupt) FOR OUR VINEYARD HATH FLOURISHED. The Septuagint: and our vineyards shall put forth buds, that is, shall germinate and flourish like cypresses; the Arabic: and our vineyard shall flourish, the little foxes being taken which corrupt it. The word "little" is to be referred to foxes, as is evident from the Hebrew, Greek and Vulgate: wherefore it is strange that Origen, Philo of Carpathus, and others refer "little" to vineyards. Judaea abounds in foxes, as is evident from the three hundred foxes which Samson caught, Judges XV, 4. Now foxes harm vineyards more than other wild beasts, both because they dig under them and uproot them, and because they plunder and devour the grapes; but little foxes, since they are wanton and do not have sufficient strength to uproot the vines, when they are tender and flowering, they pluck at them, gnaw them, pluck off the flowers, and dig the earth near the roots, so that the vines are deprived of moisture and, exposed to the sun's rays, are burned and wither away; besides this, little foxes when they have grown larger uproot the vines. Moreover little foxes, being inexperienced, can easily be deceived and caught, but when they have grown larger they cannot be so easily: for they are most cunning, according to that saying: "The old fox is not caught in a snare." Finally, he commands that foxes be caught when they are little and weak in strength; for foxes in spring, when the vineyards are flowering, breed: wherefore if you then neglect to catch and destroy them, they will multiply greatly and increase. Moreover Pliny, book XXIII, chapter VIII, writes that foxes are killed by bitter almonds: "They say," he says, "if they eat them, and do not happen to drink water nearby, they die." The Chaldean interpreter understands by foxes the Amalekites, who attempted to hinder the progress of the Hebrews into the holy land, and therefore were caught and slain by Moses and Joshua, Exodus chapter XVII, 13.
THE FIRST SENSE, PROPERLY UNDERSTOOD, Concerning Christ and the Church. Christ commands the Church, that is the apostles, that in the preaching of the Gospel and the founding of vineyards, that is of Churches, they should catch the little foxes, that is heretics already then springing up: for these indeed, craftily like foxes, subvert the faith and the Church; such in the time of the apostles were the Judaizers, who wished to mix with the Gospel and to observe circumcision and the other precepts of the old law. Likewise Simon Magus the first heresiarch, Menander, Basilides, Carpocrates, Ebion, the Gnostics, etc.: therefore their frauds and errors, when they are still small and adhere in few, he commands to be exposed, and by arguments, as St. Bernard says, not by arms to be overcome and exterminated, lest they grow strong and pervade the whole Church like leaven and corrupt it. Thus St. Gregory, Cassiodorus, Aponius, Origen, Bede, Theodoret, St. Anselm, and others throughout. Hear St. Augustine in Psalm LXXX: "Foxes signify the insidious, and especially heretics fraudulent, deceitful, lurking in cavernous windings, and deceiving, stinking with a foul odor. Against which odor the Apostle says: We are the good odor of Christ to God in every place. These foxes are signified in the Song of Songs, where it is said: Catch us the little foxes that destroy the vineyards, lurking in tortuous caverns. Catch us, convince us: for you catch him whom you convince of falsehood." For, as St. Bernard says: "When deceit is revealed, when fraud is opened, when falsehood is convicted, most rightly then is the little fox said to be caught, which was destroying the vineyards." Thus Ezekiel, chapter XIII, 4: "Like foxes, he says, in the desert, your prophets, O Israel, were. They see vanities, and divine lies, saying: Thus saith the Lord, when the Lord hath not sent them." Furthermore, how these foxes, that is heretics, are to be caught, thus teaches St. Augustine, in Psalm LXXX: "Foxes are accustomed to have such dens, that they enter from one part and exit from another part. The fox-catcher has set nets at each hole. Tell me, is it from heaven, or from men? They feel that he has set a snare for them on both sides from which he might catch them, and they say among themselves: If we say from heaven, he will say to us: Why then did you not believe? for he bore witness to Christ. If we say from earth, the people will stone us, because they hold him as a prophet." And with a few things interjected: "Let us see if we too can catch some little foxes: let us set a snare at each hole, so that whichever way the fox wishes to go out, it may be caught. For example, to a Manichaean making for himself a recent God, and putting in his heart what is not, let us say and question him: Is the substance of God corruptible, or incorruptible? Choose what you wish, go out where you wish, but you will not escape. If you say corruptible, not by the people, but by yourself, you will be stoned: But if you say God is incorruptible; how did the incorruptible fear the race of darkness? What would the incorruptible race of corruption have done?" Cassiodorus and Bede note that after vineyards in the plural, a vineyard is named in the singular when he says: "Our vineyard flourished," because all particular Churches come together and form one common and universal Church. St. Bernard, sermon 64, urges this upon us, when he says: "Catch us foxes. He could, he says, have said: Catch for me; but he preferred to be delighted in fellowship with us. O sweetness, O grace, O force of love! Is it so that the highest of all, made one of all? Who did this? Love ignorant of dignity, rich in dignity, powerful in affection, efficacious in persuasion. What is more violent? Love triumphs over God. What yet so not violent? It is love. What is this force, I ask, so violent unto victory, so conquered unto violence? Finally he emptied himself, that you might know it was love, that fullness was poured out, that height was equaled, that singularity was associated."
SECOND PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Holy Soul. Foxes are fraudulent suggestions which the demon, the flesh, or the world suggests to the soul under the appearance of good, in order to lead it to evil: for vice is concealed under the veil of virtue, since Satan transfigures himself into an angel of light, II Corinthians XI, 14: wherefore these, as soon as they arise and are small, must be captured, so that their fraud, deceit and error may be detected, lest when grown and strengthened they cannot be captured and rooted out. Gregory of Nyssa notes that demons who tempt man are not called lions, bears, tigers, but foxes, and small ones, because their powers are small and weak, so that they can be immediately repelled and overcome by a man who is noble and steadfast; they are therefore armed with the cunning of foxes: wherefore these cunning stratagems of theirs must be carefully investigated and dispersed. St. Bernard adds that they are called small because their suggestions are subtle, and visible only to those who have an acute mind. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 63: "To a wise man, his life is a vineyard, his mind, his conscience. For nothing uncultivated, nothing abandoned will a wise man leave in himself." And after some remarks: "And the good vineyard of the just, or rather the good vineyard is the just man, to whom virtue is the vine, to whom action is the branch, to whom wine is the testimony of conscience, to whom the tongue is the winepress of expression: Finally, our glory is this, he says, the testimony of our conscience, II Corinthians, chapter I, verse 12. Do you see that nothing is idle in the wise man? Speech, thought, conversation, and whatever else comes from him, is it not all the agriculture of God, the building of God, and the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts? What finally can perish from him, when even his leaf shall not fall? But such a vineyard will never lack infestations, never lack snares. For where there are many riches, many are they that eat them, Ecclesiasticus V, 10. The wise man will be careful to guard his vineyard no less than to cultivate it, nor will he allow it to be devoured by foxes." He then, in sermons 64 and 65, recounts various examples of these foxes, such as that of a monk who left the monastery to convert his parents, but acquired them not and lost himself; of others who leave the monastery to preach, or to live for themselves alone and for God; of others who converse with women under a pious pretext, in order to instruct them in the spirit; but soon the spirit passes into the flesh; for, as St. Bernard prudently says in sermon 63: "To be always with a woman, and not to know a woman, is this not more than raising the dead? What is less, you cannot do; and what is greater, do you wish me to believe you?" Secondly, small foxes are relaxations of the rule and discipline in small matters, for example when in a monastery or college the breaking of silence is overlooked, the usurpation of small things without asking permission, slight disobediences, etc. For if these are not corrected, they creep along, grow, and become great, so that finally they overturn all rule and discipline; wherefore what the wise man advises must be done: Resist beginnings: medicine is prepared too late, When evils have grown strong through long delays. Whence St. Bernard, sermon 63, besides foxes, asserts that harmful cold is also injurious to vines; for it burns and dries them: thus cold, that is, the torpor creeping upon the religious, burns and dries his virtue; for from it soon, he says, as is wont to happen in the body with those who have fever, a certain rigidity of spirit comes upon him, and vigor grows slack, weakness is feigned of strength, the horror of austerity is intensified, fear troubles him concerning poverty, the spirit contracts, grace is withdrawn, the length of life is prolonged, reason is lulled to sleep, the spirit is extinguished, the fervor of the novice grows cold, troublesome tepidity increases, fraternal charity grows cold, pleasure flatters, security deceives, custom recalls. What more? The law is disregarded, right is renounced, what is lawful is proscribed, the fear of the Lord is abandoned. Finally, hands are given to shamelessness, that one is presumed rash, that one shameful, that one most base, full of ignominy and confusion the leap from excess into the abyss, from the pavement into the dunghill, from the throne into the sewer, from the heavens into the mud, from the cloister into the world, from paradise into hell. To demonstrate the beginning and origin of this plague, and either by what art it is avoided, or by what virtue it is overcome, is not the business of this time. Thirdly, small foxes are detractors and whisperers, as well as flatterers, who separate vineyards, that is, assemblies and societies, and subvert the souls of the faithful. Thus St. Bernard, sermon 63: "The worst fox, he says, is the hidden detractor, but no less wicked is the flattering flatterer. The wise man will beware of these, will take care, certainly as far as in him lies, to capture those who do such things, but to capture them with benefits and services, and with salutary warnings, and with prayers for them to God. He will not cease to heap these coals of fire upon the head of the maligner, and likewise upon the flatterer, until (if it be possible) he remove envy from the one and simulation from the heart of the other, doing the commandment of the Bridegroom saying: Catch us the little foxes, that spoil the vineyards."
THE THIRD PRINCIPAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin. Herod of Ascalon was a fox, wishing deceitfully to kill Christ; wherefore he sent the Magi to Bethlehem so that they themselves might explore the place of Christ's nativity and bring him back to him: for he pretended that he too wished to adore Christ, so that by this means he might capture and kill him; but he was deceived by the Magi, when they, having received a response from heaven in sleep not to return to Herod, returned to their own region by another way, Matt. III, 12. Whence Herod of Ascalon's son, Herod Antipas, of equally fox-like character as his father, is called a fox by Christ: "Go, say to that fox," Luke XIII, 32. Thus Rupertus: "Do you not see," he says, "that this wild beast (the fierce Herod) has bitten the tender shoots, that the cruel beast has killed infants in Bethlehem, the city of Judah, of David? Take, take, for our vineyard has flourished, etc. Its fruit is still a flower, and not a cluster, not yet ripe, and therefore it is most harmful to the vineyard for such a thing to be cut down or demolished. Let it first grow and from the flower let fruit come forth, let the Gospel be written and let it be known from signs and virtues that the Holy of Holies has come, and this will be the flower coming into fruit, and the cluster ripening. Then if such a cluster shall be cut down, let it be kept, and let it be carried on the wood of the cross, so that by the experience of his resurrection and sweetness it may be known what sort of land, what sort of kingdom is his, to which these little foxes do not belong, which demolish vineyards."
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Hebrew, who feeds among the lilies, that is, who feeds sheep in pastures abounding in lilies, excellent in color and odor. The Chaldean renders: "In that time they turned in penance; then stood Moses the prophet, and prayed before the Lord, and Joshua the minister who was girded, and went forth from under those clouds of the glory of the Lord, and with him the just men, who are like the rose in their works, and they entered into battles against Amalec, and broke him and his people in the name of the Lord, who killed and crushed them in the mouth of the sword."
THE FIRST ADEQUATE SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Church. Cassiodorus and Bede think that the bride here prays, as if to say: Would that my beloved were mine, or present to me, and I to him! would that my beloved deign to join himself to me with the glue of charity, and I to join myself to him with the bond of obedience, obeying his precepts! says Cassiodorus. But all the others think that the bride here does not wish, but asserts and affirms: My beloved is mine, and I am his, according to the sense which I shall now give. From verse 8 and 10 up to this point the bride, having suffered a swoon of love while reclining on her bed, has recounted the words of the bridegroom, by which he calls the bride to himself into the field and vineyard for labors for the salvation of souls, and likewise testifies his tender love toward her: now the bride, speaking in her own person, repays love with love, and shows herself ready, so that she may obey the bridegroom calling her and go forth into the vineyard for labors, and says: "My beloved is mine, and I am his;" because just as he "feedeth among the lilies," so also am I most zealous for lilies, that is for brightness and purity: "My beloved is mine," understand that he gives himself wholly to me; wherefore also I eagerly give myself wholly to him, nay indeed I truly give myself, I am devoted to him alone, I serve him, and I strive to please him. Wherefore what he wills, this also I will; he wills that I pass from the bed to the field, from leisure to business, I also will the same: for his willing and unwilling is my willing and unwilling. Symmachus renders it, in the genitive, and I am his, as if to say: I am wholly the bridegroom's, just as the bridegroom is wholly mine, and so he is that which I am, so that we seem to be not so much two, as one and the same. For a friend is another self, and lovers have as it were one heart and one soul: for the soul of the lover is more where it loves than where it animates, namely more in the beloved than in the lover himself. Hence civilly the bridegroom and bride are reckoned one and the same person, according to that: "They shall be two in one flesh. This is a great sacrament, but I speak in Christ and in the Church," Ephes. V, 31: for just as the essence of matrimony consists in the mutual consent of spouses to marriage; so the conjunction of Christ and the Church, as bridegroom and bride, consists in mutual love, and the consent of the mystical marriage, namely that Christ loves no other bride and wishes to have no other than the Church; and the Church in turn loves no other and wishes to have no other bridegroom than Christ; from which it then follows mutual cohabitation, and mutual services and offices throughout all life; all these things are signified by, my beloved is mine, and I am his, as if to say: Because Christ loved me first as a bride, hence I in turn love him as a bridegroom, nay rather his love goes before mine, and is its cause. "For I do not love Him because He Himself, loving me first, inspired His love in me through prevenient grace, according to that: 'Christ loved the Church, and delivered Himself up for it, that He might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of water in the word of life, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church,' Ephes. V, 25. Depart therefore, evil foxes, who endeavor through deceits to separate the Church from Christ. For I, the Church, keep faith with Christ my spouse, so that I love none besides Him; He in turn keeps faith with me, so that He has no beloved besides me, wishes to have no other spouse. St. Bernard, serm. 68, notes that the spouse, namely the Church, and the holy soul speak these things, Christ the spouse being absent; speak, I say, not to young men, but to themselves, and from an abundance of affection, not so much to speak as to pour forth the abundance of love; and therefore his words are truncated, maimed, imperfect, and are to be supplied in this way: My beloved is mine, namely He is wholly intent upon me, and I in turn am wholly intent upon Him. "He is mine," says St. Bernard, "because He is kind and merciful; I am His, because I am not ungrateful. He to me grace upon grace, I to Him grace for grace; He to my liberation, I to His honor; He to my salvation, I to His will; He to me, and to no other, because I am His one dove; I to Him, and to no other." And earlier, admiring this dignity of Christ, he exclaims: "How wonderful it is, that she claims His intention as it were her own, saying: My beloved is mine? Nor content with this, she proceeds further to glory, to respond to Him as it were on equal terms, to return the favor. For it follows: And I am His. An audacious word, and I am His. Nor less audacious, my beloved is mine; except that both together are more audacious than either alone. O what dares a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned! To me, she says, He is intent. Is it so that this majesty is intent upon her, to whom the governance and administration of the universe alike falls; and the care of ages is transferred to the sole business, nay rather the leisure of this love and desire? It is indeed so. For she herself is the Church of the elect, concerning whom the Apostle, II Tim. II, 10, says: All things, he says, for the sake of the elect. And who doubts that the grace and mercy of God is toward His saints, and regard toward His elect? Therefore we do not deny providence to other creatures: the spouse claims care for herself." The same St. Bernard, serm. in Festo Nativit. B. Mariae, at the end says, by these words to be signified a struggle of love, by which the spouse struggles with the spouse, conquers, and is conquered. To this are added the expositions of other Fathers: of Nyssen, which is of this kind: "I have seen face to face Him who always remains, and who on account of me from my sister the Synagogue has arisen in human nature, and in Him I rest, and I become His dwelling place;" of Philo of Carpathus: The Church says, he says: "My beloved is mine," that is, He Himself gives me wisdom, and I will give Him my heart; He to me from the heavens wisdom, I truly to Him from the nations the fruit of faith, hope and charity will repay: for I feel myself to be loved by Him vehemently, and on that account I will most firmly always adhere to Him. Of Theodoret: As the spouse preferred me to all, so I prefer Him to all, I do not permit myself to be joined with another; from these, who are called foxes and fraudulent, I abhor: for it is absurd that I, who am so greatly beloved and adorned, do not respond to Him who loves me according to my strength in love. This seems similar to what was written by the Apostle, I Corinth. VI, 13: "But the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord: and the Lord for the body." Of Justus of Orgelitum: "Christ has the Church in His body, and the Church has Christ in her head, which connection, because it cannot be separated, he rightly said: My beloved is mine."
SECOND PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the holy soul. A holy soul speaks to Christ, says Theodoret: "My beloved is mine and I to him am alive, not to myself," as St. Paul says, Galatians II, 20. But Aponius: "My beloved," says the holy soul, "bestows upon me the grace of vocation, the distinguished mark of redemption, the most glorious freedom of adoption. And what am I to him? obedience of will, zeal for preserving integrity, which he implanted by nature. What is he to me? a singular example of preserving virginity, being born through a Virgin. And what am I to him? singular joy being born anew through baptism, keeping his precepts with my whole heart, imitating the angelic and heavenly nature, so that my untouched body may return to paradise, which he brought untouched from the womb of his mother when being born into the world. For just as the devil is fattened by bloody wrath and the execrable filth of lust; so also Christ is nourished by the lilies of mercy, gentleness and chastity." More briefly and more clearly St. Gregory expounds it, as if to say: "I hold fast the friendship of my beloved, because I feel his constant benevolence toward me; because while I have his familiar kindness, it is hard for me whatever is adverse to him, the barking enemies I hear, and while in his constant presence I see what he is like; if adversaries bring forth anything erroneous from the truth which I have known in his vision, I do not depart from it." Finally, the love of Christ is virginal, because it is directed wholly to Christ alone purely and virginally, according to that word of Paul: "I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ," II Corinthians XI, 2. St. Bernard asks, sermon 69: Since Christ is the bridegroom of many, indeed of all holy souls, how does he attend wholly to each one? and he answers: "First indeed, because the divinity of the bridegroom has in its most simple nature, as it were, to regard many as one, and many as one. Nor will he be many to a multitude, nor rare to a few; nor divided to diversity, nor restricted to one; nor anxious to cares, nor disturbed or turbulent to solicitudes. Thus indeed intent to one, that he is not detained; thus to many, that he is not distended." An apt example is found in the rational soul: for this loves, informs and animates all and each of the parts of its body, so that it is wholly in the body, and wholly in each of its parts; thus indeed God gives his whole love to all, and gives it wholly to each of the saints. Bernard then adds that Christ, to the soul whom he espouses to himself, brings with him the Father and the Holy Spirit, so that they likewise espouse the soul to themselves, according to that word: "If anyone love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make our abode with him," John XIV, 23. "What is it," says Bernard, "for the Word to come to the soul? To instruct in wisdom. What is it for the Father to come? To affect toward the love of wisdom, so that it can say: Because I became a lover of her beauty, Wisdom VIII, 2: to love is of the Father, and therefore the coming of the Father is proved by infused love." He then sets forth the signs of the coming of the Word and the Father: "If I feel," says Bernard, "my sense opened to me, so that I understand the Scriptures, or the word of wisdom as it were to bubble forth from my depths, or mysteries to be revealed to me by infused light from above, or certainly a most spacious bosom of heaven as it were to expand to me, and more abundant rains of meditations to flow down upon my soul from above: I do not doubt that the bridegroom is present. For these are the riches of the Word, and from his fullness we have received these things. But if there is poured in likewise a humble, yet rich devotion of intimate sprinkling, so that the love of known truth generates in me a necessary hatred of vanity and contempt, lest perhaps knowledge puff me up, or the frequency of visits exalt me; then truly I feel myself acted upon paternally, and I do not doubt that the Father is present. But if I shall persevere in responding to this dignity always with worthy (as far as in me lies) affections and acts, and the grace of God shall not be empty with me; he will also make his abode with me, both the Father nourishing and the Word instructing." He then asks, whence the soul knows that the bridegroom attends wholly to her, so that she dares to say: "My beloved is mine," and he answers, she knows this "from the fact that she feels herself to be loved, and vehemently loved, yet she does not doubt that she is nevertheless vehemently loved in return, and from his singular intention, solicitude, care, work, diligence and zeal, by which he watches over her incessantly and ardently, how she may please God, she recognizes all these things in him undoubtingly, remembering his promise: In what measure you shall mete out, it shall be measured to you again," Matthew cap. VII, 2. And after some things: "Nor does she doubt that she is loved who loves. It is so. Love produces a deserving soul, and her preceding mention makes the soul intent, solicitude makes it solicitous. For I know not by what nearness of nature, once the glory of God is revealed to be beheld by the face, she will be able to rival it, soon she must conform herself to it, and be transformed into the same image. That saying of the comic poet is well-worn: "Every lover is mad."
THE THIRD PRINCIPAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin. The Blessed Virgin could say to Christ: You alone are to me my only beloved son, and I am to you a most beloved mother (indeed, and as it were a father), you who feed among the lilies of my virginity and of my husband Joseph; for from this virginal union it was fitting that you be born, as it were the son of virginity, indeed the leader and standard-bearer; this is what the prophet Isaiah says, chapter VII, verse 14: "Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel," that is, God with us: thus Rupertus. Hear St. Anselm, in the book On the Excellence of the Virgin, chapter IV: "The love," he says, "which a father and mother individually owe to their son; the love also which each son owes to his father and mother, that son of the true virgin owes to his mother alone: for just as other sons are born from father and mother, so her son was born from her alone as mother. Therefore the love of this mother toward her son, and of this son toward his mother, exceeds all the loves of parents toward children, or of children toward parents." Again Guerric the abbot, sermon 2 On the Assumption: "Come," he says, "my chosen one, and I will place my throne in you. You have shared with me what I am as man, I will share with you what I am as God." And the Blessed Peter Damian, sermon 2 On the Nativity, having enumerated three ways in which God is in every creature, adds: "In a fourth way he is present to one creature alone, namely to Mary the mother, by identity, because he is the same as her. Let every creature be silent and tremble at this, and scarcely dare to look upon the immensity of such dignity. The Lord dwells in the Virgin, with whom he has identity of nature." Finally St. Bernard, sermon 71: "For me," he says, "to cleave to God is good. Truly good, if you cleave with every part. Who is there who cleaves perfectly to God, except he who, remaining in God as beloved by God, has nevertheless drawn God into himself by loving? Therefore when man and God cleave to each other on all sides, they cleave on all sides bound together in intimate and mutual love to each other. Through this I would say without doubt that God is in man, and man is in God." This applies to the Blessed Virgin above all. The same St. Bernard, sermon 29: "The arrow of the love of Christ was chosen, which not only pierced Mary's soul, but also passed through it, so as to leave no part in her virginal breast empty of love, but she loved with her whole heart, her whole soul, her whole strength and was full of grace." Thus Bernard. And Hugh of St. Victor, whose words St. Thomas reports, Opuscule VIII: "Because in the heart of the Virgin," he says, "the love of the Holy Spirit burned singularly, therefore he worked wonders in her flesh, to such a degree that God and man would be born from her. Luke I, 35: That which shall be born of you shall be holy, shall be called the Son of God." St. Bernard gives the reason: "What wonder is it," he says, "if Mary loves above all, she who is beloved above all?" Sophronius gives several other reasons, sermon On the Assumption: "Consider," he says, "and weigh how many sorrows the Blessed Virgin was afflicted with after Christ's ascension into heaven; consider with what torment she was racked by love, with what longing this virgin burned, while she turned over in her mind all things which she had heard, which she had seen, which she had known, with how unceasing a fire of pious love she was consumed! how many movements she was stirred by, filled with the Holy Spirit, by the incitements of heavenly secrets! because although she loved Christ with her whole heart, with her whole soul, and with her whole mind, yet daily she was inflamed anew by the absent presence of the affections of longing, all the more powerfully indeed, as she was illuminated within by divine visitations, she whom the grace of the Holy Spirit had wholly filled, whom divine love had wholly set on fire, so that in her there was nothing worldly that would violate affection, but continuous ardor and intoxication of his love poured out, who was both her Lord and her son. Perhaps therefore on account of excessive love we believe her to have dwelt in the place where he is said to be buried, so that she might be nourished by the internal love in the sight of her eyes, not that she sought him living among the dead, but that she might console herself with his appearance, and embrace with the embraces of her mind him whom she had borne. The love of Christ gave birth to longing, and longing increasing as it were was renewed by new ardors." He that feedeth among the lilies. For lilies in Hebrew is schoschannim, which the Chaldean and some Hebraists translate as roses, as I have said above. Symmachus translates it flowers: in Hebrew it is, he that feedeth in the lilies. feedeth, namely both sheep and himself, that is, he feedeth, as Our translator renders it; although feedeth is sometimes taken for feedeth, as if it were a verb of deponent kind. The Septuagint poimainon, that is, acting as a shepherd among lilies; Symmachus, and I his feeding flowers, that is, he that feedeth sheep like white lilies whitened. It could also be translated from the Hebrew, he that feedeth lilies, that is, nourisheth and cherisheth virgins, as well as virginity and other virtues, or he that feedeth among lilies, that is, delighteth in virgins as well as in virtues. He feedeth among lilies, that is, he feedeth in most joyful and beautiful pastures, such as those which are adorned with lilies flowering among the grasses. The Hebrew roe and the Greek poimainon, that is, to feed or to act as a shepherd, signify Christ concerning the Church and faithful souls, performing all the duties of a good shepherd diligently, namely to hold her, to love her, to procure food, to be familiarly present to her, to lead to pastures and to bring back, to feed, to water, to care for, to govern, to defend from wolves and thieves, even at the peril of his own life, and to perform the other duties of a shepherd, which the Psalmist describes, Psalm XXII, 2, and Christ, John X, 9. Christ therefore both feedeth and feedeth among lilies, that is among chaste, pure and holy souls, especially virgins; he feedeth them with his doctrine, example, grace, sacraments, indeed with himself in the Eucharist. Hear St. Ambrose in Psalm CXVIII, sermon 14, verse 1: "Good pastures are divine sacraments. There thou pluckest a new flower, which hath given a good odour of resurrection; thou pluckest a lily, in which there is the splendour of eternity; thou pluckest a rose, that is, the body and blood of the Lord. Good pastures also are the books of sacred Scripture, in which by daily reading we are fed, in which we are refreshed and restored, when we taste those things which are written, or more frequently ruminate them sipped with the highest mouth. By these pastures the flock of the Lord is fattened. Good also are the pastures of Christ, who feedeth among lilies, that is in the splendour of the saints." The Nyssene adds: "This is the good shepherd, who feedeth not his flock with hay, but with the Holy Spirit signified through the purity and odour of lilies." Theodoret comes next, who thinks the pastures of Christ are called lilies, because they are white, rich, sweet, and fragrant like lilies. The same, however, says below that Christ feedeth among lilies, when through holy teachers he promulgates his most pure laws. Again Christ, not only actively feedeth, but also passively feedeth among lilies, that is, delighteth in pure and chaste minds, especially virgins, and in their purity, virginity and virtues. Thus St. Gregory, Cassiodorus, Bede, Justus, Anselm, and the other Latins. "What by lilies," says St. Gregory, "are not pure souls designated? which while they retain the whiteness of chastity, by the opinion of good repute smell sweetly to all their neighbours. Among lilies therefore the bridegroom feedeth, because assuredly he delighteth in the chastity of souls, which both preserve in themselves the purity of the flesh, and please him through bright thoughts, and give to their neighbours examples as it were the sweetness of odour." Hence that saying of St. Ambrose, which the Church uses in the Office of Virgins: Thou that feedest among the lilies, Surrounded by the choirs of Virgins, Adorning thy brides with glory. Christ, says St. Bernard, sermon 70, in that God reigns over the stars, in that man is fed, not on lilies, but among lilies: "For He who is in the highest is the Lord, in the lowest is the beloved, reigning over the stars, and loving within the lilies." Then he teaches that these lilies are mystical, namely truth, gentleness, justice, and other virtues, but two especially, continence namely and innocence; among these Christ feeds and delights, according to that, Ps. XLIV, 5: "Prosper and reign on account of truth, gentleness and justice:" namely "as many virtues, so many lilies, says Bernard. What is the end of virtues with the Lord of virtues? But if the fullness of virtues is in Christ; and of lilies. And perhaps for this reason He Himself called Himself a lily, because He is wholly occupied with lilies, and all that is His are lilies: conception, birth, conversation, words, miracles, sacraments, passion, death, resurrection, ascension. What of these is not white, and does not smell most sweetly? So great indeed was the brightness of heavenly light that shone forth in the conception from the abundance of the Spirit coming upon her, that not even the holy Virgin herself would have endured it, if she had not been overshadowed by the power of the Most High. Moreover, His birth was whitened by the incorrupt virginity of His mother, His conversation by the innocence of His life, His words by truth; His miracles by purity of heart, His sacraments by the mystery of piety, His passion by willingness to suffer, His death by freedom from dying, His resurrection by the fortitude of martyrs, His ascension by the exhibition of promises." The same, sermon 71, teaches that Christ feeds among lilies, that is among the pure observance of His laws: "Therefore, he says, He is never without lilies, who is always without vices, because He is wholly and always white, beautiful in form above the sons of men. You therefore who hear or read these things, take care to have lilies with you, if you wish to have this inhabitant of lilies dwelling in you. Let your work, your study, your desire testify to be lilies, a certain moral whiteness and fragrance of things themselves. Manners too have their colors, they have their fragrances, etc. The intention of your heart and the judgment of your conscience give color to your work," fragrance to your reputation. And with many things interjected: "The Bridegroom therefore, and although He is virtue, delights in virtues; and although He is a lily, willingly dwells among lilies; and although He is whiteness, delights in white things. And perhaps this is what is meant by feeding among lilies, to delight in the whiteness and fragrance of virtues. And indeed He fed bodily of old with Mary and Martha, reclining also in body among lilies (I speak of them, for they were lilies) nevertheless He refreshed His spirit by the devotion and virtues of the women." He then teaches that for Christ to feed is the same as to be fed, because He Himself feeds us with His grace and virtues, and by these same He feeds and delights: "But he who feeds, I think, nevertheless feeds Himself, and indeed with foods which He willingly eats, our progress. For the joy of the Lord is our strength. Thus therefore, both when He feeds He is fed, and He is fed when He feeds, at the same time refreshing us with His spiritual joy, and rejoicing equally in our spiritual progress. His food is my repentance, His food is my salvation, His food is I myself, etc. I am eaten when I am reproved, swallowed when I am instructed, cooked when I am changed, digested when I am transformed, united when I am conformed." The same St. Bernard, sermon on the Nativity of the Blessed Mary, near the end explains otherwise: "Observe, he says, that it seems to indicate a place not food, nor does it express with what He feeds, but among what. Perhaps indeed not with food, but by the company of lilies He feeds; nor does He eat lilies, but dwells in them; namely the lilies please by fragrance rather than by taste, and are more suited to sight than to eating. But although the just germinates like a lily, yet the Bridegroom does not feed on the lily, nor does He delight in singularity. Hear finally Him dwelling among lilies: Where, He says, two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them. Matt. XVIII, 20. Jesus always loves the middle, the Bridegroom always rejects byways and reclinings." Moreover Christ feeds souls in diverse ways, each according to his own inclination, state, and disposition: wherefore He gives to the subject obedience, to superiors prudence of ruling, to virgins love of virginity, to the married the affection of conjugal chastity, and strength to bear the manners of spouse, children and servants different from their own; to martyrs He gives unconquered constancy in torments, to doctors acuteness of teaching, to preachers efficacy of preaching, to the rich an impulse toward patience, etc.
2:17
UNTIL THE DAY BREATHE, AND THE SHADOWS DECLINE (The Septuagint: be moved, that is, be removed), SHADOWS (it refers to what preceded: "My beloved to me, who feedeth among the lilies;" although some refer it to what follows): RETURN: BE THOU LIKE, etc., as I shall say presently. Note on "until the day breathe": for when morning arises with light and day, a pleasant breeze is wont to breathe, which the rising sun produces in the dawn by its heat, as it were in the dew of the breeze: for the sun resolves and stirs the vapors collected by the cold of night, and from these produces blasts and winds; wherefore Theodoret explains it less correctly, as if to say, "Until the day breathe," that is, until the heat of the day pass away, and the dew of salvation breathe. Now the Hebrew iaphuach therefore signifies to breathe, to blow, to perspire, to respire, to expire, and this is what the Greek diapneuse signifies in the Septuagint, as if to say, Throughout the day, that is, throughout the whole time of this life, "my beloved to me, and I to him," and likewise throughout this whole time "feedeth among the lilies." But Our [translation] more aptly renders it "breathe," for while the day breathes, the shadows and darkness of night are finished. Wherefore more fittingly St. Gregory and others throughout hold that by shadow here is understood night; for night is shadowy, and as it were mere shadow, which declines, that is, fails and, as it is in Hebrew, flees, that is, vanishes, when the sun rises in the dawn, but gradually and little by little: for the more the sun ascends, the more the shadows diminish, so that at midday there is scarcely any shadow: again, when the sun rises, the day breathes, not when it sets, for then it expires and ends. Symbolically St. Bernard, sermon 72, understands by shadows the demons, who shall be inclined, that is, subjected to the elect on the day of judgment and the blessed, and as it were vanquished shall be subjected to the victors. The same again understands by day the beatific vision, by which all shadows of errors, simulations, ignorances are dispelled. Finally he adds that the abundance of eternal happiness is signified by "the day breathe." "Therefore," he says, "that abundance shall be of the breathing day. It itself, I say, shall add to the measure of inspired fullness, to the abundance of the breathing day, working weight of glory above measure in the sublime, so that the superfluous addition of clarification overflows into the bodies. For this reason it is called not breathing, but breathing upon, because it adds to the breathing, this being signified by the Holy Spirit through the preposition added: because those whom it illuminates within, it adorns without; and clothes them with the robe of glory." And after some things: "When therefore two days precede in us, one indeed breathing for the life of the body; the other breathing in the grace of sanctification, but a third remains breathing upon in the glory of resurrection; it is clear indeed that at some time what preceded in the head shall be fulfilled in the body, a great mystery of piety indeed, and the testimony of the Prophet, who says: He will revive us after two days: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight, Hosea cap. VI, vers. 3." Furthermore, the punctuation, which is in the Hebrew Bibles, whose author is not Solomon, but the later rabbis or Masoretes, connects these words, until the day breathe, and the shadows decline, with what follows, return, be thou like, my beloved; and this connection is also fitting and gives suitable senses, as is evident to one observing the senses now to be given, when combining these words, until the day breathe, with them. First, some understand by day the Gospel, by shadows the old law, which was a type and shadow of the Gospel, as if to say, When the light of the Gospel appears, the shadows, that is, the observances and typical ceremonies of the old law, shall vanish: thus Justus Orgelitanus and St. Augustine, oration Against the Jews, cap. VI. Second, others understand by day the clear knowledge of truth and eternity; having attained this, the holy soul flees and drives from itself the shadows of the vanity of temporal things: thus Nyssenus. Thirdly and genuinely, by day understand the future life and glory, by shadows the darkness and hardships of the present life, as if to say: Christ feeds among lilies, that is, dwells among pure souls, as long as the shadows of this life endure: for when the day of glory shall have dawned and shone forth, He will dwell among the blessed in the splendors of the saints. For if in the valley of tears He feeds among lilies, among how many and how great lilies will He feed on the day of nuptials and eternal glory? Christ now feeds me among lilies of chastity and grace; but when the day of happiness shall have dawned, He will feed me among lilies of charity and glory; then the love of the absent spouse will be turned into joy and fruition of the present; then faith will be changed into vision, hope into reality, charity into clarity, hardship into glory, death into life, corruption into incorruption, mourning into jubilation. Thus St. Gregory, Cassiodorus, Bede, St. Bernard and others. Here therefore the pious soul, pressed by the love of the body, groans and sighs, until the day of blessed eternity shall have dawned, and the wretched shadows of mortality shall have declined: "For here indeed it is night, says St. Gregory. But there truly it will be day, because here we are darkened in the vision of truth, there God Himself, all truth, will shine forth to our minds." Moreover St. Bernard, sermon 71, says that Christ in this life feeds on lilies, that is, on virtues, because here they are mixed, rough and imperfect, in heaven He drinks them, because there they will be clear, refined, subtle and perfect. Some with our Sanchez hold that inclinentur umbrae is a periphrasis for evening; for in it indeed after midday, the sun declining, shadows incline, according to that of Virgil: And greater shadows fall from the high mountains. Whence also Aquila for when the day shall have dawned translated when the day shall have ceased; for evening, while the day ceases, the breeze and winds arise. Whence Pliny, book II, chapter XLVII: "The sun," he says, "both increases and compresses breezes, increases at rising and setting;" and Aristotle in Problems, section XXV, question IV: "Breezes," he says, "begin either at the rising of the sun or at its setting." Hence Virgil: "Breezes breathe into the night." Whence from the Hebrew it can be translated, until the day expires, that is, ends: for the Hebrew words are simple, and therefore are taken for all compound words, inasmuch as the Hebrews lack them.
THE FIRST SENSE, FULLY ADEQUATE, CONCERNING CHRIST AND THE CHURCH. Various senses are assigned here by various interpreters. The first is, as if the Bride were saying: I see thee, O my Spouse, delighting in feeding flocks in woods and mountains, such as the mountains of Bether; for there thou feedest among lilies, and thereby thou invites me and callest me forth saying: "Arise, make haste, my love;" that thou therefore, with equal zeal for souls as I have, mayest satisfy me hastily and swiftly, like a roe and a young hart return, in Hebrew sob, that is by a circuit, traverse and visit our flocks, namely the faithful Christians, who are fed in Bether, that is in division, that is in divided places and particular churches dispersed throughout the whole world dwell, and feed them with thy holy doctrine, grace, consolation, inspiration, sacraments, etc. Thus Theodoret and three Anonymous writers cited by him, Psellus and Philo of Carpathus, who hold that here the Bride beseeches that the Spouse return to the pastures, that all the faithful may enjoy his sight and be illuminated, and that he himself may impart to them his sweetness and love. The second sense is clearer and fuller, as if the Bride were saying: I permit indeed, nay I desire, O Spouse, that thou visit, instruct, strengthen, perfect our faithful ones dispersed throughout the whole world; but I would wish this to be done expeditiously and swiftly, that through them thou mayest run quickly, like a roe or young hart, to this end, that, having visited them, thou mayest straightway return to me: for I intimately desire thy presence, nor can I be satisfied with its absence, and it is more fitting that the Spouse be with the Bride, that is Christ with the universal Church, than with particular churches. This sense is required by to return, as our translator and the Septuagint render it: it also looks back to what was said in verse 8: "The voice of my beloved. Behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills," that he may straightway fly to me now languishing with love, sustain me, and restore me to myself: wherefore my beloved is like a roe, and a young hart of the deer." Thus St. Bernard, Bede and others. Hear St. Bernard, who here notes that the impotence of love knows not shame; for the Bride to recall straightway the Spouse, to whom she had just before given leave to depart. "An untimely," says he himself, "sermon 74, recall is an indication of great love on one side, great loveliness on the other;" and sermon 73: "Immoderate love does this. For it is that which, triumphing in itself and captivating every sense of shame, the measure of propriety, the counsel of deliberation; produces a certain neglect of all modesty and opportuneness, and a certain carelessness. For see now how she, when he is scarcely beginning to go, already demands that he return. She even asks him to hasten, and indeed to run, like some wild beast of the forests running swiftly, for example, a roe, or a young hart of the deer. This is the tenor of the letter, and this is the portion of the Jews." You will ask, what are the mountains of Bether? Answer: they are the mountains of Bethel (as the Arabic translator renders it), where Jacob saw a ladder set up from the earth to heaven, by which the angels ascended and descended to God leaning upon the ladder, and therefore anointing the place with oil he consecrated it, and called it Bethel, that is the house of God, Gen. XXVIII, 12 and 19. But the mountains of Bethel are called mountains of Bether, that is of division, because they are divided and cleft, so as to contain many intermediate cities and valleys, and consequently as it were many mountains cut into various hills, so that roes leap from one to another. Whence by the Septuagint they are called mountains of koilomaton, that is of concavities. Some read kyklomaton, that is mountains of circuits, to which access is not easy, but one must go around them for a long time through windings, before reaching the summit; for such places roes and young harts seek out, that they may be safe from hunters. St. Ambrose, book III. On Virgins, reads with the Syriac, mountains of aromatics: for thus they are called here, cap. VIII, verse 14, for these mountains abound in aromatics. Hear Adrichomius in the Description of the Holy Land, page 16, number 43: "Bethel, or Bether mountains are fertile, wooded and covered with trees; full of grass and aromatic herbs, and therefore deer, roes, and young harts frequent their summits, of which in the Canticles." Symbolically therefore the mountains of Bethel or Bether aptly represent the universal Church divided and distinguished into various particular parts: for the Church is "the mountain of the house of the Lord in the top of the mountains," Isaiah II, 2; because by its faith, hope, doctrine, conversation and heavenly contemplation it surpasses all the sects of the Jews, heretics, and gentiles, and thus appears now not on earth, but in heaven dwelling with the blessed according to that saying: "Our conversation is in heaven," Philippians III, 20. Wherefore all these particularly represent monasteries and colleges of religious: first, because a monastery and cloister is Bether, that is a place divided and separated from the company of seculars; second, because the mountains of Bether are steep and rough, and interrupted by cavities and roughnesses; third, just as roes and young stags flee to these precipitous and inaccessible mountains, that they may be safe from dogs and hunters, so likewise the religious flee to cloisters, that there they may be secure and removed from the temptations and perils of the world. There therefore Christ feeds among the lilies of purity, which are born in the mountains of Bether, that is of separation, prayer, and contemplation. To this the Chaldaic version tends, which thus expounds concerning the holy patriarchs: "And the Lord wished to destroy them from the world, unless the memory of His oath, which He swore in His word to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who were most swift in His worship, as a roe and a young stag of deer; and also the oblation, which Abraham offered Isaac his son on Mount Moriah, and before this He had given him his oblations, and had divided them equally." Hence Philo of Carpathus by the mountains of valleys, as the Septuagint translates, understands the holy and just who are eminent; for these are mountains by the excellence of virtue, which stands out above the world and all worldly things, and are also valleys by humility, by which they humbly receive the doctrine and grace of God, as rain from heaven, valleys receive. Thus also Ambrose, sermon 14 on Psalm CXVIII. But three Anonymi with Theodoret understand by mountains of valleys teachers who stand out and excel before disciples, as mountains before valleys, as if to say: "Make yourself like them coming into magisterial souls, which among the disciples depressed by the waves of perturbations stand out like mountains, where you may drive out and put to flight their works and those pestilent beasts, which excavate the natural equality of unrefined souls, and establish lairs for themselves in them, and thus restore to them their former equality." On the other hand Theodoret and Nyssenus, homily 6, understand by mountains of valleys the proud among the humble, as Nyssenus says: "See as a roe, you who look upon the thoughts of men; destroy the generation of sin, as a young stag destroys the serpent. Run as swiftly as possible, divine Word, to the mountains of valleys: for whatever exalts itself against truth is a chasm, and not a mountain; a hollow and not a rising peak. If you hasten to these things, every valley shall be filled, and every such mountain shall be brought low." To this is added St. Anselm, who thinks the Church here prays Christ to help her laboring in the conversion of the infidels: "Return," he says, "that is, condescend to these, and inspire them inwardly, because otherwise our labor will be fruitless: Return, and be like a roe, etc. The nature of a roe and young stag is that although they dwell on the summit of mountains, they nevertheless descend into hills, that they may be seen by those below. Since therefore Christ dwells in the mountains, that is in the eminent places on account of virtues, He is asked to descend from them, and through them to the knowledge of those below."
THE SECOND PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the holy soul. Christ sometimes appears to depart from the holy soul, either on account of its venial defects and lapses, or in order to test its faith and constancy, or in order to increase in it the desire for him, and to advance and perfect the soul in spirit, while he leaves it dry and parched without taste, without consolation, without joy in desolation, persecution, temptation, sadness, darkness, or similar affliction of soul or body. Wherefore the soul, pricked by this goad, sighs more ardently toward her spouse Christ, and calls out for his return and aid: Return to me, O my beloved, and like a roe or a young hart run swiftly, that thou mayest console me, help me, strengthen me, confirm me, advance me. Our Sanchez adds that the pious soul, having learned that it has placed many impediments to love, and conscious of its own weakness, trusting little in itself, prays to the spouse that, although he wander over the mountains of Bether, that is, among rough places and winding passages and a thousand other impediments which might have been able to retard one prone and hastening to all duties; nevertheless he bear these things patiently, and with a spirit altogether unconquerable for enduring these things, and with a gentleness for forgiving altogether admirable, devour these troubles, leap over these obstacles, and finally, although through Bether, that is, through rough and harsh places, yet come swiftly and directly to her. And Luysius of Leon: The faithful soul demands, he says, when the shadows incline, that is, when the day is already declining toward setting, and when the darkness of dangers and temptations rushes upon her, that he help her, with no delay interposed: "Be like," he says, "a roe and a young hart of the deer." Which without metaphor properly and literally David said in Psalm 69, 2: "O Lord, make haste to help me," and again, Psalm 30, 3: "O Lord, make haste to deliver me." And this is said not only for the sake of inciting God and causing him to hasten to bring aid, by the spouse, but also to admonish us that at the very beginning of wicked thought, as soon as evil desire begins to enter the mind, at the first sight of the enemy, or rather at the first rumors and suspicions of war, before through negligence any tumult and disturbance arises in us, we should lift up our eyes to heaven and turn our heart wholly to God, repeating that with tears: "Return, my beloved: be like a roe and a young hart of the deer;" and most ardently commending our salvation to him, that he may hasten and make speed to free us, not from evil alone, but also from the suspicion of evil, we should ask of him. To this Cassiodorus adds, who explains it, as if to say: O Christ, who through the flesh, which as a little one like a young hart thou didst assume, like a roe didst ascend into the heights of the heavens, visit us with thy consolation and grace, enlighten us and make us joyful. Furthermore, how God visits the holy soul, St. Bernard teaches first, sermon 74, and this from experience, in which he asserts that he has often felt this visitation of God in his own soul: "Living and efficacious is the Word of God, namely Christ, and as soon as he enters within, he awakened my slumbering soul, moved it, and softened it, and wounded my heart, because it was hard and stony and in poor health. He also began to uproot and destroy, to build and plant, to water the dry places, to illuminate the dark, to open the closed, to inflame the cold, and moreover to turn the wicked into the straight, and the rough into smooth ways; so that my soul blessed the Lord, and all things within me bless his holy name. Thus therefore the Bridegroom Word, entering to me sometimes, never made his entrance known by any signs, not by voice, not by appearance, not by gait." And after some things which he interjects on this matter, he adds: "From the renewal and reformation of the spirit of my mind, that is, of my inner man, I perceived in some way the beauty of his appearance, and from the contemplation of all these things together I was amazed at the multitude of his greatness. But because all these things, when the Word has departed, just as if thou shouldst remove the fire from a boiling pot, immediately begin to lie torpid and cold with a certain languor; and this is to me a sign of his departure. My soul must necessarily be sad, until he returns again, and my heart grows warm within me as usual: and this is a sign of his return." Secondly, Aponius says the bridegroom departs when he chastises the bride's, that is the soul's, sins; he returns when, appeased by repentance, he is reconciled to her: "The prolongation," he says, "of Christ in the Church is then, when he permits tribulation to be brought upon the people for the purpose of chastising them; but his return is when, inclined by prayers to mercy, he runs back to the footsteps of his mercy more swiftly than he had leapt forth in avenging; made similar to the course or custom of the roe, and of the young stags of the deer, whose nature it is, with their voice sounding before them in the mountains sent behind their back, when they think something is meeting them, to return to the place from which they had departed, with swifter course. And this is the reason, that those exasperated by enemies are unwilling to abandon their accustomed seat, just as Christ also, although provoked and exasperated by the sins of men, nevertheless did not abandon the accustomed seat of his mercy." Mystically, Justus Orgelitanus judges that the ascension of Christ into heaven is signified here: "When the Church," he says, "suggests that the beloved departs, and says he is like the roe and the young stag, she demonstrates that the ascension of Christ into heaven is to be compared to swift and nimble animals. For these leap across the higher mountains with swift course; but Christ surpassed all things on high; and it is well added over the mountains of Bethel, that is the house of God, because he was exalted above all the saints." But Aponius judges that here the Church prays that Christ dead may rise from death: "Over the mountains of Bethel," he says, "in that she prays him to return, in whose borders Christ was crucified, the swiftness of the resurrection to be celebrated on the third day is shown to have been prophesied." Tropologically, Bede judges that here the pious soul tending toward perfection asks that Christ exhibit to her a foretaste of heavenly happiness: "I beseech," he says, "that from general instruction you return more often to illuminating more sublimely the hearts of the perfect, and just as the roe, or the young stags of the deer, rare indeed, but with delight of those beholding, is accustomed to be in the mountains; so in the exalted minds the footsteps of your greatness, whatever they are, present. I pray that the sweetness of immortal life which you promise to all my members in recompense, you reveal also in some way on the journey, although from afar to be contemplated. And the name of mountains agrees also with the minds of those who have learned to open the eyes of their heart to the contemplation of heavenly things, when it is said over the mountains of Bether, which is interpreted as the house rising up, or the house of vigils." Anagogically, St. Gregory judges that here the pious soul asks Christ to come quickly to judgment, so that in him she herself with the pious may have glory; the impious who afflict the pious may incur hell: "From us," he says, "the beloved then departed bodily, when after the resurrection he ascended into heaven; but then he will return, when at the end of the world, all human bodies having been raised, he will be made manifest in judgment: this manifestation the holy souls here ask for. Then Christ will truly appear like the roe and the young stag of the deer over the mountains of Bether, because he will come to judgment in the same form of humanity which he took from the Church, which is designated by the roe, when in this world from the progeny of the fathers, like a humble young stag of the deer, he was born; and then, over all the highest, who as mountains excel in the Church, which is the house of God, he will stand out more sublime." St. Bernard has similar things, sermon 73.
THE THIRD PRINCIPAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin. Rupertus holds that the Blessed Virgin here asks of Christ, now dead, that He hasten His resurrection like a young hart, and not remain in the sepulchre for a full three days, that is 72 hours, but shorten it, so that after 33 hours He might rise immediately: "Return quickly," he says, "do not delay, because my soul desires you, etc. Three days' time is indeed brief, but for your beloved and dove desiring and groaning with a wounded mind, it is not hastened enough, my beloved. Shorten this very three days, and be like a returning roe and young hart of the deer, that is be most swift in completing your course, in the heart of the earth, that is in your sepulchre, do not spend the whole three days. It suffices to fulfill the truth of the Scriptures, if you spend a small part of the first day, that is the last three hours, and some part of the third, namely six hours, which is half the night, with the second day, that is with Saturday lying in the sepulchre. For three whole days are seventy-two hours. This would be too long." He then adds another numerical reason: "Let thirty-three hours suffice, which number is composed of two ternaries, the tenth and the singular. The blessed Trinity, to whom the first man sinned, in you, and through you and from yourself, my beloved, my flesh and my blood, my God and my Lord, must be appeased; but let this be done most swiftly and with great haste, as a roe or young hart of the deer is swiftest in the mountains; according to your name, by which you were commanded to be called through the Prophet: Hasten to strip away the spoils, make haste to seize the prey. Scarcely therefore awaiting thirty-three hours, return over the mountains of Bether, that is rise and appear to the princes of the house of God, namely your apostles and to me, whose great desire you are, as also theirs, indeed much more than theirs." The same Rupertus holds that the Blessed Virgin here prays for the conversion of her people, namely the Jews: "Return," he says, "be like a roe over the mountains of Bethel, that is near the fathers of the house of God, for this is what Bethel means." As if to say: Have mercy on the Jews, for they are the children of Abraham and the holy patriarchs, who were Bethel, that is the house, family and Church of God. Again, the Jews are the mountains of Bether, that is of division and separation; because through pride they divided and separated themselves from the faith of the patriarchs, who believed in Christ coming, and consequently from God, from the Church, from heaven, from salvation, and from all good. Similarly the Blessed Virgin still prays for sinners, who like the mountains of Bether through sin proudly separated themselves from God and God's grace, as if to say: Return, O beloved, to the soul once yours, which is now tyrannically possessed by the devil; behold like a roe with lynx eyes its most wretched servitude and tyranny, by which it is oppressed by the devil, and like a young hart of the deer, which by their breath draw out and kill serpents, as Pliny testifies, lib. VIII, cap. XXXII. From the caverns of these souls draw out the Tartarean, not so much serpents, as immense dragons, which dwell in the mountains of Bether, that is in the pride of division, namely in proud hearts, as much as in hell, where on account of pride they are divided and cut off from God and heaven for all eternity.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
2:1
… Haš-Šarōn). - 1. Biblical name of the stretch of the Palestinian plain that extends along the coast from Carmel as far as Jaffa, celebrated for its fertility (Is. 35:2), for the abundance of its pastures (Is. 65:10; 1 Par. 27:29), for its meadows flowering with narcissi and anemones (Cant. 2:1).
2:7
… Thus one appeals to maternal love, to patriotism, to honor, etc., in order to impel more effectively to act in a determined way (cf. Cant. 2:7; 3:5; 5:8-9; 8:4). Understood as an act of religion, adjuration consists in the direct or indirect invocation of the name of God in order to induce others to something by command or by prayer.
2:10
… one's neighbor, however ill-disposed, in order to win him for God: "be simple as doves" (Matt. 10:16) because the Lord takes up the defense of the simple (Ps. 73:19; Luke 13:34). The simplicity of the dove is properly evangelical purity (ἀκεραιότης, Cant. 2:10; 5:2); this is the perfect one. Simplicity keeps the intention (v.) upright and seeks God in everything; purity illumines even the deepest affections, and succeeds in finding God in …
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.