Sermons on the Song of Songs

OF THE PERFUME OF PIETY, WHICH IS THE MOST EXCELLENT OF ALL; AND OF THE RESPECT WHICH THOSE UNDER AUTHORITY OUGHT TO HAVE FOR THOSE SET OVER THEM.

I REMEMBER that I spoke to you of two perfumes: the one, of penitence, which comprehends many sins; the other, of devotion, which contains many benefits — both of them salutary, but not both agreeable. The first has a stinging power which makes itself felt, because the bitter remembrance of sins moves the soul to compunction, and causes pain, whereas the power of the other is soothing; it gives consolation and relieves spiritual distress by bringing into view the goodness of God. But there is a perfume which far excels both of these; I have called it the perfume of piety, because it is that which results from the necessities of the poor, the cares of the oppressed, the disquiets of the sorrowful, the faults of sinners, and finally, from all the misfortunes of those who are unhappy, even though they be our enemies. Those materials seem to be despicable, but the perfume which is distilled from them surpasses all other sweet odours. It is a perfume which cures, because blessed are the merciful^ for they shall obtain mercy (Matt. v. 7). Many miseries, therefore, collected together, and regarded with an eye of compassionate goodness, are the materials from which is composed the best of all perfumes, worthy of the bosom of the Bride, and agreeable to the senses of the Bridegroom. Happy is the soul which has had the care to anoint and to enrich itself with these perfumes, pouring upon them the oil of mercy, and heating them with the fire of charity. Who, think you, is that happy man who has pity and lendeth (Ps. cxii. 5), but he that is wont to compassionate others, who is quick to help them, judging it better to give than to receive; to whom it is easy to forgive, hard to be angry, a'nd almost impossible to take revenge; and who in all things regards the interests of his neighbours even as his own? O happy soul, whosoever thou art, who art of such a disposition, so imbued with the dew of mercy, so endued with charitable affections, so rendering thyself all things to all men, so regarding thyself as but a broken vessel, that thou mayest be at the service of others, and assist them in their need, whensoever and wheresoever it may be; and who, finally, art dead to thyself, that thou mayst live to the benefit of all O happy soul, thou plainly possessest this third and best of perfumes, and from thy hands have dropped all its sweetness. In the worst of times it shall not dry up, nor shall the fire of persecution exhaust it; God shall be ever mindful of every sacrifice thou hast made, and shall render perfect thy burnt-offering.

2. There are men in the city of the Lord who are rich in virtues; are there any among them who possess this perfume? The first who

occurs to me, and who is met everywhere in the way of goodness, is Paul — that vessel of election, yea, in truth a vessel of odour and sweetness, filled with every kind of fragrant powder. For he was to God a sweet savour of Christ in every place (2 Cor. ii. 14). Assuredly that generous heart, which took so great care of all the Churches, scattered far and wide fragrance of surpassing sweetness. See of what nature those were which he has amassed for himself. / die daily, he says, through your glory (1 Cor. xv. 31, Vulg.); and again, Who is weak, and I am twtweak? who is offended, and I burn not f (2 Cor. xi. 29). And in many such passages, which are well known to you, that good man shows how he abounded in preparing these precious perfumes. It was fitly thus, that the bosom which nourished the members of Christ should be redolent of the rarest and most precious perfumes, for Paul was assuredly a mother to them, travailing in birth as it were, once and again, until Christ were formed in them (Gal. iv. 19), and the members reformed in the likeness of their Head.

3. Let me tell you also of another, who was rich in this respect, who possessed materials carefully chosen for the compounding of precious balms. What does he himself say? The stranger did not lodge in the street, but I opened my doors to the traveller (Job. xxxi. 32). And again: I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor.... I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth (xxix. 15-17). If I have withheld t/ie poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail; Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof; If I have seen any perish1 for want of clothing; If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep (xxxi. 16-20). With what a sweet odour must that good man have blessed the earth by these works of charity! Each of such actions is a separate perfume, and with these he had stored his conscience, so as to counteract the exhalations of his noisome flesh by the sweet odour exhaled from his soul.

4. Joseph, after he had drawn in his train the whole of Egypt through the sweet odour yielded by his good deeds, afforded the same fragrance even to those who had sold him into slavery. He did, indeed, reproach them with an angry countenance; but his tears burst forth from the fulness of his heart; nor were they signs of his wrath, but betrayed the strength of his emotion (Gen. xliii. 30, and xlv. 2). Samuel mourned for Saul, who sought to kill him (1 Sam. xv. 35, and xvl 2), and the unction of his kindliness coming from within him, and warmed in his breast by the fire of charity, found issue by his eyes. And it was because of the sweet odour which his reputation spread throughout all the land that the Scripture says of him, All Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord (1 Sam. iii. 20). What shall I say of Moses? With what rich perfume had he too filled his heart! That rebellious house, in the midst of which he was for a time occupied, was never able, with all its murmurs, or its angry passions, to make him lose that unction of spirit with which he had once been imbued, or to hinder his retaining his gentleness of temper among their constant strifes and daily quarrels. Well deserved, therefore, was the witness which the Holy Spirit bore to him, that ' he was the meekest of all men who were upon the face of the earth ' (Num. xii. 3, Vulg.). Even with those who hated peace, he was peacefully disposed, insomuch that he not only did not indulge anger against an ungrateful and rebellious people, but even interceded for them, so that the Divine anger was softened at his mediation; ns it is written, He said that He would destroy them, had not Moses His chosen stood before Him in the gap, to turn away His wrath, lest He should destroy them (Ps. cvi. 23). And lastly, he said: Forgive, if Thou wilt, their sin: but if not, blot me out of the book which Thou hast written (Exod. xxxii. 32). A man truly filled with the unction of mercy! He obviously speaks with the feeling of a father, whom no happiness can delight apart from his children. It is as if a rich man should say to some poor woman who is a mother, ' Enter, and dine with me, but leave without the infant you carry in your arms, for fear that it should cry, and be a trouble to us/ What would that mother answer, do you suppose? Would she not rather choose to remain without food, than to dine with the rich man alone, after having abandoned her dear pledge of affection? So also Moses did not choose to be admitted alone, even into the joy of his Lord, while his people remained without; for although they were restless and ungrateful, he retained for them the affection, as he held the place, of a mother. The bowels of his affection suffer, but he prefers to bear the suffering that they cause, rather than they should be torn from him.

5. What again can be a proof of greater kindness of heart than the lament of David over the death of that man, who had always thirsted for his death (2 Sam. i. n), and that he bore with so much regret the death of him, whom he succeeded in the kingdom? How hard it was to console him for the death of a son, even though he was [in intention] a parricide! (2 Sam. xix. 4). Assuredly a kindliness of heart so great was an infallible mark of an abundant measure of this best of perfumes; therefore, also, he addressed with confidence his prayer to God: Lord remember David and all his kindness of heart (Ps. cxxxii. 1, Vulg.). All these holy persons had then this best of perfumes, of which the fragrant odours are spread through all the Churches even at the present day. And not only they, but all those also who, during this life, have shown themselves benevolent and charitable, who have striven so to live humanely among men as not to keep for their own advantage, but to use for the common benefit of all, every grace which they possessed, regarding themselves as debtors, alike to enemies and to friends, to the wise and to the unwise. As they were useful to all, humble in all circumstances, and before all things showed themselves to be dear to God and to men; so their fragrance is held in pious memory. As many, I repeat, of those who have gone before, who have been in character such as this, were of good report as of sweet perfume in their own days, and their sweetness remains at the present time. Thus also with you, my brother, whosoever you are, if you shall willingly share with us, who are your companions, the gift which you have received from on high; if you show yourself always helpful, sympathetic, kindly, tractable, humble, you, too, will have from all of us a similar testimony that you are fragrant with the richest perfumes. Everyone among you who not only patiently bears with the infirmities, whether of body or of mind, of his brethren, but also if it is permitted him, and if he has the ability to do it, to assist them by his services, to strengthen them by his exhortations, to train them by his wise counsels; and if discipline does not permit him to do this, at least he does not cease to assist them in their weakness by his earnest prayers; everyone, I say, who among you acts in this manner, exercises a precious influence among his brethren, sprinkles over them, so to speak, the costliest perfumes. Like sweet balm in the mouth, is such a brother as this in a community; he is pointed out with the finger as a wonder, and all say of him: This is a lover of the brethren, who prayeth much for the people, and for the Holy City.1

6. But let us now turn to the Gospel, and look if there be anything in it having reference to these perfumes. [And we so find that] Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, had bought sweet spices that they might come and anoint Jesus (Mark xvi. 1). Now, what were these perfumes so precious that they were purchased and brought to anoint the Body of Christ, so abundant also that they suffice to anoint it completely? For neither of the two former was either purchased2 or made for the service of the Lord, nor do we read that they were poured over His whole body. But suddenly a woman is brought before us, who kissed His feet; and in another place, either she, or another, having an alabaster box of ointment, brake it, and poured the ointment upon His Head (Luke vii. 38; John xii. 3; Mark xiv. 3). But in the instance we are considering, it is said, They bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Jesus. They bought, not ointments, but sweet spices; the ointment for embalming is not taken ready-made, it is newly compounded; and that to anoint, not a part only of the Lord's Body, as His Head, or His Feet, but in the phrase used by Scripture, 4 to anoint Jesus? that is to say, His entire Body.

7. Do you also [who hear me, whosoever you may be], who art putting on bowels of mercies, show yourself liberal and kindly, not to your relatives or connexions only, or to those who you think have helped you in the past, or, as you hope, may help you in the future; for this even the Gentiles do (Matt v. 46, 47); but, according to

St. Paul's precept, study to do good, unto all men (Gal. vi. 10). So your constant principle should be that for the sake of God, the offices of humanity, whether corporal or spiritual, are not to be denied even to an enemy; and if you act upon this rule, you will abound in these most precious perfumes, and will have undertaken to anoint, not the Lord's Head or Feet only, but (as far as in you lies) His whole Body, that is, the Church. And perhaps it was for this very reason that the Lord Jesus would not have the sweet spices which had been prepared expended upon His Body dead, in order that they might be reserved for His Body living; for the Church is living, and subsists upon the Living Bread, which came down from heaven. It is that Body of Christ which is the more dear to Him, because it did not taste of death; whereas the other, as no Christian is ignorant, He gave over unto death. It is this that He wishes to be cherished, to be anointed, and that its weak members should be restored to health by careful and salutary treatment. For this His Body, then, it was that He reserved those sweet spices, when anticipating the hour, and hastening His glory, He instructed, rather than avoided, the devotion of the holy women. He declined to be^ anointed, not as despising the ointment, but as sparing it; not as" refusing that pious service, but as reserving the usefulness of it to a later time. I say 1 the usefulness/ not as referring to the material ointment, but evidently to the spiritual, which was designated or typified by it. In those sweet spices, therefore, the Master of piety reserved for use those choicest perfumes of piety, which He earnestly desired should be employed for the needs of His members, whether those needs be bodily or spiritual. When, only a little while before, a sweet perfume, and costly, was poured upon His Head, or even upon His I eet, did He forbid it? Not at all, but, on the contrary, reproved those who did so. To Simon, who was indignant that He should permit Himself to be touched by a woman who was a sinner, He addressed a long parable of reproof; and to others, who complained of the pecuniary loss sustained by the expending of the perfume, He said: Why trouble ye the woman! (Matt. xxvi. 10).

8. If I may make here a little digression, it has sometimes happened to me when, for my own good, I was sitting at the Feet of Jesus in great affliction, and offering to Him the sacrifice of a spirit troubled and afflicted at the remembrance of my sins; and I might, as in rare instances has been the case, stand up and rejoice in the remembrance of His mercies, I, too, have heard those that said: To what purpose is this waste? That is, they complained that I was spending life to my own profit alone, while, as they thought, I might make myself useful to many. And they, too, said: This might be sold for much, and given to the poor. But it would not be a profitable transaction for me, even though I should gain the whole world, to lose my own self and work my own destmction. And therefore I regarded such scoffs as realizing what Scripture says of dead flies, which corrupt the sweetness of perfumes (Eccles. x. i); and I be- thought myself of that utterance of Divine wisdom: My people, they which lead thee cause thee to err (Is. iii. 12). But let those who accuse me, as if I were slothful, listen to the Lord replying for me, and making my excuse: Why trouble ye the woman? That is to say, you see only the surface of things, and judge according to what you see. This is not a man, as you suppose, who is able to set his hand to heavy tasks, but [one who is in his weakness] a woman. Why do you attempt to lay upon him a yoke which I perceive that he is not able to bear? He hath done a good work upon Me. Let him remain in that which is good, as long as he has not strength to go on to that which is better. If ever, by progress in the spiritual life, from a woman he shall have become a man, and a perfect man, then he may take upon him the task of performing the work of perfection.

9. Brethren, let us revere Bishops, but let us have a dread of the labours in which it is the duty of their charge to engage. If we consider those labours, we shall not be desirous of the honours [which belong to them]. Let us recognise that our powers are unequal to these, and that the weak and delicate shoulders of women can have no call to support burdens which task men; we ought to honour, but not to seek to obtain them. Now, there would be a want of good manners in criticising the actions of those, the burden of whose labours we shun. What rashness is it of the woman who spins in the house to reproach her husband when returning from the field of battle! I say, then, that if one who dwells in the cloister remarks that [a prelate], whose daily duty lies among the people, conducts himself with less discretion and self-restraint than he should, for example, in speech, in his food, in length of slumber, in freedom of laughter, in indulging anger, or allowing himself liberty of judgment, let him not jump immediately to a conclusion, and that unfavourable, but let him remember that it is written: Better is the iniquity of a man than a woman who doeth good (Ecclus. xliv. 14), for you indeed do well in guarding yourself with vigilance; but he who is of assistance to many does even better,, and leads a more manly life. If such an one does not succeed in fulfilling this function without the commission of some faults, that is, without some want of uniform observance of rule in life and conversation, we must remember that charity covereth a multitude of sins (1 Pet. iv. 8). These warnings are given against a twofold temptation, by which men in religion are frequently assailed, that either they should be induced to seek for themselves by ambition the dignity of the Episcopate, or, by the instigation of the devil, rashly to condemn the actions of Bishops.

10. But let us return to the perfumes of the Bride. Do you not see how vastly to be preferred to the others is that perfume of piety which alone must not, under any circumstances, be lost? So highly is it valued, indeed, that not even the gift of a cup of cold water is suffered to go unrewarded (Matt. x. 42). Nevertheless, that of contrition and penitence, which is composed of the remembrance of past sins, and is cast at the Lord's Feet, is good also; for a broken and contrite heart God will not despise (Ps. li. 17). But I judge that which is called of devotion, and made of the remembrance of the benefits of God, to be far better, inasmuch as it is thought worthy of being used for the Head, and that God speaks of it thus: Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me (Ps. 1. 23). But the unction of piety and charity, which comes from a regard to those who are miserable, and is diffused over the whole of the Body of Christ, vastly surpasses both the one and the other; and when I say the Body of Christ, 1 mean not that which was crucified in His Passion, but that which was obtained by the suffering of the former. That perfume is, in truth, the best, of which He who says: / will have mercy and not sacrifice (Matt. ix. 13) — declares that He does not regard others in comparison with it. I think, then, that, among all the virtues, the bosom of the Bride exhales most of all the perfume of that, since she strives in all things to conform herself to the will of her Spouse. Was it not that odour of mercy which Tabitha exhaled even in death? And if she was raised speedily to life again, it was because that odour of life in her overcame the odour of death.

11. Let me give you now, in conclusion, a brief abstract of the whole subject: Whosoever in words is full of fervour and stimulating strength (inebriat\ and by benefits done to others gains a name of which the good report is fragrant, may claim the words: Thy breasts are better than wine^ and their fragrance than the choicest perfumes. But who is it whom these words truly describe? Who is there among us who possesses fully and perfectly even one of these two qualities in such a manner that he is not sometimes either unfruitful in his teaching or without earnestness in his actions? But there is one who, with good right and without hesitation, may be praised as possessing both. It is the Church which, though the number of her children be so great, is never wanting in teaching to arouse and to stimulate them, or in good deeds of which the fragrance excites their admiration; for that which is wanting in one, she finds in another [of her children], according to the measure of the gift of Christ, and of the good pleasure of the Holy Ghost dividing unto everyone severally as He will (Eph. iv. 7, and 1 Cor. xii. 11). The Church gives forth a fragrant odour of good report in those her children who make to themselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; and she gives forth teaching to arouse and to stimulate, in the ministers of the Word, who pour forth upon the earth the wine of spiritual joy, which, so to speak, inebriates it, and who bring forth fruit in patience. With safety and confidence she names herself Spouse, since her breasts are truly better than wine, and their fragrance than the choicest perfumes. And though none of us would presume so far as to venture to say that his soul was the Spouse of the Lord, yet, since we are members of the Church which justly glories in that name, and in the fact which the name signifies, we may claim, not unjustly, a participation in that glory; for that which the whole body of us possess, fully and entirely, each of us, as individuals, must surely have our part in. Thanks be