Sermons on the Song of Songs

ET this sermon take for a beginning the words of a master in the spiritual life: If anyone love not the Lord Jesus Christy

— ' let him be Anathema (1 Cor. xvi. 22). Without doubt He is altogether to be loved by whom I have my very existence, my life, and my reason; and I cannot be ungrateful without being unworthy of all these. He is plainly worthy of death who refuses to live for Thee, O Lord Jesus; and he is, in fact, dead, as he who does not devote his reason to Thy service is unreasonable, and he who cares to be anything except for Thee is good for nothing, and is nothing. Indeed, what is man, except that Thou hast taken knowledge of him (Ps. cxliv. 3)? It is for Thine own self, O my God, that Thou hast created all things; and he who desires to exist for himself, and not for Thee, begins to be as nothing among all things that are. What is it that the wise man says: Fear God^ and keep His commandments; for this is the whole [duty of] man (Eccles. xii. 13). If, then, this is the whole man, without this man is nothing. Incline towards Thyself, O my God, what Thou hast deigned to enable me to be, humble as

it is; take wholly to Thyself, I entreat, the brief remainder of the years which pertain to my poor life; and for all the years which I have lost, because I have occupied them in losing myself, despise not, I entreat, an humble and contrite heart My days have declined as a shadow, they have perished without fruit. It is impossible for me to recall them; make me, in Thy goodness, at least to meditate upon them before Thee in the bitterness of my soul. Thou seest that wisdom is the whole desire and purpose of my heart: if there were any in me it is in Thy service 1 would employ it. But, O God, Thou knowest my simpleness; unless it be perhaps a beginning of wisdom to recognise my ignorance; and, indeed, this is by Thy gift. Augment it in me, I pray; I shall not be ungrateful for the least of Thy gifts, but shall strive to supply that which is lacking in me. It is, then, for these Thy benefits that I love Thee with all my feeble powers.

2. But there is a fact which moves, and excites, and fires me much more than this. Above all things, it is the cup which Thou didst drink, O Jesu, merciful and kind, the great task of our redemption undertaken by Thee, which is a stronger motive than any other for love to Thee. It is this which easily draws to itself all the love I have to give,, which attracts my affection more sweetly, which requires it more justly, which retains it by closer ties and a more vehement force. To this end the Saviour endured many and great things, nor in the making of the whole world did its Creator take upon Himself a task so laborious. For in that earlier work He spake, and it was done: He commanded, and it stood fast (Ps. xxxiii. 9). But in the later one He had to bear with men who contradicted His words, met His actions with ill-natured criticism, insulted His sufferings and even revived His Death. Behold, then, how He loved us! Add to this that He loved us thus of His free gift, not to make return for any love which we had for H im. For who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again (Rom. xi. 35)? And St. John Evangelist says expressly: Not that we loved God, but that He [previously] loved us (2 John iv. 10). Indeed, He loved us while as yet we did not exist; He did even more, for He loved us when we were opposed to, and were resisting, Him, as St. Paul testifies: When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son (Rom. v. 10). In other words, if He had not loved us when enemies, He would not now have us for friends \ just as, if He had not loved those who did not as yet exist, they would not be existing now for Him to love.

3. In the next place, His love is tender, wise, and strong. I say that it is tender, since He has taken upon Him our flesh; wise, since He has held H imself free of all sin; and strong, since it reached to the point of enduring death. For those whom He visited in the flesh yet He loved not in the flesh, but in the foreseeing wisdom of the Spirit. For the Lord Christ is a Spirit who hath made Himself visible to us1 (Lam. iv. 10), being moved towards us with a zeal of God, not of man, and with a love wiser assuredly than the first Adam felt for his Eve. Therefore those whom He sought out in the flesh He loved in the spirit, and redeemed in His power and courage. It is a thing full of ineffable sweetness to behold the Creator of man as a Man. But while by His wisdom He separated [human] nature from sin, by His power He banished death from [that] nature. In taking flesh He condescended to me; in separating it from all stain of sin He consulted His own dignity; in submitting to death He made satisfaction to His Father, and thus showed Himself at once the kindest of Friends, a prudent Counsellor, and a powerful Helper. In Him with full confidence I trust, who was willing to save me, who knew the means, who had the power to carry them out. The soul whom He sought out, whom He also called by His grace, will He cast out when it comes to Him? But I do not fear that any violence or fraud will have the power to pluck me out of His Hand; for in vanquishing death He vanquished all enemies, and in deluding the old Serpent, the seducer of the world, by an artifice more holy than that he had employed, He was at once wiser than the one and more powerful than the other. He took upon Him human flesh in truth, but only the likeness of sin; in the former giving sweet consolation to weak and ailing man, and in the latter prudently concealing from the devil the snare by which he was deceived Furthermore, that He might reconcile us with His Father, He bravely underwent death and overcame it, pouring forth His Blood as the price of our Redemption. If, then, that Sovereign Majesty had not tenderly loved me, He would not have sought for me in my prison. But to this affection He joined wisdom to circumvent our tyrant, and patience to placate the just wrath of God His Father. These are the ways of loving which I promised to give you, but I have set them before you first as shown forth in Christ, that you might hold them in greater esteem.

4. Learn, O Christian, from the example of Christ the manner in which you ought to love Christ. Learn to love Him tenderly, to love Him wisely, to love Him with a mighty love. Tenderly, that you be not enticed away from Him; wisely, that you be not deceived and so drawn away; and strongly, that you be not separated from Him by any force. Delight yourself in Christ, who is Wisdom, beyond all else, in order that worldly glory or fleshly pleasures may not withdraw you from Him; and let Christ, who is the Truth, enlighten you, so that you may not be led away by the spirit of falsehood and error. That you may not be overcome by adversities, let Christ, who is the Power of God, strengthen you. Let charity render your zeal ardent, wisdom rule and direct it; let constancy make it enduring. Let it be free from lukewarmness, not timid, nor wanting in discretion. Are not those the three things prescribed to thee in the Law, when God said: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength (Deut. vi. 5)? It seems to me, if no other sense occurs to you better to give to that threefold distinction, that the love of the heart answers to the earnestness of affection;

the love of the soul to the purpose or judgment of the reason; and love with the strength to the constancy and vigour of the mind. Love, then, the Lord thy God with the entire and full affection of the heart; love Him with all the vigilance and all the foresight of the reason; love Him with the full strength and vigour of the soul, so that for His love you would not fear even to die; as it is written in a later verse of this Canticle: Lore is strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell (Cant. viii. 6, Vulg. and Douay). Let the Lord Jesus be to your heart sweet and pleasant, so as to destroy the false attractiveness of the carnal life; let His sweetness overcome the other, as one nail drives out another. To your understanding and your reason let Him be a wise leader and a guiding light, not only to enable you to avoid the snares of heretical fraud, and to preserve the purity of your faith from their cunning devices, but also to make you cautious to avoid excessive or indiscreet vehemence in your conduct. Let your love be intrepid and constant, neither yielding to fear nor exhausted by sufferings. Finally, let us love tenderly, wisely, ardently, knowing that the love of the heart, which we call tender, is indeed sweet, but easily led astray1 — at least, if it be not accompanied by the love of the soul; while the latter, again, though it be rational, yet is apt to be weak, unless courage and ardour go with it to strengthen it

5. And recognise in clear examples that what I say is true. When the disciples had heard with dismay their Master, shortly before His Ascension, speaking of His departure from them, they heard from Him: If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said I go unto the Father (John xiv. 28). What then? Did they not love Him for whose departure they were grieving? In a certain sense they loved Him, and yet they did not really love Him. That is, they loved Him tenderly, but not wisely; they loved in a carnal way, not reasonably; finally, they loved with all their heart, but not with all their soul. Their love was against the interests of their salvation; wherefore He said to them also, It is expedient for you that I go away (John xvi. 7), blaming their deficiency in wisdom, not in affection. When, again, He was speaking of His coming death, Peter, as you remember, who loved Him, and desired to retain Him, replied, endeavouring to hinder Him; to whom He made answer, so reproving him as to show that it was his want of prudence only that He blamed. For what is the force of the words following, Thou savourest not the things which be of God (Mark viii. 33), but, Thou lovest not wisely, as following the impulse of human affection against the design of God? And He even called him Satan, inasmuch as in seeking to hinder the Saviour from dying he was an adversary of salvation, though unknowingly. And, therefore, having been thus corrected, he no longer opposed himself to the Saviour's death when the sad prophecy of it was again made by Him, but declared that he would die with Him. But that promise He did not fulfil, because he had not yet attained to the third degree of love, which consists in loving God with all our strength. He had learned to love [God] with all his soul, but he was still weak; he knew well what he ought to do, but was without the help which would enable him to perform it; he was not ignorant of the mystery [of salvation] but he shrank from martyrdom. That love was plainly not strong as death, which yielded to [the fear of] death; but afterwards it became so, when being, according to the promise of Jesus Christ, endued with power from on high, he began to love with courage so great that, having been forbidden in the council of the Jews to preach the adorable Name of Jesus, he replied firmly to those who forbade him, We ought to obey God rather than men (Acts v. 29). Then, indeed, he loved God at length with all his power, since he did not spare his own life for that love. For greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John xv. 13); and he laid down his life at that time, though he did not actually give it up. To be not drawn away by flattery, nor seduced by artifices, nor violently removed from it by injuries and outrages, that is to love God with all the mind, with all the soul, and with all the strength.

6. And notice, that that love of the heart is in a manner carnal, with which the heart of man is affected towards Christ according to the flesh, and towards the actions which He did or commanded while in the flesh, A person who is filled with that love is easily touched with any discourse which dwells on that subject. There is nothing he listens to more willingly, reads more attentively, recalls oftener to memory, meditates upon with greater enjoyment. His sacrifices of prayer receive from it a new perfection, and resemble, as it were, victims as fat as they are beautiful. As often as he prays, the image of the God Man arises before him, either in His Birth or His Infancy7, either in His teaching or His Death, His Resurrection, or His Ascension; and all these, or similar images, necessarily animate the soul to the love of holiness, drive away fleshly vices, put to flight temptations, and calm desires. I consider that a principal cause why God, who is invisible, willed to render Himself visible in the Flesh, and to dwell as a Man among men, was to draw, in the first place, to the salutary love of His sacred Flesh all the affections of carnal men who were unable to love otherwise than in a carnal manner, and so by degrees to draw them to a pure and spiritual affection. Were not those, for instance, who said to Jesus, Behold, we have left all and followed Thee (Matt. xix. 27), still in this [first] degree of love? They had left all things for the sole love of the bodily Presence of Jesus, so that they were not able even to listen with equanimity to the announcement of His salutary Passion and Death as near at hand, and even afterwards it touched them with a profound sadness to look up to1 the glory of His Ascension. For this reason it was that He said to them: Because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart (John xvi. 6). Thus in 1 Suspiccre* Another reading is suscipere* the meantime He had drawn them away, and kept them, from every carnal affection by the grace of His personal Presence in the Flesh.

7. But He afterwards pointed out to them a higher degree of love, when He said: // is the Spirit that quickene/h, the flesh profiteth nothing (John vi. 64). I think that he who said, Though we have known Christ after the Fleshy yet now heficeforth know we Him no more (2 Cor. v. 16), and perhaps the Prophet also, notwithstanding [that he lived before Christ], when he said, The Spirit before our face was Christ the Zord,1 stood upon this higher ground; for that which he adds, Under Thy shadmv shall we live among the Gentiles^ it seems that he speaks in the name of those who are beginning to rest at least in the shadow, since they do not feel themselves to be capable of sustaining the heat of the sun; and being nourished with the sweetness of the flesh, are not as yet capable of perceiving the things which are of the Spirit of God. By the shadow of Christ I suppose to be meant His Flesh, with which Mary was overshadowed- (Luke i. 35), so that it was to her as a veil to temper the heat and light of the Spirit. Let him be consoled then, with the devotion of the flesh who has not as yet the life-giving Spirit, or, at least, who has Him not in the manner of those who say: The Spirit before our face was Christ the Lord^ and, Though 7ve have known Christ after the Fleshy yet now henceforth know we Him no more. For it is assuredly not without the Spirit that Christ is loved, even in the Flesh, though He be not loved in His fulness [thus]. And of this devotion the measure is this, that the sweetness of it occupies the whole heart; draws it entirely to itself from all love of the flesh or of carnal things, and frees it from their temptations; this it is to love with all the heart. Otherwise, if I prefer to the Flesh of my Lord any ties of relationship, or any pleasure that I may receive — I mean in such a waxas to be able to perform fewer of those good works which He has taught me by word and by example while He abode in the Flesh — does it not plainly appear that I do not love Him with all my heart, since it is divided, and I seem to have given a part to the love of Him, and a part to the love of myself? For He Himself says: He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me (Matt. x. 37). Therefore, to express it briefly, to love Jesus with the whole heart is to prefer the love of His most sacred Flesh to all things which engage our affections or our vanity, either in our own self, or that of another; in which I equally comprehend the glory of the world also, because it is essentially carnal; and those who delight in it are, without doubt, carnally minded.

8. But yet such devotion towards the Flesh of Christ is a gift of the Holy Spirit, and a great gift; yet I must call such love carnal, at least in comparison with that other affection, which has regard, not so much to the Word as Flesh, as to the Word as Wisdom, as

Righteousness, as Truth, as Holiness, Goodness, Virtue, and all other Perfections of whatever kind. For Christ is all these, inasmuch as by God He is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption (i Cor. i. 30). Does it appear to you that two persons have equal and similar love towards Christ, of whom the one sympathizes indeed piously with His sufferings, is moved to a lively sorrow by them, and easily softened by the memory of all that He endured: who feeds upon the sweetness of that devotion, and is strengthened thereby to all salutary, honourable, and pious actions; while the other, being always fired by a zeal for righteousness, having everywhere an ardent passion for truth, and earnestly desiring wisdom, prefers above all things sanctity of life, and a perfectly disciplined character; who is ashamed of ostentation, abhors detraction, knows not what it is to be envious, detests pride, and not only avoids, but dislikes and despises every kind of worldly glory; who vehemently hates and perseveres in destroying in himself every impurity of the heart and of the flesh; and lastly, who rejects, as if it were naturally, all that is evil, and embraces all that is good? If you compare these two types of affection, does it not appear to you that the second is plainly the superior? and that in comparison with it the former is in a manner carnal?

9. Yet that love, by which a carnal life is shut out, and the world is contemned and overcome, is good, though it be carnal. In that type of affection it becomes rational as it makes progress, and it is perfected when it becomes spiritual. It is called rational when in all the sentiments cherished regarding Christ the proportion of the faith (ratio fidei) is so carefully observed that no deviation is made from the pure doctrine of the Church by any apparent similarity to truth, nor by any snare of heretical or diabolical deception. As also in our personal conduct this caution must be observed, that the bounds of discretion be not exceeded through the influence of superstition, or of levity, or of the zeal of an unregulated disposition. And this it is to love God with all the soul, as I have already said. If to this be added force so great, and an assistance so powerful, as that of the Holy Spirit, so that neither troubles nor sufferings, however violent, nor even the fear of death, can ever cause the desertion of righteousness, then God is loved with all the strength, and that is spiritual love. And I think this name peculiarly suitable to such love, because of the fulness of the Spirit which so particularly distinguishes it. But I think that these observations may suffice with regard to that saying of the Bride: Therefore have the virgins loved Thee beyond measure. May our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Guardian, deign to open to us the treasures of His mercy, that we may be able to expound the words which follow/ Who liveth and reigneth with the Father, in the Unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.