SERMON XXVII.
OF THE ADORNMENT OF THE BRIDE: AND IN WHAT SENSE THE HOLY SOUL IS CALLED HEAVEN.
NOW that we have rendered the last offices of affection to our dear friend on his return to his [heavenly] country, I resume, brethren, the purpose of edification which was thus interrupted: for it is incongruous to continue long lamenting one who is in joy and gladness, and out of place to trouble with many tears one who is sitting at a banquet; and although we may, with weeping, deplore our own loss, it behoves us to do even that with moderation, so that it may not seem to be the case that it is not so much the loss of our friend as of his service to us that we deplore. The grief of those who are bereaved should be tempered by the joy of the beloved one who is its object, and that he is with God should make it more easy to bear the fact that he is no longer with us. I desire, then, relying on the support of your prayers, to bring to light, if I am able, the sense which is hidden under those passages of our Song in which the beauty and adornments of the Bride are spoken of. This, if you remember, was touched upon, but left undiscussed; all that was examined and concluded having been the sense in which she was said to be black as the tents of Kedar. In what way, then, is she comely as the curtains of Solomon? as if Solomon, in all his glory, had had anything of equal worthiness to the beauty of the Bride, and the magnificence of her ornaments! And, indeed, if we should say that those ' curtains ' refer rather to the blackness than to the beauty of the Bride, the same as the tents of Kedar •, I do not know that we should be wrong; nor would there be wanting reasons to support that reference, as we shall see in the sequel. But if we think that the beauty of curtains, however splendid they may be, is to be compared to the glorious beauty of the Bride, we have need to obtain the help of Him at whose door you have knocked in order to be able worthily to unfold a mystery so great. For what beauty is there in those things which are perceived by the outward senses which is to be compared with the inward beauty of a holy soul, or which, to a just judge, can appear other than common and defiled? What is there, I ask, in the spectacle of this world which passeth away that is capable of equalling the fairness and beauty of a soul which has put off its former vesture of earthly and soiled humanity, and clothed itself anew in that which came from heaven, and is in every respect fair? For gems, it is adorned with virtues; it is purer and loftier than the air itself, and more brilliant than the sun. Do not, then, look back to [the curtains of] Solomon for a comparison when you desire to understand what is the degree of beauty and splendour to which the Bride declares herself to be like. 2. What means she, then, by these words: / am beautiful as the curtains of Solomon? These words, as I think, contain a great and wonderful mystery — if we apply them, that is to say, not to the king who ruled over Israel, but to Him of whom it was said: Behold, a greater than Solomon is here (Matt. xii. 42). He is so truly Solomon, that He is called not only ' Peaceful ' (as the word Solomon signifies in Hebrew1), but Peace itself, as St. Paul declares: He is our Peace (Eph. ii. 14); and with this Solomon we shall no doubt find something worthy to be compared with the beauty of the Bride. Notice especially with regard to the curtains what is said in one of the Psalms: Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain (Ps. civ. 2). Now, the earlier Solomon, very wise though he were and powerful, assuredly did not stretch out the heavens like a curtain, but rather He who is not merely wise, but Wisdom itself — yes, it is He who hath founded them and stretched them out. Thus, also, it was He, not the former Solomon, who speaks these words: When He (that is, doubtless, God the Father) prepared the heavens I was there. His Power, no doubt, and His Wisdom, was there with Him who prepared the heavens. Nor must it be supposed that it was inactive, and, as it were, a spectator only, because it is said, ' I was there/ and not also, * I was preparing.' Look a little farther on, and you will find the express assertion: I was with Him forming all things (Prov. viii. 27 and 30, Vulg. and Douay). Lastly, He says: What things soever the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise (John v. 19). So, then, it is He also who stretches out the heavens like a curtain. A beautiful curtain indeed is that great expanse which, as a tent, covers the entire surface of the earth, and rejoices the eyes of men by the variety and beauty of sun, moon, and stars which adorn it! What is there more beautiful than this curtain, or more splendid than the heavens? Yet it is not worthy to be even compared to the glory and beauty of the Bride even in this respect — that the beauty of the former, as being of a corporeal nature and apprehended by the bodily senses, is temporary and passing: For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Cor. iv. 18).
3. But the beauty of the Bride is of an intellectual kind; it is spiritual and eternal, for it is the image of eternity. Her beauty, for example, consists in charity; and charity, as you read, never faileth (1 Cor. xiii. 8). It is also in righteousness, and His righteousness endureth for ever (Ps. cxii. 3). It is also in patience, and we learn that the patient abiding of the poor shall not perish forever (Ps. ix. 18). What is to be said of voluntary poverty? and of humility? Has not the one the promise of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. v. 3), and the other of an everlasting exaltation (Luke xiv. n)? It is the same with the fear of the Lord; it is holy, and endureth for ever (Ps. xix. 9). So, also, with respect to prudence, to temperance, and to fortitude, and to any other virtues, if such there be, what are they but, as it were, pearls in the Coronet of the Bride, which glitter with constant lustre for ever? For ever, I say, because they are the base and the foundation of immortality. Nor is there any place whatever in the soul for the life of immortal blessedness except that which is provided by the means and the interposition of virtues. It is on that account that the Psalmist says to God, in whom, without doubt, is this life of blessedness: Justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne (Ps. lxxxix. 14). And the Apostle says that Christ dwells in our hearts, not in every way, but, as he states expressly, in our hearts by faith (Eph. iii. 17). When our Lord was about to sit upon the ass, His disciples cast their mantles upon the animal to form His seat; and this signifies that the Saviour and that salvation cannot rest upon souls that are unclad and bare — that is to say, which are not clad in the doctrine and in the virtues of the Apostles. And therefore the Church, having promise of happiness to come, is careful in the meantime to prepare and adorn herself with a vesture enriched with gold, and decked with a variety of graces and virtues,1 so as to be found capable and worthy of the fulness of grace.
4. But I could in no way compare in beauty this visible and physical heaven, although most fair of its kind, and adorned with a bright galaxy of stars, with that other splendour of varying colours, spiritual and surpassingly beautiful, which sparkles even now on the robe of sanctification which the Bride has received. But there is a heaven of heaven of which the Psalmist says: Sing praises unto the Lord, who ascends above the heaven of heavens (Ps. lxviii. 32, 33). This heaven is intellectual and spiritual; and He who by His ivisdom made the heavens (Ps. cxxxvi. 5) has created this and established it for ever, and it is this in which He dwells. Do not suppose, then, that the devotion of the Bride allows her to stop short of this heaven, in which, as she knows, her Beloved dwells; for where her treasure is, there is her heart also (Matt. vi. 21). She has a holy jealousy of those who are before that Countenance, for [the sight of] which she sighs, and studies to render her life conformed to theirs with whom she is not as yet associated in that happy vision. She cries by her life more than by words: Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honour dwelleth (Ps. xxvi. 8).
5. She does not hold it at all unworthy of her to be compared to that heaven. It is stretched out as a curtain, if not extending over plains of space, yet over the affections and longings of souls. It has Divisions also, not of colours,2 but of degrees of beatitude attained. For [God] has created some Angels, others Archangels, but others Virtues, Dominations, Principalities, Powers, Thrones; others, again, Cherubin, and others Seraphin. These are the stars with which His heaven is studded; these are the bright and glorious colours which adorn the curtains of this Solomon. This is one out of very many which are His, and the chief among them, which are each of them blessed and glorious, though there be a great variety in the conditions of their glory. They are benign, moreover, and of a charity so far reaching, that it extends even to us; so that far from being jealous of the glory they enjoy, they desire that we should obtain it. And in order to attain that end, some of them do not think it burdensome to remain among us, to be actively employed in watching over us and doing us good; they are, in truth, ministering spirits, sent forth to minister unto them who shall be heirs of salvation (Heb. i. 14). Wherefore, as the whole multitude of the blessed are collected together, as it were, into one, they are called, in the singular, 'the heaven of heaven and, again, as each of them separately is, in a sense, heaven, they are called 1 the heaven of heavens.' It is of each of them that it is said: He stretcheth out the heavens like a curtain (Ps. civ. 2). So that you now perceive, I think, what are those curtains which the Bride takes pride in resembling, and to what Solomon they belong.
6. Contemplate, then, the glory of her who compares herself even to the heaven; and to that heaven which is so much the more glorious as its origin is divine. Not unfitly does she select to be a point of comparison for herself that from whence she draws her origin.1 For if, on account of the body she has from the earth, she compares herself to the tents of Kedar, why should she not equally glorify herself as having a likeness to heaven, because her soul is from heaven; especially when her life bears witness to her origin, to the dignity of her nature, and to the land to which she belongs? She worships and adores one God, as do the angels; she loves, as they do, Jesus Christ above all; she is chaste as the angels, and that in a weak body of sinful flesh, as the angels are not; lastly, she desires and seeks those things which are with the angels, not those which are upon earth. What can be a plainer proof of her celestial origin than that she preserves an inborn resemblance to the angelic spirits, and that in a region of unlikeness [to them], than to claim for herself on earth the glory of a life solitary and exiled [from heaven]; and, lastly, to live as an angel in a body almost that of a beast? Those actions are the signs of heavenly powers, not of earthly; and they show clearly that the soul, which is able thus to act, draws, without a question, its origin from heaven. Yet listen to words which are unmistakable: / saw the Holy City, neiv Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a Bride adorned for her husband. And the Apostle has added, And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them (Rev. xxi. 2, 3). To what end? It was, as I believe, that He might obtain for Himself from among the children of men [the Church which is] His Bride. O wonderful mystery! He came for His Bride, and yet not without a Bride He came. He was seeking out His Bride, and yet His Bride was then with Him. Were there, then, two Brides? By no means. For He says: My dove, My undefiled, is but one (Cant. vi. 9). But just as He desired out of diverse flocks of sheep to make one, so that there should be one Fold, and one Shepherd (John x. 16); so, having from the beginning of the world one Bride, with whom He was closely united — I mean the multitude of the angels— it pleased Him to call together a Church out of men also, and with this to unite that which is from heaven, so that there shall be one Bridegroom and one Bride. The one has been perfected, not multiplied, by the union of the other with itself; and she is aware that this is spoken of her: She who is Mine is one, she is* perfect (vi. 8). Yes, their conformity [to the likeness of the Lord] makes them one; and if for the moment the conformity is only in the same fervour of devotion, it shall hereafter be realized in the same glory.
7. Thus, then, each of them is from heaven — the Bridegroom, who is Jesus, and the Bride, the heavenly Jerusalem [which is the Church]. As for the Bridegroom, in order that He might be made manifest upon earth, He emptied Himself, taking upon Him the form of a servant, and being made in the likeness of men, was found in fashion as a Man (Philip, il 7, 8). But as to the Bride: in what form or appearance, or with what degree of beauty think you was she beheld when she came down out of heaven? Was it, perhaps, in the company of the angels whom St. John saw ascending and desce ruling upon the Son of Alan (John i. 51)? But it were better to say that he saw the Bride when he saw the Word made Flesh, and recognised two Natures in His one Person. For when He, our holy Emmanuel, brought to earth the rules of heavenly culture and training, when the visible form and image of the beauty of the heavenly Jerusalem, which is our mother, is expressed in Him and made known to us by His means, what have we beheld, except in the Bridegroom the Bride, and, gazing with admiration and reverence, have divined in one and the same Lord of Glory both the Bridegroom, decked with His Crown, and the Bride, adorned with her necklaces of precious jewels? He, therefore, who descended is also He who ascended; for no one can ascend into heaven but He who descended from heaven, who is one and the same Lord, both Bridegroom and the Head, as also Bride and the Body. Nor is it in vain that this celestial Man has appeared upon earth, since He has made many denizens of earth similar to Himself, and citizens of heaven, as it is said by the Apostle: As is the Man who is heavenly, such are they also who are made like unto Him, and therefore heavenly ( i Cor. xv. 48). A beginning is, then, already made by living on the earth in the manner ©f those who live in heaven, when, after the example of that heavenly and blessed creation, she who comes from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, is, nevertheless, attached with chaste love to her heavenly Spouse; and, although not yet united to Him by outward sight, is yet betrothed to Him by faith, according to the promise of God speaking by the prophet: / will betroth thee unto Me in mercies: I will even betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness (Hosea ii. 19, 20). Therefore, she strives to be more and more conformed to the pattern which came from heaven: learning to be modest and temperate, chaste and holy, patient and compassionate, meek and humble of heart. And it is by these virtues that she endeavours, far removed as she is, to please Him upon whom the angels desire to look, so that, by sharing the same desire with which they are fired, she may approve herself as being a fellow-citizen with the saints, and of the household of God, that she may show herself His beloved and His Bride.
8. I think that every soul which is such as I have described is not only heavenly because of its origin, but may be not unfitly said to be itself heaven, because of its resemblance to heaven, which is thus brought about. And it is then that such a soul plainly shows that its origin is from heaven, because its conversation is in heaven. A holy soul is, then, a heaven, having understanding for a sun, faith for a moon9 and for stars countless virtues. Or we may say that its sun is zeal for righteousness or fervent charity, and its moon is continence. For as the brightness of the moon is said to be wholly from the sun, so there is no merit in continence without charity or justice. Hence the Wise man says: How beautiful is a generation which joins continence to charity (Wisdom iv. i).1 As for the stars of this sky, I do not regret having called the virtues by this name when I consider the fitness of the similitude. For as the stars shine by night, and in the day are unseen, so true virtue, which often in prosperity is not apparent, shines out brightly in time of adversity. It is a matter of prudence to hide it in the one case, but in the other it is of necessity rendered visible. A virtue is, then, as a star, and a man of many virtues as a heaven of such stars, unless, perhaps, that which the Lord has spoken by the Prophet, Heaven is My Throne (Is. lxvi. 1), is to be understood of this visible heaven which rolls around us, and not rather in the sense which the Scripture elsewhere expresses more plainly: The soul of the righteous is the throne of wisdom.1 But whoso has learned from the teaching of the Saviour that God is a Spirit, and is to be worshipped in the spirit (John iv. 24), will not hesitate to believe that His throne is spiritual. I should confidently affirm this, and not less with regard to the spirit of a righteous man than of the angels. Most of all I am confirmed in that opinion by that faithful promise of the Son of God: / and My Father will come to him (that is, to a righteous man), a?id make our abode with him (John xiv. 23). The Psalmist also seems to me to have spoken of no other heaven than this in the words: Thou divellest in the holy place, the praise of Israel (Ps. xxi. 4, Vulg. and Douay). And again, the Apostle speaks unmistakably: That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith (Eph. iii. 17).
9. And it is not wonderful that the Lord Jesus should dwell in this, as in heaven, since not only, as in the case of other living beings, did He speak the word and it came into existence, but He has striven in order to acquire it; He has died to redeem it. Therefore, having after many sufferings and efforts made it His own according to His wish, He says: This is My rest for ever: here will / dwell, for I have desired it (Ps. cxxxii. 14). Blessed is that soul to whom it is said: 4 Come, Mine elect one, and upon thee will I place My Throne. Why art thou so heavy, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me?' Dost thou think that not within thee canst thou find a place for the Lord? What place is there, in truth, in us that is fit for the presence of a glory so great, or sufficient to receive so high a Majesty? Would that I were worthy even to offer adoration in the place where His Feet have stood! Who will grant unto me the grace to be able to follow closely in the footsteps of some holy soul which He has chosen for His habitation? Yet if He shall deign only to pour into my soul the unction of His mercy, and to expand it, as a curtain is extended when anointed, then I may be able to say: / have run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou didst enlarge my heart (Ps. cxix. 32, Vulg. and Douay). Perhaps I shall be able to show in my soul, if not an upper chamber sufficiently large for Him to sit with His disciples, at least a pillow where He may lay His Head. At least, I may from afar look up to those blessed oneSj of whom it is said: I will dwell in them, and walk in them (2 Cor. vi. t6).
10. O how broad the confines of that soul and how commanding its merits, which is found worthy to receive in itself that Divine Presence; and not only worthy to receive it, but capable of so doing!
What, again,;»hall I say of that soul, which affords, as it were, spacious avenues in which the grace of God may move without constraint? Assuredly, it is not tunnelled with the windings of worldly interests and secular cares, nor occupied with luxuries and sensual pleasures; nor with curiosity about the affairs of others; nor is it filled with tumid pride, nor the desire to rule. For it is essential in the first place that a soul should be free from all things like this, that it may become a heaven, and be the dwelling-place of God. For otherwise how would it be able to contemplate God in peace, or even to see Him as He is? Again, it must be free from all hatred, all jealousy, and all bitterness, for into a malicious soul wisdom shall not enter (Wisd. i. 4). Then it is necessary that it should grow in breadth and volume that it may be capable of receiving God. Now, the growth and extension of the soul is charity, according to the saying of the Apostle: Be ye enlarged in charity (2 Cor. vi. 13). For although the soul, being of a spiritual nature, does not admit of material extension, nevertheless grace confers upon it what is denied by nature. It ha£ growth and is extended, but in a spiritual manner; it increases, not in substance, but in power and in glory; it grows even into a temple holy to the Lord; and attains unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ (Ephes. iv. 13). Thus the amplitude of a soul is estimated by the measure of the charity which it possesses; so that, for example, the soul which has much charity is great, and that which possesses little, is itself little; while that which has none at all, is simply nothing, as St. Paul declares, If I have not charity^ I am nothing (1 Cor. xiii. 2). If a soul has begun to have ever so little charity, so that at least it is careful to love those who love it, and to salute the brethren, and those who offer salutation, then I should say that that soul is something, however little, since it has at least the charity of society, which consists in the natural interchange of courtesy given and received. But as our Lord inquires, What does it more than others? (Matt. v. 47). And I should regard a soul as being not of liberal, or even of moderate dimensions, but as being plainly narrow, small, and petty, which had no more charity than this strictly limited amount.
11. If, however, it progresses and grows greater, so as to overpass the limits of a love so petty and so narrow, let it, in the full liberty of the Spirit, reach the broad confines of a charity and kindness which is wholly free and gratuitous; insomuch as out of the largeheartedness of its good-will, to extend its kindly cares to all men, and to love all and everyone as it loves its own self. And then the reproach could not be addressed to it: i What doest thou more than is of obligation?' in face of a charity so capacious. The charity, I repeat, which embraces all persons, even those with whom it _has no bond of social relation, which is not allured by any hope of personal advantage, nor repelled by any feeling of dislike, which again is constrained by no obligation, except indeed by that of which it is said:
Owe no man anything, but to love one another (Rom. xiii. 8); that is indeed great But if in addition to this you take by violence the realm of charity, and, like a pious invader, occupy it even to its farthest bounds, then you will regard the bowels of charity as not to be shut up even to enemies; you will do good even to those who hate you, you will pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you, and strive to be peaceful even with those who are haters of peace; then the breadth, and height, and beauty of your soul, will be as the breadth, and height, and beauty of heaven. Then will be fulfilled in it that which is spoken: He stretcheth forth the heavens like a curtain (Ps. civ. 2); and in it He in whom greatness, immensity, and glory are equally without bound will deign not only to dwell, but to go to and fro at His pleasure in a heaven so extended and so fair.
12. You see, then, what are the heavens which the Church includes, without ceasing to be in her universality, as a vast heaven, extending from sea even to sea and from the River unto the world's end. Consider also as a consequence, to what you can, in this respect, compare it; provided that you have not forgotten what was said a little while ago with regard to * the heaven of heaven, and the heavens of heavens ' (n. 9). Our mother [the Church], though she be here below in a place of exile, has, even while she is performing her pilgrimage, heavens of her own, spiritual men, illustrious in their faith and by their life, pure in faith, unshaken in hope, of wide charity, of deep and lofty contemplation. And these heavens let fall the rain of the word of salvation, thunder by their rebukes, lighten by their wonderful works (miraculis). They declare the glory of God; they are spread, like a curtain, over all the earth; they show in themselves the law of life and conduct written as by the Finger of God, to give the knowledge of salvation unto their people; they also teach the Gospel of peace, because they are the * curtains of Solomon.'
13. We must discern also upon these curtains the likenesses of things heavenly, which were described above when we spoke of the ornaments of the Bridegroom (n. 3). We must discern similarly the Queen standing on His right hand, decked with ornaments similar, if not equal, to His (Ps. xlv. 9). For although she has no little splendour and beauty for her portion, in the righteousness of the Saints, both in the place of her pilgrimage and in the day of her power, yet there is a difference between His crown of virtues and the consummation of the glory of the blessed. Yet I may say that the Bride is perfect and blessed, though it be in part. For in part she is as the tents of Kedar. Yet she is beautiful, whether in that part which is already blessed and reigns in heaven; or in that, even while she is in the night of this world, she is adorned with men who are illustrious by their wisdom and their virtues, even as the midnight sky is adorned with its stars. Wherefore the Prophet says: They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever (Dan. xii. 3).
14. What humility is there here, and yet what sublimity! It is to be at once the tents of Kedar, and the sanctuary of God; at once a habitation on earth, and a palace in heaven; a hut of clay, and a royal hall; a body of death, and a temple of light; an object of contempt to the proud, and yet the Bride of Christ. She is black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem; and although labour and the sorrow of a prolonged exile have darkened her face, yet she is fair with the beauty of heaven, as the curtains of Solomon. If you are displeased with her blackness, yet you cannot but admire her beauty; if you despise her as humble, yet look up to her as sublime. Yet in this condition in which she is, how remarkable a proof of wisdom, of discretion, of fitness, is to be gathered from the fact that this abasement and this elevation, are each so tempered, according to time, in the Bride, that among all the changes and chances of this world, this loftiness raises her up in adversities, so that she does not fail; and this humbleness represses the tendency to pride, so that even in prosperity she does not grow forgetful of her Lord. These two results are each of them most beautiful, but are exactly contrary to each other; nevertheless, they both work together for good to the Bride, and are helpful to her salvation.
15. So much with regard to the comparison which the Bride makes between herself and the curtains of Solomon. Yet there remains still to be treated another sense, which I referred to at the beginning, and promised to explain, namely, that which refers the whole comparison to the blackness of the Bride only. This promise 1 am fully intending to keep, but it must be deferred to the beginning of another sermon, as well because this is already sufficiently long, as also that the prayer prevents, which, according to our custom, we offer to the praise and glory of the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is God blessed for ever. Amen.