Sermons on the Song of Songs

posed of earth, and set upon the earth, that is to say, their bodies, in these days of their service here below, yet are wont to feed their Lord's flocks, not with things of earth, but from celestial pastures; nor do they preach to them according to their own will, but to that of their Lord. But kids, that is, the senses of the body, do not seek for, nor desire, heavenly food, but feed beside the tents of the pastors; that is to say, among the good things cognizable by the senses of the present world, which is the region of material bodies, and with these they do not indeed satisfy their desires, because these grow with habit, but indulge them.

3. A sad and shocking change of pursuits! After having made it his endeavour to nourish the soul during the time of its exile and wandering here with holy meditations, as it were with food from heaven, to seek out the good pleasure of God and the mysteries of His will, to reach up to heaven by the fervency of his devotion, after having saluted Patriarchs and Apostles, and the choirs of Prophets, marked with admiration the triumphs of Martyrs, and viewed with wonder the glorious ranks of the Angels, now, to lay all these occupations aside, to subject himself in disgraceful servitude to the body, unto obedience to the flesh, to become a slave to gluttony or intemperance, and to seek throughout the world for means to satisfy, in some degree, or at least to soothe their imperious, yet insatiable, desires, by the resources of this world which passes away! My eyes let fall a torrent of tears over such a soul as that, which, after being brought up in scarlet, embraces dunghills (Lam. iv. 5). He evil entreateth the barren which beareth not, and doeth not good to the widow (Job xxiv. 21). For notice, it is not merely said, Go forth, but go forth by the flocks of thy companions, and feed thy kids, in which, as it seems to me, a warning is given to us of no small importance. What is it? Alas! that a creature so fair, once made a member of the [Lord's] flock, but now rushing miserably to destruction, is not permitted even to remain among the flocks, but is bidden to fall behind them. How is that, do you ask? It is in that manner of which we read in the Psalms: Man, when lie was in honour, did not understand; he hath been compared unto senseless beasts, and is become like unto them (Ps. xlviii. 13, Douay). See how this creature, so beautiful," came to belong unto the general body of the animals. And I think that these would say, if they were able to speak: Behold, Adam is become as one of us (Gen. iii. 22, Douay). Says the Psalmist: When he was in honour. If you ask, In what honour? he dwelt in Paradise; his life was passed in a place of entire pleasure; he suffered no manner of pain or of privation; his steps were among trees loaded with fragrant fruits; he reposed upon a bed of flowers; he was crowned with glory and honour, and set over all the works which the Hands of His Creator had made; but above all, he excelled in glory, because he bore the Divine image and likeness; he ranked with, and enjoyed the society of, the Angels, and all the powers of the army of heaven.

4. But he changed that glory of God into 4 the similitude of a calf that eateth hay.' Thence it is that the Bread of Angels is made to be, as it were, hay laid in the manger, and set before us as before the beasts in the stable. Indeed, the Word was made Flesh (John i. 14); and, according to the Prophet, All flesh is but grass. But that grass is not dried up, nor has its flower fallen, because the Spirit of the Lord hath rested upon it. And when once the end of all flesh came [by the Flood], it was for this reason, namely, that the Spirit of life had left it; for God said: 1 My Spirit shall not remain in man for ever, because he is flesh (Gen. vi. 3, Douay). By the name of ' flesh ' in this passage it is man's sin that is specified, not his nature; for it is sin, not nature, that drives away the Spirit. Because of sin it is, then, that all flesh is grass, and the glory thereof as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, he goes on, the flower fadeth, but not that Flower which springs out of the stem and root of Jesse, inasmuch as the Spirit of the Lord has rested upon Him (Is. xi. 2); not that grass which the Word was made, since the Prophet continues, But the Word of our God shall stand for ever (Is. xl. 6-8). For if the Word is made [Flesh, that is] grass, and the Word abides for ever, then [that] grass abides for ever. Otherwise, how shall He bestow eternal life, if He Himself does not live eternally? for He says: If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever. And of what bread He speaks He explains in adding: And the Bread that I will give is My Flesh, which I will give for the life of the world (John vi. 51). How, then, can He, by whom eternal life is bestowed, be other Himself than eternal?

5. But recall now with me, if you please, the declaration of the Son to the Father in the Psalm: Thou wilt not suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption (Ps. xvi. 10). Doubtless, He refers here only to His Body, which lay for a time dead in the sepulchre. This is that Holy Thing of which the Angel declared to the Virgin: That Holy Thin$ which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God (Luke i. 35). How, then, could that holy Flesh (grass, fenum) see corruption which was born of a pure womb, as it were of meadows ever flourishing in perpetual greenness, and which draws upon it without ceasing the gaze of the Angels, who regard it with never-failing delight? It would surely lose its greenness if Mary lost her virginity. The food of man has, then, been changed into that of beasts, since man has changed into a beast. O sad and lamentable transmutation! that man, the dweller in Paradise, the lord of earth, a citizen of heaven, and one of the household of the Lord of Sabaoth, the brother of blessed spirits, and co-heir of celestial Virtues, should have found himself, by a sudden transformation, and through his own weakness, lying in a stable, clamouring for food such as is the lot of beasts, because of his resemblance to their nature, and still more, bound fast to the manger, on account of his savage unruliness, like as those of whom it is written: With bit and bridle bind fast their jaws, who come not near to thee (Ps. xxxi. 9, Douay). Yet know, O ox, thy owner, and thou, 0 ass, thy master's crib, that the Prophets of God may be found faithful in their predictions of these wonderful works of God. Recognise, now that thou art become a beast, Him whom, when thou wert man, thou didst not recognise; adore in the stable Him whom in Paradise thou didst flee from; honour the Manger of Him whose Throne of authority thou didst contemn; and that Bread— yea, that Bread of Angels, from which thou didst turn in distaste, now that it has become food suited to thy state of animal, take and eat.

6. But what is the cause, you would ask, of such an abasement? It is certainly no other than that man when he was in honour, did not understand. What did he not understand? The Psalmist does not explain; but let me explain. He was placed in honour, and took such pleasure in the loftiness of his elevation, that he failed to remember that he was but clay \ and he soon experienced in himself the truth of what one of the sons of his captivity, at a period far later, both wisely observed and truly recorded, that * if a man think himself to be something, when lie is nothing, he deceive th himself (Gal. vi. 3). Woe to that unhappy one, who was not then in existence when it was said of him: Why is earth and ashes proud? (Ecclus. x. 9). Hence it is that a creature so beautiful1 is confounded with the herd; hence it is that its likeness to God is changed into the likeness of the brute creation; and in place of the companionship of Angels a fellowship with beasts of burden entered upon. Do you see, then, how great reason we have for fleeing from that ignorance which has been the cause of so many hosts of evils to all our race? For the Psalmist declares that man became like unto the beasts that perish, and are devoid of reason, because he did not understand. Ignorance, then, must at any cost be avoided by us; lest, perhaps, if we are found to be still without understanding, after having been so severely disciplined and punished, evils greater and heavier than the former should find us out, and it be said of us: We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed (Jer. li. 9). And rightly so, since chastening has not enabled us to understand and take heed of what we have heard.

7. Is it not perhaps for this reason also that the Bridegroom, in order to turn His beloved from her ignorance by the thunder of His reprimand, said to her, not * Go forth with the flocks or, ' Go forth to the flocks,' but Go forth by [or after] the footsteps of the flocks, Why is this? Without doubt to show that a second ignorance is more shameful and more to be feared than the first, because it has rendered man equal to the beasts, or even inferior to them. For men justly deprived of the light of God's countenance (ignorati), that is reprobate, because of this ignorance of theirs, both have to endure His terrible judgment, and to be given over to the everlasting fire— a punishment to which beasts are not liable. Without doubt, then, the condition of those who will be in that state is worse than that of those who will not be liable to it at all. // were better for him [says the Scripture, of one] if he had not been born a man (Mark xiv. 21, Vulg.). Not, you observe, that he had not been born at all, but that he had not been born a man; but (for example) a beast of the field, or some other creature which, not having received the power of judgment, would not have to appear before the judgment of God, nor by consequence be liable to everlasting punishment Let the rational soul, then, which is full of shame to have, by its former ignorance, made itself a companion of the beasts of the field in the enjoyment of the good things of earth, know that it will not have even them for companions if it incurs the penalty of enduring the torments of hell; that it will be driven away with shame from their company; that it will be no longer with them, but obviously will be after them, since they will have no more evil to endure, while it will be exposed to every kind of suffering; and from these it will not be delivered for ever, because it has added a second ignorance to the first Therefore man comes forth, and goes away solitary after the bands of his companions, since it is he alone who is to be thrust into the depth of hell. Does it not seem to you that he who is cast, with hands and feet bound, into the outer darkness (Matt. xxii. 13) is found in the lowest place? Assuredly the last state of that man shall be worse than the first; since, instead of being made, as before, like unto the beasts that perish, he is now set below even them.

8. I think, farther, that if you examine the matter closely, you will conclude that even in this life [such a] man takes a place lower than the beasts of the field. Does it not seem to you that the man who is gifted with reason, and does not act according to reason, is in some sense more beastlike than the beasts themselves, which are without reason? For if the beasts of the field do not govern themselves by reason, they have an excuse in their very nature, since the gift of reason has been denied to them; but man, on whom it has been bestowed as his special endowment and prerogative, has no such excuse. Justly, therefore, on this account, ought man to be separated from other living creatures, and ranked after them all, since he alone has degenerated from his condition and violated the laws of his nature; he alone, though gifted with reason, feels and acts similarly to those who are without it. It is shown, then, that man [if in a state of sin] is inferior to all the tribes of the brute creation, both in the present life, by the depraving of his nature, and in the future life, by the extremity of punishment which awaits him.

9. See, then, in what a miserable and accursed condition a man is who is found in ignorance of God. Ignorance of God, or of his own self, ought I to say? Unquestionably both the one and the othereach kind of ignorance is fatal, and each suffices to bring about everlasting perdition. Would you know how this is the case? As regards ignorance of God, you will, I think, have no doubt, if yon believe without question that this only is eternal life, to know the true j God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent (John xvii. 3). Listen, ]

then, to the Bridegroom, who condemns clearly and unmistakably in the soul an ignorance of itself. For what does He say? Not, ' if you know not God/ but if thou know not thyself etc. (Cant. i. 7, Douay). It is plain, then, that [the soul] which is ignorant will be left to be ignorant (1 Cor. xiv. 38), whether it be with regard to God, or with regard to itself. Of these two kinds of ignorance there is much to be said that will be useful, if God shall enable me to say it. I will not, however, say it now, lest you being wearied, and the discourse not having been preceded by your prayers, as is our custom, either I may expound with too little care, or you may listen with too little attention to, a subject of such great importance, and which is not to be entered upon except with a strong and eager desire. For if the food of the body, if taken without appetite, and in a state of repletion, not only does not profit, but even is the cause of much harm, much more will the food of the soul bring, not increase of knowledge, but merely unhappiness of mind, if it be taken without desire, or even with disgust. Which sad effect may He avert from us, who is the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Ix>rd, who is above all, God blessed for ever. Amen.