SERMON XLVII.
OF THE THREEFOLD FLOWER [OF HOLINESS], NAMELY, OF VIRGINITY, OF MARTYRDOM, AND OF GOOD WORKS; AND OF THE DEVOTION WITH WHICH WE SHOULD PARTICIPATE IN DIVINE SERVICE.
4 / am the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the valleys.' — Cant. ii. I.
I SUPPOSE that this recalls what the Bride had said in commendation of their couch, that it was decked with flowers. For, lest she should take to herself the praise of the flowers wherewith the couch is decked and the chamber adorned, the Bridegroom replies that He is Himself the Rose of the plain [of Sharon]; that the flowers do not grow in the chamber, but in the plain, from which is derived their beauty and their fragrance. Lest, then, any should have it in their power to reproach His Bride, and to say to her: What hast thou which thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? (1 Cor. iv. 7) He Himself, as a solicitous lover and kindly censor, deigns to point out benignantly to His beloved to whom she ought to attribute the beauty and the fragrance of her couch in which she was glorying. / am the Rose of Sharon, He says; it is to Me you owe that of which you boast. We are here warned, then, to our great benefit, that it behoves us by no means to glorify ourselves; if any glory, let him glory in the Lord (2 Cor. x. 17). So much with regard to the letter; let us now examine, with the help of Him who is the subject of it, into the spiritual sense which it contains.
2. In the first place, notice that there are three conditions referred to in which a flower may be — in the plain, in the garden, and on the couch: and then you will more easily understand why the speaker has chosen to call Himself, by preference, the Rose of [the field of] Sharon. Flowers grow and bloom in fields and in gardens, but not in the chamber. There they show their beauty and exhale their fragrance, but not erect upon the stem, as in the place where they have grown: they are severed and prostrate, because they have not grown there, but have been brought. They have to be watered, and to be frequently renewed, because they do not long retain their beauty and freshness. If, as I have foreshown in another discourse, the couch strewn with flowers means the soul stored with good works, then, to maintain the same metaphor, you see clearly that it is not sufficient to do once or twice merely that which is right, but that it is needful to add new deeds of good constantly to the former, so that having sown deeds of blessing, you may reap blessings also. Otherwise the flowers of good works wither and fall, and [the adornment formed of them] speedily loses all beauty and strength, unless they are continually renewed by fresh blossoms of good works piled upon the old. Thus much as regards the chamber.
3. In the garden and in the plain it is not so. There flowers once produced are constantly nourished, and so are long maintained in the beauty natural to them. Yet there is this difference between them, that the garden, in order to produce flowers, needs the labour and the skill of man who cultivates it; but the field produces its bloom naturally, and of its own accord, without any aid from the industry of man. Now, do you already perceive what is signified by that field, which, though neither furrowed by the ploughshare, nor broken by the hoe, nor enriched by manure, is yet rendered beautiful by its carpet of flowers, upon which, without doubt, rests a blessing from the Spirit of the Lord? See, it is said in the Scripture, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed (Gen. xxvii. 27). That flower of the field was not as yet clad in its full beauty, yet it already exhaled fragrance, which the holy and aged Patriarch, though feeble in body, perceived beforehand in the spirit, as his joyful exclamation shows; for though he was deprived of sight, its sweet scent was very apparent to him. It was not fitting, then, that the Bridegroom should call Himself a flower of the chamber, because He is a flower whose bloom is perpetual; nor yet of the garden, lest He might seem to be engendered by the operation of man. But He says with the fullest fitness and grace: I am the Rose of the field of Sharon; for He appeared without any effort or cooperation of man, and when He had appeared He was at no time subject to corruption, according to the saying of the Prophet: Thou shall not suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption (Ps. xvi. 10).
4. But let me, if you please, give you another explanation of this, which seems to me quite worth consideration; for why has the Wise Man said that the Spirit manifests Himself in many forms, unless that He is wont frequently to hide under the bark, as it were, of the same text several and diverse spiritual senses? According, then, to the division which I gave before of the various states of flowers, there are three distinct blooms — virginity, martyrdom, and a holy life.1 Virginity is the flower in the garden; martyrdom that in the field; a holy life that in the chamber. Rightly is virginity compared to a flower in the garden, inasmuch as it is nearly related to modesty— it flies from publicity, it rejoices in concealment, it is willing to endure rule and discipline. Furthermore, in a garden flowers are enclosed, while in the field they are open to the view of all, and in the chamber they are strewed or scattered. So we read: A garden enclosed, a fountain sealed (Cant. iv. 12), which phrase expresses the bulwark of modesty, and the inviolate defence which preserves the sanctity of a virgin soul, provided that its sanctity is both in body and spirit Martyrdom, again, is well said to be a flower of the field, since martyrs are exposed to the mockery of all, and made a spectacle both to Angels and men. Is not theirs the pitiable condition which is described in the Psalms? — We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us (Ps. Ixxix. 4).
THE THREEFOLD FLOWER OF HOLINESS
The good actions of a holy life, also, are well compared to flowers in a chamber, for they produce the testimony of a quiet and safe conscience. After a good work the repose of quiet contemplation is entered upon more securely; and the more fully a man is conscious of not having been wanting through inertness or love of self in the performance of good works, the more confidence will he have in attempting to view and to investigate deeper and loftier truths.
5. In a certain sense all these things represent to us the Lord Jesus. He is the Flower of the garden, the Virgin Birth of a Virgin Mother, herself a shoot [from the stem of David].1 He is the Flower of the field — a martyr, the pattern of martyrdom, and the crown of martyrs. He was led forth out of the city, He suffered 4 without the camp,' He was raised upon the Cross to be seen of men, He was made the object of universal scorn. He is the Flower of the chamber also; the mirror and the model of every kind of beneficence, as He Himself declared in His protest to the Jews: Many good works have I showed you from My Father (John x. 32); and the Scripture also testifies of Him: He went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed (Acts x. 38). If, then, each of these three represents the Lord, for what reason has He preferred to call Himself the Flower of the field only? It was doubtless that He might encourage the Church, His Bride, to endure the persecution which He knew was impending over each soul which should desire to live godly in Christ Jesus. He does this that He may make it the better known in what He most desires to find imitators. It is because the Church, as I have said elsewhere, always desires repose and quiet, while He, on the contrary, urges her to earnest effort, forewarning her that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God (Acts xiv. 22). On which account also, when He had espoused to Himself the new Church which He had founded upon the earth, He said [to her members]: The time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service (John xvi. 2); and again: If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you (xv. 20), and many other similar sayings, which you may easily find for yourselves in the Gospels, in which He warns them to be prepared to endure suffering.
6. / am the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the valleys. She then points to the couch; but He summons her to the plain — that is, He excites her to vigorous effort. He regards it as the most persuasive argument possible to her to enter upon this struggle that He should propose Himself to her either as an example for one engaged in the struggle, or a reward for one that has overcome in it The words may be understood in either of these two senses. Thou, O Lord Jesus, art to me both a mirror of endurance and the reward of enduring. The one is a powerful incentive; the other a great encouragement. By the example of Thy valour Thou dost teach my hands to war; by the Presence of Thy Majesty Thou dost crown me after the victory. Whether I view Thee as a combatant in the midst of the strife [with evil], or regard Thee as at once the Bestower of the crown of victory, and that crown itself; in either case Thou dost attract me wonderfully to Thyself; in either capacity Thou art as a strong cable to draw me after Thee. * Draw me; we will run after Thee.' Willingly do I follow; more willingly still do I enjoy the fruits [of obedience]. If Thou, O Lord, art so good to those who seek Thee, what shall Thy goodness be to those who find?1 lam the Flower of the field. Let him who loves Me come into the field; let him not refuse to engage in the combat with Me and for Me, that he may have it in his power to say with St. Paul: I have fought a good fight (2 Tim. iv. 7).
7. And as it is not the proud and arrogant, but rather the humble, who do not presume that they are able to do anything as of themselves, that are really fit for martyrdom, so the Lord adds: I am the Lily of the valleys — that is to say, the crown of the humble, wishing to mark by the commanding height of this flower over others, the special glory of their future exaltation.2 For there will be a time when every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low (Is. xl. 4), and then shall appear that splendour of eternal life— the lily, so to. speak, not of the hills, but of the valleys. The righteous? says the prophet, shall grow as the lily (Hos. xiv. 5); and who is righteous except he be humble? Thus, when the Lord bent Himself to the hands of His servant John, and the Baptist was stricken with awe of His Majesty, the Lord said: Suffer it to be so noiv, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness (MM. iii. 15), showing that He considered the consummation of righteousness to consist in perfect humility. The righteous man, then, is humble; he is of the valley. And we also, if we are found humble, shall grow as the lily, and bloom for ever before the Lord. Shall he not, then, truly and completely show himself the lily of the valleys, when the Lord shall change the body of our humility, and make it like unto the Body of His Glory (Phil. iii. 21)? He does not say 'our body,' but 4 the body of our humility*; and thus signifies that it is only those who are humble who shall be rendered glorious with the wonderful and immortal splendour of that Divine Lily. Thus much, then, with regard to the words of the Bridegroom, in which He testifies that He is the Rose of the field of Sharon, and the Lily of the valleys.
8. It would be interesting to go on here without a break to comment on what He says with regard to His Bride most dear; but the time does not permit. For by our Rule (Rule S. Bened., c. 43) nothing must be preferred to 'the Service of God/1 which is the name that our father Benedict desired to be given to the solemnities of Divine worship, which are offered day by day in our oratory, thus showing more clearly how desirous he was that we should apply ourselves with all our heart to that holy work. Therefore I warn and entreat you, beloved, always to occupy yourselves in the praises of God with pure hearts and earnest minds. With earnestness, so as to present yourselves at the worship of the Lord, as well with willingness and gladness, as with reverence; not with laziness and sleepiness, not yawning, not keeping silence, not cutting your words short, or even passing over some altogether, not chanting through the nose or between the teeth, with broken and lowered voice, in a lazy and effeminate fashion, but pronouncing the words of the Holy Spirit with manly and earnest voices, which correspond with the dignity of the subjects of which they speak. And purely also — that is to say, so as to occupy your thoughts while you are chanting with nothing else than the words which you are chanting. I do not refer only to the avoiding vain and idle thoughts; those also should at that hour, and in that place at least, be repressed which relate to the duties and occupations which those brethren who are entrusted with various2 functions are obliged, at other times, for the common good, and, as it were, of necessity, to employ their thoughts upon. I do not counsel you to carry with you when you go into the choir even those thoughts which you have derived from the books which you have been recently reading while sitting in the cloister, or 'those which have come to you from my voice, in this lecture-hall (auditorio) of the Holy Spirit. They are, indeed, to edification; but they do not edify you when you reflect upon them while you are chanting. For the Holy Spirit does not regard as acceptable that which you allow to obtrude at such an hour, which has no concern with your immediate duty, and occasions the neglect of a part of it. We are always capable, by His holy inspiration, of making our will conformable to His Divine Will; through the grace and mercy of Him who is the Bridegroom of the Church, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is above all, God blessed for