Sermons on the Song of Songs

HOW THE BRIDE MAKES PETITION THAT THE FRUITS OF GOOD WORKS AND THE PERFUMES OF FAITH MAY BE MADE TO ABOUND WITH HER AS FLOWERS, AND ALSO CONCERNING HOPE AND FEAR.

* Stay me up with flowers^ compass me about with apples: because I languish with love,' — Cant. ii. 5 (Douay).

THE love [of the Bride] has grown because the incentives to it have been more and greater than heretofore; for you see how precious has been the opportunity granted to her, of not only seeing the Bridegroom, but of conversing with Him. It seems, also, that He has appeared to her with a countenance more serene, that His interview with her was more prolonged, and His words kinder. Nor is she only delighted to have had an interview with her Beloved, but is honoured by the praise He has bestowed upon her. Furthermore, through Him she is refreshed with grateful shade, nourished with His fruit, and has drunk of His cup. For it is not to be supposed that she has come forth thirsty from the banqueting-house, into which she gloried so lately that she had been brought; yet, indeed, she is thirsty still, according to the Scripture: They that drink me shall yet be thirsty (Ecclus. xxiv. 21). After all these things, the Bridegroom retires according to His wont, and it is then that the Bride declares herself to languish for love, that is to say, the love which she has for Him. For the more delightful she had found His presence, the keener is the pang she feels afterwards because of his absence. The taking away of what you love increases your desire for it; and the more ardently you desire it, the more you feel the privation arising from its loss. For this reason the Bride entreats that she may be comforted in the meantime with fruits and the odour of flowers, until He shall return to her, whose present delay she endures with impatience. So much as relates to the order and connection of the text.

2. Let us try now, under the guidance of the Spirit of truth, to draw out some fruit of spiritual profit. And if it be taken that the Church, which includes all the saints, is here speaking, we are here referred to by flowers and fruits; and not only we, but all those also who have been converted from the world in every age. The flowers mean those who are beginning the life of conversion, in whom it is still new and tender; and the fruits, the strength of those who are farther advanced, and the ripeness of those who are perfect. Surrounded and supported by these in this place of her exile, the Church, our mother, to whom to live is Christ, and to die is gain, endures with less impatience her long trial of deferred hope, since, according to the Scripture, there is given unto her of the fruit of her

hands, the firstfruits, so to speak, of the Spirit, and Iter own works praise her in the gates (Prov. xxxi. 31). But if you would that I should follow the moral sense, and show you in the soul flowers and fruits, then flowers denote faith, and fruits works. That explanation will, I think, not seem unsuitable to you, if you consider how, just as the flower necessarily precedes the fruit, faith must of necessity go before good action. For St. Paul bears witness that without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. xi. 6), and he says what is even stronger, that whatsoever is not of faith is sin (Rom. xiv. 23). Therefore, as there is not fruit without flowers, so is there no good action without faith. But, again, as faith without works is dead (James ii. 20), so in the same way it is useless for the flower to appear, if it be not followed by fruit Stay me up with floivcrs, compass me about with apples, because I languish with love. Thus it is that a soul, accustomed to quiet, draws consolation from good works rooted in a faith unfeigned, whenever the light of holy contemplation is withdrawn from it, as is often the case. For who is able to enjoy the light of holy contemplation — I do not say continually, but even for any considerable time — while he remains in this body? But as I have said, as often as he falls from the state of contemplation, he resorts to that of action, as to a convenient refuge, from whence he may be able more easily to return into his former state. For these two things are intimately related; they are chamber companions, and -dwell together. Martha is sister to Mary, and although she comes forth from the light of contemplation, she never suffers herself to fall into the darkness of sin, or to subside into ignoble sloth, but remains still in the light of good works. And that you may know that these are also light, remember the Lord's words: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works (Matt. v. 16); for it is quite clear that He spoke of actions which were capable of being beheld by men.

3. Because I languish with love. When the object of affection is present, love grows and strengthens; but when he is absent, love languishes. This languor is nothing else than the weariness of eager and unsatisfied longing, with which the mind of her who loves is necessarily strongly affected in the absence of her beloved. For as she is always absorbed in watching for his coming, she regards as delay whatever haste he may use. Therefore it is that you see the Bride entreating that she may be surrounded with the fruits of good works and the sweet odours of faith, among which she may rest while her Lord delays His coming. I speak to you of that which I have verified by personal experience. I do assure you, brethren, that if I ever find that any of you have profited by my teaching and warnings, then I do not regret that I have preferred the preaching to you, to my own quiet and ease. For when, for example, after a sermon, someone who is passionate is found to have become gentle, a proud mind to be humble, a timid one brave and strong; or when one already gentle, humble, or brave, is seen to have made progress in those graces, and to have become better than he was before; or when those who perhaps were lukewarm and languid, sleepy and uninterested in spiritual exercises, are awakened and warmed by the fiery touch of the word of the Lord; and when those who, having deserted the fountain of true wisdom, have hewn out to themselves at their own will cisterns which can hold no water, and because their hearts are dry, and they have in themselves no impulse of devotion, have been wont to murmur at every command laid upon them — when, I say, such persons as these, by the dew of the word, and the plentiful rain, which God has reserved to His inheritance, are shown to have, as it were, flourished anew in works of obedience, and to have become submissive and devoted in all things, I have no ground, I assure you, for feeling sorrow at the interruption of my pursuit of happy contemplation, when I am surrounded with such flowers and fruits of piety. I endure with patience the being torn from the society of an unfruitful Rachel, to obtain from Leah the plentiful fruits of your progress in goodness. It will not trouble me at all, I repeat, to break in upon my quiet for the purpose of preparing to preach to you, when I shall see the seed which I have sown in your souls grow in them, and bring forth the rich increase of your fruits of righteousness. For charity, which seeketh not her own (i Cor. xiii. 5), has long since easily won me to prefer your advantage to all else that I hold most desirable. To pray, to read/to write, to meditate, and all the other advantages of spiritual studies; I have counted them all as loss for your sake, and in comparison with any loss to you.

4. Stay me up with flowers, compass me about with apples: because I languish with love. This says the Bride to her maidens in the absence of her Spouse, thus warning them to make progress in faith and good works, until He come, because she believes that this will be both well-pleasing to Him, a consolation to herself, and the means of their salvation. I know that I have explained this passage more fully and in another sense in my book upon the Love of God, and if it shall please any of you to read that, he can decide whether of the two is to be preferred. A prudent person will not, I think, condemn the giving of two senses to the same passage, provided that each appear to be grounded in truth, and that charity, which is the rule in interpreting Scripture, shall edify the more persons, inasmuch as there are a greater number of truthful senses, which each may apply to his own special need. For why should that be found faulty in the interpreting of Scripture, which we see is industriously practised in other things? To how many different bodily uses (only to take one thing for an example) do we put the element of water? In the same way a person is not to be blamed who gives divers senses, fitted to the various needs of souls, to a passage of Scripture.

5. Then follow the words: His left hand is under my hecui, and His right hand doth embrace me (ii. 6). I remember that this also was discussed very elaborately in the treatise which I have mentioned; but let us observe the sequence of the discourse. It appears that the Bridegroom has at length returned, as I suppose, to encourage by His presence the drooping Bride, and that He is with her. For how could it be otherwise than that she should be revived by His presence, whom His absence had so cast down? He is unable, then, to endure the sadness of His beloved one; He is present; nor when recalled by a desire so ardent is He capable of making delay. And as He had found her during His absence faithful to her labours and earnestly desirous of [spiritual] profit, as was doubtless shown by her direction that flowers and fruits should be gathered together for her, so He returns to her with graces more abundant than heretofore for her reward. Happy the soul which lies on the Breast of Christ, and by the Arms of the Word is enfolded in rest. His left hand is under my head, and his ri^ht hand shall embrace me. She does not say, doth embrace} but shall embrace, to signify that she is so grateful for the former grace, as to anticipate the second by her giving of thanks.

6. Learn not to be slow and slothful in returning thanks to God; learn to render thanksgiving to Him for each of His gifts. Diligently, says the Scripture, consider what is put before thee (Prov. xxiii. i), so as not to let pass any gift of God, whether great, or mediocre, or even very small, without rendering due thanks for it. Are we not bidden to gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost (John vi. 12); that is to say, let not the least benefits be forgotten? For is not that lost which is bestowed upon an ungrateful receiver? Ingratitude is the enemy of the soul, the starving of merits, the dissipation of virtues, and the loss of the benefits that God has bestowed upon us. Ingratitude is as a burning wind, which dries up for itself the fountain of goodness, the dew of mercy, the flowing stream of grace. On this account it is that the Bride, when she has felt the grace done to her by the left hand of her Spouse, renders her thanks, and does not delay even to receive the farther grace which awaits her from His right hand before so doing. For, after having said, His left hand is under my head, does she go on to say similarly, ' With His right He has embraced me'; but shall embrace me, she says instead.

7. But in what sense shall we understand that the Word has either right hand or left? Can it be said of the Word, as it is said of ordinary human beings, that there are in Him bodily parts distinct the one from the other, and separate lineaments, so that distinction can be made between the right hand and the left? Ought we not rather to believe that the Word of God, who is Himself God, does not admit in Himself any such diversity, but is that which He is (Exod. iii. 14), that is to say, in His Nature Uncom pounded, and therefore without parts, as He is One, and therefore without number? For He is God the Word, of whom it is written: Of His Wisdom there is no number (Ps. cxlvi. 5, Douay). But if that which is unchangeable is incomprehensible, it is therefore incapable of being expressed in language; where, then, I ask, can you find words in which that Majesty so exalted can either worthily be expressed, competently defined, or even suitably spoken of? Yet, in order to expound, according to our capacity, the little that we know and has been revealed to us by the Holy Spirit, and taught us by the usage of the Holy Scriptures and the authority of the Fathers, let it be permitted to us to make use of analogies from things that we know, and not indeed to find out new terms, but to vary the meaning1 of some known to us, so as to clothe those analogies sufficiently and suitably. For unless this were done, it would be absurd to attempt to teach things unknown by means of words which are equally unknown.

8. Thus, as by the right hand and the left hand it is the custom to denote prosperity and adversity, so it seems to me that by the left hand of the Word may be meant the threatening of punishment, and by His right hand the promise of the kingdom of heaven. Now, there are times when our soul is servilely oppressed by the fear of punishment, and then we cannot say that the right hand of the Bridegroom is under our head, but that it is upon our head; nor can a soul thus affected say with the Bride: His left hand is under my head. But if it makes progress, so as to pass out of this spirit of servitude into a nobler disposition of free and willing service, insomuch that it is rather invited by the hope of reward than constrained by the fear of punishments, and especially if it is influenced by the pure love of good, then undoubtedly it will be able to say His left hand is under my head. For it has, by a better and more excellent disposition of mind, risen above that slavish fear which is aroused or indicated by the left hand, and by the very power and worthiness of its aspirations has drawn nearer to that which is signified by the Right Hand. And in it, according to the saying of the Psalmist, addressing the Lord, are all the promises: At Thy Right Hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. xvi. 1 1). This is why the Bride, speaking in the certitude of her hope, declares: And His Right Hand shall embrace me.

9. You will now see with me whether a soul thus disposed, and which has attained a position of such sweetness and happiness, may well appropriate to itself what is said in a Psalm: I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, especially as it may go on to give the reason which follows: For Thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety (Ps. iv. 8). That, in truth, is the case. Whereas he who is oppressed with a spirit of servitude, who has but little of hope and much of fear, dwells not in peace, nor is able to rest, because his conscience fluctuates continually between hoping and fearing, and is so much the more tortured by the predominance of the latter, because fear hath torment And therefore it is not his happy lot to say, 1 1 will lay me down in peace and rest,' because none can say that unless he be firmly established in hope. But if, by a progressive growth in grace, the fear diminishes, and the hope grows stronger — then at length charity comes with all its powers to the assistance of hope, and fear is driven out of the soul — will not hope under those circumstances have made good its ground, and will not that soul be able to rest and sleep in peace?

10. If you sleep among the midst of lots you shall be as the wings of a dove covered with silver.^ What I think, then, is intended here is that there is a medium between fear and security, as between the right wing and the left — namely, hope — on which soul and conscience sweetly repose; that is to say, on the soft and pleasant bed of charity. And perhaps it is this that is referred to in a later passage of this Canticle, where, in a description of the couch of Solomon, among other words you have: The midst thereof being paved with charity for the daughters of Jerusalem (iii. 10). For he who feels himself to be strongly established in hope does not serve in fear, but rests in charity. That is, in fact, the case with the Bride, who rests and even sleeps; wherefore it is said [by the Bridegroom]: / charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake My love until she2 please (ii. 7). It is a great and surprising condescension that He makes the contemplative soul to repose in His Bosom; that He guards it also from intrusive cares; that He protects it from the inquietudes of action and the embarrassments of business, and does not suffer it to be aroused at all, except at its own will. That, however, is not a subject to be entered upon at the close of a discourse; it will be better to defer it to another occasion, when time will not be wanting for the treatment of a theme so attractive. Not that even then we can be sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, especially with regard to a matter so noble, so excellent, and so altogether sublime; but our sufficiency is of God, of the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Lord,