Sermons on the Song of Songs

deigned to reveal to them the great mystery of His goodness, which was a secret hidden from the beginning of the world. But passing over, or overleaping those loftier mountain heights, namely, Cherubin and Seraphin, Dominations, Principalities, Powers, and Virtues, He deigned to descend, as it were, upon the hills — that is, even unto a lower order of Angels. But has He remained even with them? Nay, He has overleaped even the hills. For He took not on Him the nature of Angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham (Heb. ii. 16), and this was inferior to that of the Angels, so that thus was accomplished the word of the Psalmist, when he spoke thus to the Father of the Son: Thou hast made Him a little lower than the Angels (Ps. viii. 5). Though, indeed, it is possible to explain this passage as spoken in commendation of human nature, inasmuch as man, who is made in the image and likeness of God, and endowed with reason in like manner as an Angel, is yet a little lower than the Angel, because he has a body of earth. Hear what the Apostle Paul says plainly of Jesus Christ: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, being found in fashion as a man (Phil. ii. 6-8); and again: When tJie fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the Law, to redeem them that were under the Law (Gal. iv. 4, 5). It is, then, beyond doubt that being made of a woman, and made under the Law, He has passed in descending to the earth, not only the mountains, that is, the higher orders of blessed spirits, but also the lower orders of these, who, in comparison of their superiors, may rightly be called hills. But he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than whosoever bears a body of flesh upon the earth, even though it were that great Saint, John the Baptist (Luke vii. 28). For, although we do truly confess that He who is God and man, even as Man is far above, and incomparably superior to, every Principality and Power, yet it is certain that if H surpasses them in majesty, He falls short of them in respect c physical weakness. Thus, then, it is that He leaps upon the mountains, and leaps over the hills, when by a vast condescension He shows Himself as inferior, not only to spirits of a higher rank, but also to those of a lower. For He was manifested as subject, not only to those heavenly spirits, but also to those who dwelt in bodies of clay, overleaping and overcoming by His humility even the humbleness of men. For when He was at Nazareth, at the age of twelve years, He was subject unto Mary and Joseph (Luke ii. 51, 52); at the river Jordan, being then a young man, He bent Himself under the hands of St. John Baptist (Matt. iii. 13). But now the day is already verging towards evening, nor have we yet been able to descend from these mountains.

9. Yet if we should wish for this once only to satisfy our curiosity by examining what is beautiful, by searching out what is hidden in this mystery, it is to be feared that either the sermon would be weari- somely long, or that in our haste we should treat with too little care a matter very large and important. Let us, then, stop here for to-day, if you wish, upon these mountains, for it is good for us to be here; and Christ our good Shepherd, having placed us with the holy Angels in a rich pasture, we are able to feed in it at once with pleasure and abundance. And we are indeed the sheep of His pasture. Let us, then, as a pure flock of the good Shepherd, meditate with our best powers (ruminemus) upon the spiritual food we have received in the sermon of to-day. We will complete in the next what remains to be said upon this subject; let us try to give our best attention to it, by the grace of Him who is the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is above all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

ANOTHER INTERPRETATION; IN WHICH BY MOUNTAINS ARE SIGNIFIED ANGELS AND MEN; AND BY HILLS, DEMONS. ALSO OF THE THREEFOLD FEAR WITH WHICH EVERYONE OUGHT TO FEEL ANXIETY, LEST HE SHOULD LOSE THE GRACE OF ACTING RIGHTLY, WHICH HE HAS RECEIVED FROM GOD.

T T PON the same verse which was treated in the sermon of yesterday I will bring before you another interpretation, differing from that which I gave before: you will choose which of the two is to be preferred. There is no need to repeat what was said before, which I think will not in so short a time have escaped you. But if that be the case, that sermon, like the others, has been written down as it was delivered, except perhaps the exact words,1 so that whatever has slipped from the memory may easily be recalled. Having said this, let me go on to speak of other things. Behold, it is said. He cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills. She speaks of the Bridegroom. He no doubt leapt over the mountains when, having been sent by the Father to preach the Gospel to the poor, He did not disdain to perform the function of Angels, though He was the Lord of Angels, and to become the Angel of the great purpose of God. He who was wont to depute others to come down to earth descended hither in His own Person; the Lord Himself made known the salvation which He brought, and Himself revealed His Righteousness in the sight of the nations (Ps. xcviii. 2). Since, then, all the angels, according to the Apostle, are ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them ivho shall be heirs of salvation (Heb. i. 14), He who was above them, passing over the injury done by men, and multiplying upon them His grace, was numbered among

the angels, becoming as one of them. But hear what He Himself said: 1 came ', not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give My life a ransom for many (Matt. xx. 28). Which, indeed, no angel was found to have done; so that by the devotion and fidelity of His services to men, He has surpassed all those who had come to serve them before. No minister has shown such self-devotion as He, who has given (ministravit) His Flesh for their food, His Blood for their cordial, His very life for their ransom. None, surely, is so good as He who, by the fervour of His spirit, by the ardour of His love, and the devotion of His goodness, has not only leaped upon the mountains, but leaped over the hills; that is to say, He has surpassed and overcome them by the earnest desire which He felt to save men; wherefore God, His God, has anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His fellows (Ps. xlv. 7). It is in this earnestness of His desire that He proceeds with great and rapid steps t as a giant to run his course.' He overpassed Gabriel, and, according to that Archangers own testimony, was with the Virgin before him; for did he not say: Hail, thou that art full of grace, the Lord is with thee f 1 What? Thou findest Him now in the womb [of the Virgin], whom thou hast just left in heaven. How can that be? He has flown and foreflown on the wings of the winds. Thou art surpassed, O Archangel; the Lord has overleaped and anticipated thee.

2. Or, again, He * leaped upon the mountains ' when He appeared formerly to the Fathers in the person of angels; which seems to agree more closely with the letter of the text. For it is not said t leaping on to the mountains,' but 'in the mountains,'2 so that lie who causes and enables them to leap, leaps also in them; just as it is He who speaks in the prophets and acts in the righteous, when He enables the one to speak and the other to do good works. Add to this that some of them represented Him, so that whosoever of them spoke, he did so not as angel, but as the Lord. For example, that angel who spoke with Moses did not say « I am the Angel of the Lord,' but ' I am the Lord '; and repeated that frequently. He, therefore, leaped in the mountains — that is, in the angels, in whom He was wont both to speak and to manifest His Presence to men. He did this also upon men, but in the person of angels, not in His own Person; nor in His own Nature, but in that of one of His subject races. For he who leaps passes from one place to another, and this cannot be ascribed to God. Therefore He leaped in the mountains, that is, in the angels, who would do this in His own Person; and He leaped to, or upon, the hills, that is, upon the Patriarchs and Prophets, and other spiritual men who were on the earth. But also, He * leaped over* the hills, since He deigned to appear to, and to speak with, not only great men and spiritual men, but also to certain of the people, and even to some women, by the same ministry of angels. Or it may be that by 4 hills ' the Scripture understands the powers of the air, which are not now numbered among * mountains/ because they have fallen by pride from the height of virtue; and yet they are not abased by penitence nor humbled to the lowliness of valleys, or to the valleys of the lowly. I suppose that it was of these that those words were spoken in the Psalms: The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord (Ps. xcvii. 5). He who leaps in the mountains without doubt leaps over these swollen and sterile hills, which hold, as it were, a middle place between the mountains of the perfect and the valleys of the penitent; these He passes over with scorn, and descends into the valleys, that the valleys may abound with grain. Those others, on the contrary, are condemned to perpetual dryness and sterility, as in that calling down of evil of the Prophet upon such: Let there be no dew, neither rain upon you. And that you may know that, under the figure of the mountains of Gilboa, this saying applies to the angels who fell, notice the reason that is given: For there many wounded have fallen (2 Sam. i. 21). How many from the army of Israel have fallen upon those accursed mountains from the beginning, and how many still fall at the present! It is of those that the same Psalmist speaks when he says to the Lord: Like as the dead, that lie in the grave, whom Thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from Thy Hand (Ps. lxxxviii. 5).

3. It is not, therefore, wonderful if those spirits, which are not, as it were, mountains of heaven, but hills of the lower air, upon which neither dew nor showers of rain fall, should remain always sterile and unfruitful; since the Author of grace and the Giver of blessings leaps or passes over these, and descends to the valleys, so as to pour forth rain from heaven upon the humble who are on the earth, and to make them to bring forth fruit with patience, some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, and some an hundredfold (Matt. xiii. 8 and Luke viii. 15). He visits the earth and blesses it; He makes it to be very plenteous (Ps. lxv. 9). But it is the earth, not the air, that He has visited, because the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord (Ps. xxxiii. 5). It is declared also that God has worked salvation in the midst of the earth (Ps. lxxiv. 12): but does the Psalmist say also * in the midst of the air'? This [may be taken as] against Origen, who, by a false and impudent theory, crucified the Lord of glory once again in the midst of the air for the sake of demons: whereas St. Paul, being conscious of this mystery, affirms that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more: death hath no more dominion over Him (Rom. vi. 9).

4. But He who has passed through the air has visited not only the earth, but also the heaven, as the Scripture declares: Thy mercy, 0 Lord, is in the hcavetis, and Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds (Ps. xxxvi. 5); that is to say, unto the heaven in which dwell the holy angels, whom the Bridegroom does not pass over, but leaps in them, so that He impresses in them, as it were, the prints of His Feet — mercy, that is, and truth — as to which Footprints of the Lord I remember that I have spoken at greater length in another sermon

(Sermon VI.). But the abode of the demons is below the clouds, and removed from them, in the obscure and gloomy air that is lowest of all; and in them the Bridegroom does not make His beneficent power operative, but passes them wholly over, without leaving in them any trace of His Divine passage. For how can truth be found in the devil, of whom we find in the Gospels the declaration of the Truth Himself, that he abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him (John viii. 44)? Again, who can say that he is merciful, when the same Truth has testified of him likewise in the Gospel, that he was a murderer from the beginning? Now, such as the head of the family is, such are they of his house also. With great fitness and beauty, then, does the Church, singing of the Bridegroom, declare that He dwelleth on high, and humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth (Ps. cxiii. 5, 6), but makes no mention of those spirits of pride which are in the air, because God resisteth the proud, and give th grace unto the humble (James iv. 6).

5. The Church sees Him, then, leaping in the mountains, and passing over the hills, according to the imprecation of David: * Let the Lord visit all the mountains which are in their circuit ' — that is, in the circuit of Gilboa — ' but Gilboa let Him not visit.'1 For there are mountains which the Lord visits, on this side and on that of Gilboa, by which is signified the devil; above there are angels, below there are men. To him, when he fell from heaven, was assigned as punishment an abode in that region of the air (Eph. ii. 2) midway between heaven and earth, that he might see and be envious, and be tortured with the envy which he feels. And this the Scripture describes when it says: The wicked shall see it, and be grieved: he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away (Ps. cxii. io). How unhappy must he be when he looks up to heaven and descries its mountains innumerable, all illuminated and shining with the Divine glory, all resounding with the praises of God, full and abounding with His glory and grace! How still more unhappy when he looks down upon the earth, and beholds there also many mountains of people, chosen and made the sons of God,2 who are established in the faith of lofty hope, of wide-extending charity; who are accomplished in virtues, rich in the fruits of good works; upon whom falls day by day the Divine benediction, as it were by the dew from heaven, or, so to speak, from the mystical touch of the Bridegroom's foot in His leaping! With how great grief and jealousy, must we suppose, does that spirit so greedily desirous of glory behold those glorious mountains in their perfect ring, while he and his followers are (as it were) regions rough, gloomy, unfruitful in any good thing, and every way to be despised; so that he who calumniated all that lived is himself become the opprobrium of men and of angels, according to that saying in the Psalms: That dragon whom Thou hast formed to be a derision (Ps. civ. 26). 1

6. And the cause of this is that the Bridegroom passes them over on account of their pride, leaping upon the mountains which are around, as the fountain which arises from the midst of Paradise, watering the whole earth, and filling with blessing every living thing. Blessed are those who deserve to drink sometimes, even though it be rarely, of the torrent of this delight, and in whom the water of wisdom and the fountain of life leaps forth from time to time, though it does not flow continuously, so that it becomes in them a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life (John iv. 14). And, indeed, the flowing of this river is perennial and abundant, making glad the city of God (Ps. xlvi. 4). May God vouchsafe, in His condescension, to send upon our mountains on earth some gushings of this stream sometimes, as it were by a kind of inundation, so that they, being sufficiently watered, may be able to distil upon us also, who are valleys, some little rills, though they be few and small, that we may not remain altogether dry and unfruitful. Only misery, and poverty, and biting famine is the lot of that region which is never moistened by plentiful flowings, or even little tricklings, from the fountain of wisdom, but is altogether passed by and passed over. ' They were destroyed/ it is said, * because they had no wisdom, and perished through their own foolishness ' (Baruch iii. 28).

7. Behold^ He cometh leaping upon the mountain sy skipping upon the hills. He leaps so as to overleap {trans Mat), because it is not His will to extend [His presence] to all; nor is it the good pleasure of God [to do this J in every case. Brethren, if, according to the wise saying of St. Paul, those things are written for our admonition (1 Cor. x. 11), let us observe the discretion and circumspection of the mystical bounds of the Bridegroom; let us remark how, as among the angels, so among us, He bounds spiritually upon the humble, and passes over the proud. For though the Lord be highest of all, yet hath He respect unto the lowly; but the proud He knoweth afar off (Ps. cxxxviii. 6). Of this, I say, let us take notice, so that we may be prepared for the saving bounds of the Bridegroom, lest, as He passes over the mountains of Gilboa, so He may pass over us also, if He shall have perceived that we are unworthy of His visitation. Why dost thou, who art but earth and ashes, indulge in pride? The Lord abhors the pride even of angels [who are proud], and passes them over on that account Therefore let the casting off of angels cause the correction of men; for it has been recorded for our admonition, l^et the evil even of the devil co-operate for good to me, and may I wash my hands in the blood of the ungodly. In what manner, do you inquire? As thus: A terrible and fearful malediction has been hurled against that proud one, the devil, the Prophet David speaking in the Spirit of Him under the type of Mount Gilboa, as was related above: ' Let the Lord visit all the mountains which are in his circuit; but Gilboa let Him not visit.'

8. When I read these words, and when, turning my eyes upon myself, I consider myself diligently, 1 find that I am infected with that very disease which the Lord regarded in an Angel with displeasure so great as to turn away altogether from him, at the same time that He deigned to honour with His visitation all the mountains which are around him, whether of Angels or of men; and I say to myself with fear and trembling: 'If it was thus done with an angel, what shall be done with regard to me, who am but earth and ashes?' It was in heaven that he indulged in pride; but I have done so upon a mere dunghill. Who does not find pride more bearable in the rich than in the poor? Woe unto me! if a spirit so powerful was punished with such severity because his heart was lifted up with pride, and if it availed him nothing that pride is recognised to be congenial to the powerful, what penalty must be exacted from me, who am poor and miserable, and yet am proud? But I receive already the chastisement; I am stricken already with many stripes. Not undeservedly has for days past that languor of soul, that mental slothfulness, that unaccustomed inertness of spirit stolen over me. I did run well; but, lo! a stone of stumbling was in my path; I have stumbled against it, and fallen. Pride has been found in me, and the Lord has turned away in wrath from His servant. Hence is that barrenness of my soul and that defect in devotion which I experience. How is it that my heart is thus dried up? soured as it were milk, made like earth in which is no water? Its hardness has become so great that I am not able to shed tears. In the chanting of the Psalms I feel no interest, I do not care to read, I have no delight in prayer, I do not resort to my habitual meditations. Where is my former cheerfulness and delight of soul? my calm, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost? For the same reason I am slothful in manual labour, drowsy during vigils, hasty in anger, obstinate in hatred, more unguarded in speech, and self-indulgent at the table than 1 was wont, unobservant and slow of heart during preaching. Alas! the Lord visits all the mountains which are around me, but to me He draws not near. Am not I that one of all these hills which the Bridegroom passes over? For of those around me I see one remarkable for abstinence, another for admirable patience, another for consummate humility and gentleness, another for much mercy and kindness; this man I behold spending long hours in contemplation, and that man knocking hard at the doors of heaven by the earnestness of his prayers; and there are others whom I see to excel in other virtues. I remark (I say) that all these are fervent, all devoted, all of one mind in Christ, all rich in grace and in heavenly gifts, as being, so to speak, in truth spiritual mountains which are visited by the Lord, and receive often in themselves the mystical bounds of the Bridegroom. But I, who find in myself none of all these things, what else can I suppose myself to be than one of the mountains of Gilboa, which the Saviour, who visits in His great goodness all the others, passes over in His wrath and indignation?

9. My dear children, this reflection takes away the vain glorification of self, attracts to us the gifts of grace, prepares us for the mystical bounds of the Bridegroom. These things I have, for your sakes, transferred to myself, and spoken as if they had taken place in my own person, that you might learn a lesson from them. Be ye then followers of me: I do not say in the exercise of virtues or the discipline of character, or the glory of holiness (for in all these respects I do not set myself up as worthy of imitation), but I would that you should follow me in not sparing yourselves, but on the contrary, accusing your own selves as often as you detect that grace is lessening in you, that zeal is growing cold, and virtue languishing, as you see that I likewise accuse myself. To do this is to act as a man who watches exactly over himself, who examines with care his ways and his desires, and who in everything holds in suspicion the vice of arrogance, for fear that it should creep secretly into his heart. In truth, I have learned by my own experience that there is nothing so efficacious in deserving grace, in preserving it, or in recovering it if lost, as to be found at all times not high-minded before God, but filled with holy fear. Happy is the man that feareth a/way (Prov. xxviii. 14). Fear, then, when favouring grace is with thee; fear when it has departed; fear also when at length it returns; this it is to fear alway. Let these three kinds of fear succeed each other in your soul, according as you are favoured by the presence of grace, or as it has retired grieved from you, or forgivingly returns. When it is present, let your fear be that you may not act and walk worthily of it; for this is the precept of the Apostle St. Paul: See that_y* receive not the grace of God in vain (2 Cor. vi. 1); and to one of his disciples, Neglect not the gift that is in thee (1 Tim. iv. 14); while of himself he said: The grace (of God) which was bestowed upon me was not in vain (1 Cor. xv. 10). That great man, who knew the counsel of God, was well aware that to neglect the gifts of God, or not to use them to the purpose for which they were given, is to display great disregard, and even contempt, for the giver; and that he considered to be intolerable pride. Therefore it was that he both avoided this wrong-doing with the greatest care himself, and taught others to avoid it also. But there is still another den or hiding-place in which pride is wont to lurk, which I wish to discover to you; and this is the more perilous because it is very closely concealed; as says the Psalmist: He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den (Ps. x. 9). For if he is not able to hinder [a good] action, he endeavours to tamper with the intention of it, suggesting and persuading you to attribute to yourself that which is the effect of grace. And do not be under any mistake about this kind of pride; it is oven far worse than the former. For what can be more hateful than language of this kind, which has been used by some: Our mighty hand, and not the Lord, hath done all these things (Deut. xxxii. 27, Douay).

10. If, then, you ought to fear while grace remains with you, what should you do when it has left you? Ought you not, then, much more to fear? Plainly that is the case, for, where grace fails you, you fail too. Listen to the words of Him who is the sovereign Giver of grace: Without Me, He says, ye can do nothing (John xv. 5). Fear, then, the withdrawal of grace, as the sure prelude of your speedy fall. Fear and tremble exceedingly because you feel that God's just anger is aroused against you, and that the powerful guardianship which hitherto has kept you safe has abandoned you. Do not hesitate to believe that your pride is the cause of this, even though you are conscious of no pride, and there is none apparent in your actions; for that which you do not know God knows, and it is He who is your Judge. And it is not he that commendeth himself that is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth (2 Cor. x. 18). Now, if the Lord deprives you of grace, is that a sign of His commendation? Or will He who giveth grace unto the humble (James iv. 6) take away from one who is humble that which He has already given? Therefore the taking away of grace is a proof of pride [in him from whom it is taken]. Though it must be added that sometimes grace is taken away or withheld, not on account of pride which is present at the time, but to prevent pride which would follow unless grace were taken away. Of this we have a clear example in the person of the Apostle [St. Paul], who endured reluctantly his thorn in the flesh, not because he was exalted above measure, but in order that he might not be so (2 Cor. xii. 7). But pride, whether existing in the present or to be apprehended in the future, will ever be a cause for the withdrawal of grace.

11. Again, if grace shall have returned with the regaining of God's favour, much more is there reason for fear lest a second fall should happen to us, according to that saying in the Gospel: Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee (John v. 14). You hear, then, that it is worse to fall again into sin than to sin the first time; let your fear, therefore, be greater in proportion as your danger increases. Happy are you if your heart be filled with this threefold fear, so that you fear when you have received grace, still more when that grace is lost, but most of all when it has been regained. Do this, and you will be as the waterpot at that marriage at Cana where Christ was a guest, filled to the very brim, containing, not two measures apiece, but three; and you will deserve the blessing of Christ, which shall turn the water [of your poor nature] into the wine of gladness, until the time when your charity, being perfected, shall cast out all fear (1 John iv. 18).

1 2. I say, then, that thus it is that fear is typified by water, inasmuch as it tempers the heat of carnal desires. The fear of the Lord, saith the Scripture, is the beginning of wisdom (Ps. cxi. 10); and again: The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life (Pro v. xiv. 27;

Ecclus. xv. 3; xix. 18-20). Your mind, then, is as one of those waterpots, containing, says the Scripture, two or three measures apiece. Now, the three measures represent the three kinds of fear. They filled them, continues the Evangelist, up to the brim. So that it is not one kind of fear, nor two, which suffices to fill [your mind] to its utmost extent, but three are needed. Fear God at all times and with all your heart, and then you have filled that measure, which is your mind, up to the brim. God loves that an offering made to Him should be without defect, that love offered to Him should be without reserve; in short, that the sacrifice laid upon His altar should be in every way perfect. Therefore be careful to bring that measure, your mind, filled [with holy fear] to the heavenly marriage feast, so that it may be said of you also: He shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord (Is. xi. 3, Douay). He who fears thus neglects nothing; for how can negligence enter into that which is wholly filled? That which is capable of receiving something more is not absolutely full. For a similar reason it is not possible to fear and at the same time to indulge in thoughts of pride. And there is no place for pride to enter your mind if it be filled with the fear of the Lord. And it is the same with other faults and vices, they are of necessity excluded by the fulness of this gracious fear. Then, when your fear shall be thus full and perfect, love, bringing the benediction of the Lord, shall impart to your water the rich flavour and fragrance of wine. For fear without love is but pain and suffering, and love is that wine which maketh glad ilie heart of man (Ps. civ. 15). For love, when perfected, casteth out fear, so that where there was but water, there begins to be the glow and the sparkle of wine, to the praise and glory of Him who is the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is above all, God blessed for ever. Amen.