Sermons on the Song of Songs

HOW THE BRIDEGROOM BIDS THE BRIDE, THAT IS TO SAY, THOSE MEN WHO ARE PERFECTED, TO UNDERTAKE THE RULE AND TRAINING OF SOULS LESS PERFECT. ALSO OF THE CUTTING DOWN OF VICES IN THEM THAT VIRTUES MAY GROW AND INCREASE.

T T 7HO says this? Without doubt it is the Bridegroom. But X/V' is it not He who, a little time before, so strongly forbade * * that His beloved should be aroused? How, then, is it that now He bids her not only rise up, but 1 come away?' Something like this comes into my mind from the Gospel. In the night on which Our Lord was betrayed, after having bidden His disciples who were with Him, and who were fatigued with long watchings, at length to sleep and take their rest, in the very same hour1 He said to them, Rise, let us be going; behold, he is at hand that dofh betray Me (Matt. xxvi. 46). Now, also, He similarly, almost at the same moment, forbids the Bride to be aroused, and arouses her. Rise up, He says, and come away. What, then, is the object of so sudden a change of will, or of plan? Must we suppose that the Bridegroom acted with levity, and desired something at first, which immediately afterwards He desired not? By no means. But recognise in this what I have said to you more than once, if you remember, about the two alternatives of sacred repose and of necessary action, and that there is not in this life space for lengthened contemplation, or prolonged repose, because the duties of office and the usefulness of work press upon us more urgently, and are more immediately necessary. The Bridegroom, therefore, as is His wont, when His beloved has been for a while reposing in sacred communion with Him, does not delay to summon her to duties which seem to be more needful. Not as if this were against her will, for what He forbade to be done by others (ii. 7) He would not Himself do; but for the Bride to know a wish of her Bridegroom is for her at once to feel the desire to be enabled to fulfil it (i. 4), the desire for good works, the desire to bear fruit to the honour and glory of Him; since for her to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

2. And that desire is vehement; it bids her not only rise, but rise in all haste, for we read: Rise up, and come aivay. Nor is it a small comfort and strength to her that she hears: Come, and not 'Go.' because she understands by this that she is not so much sent, as led, and that the Bridegroom will be with her. What task can she think difficult with such a companion? Set me beside Thee, she says, and let any maris hand fight against me (Job xvii. 3, Douay). And again: Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me (Ps. xxiii. 4). She is not, then, aroused against her will, since her Lord bestows upon her previously the will to be aroused; nor is this anything else than an ardent desire to grow and increase in all that is good. She is also animated and rendered more prompt to do that which is enjoined upon her, by the opportunity of the time. * It is now the time to act, O My Bride,' the Bridegroom seems to say, * for lo, the winter is past, during which no one was able to work. The rain, too, is over and gone; the rain, which covered the earth with its floods, hindered the culture of the soil, and either destroyed the corn sown, or prevented the harvests being reaped; the rain, I say, has departed, it is over and gone; the fioicers appear on the earth,' and this is a sign that the season of spring has come, that toil out of doors is safe and convenient, and that fruits and harvests are near. Then He adds, where this toil should begin, and to what end it should be directed: The time of pruning is come (ii. 12, Douay). She is then led to the cultivation of the vines, and in order that these may respond to the hope of the vine-dressers by an increased abundance of fruit, it is before all things necessary that the barren boughs should be cut out, the hurtful ones lopped, and those which are unnecessary pruned. This, then, is the literal sense.

3. Let us now see what is the spiritual meaning hidden, as it were, under this narrative of an historical kind. I have already said to you, and you took note of it, so that you do not need to hear it again, that vines signify souls, or Churches; and I gave also at the same time the reason for this. The more perfect soul is then invited to examine these, to correct them, and to instruct them, to the end that they may be saved; yet this ministry is allotted to it, not undertaken as a matter of ambition, but because called to it by God, as was Aaron. Furthermore, what is this invitation but a certain inward movement of charity, leading us piously to care for the salvation of our brethren, for the beauty of the house of the Lord, for its increase in spiritual gains and in the fruits of righteousness, arid for the praise and glory of His Name? As often, then, as one whose duty calls upon him to take the direction of souls, or to instruct them by the delivery of sermons, feels his inner man thus touched with religious sentiments towards God, so often he may understand certainly that the Bridegroom is present with him, and is inviting him to the care and culture of His vines. But to what end? That he may root up and destroy, that he may plant and edify.

4. But since for this task, as for every task under heaven, not every time, or every kind of weather, is fit and suitable, so He who gives the invitation adds also ' the time of pruning is come.' He knew well that this time was come who said: Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation; giving no offence in any iking,

that the ministry be not blamed (2 Cor. vi. 2). His warning, without doubt, was to prune, and even to cut off, everything faulty and superfluous and that was able to give even the least offence, and to hinder the fruit of salvation, because he knew that the time of pruning had come. That was why he said to the faithful cultivator of these vines, Reprove, rebuke, exhort (2 Tim. iv. 2), indicating by the first and second of these words the practice of pruning or even cutting off, and by the third that of planting. And this, indeed, is said by the Bridegroom through the mouth of St. Paul, as to the time of working. But listen to what He has Himself said as to the proper discrimination of times and seasons, to those souls which were, so to speak, new Brides, though this was spoken under another metaphor: Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest (John iv. 35); and again: The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest (Matt. ix. 37). Just as then He pointed out that it was time to reap the harvest of souls, so here He declares that it is the time to prune and to cultivate these spiritual vines, that is, souls or Churches, wishing, perhaps, by the difference of the names of which He makes use that we should understand by harvests, peoples, and by vines, societies of saints dwelling together.

5. Now, the time of winter, which He says has passed, seems to me to signify that period during which the Lord Jesus did not walk openly, because the Jews conspired against Him, and sought to kill Him. Wherefore He said to certain of them, My time has not yet come; but your time is always ready; and again: I go not up yet unto this feast; for My time is not yet full come (John vii. 6-8). Yet He afterwards went up, though not openly, but, as it were, in secret. The winter, then, endured from that time until the coming of the Holy Spirit, who aroused into warmth the torpid hearts of the faithful, and was, as it were, that fire which the Lord came to send upon the earth (Luke xii. 49) for this very end. Would you deny that it was then winter when Peter sat beside the fire of coals, being ice-cold in heart as well as in body? The Scripture says expressly, // was cold (John xviii. 1 8). Great, in truth, was the cold which lay at the heart of him who denied his Master, cramping its throbs with deadly grasp. Nor was this strange, since the fire hacl been taken away from it. A little time before he was aflame with fervent zeal, being then beside Him who is the Fire, so that, in order not to lose Him, he drew his sword and cut off a servant's ear. But that was not the time for pruning, and therefore the Saviour said, Put up thy sword into the sheath (John xviii. 11). For that was the hour and the power of darkness; and whosoever of His disciples had then lifted up the sword, whether of steel or of the Word, would either have perished by the sword, and thus have been of service to no one, and have borne no fruit, or at least have been constrained to apostasy by the fear of the sword, and thus to perish the more surely himself, according to the word of the Lord spoken immediately afterwards: All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword (Matt. xxvi. 51). For which of the others could have stood undismayed before the terrible image of death, when their prince himself, whom the great Leader of their salvation had forearmed with His puissant Voice, and forewarned to strengthen his brethren, when even he trembled and fled?

6. But neither he nor they had as yet been filled with power from on high; and for this reason it was not safe for them to go forth among the vines, to make use of the spiritual hoe and pruning-knife — that is, the inspired tongue and the sword of the Spirit — to prune the boughs and cut back the young shoots so that they may bear more fruit. And, lastly, the Lord Himself was silent during His Passion, and when interrogated about many things, answered not (Matt, xxvii. 12), being made, as says the Psalmist, as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs (Ps. xxxviii. 14). And indeed He said: If I tell you, ye will not believe: and if I also answer you, ye will not answer Me (Luke xxii. 67, 68), knowing that the time of pruning had not yet come, and that His vine would not respond at all to labours bestowed upon it, that is to say, would not produce the fruit either of faith or of good works. Wherefore? Because it was winter in the hearts of the perfidious, and the winter rains of malice and evil had overspread the earth, more calculated to drown than to foster the seeds of the Word that were sown; and these would render profitless any labour that was undertaken for the culture of the vines.

7. Of what rains, do you think, am I now speaking? Of those which we see that are carried hither and thither by strong winds, and which the clouds at length let fall upon the earth? By no means. I speak of those which men of a turbulent spirit cause to rise from the earth into the air, when they open their mouth against the heaven, and with their tongue go through the world; and thus, like sour and bitter showers, make the earth marshy and barren, useless for cultivated plants, though not, indeed, for that wild herbage, visible and exuberant, which is bestowed by God for bodily uses, and of which He takes care only for the beasts of the field. For what plants, then, does God care? For those assuredly which His Hand, and not that of man, has sown and planted, which can germinate and take root in faith and charity, and bring forth fruits unto salvation, if they be watered by good and seasonable rains. They are, in fact, souls for which Christ died. Unhappy are the clouds which let fall upon these rains such as I have described, which cause only mud, and do not help on fertility. For as there are good trees which bear good fruits, and evil trees which bear erfl fruits, the difference in the fruits corresponding to that in the trees which bear them, so, as I think, there may be clouds which are good, and let fall benign showers, and others which are evil, and let fall injurious ones. Perhaps it may have been to indicate this difference in the character of clouds, and of the showers they let fall, that a Prophet has these words as spoken by the Lord: / will command My clouds that they rain no rain upon it (that is, upon His vineyard) (Is. v. 6). For why, do you think, does He add so significantly My clouds, unless there were also evil clouds which are not His? Away with Him! away with Him! Crucify Him I cry the Jews (John xix. 15). O clouds full of violence and storm! O rain laden with tempests! O torrent of iniquity, fitter to ravage the earth than to make it fat! Not less evil nor less bitter, though it did not fall with equal violence, was that which followed: He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He be the King of Israel, let Him now come down from tJu Cross, and we will believe Him (Matt, xxvii. 40). Nor was the windy loquacity of the philosophers a shower of good, for it brought barrenness, rather than fertility, upon the lands. Much, more are the evil doctrines of heretics evil rains, producing thorns and thistles instead of harvests of good grain. Evil rains also were the traditions of the Pharisees, which the Saviour condemned; and they themselves were as injurious clouds. And do not suppose that I do injustice to Moses (who must himself be regarded as a beneficent cloud) when I say that not every shower that fell from him can be called good; for, otherwise, I should contradict Him who says: / gave them also (that is, to the Jews) statutes that were not good, and judgments (and doubtless this refers to thpse given by Moses) whereby they should not live (Ezek. xx. 25). Such was, for example, that literal observance of the Sabbath which, though the word signifies rest, did not bring them rest; the rigid system of offering sacrifices, the prohibition to eat the flesh of swine, and of other animals, which were similarly pronounced unclean by Moses; all these were showers, so to speak, falling from the same cloud; but I would not that they should fall upon any field or garden of mine. They were doubtless good in their time; but that time having passed, I do not hold them to be good now. For every shower, however soft, or however gently it falls, is injurious if it be unseasonable.

8. Thus, as long as such harmful rains had flooded and occupied the land with their weight, the time favourable for the vine had not yet come, nor did it come to pass that the Bride was invited to the task of its culture. But when they had passed away, and the dry earth appeared with its carpet of flowers, this was the sign that the season of culture had come. When was this, do you inquire? When, indeed, except in that season which saw the Flesh of Christ taking life again, and as it were reflowing, in the Resurrection. He is the first and chiefest Flower of the human race which has ever appeared on earth. For the Christ is called the first fruits of them that slept (1 Cor. xv. 20). Jesus, I say, is the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the valleys (ii. 1), He who was supposed the Son of Joseph, He who was Jesus of Nazareth, which itself means a flower [or branch]. He then appeared as the first Flower of the Resurrection; but He did not appear alone. For many bodies of the saints who slept arose with Him, and appeared upon our earth as bright and shining flowers. They went, in truth, into the Holy City, and appeared unto many (Matt, xxvii. 52, 53). Those, too, who first believed from among the people, the firstfruits of the saints, they were flowers. Their flowers were miracles which, like flowers, produced the fruits of faith. For after that rain of unbelief had a little passed, and had at least in part rolled away and ceased, then speedily followed that shower of grace (voluntaria) which the Lord reserved to His inheritance (Ps. lxviii. 9), and flowers began to appear. The Lord gave His blessing, and our earth yielded her flowers, so that in one day three thousand of the people believed* and in another they were five thousand (Acts ii. 41, and iv. 4); in so short a time did the number of flowers, that is, the multitude of believers, increase. Nor was the cold and frost able to prevail against the flowers which appeared, nor could it cause to perish, as is frequently the case, the fruit of life of which they gave promise.

9. For since all those who believed were filled with power from on high, there arose among them those who, strong in the faith, contemned the threats of men. They suffered, indeed, very many opposers; but they yielded not, nor ceased from proclaiming, to the utmost of their power, the great works of God. It is that which is spoken of in a Psalm, if it may be spiritually interpreted: They sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase (Ps. cvii. 37). In course of time the tempest was stilled, and, peace being restored to the earth, vines grew, and were propagated, and increased and multiplied beyond number. And then at length the Bride is invited, not, indeed, to plant the vines, but to prune and cultivate those already planted. And that was in due season, for the task required a time of peace. How could it be performed in time of persecution? How was it possible [for the saints] to take in their hands two-edged swords, to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people, to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute upon them the judgment written (Ps. cxlix. 6-9) — for all this is to be included in the task of pruning the vines; all these things are scarcely to be performed in peace even in a time of peace. So much for this subject.

10. This discourse might come to a close here if, according to my custom, I had given to each of you some words of counsel and warning with regard to the care of his own vineyard. For who has cut away, even to the quick (ad ungucm\ all things in himself which are superfluous, so as to have nothing which requires to be farther pruned? Believe me, those [evil tendencies] which are cut down shoot up again; those which have been driven away return; the fires which have been extinguished are, in a while, rekindled; and those desires which seemed fest asleep awake again. It is of little avail, therefore, to have pruned once; we must prune frequently, nay, if it were possible, always; because if you are honest with yourself, you will always find something within requiring to be sternly repressed. Whatever spiritual progress you may make while you remain in this body, you err if you suppose that sins and vices are dead in you, because they are suppressed. Whether you are willing, or unwilling, the Jebusite dwells within your borders (Judg. i. 21); he may be subjugated, but cannot be exterminated. / know, says the Apostle, that in me dwellcth no good thing. But that is little in comparison with the confession which he goes on to make — that evil dwells in him. For he adds: The good1 that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do. Nmv, if I do that I would not, it is no more 1 that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me (Rom. vii. 15-17). Either, then, prefer yourself to the Apostle (for he it is who speaks thus), or confess with him that you, too, are not without indwelling sins. Now, virtue maintains the mid-place between impulses which, if yielded to in excess, become wrong; and thus it is that you have need, not only of sedulous self-denial, but also of circumcision. Otherwise, it is to be feared that our vine, being closely enfolded, or rather gnawed, by the vices which surround it on every side, should languish little by little without our perceiving it, or, if they get the upper hand, should be altogether suffocated. In face of so great a peril, I have but one counsel to give — that you watch with the greatest care, and cut away with prompt severity the first shoots of reviving vices as soon as they shall make their appearance. Virtue cannot increase at the same time with vice; and if the one flourish, it will not suffer the other to increase. Take away things superfluous, and those which conduce to salvation will have vigorous growth. Whatever you take away from things which minister only to pleasure, you add to those which minister to the soul's benefit. Let us give to selfdenial its perfect work, and cut off the satisfaction of our desires and lusts that virtue may be strengthened thereby.

11. It is always, then, the time of pruning with us, my brethren, because there is always need of pruning; and I trust that with us, too, the time of winter has now passed away. Do you know of what winter I speak? Of that fear which is not joined with charity — which leads all to the beginning of wisdom, but perfects no one in it; inasmuch as advancing love casts out fear, as the spring banishes the winter. For the love of God is the spring of the soul, and if it has come to us, or, rather, because it has come to us (as it is just that I should consider is the case with you), all the winter rain must needs be dried: that is, all the anxious weeping which the bitter remembrance of past sin, and the fearful looking for of judgment, have drawn forth. Therefore (and I assert this without hesitation of most of you, if not of all) this winter rain has passed away, it is over and gone: and the flowers which are the signs of the milder and sweeter showers of spring begin to appear. For spring, too, has its showers, but these are sweet and fruitful. What is there more sweet and comforting than the tears of charity? The weeping of charity is inspired by love, and not by grief; it comes of the very depth of longing, or of the sympathy felt with those who weep. I do not doubt that with such a gracious rain as this your acts of obedience are bedewed; and I behold with joy that, far from being disfigured by murmuring, by sullenness and reluctance, they are accompanied by a spiritual gladness which renders them enlivening and happy. They are as flowers that you bear always in your hands.

1 2. If, then, the winter has passed; if the rain is over and gone; if flowers have at length appeared on our earth, and the sweetness and gentleness of grace, as a spiritual spring, indicates that the time of pruning for the vine has come, what remains but that we should set ourselves-with all our strength to the doing of this work, so sacred and so necessary? Let us, as says the prophet, search and try our ways (Lam. iii. 40), and our disposition, so that each of us may consider himself to have made progress, not in supposing that there is nothing in him to blame, but in blaming and correcting that which he has found. If you have learned that there is an ever fresh need to examine yourself, your self-examination will not be perfunctory and useless; and as often as you shall have found that there is good reason for your scrutiny, so often will you feel that it ought to be repeated. If, then, you do this whenever there is need of it, you will do it always. Remember, in conclusion, that you have always need of help from on high, and of the mercy of Him who is the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is, above all, God blessed for