Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
First Drama, or First Part of the Song of Songs, in Which Is Described the Infancy of the Church (Which Was from the Birth of Christ Up to the Ascension into Heaven), from Chapter I Verse 1, to Chapter II Verse 8.
Chapter One.
Synopsis of the Chapter.
The bride seeks the spiritual kiss, the breasts, the ointment, the oil, and the cellars of the bridegroom. Then, at verse 5, she says she is beautiful but dark from the heat of the sun and of persecution. Whence, at verse 7, she seeks the place of the bridegroom, and hears from him that she should go after the flocks and shepherds. Whence, at verse 9, he compares her to his cavalry, her cheeks to a turtledove, her neck to necklaces. Finally, at verse 12, she declares that her spikenard gave forth its fragrance in the presence of the bridegroom, whom she compares to a bundle of myrrh and a cluster of henna, and with him she delights in the spiritual affection of praise.
Vulgate Text: Song of Songs 1:1-16
1. Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth: for your breasts are better than wine, 2. fragrant with the finest ointments. Your name is oil poured out: therefore the young maidens have loved you. 3. Draw me: we will run after you in the fragrance of your ointments. The king has brought me into his cellars: we will exult and rejoice in you, remembering your breasts above wine: the upright love you. 4. I am dark, but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Cedar, like the curtains of Solomon. 5. Do not consider me because I am dark, for the sun has discolored me: the sons of my mother have fought against me, they set me as keeper of the vineyards: my own vineyard I have not kept. 6. Tell me, O you whom my soul loves, where you pasture, where you rest at midday, lest I begin to wander after the flocks of your companions. 7. If you do not know yourself, O most beautiful among women, go forth, and follow the footsteps of the flocks, and pasture your kids beside the tents of the shepherds. 8. To my cavalry in the chariots of Pharaoh I have compared you, my beloved. 9. Your cheeks are beautiful like the turtledove's, your neck like necklaces. 10. We will make you golden chains, inlaid with silver. 11. While the king was at his repose, my spikenard gave forth its fragrance. 12. A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, he shall abide between my breasts. 13. A cluster of henna is my beloved to me, in the vineyards of Engedi. 14. Behold you are beautiful, my beloved, behold you are beautiful, your eyes are doves' eyes. 15. Behold you are beautiful, my beloved, and comely. Our bed is flourishing: 16. the beams of our houses are of cedar, our ceilings of cypress.
The Voice of the Bride.
1. LET HIM KISS ME WITH THE KISS OF HIS MOUTH. — The bride seems shameless, who contrary to the custom of honest and modest women, is the first to seek the bridegroom, and demands his spiritual kiss without any preamble; but intoxicated with holy love she knows not how to blush: for where there is love, there is no fear or shame. "Headlong love," says St. Bernard, "neither awaits judgment, nor is tempered by counsel, nor restrained by modesty, nor subjected to reason. I ask, I beseech, I demand: Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth."
and, as St. Bernard says: "The measure of loving God is to love without measure." Tuccius here reviews at length a great many kisses of Christ and the Church. The bride is silent about the person of the bridegroom, and says only "let him kiss," because since she ponders nothing in her mind but the bridegroom, she supposes that nothing else is pondered in the minds of others either. Hence she expresses the act, but is silent about the person, as being one whom she considers most well-known both to herself and to all others, and present in everyone's thoughts, just as Mary Magdalene, in John 20:15, when asked by Christ appearing in the guise of a gardener: "Woman, why do you weep? Whom do you seek?" answered: "Lord, if you have taken Him away," etc.: what "Him"? Certainly Christ, who as He is my love, indeed my mind and my heart, so too I reckon He is for all others: for she herself, being entirely full of Christ, thought that neither she nor others could think of anyone other than Christ.
There is, however, some modesty in the bride, in that she does not direct her speech to the bridegroom, so as to say: "Kiss me;" but addresses others as intermediaries, saying: "Let him kiss me," as the same St. Bernard notes. Thus Mary Magdalene, intoxicated with love, without shame, "intruded importunately upon the banquet," says St. Ambrose, but "opportunely for a benefit," so as to kiss not the mouth, but the feet of Christ. Here, however, the bride, not content with the kiss of the feet, which belongs to servants and subjects, seeks the kiss of the mouth, which belongs to brides and those who love most deeply, just as parents kiss their children, brothers one another, and a friend his friend. "O how great is the power of love!" exclaims St. Bernard, Sermon 7, "how great the confidence in the spirit of liberty! What is more manifest than that manifest charity casts out fear?" And St. Augustine in the Manual, chapter 19: "Love," he says, "knowing nothing of dignity, knows not reverence;" and in chapter 20: "The loving soul is carried by its wishes, drawn by its desires, conceals merits, closes its eyes to majesty, opens them to delight," etc.
This accords with what St. Gregory writes about love, Book VI, Epistle 24 to Anastasius, where he shows that love and power presume equally, and speak freely with authority and command. And Chrysologus, Sermon 147: "Love," he says, "knows no judgment, lacks reason, knows no measure, receives no consolation from impossibility, accepts no remedy from difficulty. Love, unless it reaches what it desires, kills the lover. Love cannot help but see what it loves. Hence it is that all the Saints considered everything they had merited as trifling, if they did not see the Lord. Hence it is that love which desires to see God, even if it lacks judgment, nevertheless has the zeal of piety. Whence even Moses dares to say to God: If I have found grace before You, show me Your face." Moreover, the bride does not first seek the bridegroom, but is stirred and called forth by the bridegroom,
First Sense, Total and Adequate: Concerning Christ and the Church.
It is the voice of the patriarchs, says St. Bernard, and of the Synagogue, says St. Thomas, desiring the coming of Christ, as if to say: Because Christ so many times promised me His coming through the prophets, for three thousand years I eagerly and anxiously await Him; let Him therefore come and "let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth," so that by assuming my flesh and my bone He may through that speak to me and join Himself to me, so that He who once opened the mouths of the prophets may now open His own mouth. Hear Origen: "How long shall my bridegroom send kisses through Moses, send kisses through the prophets? Now I desire to touch His very lips, let Him come, let Him descend. She therefore prays to the bridegroom's father, and says to him: Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth. And because He is such that through Him that prophetic word may be fulfilled in which it is said: While you are yet speaking, I will say, behold I am here:" the bridegroom's father hears the bride, and sends His Son. Seeing Him whose coming she had been imploring, she ceased to pray, and speaks to Him face to face: For your breasts are better than wine, and the fragrance of your ointments surpasses all spices." So also Theodoret, Aponius, and Bede.
as will be clear from what she adds: "Your breasts are better than wine;" for these "breasts," that is, the tender mercies shown by the bridegroom to the bride, call her forth, indeed make her bold to ask for the kiss, because they instill in her the wondrous love and confidence of the bridegroom. For, as Christ says, John 6:44: "No one can come to Me, unless the Father, who sent Me, draws him" through exciting and calling grace, as St. Augustine teaches and the Council of Trent defines, Session VI.
Theodoret adds: "When therefore she has understood the bridegroom's beauty, strength, riches, his kingdom which extends over all, his eternal and incorruptible power that will have no end; she desires to see him, and to rush into his embrace, and to give him spiritual kisses." Moreover, this voice is not so much that of the Synagogue as of the Church, which after Christ's incarnation says "let him kiss," that is, let him continue to kiss me, and let him always increase this kiss of his love in me. Hence in Hebrew it is, let him kiss me with kisses.
LET HIM KISS ME WITH THE KISS OF HIS MOUTH. — The Hebrew has: he will kiss me from the kisses (Vatablus: with kisses) of his mouth. "He will kiss" means "let him kiss": for the Hebrews signify the optative, which they lack, by the future tense. The Septuagint: let him kiss me from the kisses (Origen, as translated by St. Jerome, has: from the kiss) of his mouth; the Arabic: let him kiss (the Syriac renders in the past tense: he has kissed) me from the kisses of his mouth. "Kisses" in the plural signifies the vehement desire and love of the bridegroom, so that his presence cannot satisfy, and she wishes it to be continuous. For, as the Poet says:
True love knows no measure to maintain;
The physical kiss of Christ is the hypostatic union itself; for by this He joined flesh to the Word, humanity to God, just as through a kiss the bridegroom is joined to the bride. Hence the one kissing, says St. Bernard, is God, the one kissed is man, the kiss is the union of both,
through which one person of both is made, who is at once God and man: for the most chaste kiss is a symbol of kinship and affinity; whence among all nations parents kiss their children, brothers, relatives, and in-laws. Accordingly, Cato would kiss women related to him by blood with paternal affection, in order to know whether they smelled of wine. For in ancient times it was not lawful for Roman women to drink wine; and if they had drunk it, they were considered intemperate and immodest, as Tiraquellus shows with many examples, law IX, Connub., no. 206. Much more does God, kissing and visiting the soul, examine whether she smells of pleasures and vanities, and for these He corrects her, according to that saying: "You have tested my heart, and visited me in the night: You have tried me by fire, and no iniquity has been found in me," Psalm 16:3.
The ethical or moral kiss, however, is the intimate affection and love by which Christ is most closely joined to the Church and to the faithful soul. Hear St. Bernard here, Sermon 2, piously and movingly expounding this wish for a kiss in the bride: "Of what use to me are these half-words from the mouths of the prophets? Rather let Him who is beautiful in form above the sons of men, let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth. I no longer listen to Moses: for he has become to me one of impeded tongue. Isaiah's lips are unclean: Jeremiah does not know how to speak, because he is a boy, and all the prophets are speechless. He, He whom they speak of, let Him speak: let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth. Let Him no longer speak to me in them or through them, since the water is dark in the clouds of the air, but let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth, whose gracious presence and wondrous streams of teaching may become in me a fountain of water springing up into eternal life."
Note that the kiss is a symbol, first, of reconciliation, for when one has offended another, he is reconciled to him through a kiss, just as the father was reconciled to the prodigal son, Luke 15:20; second, of peace and concord; third, of greeting and well-wishing, whence the Apostle says: "Greet one another with a holy kiss," 2 Corinthians 13:12; fourth, of love and intimate union; whence the divine Hierotheus, cited by St. Dionysius, On the Divine Names, chapter 4, says that love has the power of joining, mingling, and uniting: which is signified by the kiss.
For all these reasons the Church and the faithful soul demand the kiss of Christ, as if to say, in the words of Cosmas Damianus: How long, then, will You be angry with Your suppliants, O best Creator of our race and Father God? How long, angered, will You delay Your promises to the human race, and suffer our entreaties to go unanswered? To what end will Your generosity, which was at first so lavish toward man, contract itself and remain contained within Your treasuries? Will nothing move You -- not that Satan has seized the empire of the world; not that Your children have been reduced to slavery; not the necessity imposed of sinning, and of dying even upon those who have not sinned of themselves; not the law given for life, yet yielding equally to destruction; not the given faith, nor the prayers and petitions of the devout? Just, we confess, is Your indignation. Just are the judgments You exercise upon us; for incredibly generous at first was Your kindness toward man, the honors of Your most ample decree, and the immense benefits You conferred upon him. But in return for such great kindness, incredible has been our impiety toward You; for the most ample honors, atrocious injuries; and for such immense benefits as no man could bestow, the gravest offense. But now for three thousand years Your wrath has raged against our entire race, against the children, I say, of Adam, who, ignorant of that bitter eating of the fruit and their father's transgression, and as innocent lambs, yet guilty through their father, make atonement; these same are by greater right Your children. Have mercy on Your own, O Lord. Let Your mercy therefore triumph over judgment. Let the Christ promised to Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and the other prophets come, let Him put on our flesh, and through it offer us the kiss of reconciliation: for He is the propitiation for the sins of the world, He is our peace and salvation, He is our love, soul, breath, and life. "The Spirit of our mouth, Christ the Lord," says Jeremiah, "was taken captive for our sins: to whom we said: In Your shadow we shall live among the nations," Lamentations 4:20. Therefore at last unite me to Him, as a bride betrothed from the beginning of the world. Fill me with His embraces and kisses. Let Him purify me by the touch of His sacred mouth, let Him join His rosy and divine mouth to mine. Let Him plant a thousand kisses on me. Let Him be our peace, who bestows Your peace and good will. Finally, with the glue of charity let Him join and bind me to Himself, that I may become one spirit with Him, and one body; and that we may no longer be two, but one man from both. You therefore, O most desired bridegroom of mine, I await as You approach, I look forward to Your coming shortly, and in embracing and kissing You, foretold by our groomsmen and attendants, the greater the hope given us, the more our desire for You grows and burns, and our spirit, in being healed, grows lovesick. Cease, I pray, to address me now through legates, to confirm me through intermediaries; come Yourself, speak face to face. Accept my pledge, and give Yours in return; embrace me, kiss me, You who alone can apply the most effective remedy; You, I say, having mercy on one who loves beyond control, I pray that You heal our grief.
The same was the desire of all the prophets, longing supremely for Christ the bridegroom and His bride the Church. Let a few out of many be heard. Hosea chapter 2, verse 19: "And I will espouse you to me forever: and I will espouse you to me in justice and judgment, and in mercy and compassion: and I will espouse you to me in faith." Likewise through the prophet Jeremiah it is said, chapter 2:2: "I have remembered you, having pity on your youth, and the love of your espousal, when you followed me in the desert, in a land that is not sown." And through Isaiah, chapter 61:10, the voice of the Church similarly says: He placed on me a crown as on a bride, and "clothed me with the garments of salvation: and with the robe of justice He surrounded me, as a bridegroom adorned with a crown, and as a bride adorned with her jewels." And through Zechariah, chapter 9:9, he announces such glory to the trembling Church, saying: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion: BEHOLD YOUR KING will come to you, just and a savior: he himself poor, and riding upon a colt, the foal of a donkey." Thus Aponius cites the words of the prophets. The desires of all of them, therefore, Solomon here expresses.
Symbolically, the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity are noted here: by "let him kiss," the Father; by "of his mouth," the Son, for He is the mouth and Word of the Father; by "with the kiss," the Holy Spirit, for He is the bond, love, and as it were the kiss by which the Father and the Son kiss each other. So St. Bernard, Sermon 7, who says the Church here asks for the kiss, that is, the Holy Spirit. Therefore the Church and the soul ask that the entire Holy Trinity kiss them, that is, intimately join Itself to them through affection, so that the soul may become a holy temple of the Most Holy Trinity, indeed so that it may become one spirit with It. "For he who clings to the Lord is one spirit," 1 Corinthians 6:17. For the kiss joins the mouth of the one kissing to the mouth of the one kissed, to signify that one mind is joined in like manner to the other's mind, so that from two lovers there is made, as it were, one lover, one soul, one spirit. Thus the Word, kissing our flesh and humanity, breathed into it His own spirit and His own divinity, so that one and the same would be God and man, because the two natures, humanity namely and divinity, came together in the one Person of the Word.
Furthermore, the Chaldean [Targum] understands the kiss as the law given through Moses: for through this God espoused Israel, and bound and obligated him to Himself: "Blessed," it says, "be the name of the Lord, who gave us the law through the hand of Moses the great scribe, written on two tablets of stone, and He spoke with us face to face, like a man who kisses his companion." This sense, though Jewish, serves our purpose, and Solomon alludes to it here, indeed presupposes it as typological. For Moses, giving Israel the kiss of divine doctrine and law, was a type of Christ kissing Christians with the kiss of His mouth, whereby embracing the mouth most lovingly, He taught the new law and Evangelical doctrine, and through it bound and espoused them to Himself. Hence very many Fathers understand by the kiss the doctrine of Christ, so that the kiss is the same as the oracle. So Origen, Philo of Carpathia, Anselm here, and St. Jerome, Epistle 146 to Damasus, and St. Gregory, Book XIX Moralia chapter 22, who adds that St. Matthew alluded to this kiss when he says of Christ, chapter 5, verses 2 and 3: "Opening His mouth He taught them, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit," etc.; "then," says St. Gregory, "He opened His own mouth who had previously opened the mouths of the prophets."
Second Literal Sense, Partial: Concerning Christ and the Holy Soul.
What I have already said about Christ and the Church can be applied to the holy soul, merely changing the name of the Church to the name of the soul; to which add that this can be expounded concerning the soul, first, as penitent; second, as innocent and just; third, as meditating and fixed upon God in contemplation; fourth, as loving and ecstatic.
In four ways, therefore, you may expound this passage concerning the soul: first, concerning the penitent, as if to say: O eternal Father, may He deign to be reconciled to me, a sinful soul who have gravely offended Him, but who am now penitent through His call and grace, and may He grant the kiss of peace, by which He may wipe away every offense, indeed abolish and blot it out, and reconcile me to Himself, and restore me to His former friendship and grace; for just as a kiss is the joining of two mouths and bodies, so peace is the close conjunction of two hearts. Therefore Christ first, striking with His grace the soul sunk in sin, awakens and calls her forth, saying: "Rise, you who sleep, and Christ will enlighten you," Ephesians 5:14; or: "Kiss me with the kiss of your mouth," according to that verse of the Psalmist, which the Church so often prays: "Restore us, O God of our salvation," Psalm 84:5; and that word of God through the prophet Zechariah, chapter 1:3, calling sinners to Himself: "Return to me, and I will return to you." Thus Mary Magdalene, inwardly called forth by Christ, hastened to the kiss: so the Council of Trent, Session VI. Moreover, the espousal of the soul with God takes place through the virtues, especially faith, penance, chastity, and charity, according to that saying: "The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us," Romans 5:5, as I showed at length on 2 Corinthians 11, at those words: "I have espoused you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." Hence St. Agnes: "My Lord Jesus Christ," she says, "has pledged me with His ring, that I may admit no lover besides Him; as a bride He has adorned me with a crown; I am espoused to Him whom angels serve, whose beauty the sun and moon admire. I love Christ, into whose bridal chamber I shall enter, whose mother is a virgin, whose father knows no woman, whose instruments sing to me with harmonious voices; whom when I shall have loved, I am chaste; when I shall have touched, I am clean; when I shall have received, I am a virgin." So from St. Ambrose, Sermon 90, the Church in the ecclesiastical office of St. Agnes. Finally, with what zeal and love God invites sinners to this kiss of reconciliation, St. Dionysius vividly depicts in his epistle to Demophilus: "What of the fact," he says, "that He most kindly tolerates even those dissolved in pleasures, and on that account delaying their return, and deigns to render an account Himself, indeed relieves them with promises, and soothes them with blandishments? And when those who return to Him are still far off, He joyfully runs to meet them and comes forward, and embracing them entirely, He kisses them entirely, and does not blame them for their former aversion, but content with their present conversion, He celebrates a feast day and calls together His friends.
Second, those purified from sin and justified seek the kiss of Christ, by which Christ breathes His Spirit into them, so that by it they may be renewed from torpor and oldness, like an eagle, and be enkindled in the love of God, like those who breathe upon and inspire one another. This alludes to the formation of Adam's body from the clay of the earth, which God, as it were kissing, "breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul," Genesis 2:7. For just as the soul, when it takes up and as it were kisses the body, animates and vivifies the lifeless body, so the grace of the Holy Spirit, kissing the soul, vivifies it, indeed deifies it, and makes it a child and heir of God. So St. Ambrose, in the book On Isaac and the Soul, chapter 3: "She seeks," he says, "the kiss of the bridegroom, through which the spirit of the one kissing is poured into her."
Hence symbolically St. Bernard understands by the kiss the Holy Spirit, who is the kiss, that is, the love of the Father and the Son. Hear him, Sermon 8: "She seeks the kiss, that is, she invokes the Holy Spirit, through whom she may receive both the taste of knowledge and the seasoning of grace." And shortly after the beginning of the sermon: "It suffices," he says, "for the bride, if she is kissed by the kiss of the bridegroom, even if she is not kissed by the mouth. For she does not consider it a trifling or worthless thing to be kissed by the kiss, which is nothing other than to be infused with the Holy Spirit." The bride therefore says: "Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth," that is, let the eternal Father through the spirit of His Word be most closely united to me, and make me a sharer of His nature by that mysterious conjunction. For through grace we become sharers of the divine nature, as St. Peter says, 2 Peter 1:4.
Third, those who pray and contemplate seek and receive the kiss, that is, the illuminations, impulses, and divine ardors of the Holy Spirit. Whence St. Ambrose, in the passage already cited: "The kiss of the Word," he says, "is the light of sacred knowledge." And Gregory of Nyssa, Homily 1: "Because the words of the bridegroom," he says, "are spirit and life; and whoever is joined to the spirit becomes spirit; and he who is united to life passes from death to life: therefore the spiritual soul desires to draw near to the fountain of life, namely the mouth of the bridegroom, from which the springing words of eternal life fill the mouth that draws them in." St. Bernard, Sermon 1: "His (Christ's) living and efficacious word," he says, "is to me a kiss, not indeed a joining of lips, which sometimes feigns the peace of souls; but plainly an infusion of joys, a revelation of secrets, a certain wondrous and in some way indiscriminate mingling of the heavenly light and the illuminated mind. For he who clings to God is one spirit."
Fourth, those who love and devote themselves entirely to divine love seek, and obtain from God, the kiss of ardent and full charity, concerning which Gregory of Nyssa says, Homily 1: "Just as Moses," he says, "who was deemed worthy (Exodus 33) to speak with God face to face, was held by an even greater desire for such kisses, asking to see the One he desired, even after God had appeared to him so many times, as if he had never contemplated Him. So all the others, in whose innermost depths divine desire resided, never halted their desire; whatever came to them from God, by which they might enjoy the One who was desired, they seized upon as material and kindling for greater desire. In the same way also, the soul which even now is united to God cannot be satisfied with enjoyment; the more abundantly she is filled with enjoyment, the more vehement her desire grows, and so she says: Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth." Hence St. Agnes, appearing gloriously to her parents after death: "Do not mourn for me," she said, "for I am joined in heaven to Him whom on earth I loved with my whole heart, my whole spirit, and with all the devotion of my mind." Recall here the rest of her words, recited above for another reason.
To this purpose is St. Bernard's distinction, in Sermon 3 and following, of a threefold kiss: first, the kiss of the feet, by which penitents, with Mary Magdalene, kiss the two feet of Christ, namely mercy and truth, so that through truth they may condemn their sins by repenting, and through mercy, by trusting, they may hope for pardon; second, the kiss of the hand, by which the just and those making progress kiss the hands of Christ, while they offer Him the good works of virtues, and in return receive from Him gifts of graces; third, the kiss of the mouth, by which the perfect soul, thirsting for God alone and longing to cling to Him alone, says: "Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth," that is, let Him pour into me and breathe into me the Holy Spirit, that I may be entirely united to my love, Christ. To this strive religious men and lovers of perfection, who renounce the love of all things, in order to transfer it entirely to God, that they may devote themselves to God alone, and espouse themselves to Him through the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Hence Blessed Giles, companion of St. Francis, when asked "what is the way of perfection?" answered: "One to one," as if to say: The soul will be perfect if, being one, she joins and gives herself entirely to the one God.
"This kiss," says St. Bernard, "is not a noise of the mouth, but a jubilation of the heart; not a sound of the lips, but a motion of joys: therefore it does not befit a soul that is infantile and recently converted to Christ, but one already advanced, and who, having reached the perfect age and the marriageable years (of merits, not of time), has been made fit for the nuptials of the heavenly bridegroom." For she alone can say: "Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth, for your loves are better than wine," as others translate. Then, as to how one must gradually ascend to the kiss of the mouth, St. Bernard teaches thus: "First prostrate yourself at the kisses of the feet, and water them with your tears, and do not rise from there until you hear: Your sins are forgiven you; and then as much as you have advanced in grace, so much will you expand in confidence. From there you will be able to advance to the kiss of the hands, when you have begun to act vigorously and perseveringly in the works of all virtues. Then at last perhaps you will dare to raise your head to the very mouth of glory (I say it trembling and with fear), not only to gaze upon, but also to kiss. The kiss of the feet, therefore, belongs to beginners; of the hands, to those making progress; of the mouth, to the perfect."
Finally, three anonymous Fathers cited by Theodoret, and St. Ambrose, in the book On the Sacraments, chapter 2, judge this kiss to be the real one which the holy soul desires, when she longs to receive Christ sacramentally in the Eucharist, and ardently desires His embraces: "The soul," he says, "sees that she has been cleansed from all sins, and is worthy to approach the altar of Christ; for what is the altar but the form of the body of Christ? She sees the wonderful sacraments, and says: Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth, that is, let Christ imprint a kiss on me. Why? Because your breasts are better than wine, that is, your senses are better, your sacraments are better than that wine which, although it has sweetness, has joy, has grace; yet in it is worldly joy, but in you is spiritual delight."
Hence St. Agnes: "Now my body," she says, "has been united to His body, and His blood has adorned my cheeks: to Him alone I keep faith, to Him I commit myself with all devotion." St. Cyril excellently, in Book XI on John, chapters 26 and 27, explaining those words of Christ to the Father about the disciples: "That they may be one, as We also are one. I in them, and You in Me: that they may be made perfect in one," John 17:23, teaches that through the reception of the Eucharist we become one with Christ, and through Christ one with God. Whence he draws this axiom: "The bond, therefore, of our union with God the Father is Christ: united to us as man, but to God the Father as God by nature." He adds the reason: "For it was not possible for the nature of man, subject to corruption, to ascend to immortality, unless the immortal and unchangeable nature had descended to it, and by the communication and participation of itself had elevated those reformed from the limits of our mortality to its own good. We have therefore been made perfect, and brought back to union with God the Father through the mediation of the Savior, that is, of Christ." Whence he concludes: "We ought therefore to marvel at the benignity of the divine nature, which deigns to communicate to the creature what is properly its own."
Moreover, through this kiss holy souls draw wondrous consolations, tastes, and delights of heavenly love, so that they loathe all earthly pleasures, and say with Paul, Philippians 3:8: "For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ;" wherefore, fed with this divine nectar and ambrosia, indeed intoxicated, they seem to themselves to be as it were in paradise, and to enjoy God with the angels and the blessed. Hence they say: "Our citizenship," our thought, our mind, our love, our delights, our life "is in heaven." And with the Psalmist: "My soul has thirsted for You, how many ways my flesh for You," Psalm 62:2. And: "For me it is good to cling to God," Psalm 72:28. And: "Lord, what is there for me in heaven, and besides You what have I desired on earth? God of my heart, and my portion, God, forever," ibid. verse 25. This is what God promises to the devout soul through Hosea, chapter 2:14: "Behold I will allure her, and will lead her into the wilderness: and I will speak to her heart." See what was said there. Hence what the Vulgate has in Exodus chapter 33:11: "The Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man is accustomed to speak to his friend," namely when He gave Moses the law to be promulgated to the Hebrews: the Chaldean here, at verse 2, understanding by the kiss the same law given from the mouth of God and of Moses to the Hebrews, translates it thus: He spoke with us face to face, like a man who kisses his companion.
Hear St. Gregory here: "The mouth of the bridegroom is the inspiration of Christ: the kiss of the mouth is the sweet love of His inspiration. The bride therefore speaks, burning with desire and aflame to embrace her bridegroom: Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth, as if she were saying: Let Him come whom I love above all things, indeed whom alone I love, who may touch me with the sweetness of His inspiration; because when I feel His kiss, by a sudden change I leave myself behind, and immediately, melted, I am transformed into His likeness. For the holy mind loathes all things that it perceives through the body, and desires to be wholly transformed into those spiritual things; and while these bodily things clamor, it flees to those, and desires to hide itself so as not to feel these; and therefore it seeks the kiss of the bridegroom, because if He does not draw it with the bond of His most pleasing love, it, held down by the force of its most burdensome heaviness, cannot at all find how to bring itself to Him; but the loving bridegroom, sensing her anxiety, cherishing her love, hearing her voice, extends the kiss, and lest she grow weary with desire, He soothes her with the taste of His sweetness, and while He shows His presence, He kindles her to a greater kiss of love."
All these kisses of God are most deeply felt, and as it were savored with delight, by men eminent in holiness, prayer, and contemplation, and sometimes ecstatic, who perceive the wondrous influxes and most sweet inflows of God, inexpressible in human words, and known only to the one who has experienced them; such as Paul felt, when he was caught up to the third heaven, where, as it were transformed into Christ, he said: "I live, now not I: but Christ lives in me," Galatians 2:20. This was experienced bodily through vision by St. Gertrude, who narrates thus about herself, Book II of Revelations, chapter 22: "On a certain occasion, when I was wholly intent on psalmody, You, Lord, gave the sweetest kiss ten times and more to the mouth of my soul. O kiss far surpassing all the fragrance of spices, and all the sweetness of honey!" At other times she often perceived God flowing into her soul, just as the sun flows into the air with its splendor, from which inflow her soul was flooded both with wondrous virtues of graces and with ineffable serenity and joy; for it penetrated intimately all the marrows, senses, and faculties of her soul.
Mystical and contemplative authors understand by this kiss the highest degree of contemplation, by which the soul, previously long and greatly exercised in humility, prayer, meditation, patience, and the other virtues, is elevated by God to an immediate and intimate contemplation and union with Himself; by which it comes about that the soul now rests neither in virtues, nor in divine consolations, nor in discourses or phantasms, nor in any created thing, but immediately in God alone through contemplation and love, and says: "In peace, in the selfsame, I will sleep and rest," Psalm 4:9. This union through divine inflow, as St. Dionysius teaches, and following him
St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure, Hugh, Richard, Gerson, Lawrence Justinian, Tauler, Ruysbroeck, Harphius, Suso, and the like, who wrote on mystical theology.
This is the inflow by which God of Himself flows into the intellect and will of man, and becoming intimately present to him, communicates Himself entirely, shows Himself, and as the object, immediately unites Himself: to the intellect indeed under the aspect of immense light, but not so clear and open as it is in the blessed; to the will, however, under the aspect of the supreme good, so that God binds the will intimately to Himself and to His own essence, as to the supreme good, to such a degree that the will immediately tastes and perceives His goodness, and delights and rejoices in it. For then the intellect is flooded and elevated by God with wondrous light, so that it knows Him in the highest manner, though not by seeing (for this is proper to the blessed), and thus presents Him to the will as present under the aspect of the supreme and most delightful good; whereby the will and the whole soul, impelled by God, is most ardently rapt into that good, fully embraces it, and exhausts all its powers in loving, binding itself to, and kissing it; hence it happens that the soul at such times does not hear, does not feel, does not see, does not think of, does not love anything other than God, and hangs entirely suspended from Him as in a rapture and ecstasy: this is the mystical espousal and marriage of the soul with God through mutual adhesion and enjoyment, by which, as St. Ambrose says, the soul espoused to God weds the eternal Word, and the Word flows into the soul, not at the summit, but in the very center and depth of the mind, and binds it to Himself. Only one who has experienced this can grasp it. St. Bernard had experienced it, and accordingly, in Sermon 31, he says that the bride, burning with love of God, is not content with other illuminations or revelations, "unless by a special prerogative she receives Him flowing from heaven into her inmost affections and into the very marrow of her heart, and has at hand the One she desires, not in figure but infused; not appearing but effecting;" and shortly after:
"Yet I would not say that He thus appears as He is, although in this manner He presents nothing other than what He is;" and Richard of St. Victor, in the treatise On the Degrees of Violent Charity: "Often," he says, "under this state the Lord descends from heaven, often He visits one sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, often the glory of the Lord fills the tabernacle of the covenant; yet He shows His presence in such a way that He by no means reveals His face; He pours in His sweetness, but does not show His beauty; He infuses delight, but does not show His brightness." And in particular, Blessed Teresa, in the treatise On Perfection, Mansion 7, chapters 1 and 2: "To the soul," she says, "remaining in that center, the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity and all three Persons are manifested by intellectual vision; yet preceding this manifestation there is a certain most sweet inflammation of the spirit, like a most brilliant cloud, and there by a certain admirable knowledge she perceives how the three Persons are one substance, one power, one wisdom, and one God, so that what we hold by faith, the soul in some manner knows intuitively."
Moreover, the effects of this union are: first, the ardor of love, so that the soul burns with love, melts, and is transformed into God, and supremely desires to see Him and enjoy Him face to face. Second, a wondrous peace, sweetness, and joy of soul, by which the soul, tasting "that the Lord is sweet," is so inebriated and absorbed by His sweetness that it despises and loathes all other things, and now seems to itself to be almost blessed, and to be distant from the blessed only by the body, as by an intervening wall, according to that saying of Isaiah, chapter 58:14: "Then you shall delight in the Lord, and I will lift you up above the heights of the earth;" indeed sometimes by the force of the burning spirit the body is elevated on high and ascends toward heaven, as happened to St. Mary Magdalene, St. Francis, St. Ignatius, and others. Third, a great inflow of virtues and graces, so that the soul fully attains the divine likeness, and becomes most beautiful, indeed is made deiform, and as it were deified, and conformed to Christ; whence her beauty is so celebrated by the bridegroom in the Song of Songs: accordingly, in imitation of Christ, she seeks crosses and torments, rejoices in reproaches, exults in adversities, and glories in persecutions, as St. Paul did. Fourth, there is a sublime and perfect knowledge of divine mysteries, and an illustrious contemplation of God Himself, though in darkness, as St. Dionysius says, closely approaching the clear and visible knowledge of the blessed, to which pertains that saying of Isaiah, chapter 58:10: "Your light shall rise in darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday. And the Lord will give you rest always, and will fill your soul with brightness." Fifth, such a soul has God as it were always present in her mind, and converses and speaks with Him, even though she does not see Him clearly, just as one converses with a friend in darkness and in an obscure place, whom one hears but does not see.
Third Sense, Principal: Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin.
What has been said about the just soul belongs by far greater right to the Blessed Virgin, who was the standard-bearer of all the just. Besides those things, a fourfold kiss of God properly belongs to the Blessed Virgin alone.
The first is the kiss of the Most Holy Trinity, by which from eternity, above all men and angels, God the Father chose Her as His daughter, the Son as His mother, the Holy Spirit as His spouse, so that through Her and Her Son there might come about the kiss, that is, the reconciliation of the entire human race. For this reason She was the first to pronounce the vow of virginity to God, that She might dedicate Herself entirely in body and soul to God, and say: "My flesh and my heart have failed: God of my heart, and my portion, God forever," Psalm 72:26.
The second is the kiss of desire and sighing, by which She, above all the patriarchs, most ardently desired the incarnation of the Word, for the reconciliation and salvation of the world. She therefore, as the mother of all the faithful and saints, wonderfully longing for the salvation of the whole world, with seraphic ardors of desire would say: "Let Him kiss us with the kiss of His mouth." Therefore, when She read and meditated on that oracle of Isaiah, chapter 7:14: "Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel," She exclaimed: Send, O Lord, this virgin, who may bear for us Emmanuel: would that I might see this virgin, would that I might merit to become her handmaid! Accordingly, by these most burning desires She merited by fitness Christ's incarnation, indeed His maternity, so that She alone out of all should become the mother of Christ, as the theologians teach, and Francis Suarez, Part III, Question 2, article 10, disputation 10, section 8. Whence St. Gregory, on 1 Kings 1: "She raised the summit of her merits," he says, "up to the throne of divinity;" and St. Jerome, Epistle 22 to Eustochium: "Set before yourself Mary," he says, "who was of such great purity that she merited to be the mother of the Lord;" and St. Anselm, On the Praises of the Virgin, chapter 8: "The most holy purity and purest holiness of her breast, transcending with incomparable sublimity the purity and holiness of every creature, merited this: that she should most fully become the restorer of the lost world."
The third was the kiss at Christ's incarnation: for then the Holy Spirit espoused Her to Himself as His bride, so that in Her and from Her most pure blood He might form the body of Christ, according to the words of the archangel Gabriel: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you. And therefore the Holy One that shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God," Luke 1:35. "Was not this word of the angel," says Rupert, "the word and pledge of the already imminent kiss of the mouth of the Lord?" Therefore, when She gave Her consent to the Holy Spirit for the incarnation of the Word with the greatest humility and equally with charity, saying: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word," then She truly said: "Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth," that is, let the Son of God take flesh from me, and kiss it and intimately unite it to Himself. And at that very instant, through the operation of the Holy Spirit, in Her sacred womb the kiss of God with humanity was accomplished, by which peace and justice kissed each other, when the Word was made flesh. "Truly," says Rupert, "your soul melted, when the beloved spoke, namely God the Father by an admirable utterance, an ineffable utterance, while He deeply inserted the substance of His Word, with that love of His, the Holy Spirit, into your mind and your womb; in which you were seen to have neither a predecessor nor a successor."
Again, the flesh assumed by Christ was the flesh of the Blessed Virgin; therefore when Christ assumed His flesh, He assumed the flesh of the Blessed Virgin, and as it were impressed upon it the kiss of the hypostatic union, and thus as it were deified it.
The fourth kiss was bodily at Christ's nativity, when She gave birth to Christ, and as a mother kissed Her Son with the greatest reverence and love, and from these frequent kisses of Her beloved, She felt wondrous ardors of divinity breathed into Her by Him. Hence in Hebrew it is, let him kiss me from the kisses of his mouth. To this pertains the prophecy of the Sibyl about Christ to be born of the Blessed Virgin, found in Virgil, Eclogue 4:
Begin, little boy, to recognize your mother with a smile.
Hence pious and serious men prudently judge that the Blessed Virgin, as soon as She gave birth to Christ, adored and greeted Him with the most profound reverence, saying: "Welcome, my God, my Lord, and my Son," and immediately gave a kiss to His feet as to God, to His hands as to the Lord, to His mouth as to Her Son; then wrapped Him naked in swaddling clothes, and placed Him at Her breasts, and gave Him Her virginal milk; while Christ in turn smiled and showed His delight to His mother with His mouth, eyes, and joyful countenance.
Anagogically, Christ in the resurrection, by kissing the dead body as it were, will breathe a soul into it, so that it may come back to life, and will communicate to the saints the endowments of His glorious body. The type of this was Elisha, who by kissing a dead boy raised him to life; for, as it is said in 4 Kings 4:34: "He placed his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes," etc. Whence "the boy yawned seven times, and opened his eyes." Elijah did the same, 3 Kings 17:21. Again, the blessed in heaven kiss Christ; whence Paul, Philippians 1:23: "I am straitened," he says, "between two: having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ." In imitation of this, the pagans imagined that Diana by kissing Endymion awakened him from a deathly sleep, as Pierius narrates, Hieroglyphics 50, chapter 29. Moreover, as regards the soul, the blessed in heaven, and first of all the Blessed Virgin, seeing the face of God, through this vision continually as it were kiss God, and from Him draw all the endowments, delights, and joys of the divinity, according to that saying: "They shall be inebriated with the plenty of Your house: and You shall make them drink of the torrent of Your pleasure. For with You is the fountain of life: and in Your light we shall see light," Psalm 35:9. It is related of the soul of a certain saint, who had endured many hardships in this life, that when after death he appeared to a friend, and the friend asked whether joys befitting such great sufferings had been given to him, he answered: The very first greeting of the heavenly ones, by which they embraced me as I entered heaven, and especially the first kiss of Christ, by which He kissed me, was so sweet to me and so pervaded my inmost being, that it immediately made me forget all my labors, and took away and wiped out the memory of all my sorrows, according to that saying: "God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes: and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more, because the former things have passed away. And He who sat upon the throne said: Behold, I make all things new," Apocalypse 21:4.
For Your Breasts Are Better Than Wine.
First Sense, Adequate: Concerning Christ and the Church.
St. Bernard, Sermon 9, considers that these words can be understood as those of the bridegroom, or of the bride, or of the bride's companions; but that they are properly and genuinely the words of the bride is clear from the word "because": for this word gives the reason why the bride so desired the kiss of the bridegroom, namely because she had experienced, either in herself or in others, the sweetness of the bridegroom's breasts, as if to say:
Because I tasted the sweetness of the milk, that is, of the spiritual consolations flowing from your love as from a breast, when you first attracted and called me to yourself, therefore I aspire to your kiss, so that from it I may draw your breath, spirit, and soul, from which all sweetness flows, as from the very source. Therefore the nursing breasts signify love giving wondrous consolations and sweetnesses. There is a twofold breast, a twofold love; one eternal, by which God in perpetual charity loved the bride from eternity; the other is created, placed in the human will of the bridegroom Christ, whence it was to cherish the bride with maternal affection from the first instant of His conception, like a breast bursting forth from the chest or rather from the heart. Hence St. Agnes: "Honey and milk," she says, "I received from His mouth;" and the Psalmist, Psalm 30:20: "How great is the multitude of Your sweetness, O Lord, which You have hidden for those who fear You," and perfected for those who hope in You, says Aponius. Hear Haymo, and from him St. Thomas: "By the breasts of Christ is understood the sweetness of the Gospel, by which the infancy of believers is nourished as with milk: for wine signifies the austerity of the law; but the breasts of Christ are better than wine, because the sweetness of the Gospel is better than the austerity of the law."
You will ask, how are breasts, which are proper to women, attributed to the bridegroom, who is a man? I reply, first, that in parables certain things are said that properly apply not so much to the parable as to the reality signified by the parable. Therefore the breasts are to be understood not so much as bodily, but as spiritual things signified by bodily ones: for with these Christ feeds His faithful. Again, just as Scripture borrows metaphors from animals, calling Christ a lamb, an ox, a lion: so also it borrows from women, giving Him breasts, by which it signifies the tender mercies.
I reply second, that some men who have both sexes, namely male and female, have breasts, such as are androgynes. By these breasts, therefore, it is signified that Christ is not only the father of the faithful, but also their most loving mother, inasmuch as, like a mother, He feeds us with His mystical breasts. Hence Christ is called patrimother, that is, father-mother, according to what He Himself, as the eternal Wisdom of the Father, says of Himself, Sirach 24:24: "I am the mother of beautiful love." Christ therefore, to signify that He is not only a bridegroom, but also a father and mother, names the breasts, with which He nurses and feeds the Church as a daughter with maternal affection and devotion.
Third, the Hebrew word dodim signifies both loves and breasts, for breasts are a symbol of love; hence the Hebrews here, instead of breasts, translate loves. Thus Vatablus translates: your loves surpass wine in goodness. It seems that our Translator [the Vulgate] and the Septuagint read daddim instead of dodim; for daddim signifies breasts, while dodim means loves, says Marinus in his Lexicon. Hence when dodim is written with a vav, so that it cannot be read as daddim, the Septuagint and our Translator always translate it as loves or beloved, never as breasts. But here daddim is written without vav; hence they read daddim, that is, breasts. Others, according to Origen, translate: your words are better than wine: these seem to have read debarim instead of dodim, that is, words, speeches; or certainly they explain breasts as speeches and discourses: for with these Christ feeds us.
Fourth, lovers, says Titelmann, in the excess of love are accustomed to mix up words, confuse them, and speak as it were foolishly: so here the bride, from the vehemence of love, as if forgetting the male condition, attributes breasts to the bridegroom, in order to indicate his immense beneficence and her supreme affection for him. For love makes lovers lose their minds.
Fifth, by breasts Gregory of Nyssa understands the heart, which is covered by the breasts; and Titelmann says: We could understand by breasts the chest itself, where the breasts are located, so that we might understand it as commending the sweetness and devotion of the Lord's breast, which the beloved disciple at that memorable supper was given to experience while reclining on the breast, or in the bosom, of the bridegroom; which breasts and chest were finally pierced for the bride on the cross, and poured forth blood and water, like wine and milk, for the regeneration of believers.
Finally, most plainly and easily, you may answer with Delrio and Sotomajor that men have small breasts, namely nipples, both for the protection and nourishment of the heart, as Galen teaches in On the Use of Parts, which accordingly also sometimes produce milk, as Aristotle expressly teaches, Book I of the History of Animals, chapter 12, and Book III, chapter 20: "In men," he says, "a small amount of milk is sometimes expressed after puberty, but it has been reported that a much greater flow has appeared in some through more frequent secretion." Hence also St. Augustine in Book IV of the City of God, chapter 12, says that the pagans gave a breast to Jupiter, just as the Hebrews also call God Shaddai, as if to say, "the breasted one." Moreover, Isaiah, chapter 46:3, gives God a womb and belly, and in chapter 66:11, breasts and milk. Finally, Clement of Alexandria in the Pedagogue, chapter 6, fittingly shows that Christ the Lord is as it were the breast of God the Father, that is, the loves and delights of God the Father: in which sense Christ the Lord Himself also, John 1:18, affirms that He is in the bosom of God His Father: to such a degree does God the Father delight and take pleasure in Himself in Christ His Son, out of exceeding love.
You will ask second, what do the breasts signify here? First, our Gaspar Sanchez understands by the breasts the lips, for with these, as with breasts of Christ, He poured forth the milk of His doctrine, with which He feeds us. Hence some, according to Origen, translate: your words are better than wine. This sense fits well with what precedes, as if to say: "Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth, because His breasts are better," that is, the lips of His mouth, "than wine." Hence also Rabbi Saadia translates: your saliva is better than wine. For the saliva of Christ gave sight to the blind, John 9:6.
Second, Gregory of Nyssa understands by the breasts the heart, which the breasts surround and cover: for in the heart is the seat of love, as well as of wisdom; hence the Wise Man, Proverbs 23:26: "Give me, my son," he says, "your heart." Hear Gregory of Nyssa, Homily 1: "And indeed, whoever understands by the heart the hidden and mysterious power of divinity will not err; and we may rightly consider the breasts as the operations of the divine power on our behalf, by which God nourishes the life of each one as a nurse, bestowing upon each of those who receive the appropriate nourishment."
The bride therefore, in asking for the kiss, asks to be joined to the heart of Christ, indeed demands that it be given to her, so that she may possess all of it and all its love; just as St. Catherine of Siena asked Christ to give her His heart, and obtained it -- not the substantial heart of Christ itself (for who would believe this?) but one produced and formed by Christ, and conformed and similar to His own heart.
Third, Titelmann understands by the breasts the chest: for in it are the breasts, which signify the affection, love, and beneficence of Christ, as if to say, in the words of Sanchez: "O my beloved, if between your breasts, that is, between your left and right side, I am permitted to sleep, which is a bride's right, indeed her custom; or to draw through lawful kisses the sweetest breath, which is breathed forth from your breasts, that is, from your inmost heart, which is far sweeter than noble wine and the finest ointments: this will be my medicine for all things, indeed in preference to all ointments."
Fourth, Origen, Bede, Justus, Cassiodorus, Philo of Carpathia, and Aponius understand by the two breasts the two Testaments, namely the Old and the New, or the doctrine of the prophets and apostles: for each, like a twofold breast, feeds the faithful, and once fed the Jews, as well as Christians.
Hear St. Ambrose, Sermon 1 on Psalm 118: "As one despising all her pleasures and delights, and desiring to cling to the heavenly commandments, she says: Because the excellent precepts of Your Testaments surpass every appetite of the flesh and worldly pleasure: for she remembered that in Eve she had previously fallen in this way."
Fifth, our Sanchez understands by the breasts the inward parts, from which breath is drawn by breathing; hence the Syriac translates breasts as inward parts. Since, says Sanchez, the breath of the bridegroom is said to be most sweet in chapter 5, verse 16, for that is what this means: "His throat is most sweet;" therefore the bride seems so greatly to desire the kiss, because through it she draws the breath and soul of the bridegroom, which is far sweeter than wine and the finest ointments. That the heart is signified by the name of breasts, see chapter 7, at the words: "I will give you my breasts." Or perhaps (which I think more likely) she signifies that she very greatly desires the time of the wedding, because then by custom the bride lies in the bosom of the bridegroom, that is between his left and right side, which is the place of the breasts and is called the bosom. And there is nothing more powerful for soothing the anguish of the soul than the bosom or the breasts of the bridegroom where the bride is to take her sleep. Perhaps the breasts are taken as meaning kisses: nor is this manner of speaking harsh, if by breasts you understand love: for love is used in place of a kiss by that figure by which the thing signified is put for the sign; which frequently happens in Sacred Scripture. Through the breasts, therefore, the bride asks to have the sweet and fragrant breath of the bridegroom's inward parts breathed upon her: for which reason in ancient times more refined men and women used to chew mastic, in order to exhale a sweet and fragrant breath, as Clement of Alexandria testifies, Book III of the Pedagogue, chapter 3. This interpretation is supported by what follows: "Fragrant with the finest ointments." So says Sanchez.
Sixth and genuinely, the breasts signify the most sweet faculty and power of nursing: for Christ with His most sweet doctrine and grace, as with two breasts, most sweetly nurses the faithful; the breasts of Christ therefore are His wisdom and beneficence themselves, from which flows His honey-speech, and the sweetness of His doctrine and words, like honeyed milk, which is sweeter than all the wine of carnal pleasures, being sharp and biting. For wine is the mark and cause of raging lust, according to the saying:
As Venus rages in wines, fire rages in fire.
But the milk of Christ just mentioned brings the faithful, as infants newly born, as St. Peter says, to the full age of virtue and the perfect life, because it does not spring up like the vine and wine from the depths of earthly wisdom or secular literature, but rains down from heaven on high like manna and the morning dew. Again, just as the breasts surround the heart and draw their power from it, so doctrine and grace come forth from the chest and heart of Christ, and as it were offer and present it to us. Moreover, just as the breasts are the seat of loves and delights, according to Proverbs 5:19: "A most dear hind, and a most pleasing fawn; let her breasts inebriate you at all times," so the seat of the same is the breast and heart of Christ, full of every consolation and grace. Just as therefore infants have all their nourishment and comfort in their mother's breasts, and seek and desire nothing else beyond them, so for the holy Church, in the breasts of divine mercy, devotion, and beneficence, lies every good, every nourishment, every comfort. She seeks nothing beyond, she refuses to be consoled except in God. Better, she says, are your breasts to me than the most delicious wine, than anything in this world that can bring whatever, or however great, or however fine a consolation or joy. Your beneficence delights me more, and what I receive from you of spiritual nourishment or holy delight, than all the bodily pleasures of this world. After I once sucked these breasts, after I once tasted the sweetest milk, which is drawn and sucked from those breasts out of the hidden depths of your mercy, I cannot taste or see other breasts; I abhor alien consolations, my soul utterly refuses to be consoled except in God.
So Titelmann and others generally. Hear the three anonymous Fathers cited by Theodoret: "She makes mention of breasts because they are near to the heart, in which is the principal seat of the mind, from which the fountains of doctrine flow: she therefore admires the breasts of the bridegroom as fountains of good things, from which both infants still and also the perfect are conveniently nourished; and she says they are better than wine, because by the testimony of divine Scripture wine gladdens the heart of man. For figuratively she called wine joy, in order to declare that the joy which comes from his gifts to the devout surpasses all human pleasures. And if you wish to understand the breasts mystically as well, by those admirable breasts, superior to wine, think of those ineffable fountains of the altar, from which all of us, the nurslings of piety, are nourished."
By which last words they understand the breasts as the Eucharist, in which Christ feeds us with His flesh as with food, and gives us drink with His blood as with drink and milk, nurses and inebriates us: for these breasts are intrinsic to Christ, while the rest are extrinsic. Hence St. Chrysostom, Homily 60 to the People and Homily 83 on Matthew: "Who," he says, "shall speak the powers of the Lord, and make all His praises heard? What shepherd ever nourished his sheep with his own members? Many mothers after childbirth have given their infants to other nurses: which He Himself was unwilling to do, but nourishes us with His own body, and joins us to Himself, and binds us together." And after a few interjections: "Do you not see with what eagerness of spirit infants seize the breasts, with what pressure they press their lips to the nipples? With no less eagerness let us too approach this table, and the spiritual nipple of this chalice: indeed with even greater desire, as nursing children, let us suck the grace of the Spirit; let this be our one sorrow, our one sadness, if we are deprived of this spiritual nourishment."
Again, Christ nurses us with His doctrine, His grace, His miracles, His examples, His passion, His wounds. Hence the side of Christ on the cross was opened by the lance of Longinus, and from it as from a breast there flowed blood and water like milk, with which He nurses us, John 19:34.
The external breasts of Christ are the apostles and evangelists (whence the apostle Judas was surnamed Thaddaeus, that is, "the generous one": for thad in Chaldean signifies breast; and Lebbaeus, that is, "dear heart": for leb in Hebrew is heart): concerning whom hear Justus, Bishop of Urgel: "We not unfittingly understand the breasts of Christ as the apostles and evangelists: for through them we are nourished in faith, and refreshed with spiritual food. They are therefore proven better than wine, because the evangelical doctrine is recognized as more eminent than the law formerly given. For there was the figure, here is the truth; there, as the austerity of wine, it showed that only the neighbor was to be loved and the enemy hated; here the sweetness of grace admonishes that we should pray for our enemies, and love those who hate us." And St. Gregory: "These," he says, "are the breasts, that is, the teachers, who fixed in the ark of the breast, give them milk to drink, because they themselves, clinging to the mysteries of the highest contemplation, nourish us with their refined preaching." This is what Isaiah sings, chapter 66:11: "That you may suck, and be filled from the breast of her consolation (Jerusalem, that is, of Christ and the Church): that you may milk out and flow with delights from every kind of her glory;" and shortly after: "You shall be carried at the breasts, and upon the knees they shall caress you. As one whom the mother caresses, so will I comfort you, and in Jerusalem you shall be comforted."
Hear Ortolanus here, eloquently and wisely expressing the words of the bride congratulating herself on the breasts of the bridegroom: O how immense is Your kindness toward me, my bridegroom! Behold, I, who once, humble and squalid, lay mourning in grief and filth, now by a free gift, raised from the lowest filth to royal dignity, walk forth gleaming, adorned, crowned with a diadem and every royal ornament and adornment, the sister and bride of the supreme King, the wonder of the whole world, and the most pleasing spectacle of all the divine beings. You, the only-begotten Son of God most great and good, Yourself God most great and good, the one delight that the heavenly Father cherishes in His bosom, having become a sharer of my nature, deigned to make me, Your humble and lowly handmaid, a sharer of Your nature, to ennoble me with Your nuptials, to cherish me in Your bosom, to delight me with every pleasure -- in Your supreme delights and joys You hold me, God on earth, man in heaven. Angels with men on earth, men with angels in heaven join their choirs. Through You there has been made one mingling of all. Through You there has been made a forgetting of injuries, enmities have been removed, battle suddenly dissolved, God reconciled to men, sin blotted out, death destroyed, and access opened to heaven, hitherto inaccessible to us. From there spring forth the most abundant fountains of all graces, milky eloquence flows from Your mouth, and from there breathes the divine breeze that lifts and carries me to heavenly delights. The body indeed crawls on the ground, yet my mind already dwells with You in heaven, most sweet bridegroom of mine, in heaven enjoys Your loves, and goods of such a kind as neither the human eye can see, nor the ear hear, nor our mind of itself embrace in thought.
Hence Aponius symbolically understands by the two breasts two persons: St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist -- the latter who, as the closest to Christ, reclined upon His breast at the supper, and from there drank streams of graces as from breasts. Hear Aponius: "It will not be unfitting to understand the two breasts of Christ properly as the Baptist and the Evangelist, the two Johns, who were offered to the Church as the fullest breasts after the kisses of the aforesaid sacrament. While the one points out to the Church Him who alone takes away the sin of the world as the Lamb, the other points out the Word God remaining with God the Father in the beginning; who through their spotless lives clung to His love like breasts to the chest, while the one showed to the Church, still small and nursing, the true man under the name of the spotless Lamb; the other from the effect of creation demonstrates the maker of all things, the Word God in the beginning, through whom all things were created." And Origen, Homily 1: "It is certain," he says, "that John is said in the Gospel to have rested in the innermost heart of Jesus, and in the eternal meanings of His doctrine, there seeking and searching the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that were hidden in Christ Jesus."
Mystically, the breasts of charity are better than wine, because they are never constricted, never empty, but always abound and overflow with gifts. Some natural philosophers report that the crow, when it recognizes its young, since it has no milk, feeds them with its own flesh and blood. Hence the Poet:
And charity is never without milk, It does not swell with milk, but swells with blood;
so Christ from the most ardent charity on the cross poured forth blood, by which like a pelican He revived and nourished us, His dead chicks. These indeed are the breasts of charity.
Hear St. Gregory: "The breasts of the bridegroom are the love of God and neighbor: with these breasts He nourishes His bride with the milk of devotion, and amid the storms of temptations He cherishes and nourishes her, and refreshes her so that she may persevere. But what is expressed by wine except temporal care, by which the mind of any worldly person is intoxicated, so that it is rendered either wholly or nearly insensible to knowing invisible things? But the breasts of the bridegroom are better than wine, because the latter kills, the former nourish; the latter disturbs the eyes of the mind, the former sharpen them; the latter causes even the wise to apostatize, the former make even the unlearned most wise indeed. As many times as the bride ruminates and sucks from the richness of love, so many maxims of wisdom she draws into the belly of her memory. For holy charity pacifies the heart, strengthens the mind in temptations, and so that the soul of the just may be the seat of wisdom, it bestows rest and prepares a place."
Furthermore, St. Bernard, Sermon 9, understands by the two breasts the benign long-suffering of God, by which He waits for sinners to repent, and the benign reception, by which He embraces and nurses those who have already repented.
Moreover, the breasts particularly denote the consolations, tastes, and spiritual delights, with which God nurses, gladdens, and strengthens the soul, and this incessantly and continually. For the breasts of man and of earthly pleasures are immediately exhausted and dry up; but the inexhaustible breasts of Christ pour forth perpetual milk of delights, and this most readily and most generously.
WINE. — By wine understand any pleasures of the world, as I said; mystically, the austerity of the Mosaic law, and the harshness of the doctrine of the philosophers, says Anselm: for the sweetness of the milk of evangelical doctrine surpasses both. Moreover, some understand by wine the wrath, indignation, punishments, and vengeance, which not infrequently occur between lovers, according to Micah, chapter 2:11: "I will drop to you in wine and in drunkenness," that is, I will prophesy, and I will pour out to you the wine of divine fury; I will foretell the punishments with which God will give you to drink and as it were intoxicate you. Thus the sense will be, as if to say: The breasts of divine love are better than the wine of His indignation, both because they are sweeter, and because they are more efficacious: for men are drawn more by love than by fear, by affection than by indignation, by benefits than by punishments. Or, as if to say: Granted that I have offended You often, O my bridegroom, and You are rightly angry with me, yet the sweetness of Your breasts, that is, of Your mercy and love, surpasses all the bitterness of wine, that is, of Your wrath: for it is proper to You to have mercy and to spare; therefore You have always shown me greater proofs of love than of indignation. Finally, St. Bernard, Sermon 9: "Your breasts are better than wine," that is, he says, "the richness of grace, which flows from Your breasts, is more efficacious for me unto spiritual progress than the biting rebuke of prelates."
Second Sense, Partial: Concerning Christ and the Faithful Soul.
Apply to the soul what has been said about the Church, merely changing the name. Hence the Chaldean translates: because of the abundance of love, with which He loved us more than seventy nations. The soul therefore, espoused to Christ, says to Him: "Your breasts are better (O bridegroom) than wine," that is, the milk of Your doctrine and grace is better for me, and more pleasing to me, than all the wine of human consolation, pleasures, prudence, and cunning: for this weakens the mind as well as the body, embitters, torments, dissolves the soul, deceives, infatuates, and drives mad, according to that saying: "Those who were nourished in scarlet have embraced the dung," Lamentations 4:5; and that saying: "Who has woe? Whose father has woe? Who has quarrels? Who has pits? Who has wounds without cause? Who has bloodshot eyes? Are they not those who linger over wine, and strive to drain their cups?" Proverbs 23:29-30. See what was said there. But Your milk above all human delights gladdens, satisfies, protects from harm, strengthens against falls, fortifies in good, dispels the clouds of the soul, calms anger, vain loves, and hatreds, and fills the heart with the charity of God and neighbor. The Psalmist had tasted this milk, whence he exclaims: "How great is the abundance of Your sweetness, O Lord, which You have hidden for those who fear You!" Psalm 30:20.
Hear St. Bernard, Sermon 9: "The pleasure of the flesh," say the devout souls espoused to Christ, "by which a little before, as by wine, we were held intoxicated, is overcome by these spiritual delights which Your breasts instill in us. And they fittingly compare carnal affection to wine: for just as the grape once pressed has nothing more to pour forth, but is condemned to perpetual dryness, so the flesh in the pressure of death is dried up from every pleasure of its own, and no longer grows green again for lusts. Hence the Prophet: All flesh is grass, and all its glory like the flower of the field. The grass is dried up, and the flower has fallen, Isaiah 40:6; and the Apostle, Galatians 6:8: He who sows in his flesh, from the flesh will also reap corruption. And again, 1 Corinthians 6:13: Food for the belly, and the belly for food: but God will destroy both it and them."
He then adds the same concerning the pleasures of the world: "But see whether this comparison does not perhaps apply not only to the flesh, but also to the world; for it too passes away, and its concupiscence; and although all things that are in the world have an end, their end will not be the end. But the breasts are not so; for when they have been exhausted, they again draw from the fountain of the maternal breast what they may offer to those who suck. Rightly therefore the breasts of the bride are declared better than the love of the flesh or of the world, which are never dried up by any number of nurslings, but always abound from the depths of charity, so that they may flow again: for rivers flow from her belly, and there is made in her a fountain of water springing up into eternal life," John 7:38.
Finally, St. Bernard, Sermon 10, assigns to Prelates two breasts: the maternal affection of rejoicing with others and of compassion, which the Apostle prescribes, Romans 12:15, saying: "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep:" so that rejoicing together may pour forth the milk of exhortation, and compassion the milk of consolation; and that the spiritual mother may be bedewed with both, when through prayer she draws the kiss of the bridegroom.
Third Sense, Principal: Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin.
"What," says Rupert, "do we rightly understand by His breasts, if not His sweetness? And what is His sweetness, if not the Holy Spirit? Such sweetness is fittingly distinguished into two breasts, because there are two gifts of the same Holy Spirit. The first gift is for the remission of sins, by which breast indeed none of the ancient saints was nursed before this Blessed Virgin. The other gift is in the distributions or allotments of diverse graces, by which breast the holy fathers were nursed and prophesied, and performed many miracles."
Moreover, the breasts properly communicated by God to the Blessed Virgin are the very maternity of God: for the mark of this is the breasts, for these, as soon as a woman gives birth and becomes a mother, swell and are filled with milk to nourish the offspring. For God the Father, just as He begot the Son, insofar as He is God, so also gave to the Blessed Virgin as mother the power to beget the same Son, insofar as He is man: which is Her supreme dignity, surpassing all the wine of created excellence, and requiring the highest excellence of all graces. For, as St. Thomas teaches, Part I, Question 25, article 6, God can create other things better and nobler than all things created by Him, except three, namely the humanity assumed by the Word, the beatific vision, and the maternity of God: for these three, since they have God for their object, can be surpassed by nothing, and transcended by no created gift.
Hence that woman in the Gospel exclaimed: "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts that You sucked," Luke 11:27. And St. Augustine, placing himself between the Blessed Virgin and Christ crucified: "From here," he says, "I am nursed by the breast, from there I am fed by the wound." The Blessed Virgin, visibly sharing this milk of Her breasts with a certain cleric of Nevers who was devoted to Her and already at the point of death, restored him to life and health, as Blessed Peter Damian narrates, Book VI, Epistle 29: "For when," he says, "his spirit was anxiously fluttering in his chest as if about to depart, behold the glorious Mother of God visibly stood by him, and pressing milk from the nipple of Her sacred breast, she instilled it on his lips, and immediately by the antidote of divine power, his strength restored, he recovered from his infirmity, and soon, dressed in clerical vestments, he went to the church, and joyfully inserting himself among the choir of brothers singing psalms, he presented a wonderful spectacle to those watching. It is also said that even then certain traces of milk were still visible on his lips." Thus far Damian.
The same happened to St. Fulbert, Bishop of Chartres, who, illustrious in learning and holiness, died in the year of the Lord 1028. For when he was wonderfully devoted to the Blessed Virgin, and his tongue had been seized by a sacred fire, so that he burned all over; one night when he was tormented by this beyond the usual, a noble lady appeared to him, by whom he was told to open his mouth to her: and when he had done so, she immediately pressed milk from her sacred breasts into his mouth; by which his tongue was so cooled that it extinguished all the burning, and restored him to perfect health. And lest it be thought an illusion or a phantasm, some drops remained on Fulbert's cheek, which he himself carefully collected with a cloth, and to this day they are kept with the greatest veneration in the treasury of the church of Chartres. So record the Annals of the Church of Chartres, and William of Malmesbury, Book III of the Deeds of the English, and Baronius, volume XII, year of Christ 1028.
It is reported that St. Bernard too, sprinkled with the same milk of the Blessed Virgin by Her, became milky and mellifluous in speaking and writing, especially when he treats of the praises of the Blessed Virgin and the incarnate Word. Hence he took marvelous delight in that hymn whose beginning is: "Hail, Queen, Mother of Mercy," which was composed by Hermann the Cripple, Count of Veringen, who professed the monastic life at the monastery of St. Gall about the year of the Lord 1040, and which we hear sung everywhere in the churches at vespers in honor of the Blessed Virgin. Hence he wrote several sermons on this hymn: and so the Canons of Speyer, when St. Bernard entered the Church of the Blessed Virgin at Speyer, sang this hymn, while St. Bernard himself, kneeling three times, responded: "O merciful, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary!" In memory of this event, these very words engraved in bronze letters on plates set in the ground in those same places are still seen at Speyer today.
Verse 2. Fragrant with the Finest Ointments.
The Hebrew has: at the fragrance of your good ointments, namely by antonomasia, that is, the best; the Syriac: at the fragrance of your sweetnesses. Hence some refer these words to the oil that follows, and connect them with it thus: "because of," that is on account of, "the fragrance of your ointments, your name is oil poured out." But better does our Translator explain "at the fragrance" as meaning fragrant, that is, having fragrance, and refers it back to the breasts that preceded. For noble and refined women are accustomed to wear at their breast and bosom little scent-bottles and perfume cases, that is, capsules containing musk and other sweet fragrances, which in Psalm 44:9 are called ivory houses: for among the Hebrews "house" signifies any kind of case.
Furthermore, the Septuagint, explaining "the best," translates: and the fragrance of your ointments is above all spices. For if the ointments of the bridegroom are the best, then they surpass all ointments and spices. This alludes to the custom of the ancients, among whom bridegrooms, crowned with garlands and anointed with ointments, would enter into marriage. Hence of Christ the bridegroom it is said, Psalm 44:8-9: "God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your companions. Myrrh and aloes and cassia from Your garments, from the ivory houses." To this pertains that verse of Virgil:
No longer shall my temples sweat with rich myrrh, Nor shall the nuptial pine kindle chaste honors.
First Sense: Concerning Christ and the Church.
The sense therefore is, as if to say: "Your breasts are better than wine" on account of their fragrance, or because they are redolent and fragrant with the finest ointments. For the new bride had not yet perceived either the kisses of the bridegroom or the milk of his breasts, except from afar; but enticed and allured by their fragrance, that is, by their fame, she desires both the milk of the breasts and the kiss of the mouth. For fragrance is a symbol of fame, according to Ecclesiastes 7:2: "A good name is better than precious ointments;" and 2 Corinthians 2:15: "We are the good odor of Christ unto God," that is, by preaching the fame of Christ we spread it everywhere. Thus Mary Magdalene, allured by the sweet fame that was spreading about the holiness, sweetness, and power of Christ, hastened to the kiss of His feet. Hence the Chaldean, applying these words in his manner to the Synagogue, that is, to Moses and the Jews who were a type of the Church, that is, of Christ and Christians, translates thus: at the sound of your miracles and your power, which you did for your people the house of Israel, all the peoples who heard the fame of your power and your good signs were moved.
Hence again the ointments of Christ are the charisms of the Holy Spirit: for these spread the sweetest fragrance and fame of Him everywhere. Hence Rupert: "The best ointments," he says, "are these charisms: the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, the grace of healings, the working of miracles, prophecy, the discernment of spirits, and the rest, which those who possess are of good odor, and sweetly fragrant like the finest ointment. Hence the Apostle says: Thanks be to God, who always triumphs through us in Christ Jesus, and manifests the odor of His knowledge through us in every place, because we are the good odor of Christ unto God." For of Christ St. Peter says, Acts 10:38: "God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with Him." Hence His "fame went out into the whole region," Luke 4:14: and, "the fame of Him spread into every place of the region," ibid. verse 37.
Furthermore, the version of the Septuagint which has, and the fragrance of your ointments is above all spices, and the Arabic which follows it, and the fragrance of your sweetnesses is the most excellent of all sweetnesses, the Fathers explain thus, as if to say: The grace and virtue of Christ, with which the Father anointed Him, surpasses all gifts, graces, and virtues given not only to Moses and the prophets, but also to all the saints taken together. For, as Habakkuk says of Him, chapter 3:3: "His virtue covered the heavens," that is, it is heavenly, and transcends the heavens and the heavenly angels: for the virtue of Christ is in itself virtue itself; the wisdom, justice, charity, etc. of Christ is in itself wisdom, justice, charity, etc. itself, says Gregory of Nyssa. So also Origen, Aponius, and Theodoret, whom hear: "Known to me," he says, "are the ointments which Moses prepared, and the oil of anointing, and the incense of composition; but your ointment is the sweetest of all those spices. By ointment here he means the spiritual grace, with which He being filled, from His fullness He imparted to us all: wherefore with a clear voice blessed Paul says, 2 Corinthians 2:15: We are the good odor of Christ unto God, in those who are saved, and in those who perish: to some indeed the odor of death unto death, but to others the odor of life unto life." For Christ from the first instant of His conception received infused from God every grace and virtue, and this in such a degree, perfection, and sublimity, that it is the grace of the Head, which namely from Christ is derived to all the Saints, as from the head to the members, according to that saying: "God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your companions," Psalm 44:8. For in Christ there dwelt not only a likeness, but also "all the fullness of the divinity," as Paul says, Colossians 2:9. Hence from "His fullness we have all received," John 1:16.
Second Sense: Concerning Christ and the Holy Soul.
Christ the bridegroom communicates His breasts, fragrant with the finest ointments and charisms, to His bride, namely the holy soul, according to 1 Corinthians 1:30: "Of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who has been made unto us wisdom from God, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption." Hence St. Gregory, who understands by the two breasts the twofold love of God and neighbor: "These breasts," he says, "are fragrant with the finest ointments, because they carry with them the fragrance of sweetness through the words of wisdom and examples of holiness. For whoever refreshes himself with holy charity through the grace of God, perceives both the fragrance and the sweetness of spiritual gifts. By the abundance of these goods he draws his nearest neighbors to taste the interior things with him, and nourishes them with these breasts so that they may grow strong in divine love." These ointments are therefore the best, in comparison with carnal ointments; because those whom they anoint, they make true kings and priests. Others who understand by the breasts of Christ the apostles and evangelical teachers, say that they surpass the holy prophets, patriarchs, priests, and Mosaic kings by the fragrance of graces, holy virtues, works, and miracles, and the consequent fame and glory. "Because," says Justus of Urgel, "they shone with such great virtues and such great miracles, that the fragrance of their justice, widely and broadly diffused, delighted those who beheld them then, and refreshes all hearers even to this day, just as one of them proclaims saying: But thanks be to God, who always triumphs us in Christ Jesus, and manifests the odor of His knowledge through us in every place," 2 Corinthians 2:14; and: "God who has anointed us: who has also sealed us, and given the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts," 2 Corinthians 1:21-22. See what I noted in both places.
Finally, St. Bernard, Sermon 10 and following, assigns three mystical ointments of the soul: the first, of contrition; the second, of devotion; the third, of piety; which he then pursues individually at length: "The first," he says, "is piercing, causing pain; the second, tempering, soothing pain; the third, healing, expelling disease." With this threefold ointment Mary Magdalene anointed both the feet and the head of Christ. But the holy soul anoints Him above all with the ointment of praise and thanksgiving, by which she attributes all her grace, all her merit, all her praise and glory to Christ. The same Bernard, in Sermon 22, understands by the ointments the four cardinal virtues, which are true in Christ alone, but feigned and false in the philosophers: "What have you to do with virtues," he says, "you who do not know Christ, the power of God? Where, I ask, is true prudence, except in the doctrine of Christ? Where is true justice, except from the mercy of Christ? Where is true temperance, except in the life of Christ? Where is true fortitude, except in the passion of Christ? Therefore only those who are imbued with His doctrine are to be called prudent; only those just who have obtained from His mercy the pardon of their sins; only those temperate who strive to imitate His life; only those strong who courageously hold fast to the lessons of His patience in adversity. In vain therefore does anyone labor in the acquisition of virtues, if he thinks they are to be hoped for from any other source than from the Lord of virtues, whose doctrine is the seedbed of prudence, whose mercy is the work of justice, whose life is the mirror of temperance, whose death is the mark of fortitude."
Third Sense: Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin.
Rupert, who understands these words, as indeed all the rest of the entire Song of Songs, properly of the Blessed Virgin, asserts that the breasts of twofold charity granted to the Blessed Virgin were fragrant with the sweetest odor of all virtues, which the Holy Spirit distributes to others, but gathered all of them in the Virgin, and this with such abundance and fullness, that She alone was more fragrant with all of them than the rest of the saints gathered into one, according to Sirach 24:20: "Like cinnamon and aromatic balm I gave forth fragrance, like choice myrrh I gave sweetness of odor, etc. I like a vine brought forth the sweetness of fragrance: and my flowers are the fruit of honor and integrity. I am the mother of beautiful love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the way and of truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue. Come to me, all you who desire me, and be filled from my fruits (that is, the fruits I have brought forth). For my spirit is sweeter than honey, and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb. My memorial is unto the generations of ages." See what was said there.
Your Name Is Oil Poured Out.
Oil is distilled not only from olives, but from any flower, herb, or spice, which draws out the entire substance, juice, richness, and power of the thing: hence it is called by physicians the quintessence, which, if skillfully mixed with the oil of other spices, makes an excellent and fragrant ointment. Hence the Septuagint, Vatablus, and others translate: your name is ointment poured out; the Syriac: your name is the ointment of myrrh; the Arabic: your name is a sweet ointment poured out. For the Hebrew word schemen signifies not only oil, but also ointment, and this is more fitting for this passage. For it explains "fragrant with the finest ointments," as if to say: The breasts of Your most sweet beneficence, O Christ, are better than wine, that is, than all the pleasures and allurements of the world, because they are fragrant with the finest ointments, that is, they breathe forth the best charisms, which You pour out upon all, to such a degree that You can be called oil, or ointment poured out, and this name is peculiar and proper to You. Hence in the Hebrew there is a beautiful paronomasia: Your schem (name) is schemen (oil), that is, your name is oil, and the deity of oil. Accordingly Ortolanus paraphrases thus, genuinely and wisely expounding, as if to say: Drenched with these heavenly ointments by the Holy Spirit, You, O Christ, are wholly fragrant, You smell most sweetly, and by Your wondrous words and deeds You have already acquired so great a name for Yourself: thus Your illustrious fame, by which
by the Greeks Christ, by the Latins the Anointed One, because in the Incarnation, by which as man He was anointed and consecrated through the grace of God the Father as the supreme Pontiff, Prophet, Lawgiver, King and Redeemer of the world. Whence He poured out this ointment of His grace upon all who believe in Him, and continues to pour it out day by day: hence from Christ all are called Christians. "For when He handed over His power and authority to the apostles, the whole world was most sacredly pervaded with piety," says Philo Carpathius. Whence also in baptism Christians are visibly anointed with the ointment of chrism on their bodies, and invisibly anointed with the grace of the Holy Spirit in their souls, says Theodoret. Wherefore Gregory of Nazianzus, in his Oration on Holy Baptism, says: "Let us savor that ointment poured out for our sake, receiving it in a spiritual manner, and so formed and transformed by it, that from us too a sweet fragrance may breathe forth." For just as Magdalene, pouring ointment on the head of Christ, filled the whole house with a sweet odor, so Christ, pouring forth His graces upon the faithful, filled the whole Church, indeed the whole world, with the most pleasant fragrance of the Gospel. So too Cassiodorus, Justus Orgelitanus, Bede and St. Gregory, whom hear: "The name, he says, of the Bridegroom is Christ; but the name of the Bridegroom is poured out like oil, because all who truly bear the Christian name abound in charity, by which they are softened; and, that they may send forth the flames of good example, they are continually suffused with the same charity." And St. Augustine, sermon 3 on Psalm 30, understanding by the ointment of Christ His mercy: "Nor, he says, did You keep the ointment of Your mercy in Jerusalem as in a vessel, but as if the vessel were broken, the ointment was poured out through the world, that what is said might be fulfilled: Your name is an ointment poured out; and thus You made wonderful Your mercy in the city of circumstance, that is, in all nations pouring out Your mercy." In a similar way, Philo Carpathius understands by the ointment the most ardent charity of God and of Christ poured out and lavished upon us. For this reason pontiffs as well as kings and princes are anointed with oil, that they may pour out full charity upon their subjects. Hence of Jesus the pontiff and Zerubbabel the prince it is said in Zechariah 4:14: "These are the two sons of oil, who stand before the Lord of the whole earth." And of Elijah and Enoch it is said in Revelation 11:4: "These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing in the presence of the Lord of the earth." See what was said in both places.
Furthermore, Eusebius, book IV of the Demonstration, chapter 15, adds that Christ was anointed with oil not only as man, but also as God, from eternity — that is, He received from the Father the fullness of divinity: "The divine Spirit, he says, bestowing and adapting by a proper and fitting example that power of the supreme and unbegotten divine essence which can do all things, provides every good, and supplies all beauty, calls it oil. Wherefore He calls both Christ, and the anointed one who shares in Him." And after a few words,
You ask, what is this name? First, the Chaldean takes the name Jehovah: "And Your holy name, he says, has been heard in all the earth, which is more chosen than the oil of anointing, with which the heads of kings and priests are anointed." Whence many take the name here as referring to God, who in the creation of the world poured out His goodness and beneficence upon all creatures like oil, and in the redemption of the same sent forth, indeed poured out, the bowels of His mercy — namely His Only-begotten Son — into our flesh. For Jehovah signifies being itself, and the ocean of being, or an immense sea, and the first principle of all things, from which all things, as from a fountain, beg and draw their being; and Jehovah was transformed into Jesus, when God, having become man, poured out the sea of His grace and salvation upon all the faithful. Eusebius adds, book IV of the Demonstration, chapter 5, that Jehovah, that is, God the Father, pours out His entire divinity into the Son through generation; and that the Father and the Son transfuse the same into the Holy Spirit through spiration. Whence the same author, book V of the Demonstration 1, calls the Son the fragrance of the Father.
Furthermore, the name Jehovah, that is, of God, formerly known only to the Jews and, as it were, confined within Judea, was spread and poured out through the whole world through Jesus, that is, the incarnate Word, when at the preaching of the apostles all nations, even the godless, came to know, love and glorify God. So Origen, Anselm and others. Hear St. Ambrose, book III On Virgins, past the middle: "This ointment always existed, but it was with the Father: it was in the Father: it was fragrant only to angels and archangels, as if within the vessel of heaven. The Father opened His mouth saying: Behold, I have set you as a covenant for my people, as a light to the nations, that you may be for salvation even to the ends of the earth: the Son descended, and all things were filled with a new fragrance." And after some intervening words: "The Son of God Himself at first contained His fragrance in His body as in a vessel, awaiting the time, as He says: The Lord gives me a learned tongue, that I may know when I ought to speak the word. The hour came, He opened His mouth: the ointment went forth, when power went out from Him. This ointment was emptied out upon the Jews, and was gathered by the Gentiles: it was emptied out in Judea, and gave its fragrance in all lands."
after some intervening words: "Him, he says, who alone was anointed with all this oil, and who was made the chief of the divine and paternal fragrance which is shared with no others, and who alone was begotten from Him, God the Word, through the communication of the unbegotten begetter, declared to be God from God — Him he called Christ and Anointed."
But properly the discussion here concerns Christ as man; for thus He is the Bridegroom of the Church, and therefore He is called Christ, that is, Anointed, and that so copiously and fully, that He is called not only the Anointed, but also the ointment and oil itself: "Your name is an ointment poured out," by which pouring out He consecrated Christians as mystical kings and priests, according to 1 Peter 2:9: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of His own possession, that you may declare the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light."
Christ therefore as man was anointed with a twofold oil or ointment, that is, with a twofold grace. The first is the grace of the hypostatic union, through which flesh was united to the Word, and man was made God. The second, following from the first already mentioned, is habitual grace infused into the soul of Christ, which not only sanctified Him, but also established Him as the fountain of sanctity and the head and cause of all the saints: for from this followed the outpouring of all grace upon all the faithful and saints of every nation, age, sex, condition, degree and order. "The Jew, says St. Bernard, has the oil, but not poured out; he has it in his books, but not in his heart. What good does it do you to read the pious name of the Savior in books, and not have piety in your conduct?" But the Christian receives piety in conduct from Christ, who receives the anointing of Christ in his heart.
Finally, by the name is understood the thing and person signified by the name, as if to say, as Bede says: "Your name is an ointment poured out," that is, You are rightly named, O Christ, what You are — namely, full of the Spirit and His gifts, which You copiously pour out upon others. For the oil signifies the Holy Spirit and His charisms, which Christ at Pentecost generously distributed to the apostles and the rest of the faithful, according to that saying: "I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh," Joel 2:28.
Third, the proper name of the Bridegroom of the Church is Jesus: for the name Christ is the name of His office; but the name Jesus is the proper name of the person, namely of that man who was hypostatically united to the Word. For the name Jesus was imposed on Him at His circumcision, just as the name Cornelius, Peter, Paul, etc. is imposed on us at baptism. For Jesus means Savior, which only the God-man, or the incarnate Word, truly was; for He pours out saving grace, varied and manifold, upon the faithful, so that they may attain eternal salvation and glory, according to that saying: "For there is no other name under heaven given to men, by which we must be saved," Acts 4:12. For Jesus pours out upon virgins the grace of virginal chastity, upon widows that of widowhood, upon the married that of marriage; He inspires martyrs with fortitude,
upon teachers learning, upon religious their religious life, upon hermits solitude, upon the active their activity, upon contemplatives contemplation, etc.; and all these things He does not drop sparingly, but pours out lavishly, and with a marvelous fragrance of sweetness, so that for the holy soul nothing is sweeter, nothing more delightful, than to think upon, name, and invoke Jesus. "Jesus, says St. Bernard, is honey in the mouth, melody in the ear, jubilation in the heart: nothing sweeter is sung, nothing more pleasant is heard, nothing more delightful is thought upon, than Jesus the Son of God. O Jesus, sweetness of hearts, living fountain, light of minds, surpassing every joy and every desire." See the entire hymn of St. Bernard on the name of Jesus.
Therefore the Church and the faithful soul says to Christ: You are Jesus to me, You are my Savior, You are my salvation; You pour out the ointment of Your salvation upon all the saints. For this ointment of Your name is composed of the most precious spices of Your divinity and humanity — namely of Your flesh, blood, and soul most richly adorned with every gift and virtue, mingled with Your divinity. So St. Cyril, books IV and IX On Adoration.
And therefore the name of Jesus includes the name Jehovah, and all other names of God and of Christ, which are: Emmanuel, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Father of the Age to Come, Prince of Peace, etc., Isaiah 9:6; Numbers 14:18. Hence the name of Jesus was so sweet and lovable to St. Paul that he repeats it often in each of his sentences and delights in it. Hence in his few Epistles he repeats it two hundred and nineteen times, and the name of Christ four hundred and one times. St. Ignatius did the same, as is evident from his Epistles, especially in his Epistle to the Romans, where also that saying occurs: "My Jesus, my love, is crucified." So too St. Dionysius, who in chapter 4 of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, page 3, says: "We know that the most august Jesus, in a super-substantial manner, fills our mind with fragrant odor and divine delight through spiritual distributions." And St. Francis, says St. Bonaventure in his Life, "when he expressed or heard the name of Jesus, was filled interiorly with a certain jubilation and seemed entirely changed outwardly, as if a honey-flowing savor had altered his taste, or a harmonious sound had changed his hearing."
The name of Jesus is called purak; the Septuagint has exkevosen, that is, emptied out and poured forth — both in the circumcision, where by shedding the first-fruits of His blood He merited this name; and in the Passion and the Cross, where He poured out for us all His blood, spirit and life, according to that saying: "He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and found in appearance as a man. He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross," Philippians 2:7-8. Ointment enclosed in a vessel is not perceived, but when poured out it diffuses its fragrance upon all. So the name of Jesus, as though enclosed within Christ, was not perceived; but when in the circumcision and the Cross He poured Himself out, He breathed forth upon all the most sweet fragrances of love and of all virtues, says Theodoret, Philo Carpathius and Aponius.
"Like water, He Himself says, I am poured out, and all my bones are scattered," Psalm 21:15. Hear St. Ambrose, sermon 1 on Psalm 118: "Your name is ointment emptied out, that is, this whole world reeked with the unclean impurities of various crimes; now everywhere breathes the ointment of faith with the sweetness of purity, the flower of integrity." The same author, in his book On Isaac and the Soul, chapter 3: "In the Word breathes the fragrance of grace, and the remission of sins, which, poured out through the whole world, filled all things as with emptied-out ointment, because the heavy flood of vices was washed away throughout all peoples."
Now oil is a symbol, first, of peace and tranquility; whence that saying: "Calmer than oil." For oil is so tranquil that it even calms a turbulent sea: for this reason divers are accustomed to spread oil as they descend into the sea, so that they may render it both calm and serene, and also clear, so that by this light they may find what they seek that has sunk and been lost in it, as Pliny attests, book II, chapter 103.
Second, oil is a symbol of grace and mercy; whence in Greek the names elaios and eleos, that is, oil and mercy, are similar, so that one seems to have derived its meaning and name from the other. What Pliny says is relevant here, book XV, chapter 2: "The most ancient law for olive harvesters was: You shall not strip nor beat the oil." For this reason, at the birth of Christ, a fountain of oil gushed forth in Rome, which flowed with oil continuously for an entire day, signifying that Christ was now born, who would spread the oil of sweetness, clemency and grace throughout the whole world. This prodigy is narrated by Osorius, book VI, chapter 19, and Eusebius in the Chronicle, Paul the Deacon, and Baronius from them.
Third, oil is a symbol of richness and warmth, which love and charity bring; for oil is airy and contains much spirit, and therefore floats on water, says Aristotle, book II On the Generation of Animals, chapter 2. Hence also "the olive fattens the flock," says the same, book VIII History of Animals, chapter 10. The same author asserts that bees delight in the olive, in order to make honey. Pliny adds from Theophrastus, book XV, chapter 2: "The property of oil is heat; wherefore both in the presses and already in the cellars it is sought with much fire." The same, chapter 4: "Oil, he says, has the natural property of warming the body and protecting it against cold."
Fourth, of the fragrance and sweet scent of good example, reputation and fame; for the oil here is understood not as pure oil, but as artfully blended from various species of spices and fragrances, and therefore most fragrant.
Fifth, oil is a sign and cause of cheerfulness: for it gladdens the anointed, and makes them bright, joyful and radiant; whence that saying: "That he may make the face cheerful with oil," Psalm 103:15.
Sixth, oil, and even more so ointment, is a symbol of pleasure and delight; whence formerly at banquets the guests were anointed with precious ointments for luxury and delight.
Seventh, oil strengthens the body, and restores vigor to limbs wearied by travel or exhausted by any labor. Whence the Samaritans, having refreshed with food and drink the captives they had carried off from Judea, anointed them with oil to remove the fatigue of the journey, and sent them back to their homeland, at the advice of the Prophet, 2 Chronicles 28:15. Hence also athletes about to compete in the stadium anointed themselves with oil for greater strength; and victors were crowned with olive. Hear Pliny, book XV, chapter 4: "The Roman majesty conferred great honor upon the olive, crowning the squadrons of knights with it on the Ides of July; and likewise those celebrating lesser triumphs with ovations; and Athens crowned its victors with olive." The same, book XXIII, chapter 4: "By all oil, he says, the body is softened and receives vigor and strength, etc. It blunts all poisons. And it is a restorative for weariness and chafing: taken hot it expels colic; likewise intestinal parasites; it is useful for wound plasters, purifies the face, etc. It is more helpful for lethargy and a declining illness. It is a remedy for headaches, and likewise for fevers' burning heat." He adds more on this subject.
Eighth, it is well known that oil is applied for healing wounds; whence that saying, Isaiah 1:6: "Wound, and bruise, and swelling sore, it has not been bound up, nor treated with medicine, nor soothed with oil." And that good Samaritan of the Gospel is narrated to have poured oil and wine into the wounds of the half-dead man, Luke 10:34.
All these things the name of Jesus accomplishes: for first, it calms the angry and quiets all passions; second, it brings, indeed pours out, grace and mercy; third, it enriches and warms the soul with heavenly love and ardor; fourth, it breathes upon all the most sweet beauty and fame of grace; fifth, it cheers the sorrowful; sixth, it feeds, indeed inebriates, the faithful with heavenly delights; seventh, it strengthens the martyrs and those fighting for virtue, and those wearied by combat, so that they may cheerfully and nobly overcome every kind of torment, and it crowns the victors; eighth, it heals all wounds of the soul.
Hear St. Bernard, sermon 15: Formerly, he says, this name was "not merely poured, but poured out: for it had already been infused. Already the heavens possessed it, already it had been made known to the angels. But it was sent forth abroad; that which had been infused into the angels so as to be kept private was now poured out upon men as well, so that already then it was rightly cried out from the earth: Your name is an ointment poured out." And further: "O blessed name! O oil poured out in every direction! How far? From heaven to Judea, and from there it ran to every land; and from the whole world the Church cries out: Your name is an ointment poured out. Poured out indeed, for it not only flooded heaven and earth, but sprinkled even the underworld, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess and say: Your name is an ointment poured out." And after some further words, he says that oil "gives light, feeds and anoints; it feeds fire, nourishes flesh, soothes pain; it is light, food, medicine. See the same now also of the name of the Bridegroom: when preached it gives light, when pondered it feeds, when invoked it soothes and anoints. And let us go through each one. Whence do you think came so great and sudden a light of faith in the whole world, if not from the preaching of Jesus? Was it not in the light of this name that God called us into His marvelous light? To those illuminated and seeing the light in this light, Paul rightly says: You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord." And after a few more words: "Nor is the name of Jesus only light, but it is also food. Are you not strengthened every time you recall it? What so enriches the mind of one who meditates upon it? What so restores the trained senses, strengthens the virtues, nourishes good and upright habits, and fosters chaste affections?
All food of the soul is dry if it is not drenched with this oil; it is tasteless if it is not seasoned with this salt. If you write, it has no savor for me unless I read Jesus there. If you dispute or confer, it has no savor for me unless Jesus resounds there. Jesus is honey in the mouth, melody in the ear, jubilation in the heart. But He is also medicine. Is any among you sad? Let Jesus come into the heart, and from there spring to the lips: and behold, at the rising of the name, the light appears, every cloud vanishes, serenity returns. Does someone fall into sin, and moreover rush to the noose of death by despairing? Will he not, if he invokes the name of life, immediately breathe again with life? Before whom has the hardness of heart (as is common), the sloth, the torpor, the rancor of spirit, the weariness of sloth, ever stood firm in the presence of the saving name? Whose fountain of tears, perhaps dried up, has not, when Jesus was invoked, immediately burst forth more abundantly and flowed more sweetly? For whom, trembling and quaking in dangers, has the invoked name of power not immediately provided confidence and dispelled fear?" Finally, from what has been said he concludes: "Nothing so restrains the impulse of anger, calms the swelling of pride, heals the wound of envy, checks the flow of luxury, extinguishes the flame of lust, tempers the thirst of avarice, and drives away the itch of every indecency. For when I name Jesus as a man, I picture before me one who is meek and humble of heart, kind, sober, chaste, merciful, and conspicuous for every uprightness and holiness — and at the same time almighty God Himself, who heals me both by His example and strengthens me by His help. All these things sound to me together when Jesus sounds in my ears. So I take from the man examples, and from the Almighty help, etc. Let Him always be in your bosom, always in your hand, so that all your senses and acts may be directed toward Jesus. And indeed you are invited: Place me (He says, chapter 8:6) as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm." See more in the same author, sermons 15 and 18.
All these things that have been said of Christ and the Church can easily, with the name changed, be applied to the holy soul, and still more to the Blessed Virgin. Whence Rupert, taking "name" to mean the Word, or the Son of the eternal Father,
through whom He created all things: "Who can, he says, estimate His strength? Now this name, so strong, so great — behold, it is ointment poured out. A wonderful thing! What is stronger than the Word, and what is gentler than oil? Has the Word then been changed from His nature? No; but the qualities of creatures, with whom He has a relationship, are different and indeed contrary — on one side through virtue, on the other through vice. For example, the devil in heaven was proud through vice: you, O Virgin, appeared humble on earth through virtue. For qualities so different and so contrary, the same Word presented itself to him as a flood, to you as oil, according to that saying of James 4:6: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." And after a few words: "The oil was therefore poured out, that is Your name, because from the secret of Your substance proceeded the Word of Your strength together with the sweetness of mercy.
THEREFORE THE YOUNG MAIDENS HAVE LOVED YOU.
St. Bernard, sermon 19, adds "exceedingly," but neither the Hebrew, Greek, nor Latin texts have this. He calls the young maidens the Churches and souls that are new in faith and righteousness, recently regenerated through baptism in Christ, who, like young maidens, gradually advance and grow in virtue just as in age, so that at last they may merit to be perfectly joined to Christ and intimately united to Him by the spiritual bond and kiss of marriage. So Cassiodorus, Bede, Haymo, Justus and others. In Hebrew, the word for "young maidens" is alamoth, that is, virgins; for alma is the word for a virgin, because she is hidden and unknown to a man, from the root alam, that is, "he hid," as I showed at length on Isaiah 7:14, on those words: "Behold, a virgin (in Hebrew haalma, that is, that virgin, namely the Virgin Mother of God) shall conceive and bear a son." The meaning therefore is, as if to say: The young maidens — that is, souls new in faith and virtue, like virgins hidden from the corruptions of the world — when they smell the fragrance of the oil or ointment, that is, of the charisms of Christ the Bridegroom, and when they perceive how the name of Jesus Christ is oil, or ointment poured out, and how most sweet and fragrant it is — allured by this fragrance and sweetness, they are carried away into love of Him and tenderly love Him. Whence the Chaldean translates: and therefore the just loved to walk in the way of Your goodness, that they might possess this world and the world to come.
Cassiodorus notes, and from him Bede and Haymo, that they are called young maidens in the feminine: Because, he says, the souls of the saints, the more conscious they are of their own great frailty, the more they love Christ. Now the cause of their love is "ointment poured out," that is, the lavish generosity of Christ. Whence Rupert says: "Unless the oil had been poured out, unless the Word had been made flesh, imperfect souls would not have dared to love God; indeed they would not have dared even to hear Him; whence they said: Let not the Lord speak to us, lest perhaps we die," Exodus 20:19. So too Origen: Unless, he says, Christ had emptied Himself out like ointment, no one could have received Him in that fullness of divinity, except perhaps only
the bride — as if to say: The perfect receive Christ in His divinity, and the imperfect in His humanity; hence for their sake Christ poured Himself out by becoming man in the flesh. And St. Bernard, sermon 19: "The pouring out, he says, makes the name receivable, and once received, lovable — but only for the young maidens. Those who have greater capacity rejoice in Him whole and do not need Him poured out. The angelic creature gazes with undimmed keenness of mind upon the great abyss of the divine judgments, and blessed by the ineffable delight of their supreme equity, glories moreover that these are entrusted to be carried out through its ministry and made manifest — and therefore it rightly loves the Lord Christ."
Again, others by the young maidens understand not imperfect souls, but vigorous and perfect ones, who have matured in virtue so as to be able to communicate it to others and bear spiritual children for Christ — such as the martyrs, says Philo Carpathius. So too Theodoret and St. Gregory, Morals XIX, chapter 9. For adolescence, that is, youth, is the middle between childhood and old age, and therefore it is the mature, established and best age. Whence some translate from the Hebrew thus: because the young maidens have loved You, therefore Your name is ointment poured out to them. Hear Gregory of Nyssa, homily 1: "Only that soul, he says, which has passed beyond the state of infancy and arrived at the flower of spiritual age, and has received neither spot nor wrinkle nor anything of the sort — and which neither lacks sense due to infancy, nor is feeble due to old age — the soul called 'young maiden' in this passage, she loves with her whole heart and all her strength that beauty whose description, example and interpretation no thought can find."
This also is true; for in the beginning of the Church, the grace of Christ was so abundantly poured out upon the recently baptized faithful that it set them ablaze with love of Christ, and immediately made them His heralds and martyrs.
Christianity brought to the world the pursuit of chastity and angelic purity, and therefore Christ, born of a virgin, surpassed all the angels in virginity and purity. For this reason, the first faithful converted by the apostles were for the most part all virgins or celibates, to such an extent that many thought the law of Christ forbade marriage and commanded celibacy for all Christians, as is evident from the question the Corinthians put to St. Paul, whether the use of marriage was lawful for Christians, 1 Corinthians 7. And over all these the Blessed Virgin bore the standard, who was the first to vow virginity to God, and therefore merited to become the Mother of God. For, as St. Bernard says, homily 2 on the Missus est: "Such a birth befitted God, by which He would be born only of a virgin. Such a birth was also fitting for the Virgin, that she should bear none other than God." And so by the young maidens all the faithful are understood here, but especially virgins: for these, perceiving the fragrance of Christ above all others, love no one else but Him; whence they follow the Lamb wherever He goes, Revelation 14:4. Such were St. Catherine, St. Cecilia, St. Dorothy, St. Agnes, whose marvelous love for Christ St. Ambrose graphically describes in sermon 9 — of whom the Psalmist sings: "Virgins shall be brought to the king after her," Psalm 44:46.
VERSE 3. DRAW ME: WE WILL RUN AFTER YOU IN THE FRAGRANCE OF YOUR OINTMENTS.
Up to this point it has been the voice of the Synagogue longing for the kiss of Christ, that is, the Incarnation; now begins the voice of the Church, which, allured by the fragrance of Christ's most sweet charisms now that He has been born, asks to be drawn after Him, so that she may imitate His most holy life, which He lived on earth, His Passion and Cross. For she knows herself to be weak and unable to follow Christ — much less to receive His kiss — unless she is impelled, indeed drawn, by the grace of Christ, according to that word of Christ: "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him," John 6:44. So Cassiodorus, Bede, Haymo and others; especially because the Cross of Christ is lofty, and therefore difficult and steep to ascend; whence He Himself says: "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to Myself," John 12:32. Draw me therefore from vices to virtues, from ignorance to faith and knowledge of You, from the flesh to the spirit, from torpor to fervor, from beginning to progress, from small and easy things to great and arduous ones, from earthly things to heavenly ones, from fear to love, from pleasure to the Cross and mortification.
The Septuagint, for the Hebrew moschkeni, that is, "draw me," reading with different vowel points as meschachuni, translates "they drew me." Moreover, the Septuagint codices vary remarkably here. For the Roman edition, Gregory of Nyssa, Theodoret and others read: "therefore the young maidens loved you, they drew you"; St. Ambrose, On Virginity book 1, reads: "they attracted you." The same author, in On Those Who Are Initiated into the Mysteries, chapter 6, first has "and they attracted you," then "draw us after you"; the Complutensian reads: "they drew me"; Origen: "they attracted you after them." The true reading is: "Draw me: we will run after you." For so the Hebrew, Latin, Aquila, Symmachus and the Chaldean have it. All the readings nevertheless come to the same thing and signify the same, as if to say: So great is Your fragrance, O Christ, and so sweet is the oil poured out by You, that the young maidens eagerly desire to draw You to themselves, and in turn desire to be drawn from themselves to You along with me; indeed they have drawn me to You, so that together with me they might be intimately joined to You, and not merely walk but run after You; therefore I with them and on their behalf say, and beseech: "Draw me: we will run after You in the fragrance of Your ointments." Where Theodoret rightly observes that the young maidens were first drawn by Christ and by love of Christ, and then through Him they strive in turn to draw Christ to themselves, so that they may love Him more ardently and enjoy Him more intimately.
Again, the Hebrew has only: "Draw me: we will run after You"; but the Septuagint, and our translator following them, add: "in the fragrance of your ointments"; for the preceding discourse was about this.
Moreover, the soul that draws God to herself through prayer, as if by a rope, does not so much draw God to herself as she herself is drawn to God: just as one who sends a ship by rope to a rock seems to draw the rock to himself, but in reality he does not pull the rock — rather, he with the ship is drawn to the rock. And just as one who climbs to the top of a house by pulling on a rope with his hands does not pull the rooftop down to himself, but is himself drawn up and ascends to the top. St. Dionysius gives both these examples in On the Divine Names, chapter 3.
Note: The phrase "after You" can, first, be referred to what precedes: "Draw me"; for the bride desires to be drawn to the Bridegroom, so that she may follow Him in all things. So Aponius, Justus of Urgel, the Chaldean, St. Bernard and others. Second, and better, it may be referred to "we will run," which follows — as if to say: Draw me, so that I with the young maidens may run after You. So the Hebrew, Septuagint, Latin, Roman edition, and the Fathers generally. Whence Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, Anselm and St. Basil on Isaiah chapter 3, verse 24, note that the bride here speaks not so much in her own person as in the person of the young maidens. For the bride takes the right hand of the Bridegroom and walks with him at an equal pace; but the young maidens, like handmaids and attendants, follow both from behind; whence they desire to be drawn after both, and say: "We will run after You in the fragrance of Your ointments."
Note secondly: The phrase "draw me" signifies first, the weakness of the bride, inasmuch as she cannot follow the Bridegroom unless she is drawn by Him; second, her slowness in following the Bridegroom and making progress on the path of virtue; third, the resistance of desire, which opposes charity and the following of the Bridegroom, and therefore she must be drawn to Him: for "drawing" implies force, since those who are unwilling and reluctant are the ones who are usually drawn, according to the saying:
Fate leads the willing; the unwilling, it drags.
For the concupiscence innate in us, resisting reason and virtue, brings it about that by efficacious grace toward it
we must be drawn as if unwilling, according to that saying of the Apostle: "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members," Romans 7:23; and verse 14: "The law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I do, I do not understand: for it is not the good that I will that I do, but the evil that I hate, that I do." The bride therefore desires to be drawn by the grace of Christ, so that through it the impediment to following the Bridegroom — namely the resistance of concupiscence — may be removed or overcome, as if to say: I would wish to follow You, O Bridegroom, but I cannot because concupiscence resists. Therefore take away, or overcome its struggle through Your grace, which, infused into me, may efficaciously draw me to You, and cause me not only to walk but also to run after You. So St. Bernard, sermon 21: "Draw me, he says, after You, because it is better for me that You draw me — that is, that You inflict some force upon me, whether by terrifying with threats or exercising with scourges — than that, by sparing me, You leave me badly complacent in my torpor. Draw me in a way unwilling, so that You may make me willing; draw me when sluggish, so that You may make me run." For first through fear, then through love sent into the soul, God draws the soul to Himself, as He drew St. Paul, Acts 9:6, says Aponius. Whence the Arabic version translates: "Draw me from behind You," that is, draw me from behind to face, so that I who was behind You may come before You, and may enjoy Your company and countenance.
Third, she desires to be drawn not by chains or whips, as oxen and donkeys are drawn, but by the force of love, as human beings are drawn, according to that saying of Hosea, chapter 11, verse 4: "I will draw them with the cords of Adam, with the bonds of charity." Whence St. Gregory and Anselm say that we are drawn by the Holy Spirit. Hear St. Augustine, sermon 1 On the Words of the Apostle, who, citing that word of Christ, John 6: "No one comes to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him": "He did not say, he says, 'leads him.' Let this force be applied to the heart, not to the flesh. Why then are you amazed? Believe and you come; love and you are drawn. Do not think this a harsh and burdensome force; it is sweet, it is gentle: sweetness itself draws you. Is not a sheep drawn when grass is shown to it while it is hungry? And I think it is not pushed by bodily force, but bound by desire. So you too, come to Christ. Do not plan long journeys; where you believe, there you come: for to Him who is everywhere, one comes by loving, not by sailing." The same author, tractate 26 on John: "How, he says, do I believe by will, if I am drawn? I say: It is too little to say by will — you are drawn even by pleasure. What does it mean to be drawn by pleasure? Delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. There is a certain pleasure of the heart, for which that heavenly bread is sweet. Moreover, if the poet was allowed to say, Virgil, Eclogue 2:
Each one is drawn by his own pleasure:
not necessity but pleasure, not obligation but delight — how much more strongly should we say that a person is drawn to Christ, who delights in truth, delights in blessedness, delights in justice,
who delights in eternal life — which is Christ in His entirety? Do the bodily senses indeed have their pleasures, while the soul is abandoned by its own pleasures? If the soul does not have its own pleasures, whence is it said: But the children of men shall hope under the cover of Your wings: they shall be inebriated with the plenty of Your house, and You shall give them to drink of the torrent of Your pleasure; for with You is the fountain of life, and in Your light we shall see light? Give me a lover, and he feels what I am saying; give me one who longs, who hungers, who wanders as a pilgrim in this wilderness and thirsts, and sighs for the fountain of the eternal homeland — give me such a one, and he knows what I mean: but if I speak to one who is cold, he does not know what I am saying."
Fourth, the sinful soul, forestalled by the grace of the Bridegroom, desires to be drawn out from the deep mire of sins, and drawn to repentance and righteousness: but the soul already justified desires to be drawn by the same grace to an increase of righteousness, to good works, to heroic virtues, such as renouncing the world and devoting oneself with Magdalene to contemplation and divine love.
Tropologically, St. Bernard turns these words against those who seek after dignities: "The bride, he says, does not presume to enter either the chamber or the bedroom without the king introducing her, yet you burst in irreverently, neither called nor introduced. 'Draw me after You,' she says. But now each one is drawn by his own pleasure, and those who pursue the scent of sordid gain consider gain to be godliness — whose damnation is certain."
Moreover, the Chaldean, after his manner referring these words to the Jews going under the leadership of the pillar to the Promised Land, translates thus: "When the people of the house of Israel went out from Egypt, the majesty of the Lord of the world was their guide in the pillar of cloud by day and in the pillar of fire by night. The just of that generation said: Lord of the whole world, draw us after You, and we will run in the way of Your goodness." This sense is Jewish and, as it were, merely literal; whence it underlies and serves the Christian and genuine sense: for the pillar of fire and cloud drawing and leading the Jews through the desert into Canaan was a type of the Holy Spirit and His grace, which leads — indeed draws — Christians through the temptations and obstacles of this life into heaven.
Moreover, the soul immersed in the flesh, and therefore heavy and sluggish, in order to run toward heaven — that is, toward Christ — needs the wings of great eagerness, which divine consolations supply to her. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 21: "For this reason I need to be drawn, because the fire of Your love has grown somewhat cold in us, and we cannot run in the face of this chill as we did yesterday and the day before. But we will run afterward, when You have restored the joy of Your salvation, when the better temperament of grace returns, when the sun of justice grows warm again, and the cloud of temptation, which is seen to cover it for a time, passes away, and at the gentle breath of a breeze softer than usual the ointments begin to melt, and the spices to flow, and give forth their fragrance. Then we will run — in that fragrance we will run; when the ointments breathe, I say, we will run, because the torpor that now weighs upon us will depart, and devotion will return, and we will no longer need to be drawn, but, aroused by the fragrance, will run of our own accord. But for now, in the meantime, draw me after You."
The Psalmist did this saying, Psalm 118:32 [119:32]: "I have run the way of Your commandments, when You enlarged my heart" — for love, enlarging the heart, also enlarges the feet and steps, which torpor had constrained. Whence the same Psalmist, Psalm 54:7 [55:6]: "Who, he says, will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly away and be at rest?" Then after several further remarks St. Bernard adds: "And what wonder if she needs to be drawn, who runs after a giant, who strives to overtake Him who leaps upon the mountains, bounds over the hills? His word, he says, runs swiftly. She cannot run at an equal pace; she cannot contend with Him at the same speed, He who rejoices as a giant to run His course; she cannot do it by her own strength, and therefore she asks to be drawn. 'I am weary' (she says), 'I am failing — do not abandon me, but draw me after You, lest I begin to wander after other lovers, and run as if aimlessly. I will not run alone, even though I asked to be drawn alone: the young maidens too will run with me. We will run together, we will run as one — I by the fragrance of Your ointments, they aroused by my example and exhortation, and through this we will all run in the fragrance of Your ointments. The bride has imitators of herself, just as she herself is an imitator of Christ. And therefore she does not say in the singular, I will run, but we will run.'"
Then St. Bernard asks why the bride says in the singular "draw me," not in the plural "draw us"; but in the matter of running says in the plural "we will run," not in the singular "I will run"? And he answers: "We are drawn when we are exercised by temptations and tribulations; we run when, visited by interior consolations and inspirations, we breathe freely as if amid sweet-smelling ointments: therefore what seems austere and hard, I keep for myself as for one who is strong, healthy, and perfect, and I say in the singular: Draw me. What is sweet and gentle, I share with you as one who is in-
firm, and I say: We will run. I know that the young maidens are delicate and tender, and less suited to endure temptations; and therefore I want them to run with me, but not to be drawn with me; I want to have companions in consolation, but not in labor. Why? Because they are weak, and I fear they may fail, they may succumb. Me, she says, O Bridegroom — correct me, exercise me, test me, draw me after You: for I am ready for the whip, and strong enough to endure. But together we will run; I alone will be drawn, but together we will run. We will run, we will run, but in the fragrance of Your ointments, not in confidence of our own merits: nor do we trust to run in the greatness of our own strength, but in the multitude of Your mercies. For even if at times we have run and been willing, it was not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy."
St. Gregory explains differently: Draw me, he says, after You, so that I may love You alone as God, yet in such a way that at the same time my faithful may run with me toward mutual love and aid of their neighbors.
More plainly and more fully, Bede answers that the bride — that is, the Church — speaks of herself now in the singular, because she is one through the gathering of many faithful; now in the plural, because in her there are many faithful, and many orders and degrees of the faithful: beginners, those making progress, the perfect, pastors, subjects, and so on. She speaks therefore about herself, that is, about her prelates and pastors, who guide the young maidens: "Draw me" — that is, my pastors — so that they may draw the young maidens, that is, the people subject to them, and run with them in the fragrance of Your ointments. Thus the Church, in the apostles and apostolic men, who are the supreme heads of the Church, is the perfect bride of Christ, and walks alongside the Bridegroom at almost an equal pace, according to that saying:
"The queen stood at Your right hand," Psalm 44:10 [45:9]; the same Church in her pastors follows Christ most closely, and leads after her the young maidens — that is, weaker and less perfect souls — and with them says: "We will run in the fragrance of Your ointments."
With a similar phrase and gradation, Cicero, in book 2 of his Letters to Atticus, letter 23, summoning Pomponius to come to him at once, says: "If you are sleeping, wake up; if you are standing, start walking; if you are walking, run; if you are running, fly."
Moreover, Rupert applies these words to the Blessed Virgin visiting Elizabeth: "The woman of desires, he says, was drawn after the Lord, and she was drawn and ran in the fragrance of such ointments and benefits, and for her to run — that is, to go into the hill country with haste — was to say: Draw me after You. For whoever truly loves is both drawn and desires to be drawn." He interprets the ointments of God as benefits: "Precious, he says, was the ointment: great was the benefit that the Lord had given the barren woman — the conception of so great a man, who was to go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, and than whom there has not risen a greater among those born of women. She had perceived the fragrance of so great an ointment: she had received the news, the announcement of so great a benefit from the Angel himself."
Thus the Blessed Virgin, drawn by Christ above all others, ran after Him her whole life, imitating His most holy ways above all others and representing them in her own actions, so that she was the living image of Christ, and the purest mirror of the Christian and perfect life for the apostles and all the faithful — so much so that some heretics deemed her to be a goddess, and worshipped her as a goddess. Indeed, St. Dionysius said: Unless I knew there was one God, I would have believed her to be a goddess, as I have cited elsewhere.
IN THE FRAGRANCE OF YOUR OINTMENTS.
So it should be read with the Greeks and Latins. It is therefore surprising that St. Ambrose reads "garments" instead of "ointments," and refers it to the resurrection, of which baptism is the type and anagogical sense; for he says thus, in his book On Those Who Are Initiated into the Mysteries, chapter 6: "How many souls renewed today (through baptism) have loved You, Lord Jesus, saying: Draw us after You; we will run in the fragrance of Your garments, so that they might drink in the fragrance of the resurrection." Origen presses the point: "in the fragrance" — as if to say: If the mere fragrance of the Bridegroom so allures to following and running after Him, how much more will His appearance, His voice, His taste and touch allure, and how much more will His very substance? "I think, he says, that if they ever arrive at this point, they will no longer walk nor run, but, bound by certain bonds of His charity, will cling to Him, so that no room for any further movement remains in them, but they will be one spirit with Him, and there will be fulfilled in them what is written: As You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us," John 17:21. O how powerful a fragrance, how joyful and delightful a race, when the soul, having perceived the fragrance of the virtues of Christ who draws her, forgetful of all other things and even of herself, runs with immense pleasure toward poverty, toward contempt, toward labors, toward insults, toward death, toward the Cross! By
by ointments, understand the graces and charisms of Christ, says St. Augustine, Confessions IX, chapter 7. See St. Bernard, sermon 22. Now these charisms of Christ the faithful receive in baptism, where they are anointed as Christians; and in confirmation, where they are anointed as soldiers and athletes of Christ; but especially priests, pastors and prelates, who in the sacrament of holy orders are anointed and consecrated as leaders and teachers of the faithful, who accordingly must above all others run after Christ, imitate His life and ways as much as possible, and express them in living action: for thus, by the fragrance of their virtues, they will draw all after them to Christ — just as pigeon-keepers catch pigeons by sending out a pigeon smeared with a fragrant scent, which, by this fragrance, lures the others to itself and leads them with it to the dovecote, says St. Basil, letter 175 to Julitta.
Anagogically, the Church and the holy soul, contemplating Christ ascending into heaven, cry out: "Draw me after You," so that with You I may ascend from the valley of tears to the mountains of eternity and eternal bliss. So Cassiodorus and St. Bernard. Hear St. Augustine on Psalm 90: "Let us love and imitate, let us run after His ointments; for He came and His fragrance filled the whole world. Whence the fragrance? From heaven: follow therefore to heaven, if you do not answer falsely when it is said: hearts upward, thoughts upward, love upward, hope upward." So St. Jerome, in his letter to Eustochium, On the Preservation of Virginity, writes about himself living in the desert of Syria: "After many tears, he says, after eyes fixed on heaven, from time to time I seemed to be in the midst of the ranks of angels, and joyful and glad I would sing: We will run after You in the fragrance of Your ointments." And St. Augustine, Confessions XIII, chapter 8: "Give me Yourself, he says, my God, restore Yourself to me. Behold, I love, and if it is too little, let me love more strongly. I cannot measure so as to know how much love I still lack to reach what is enough, that my life may run to Your embrace and not turn away until it is hidden in the hidden place of Your countenance. This alone I know, that apart from You all is ill with me, not only outside me but also within myself, and all abundance that is not my God is destitution to me." To this pertains that saying of Isaiah, chapter 40, last verse: "But those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall take wings like eagles; they shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not faint." See what was said there.
THE KING HAS BROUGHT ME INTO HIS STOREROOMS: WE WILL REJOICE AND BE GLAD IN YOU, REMEMBERING YOUR BREASTS ABOVE WINE: THE UPRIGHT LOVE YOU.
FIRST ADEQUATE SENSE: On Christ and the Church.
In the grammatical or dramatic sense, the bride, running after the Bridegroom together with her companion young maidens, was brought by him into the storerooms, but alone, the young maidens remaining outside; whence having come out, she turns to them and narrates where she had been, saying: "The king has brought me into his storerooms"; to which the young maidens, congratulating and applauding, respond: "We will rejoice and be glad in you." Symmachus, instead of "he brought me in," translates "let him bring me in," in the future or rather the optative: for it is a prophecy of the future introduction of the Church through Christ who was to be born. Thus "he brought me in" can be taken for "he will bring me in"; for since the bride had said to the Bridegroom: "Draw me after You," as if she had already obtained this from her beloved, she says: "He brought me in" — that is, he will quickly and certainly bring me into his innermost storerooms; for lovers are full of good hope, so that they seem to possess what they hope for: for love enlarges the heart, the imagination and the mind. Whence the saying:
And the lover fashions dreams for himself.
The Bridegroom — that is, Christ incarnate — she now calls king, because He as man is King of kings and Lord of lords, Revelation 19:16; and now shepherd, because in ancient times kings and princes were shep-
herds of sheep and flocks: for such were Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and David. And so the word "king" indicates that these storerooms into which the bride was brought were royal, opulent and filled with every good and treasure, says Origen.
STOREROOMS. — The Hebrew word chadarav signifies innermost places or inner chambers, such as private rooms and bedchambers, in which the master himself dwells in secret and stores his wealth and treasures. Whence the Syriac translates: "He brought me into the bridal chamber"; the Arabic: "into the secret chamber, his own and private." The same is signified by the Greek word tameion, as the Septuagint translates, and the Latin cellaria. For a cella or cellarium is so called from "hiding" (celando), because in it are hidden the things we wish to be concealed, says Servius. Hence cella signifies a storehouse for grain, wine and oil. Whence Donatus says: "Cella and cellarium are so named from storing and hiding food and drink." And Cicero, On Old Age: "The wine cellar, oil cellar, honey cellar and bread cellar of a good and diligent master, he says, are always well stocked." Hence cella also signifies a secret chamber, and likewise the more secret part of a temple, into which it was not lawful to enter: whence Gellius writes that Scipio came to the Capitol and ordered the inner sanctuary of Jupiter to be opened, and there remained alone. Hence the cell was dear and precious to St. Bernard, like heaven itself, inasmuch as in it, free from the noise of the world, he was alone with God alone.
There is an allusion to the storerooms that Solomon built in the temple, in which the treasures and riches of the temple were stored, 1 Chronicles 28:11.
You ask first, what are these storerooms of the Bridegroom, into which He brought the bride? The Chaldean takes them as the inner sanctuary of divinity and divine wisdom, from which the law proceeded, whence he translates thus: "and bring us near to the foot of Mount Sinai, and give us Your law from Your treasury which is in the firmament, and we will delight and rejoice." This is Jewish, but it serves the Christian sense: for the storerooms here signify the secrets of divinity, in which the Bridegroom shows the bride His hidden mysteries, as well as the good things and hidden gifts, which are great and manifold; therefore the bride indicates that her prayers have been heard, in which she had desired: "Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth"; for the Bridegroom had granted them, and in these storerooms had given her the kiss — so St. Ambrose, whose words I will presently quote; there too she had tasted the breasts of the Bridegroom; for about these she presently adds: "We will rejoice and be glad in You, remembering Your breasts above wine." For in cellars or storerooms are stored wealth, delights, jewels, treasures and every precious thing. Therefore the bride here signifies first, that she was brought by the Bridegroom into the storerooms — that is, into the private room and innermost chamber, where she converses most familiarly with the Bridegroom; second, that she was made a participant in his secrets; third, that she was an observer of his riches and treasures, and was made their sharer, and therefore enjoys a marvelous pleasure and the highest delights.
You ask secondly, what in particular are these storerooms? I answer that they are various and many. First, Theodoret, St. Gregory, Justus of Urgel, and St. Jerome, letter 142 to Damasus, by the storerooms understand Sacred Scripture, that is, Moses and the prophets — as though the bride received from the Bridegroom knowledge of the mysteries hidden in Sacred Scripture, and especially knowledge of the Godhead and the Most Holy Trinity, that is, of God who is one in essence and three in persons. For the Church received this through Christ and the apostles. Whence Christ, Revelation 5:5, opened the book sealed with seven seals, and gave the apostles understanding to comprehend the Scriptures, Luke 24:32 and 45.
Second, St. Ambrose, sermon 1 on Psalm 118 [119], on verses 7 and 8, by these storerooms understands the secrets or mysteries of the incarnation, passion, cross, death and resurrection of Christ, into which the bride was brought when she received knowledge and faith in these through the preaching of the apostles: "When, he says, the king brought her into his chamber, the piercing of the side declares the time of the passion, the shedding of blood, the ointment of burial, the mystery of the resurrection — so that she received the kiss as a bride; and the Church was brought into the chamber of Christ: no longer as merely betrothed, but as wed; and she not only entered the bridal chamber, but also obtained the keys of the lawful union." And shortly after: "For the king brought her into all the interior mysteries, gave her keys to open for herself the treasures of the knowledge of the sacraments, to throw open doors previously closed, to know the grace of the one who rests, the sleep of the deceased, the power of the one who rises."
To this Philo Carpathius adds: The first storeroom or treasury of Christ, he says, is that body in which He built a dwelling for Himself. For the Word dwelt in the flesh as in a cell, according to that saying: "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us," John 1:14. Whence the Apostle, explaining these storerooms of Christ, says in Colossians 2:2: "Built up in charity, and unto all riches of the fullness of understanding, unto the knowledge of the mystery of God the Father and of Christ Jesus, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." So Philo.
Third, others by the storerooms understand the secret counsels and judgments of God, which God reveals to the saints, among which one of the chief is that crosses and tribulations are prepared for the saints, so that they may be purified and more greatly sanctified, and therefore that those who suffer patiently are blessed, because the cross is the straight road to glory, according to that saying: "Blessed are those who suffer persecution for the sake of justice, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," Matthew 5:10 — so Philo Carpathius.
Fourth, others by the storerooms or cells understand heaven, in which there are many cells and mansions according to the diversity of merits, John 14:2 — as though the bride here received a revelation of the heavenly goods and joys which God has prepared for those who fear and love Him. So Cassiodorus, Aponius, Anselm and Bede, whom hear expressing the sentiments of the bride: "Therefore I beseech the Bridegroom that, as we run after Him, He Himself, giving us His hand, would help us lest we fail—
help us, because I have already had a foretaste of the sweetness of the heavenly kingdom: I have already tasted and seen that the Lord is sweet: I have already known, by His own revelation, the good things prepared for me in heaven. And presently turning to Him and giving thanks, she says: We will rejoice and be glad in You; as if she were saying: We are by no means puffed up by the gifts we have received, but in all the good life we live, we rejoice — indeed we will rejoice and be glad in Your mercy." Again, others by the storerooms understand the earthly paradise, into which Adam, introduced by God, received all the delights of the world, all knowledge, all faith and hope; but he was expelled from it with his posterity because of his transgression: therefore Christ brought him back, and restored mankind to their original justice, grace and glory.
Fifth, St. Ambrose, in his book On Isaac and the Soul, chapter 3, by the storerooms understands the secrets of God — namely revelations, visions, consolations, raptures, loves and heavenly joys — into which the soul is caught up through contemplation or ecstasy, as St. Paul was caught up to the third heaven, where he heard secret words that it is not lawful for a person to speak, 2 Corinthians 12:2 and 4. Hear St. Ambrose: "Blessed is the soul that enters the inner sanctuaries of God: for rising above the body, she becomes more remote from all things, and within herself searches and seeks the divine, if by any means she can attain it: and when she has been able to comprehend the things that are intelligible, having transcended them she is confirmed in Him, and is fed by Him. Such was Paul, who knew he was caught up into paradise, but whether caught up out of the body or in the body he did not know." And after some further remarks: "For striving for perfection, he sets his mind on that good of divinity alone, and thinks nothing else needs to be sought, because he holds what is supreme, and it alone suffices him, because it alone is enough for him. Nor is she ever alone, to whom the Lord is present as protector. Having been brought into that divine secret, she says: Let us rejoice and be glad in You. For she rejoices not in riches of gold and treasures of silver, not in the fruits of possessions, not in powers, not in banquets, but in God alone."
Sixth, the same St. Ambrose aptly says, in book 5 of On the Sacraments, chapter 2, that by the storerooms he understands the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, in which under the small circle of bread and the appearance of wine, as in a bread cellar and wine cellar, Christ dwells, feeding us with His flesh and giving us His blood to drink. "Where there are good libations, says St. Ambrose, good aromas of wine, where there are sweet honeys, where diverse fruits, where varied feasts, where your banquet is seasoned with the most plentiful dishes."
SECOND PARTIAL SENSE: On Christ and the Holy Soul.
The storerooms of God, into which Christ brings the soul, filling and intoxicating her with all good things, are the attributes of God, among which the chief are twelve: namely, God's infinity, immensity, eternity, omnipotence, omniscience, goodness, holiness, love, dominion, providence, mercy and justice — which our Lessius learnedly and piously treats in his book On the Divine Perfections. For each of these is infinite and immeasurably vast in every direction, and therefore when the soul is brought into them by Christ through meditation, contemplation, rapture and ecstasy, she swims — indeed is submerged — as in an abyss of all good things, and is wholly carried away into love and admiration of the divinity, so that she can think of, speak of, or love nothing else. For there, as the Psalmist says, "they shall be inebriated with the plenty of Your house; and You shall give them to drink of the torrent of Your pleasure," Psalm 35:9 [36:8]. There the Saints rejoice and are glad in God; there they are nursed at the breasts of divine sweetness. Entering into these storerooms of the Godhead, St. Paul exclaims in wonder, Romans 11:33: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are His judgments, and how unsearchable His ways!" And St. Peter at the Transfiguration of Christ, through the shadow of His glorious body, not so much seeing as guessing at the glory of the divinity, as if intoxicated with joy, says: "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make three tabernacles here, one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah," Matthew 17:4. And St. John, 1 John 1:1: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life — we announce to you." These storerooms "the woman in compunction (Magdalene) found at the feet" of the Lord Jesus, says St. Bernard; "Thomas found them in His side, John in His breast, Peter in the bosom of the Father, Paul in the third heaven — they attained the grace of this secret. Which of us would be able to worthily distinguish these degrees of merit, or rather of re-
wards? Yet lest we seem to have passed over entirely what we ourselves know: the first woman made her bed in the mire of humility, the second on the throne of hope, Thomas on the throne of faith, John in the broad expanse of charity, Paul in the innermost depths of wisdom, Peter in the light of truth."
Into all these storerooms the Blessed Virgin was led before all others. Whence Rupert refers these words to the Blessed Virgin visiting Elizabeth, and saying to her: "My soul magnifies the Lord, etc., because He who is mighty has done great things for me," Luke 1:46; to which Elizabeth responded: "We will rejoice and be glad in you." For at the voice and greeting of Mary, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and the infant leaped in her womb. To this pertains the saying: "But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart," Luke 2:19.
WE WILL REJOICE AND BE GLAD IN YOU.
These are the words of the young maidens congratulating the bride on being brought into such rich storerooms, or at least desiring that they themselves be brought into them; and therefore they turn to the Bridegroom and say to Him: Let us rejoice and be glad in You, as the Septuagint translates; Symmachus: "and we shall be glad" — that is, let us be cheerful, let us exult, let us be joyful in You. The latter interpretation is favored by Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, Theodoret, Bernard and St. Anselm, whom hear: "Because You, O Lord, have already brought Your bride into Your secrets, therefore we too will prepare ourselves to be worthy, so that we may be brought in with her. For we will rejoice — that is, in body, doing good works with exultation — and we will be glad in soul, because we will think good thoughts with gladness; or we will be glad if we have done good, not under compulsion but willingly, and this in You, attributing all things to You as the first cause."
Second, more coherently and plainly — so that there is not such an abrupt change of speakers — you may assign these words to the bride herself, who, coming out from the storerooms, tells the young maidens of the delights she enjoyed there, and says: "The king brought me into his storerooms, filled with every wealth and delight, which he has prepared not for me alone, but also for you, once you have matured in virtue. Come then, O companions, congratulate me as well as yourselves, and give thanks to the Bridegroom, and jubilantly say with me unceasingly: O good Jesus, 'we will rejoice and be glad in You.' Come then, let us rejoice in the Lord, let us acclaim God our Savior, let us come before His face in thanksgiving, and in psalms let us acclaim Him. We will rejoice, I say, remembering 'Your breasts' — that is, Your most sweet benevolence and generosity, which You have shared with me Your bride, and will share with my young maidens in due time." So Hortolanus.
Moreover, she mentions the breasts of the Bridegroom so that pastors and prelates may learn from Christ to present themselves to their subjects as mothers, and to nurse them at their breasts. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 23: "Let prelates hear this, who always want to be an object of fear to those entrusted to them, but rarely of benefit. Be instructed, you who judge the earth. Learn that you should be mothers to your subjects, not masters; strive to be loved more than feared, and if sometimes severity is needed, let it be fatherly, not tyrannical. Show yourselves as mothers by nurturing, as fathers by correcting. Be gentle, put away fierceness; hold back the whips, bring forth the breasts; let your chests grow rich with milk, not swell with pride. Why do you make your yoke heavy upon those whose burdens you should rather bear? Why does the little one bitten by the serpent flee the conscience of the priest, to whom he should rather run as to a mother's bosom? If you are spiritual, instruct such a one in the spirit of gentleness, each one considering himself, lest he too be tempted. Otherwise that one will die in his sin, but his blood (He says) I will require at your hand."
Mystically, Bartholomew of the Martyrs, Archbishop of Braga, in his Compendium of Spiritual Doctrine, truly divine, chapter 15, at the end, assigns seven degrees by which we can ascend to these storerooms of Christ — that is, to contemplation and unitive love; which are: taste, desires, satiety, inebriation, security, tranquility; but the name of the seventh, he says, is known to God alone. The first, therefore, is rightly called taste, because it consists in a change of tastes: for to sinners, who have known only carnal pleasures, it is said, Psalm 33:9 [34:8]: "Taste and see that the Lord is sweet"; change your tastes, and do not think that heavenly flavors can come from anywhere other than God. For this reason the Lord customarily bestows spiritual consolations upon beginners, because He knows that the weak and fragile soul can scarcely soar to divine things without a preliminary taste. The soul in this first degree should devote herself to compunction, mortification, meditations on the four last things and on the Passion of Christ, and especially to mortification and the uprooting of evil thoughts and habits, so that she may be able to pass freely to God — which does not happen without the greatest effort: "For the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent seize it," Matthew 11:12; but not the faint-hearted and self-indulgent.
The second, because the more divine things are tasted, the more they tend to be desired, and therefore taste is followed by desires to enjoy God more and more, while the soul rejects with distaste the savor of all external things. And from these desires arises a zeal not only for meditation, but also for imitating the life of Christ, and a burning desire to walk in the footsteps of Him who said, John 14:6: "I am the Way." The steps by which you must walk are these: humility, meekness, patience, charity, prayer, His Cross and endurance, and labors.
The third, satiety: when the soul arrives at the point of abominating and deeply hating worldly things, she soon also finds rest, and is satisfied with divine love alone; for by experience itself she discovers that she can find full satisfaction nowhere except in God.
The fourth, inebriation, which is a certain ecstasy and mental transport proceeding from the aforesaid satiety of divine love, unmixed with the water of any images or phantasms — from which we are drawn away only with the greatest difficulty, unless the Lord Himself leads the soul by the hand and admits and receives her into His secret chamber, that is, into Himself, with the senses dismissed and their functions suspended.
The fifth, security that excludes fear: for having tasted the perfection of divine charity, the soul remains entirely resigned to the divine good pleasure, so that she is ready to endure hell forever if it were so pleasing to God. She also experiences within herself a certain most close bond of divine friendship so firm that she judges she can never be separated from it.
The sixth, tranquility — namely, such an abundance of peace and jubilation that the soul seems to live as if reclining in silence and sleep upon the breast of the Lord.
REMEMBERING YOUR BREASTS ABOVE WINE: THE UPRIGHT LOVE YOU.
In Hebrew the word is nazkira, which first signifies "we will remember"; whence the Syriac translates: "let us remember your love above wine"; the Septuagint: "we will love." Second, "we will commemorate, we will celebrate"; whence Vatablus translates: "we will proclaim your loves as more excellent than wine," because she is most intimately joined to Him. Third, some translate: "we will smell your breasts (or your loves)," because, as verse 2 said: "They are fragrant with the finest ointments."
She alludes to what was said in verse 1: "Your breasts are better than wine." Whence it is gathered that these breasts are the Bridegroom's, not the bride's, and they denote the Bridegroom's sweetness, generosity and nurturing, as I said there. Again, from this it is clear that "better" is implicitly understood here, as if to say: We will remember Your breasts, which are better and sweeter than wine — that is, than all the delights and pleasures of the world; for among these, wine holds the first place. Now those who take the breasts here as belonging to the bride rather than the Bridegroom understand by "breasts" the loves — as though the young maidens here congratulate the bride on the marriage and loves of the Bridegroom, namely that such a fortunate lot, such a happy love, such a noble marriage with Christ has fallen to her, that they resolve to remember, commemorate and celebrate it forever. So Sanchez. Whence Gregory of Nyssa and Theodoret explain it as though the young maidens and all Christians say to the Church: Because you loved the breasts of Christ above the wine of worldly pleasure and wisdom, therefore we likewise will love both the breasts and the teaching you give us, and we will nurse securely, because uprightness — that is, Christ — loved you. In this sense, Gregory of Nyssa applies it to St. John, who reclined upon the breast of Christ at supper.
THE UPRIGHT LOVE YOU.
First, in Hebrew it is mescharim, that is, uprightnesses, equities; whence the Septuagint translates: "equity loved you"; the Arabic: "uprightness loved you"; the Syriac: "above the upright I have loved you." These are the words of the bride to the Bridegroom, as I said, as if to say: We will rejoice in You, O Christ, remembering Your breasts — that is, Your loves and sweetnesses — which are sweeter than wine, that is, than any bodily delights, because Your love is not carnal and impure, but spiritual, most pure and most holy. For "uprightnesses have loved You" — that is, all uprightnesses, all virtues and graces have embraced You, so that You appear to be the son of virtues and graces; and truly You are such, because You are the Son of God, whom all divine endowments, all beauties, all charisms surround, adorn and crown. So Origen.
Second, others translate mescharim in the ablative, "in uprightnesses" — as if to say: The virgins love You with uprightnesses, that is, with love that is in every respect upright, that is, chaste and pure, because in loving You there is the highest uprightness, the highest equity, the highest honesty, the highest beauty.
Third, Rabbi Abraham refers mescharim, that is, uprightnesses, to the wine, as if to say: We will remember the breasts — that is, the loves — of Yours, which are better than the wine of uprightnesses, that is, better than wine that is sincere, pure and most excellent. But this interpretation seems obscure, cold and forced.
Finally, our translator renders mescharim most aptly as "the upright," either because mescharim signifies both "upright persons" and "uprightnesses"; or because by metonymy the abstract is put for the concrete, that is, "uprightnesses" for "the upright." The sense is, as if to say: We will continually rejoice, and jubilate, and be glad in You, O good Jesus, Bridegroom of our soul: because we will remember the breasts of Your
sweetness and mercy as better than wine — that is, than all the delights of the whole world: for hence the upright — namely those who have a right and sincere taste of mind, not corrupted by the disease of concupiscence, who measure all things by right reason, not by depraved desire — love You, because Your breasts, that is, Your sweetnesses, are most upright, that is, most just, most equitable, and entirely conformable to reason, law, virtue and God. Hence Symmachus translates: "Upright are those who love You," because they are led by right reason, law and virtue.
For uprightness two things are required: first, that the life and action be in itself upright, that is, honest and just; second, that it be done with a right intention. Hence St. Thomas interprets, as if to say: The upright — that is, those who have a right intention, who strive to please God alone, and set Him as the end of their life and all their actions — these, I say, love You. Origen thinks that the bride here tacitly chides the young maidens, as if to say: Those who are wholly upright in mind and love, so as to have all their affections upright, these fully love Christ; but my young maidens, because they have not yet made their affections entirely upright, but still love the wine of pleasures, and some vicious concupiscence still lingers in them, therefore they do not fully love Christ; but they will mature and gradually purify their loves, so that they become entirely upright, and then they will be brides of Christ, and will love Him with their whole heart and all the powers of their soul. Hence gather: if you wish to love Christ, straighten your mind and your loves and ways. For none but the upright love Christ. So St. Ambrose on Psalm 118 [119], sermon 2, on verse 1: "Equity, he says, loved You — that is, no winding paths follow You; only the straight path of justice can arrive at You. For whoever loves justice does not turn away from Christ." Again, hence gather that uprightness of life and conduct is charity and love of Christ. For this love is most upright, and straightens all that is crooked; therefore what is conformed to this love is upright; what is deformed from it is curved and crooked. So Cassiodorus, Justus of Urgel, Bede and others. Charity is the uprightness of the soul and of all its powers and faculties.
Moreover, the body — upright and given by the most upright God in preference to all other animals — reminds the soul of this uprightness. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 24: "For what is more unseemly than to carry a crooked soul in an upright body? It is a perverse and ugly thing for an earthen vessel, which is the body made from earth, to have its eyes directed upward, to gaze freely at the heavens and delight in the heavenly luminaries; while the spiritual and heavenly creature, on the contrary, drags its eyes — that is, its interior senses and affections — downward to the earth, and she who should have been nourished in saffron clings to the mud like one of the swine, and embraces dung. Blush, O my soul, for having exchanged the divine likeness for that of cattle; blush for wallowing in the mire, you who are from heaven. Blush, O soul, says the body, when you consider me. Created upright in the likeness of your Creator, you also received me as an aid—
like yourself, at least in the lineaments of bodily uprightness."
Tropologically, the upright prelate, says St. Bernard, and the apostolic man, who nurses others with the breasts of his teaching, often suffers persecutions and calumnies from the wicked and depraved; but let him console himself that the upright love him, and above all God, who is the most upright of the upright, according to that saying: "The Lord our God is upright, and there is no iniquity in Him," Psalm 91:16 [92:15]; therefore relying on this, and happy in the testimony of his conscience, let him despise the judgments of the wicked, and say with the Psalmist: "In the Lord my soul shall be praised: let the meek hear and be glad," Psalm 33:3 [34:2]. Again, St. Gregory takes these words as referring to the commemoration of the Passion of Christ, which kindles in us the love of Christ: "The holy soul, he says, the bride of Christ, rejoices in the delights of her Bridegroom, when she rejects bodily things and hides herself in spiritual things; and she makes the same Bridegroom her delight, in regard for whom she cares nothing for all worldly things. But she does this in the memory of His breasts; because when she recalls with how great a love Christ loved her — He who redeemed her by His blood dying on the Cross, and daily nurses her in the bosom of Mother Church with the milk of that same blood — without doubt she is more and more inclined to love Him. Which milk is rightly said to be sweeter than wine, because through the blood of Christ we are mercifully nourished, we who were previously severely constrained by the letter of the law. Through which love is fulfilled what is said: The upright love You: for only the upright love Christ, because whoever still runs after crooked vices out of desire, constantly offending against the line of uprightness, cannot truly love Christ, the Author of justice." Finally, the Chaldean translates: and we will delight, and we will rejoice, and we will remember them, and we will love Your divinity, and we will depart from the idols of the peoples; and all the just, who do what is right before You, will fear You, and will love Your commandments.
VERSE 4. I AM BLACK BUT BEAUTIFUL, O DAUGHTERS OF JERUSALEM, LIKE THE TENTS OF CEDAR, LIKE THE CURTAINS OF SOLOMON.
I AM BLACK BUT BEAUTIFUL (in Hebrew schechora, that is, I am somewhat dark and swarthy, as St. Ambrose reads in his Apology of David — namely in the skin of my hands and face, as is usual for those who tend sheep in the fields — but with a noble face, handsome features, and beautiful and graceful in all the members of my body), O DAUGHTERS OF JERUSALEM, LIKE THE TENTS (the Arabic version reads: like the dwellings) OF CEDAR, LIKE THE CURTAINS (Aquila and Symmachus translate: the tent-coverings, which are made from skins) OF SOLOMON. — This latter comparison must be joined to the former respectively and distributively, in this manner: I am black like the tents of Cedar, that is, of the Arabs (for Cedar was a son of Ishmael and father of the Arabs, or nomads, dwelling in tents in the desert of the Saracens), but beautiful like the curtains of Solomon. So Origen, Theodoret, Cassiodorus, St. Gregory, Rupert, St. Bernard, St. Anselm and others; although
Gregory of Nyssa and Aponius refer both comparisons — that is, both the tents of Cedar and the curtains of Solomon — to both the blackness and the beauty of the bride. It is an anticipatory objection, for someone might say: How can you, O pastoral and rustic bride, who like the Cedarenes dwell perpetually in tents to tend your flocks, and there are scorched and darkened by the heat of the sun — how dare you aspire to marry the king and say: "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth"? She meets and answers the objection: Granted that outwardly I am dark, like the skins and tents of Cedar, nevertheless inwardly I am beautiful like the skins and skin-covered tents of Solomon, who, as in everything, so also in his tents (which he used while traveling) was most refined and lavish; whence he adorned them with gold and gems and costly embroidery. So Pliny says of Nero: "He had, he says, embossed tents and gilded pavilions." Again, these words are connected with what immediately precedes, as if to say: "The upright love You," O Bridegroom Christ, and me equally, for I am Your bride; but many wicked people hate and persecute both me and You. I am therefore black through the darkness of afflictions and the distress of persecutions, but beautiful through patience, constancy and victory, by which I have overcome my persecutors — indeed, subdued, converted, and subjected them to myself and to You. The blackness of tribulations, therefore, has not disgraced me, but has honored and illumined me.
She alludes to the Ethiopian wife of Moses, on account of whom his sister Miriam, murmuring against Moses, was struck with leprosy by God, Numbers 12:1 and 10; for she was a type of the Church gathered by Christ from the Gentiles, dark with unbelief, on account of which the murmuring Jews were themselves rejected. So Origen.
Moreover, many Easterners and Southerners are dark-skinned, such as the Moors, Egyptians and their neighbors the Jews, the Arabs and the Ethiopians; such was Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus, king of the Ethiopians; of whom Ovid writes:
Andromeda of Cepheus pleased Perseus, Dark with the color of her native land.
Indeed, among those peoples the dark are considered beautiful, and the fair, ugly. Whence the Ethiopians paint Judas and demons white, but St. Peter and the angels black. Add that a swarthy complexion is a mixed and middle color between white and black, and therefore has its own elegance. Hence the dawn in Hebrew is called schachar, that is, somewhat dark, because it is the boundary between night and day, between darkness and light: yet it is beautiful, because of the rays of the sun shining and gleaming beautifully amid the darkness. Whence the bride is compared to it in chapter 6, verse 9: "Who is she, he says, who comes forth like the dawn rising, beautiful as the moon, chosen as the sun?"
By the daughters of Jerusalem, some first, with Aponius, understand the angels, who are citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem — as if to say: Do not marvel, O angels, that I am not as white as you are, but dark; for though dark, I am nevertheless beautiful, like you. Second, others understand the Jews, who persecuted Christ
and the Christians, especially the Gentiles, because they had been black through unbelief. So Theodoret and St. Athanasius in his Synopsis. Third, and more plainly, others take them as the young maidens — that is, souls new in the faith of Christ: for they are called daughters of Jerusalem, with a beautiful allusion to the bride, who was the wife of Solomon, who was king of Jerusalem.
You ask how the Church can be black and beautiful at the same time. First, Gregory of Nyssa, St. Gregory, Philo Carpathius, St. Jerome on Zephaniah chapter 2, St. Chrysostom, homily 1 On Virtue, and others generally, hold that the Church of the Gentiles is called black on account of her previous idolatry and crimes, by which in her pagan state she served sin and the devil; but beautiful, through the conversion and grace of Christ, by which she washed away the blackness of her crimes in baptism and made herself white in the blood of the Lamb. Whence St. Ambrose, sermon 2 on Psalm 118 [119]: "Dark, he says, through guilt, fair through grace; dark through vice, fair through the washing. I am dark because I have sinned; fair because Christ now loves me." The same author, in his book On Those Who Are Initiated into the Mysteries, chapter 7: "Black, he says, because from among sinners; fair, through the sacrament of faith." Hear St. Bernard, sermon 25: "But hear whence she says she is black, and whence beautiful. Is she black because of the foul way of life she formerly had under the prince of this world, still bearing the image of the earthly man; and beautiful because of the heavenly likeness, which she later exchanged for, now walking in newness of life? But if this is the case, why does she not rather say of the past: 'I was black,' instead of 'I am black'? If nevertheless this sense pleases anyone, what follows — 'Like the tents of Cedar, like the curtains of Solomon' — must be understood thus: that she called herself the tent of Cedar with respect to her former way of life, but of Solomon with respect to the new. For the prophet shows that curtains and tent are the same thing, saying: Suddenly my tents are destroyed, suddenly my curtains." The sense therefore is, as Origen and Gregory of Nyssa say, as if she were saying: I, the Church of the Gentiles, was once black through unbelief, and thus was the tent of Cedar — that is, of darkness — in which the prince of darkness, the devil, dwelt; but now, washed through baptism and sanctified through the grace of Christ, I have become beautiful like the curtains — that is, the tent — of Solomon, because I have been made the temple of Christ, who is the true Solomon and the king of peace.
To this adds the Chaldean, who after his manner refers these words to the Jews worshipping the golden calf: "When, he says, the house of Israel made the calf, their faces became dark like those of the children of Ethiopia, who dwell in the tents of Cedar; and when they did penance, and the sin was forgiven, the splendor of their faces was multiplied like the faces of the angels, because they made the curtains of the tabernacle, and the majesty of the Lord dwelt in their midst. And Moses their teacher ascended to the heights." For in a similar way the Church passes from the tents of Cedar to the curtains — that is, to the taber-
nacles of Solomon, when from error she migrated to the true faith, from the darkness of falsehood to the light of truth, from bloodthirsty wrath to the tranquility of peace, from the defense of idols to the defense of the true religion of God, says Aponius.
Second, the Church is called black and beautiful because she is composed of sinners and the just: so Bede and St. Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, book 3, chapter 32. Or because she is composed of Gentiles, formerly in their paganism uncircumcised, foul and dark; and of Jews, who from of old were circumcised, faithful and the people of God: so Theodoret and Philo Carpathius.
Third, St. Augustine, sermon 201 On the Seasons, says that the Church and the faithful soul are black through nature corrupted by sin — that is, through concupiscence — but beautiful through grace: "Whence, he says, is the Church black and beautiful? Black by nature, beautiful by grace. Whence black? Behold, in iniquities I was conceived, and in sins my mother bore me. Whence beautiful? You will sprinkle me with hyssop and I will be cleansed; You will wash me and I will be made whiter than snow, Psalm 50 [51], verse 9. Whence black? The Apostle says: I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin, Romans 7:23. Whence beautiful? Who will deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, verse 24. Truly the Church of the Gentiles was like crows when she despised the living Lord, and before receiving grace, as if offering dead carcasses, she served idols." And St. Ambrose, in his book On Those Who Are Initiated into the Mysteries, chapter 7: "She is black, he says, through the frailty of the human condition, but fair through grace." And Aponius: "From a captive, he says, she became free; from a stranger, a citizen; from the most lowly, a queen and bride of the Creator — made so by the kindness of the Word of God, Christ."
Fourth, and very aptly, the Church is black through the storms of persecutions and sufferings, but beautiful through the unconquered patience and constancy of her spirit. This sense is required by what follows: "Do not consider me because I am dark, for the sun has discolored me. The sons of my mother have fought against me": she is black, therefore, on account of afflictions; but beautiful, first, on account of the glory of fortitude and humility and other virtues, which she acquires and increases through suffering and fighting; second, on account of the most beautiful crowns she merits for herself in heaven; third, on account of the manifold orders of saints by which she is adorned, says Aponius. And St. Ambrose, On the Holy Spirit, chapter 11: "She is black, he says, with the dust of her combat while she fights; fair when she is crowned with the trophies of her victory." And on Psalm 118 [119], sermon 18: "He put 'black' first, he says, to enhance 'fair.'" So too Cassiodorus: Cedar, he says — that is, the Saracens, Arabs, enemies of Israel — denotes the persecutors of the Church, who strive to blacken her; but she is beautiful, because she herself is the tent (which is made of skins) of Solomon — that is, of Christ — and therefore worthy of His visitation and consola-
tion; especially because she constantly devotes herself to mortification, whose symbol is the skins — which are the hides of dead animals. So too Bede, who also adds that the Church is likened to Cedar the son of Ishmael, of whom it was said: "His hand shall be against all, and the hands of all against him," Genesis 16:12. For in a similar way Christ predicted to the apostles and the Church: "You will be hated by all on account of My name," Matthew 10:22. Justus of Urgel gives the example of St. Paul: Consider, he says, the black and beautiful in Paul: "In all things we suffer tribulation, but are not distressed; we are straitened, but not destitute; we are cast down, but we do not perish," 2 Corinthians 4:8. The tents of Cedar are when he says: "We are made as the refuse of this world, the offscouring of all," 1 Corinthians 4:13. The curtains of Solomon are when he says: "Always bearing about in our body the mortification of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies," 2 Corinthians 4:10. So Justus.
SECOND PARTIAL SENSE: On Christ and the Holy Soul.
First, the sinful and penitent soul is black through guilt, but beautiful through repentance; black through torpor, beautiful through fervor. "For conversion bestows beauty upon her, says Origen, when she begins from lowly things to ascend to lofty ones, and it is said of her: Who is she who ascends made white?" To this Gregory of Nyssa adds, teaching that the soul blackened by sin is made beautiful because Christ loved her, according to what preceded: "Uprightness loved you." Hear Gregory of Nyssa: "Do not marvel (O young maidens) that uprightness loved me, but rather that, when I was black with sin and through my works was akin and joined to darkness, He made me beautiful through His love, His beauty exchanged for my ugliness: for, taking upon Himself the defilements of my sins, He bestows upon me His own purity."
He brings the comparison of night and dawn: for night makes everything dark and black; but the dawn, driving away the black darkness, brings bright and beautiful light to all things. Christ does the same when He makes the soul, dark with error and sins, radiant with His own luminous grace. St. Gregory, however, refers these words to the holy soul, but one that, like Magdalene, is penitent, and mindful of her past sins calls herself black, but beautiful through the present grace and justice of Christ. "The holy soul, he says, calls herself black and beautiful, because she always sees the ugliness of her sins, and yet carefully bears in her outward actions the form of that justice which she sees within. She is rightly called black like the tents of Cedar, and beautiful like the curtains of Solomon, because insofar as she bears the darkness of mortality, she is soiled by the blackness of corruption,
for Cedar is interpreted as "darkness"; while Solomon, who signifies Christ, is called "the peaceful one." She therefore says she is beautiful like the curtains of Solomon, because while she does not neglect to imitate all the saints who mortify themselves in imitation of Christ, she unites herself to their beauty through likeness." Therefore the penitent, who strives to guard against future sins and to establish himself in the grace of God, should continually, like St. Magdalene, turn over in his mind, lament and weep for the sins he has committed; for this humility, contrition and compunction will win the grace of God, which will grant him the gift of perseverance.
Second, the just soul is black outwardly on account of defects and venial sins into which she often falls; but beautiful inwardly through grace, charity and the other virtues. Again, she is black on account of the dangers of sinning mortally, of damnation and of hell: for the daily temptations of the devil, the world and the flesh suggest these dangers to her, on account of which she works out her salvation in humility, with fear and trembling, and therefore she is beautiful; for humility and holy fear make her beautiful, and thereby strengthen her to resist temptations generously, and so as it were assure her of victory and salvation, as St. Bernard teaches.
Third, take these words as referring to the soul struggling with concupiscences and passions, as if to say: I am black through the foul movements of anger, gluttony, lust and every concupiscence; but beautiful, because I continually fight with them bravely and conquer, and so through warfare I attain true peace, through the grace of Solomon — that is, of Christ the king of peace — in which peace lies the harmony and beauty of the soul. So St. Ambrose, On Those Who Are Initiated into the Mysteries, chapter 7; the same author, Exhortation to Virgins, applying these words to every virgin: Black, he says, through the flesh, fair through virginity — like the curtains, that is, the tents of Solomon made of skins, but interwoven with gold and gems, and wrought with Phrygian and Babylonian needlework.
Fourth, take these words as referring to the holy soul who endures the slanders, persecutions and other afflictions of this life from her rivals: for she is black through afflictions, but beautiful through patience; therefore the blackness of afflictions increases the beauty of her patience. "Happy blackness, says St. Bernard, sermon 25, which gives birth to brightness of mind, the light of knowledge, purity of conscience." And further on he cites the example of Paul, 2 Corinthians 12:5 [and 9]: "Gladly, he says, will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Desirable is the infirmity that is compensated by the power of Christ. Who will grant me not only to be infirm, but to be utterly destitute and to fail completely in myself, so that I may be strengthened by the power of the Lord of hosts? For power is made perfect in infirmity. Finally he says: When I am weak, then I am strong and mighty. Since this is so, the bride beautifully turns to her own glory what is cast at her as a reproach by her rivals, glorying in being not only beautiful but also black. For she is not ashamed of the blackness that she knows preceded even in the Bridegroom, to whom to be made like—
is even a thing of glory? Nothing, therefore, does she count more glorious for herself than to bear the reproach of Christ. Whence that cry of exultation and salvation: Far be it from me to glory, except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The ignominy of the Cross is welcome to the one who is not ungrateful to the Crucified. It is blackness, but it is the form and likeness of the Lord."
Moreover, Theodoret by the curtains of Solomon understands the precious skins with which Solomon was clothed, as if to say: I am the bride of the true Solomon — that is, of Christ — and therefore I am beautiful, because I go about clothed in Him and in His garments. Finally, hear Paul describing the skins of the saints, Hebrews 11:37: "They were stoned, they were cut asunder, they were tempted, they were put to death by the sword: they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, destitute, distressed, afflicted: wandering in deserts, in mountains, and in dens, and in caves of the earth."
THIRD PRINCIPAL SENSE: On Christ and the Blessed Virgin.
First, the Blessed Virgin was black not in herself, but in her father Adam, who sinned and infected by sin all his posterity (with the exception of the Blessed Virgin). She is therefore black through extrinsic domination, because she is the daughter of a sinner; but in herself she is beautiful through the fullness of grace. Whence St. Ambrose, sermon 2 on Psalm 118 [119]: The sinful flesh, he says, which was banished in Eve, received from the Virgin, took on from Mary its original purity and beauty.
Second, Rupert says: The Blessed Virgin appeared black when she was found by Joseph to be with child, who therefore wished to put her away secretly; but she was beautiful in truth, because she conceived by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. Again, she was black through humility, by which she outwardly conducted herself like other mothers, who are defiled by conceiving and bearing children from a man, and therefore are purified on the fortieth day. For so too the Blessed Virgin was purified; but interiorly she was most beautiful and most fair, and this great humility won for her a new glory and a new beauty.
Third, she was vile and despised by the Jews and other unbelievers, like the tents of Cedar; but to the faithful, indeed to the angels and to God, she was beautiful like the curtains — that is, the tabernacle (for the tabernacle of Moses was covered on the outside with skins, but on the inside with gold, silver, etc.) — and the temple of Solomon, because she herself was a temple, indeed a heaven not made by hand, which the Wisdom of God, namely Christ, built for Himself, Proverbs 9:1. So Hailgrinus, whom hear: "I am black in appearance, and despised as the mother of a leper; but beautiful in the reality of truth, and glorious as the mother of the true God. I am black like the tents of Cedar, because I am not esteemed as the tabernacle of the King of justice, but like other mothers, whose wombs are the tents of children of sorrow and darkness; among the tents of Cedar I am counted, which is interpreted as 'darkness' or 'sorrow.' Yet I am beautiful like the cur-
tains — that is, the tabernacle of Solomon, because she was a temple, indeed a heaven not made by hand, which the Wisdom of God, namely Christ, built for Himself. I am black in appearance, and despised as the mother of a leper; but beautiful in the reality of truth, and glorious as the mother of the true God."
dedicated indeed to Solomon, to Christ, the true Peacemaker. For just as those skins contained the typical ark, so I within my womb contained the true ark, namely Christ, whose flesh is signified by the ark, whose soul is designated by the golden urn that was in the ark, and whose divinity is designated in the manna; and just as the skins protected the entire tabernacle, so under the shadow of my protection I defend the whole Church. I am indeed like the reddened skin, because through compassion of sorrow I was dyed in the passion of my Son. I am likewise like the hyacinthine skin, through contemplation of heavenly things and love.
Fourth, most aptly William Parvus and Hailgrinus refer this to the time of the Passion, when the sorrowful Mother stood beside her dying Son, and when the sun was darkened, the splendor and beauty which this moon, more beautiful, drew from her sun was also darkened. For they hold that the Holy Spirit here presents to us the person of the Virgin Mother, as if contemplating in dark garments the most bitter torments of her Son, as if saying: Just as the Son, dying not wretchedly but mercifully, disdained to have this unworthy and unseemly mourning bestowed upon Him: so also the most blessed Mother, dying in affection with her Son, and in a certain way dying in Him, because He was bone of her bones and flesh of her flesh: Why, she says, do you weep over me, as over a wretched woman and the mother of a wretched man? I am black now, because it is fitting that I be despised with my despised Son, and be reckoned leprous with Him who is reckoned a leper. He, according to the Prophet, my sun, is now made like a sackcloth of hair in your eyes, and one who has no beauty nor comeliness; it is fitting that I too be conformed to Him, and be likened to criminals in dark and black garb: like the tents of Cedar, as one of the sinful women, says Honorius.
Finally, the Church and the faithful soul in its militant state is black like the military tents of Cedar, through the struggles and wounds which it gives or receives while it continually fights with its enemies. But the same Church triumphant is beautiful, in Hebrew navah, that is, desirable, lovable, like the curtains of Solomon; because it enjoys heavenly peace, honor, glory, and every good. Hence the Psalmist, aspiring to that state, groans: "Woe to me, he says, that my sojourning is prolonged: I have dwelt with the inhabitants of Cedar: my soul has been long a sojourner," Psalm 119:5-6. The Church therefore says to the daughters of Jerusalem, that is, to the souls and angels triumphing in heaven: See that you do not despise me in my militant state, blackened with dust, because through these struggles, fighting nobly, I shall advance toward your triumphs.
Tropologically, the faithful and the saints outwardly appear abject, vile, pallid, dark; but inwardly they are beautiful in virtues and wisdom. "Often, he says, a philosopher hides under a cheap cloak." Wherefore Ecclesiasticus wisely admonishes, chapter 11:2: "Praise not a man for his appearance, nor despise a man in his look;" he proves it by example: "The bee is small (mikra, that is, little) among winged creatures, yet her fruit has the chief (in Greek archen, that is, the primacy of) sweetness," namely honey, which the bee produces. See what was said there.
Anagogically, the soul is black while it dwells in this wretched body as in a vile and dark tent of Cedar; but it will be beautiful when it migrates to the curtains of Solomon, that is, to heaven: for God "stretched out the heavens like a skin," Psalm 103:2. For just as skins are distinguished by engravings, so the heavens are distinguished by stars and Angels, as St. Bernard says. Therefore the soul, continually aspiring to the blessed life, is beautiful, because it is like heaven, says Origen. Hear St. Bernard, Sermon 27: "Not without merit does she claim her likeness from the place whence she draws her origin. But by what reasoning does she compare her form to such heavens? Because she adores and worships one God? As do the angels; she loves Christ above all things? As do the angels; she is chaste as are the angels, and this in sinful flesh and a fragile body, which the angels do not have; finally she seeks and relishes the things that are among them, not the things that are on earth. What is a more evident mark of heavenly origin than to retain an inborn likeness in a region of unlikeness; for the glory of the celibate life to be claimed on earth, and by an exile; to live as an angel in a body that is almost bestial? These things belong to heavenly power, not earthly."
Symbolically, the Church and the faithful soul is black through the labors, distractions, and impurities of the active life, such as the Cedarenes, that is, the Arabs, led and still lead, who accordingly never rest or have a fixed dwelling; but they live perpetually in moveable tents, which grow black from heat, rain, and dust, and wander from region to region, as nomads do. The same soul is beautiful, and, as St. Ambrose reads in the Apology of David, comely through the appearance and quiet of the contemplative life, which is represented by the curtains, that is, the tabernacle of Solomon, that is, of the peaceful king.
Verse 5. Do not consider me because I am dark, for the sun has discolored me.
For "discolored" the Hebrew is sheshezaphatni, which word is found only here, and in Job 20:9, where the Vulgate translates it as "saw"; the Septuagint, "looked upon"; others, "gazed at." Various translators therefore render it variously here. The Septuagint: do not look upon me because I am black, for pareblepse, he despised, that is, the sun looked upon me obliquely; Symmachus, pareneblepse, that is, he looked at me sternly; Theodotion, the sun parched me; Aquila, the sun burned me; St. Jerome, because the sun despised me, or, as is better contained in the Hebrew, the sun discolored me. St. Ambrose however, in his book On Isaac, chapter IV: Because the sun has not looked upon me; for parablepo means to turn the eyes aside, which often happens when people pretend not to see what they see, and look not with a direct face but sideways, which is the same as not looking at all, or to gaze with sidelong and hostile eyes, says Budaeus. Vatablus: because the sun, striking me with its rays, gazed upon me; Symmachus, touched me; Philo Carpathius, for pareblepse, that is, despised, reads perieblepse, that is, looked around, as if to say: Do not consider me, because formerly in paganism I was dark
through unbelief, because now the sun of justice has looked around upon me, who with His faith and grace has illuminated me on every side.
The same author, in Sermon 12 on Psalm 118, attributes this to the Church of the Gentiles, as if she humbly responds to the Synagogue reproaching her for her paganism, confessing her former blackness of idolatry, because the sun of Christ's faith, as she was unworthy of His gaze, did not look upon her, as if to say: Because I did not look upon Christ by believing, neither did He look upon me with His grace, but passed me by and despised me, says Origen, Homily 2 of the four.
Again, Origen, in Homily 3, translates pareblepse as "looked obliquely," as if to say: I was dark because the sun of justice, Christ, looked upon me obliquely and crookedly, because I first looked upon Him obliquely and perversely: for every cause and origin of crookedness and perversity is from us, according to Leviticus 26:23, following the Septuagint: If you walk with me crookedly, I too will walk with you crookedly in my fury. So says Origen.
Hence the Chaldean, applying these words in his usual manner to the Jews, translates thus: the assembly of Israel says before the peoples: Do not despise me because I am darker than you, and because I acted according to your works, and worshipped the sun and moon. So also Theodotion: I was darkened, he says, while I worship creatures, passing over the Creator, and honor this visible sun instead of the sun of justice; but shortly I shall be made white through the grace of Christ, and then you will exclaim: Who is she that comes up made white? Song of Songs 8:3.
Moreover St. Ambrose, in Psalm 118, Sermon 2, reading "the sun has not looked upon me," namely the sun of justice, that is, Christ, takes this verse as referring to the Synagogue, abandoned and for a time rejected by Christ, namely when He transferred the Gospel from the unbelieving Jews to the Gentiles. Therefore the Synagogue of the Jews says, according to St. Ambrose: "Do not flee from me because I am dark; I am dark because the sun of justice has left me, who formerly used to illuminate me, Malachi 4:2; I have lost the color of my face, the sharpness of my eyes with which I formerly saw the sun has been dulled. I walk in darkness because I do not know the day of Christ, John 12:35. Yet do not despise me, because He who has left can look upon me again, can have mercy again. He is wont to gather the dispersed, to seek out the abandoned, to collect the destitute." And shortly after: "The sun has not looked upon me, and therefore I am darkened. But the sun shines upon the just and the unjust, upon the just by grace, upon the unjust by mercy: granting to the former the reward of their merits, forgiving the latter their sins. And it did not shine upon the Gentiles before, now it shines. Now it rises for them, which used to rise for me; He who forgave them will forgive me also. Do not think that because I am darkened, the sun has utterly abandoned me and no longer looks upon me, nor revisits me in my blackness. He dissembled from me because I did not keep His commandments: He will be reconciled when He sees the repentance of my sins. The sun did not look upon me because I did not receive Him when He came, I did not open the windows so that the light of life might enter. When
First Total Sense: Concerning Christ and the Church.
These words can be explained in four ways, according to the four senses assigned in the preceding verse; hence by the sun can be understood the heat, first of mortal sins, second of venial sins, third of concupiscences, fourth of persecutions and tribulations.
First, therefore, some explain it thus, as if to say: Do not wonder at me or despise me because I am dark, not by nature, but through the former crimes of idolatry, lust, gluttony, pride, etc., because the sun, that is, the heat of temptations, defiled and darkened me, but I have washed away these stains by baptism and penance: so Nyssen, Aponius, and others. Aponius, however, takes the sun to mean the devil, who is almost always the inciter of every temptation by which we are discolored.
Second, the Church and the just soul says of herself: Do not wonder that I am dark through defects and venial faults: for these do not blacken, but dim the brightness of the soul, because the sun has discolored me, that is, the heat of temptation.
Third, as if to say: Do not wonder that I am dark through the various sooty fumes and mists of the passions, because my inborn concupiscence continually exhales these, which discolors me. Hence St. Jerome, on chapter 3 of Amos, notes that just as idle and lazy bodies are burned and darkened when struck by the sun, so also the idle and those wasting in idleness are inflamed and blackened by the heat of temptations; but those who move, walk, and labor in the sun scarcely feel the sun's rays: so also laborious men, who prepare themselves for struggles and battles, overcome the injuries of the world, and obtain the blessing of the Holy Spirit, who says to the just: "By day the sun shall not burn you, nor the moon by night," Psalm 120:6.
Fourth and in the genuine sense, as if to say: Do not wonder that I have been darkened by tribulations and hardships, because the heat of persecution has discolored me with these; but the same has breathed into me patience and constancy, which far more greatly illuminates me. So Cassiodorus, Bede, Justus Orgelitanus, and others. In a similar sense, of the Nazarites in the destruction of Jerusalem, pallid and dark with hunger, Jeremiah says: "Their face is made blacker than coals, and they are not recognized in the streets," Lamentations 4:8.
That this is the meaning is clear from what follows: "The sons of my mother fought against me."
Somewhat differently St. Anselm: The sun of justice, Christ, has discolored me, he says, because for the sake of His faith and love I endure these persecutions, by which I am darkened. And St. Gregory and St. Bernard, Sermon 28, who explain it thus, as if to say: I am white and pure in myself, but I appear dark if I am compared with the splendor of Christ's sanctity: for this is so great that it darkens me and as it were discolors me, just as the stars, when the sun rises, are dimmed by its splendor.
I shall open, He will enlighten my eyes, He who came to illuminate the whole world, so that even those who do not see may see."
Second Partial Sense: Concerning Christ and the Just Soul.
All these things which I have said about the Church, attribute to the soul, only changing the name, to which add:
Symbolically, the sun inflaming, and thus as it were consuming and darkening the soul, is the heat of charity, likewise the burning desire of enjoying God, and the zeal for justice by which the soul as it were wastes away, when it sees the offenses against God and the perdition of souls, according to Psalm 68:10: "The zeal of Your house has consumed me;" and Psalm 118:139: "My zeal has made me waste away: because my enemies have forgotten Your words." So St. Bernard, Sermon 28, who also adds that charity as it were discolors the soul, while it burns and torments it, so that it weeps with those who weep, is weakened with the weak, and says with Paul: "Who is weakened, and I am not weakened? who is scandalized, and I am not on fire?" 2 Corinthians 11:29.
In a similar manner the desire to enjoy God induces a languor in the soul, and from this as it were a pallor, duskiness, and faintness. Hear St. Bernard: "Or to be discolored by the sun is to be set on fire with fraternal charity, to weep with those who weep, to be weakened with those who are weak, to burn at the scandals of each one. Or thus: The sun of justice, Christ, has discolored me, for whose love I languish. That languor is a certain destruction of color, and a failing in the desire of the soul, whence it also says: I remembered God, and was delighted, and was exercised: and my spirit fainted, Psalm 76:4. Therefore like a burning sun, the ardor of desire discolors the soul sojourning in the body, while it makes the one who gapes at the face of glory impatient at being repulsed, and delay torments the lover. Which of us so burns with holy love that, from the desire of seeing Christ, he disdains and lays aside every color of present glory and joy, protesting to Him with that prophetic voice: And the day of man I have not desired, You know? etc. Jeremiah 17:16: likewise with St. David: My soul refused to be comforted, Psalm 76:3, that is, it disdains to be colored by the vain joy of present goods."
Third Principal Sense: Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin.
First, the Blessed Virgin in regard to her complexion was dark and somewhat swarthy, as are the Egyptians and Palestinians, because they are scorched by the sun. This is clear from her image painted by St. Luke, which is religiously venerated in Rome in the Basilica of St. Mary Major. Hence Nicephorus, History II, chapter 23, from St. Epiphanius, thus describes her form: "She was of a wheat-colored complexion, with fair hair, sharp eyes, having somewhat tawny and olive-colored pupils in them; her eyebrows were arched and becomingly dark, her nose somewhat long, her lips rosy and full of sweetness of speech; her face not round and pointed, but somewhat longer, her hands and fingers likewise longer."
Second, the Blessed Virgin in purity and sanctity was most resplendent; yet if she is compared with the transcendent sanctity of God and Christ, she appears to be dimmed, just as the brightness of the moon is dulled and darkened by the splendor of the sun.
Third, she was dark because being pregnant she carried a child in her womb, and bore him as other mothers do, who when they conceive and give birth grow pale and dark: but the Blessed Virgin by this conception and birth was not darkened, but rather gilded and as it were deified, because she conceived and bore the Son of God, who is the light of the world. Thus Rupert says: "Do not, O daughters of Jerusalem, consider me because I am dark, that is, corrupted; because the fact that I have a swollen womb, that I was found with child, was not the work of a man, because I know not man, but the sun has thus discolored me. The true sun, and God far more beautiful than the sun, filled me with Himself, from Himself made my womb swell. Is this to be discolored? Not in your eyes, O daughters of Jerusalem, who have a simple eye, but in the thoughts of the proud, whose eye is wicked. The eye of Joseph was not wicked, but having a certain excusable cloud of ignorance, it was quickly cleared, when the angel of the Lord told him that my healthy skin had been discolored, which not a flame of fire from below, but the sun from above discolored, because I was pregnant with my virginity intact; whom not an earthly man, but the heavenly Father made pregnant by the Holy Spirit." Maternity therefore did not discolor virginity in the Blessed Virgin, but supremely adorned it.
Finally, standing at the cross during the Passion of Christ, she was darkened not so much by the sun's heat as by the heat of sorrow; but this darkness was soon wiped away by the glorious resurrection and appearance of Christ. Thus Hailgrinus and William, as if to say: Do not despise me on account of my Son's passion and my compassion, or on account of the various insults, mockeries, and afflictions of my whole life: for these did not happen through any fault or merit of mine or my Son's, but because the sun of Jewish envy and the heat of afflictions discolored me, because my Son willed that I be conformed and made like to His passion.
The sons of my mother fought against me, they set me as keeper in the vineyards: my own vineyard I have not kept.
FOUGHT AGAINST ME. — In Hebrew nicharu vi, that is, they were angry, or they burned with wrath against me; others, they contended, or quarreled against me; Origen, they fought in me; the Septuagint, they fought in themselves, that is, in me, in the ablative, that is, for me; or in me, that is, against me, as others generally translate. For often en emoi, that is "in me," is taken by the Greeks for ep' emoi, that is, "against me," in the accusative; yet "in me" can be taken properly in the ablative, as I shall soon show; Symmachus, they attacked me.
THEY SET ME AS KEEPER IN THE VINEYARDS, MY OWN VINEYARD I HAVE NOT KEPT. — For "my own" the Hebrew has "which is mine," namely my own or inherited, or given as a dowry, or acquired by my labors, or singularly dear and beloved to me; Vatablus: for the sons of my mother, burning with anger against me, set me as keeper of the vineyards; but I have not kept my own vineyard.
Grammatically, the bride gives the reason why the sun discolored her, namely that her brothers persecuting her forced her to act as keeper in others' vineyards, so that she could not keep her own vineyard: and while she wanders about in these, inspecting and guarding each one, she was struck by the sun's rays, discolored and darkened. So Aben-Ezra.
THE SONS OF MY MOTHER — are my brothers, born of the same mother and the same womb, who therefore ought to have defended me as their uterine sister and loved me supremely; yet they fought against me contrary to every right and law of nature, contrary to every brotherly and maternal love. For brothers and sisters born of the same mother tend to love each other more than those born of the same father but of a different mother: for a mother more closely unites and joins her children together, both as conceived in her womb, and also as born in her home and associated through continual upbringing and care. Again, the sons of the mother are here called those born of a different father, and therefore having dissimilar loves, affections, and customs, on account of which they fought against their uterine sister, born of a different father.
For often en emoi, that is "in me," is taken by the Greeks for ep' emoi, that is, "against me," in the accusative; yet "in me" can be taken properly in the ablative, as I shall soon show; Symmachus, they attacked me.
Now as to the parabolic and genuine sense, by the sons of the mother, first, some understand the children of Eve, namely any idolatrous peoples who attacked the Church: Lyranus understands Pharaoh and the Egyptians, who persecuted the children of Israel, Exodus 1. For both, after Jacob's descent into Egypt, were born in Egypt; both therefore were sons of the same mother, that is, of the land of Egypt.
Second, others understand the Jews who, by apostasizing from the true God and Moses, defected to the idols and rites of the Gentiles in the time of the Judges, Kings, and Maccabees, so that this complaint is not that of the Church, but of the Synagogue, namely of the Jews who duly worshipped God in Judaism, as if to say: My brothers the Jews, born with me from the same stock of Israel and the Synagogue as from a mother, descending to idols, attacked me the Synagogue of faithful Jews worshipping one God, and perverted many of them, and enticed them to their idolatry, whom they accordingly set as custodians in the vineyards, that is, as heads and overseers in the adulterous assemblies of idolaters, and in the perverted religions of the Gentiles, to propagate them and lead all the Jews over to them; whereby it came about that I could not keep my vineyard, that is, the true religion, worship, and faith of God, and the true Synagogue of God, but many drifted away from it to the vineyards, that is, the synagogues of the profane Gentiles, according to that saying: "The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel: and the man of Judah, His delightful plant, and I expected him to produce judgment, and behold iniquity; and justice, and behold a cry," Isaiah 5:7. Thus the Chaldean translates: because false prophets were the cause that the wrath of the Lord's fury was poured out upon me, and they taught me to serve your idols and to walk in your customs; but the Lord of the world, who is God, I did not serve, nor did I walk in His laws, nor did I keep His precepts and His law. But the bride in this book of the Canticle is the Church of Christians, not the Synagogue of the Jews; therefore these words belong to the Church, not to the Synagogue.
Third and in the genuine sense, by "the sons of my mother" are here understood the Jews persecuting the Church of Christ: for they were born together with it from the same mother, namely the Synagogue (for from her were born Christ, the apostles, and the other first Christians, who were all Jews by race and nation, according to that saying: "From Sion shall go forth the law [of the Gospel], and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem," Isaiah 2:3), but from a different father, namely the devil, while the Church was born from God and Christ, according to that saying: "You are of your father the devil: and the desires of your father (to kill Me) you wish to do," John 8:44. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: The Jews, obstinate in Judaism, attacked me the Church of Christ, that is, the apostles and first Christians, most bitterly, and therefore compelled them to abandon Judea and flee to the Gentiles, and there to erect and keep vineyards, that is, external Churches of the Gentiles: whereby it came about that I could not keep my own vineyard, that is, the Church situated in Judea, which was my native and own, and uniquely entrusted to me by Christ: therefore, expelled from it, I was forced to wander through the vineyards of the Gentiles, where having endured various heats of the sun, that is, of persecution, discolored by hardships, I was afflicted and darkened.
Where note in passing the fruit of the persecution by the Jews, for this was the cause of the conversion of all the Gentiles: for while the Jews, says Lyranus, wished to disturb the Church, unwillingly they brought it about that the Gospel was spread more widely, and instead of one Church in Judea, Churches were established in all nations. This is what Paul reproaches the Jews with: "It was necessary that the word of God should first be spoken to you: but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold we turn to the Gentiles: for so the Lord has commanded us," Acts 13:46.
So Origen, Cassiodorus, Bede, Justus Orgelitanus, Haymo, Anselm, and Bernard, Sermon 29. Hence the Author of the Imperfect Work on St. Matthew in St. Chrysostom, Homily 3: "The nature of vipers, he says, is to burst open the wombs of their mothers, and so be born. Since therefore the Jews, continually persecuting the prophets, corrupted their mother the Synagogue, as she herself mourning says in the Canticle: The sons of my mother fought against me; therefore John called them the offspring of vipers," Luke 3:7. Wherefore, alluding to this, Christ introduces the parable of the vineyard, into which God, sending the laboring prophets, who were all killed by the tenants, that is, by the Jews, finally sent His Son, who, crucified by the same, destroyed Judea and the Jews, Matthew 21:33.
To this adds St. Gregory, who by the sons of the mother understands the first Judaizing Christians, who by their importunity compelled the primitive Church to Judaize, and to observe circumcision and the other things prescribed by the old law. To this also add those who think there is here a hysteron proteron or inverted order; for in correct order these words should be arranged thus: "They set me (the apostles) as keeper in the vineyards," that is, in the churches of the Gentiles; because "my own vineyard (that is, the church of Judea) I did not keep," that is, I could not keep; since "the sons of my mother (the Jews) fought against me."
Fourth, "the sons of the mother" can be understood as heretics, who attack, afflict, and discolor their mother the Church, in which they were baptized and reborn, while they establish their adulterous vineyards, that is, synagogues of Satan, in which they teach their heresies, and set over them custodians, that is, priests, teachers, and preachers, whereby it happens that the orthodox Church cannot protect herself without being torn and mangled by them. Of these John says, 1 Epistle 2:19: "They went out from us, but they were not of us;" and Paul, Acts 20:30: "From among your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them."
Fifth, "the sons of the mother" can be understood as wicked pastors of the Church, bishops, and prelates, especially those who seek bishoprics and prelacies in order to be set as keepers of the vineyards, that is, heads of Churches, not out of zeal for Christ and souls, but to amass wealth, and proudly preside over and dominate the clergy; therefore they do not keep their vineyard, that is, the Church entrusted to them, but scatter and overturn it. So Origen, Homily 1, and Aponius. See St. Bernard, Homily 30, where he beautifully explains how holy souls flee from the keeping of vineyards, that is, from the governance of Churches, because they say: "My own vineyard I have not kept," that is, I cannot preserve and govern my own soul; how then shall I govern others' in so great a number? Wherefore if they are unwillingly placed over others, they continually grieve and mourn.
Symbolically, Theodoret, St. Gregory, Philo Carpathius, and St. Bernard, Sermon 29, and St. Ambrose in Psalm 118, Sermon 2, on verse 1, by the sons of the mother understand the apostles, who fought against the Church, but for the Church's benefit, namely to purge it of errors and vices, just as the prophets fought against the Synagogue.
The same applies it to the holy angels, Origen, Homily 2, who fight in us and for us against the demons, to destroy sins and plant virtues. But these are accommodated senses, not literal, indeed poorly consonant with the letter.
The same is found in St. Anselm and Cedrenus in his Compendium. Here also applies Theocritus, Idyll 10, who testifies that Syrian women are dark with these verses: Graceful Bombyce, all call you / Slender, sunburned, / But I alone call you fresh honey.
Second Partial Sense: Concerning Christ and the Holy Soul.
First, "the sons of the mother" attack their brother or sister, when the wicked faithful persecute a faithful and religious man, for example a superior, a preacher, a teacher, etc., who reproves, corrects, and reforms their impiety and crimes. How often in monasteries, chapters, societies, cities, etc., do we see and hear dissolute or ambitious religious, canons, priests, and citizens attacking their own order, church, congregation, or city? So that she herself, sighing and groaning, says: "The sons of my mother fought against me." See St. Bernard, Sermon 29.
Second, "the sons of the mother," that is, of the same soul, are the senses and concupiscences, which, springing from the same soul, attack their sister, that is, the soul's reason and mind, while they rebel against it and strive to drag it toward their desires, namely toward sensible goods, against the law of God, as toward adulterous vineyards, and in fact often do drag it; whereby it happens that the soul does not keep its vineyard, that is, the state of grace, charity, and virtues from which the flowers and fruits of all good things will sprout, but scatters and squanders it, according to that saying: "My eye has plundered my soul," Lamentations 3:51. So St. Ambrose, in the book On Isaac and the Soul, chapter 4: "The sons of my mother fought against me. That is, he says, the passions of the body attacked me, the allurements of the flesh discolored me, therefore the sun of justice did not shine upon me."
Here the Septuagint version is relevant: the sons of my mother fought in me. For in the same soul there are concupiscences which struggle against reason and the mind, according to that saying: "The flesh lusts against the spirit: and the spirit against the flesh," Galatians 5:17: therefore religious, who know how difficult it is for a man to keep the vineyard of his will, which is constantly attacked by its sisters, namely by so many concupiscences, subject it to a prelate and entrust it to his care. Hence some according to St. Bernard, Sermon 29, among whom is Gregory of Nyssa, Homily 2, and Psellius in Theodoret, by the sons of the mother understand the demons, who were originally created in heaven as just and upright, as sons of the heavenly Jerusalem our mother; but seduced by Lucifer, rebelling against God, and therefore expelled from heaven, they persecute the faithful of God with Vatinian hatred, and therefore stir up in them all the wicked movements of concupiscence, which discolor them, and often burn and destroy them: for "concupiscence, when it has conceived, brings forth sin: and sin, when it is consummated, begets death," James 1:15.
The soul therefore is like a spiritual vineyard, of which the eternal Father is the vinedresser and farmer, John 15:1.
This vineyard, therefore, when duly cultivated, bears the sweetest clusters, from which is pressed the wine of exultation and confession; otherwise "their grape is a grape of gall, and their clusters are most bitter. The wine of dragons is their wine, and the incurable venom of asps," Deuteronomy 32:32. Again, the vineyard is the state of each person, for example the priesthood, marriage, the pastoral office, etc., but especially virginity; for this yields the sweetest grapes and the wine of devotion, prayer, contemplation, and union with God and Christ. Hence St. Ambrose, in his Exhortation to Virgins, before the middle: "Let no one, he says, take away the vineyard of your soul and sow cheap vegetables. For the vineyard is a certain fruit of virginity; marriages are like plantings of vegetables in which jealousy is frequent; and therefore like vegetable herbs they quickly fall and wither, unless old age puts an end to them, or continence brings them to perfection. Let not therefore Ahab come upon you, who covets to destroy and extinguish your vineyard; nor let Jezebel come upon you, that vain and worldly flowing, for this is what the word signifies, a vain and empty overflowing; but let Naboth come, who comes from the father, as the interpretation of his name signifies, who defends the vineyard with his blood, and offers his death for it."
He alludes, says Nyssen, Homily 2, to the earthly paradise, which was given to Adam by God as a vineyard to keep, Genesis 2:15; but Adam, tempted by the devil and Eve, as by his brother and sister, kept neither himself nor paradise. Hence sinning, expelled from it, he ruined his entire posterity, and discolored them with original sin. For the same thing is done by a man who does not keep his soul as his vineyard, but discolors it with sin and delivers it to the devil, and so cultivates the vineyard not of paradise but of hell; not of virtues but of vices; not of divine law but of concupiscence. Hence Nyssen holds that the soul here mourns its own fall and ruin, by which it was expelled from the vineyard of paradise, when in Adam, conquered by the serpent, it did not keep the vineyard of immortality, impassibility, likeness to God, and aversion from sin. Finally St. Gregory, Homily 17 on the Gospels: "Our vineyards, he says, are our actions, which we cultivate by the practice of daily labor; but set as keepers in the vineyards, we do not keep our own vineyard, because while we are entangled in extraneous actions, we neglect the ministry of our own action."
Third Principal Sense: Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin.
First, the Jews harassed and persecuted their sister, that is, the Blessed Virgin, a Jewess by birth, and likewise Christ her Son, with various injuries. Hence not even with the Son's death did their hatreds die. They fought, says Rupert, battles of words, battles of blaspheming tongues; the apostles proclaimed to them that my Son is God, and that I am the Mother of God, that He was conceived of the Holy Spirit, and that I remained an untouched virgin in childbirth and after childbirth. The particular care of my people belonged to me; but their wickedness compelled me to transfer this care to others. But God in place of one vineyard has bestowed upon me very many to cultivate and guard: All have my protection, she says, and desire to have it, trusting in my merits, confiding in my intercessions, and crying out to me continually for such guardianship. Thus Rupert speaks of the particular Churches throughout the whole world. Do we not most fittingly apply this to the many Marian sodalities everywhere, which are as it were private and particular vineyards of the Mother of God? says Delrio.
Differently William says: The Jews, fighting against the Blessed Virgin and her Son the Savior of the world, fought against their own salvation. They set the Blessed Virgin as keeper in the vineyards, because while they raged against her even unto death, she laid down her life for the redemption (through Christ) of many, and in order to keep many vineyards, she did not keep her own vineyard, that is, in order to save many souls, she exposed her own life and that of her Son to death.
Verse 6. Tell me, O You whom my soul loves, where You feed, where You lie down at noon, lest I begin to wander after the flocks of Your companions.
TELL ME (You, O my Bridegroom, who are He) WHOM MY SOUL LOVES (more than herself, because You are the soul and life of my soul, for Christ is the son of charity, and love itself, says Origen, Homily 2 of the four), WHERE YOU FEED, WHERE YOU LIE DOWN AT NOON (for "where" the Hebrew is echah, which can also be translated "how," as if the bride asks the Bridegroom-shepherd to teach her the manner of feeding the flock), LEST I BEGIN TO WANDER AFTER THE FLOCKS OF YOUR COMPANIONS. — For "lie down" the Hebrew is tarbits, that is, to make your flock lie down, rest, and recline. St. Ambrose, in the book On Isaac and the Soul, chapter 4, reads "where you remain," and thinks three senses of Sacred Scripture are denoted here.
Grammatically, the bride, wandering about while keeping the vineyards, burned by the sun's rays, discolored and darkened, asks of the Bridegroom-shepherd the place where she may rest with the flocks and lie down at noon as under a shelter, that is, in the heat of the sun, so that she may hasten to Him, lest she be scorched by the sun, but there enjoy the shade, rest, and pasture of her Bridegroom, lest otherwise, seeking shade, she begin to wander and fall upon the Bridegroom's companions, that is, rivals, competitors, and adversaries. For shepherds are accustomed at noon to lead their flocks to stables or woods or shady valleys, lest they be struck by the sun's heat, but there partly ruminate and digest the food they ate in the fields, and partly receive new food prepared by the shepherd. The bride therefore in the heat of noon seeks the shade by which she may be cooled, and thinks none better than
that in which the Bridegroom lies, beside whom the noonday heat is not to be feared.
First Adequate Sense: Concerning Christ and the Church.
Parabolically and genuinely, in the literal sense it is signified that the Church, afflicted and discolored by the heat of persecution from the Jews and Gentiles, asks Christ her Bridegroom for a place in which He feeds His faithful and with them takes refreshment by lying down at noon, that is, in the heat of tribulation, so that there she may be fed, encouraged, and strengthened by the Bridegroom, lest otherwise she fall upon the Bridegroom's companions, that is, rival heretics, or impious men, by whom she would be fed with the fodder of heresies, errors, and vices. Hence the Chaldean, applying these words in his usual manner to the Jews, vexed and tempted in captivity by idolaters, translates thus: "When the time came for Moses to depart from this world, he said before the Lord: It is manifest before me that this people will sin and go into captivity; but now tell me how they shall be governed, and how they shall dwell among peoples whose decrees are harder upon them than the heat and burning at noon, in the revolution of Tammuz."
Aptly Bede says: "Well does she call Him whose protection she begs the beloved of her soul; because the graver the danger from which she desires to be snatched, the more she loves Him through whom she knows she will be received."
More pathetically Gregory of Nyssa, Homily 2: "Tell me, he says, O You whom my soul loves; for so I name You, since Your name surpasses every thought and understanding, nor can the entire rational creation utter or comprehend it. For the name by which Your goodness is known is the disposition of my soul toward You; for how shall I not love You, who loved me so, even though I was so black, that You laid down Your soul for the sheep which You feed? No greater love can be conceived than for Your soul to be exchanged for my salvation."
Note that noon, when the sun burns, is a symbol, first, of the heat of persecution and affliction, when that heat is at its greatest and highest; for then most especially does the Church invoke Christ, to grant her help and refreshment. So Cassiodorus and Bede: "Christ, he says, who feeds His sheep, lies down among them at noon, because He refreshes the hearts of His faithful, lest they dry up inwardly from the heat of temptations, with the memory of heavenly sweetness, and He Himself is accustomed to remain propitious in them." To this adds St. Gregory, who by noon understands the heat of vices: "At noon, he says, Christ feeds and lies down under the shade, because in the refreshment of the Holy Spirit He prepares for Himself as it were rest and pasture. For by noon the heat of vices is expressed, while by shade the state of spiritual grace is designated. Therefore when the noonday heat rages, Christ rests in the shade, because while in the reprobate the heat of vices burns, He grants to His bride the spirit of refreshment, and in her makes for Himself a delightful place of rest. But the bride asks that this be shown to her, which is never declared to anyone unless they receive the same gift of sanctifying grace."
Second, noon is a symbol of the highest clarity of faith, as well as of the highest charity: for at noon the day is brightest, as well as hottest. The bride therefore asks for the place of the Bridegroom at noon, that is, she asks to be led from the dawn, that is, from a small knowledge of God, to the brightest contemplation of God and the things of faith, by which she may dispel all the errors of the Jews and other unbelievers like mists by illumination. She also asks for the most ardent charity, so that, inflamed by it, she may conquer and overcome all the heat of persecution and tribulation, according to that saying: "Many waters could not quench charity, nor shall the rivers overwhelm it," Song of Songs 8:7. Here applies that saying, Habakkuk 3:3: "God shall come from the south;" "by which is signified noon, that is, the fervor of charity and the splendor of truth," says St. Augustine, City of God, book 10, chapter 32. Hence Origen here, Homily 2 of the four: "The bride asks the Bridegroom, he says, to show her the place of His secret and rest, since, impatient with love, she desires to hear the Bridegroom even through the noon, especially at that time when the light is brightest, and the splendor of the day is perfect and pure, that she may attend Him as He feeds or refreshes His sheep." The same author, Homily 1 of the two: "I do not seek, he says, other times, when You feed in the evening, when at dawn, when at the setting of the sun. I seek that time when in the flowering day, when in full light You move in the splendor of Your majesty." And St. Ambrose, Hexaemeron IV, chapter 5, addressing Christ says thus: "You feed at noon, that is, in the place of the Church where justice shines, where judgment gleams; like noon, where no shadow is seen, where the days are longer, because the sun of justice lingers longer upon them as in summer." The same, Sermon 2 on Psalm 118: "Those who received You, he says, as the author of salvation, are in the noonday: for them Your grace shines and warms like noon; for them You have become noon, who are fed on Your riches, and hope in You. Therefore, as David says, He will bring forth their justice as the light, and their judgment as the noonday," Psalm 36:6. The same, in the Exhortation to a Virgin: "Where does Christ remain, except where the noon of justice shines? And therefore it is said: He placed His tabernacle in the sun," Psalm 18:6.
Hence Theodoret teaches that here the mark of the true faith and consequently of the true Church is assigned by noon, that is, the clear, public, and universal preaching of the orthodox faith throughout the whole world; for in it Christ takes His noon rest, and thence the Church is called catholic, that is, universal, or shining throughout the whole world; while the sects of heretics seek hiding places and corners, and lurk in but one or two provinces. So also St. Augustine, in the book On the Unity of the Church, chapter 14.
Third, some think that the Church here asks Christ where He lies down at noon, that is, where He lay in the manger when He was newly born. For although He was born after midnight in darkness, yet in that same event He illuminated the world with His light, so that it seemed not to be night but noon, according to what is said of the angel announcing the birth of Christ to the shepherds: "And behold an angel of the Lord stood beside them, and the brightness of God shone round about them," Luke 2:9.
Better, however, take noon to mean the crucifixion of Christ, for He was crucified at noon, and the cross of Christ provides a sure and faithful shelter and comfort for the Church and the faithful against all the heats of persecutions and tribulations. The dawn of Christ's life, therefore, was in His nativity, the day in His preaching, the noon on the cross, the evening in the tomb. So Philo Carpathius. Tacitly therefore the bride, that is, the Church and the faithful soul, who clearly desires to be configured to Christ crucified, and to bear and impress upon herself His cross, asks how (for the Hebrew echah signifies both "how" and "where"), how, I say, Christ lay down at noon, that is, in the most fervent heat of sorrows and torments, namely at the sixth hour, on the hard bed of the cross, so that she may adjust her mind and zeal to His likeness, and finally fix and form herself entirely according to the pattern of Christ crucified at noon.
Fourth, noon is a symbol of Jerusalem and Sion, where Christ taught and established the first Church of the faithful and saints, according to Isaiah 2:3: "From Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." For Jerusalem faces toward the south. For the first faithful in doubtful matters and in any tribulation fled to the Blessed Virgin and the apostles dwelling in Jerusalem, to receive from them light, strength, and fervor, as is clear from Acts 15:13.
Again, noon is the Roman Church, to which St. Peter, at Christ's command, transferred his primacy and pontificate from Jerusalem and Antioch; hence to her, as to a shelter and refuge, the faithful from the whole world flee in every difficulty and doubt, to be illuminated by her in faith, and inflamed in the love of God. In her therefore are the pastures of orthodox doctrine, faith, and divine matters. Hence Aponius by noon understands the chair of Peter, or the Apostolic See: "These pastures, he says, namely of evangelical doctrine, which was revealed to Peter, the prince of the apostles, no soul sees unless it has followed the footsteps of Peter in believing and confessing."
Moreover, the Donatists wrongly abused this passage to prove that the true Church was in Africa with them, since Africa is situated to the south; but St. Augustine rightly refuted them, in Sermon 50 on the Words of the Lord according to John: First, because these are the words of the bride, that is, the Church, seeking the place of the Bridegroom at noon, not the Bridegroom seeking the bride the Church; second, because Egypt, which is not in their communion, and which they could never draw into their communion, is more to the south than Africa; third, because in Africa there were two Churches: one of the Catholics, and another of the Donatists; the bride therefore asks in which of these the Bridegroom lies down and feeds, as if to say: "O You whom my soul loves, tell me, teach me. For I hear that in the south, that is, in Africa, there are two parties, indeed many divisions. Tell me therefore where You feed, which sheep belong to You, which fold there You command me to love, to which I ought to join myself, lest perhaps I become as one covered. For they mock me as if hidden, they insult me as if lost, as if existing nowhere else. Lest therefore, as if covered, as if hidden, I become one among the flocks of Your companions the Donatists, Maximianists, Rogatists, and other plagues gathering outside, and therefore scattering, I beg You, tell me if I should seek my Shepherd there, so that I may not fall into the whirlpool of re-baptism." Thus Augustine. See the same, in the book On the Unity of the Church, chapter 14.
Second Partial Sense: Concerning Christ and the Holy Soul.
The holy soul, discolored by the heat of the sun, that is, of tribulation, temptation, and concupiscence, begs the help of Christ, who like the noonday sun illuminates His faithful with true knowledge, and inflames them with great love of God, so that they may overcome all hardships joyfully and ardently, according to Sirach 34:19: "The eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear Him, a protector of power, a foundation of strength, a covering from the heat, and a shelter from the noon." And Isaiah 25:4: "For You have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his tribulation: a hope from the whirlwind, a shelter from the heat." They flee therefore to Christ, of whom Jeremiah says: "The spirit of our mouth, Christ the Lord, was taken in our sins: to whom we said: In Your shadow we shall live among the nations," Lamentations 4:20. Hence the bride, having obtained what she seeks here, says in chapter 2:3: "I sat under His shadow, whom I had desired."
Hence noon denotes the state of perfection, in which the soul loves God with the whole heart, with the whole mind, and with all its strength. Hear St. Augustine, Sermon 50 On the Words of the Lord according to John: "Tell me where You feed, where You lie down at noon. What does noon signify? A great fervor and a great splendor. Therefore make known to me who Your wise ones are, fervent in spirit, shining in doctrine. Make known to me Your right hand, and those learned of heart in wisdom. Let me cling to them in Your body, let me be joined to them, let me enjoy You with them. Therefore tell me where You feed, where You lie down at noon, lest I fall upon those who say other things about You, think other things about You, believe other things about You, preach other things about You, and have their own flocks, and are Your companions because they live from Your table and handle the sacraments of Your table; for they are called companions (sodales) because they eat together (simul edant), as it were fellow-eaters," etc.
Hence the same St. Augustine, Epistle 48 to Vincentius, by noon understands the just, "in whom, shining with light and burning with charity, Christ rests as at noon." In the book On the Unity of the Church, chapter 18, Christ lies down at noon, that is, he says, in those "who have charity and do not divide unity." Wherefore Aponius by noon understands the sacred virgins, monks, and religious; for "the path of the just, like a shining light, proceeds and increases even to perfect day," Proverbs 4:18. Hear Origen, Homily 2 of the four: "If at any time the sun of justice, Christ, reveals to His Church the lofty and arduous secrets of His virtues, He will seem to teach also the pleasant pastures and noonday resting-places. For when she still has the beginnings of learning, and receives from Him the first rudiments, so to speak, of knowledge, then let the Prophet say: And He will help her in the early morning. But now because she seeks more perfect things, and desires higher ones, she asks for the noonday light of knowledge," according to Psalm 36:5-6: "Reveal your way to the Lord: and He Himself will act. And He will bring forth your justice as the light, and your judgment as the noonday."
Again Nyssen, Homily 2, holds that the bride here asks for the food of the Eucharist, by which strengthened she may take the way to the noon of heavenly glory: "Teach me, he says, the devout soul says, where You feed, so that having received the saving food, I may be filled with eternal nourishment, without which one who does not eat cannot enter eternal life; and running to the fountain, I may draw the divine drink, which You as from a fountain provide to the thirsty, pouring water from Your side, this vein opened by iron, of which whoever tastes becomes a fountain of water springing up to eternal life: for if You feed me with these things, You will entirely make me lie down at noon, when sleeping in peace together I shall rest in the light that lacks shadow, with the sun shining overhead, in which You make those whom You have fed lie down, when You will receive Your children with You into Your chamber. But no one is deemed worthy of this noonday rest who has not been a son of light and a son of the day: but he who has equally separated himself from the evening and morning darkness, that is, from where evil begins and where it ends, is placed at noon by the sun of justice to lie down in it." The Eucharist is rightly called noon, both because it contains Christ, who is the very light of the world; and because against all temptations and concupiscences it provides a noonday shelter; and because it confers the fullness of charity, and of heavenly delights and lights, according to that saying: "Jesus, etc., having loved His own who were in the world, loved them to the end (of love, that is, to the utmost)," John 13:1.
Anagogically, noon is a type of heaven and heavenly glory: for just as at noon the sun exerts its whole power of illuminating and warming, and communicates it to the entire earth: so Christ in heaven exerts the whole power and glory of His divinity, as it were, first upon His own humanity, then upon the Blessed Virgin and all the saints, by which He fills, heaps, and blesses them in body and soul with all joy, delight, and every good. In this life therefore there is the dawn of faith; in the next, the noon of vision and love, according to that saying: "I shall be satisfied when Your glory appears," Psalm 16:15. Hear St. Bernard, Sermon 33: "O true noon, fullness of fervor and light, station of the sun, banishment of shadows, drying up of swamps, driving away of stenches! O perpetual solstice, when the day shall no longer decline! O noonday light, O springtime mildness, O summer beauty, O autumn abundance, and (lest I seem to have omitted anything) O winter rest and holiday! Or surely, if you prefer this, then alone has the winter departed and gone. This place, he says, of such great brightness, and peace, and fullness, show me, so that, just as Jacob while still remaining in the body saw the Lord face to face, and his soul was saved, Genesis 32:30: so I too may deserve to contemplate You in Your light and in Your beauty through the ecstasy of the mind, feeding more abundantly, resting more securely. For You feed here too, but not to satiety; nor is it permitted to lie down, but one must stand and watch because of the terrors of the night. Alas! Neither clear light, nor full refreshment, nor safe dwelling; and therefore show me where You feed, where You lie down at noon. You call me blessed when I hunger and thirst for justice, Psalm 64:6. What is this compared to the happiness of those who are filled with the good things of Your house, who feast and exult in the sight of God, and delight in joy? Psalm 67:4;" and with a few words interspersed: "All things here fall short of perfection for me, many things contrary to my desire, and nothing is safe. When will You fill me with joy with Your face? Psalm 15:10. Your face, O Lord, will I seek: Your face is noon. Show me where You feed, where You lie down at noon. I know well enough where You feed without lying down: show me where You feed and lie down," Psalm 26:8.
Hence St. Augustine on Psalm 54, by noon understands blessed eternity: "In the evening, he says, and morning and at noon I will speak and declare: and He shall hear my voice. Preach the Gospel, do not be silent, say what you have received. In the evening about past things, in the morning about future things, at noon about eternal things. Therefore to what he says, in the evening, pertains that his voice is heard; for the end is at noon, but from there it does not decline to the setting. For at noon the light is lofty, the splendor of wisdom, the fervor of love. Evening, morning, and noon: the Lord in the evening on the cross, in the morning in the resurrection, at noon in the ascension. And I will speak in the evening of the patience of Him who dies, I will declare in the morning the life of the resurrection, I will pray that He may hear at noon, sitting at the right hand of the Father."
Mystics and contemplatives by noon understand the highest degree of contemplation and love. Hence St. Lawrence Justinian, On the Tree of Life, treatise On Prayer, chapter 10, assigns six degrees of contemplation, and places this sixth and highest one: "The sixth degree of contemplation is when the mind, from the irradiation of the divine light, knows,
things from which every human reason shrinks, and the understanding of intelligible things loses its reasoning power, and transcends every human reason and intention. Hence the rushing river flowing from this gladdens the mind of the contemplative with the memory of the abundance of God's sweetness: in which taste, when His power, virtue, and glory, majesty, goodness, and blessedness easily draw a man to love God with his whole heart, and His lovable qualities, shining forth in themselves into the affection of the contemplative's heart; this above all snatches the lover toward the Beloved, because He Himself in Himself is whatever is lovable in Him, who is entirely what He is because He is good: by love of that good itself the devout affection so stretches itself that it does not withdraw, until it becomes one spirit with Him: and when this is perfected in it, it differs and is divided from the Holy of Holies, from that supreme blessedness of the supercelestial beings, only by the veil of mortality, yet in the faith and hope of Him whom it loves, it enjoys that blessedness in conscience."
Third Principal Sense: Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin.
First, Honorius of Autun explains it thus regarding her: "The soul of Mary loved Christ, therefore all the secrets of the Father became known to her. The most chaste Virgin was noon, shining and burning with the Holy Spirit, in whom Christ turned aside the heat of the lustful, and lay down in her humility, was fed in her chastity. Lest I begin to wander, etc. That is, make known to all that You rested in me, lest heretics tear me apart saying: If a virgin bore a child, it was a phantom. And I wander through their flocks, because in their secrets and conventicles I am their song of mockery."
These things are true, but less fitting for this passage. Second, Rupert applies these words to the Blessed Virgin seeking Christ lost for three days, and finding Him in the temple: "Son, she says, why have You done this to us? Behold, Your father and I have been seeking You sorrowing," Luke 2:48. For in the temple there is noon, that is, the doctrine of truth, and the burning preaching of charity.
Third, the same Rupert and William, and from them Delrio, hold that by these words the Blessed Virgin aspires first, to heaven; second, to her Christ, that she may enjoy Him face to face, as if to say: Take me up to where You have been taken up, that I may feed with You, lie down with You, I who formerly so devoutly fed You, and so often laid You down to sleep. You were once sent forth from the seat of Your majesty to be with me and labor with me: now send me forth from the prison of this sorrowful life, that I may be with You, and rest with You after such great labors of maternal affection. Third, she does not add whom He feeds, or which ones, to exercise our understanding; because not only does He feed His own there, that is, the holy angels, but also His own humanity with the perennial delights of His divinity; hence later He Himself will be said to feed among the lilies: He feeds insofar as He is God, He is fed insofar as He is man. Fourth, she adds at noon, because there is everlasting noon there, there is perpetual fervor of divine brightness, where Jesus lies down, where His humanity united to His divinity rests. There the devout Mother asked to be fed by God Himself, to feed with the Man Himself, to lie down there with her Jesus. Fifth, the companions are the apostles, who in the dispersion among the Gentiles, as it were, wandered carrying the Gospel throughout the whole world; and the devout Mother asks that, now that all her maternal duties are fulfilled, and she is retired and full of days, she not be ordered to undergo a new labor of journeys and preaching with the apostles, for which the apostles themselves were equal, sufficiently equipped with the grace of the Holy Spirit and heavenly light.
LEST I BEGIN TO WANDER AFTER THE FLOCKS OF YOUR COMPANIONS. — The bride stings the Bridegroom with the goad of jealousy, as if to say: Show me the place where You lie down at noon, otherwise there is danger that by wandering I may fall upon Your rivals and competitors, who, with You excluded, seek me as their bride, as did the suitors of Penelope. The Hebrew reads: for why should I be like a wanderer over the flocks of Your companions? For "like a wanderer," the Hebrew is keoteiah, that is, like one veiled, covered, concealed, or like one covering herself, or like one turning aside, diverting, wandering, straying; others, like one rebuked and scolded: so Pagninus. Hence the Septuagint translate: lest perhaps I become as one covered over the flocks of your companions. For "covered," the Greek is periballomene, which St. Jerome in his version of Origen translates "covered"; others, "led around"; Symmachus and from him Theodotion, peripheromene, that is, wandering, vacillating, and straying, or rather driven around and whirled, as a stone is whirled in a sling, so that the slinger may hurl and cast it with greater force: for rhembon means a sling.
Moreover, the word "veiled" or "covered" can be understood in five ways: first, as a harlot, for in ancient times she used to cover and veil herself with a mantle or veil out of shame, lest she be recognized, as is clear about Tamar, Genesis 38:15; hence Vatablus translates: lest, wandering among the flocks of your companions, I appear mantled, that is, like a little harlot: others, why then should I be like one who turns aside and diverts to the flocks of your companions? that is, of those who call themselves your companions, when they are anything but.
Second and better, covered, that is, mourning, for mourners are accustomed to cover their head and face with a veil, especially widows who mourn the death of their husband, as if to say: Why, in your absence, O my Bridegroom, should I your bride appear as a widow, mourning your absence as if it were your death?
It could be, third, that "covered" denotes the modesty, decency, and virginal bashfulness of the bride, who veils and covers herself so as not to be seen by the Bridegroom's companions, as Rebecca veiled herself and covered herself with her mantle when she saw Isaac her bridegroom, Genesis 24:65. For thus do virgins and honest brides veil themselves, according to the precept of the Apostle, 1 Corinthians 11:5. See Tertullian and from him St. Cyprian, in the book On the Veiling of Virgins, and the book On the Dress of Women. So Origen, Homily 1, whom hear: "For unless You tell me, I begin to be tossed about as a wanderer; and while I seek You, I run into the flocks of others; and because I am ashamed before others, I immediately begin to cover my face without delay. For I am a beautiful bride, and I do not show my bare face to others, except to You alone whom I have long kissed." And St. Jerome, Epistle 22 to Eustochium, from this passage teaches that virgins ought to veil their faces not partially, but wholly and completely: "Jesus is jealous, He says, He does not want your face to be seen by others; though you may excuse and plead otherwise; with the veil drawn over your face, I covered it, and I sought You there and said: Tell me, lest at some time I become as one covered over the flocks of your companions; He will swell with indignation and say: If you do not know yourself," etc.
Fourth, St. Augustine, Epistle 48 to Vincent, and the book On the Unity of the Church, chapter 14: Covered, he says, that is, obscure, hidden, and unknown. For the Church was placed by Christ in the noonday, so that it might be visible and conspicuous to all: therefore it is not fitting for her to be covered, that is, hidden and concealed, as are the churches of the Donatists and other heretics. So also Origen, who asserts that for this reason the Church, or the soul as God's bride, seeks the chambers of Christ, and asks God for the fullness of knowledge, lest she seem to be one of the schools of philosophers, which is called "covered," because the truth among them is covered and unknown.
Fifth and best, covered means the same as wandering and straying, as our Vulgate translates: for when women leave home and go elsewhere, for the sake of modesty they cover and veil themselves. The bride therefore asks the Bridegroom for the place where He lies down at noon, that is, in the heat of persecutions, so that she may flee to Him, lest otherwise, she says, I, that is, my faithful who are my members, especially in the primitive, young, and tender Church, be scattered, and wandering turn aside to the Gentiles, idolaters, heretics, and philosophers, and be led into their error, who boast themselves to be companions of Christ and true pastors and teachers of truth, when they are associates and ministers of the devil.
COMPANIONS. — First, Origen, Homily 2 of the four, by companions understands the angels, to whom God distributed and entrusted the particular care of individual nations, as if to say: Lest I wander among the nations and be subjected to their presiding angels, since I am subject to one Bridegroom, Christ, and His vicar St. Michael: for he is now the head of the Church, as he once was of the Synagogue.
Second, Rupert by companions understands the scribes and Pharisees, as if to say: Show me, O Christ, where You feed Your faithful, lest I otherwise fall back upon my former teachers, namely the Mosaic scribes, who would drag me back to Judaism and Jewish traditions and superstitions, just as the Magi seeking Christ with the guidance of the star, when they left it as it hid itself like the noonday, fell upon Herod and the scribes, who persecuted Christ and, on account of Christ, the Magi returning to their homeland by another way, Matthew 2:16.
Third, St. Bernard, Sermon 33, understands the demons, especially the noonday demons, who, though they are night, that is, dark through malice, nevertheless fraudulently simulate and display Christ's noon, that is, His splendor and fervor, in order to allure and deceive the faithful, according to Psalm 90:6: "From the assault and the noonday devil." And so, he says, unless the true noon rising from on high has illumined the heart of him whom perhaps some such noonday demon has undertaken to tempt, and convinces and exposes the false one, it cannot be altogether guarded against, but will certainly tempt and supplant under the appearance of good, persuading the unwary and improvident of evil instead of good. And then the noon, that is, the greater brightness, appears tempting, when it as it were presents the image of a greater good."
Fourth and best, by companions understand heretics, philosophers, and other masters of errors, who strive to draw flocks of disciples after themselves, and from time to time actually do draw new Christians to themselves: for this is what the Church desires to avoid here. So Cassiodorus, Justus Orgelitanus, Philo Carpathius, St. Anselm, and Bernard.
Rightly does Theodoret note that heretics call themselves companions of Christ, because they carry about the habit and name of Christ, and babble nothing but the Gospel of Christ with their mouths, but in their hearts oppose Him, according to that saying of Paul: "Having an appearance indeed of piety, but denying the power thereof," 2 Timothy 3:5. Again, heretics have the same baptism and other sacraments that Christ and Christians have. Finally, they are called companions, not because they are friends, but because they contend as if competing with Christ on equal terms, promising their followers the same goods that Christ promises His followers; hence they also name them from their own name — Donatists from Donatus, Arians from Arius, Pelagians from Pelagius, just as Christians are named from Christ. Therefore from these the Church (that is, the more chaste faithful in the Church) becomes wandering, erring, and is led about and whirled by "every wind of doctrine to the deception of error," says Paul, Ephesians 4:14.
Tropologically, St. Gregory by companions understands perverse Christians and false brethren, upon whom the faithful fears to fall, lest she be perverted by them: "Truly, he says, in whomever Christ does not lie down, that person wanders; because the mind which that sweet and weighty Spirit of Christ does not fill is carried about, dissolved by many thoughts. But who are the companions of Christ, through whose flocks the bride fears to wander, but all false Christians? who are called brothers of Christ either by name only, or also by sharing in the sacraments; because they are associated with the elect, whom He Himself called brothers, by dwelling together in the Church. Their multitudes are rightly called flocks by way of reproach: because while they live like irrational animals without order, they are handed over to seducing spirits to be devoured. Through such flocks, whoever is driven by the lowest desires wanders, imitating the folly of the reprobate through similar lusts." For concupiscence is vagrant, and makes a man vagrant, so that he passes from one thing, which he has tried and grown tired of, to another and another without end, because he seeks satisfaction in them and does not find it, according to Isaiah 57:17: "He went wandering in the way of his heart." And Jeremiah 50:6: "My people has become a lost flock: their shepherds led them astray and made them wander on the mountains: they passed from mountain to hill, they forgot their resting-place." Concupiscence therefore leads the soul around from one pleasure to another, from one crime to another, and whirls it, as a stone is whirled in a sling, to inflict every injury and violence upon one's neighbor, and to every wickedness, according to Wisdom 4:12: "The inconstancy of concupiscence perverts the understanding." This is what peripheromene signifies, that is, whirled about or spun in a sling, as Symmachus translates.
The Voice of the Bridegroom and His Companions.
Verse 7. If you know not yourself, O fairest among women, go forth and follow the footsteps (in Hebrew, the heels) of your flocks, and feed your kids beside the tents of the shepherds.
Vatablus and other Hebraists think the word "yourself" (te), when accused, "if you know not yourself," is redundant by a Hebrew pleonasm, and is placed only for elegance. Hence from the Hebrew they translate, "if you know not for yourself," that is, "if you know not," just as immediately in the Hebrew it says tsei lach, that is, "go forth for yourself," that is, "go forth," and often elsewhere. Thus "yourself" or "for yourself" is often redundant in Latin, as "you yourself did this," "go for yourself," "live for yourself," "behold for yourself," that is, "behold." Thus the meaning will be, as if to say: If you do not know, O bride, where I your Bridegroom lie down at noon, go and follow the footsteps of the flocks and shepherds: for among them you will find Me as the Shepherd of shepherds and their Prince. Hence the sense is very easy and plain, and disentangles a meaning that was otherwise obscure, and makes it clear. So Titelmannus, Hortolanus, Sanchez, Soto Major, and others skilled in Hebrew.
But the Greek and Latin Fathers press and weigh the word "yourself" (te), as do the Septuagint translating seauten, that is, "yourself." Thus the meaning can be, first, as if to say: If you do not know yourself, that is, your own beauty, and the beautiful tabernacle in which I feed and lie down at noon, because your tabernacle is equally mine, just as your beauty is equally mine: for where the bride is, there is the Bridegroom; where the Church is, there is Christ. Therefore if you do not know this, go forth and follow the footsteps of your flocks and faithful: for your flocks are also mine; and where my flocks are, there am I also, their faithful and inseparable Shepherd. "And feed your kids beside the tents of the shepherds," namely the apostles and teachers: for I have set them over you as overseers and appointed them as teachers, and I move and dwell in their midst, as while I lived I was found by my parents in their midst in the temple, Luke 2:46, according to that saying: "Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world," Matthew 28:20. Therefore through these shepherds I will feed you with true doctrine, and in every heat of the sun, that is, of persecution, I will comfort and protect you: if you follow this, you will not begin to wander, nor fall upon my companions, that is, rival heretics and other masters of errors. So St. Athanasius in his Synopsis and Justus Orgelitanus, who rightly note the cause of the bride's ignorance, namely that she does not know where the Bridegroom lies down at noon, is that she does not know herself and her own beauty; therefore let her look within herself, and in herself she will find the Bridegroom.
Second, Nyssen holds that these words are not the Bridegroom's, but those of the young maidens to the bride who is seeking, feeling discolored by the sun's heat, as if to say: Granted that you appear discolored to yourself, yet in truth you are beautiful par excellence, that is, you are the fairest of women; and if on account of persecutions and hardships you do not know this, go after your flocks and shepherds, from them you will hear yourself praised, and your beauty loudly proclaimed. But this sense seems irrelevant; for it does not answer the bride's question asking not whether she herself is beautiful, but where the Bridegroom feeds and lies down at noon.
Third, Titelmannus and others think these words are said ironically: for the bride had stung the Bridegroom with the goad of jealousy saying: "Lest I begin to wander;" therefore the Bridegroom playfully turns this goad back upon her, as if a lover, wishing to persuade his bride that nowhere else could she be treated as comfortably and honorably as with him, should address her thus: If you do not know yourself, O my bride! if you do not yet sufficiently know your condition, in which you live with me; go forth and follow other lovers, and there devote yourself to fulfilling your pleasures and desires, so that you may see and by experience itself finally learn how different your condition is from that of those who cling to other lovers. To this add Cassiodorus and Bede, who explain it as a threat, as if to say: If you do not know, O bride, that you have been made beautiful through baptism, and will become more beautiful through the endurance of tribulations, which I have therefore resolved to send upon you, depart from my company, and imitate the actions of those who err. And St. Gregory here: "Whoever, he says, does not know that he is placed in this position to overcome temptations through endurance, withdraws from familiarity with Christ, because, positioned in battle, he refuses to fight with his Lord."
Fourth and in the genuine sense, these seem to be the words not of the Bridegroom alone, but also of His companions; hence the companions immediately say: "We will make you little chains of gold," in the plural, not "I will make" in the singular, as Justus, Rupert, Anselm, and St. Bernard note. The Bridegroom therefore responds to the bride not by Himself, but through His companions: "If you do not know yourself," that is, your ways, your steps by which you tend toward Me, as if to say: If you do not know the path and road you should follow to arrive at the place where I feed and lie down at noon. "Go after the footsteps of your flocks;" the Hebrew reads, it is for you in the heels of the sheep; the Septuagint, go forth in the footsteps of the flocks (for "your" is not in the Hebrew nor in the Greek); Symmachus, having gone forth, go according to the footsteps of the flocks, that is, follow the faith, life, and customs of the ancient faithful who pleased God, namely the patriarchs and prophets. For they are yours, that is, they belong not so much to the old law as to the new, and to the Church of Christ, as St. Augustine testifies. "Feed your kids beside the tents of the shepherds," that is, feed your weak faithful and sinners, who smell badly, like goats and kids, on account of their foul concupiscence, beside the tents of the shepherds, that is, beside the Churches of the apostles and those who succeeded the apostles: for by them they will be strengthened in faith and virtue, and cured of their concupiscences; therefore there they will find the Bridegroom of their soul, Christ, at noon, that is, in the splendor of doctrine and the fervor of charity, reclining, and feeding His faithful through the apostles and apostolic men. He alludes grammatically to kids, which by natural instinct recognize their mothers, and recognizing them by scent immediately run to them. For here the bride is imagined feeding small and weak kids and nursing them beside the tents of the shepherds, who pasture adult goats; hence from the kids, who recognize by scent and fly to the neighboring she-goats as their mothers, the bride the shepherdess recognizes where the Bridegroom, the shepherd of sheep and goats, is.
To this add the Chaldean, who, applying these words in his usual manner to the Jews, translates thus: "The Holy and Blessed One said to Moses the prophet: You ask that exile be removed from them. O Synagogue, who is compared to the most beautiful maiden, and whom My soul loves, let her walk in the ways of the righteous, and let her arrange her prayer in the mouth of her leaders, and let her lead her generations, and teach her children, who are compared to the kids of goats, to walk in the house of the assembly and in the house of learning: and on account of that merit they shall be sustained in captivity, until I send them the King Messiah, who shall lead them to rest at their tabernacle, which is the house of the Sanctuary, which David and Solomon, shepherds of Israel, shall build for Him."
Less aptly some take the shepherds here not as true but as false ones, as if to say: Follow the footsteps of the flocks, that is, the faith and customs of the ancient just; so it shall happen that you can safely lead even your kids, that is, your imperfect faithful, around the tents of the shepherds, of those treacherous companions, I say, whom you were fearing; and therefore I have resolved to make you like My cavalry, the strength and power which I showed against the chariots of Pharaoh, namely in overthrowing and drowning them in the Red Sea.
Finally, the Bridegroom consoles and encourages the bride, addressing her as "O fairest of women," as if to say: You seem to yourself, O bride, discolored and darkened by the sun of persecutions, but know that by the gift and grace of God you are the fairest of women. He explains and confirms this when He adds: "Your cheeks are beautiful as the turtledove's, your neck as jewels," etc.
Tropologically, first, "if you do not know yourself, go forth," etc., as if to say: Knowledge of oneself is the way to knowledge of God, just as ignorance of oneself is ignorance of God: for one who knows his own weakness is compelled to acknowledge the grace and omnipotence of God, and to invoke it humbly. Hence Agapetus the Deacon, in his Admonition to the Emperor Justinian: "He who knows himself, he says, will know God. Knowing God, he will become like God. He will become like God who is worthy of God, who admits nothing unworthy of God, but thinks the things of God; and what he thinks he speaks, and what he speaks he does." See St. Bernard, book 2 of On Consideration to Eugenius, chapter 3, and St. Ambrose, Sermon 2 on Psalm 118, and Origen here, Homily 2 of the four. Hence St. Jerome, Epistle 23 to Eustochium: "Though you are beautiful, he says, and your appearance among all women is loved by me your Bridegroom, unless you know yourself, and guard your heart with all vigilance, unless you flee the eyes of young men, you shall go forth from my chamber, and feed the kids that shall stand on the left." And St. Augustine, Sermon 50 On the Words of the Lord according to John: "Unless, he says, you know yourself, that you are one, that you are throughout all nations, that you are chaste, that you must not be corrupted by the perverse conversation of wicked companions; unless you know yourself, that he rightly betrothed you to me to present a chaste virgin to Christ, and rightly
The sense therefore is, as Hortolanus says: If at any time, O Church my most beautiful bride, amid the greatest persecutions and entangled in every kind of difficulty, you find yourself at a loss for counsel, observe the faith of your forebears, and their unbroken spirit in enduring evils, and the footprints they left impressed by entering difficult paths with these as their feet, as it were — their heroic deeds, the examples of rare fortitude and constancy for you and your flock to imitate. Walk with those same feet, tread the same footsteps, hold to that straight and perpetual way, both you and your flock: it will without doubt lead you to the shelters of Me, the Prince of shepherds, and of other distinguished shepherds, fixed in the green, irrigated, and shaded places of Israelite minds. There you will encounter no false Christ who might corrupt you by deception or tempt you, no false prophet; but Me Myself, who will forever keep you uncorrupted and undefiled, the true Christ and your lawful Bridegroom, and My faithful shepherds, who feed My flock according to My heart's intent with sound doctrine and knowledge. There I command you to feed your kids, your children I say, newly born to you, and also those who are adults but still neophytes in conduct and judgment, wanton, with itching ears, eager for novelties, and lovers of pleasures (whose venom they reek of) more than lovers of Me. There keep your kids safe from the discomforts of the noonday sun, by preaching the word in season and out of season, by beseeching, rebuking with all patience and doctrine.
present yourself to me, lest by evil conversations, as the serpent seduced Eve by cunning, so your senses too be corrupted from my chastity: unless therefore you know yourself to be such, go out. You go out, for to others I shall say: Enter into the joy of your Lord. To you I shall not say: Enter, but: Go out, that you may be among those who went out from us, go out: but unless you know yourself, then go out; but if you know yourself, enter: and if you do not know yourself, go out in the footsteps of the flocks, and feed your kids in the tents of the shepherds. Go out in the footsteps, not of a flock, but of flocks, and feed not as Peter My sheep, but your kids in the tents, not of the Shepherd, but of the shepherds, not of unity, but of dissension."
Second, in order for a person to come to God the Bridegroom of the soul, it is necessary to go out from one's own disordered affections and loves, and as it were from oneself, namely to put off the old man; for thus one will put on the new, namely Christ. Hence St. Ambrose, in On the Soul and Isaac, chapter 4, teaches that the soul wins God's presence for itself through self-knowledge and mortification: "Know yourself therefore, he says, and the beauty of your nature, and go forth as if freed from the bonds of your feet, and with bare foot put forward, so that you may not feel the coverings of the flesh, and bodily bonds may not entangle the step of your mind, so that your foot may appear beautiful, etc. This then is what he says: Go forth in the heels of the flocks, and feed your kids in the tents of the shepherds; because by flocks we understand a kingdom, since it belongs to authority to preside over flocks; and each person presides over himself with a certain royal authority, if he restrains the luxuries of the body in himself, and reduces his flesh to servitude: therefore it was said, Luke 17:21: The kingdom of God is within you. Hence he beautifully says to the soul: Go forth, that is, go forth from servitude, go forth from the dominion and tyranny of the flesh; and go forth not in the flesh, but in the spirit, go forth to the governance of authority; and therefore he added: Feed your kids, that is, rule those things that are on your left. For if they are not ruled, they easily slip. Restrain the wantonness and lasciviousness of your body; tame its fickle movements: feed them not in bodily tents, but in the tents of shepherds who know how to rule a flock. For the tents of Israel are lovely, like groves giving shade over a river." This is what God commanded Abraham when He called him to Himself, saying: "Go forth from your land, and from your kindred, and from your father's house," etc., Genesis 12:1. Hence John the Carmelite explains it thus: Go forth, that is, divide yourself and cut yourself in half, so that you separate the mind from the appetite, and form as it were two battle lines: in one line you will reckon the sentient appetite and its unruly movements; but from this line you will separate the mind and will, and will count another line, in which you will place yourself, and, having declared war, you will avoid the conversations and commerce of the first line. Thus you will seize upon the way and enjoy the light. "Go after the footsteps of your flocks," that is, to hand yourself over after the flocks, not so that you may be dragged by the movements of unbridled appetite, but so that as it were
by striking a blow you urge yourself forward, and compel yourself to go rightly where the mind calls. "Feed your kids beside the tents of the shepherds," that is, your rebellious senses, which after the manner of kids, while fresh blood boils, leap about — once you have tamed them and made them obedient to your word, do not allow them to give themselves over to idleness, or abandon them so quickly as if they cannot or are not accustomed to rebel: for if you allow them to act with impunity, they will break the treaty and burst upon you in a united assault. Preside over them therefore, and strike them sharply, and at the same time feed them beside the huts and shelters of the shepherds, who are men most learned in divine matters, and the successors and heirs of the apostles, who offer the most healthful herbs of spiritual teachings to the flock entrusted to them: and if you drink in their teachings with your whole heart, you will hasten most swiftly to the noonday under their guidance.
Third, the soul, in order to find God, must follow the footsteps of the flocks, that is, of the saints, who followed the law of God, and fed upon His teachings in Sacred Scripture as pasturage. The same soul should restrain its kids, that is, the wanton and unbridled movements of concupiscence, according to the discipline of the shepherds.
Symbolically St. Bernard says: The flocks of God are creatures, from whose footsteps, that is, from the consideration of them, we track and arrive at their Creator, as St. Thomas teaches, I part, Question 5, article 6, and Question 47, article 7. See St. Basil, Homily 11 on the Hexaemeron, St. Augustine, book 10 of the Confessions, chapter 6, St. Gregory, Moralia 12, chapter 8. Thus St. Anthony through these footsteps recognized the resting-place of the Bridegroom, that is, the throne and glory of God, as Nicephorus reports, book 11, chapter 42. Hence this was St. Anthony's axiom, indeed his definition of the world: "What is the world? It is a book of divinity. For the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament announces the works of His hands," Psalm 18:1.
Moreover, Nyssen reads: if you do not know yourself, O beautiful among women, go forth from the footsteps of the flocks, and feed your kids in (or, as other codices have, for) the tents of the shepherds: and they explain it thus: "The soul, which from black has become beautiful, if it is your concern that the grace and beauty of your form should last a long time, do not stray after the footsteps of those who have gone before; follow reason, not the common custom of men void of reason: do not look at the footsteps of cattle, which by their heels signify those who are fixed to earthly life, etc. For it is not clear whether the path of the kids is the one that appears, which you are following, since you cannot perceive those who have trodden life with their footsteps. After you have passed through life, and have been enclosed in the stable of death, it is to be feared that you will be enrolled in the flock of kids, who are to be placed on the left, whom unknowingly and clinging to their footsteps, you have followed." And Origen, who explains it thus, as if to say: "If you have not known yourself, that you are a king's bride, and made beautiful by Me, this shall be your punishment, that you shall be the last in the footsteps of the shepherds; and not among the sheep and the just, but among the kids and the sinners.
Finally, Rupert applies these words to the Blessed Virgin, who was the most beautiful of all not only women, but of all creatures, in whose womb as in a temple, indeed as in heaven, Christ lay down, as if Christ says to her: Since you are not ignorant of yourself, that you are the Mother of God, and blessed among women, you know equally where I lie down, namely in your faith and humility. For you said: "Because He has regarded the humility of His handmaid." Therefore from faith and humility — indeed, faith and humility are your entire beauty, and this is the place of My rest; the place where your Beloved takes His delight by feeding and lying down at noon, that is, in this time of full grace, when the reality has shone forth now that the figure has passed; the shadow has been driven away, and the sun of truth has risen."
Verse 8. I have compared you, O my love, to my cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh.
For "to my cavalry" the Hebrew is lesusathi, that is, as the Septuagint renders, te hippo, that is, to my mare, or rather, to my cavalry; the Syriac, to my mare in the chariot of Pharaoh I have compared you; the Arabic, I have named (praised, celebrated) you, O my nearest one, by my horse among the chariots of Pharaoh. Now,
First Sense.
First, some think that Solomon here compares his bride to a certain choice, most noble and beautiful carriage mare, which he himself used for his delight in driving the chariots of Pharaoh; or with which Pharaoh conveyed his daughter by chariot to Solomon, as a bride to a bridegroom: by which symbol is signified that the bride with the bridegroom is like a horse and a mare pulling the same chariot of marriage and life with equal consent; for from this yoke of horses, marriage was called conjugium (a yoking together), because the spouses are, as it were, two horses yoked together to the same chariot, so that they may bear the works of marriage with equal shoulders, and overcome its difficulties with equal strength. Again, by this symbol is signified that the bride should accommodate herself to the husband's ways, and he in turn should accommodate himself to the bride's weakness, just as yoke-horses pulling a chariot accommodate themselves to each other. Therefore by this metaphor of the mare is signified the mutual love of the bridegroom and bride, mutual respect, mutual concord, mutual labor, mutual service and duties. Thus the Lyric poet compares a beautiful maiden to a mare: Like a three-year-old mare on the broad plains, / She sports with leaps, and fears to be touched.
The proverb is well known: The Thessalian mare. Therefore the mare signifies, first, the swiftness of the Church: for mares are swifter than horses, as is most clearly seen in Spanish ones: thus Theodoret says: The Bridegroom, seeing the bride, stirred by the heat of love, running hastily toward Him, declared her to be like a swift-footed mare. Second, her obedience and mortification, that whereas she had lived untamed in paganism, she has now submitted her neck to the yoke of Christ. So St. Ambrose, Sermon 2 on Psalm 118. Third, her vastness, that she has most swiftly coursed through the whole world and propagated the faith of Christ. "The bride (of Christ), says the same St. Ambrose, began to be sublime in popular concord and gentleness, and to be carried about the whole world like a chariot, and carried on swift horses above the world she ascended to Christ." Fourth, fruitfulness, so St. Ambrose, On Isaac and the Soul, chapter 4: "The labor of virtue, he says, seeks victory, so that it may be compared to that mare which belongs to Solomon, swift in running, suited for pasture; since the fruitfulness of the soul is desired and sought. To this mare this soul is esteemed similar, that is, a soul of prophetic or apostolic virtue: because it is numbered in the flock of those who by the fruitfulness of their preaching scattered themselves through the spaces of the whole world, and although established in the body, they felt no losses in their spiritual course."
Second, more forcefully take this of the war cavalry. For he alludes to the war horses which Solomon bought for himself from Pharaoh out of Egypt: for Egypt was fertile in the finest horses. See the history, 3 Kings 4:26, where among other things it is said: "Solomon had forty thousand stalls for chariot horses, and twelve thousand cavalry," etc. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: You have complained, O bride, that you have been discolored by the heat of persecutors, and that you fear lest by wandering again you may fall upon companions, that is, my rivals and yours: therefore you have asked where I lie down at noon, so that under my shade you may rest safe and secure from all enemies, and feed and restrain your wanton kids beside the tents of the shepherds: I see that you tremble at such great difficulties, persecutors, and enemies; I therefore give you courage and tell you that I will give you such strength and power that you shall appear like the war cavalry which Solomon acquired from Pharaoh, by which you may overcome all enemies. For I call you to war, and through you I intend to subject the whole world to Myself, so that I may drive out from it the prince of the world, the devil, with all his garrison; and those whom he has led into captivity, my brothers, I will restore to their liberty. Indeed, from you I will send forth apostles and apostolic men, who like noble steeds may most swiftly traverse seas and lands, and carry Me as if riding upon them through the midst of the enemy battle-lines, and bear Me about as I overthrow peoples on every side. For through Me alone, relying on My all-powerful right hand, I will perform mighty and wonderful deeds, and this arduous and memorable war I will accomplish, conquer, and triumph in through your service, as through a victorious horse and cavalry. Hence St. John saw the conversion of the world to Christ through the apostles represented by a white horse: "Behold, he says, a white horse, and he who sat upon it had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he went forth conquering that he might conquer," Revelation 6:2. For this reason He compares the bride the Church, in chapter 6:9, to the battle array of an army drawn up in order.
Again, the chariots of Pharaoh, with Aponius, Bede, and St. Bernard, can be understood not as those which Solomon bought from Pharaoh, but as those which God overthrew in the Red Sea, as if to say: You, O my Church, shall be made like by Me to My cavalry, which I opposed to the cavalry and chariots of Pharaoh, when fighting for the Church and the Hebrews I defeated them and drowned them in the sea. For in a similar way through you I will defeat all your unfaithful enemies, but in such a way that from unbelievers I will make believers, from enemies friends, from rebels subjects, from beasts men, from the dead the living, from demons angels; therefore I will lead them through the Red Sea, that is, through baptism as it were reddened with the blood of Christ, into the promised land, not on earth, but in heaven. So Cassiodorus, Anselm, and Bede, who also add that this is done under the guidance of the pillar of fire and cloud, that is, of the Holy Spirit. See what was said on Exodus 14. Moreover, the cavalry of God was angelic: for the angels, fighting for God and the Hebrews, overthrew Pharaoh. Hence John the Carmelite explains it thus: "I have compared you to My cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh," that is, to the angel, on whom as on My horse I rode of old while I was overturning the chariots of Pharaoh in the Arabian Gulf, I have made you like. Here applies Habakkuk 3:15: "You made a way in the sea for Your horses, in the mud of many waters;" and verse 8: "You who will mount upon Your horses: and Your chariots are salvation," etc. He alludes to Psalm 67:18: "The chariot of God is attended by ten thousands multiplied, thousands of them that rejoice: the Lord is among them in Sinai, in the holy place." For that Psalm 67 treats the same theme of the marriage of Christ and the Church, which
this is about — and that you may feed and restrain your wanton kids beside the tents of the shepherds: I see that you tremble at such great difficulties, persecutors, and enemies; I therefore give you courage and tell you that I will give you such strength and power that you shall appear like the war cavalry which Solomon acquired from Pharaoh, by which you may overcome all enemies.
this Canticle. Thus the Chaldean, whom hear: "When the children of Israel went out of Egypt, Pharaoh and his army followed after them in chariots, and with horsemen, and the way was closed to them on four sides: on the right and on the left were deserts full of fiery serpents; and behind them was the impious Pharaoh and his army; and likewise before them was the Sea of Reeds. What did the Holy and Blessed One do? He revealed Himself in the power of His might upon the sea, when Pharaoh was drowned, and his army, and his chariots, and horsemen, and his horses; and similarly Israel would have perished, had not Moses the prophet stretched out his hands in prayer before the Lord, and turned away the wrath of the Lord from them; and he and the righteous of that generation opened their mouths and said a canticle, and they passed through the midst of the Sea of Reeds on dry ground, on account of the merit of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the beloved of the Lord."
To this adds Origen, who explains it thus: "If you wish to understand, O bride, how you ought to know yourself, recognize to what I have compared you, and then you will see that you are such that you ought not to be defiled, when you have known your beauty. For you have been likened to My cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh: since as much as My cavalry differs from the horses of Pharaoh, so much better are you than all daughters, you My love."
Haymo, however, by the cavalry of God understands the children of Israel themselves, saved in the Red Sea, to whom the Church becomes similar when it is saved through the water of baptism.
Symbolically, Sotomajor holds that this is the cavalry of love, by which the bride conquered and bound the Bridegroom to herself, as if to say: Indeed, O dearest bride, as soon as I saw you, you bound Me wholly and entirely to yourself, and plainly conquered My heart, as it were, by your surpassing beauty and loveliness, so strongly and vehemently that you seem to Me no less strong and powerful in love than that cavalry of Mine joined to the chariots of Pharaoh is strong and mighty in war for fighting and conquering and defeating the enemies of God's people. Thus Plato in the Symposium, On Love, among other excellences of love, places this as the chief, that love is most powerful and most strong, and even stronger than Mars himself, that is, the god of war and the author of war. For thus he says there: "As far as courage is moreover concerned, neither does Mars resist love. For it is not Mars who holds love, but love (as the saying goes) the goddess of love, who holds Mars. But that which holds is more powerful than that which is held. And he who masters the most powerful of all others must without doubt be judged the most powerful of all." More divinely St. Bernard, Sermon 64, exclaiming: "O sweetness! he says, O grace! O the power of love! Has the Highest of all thus become one of all? Who did this? Love, which knows no rank, rich in condescension, powerful in affection, effective in persuasion. What is more violent? Love triumphs over God. Yet what is so non-violent? It is love. What is this force, I ask, so violent for victory, yet so vanquished against violence? Finally, He emptied Himself, so that you might know it was love's doing, that
To this adds St. Gregory: "By kids, he says, unclean thoughts are designated; by the tents of the shepherds, the conventicles of heretics are expressed. He therefore who does not know how to fight, feeds his kids beside the tents of the shepherds: because whoever does not manfully resist the opposing swords of temptations, nourishes unclean thoughts like wanton kids in his heart, and becomes like one who also departs from the faith. But the soul which desires to become the bride of Christ, how it should conduct itself, Christ teaches it, when He immediately says to it by comparison: I have compared you to My cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh, My love."
And St. Bernard, Sermon 35, who takes these words as a threat, as if to say: If you do not know, that is, if you do not consider, do not esteem, do not contemplate the immense heavenly goods which I have partly given you, partly promised you, "go forth from my sanctuary, your heart, where you used to sweetly drink in the secret and holy meanings of truth and wisdom, and rather entangle yourself as if with worldly things, in feeding and indulging the senses of your flesh. For by kids (which signify sin, and in the judgment are to be placed on the left) he means the wandering and wanton senses of the body, through which sin, like death through windows, entered the soul. And what follows in Scripture aptly corresponds: Beside the tents of the shepherds."
covered with the gold of a true conscience, how resplendent in every holy way of life are those who, having been made chariots of Christ from Pharaoh's, are clearly recognized where the Lord's horses are said to draw them. To whom also Christ likens His own soul for supreme praise, saying: To my horsemen, and the rest."
Hear St. Gregory: "We know that the Israelite cavalry, fleeing, left Pharaoh's chariots submerged in the sea, and did not immediately enter the promised land; but first endured many temptations in the desert for forty years, conquered many kings with great labors, and thus at last received what had been promised, acquired through toil. To this the holy soul, the friend of the Bridegroom, is made similar, who first in baptism left all her sins extinguished, as it were, like Pharaoh's army; and afterward, while living among the inhabitants of this world, namely malignant spirits, she strikes down threatening vices like foreign kings, and thus at last arrives at the blessed land where she may delight with the Bridegroom." See St. Bernard, sermon 39, where he takes the chariots of Pharaoh to mean all vices, especially malice, lust, and avarice, and assigns to each its own charioteers and similar horses.
Second Partial Sense: On Christ and the Holy Soul.
By the mare and the cavalry, first, Philo of Carpathia, reading "my horses," and three Fathers cited by Theodoret, understand the apostles, upon whom, as upon horses, Christ rode and routed the chariots of Pharaoh, that is, the infidel nations, and subjected them to Himself, and in them swiftly and strongly, as if riding, He at once drove the chariot of His Gospel through all nations. So when Elijah was ascending to heaven in a fiery chariot with fiery horses, Elisha cried out: "My father, my father, (you are) the chariot of Israel and its charioteer" (4 Kings 2:12), as if to say: You, O Elijah, carried the Israelite people like a chariot by your merits, and, like a charioteer, governed them by your counsels. Who, now that you have been snatched up to heaven, will carry and govern Israel?
Second, Nyssen, Aponius, and St. Bernard take the cavalry to mean the angels, who, just as formerly, like horsemen of God, they overthrew Pharaoh's chariots in the sea, so now they overthrow demons and all men who assail the soul of the just.
Third, Origen, homily 2 out of four, and following him Aponius, take the cavalry to mean souls which from infidelity or sin have been brought over to faith and holiness by the preaching of the apostles and the grace of Christ, and thus from the cavalry of the devil have been made the cavalry and mares of God; for, as Thomas the Cistercian says here: "All who do evil are horses in the chariots of Pharaoh, that is, of the devil, by whom they are directed and driven as by a charioteer;" but these, once converted, become horses of God in the chariots of Christ, when they take up the bridle of His discipline, bear the yoke of the Gospel, and are driven by His Spirit. Hence Aponius explains the phrase 'in chariots' from the chariots of Pharaoh. For those allow themselves to be bent by Christ their Rider toward every good, wherever He pleases, and to be restrained from every evil, however delightful and desirable, as I said on Apocalypse 6:2. "When the great Rider is changed," says Aponius, "they become great horses who carry the Holy Spirit. And He in whom Pharaoh used to sit -- whose name means 'one who destroys or scatters,' and who is understood to be the prince of this world -- now the Prince of the heavenly army, Christ, rides in them: and those whom the ministers of Antichrist's vices used to drag through the rocky valleys of crimes, are now drawn by the powerful and gentle horses, the apostles, through the fields of justice by their life, example, and sound doctrine, in which the wheels are the will and rational sense; the pole-bars serve the office through which each one becomes either Pharaoh's or Christ's chariot. And how splendid
Fourth, Origen, homily 2 out of four, and Theodoret take the mare to mean the most holy soul and humanity of Christ, upon which His divinity sat, and drove it like a charioteer through so many heroic works of all the virtues (for the humanity of Christ is here the primary bride, whom the Word as Bridegroom betrothed to Himself, as I said in the Prooemium, chapter 2): for Christ likens to His own humanity the soul of the just, as if He addressed it thus: You, a soul made akin to Me, and therefore called akin, and having in reality obtained the fruit of the name, I say are similar to My mare, by which I drowned the intelligible Pharaoh and bestowed freedom upon you, according to the text: "Who will reform the body of our lowliness, made like to the body of His glory" (Philippians 3:21). And: "But we all, beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are transformed into the same image from glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Fifth, St. Jerome, on Habakkuk 3:8: "You who ride upon Your horses," judges that the soul of the just is here compared to a horse properly so called, because, like a horse lacking reason and will, it ought to allow itself to be bridled and governed by Christ as charioteer and rider, and to say with the Psalmist: "I have become as a beast of burden before You" (Psalm 72:23).
More fully, St. Bernard, homily 39, shows that the holy soul is not merely a mare, but the most powerful cavalry of God: "Nor will you marvel," he says, "that one soul is likened to a multitude of cavalry, if you consider how many battle-lines of virtues are found in that one soul, which is nonetheless a holy soul; how great the ordering in its affections, how great the discipline in its conduct, how great the armament in its prayers, how great the strength in its actions, how great the terror in its zeal, how great
and even the constant frequency of its conflicts with the enemy, and the great number of its triumphs." This manifold victory over the enemy he then describes in detail: "There the people were led out of Egypt, here man is led out of the world; there Pharaoh is overthrown, here the devil; there Pharaoh's chariots are overturned, here the carnal and worldly desires that war against the soul are destroyed; those in waves, these in weeping; those were of the sea, these are bitter. I believe that even now the demons cry out, if it happens that they encounter such a soul: Let us flee from Israel: for the Lord fights for them against us" (Exodus 14:25). Therefore the obedient and holy soul is the mare and cavalry of God, because for obeying and for every good work which God commands or counsels, she runs most promptly, most swiftly, most effectively, and with the whole impulse of the spirit, like the angels, of whom the Psalmist sings (Psalm 103:4), and the Apostle (Hebrews 1:7): "Who makes His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire."
Third Principal Sense: On Christ and the Blessed Virgin.
Rupert, taking the mare and cavalry to mean the rod of Moses, by which, as by a cavalry, God overthrew Pharaoh and drowned him in the sea, asserts that by it the Blessed Virgin is signified: "For just as that rod," he says, "devoured the rods of the sorcerers and enchanters, and crushed all Egyptian pride, and then sprouted, put forth leaves, flowered, and bore fruit, though not planted, not animated by the sap of the earth, but advanced by heavenly power beyond the use of nature: so you, most beautiful of women, my friend, have destroyed all heretical wickedness, have cast down the pride of the devil, flowering in conception, fruitful in birth; a virgin in conception, uncorrupted in birth; a virgin before birth, uncorrupted after birth. Are you not therefore the most beautiful of women? Truly the most beautiful."
Hence the Blessed Virgin crushed the head of the serpent, that is, of Lucifer and all his followers (Genesis 3:15), such as the heretics are: wherefore the Church truly and rightly sings to the Blessed Virgin: "You who alone have destroyed all heresies in the whole world." That this is truly attributed to her is clear from the history of all heretics and all ages.
VERSE 9. YOUR CHEEKS ARE BEAUTIFUL AS THE TURTLEDOVE'S: YOUR NECK IS LIKE NECKLACES.
YOUR CHEEKS ARE BEAUTIFUL AS THE TURTLEDOVE'S. — That is to say: Your chastity, O bride (that is, the Church and the faithful soul), and virginal modesty shine in your cheeks, just as in the cheeks of the turtledove. In Hebrew it is torim, that is, 'of turtledoves,' in the plural; but the plural is put for the singular, hence our translator renders 'of the turtledove' from the Septuagint; the Chaldean and the Rabbis translate torim as earrings, gems, necklaces, pearls, ornaments; Rabbi Abraham, as small chains that were depicted in the manner of-
like a turtledove; others, small chains fashioned in the likeness of a turtledove, which, descending from the temples to the cheeks, wonderfully adorned them. Hence Vatablus translates: 'lovely are your cheeks among the small chains, and your neck among the necklaces'; the Syriac: 'beautiful are your cheeks with curls, and your neck with a torque.' But our translator renders it better: for the Hebrew word tor properly signifies 'turtledove' by onomatopoeia from the sound of the voice that the turtledove produces by moaning; not a necklace or anything similar. Add that our translator and the Septuagint read in the Hebrew cattorim, that is, 'as of turtledoves,' not battorim, that is, 'among turtledoves,' or small chains or necklaces resembling turtledoves. Finally, the cheeks of the bride are more aptly compared to turtledoves than to necklaces, because turtledoves are chaste, gentle (whence they also lack gall), modest and bashful, and they display this especially in their eyes and cheeks: "for in the cheeks is the seat of modesty," says Pliny, book 11, chapter 37. So in chapter 4:1, he says: "Your eyes are those of doves:" for turtledoves are one species of doves.
First Adequate Sense: On Christ and the Church.
The Bridegroom explains and commends in detail through His companions what He said in general to the bride: "O most beautiful of women." Hence He here displays the beauty of her cheeks and neck, as if to say: Your face, darkened by the sun, shines and gleams with the splendor of silvery turtledoves. He alludes to Psalm 67:14: "If you sleep among the midst of the lots, (you shall be like) the wings of a dove covered with silver." Nyssen adds that, lest anyone, from the fact that He compared the bride to a mare or a cavalry, and called her a keeper of kids, should think her wanton and lustful, as mares and kids are, He therefore, to wipe away this impression, likens her to a turtledove, which keeps perpetual fidelity to its mate and is a symbol of chastity.
The common exposition of the Fathers is that by beautiful cheeks is signified here the modesty and chastity of the bride, that is, of the Church: for this is the first and greatest dowry of brides, which shines most brightly in the blush and bashfulness of the cheeks. For the Church loves no other bridegroom than Christ, thinks and speaks of Him alone, and in His absence, like a turtledove, she moans and sighs. So Origen, Theodoret, Cassiodorus, Nyssen, St. Gregory, Philo, Bede, Justus, Aponius, Rupert, Anselm, St. Bernard, and St. Ambrose, sermon 3 on Psalm 118. Hence the Septuagint translate with an interrogation and admiration: 'How beautiful your cheeks have become, like those of a turtledove!' where Origen presses the word 'have become,' as if to say: The cheeks of the Church at first, while she lived in paganism, were not beautiful; but after they received the kiss of the Bridegroom in the bath of baptism, they became beautiful, because after Christ and through Christ, chastity and virginity began to be cultivated. There is noted here, therefore, the great abundance of virgins and continent persons in the Church of Christ, through His doctrine and example.
Hence Aponius symbolically takes the turtledove to mean Christ Himself; for the Church strives to imitate His virginal modesty: hence, just as the turtledove, in the absence of its mate, moans continually, so the Church continually moans and sighs for Christ, that she may enjoy Him in heaven. Moreover, the Chaldean, translating 'turtledove' as 'earring and bridle of the jaw,' considers that by it the obedience of the Synagogue is signified: "When, he says, they went out into the desert, the Lord said to Moses: How beautiful is this people, that the words of the law may be given to them, and may be like an earring in their jaws, so that they do not depart from the good way, just as a horse in whose jaw there is a bridle does not depart!"
Second Partial Sense: On Christ and the Holy Soul.
First, just as the turtledove admits only one mate, and when he dies, leads a widowed life in continual moaning and grief: so the holy soul loves only Christ the Bridegroom, and continually mourns His passion and death, and sighs for Him in heaven; wherefore she weeps for His absence, so that her cheeks are often wet with a shower of pious tears. For the turtledove is monogamous, and the female, having lost her mate, avoids clear waters, lest upon seeing herself in the water she be reminded of her spouse. Widows, moreover, are more numerous among turtledoves because the males, as Aristotle reports (History of Animals, book 9, chapter 7), tend to die sooner and are less long-lived. Hence the line of Virgil: 'Nor will the turtledove cease to moan from the lofty elm.'
The turtledove, therefore, is a symbol first of monogamy; second, of widowhood; third, of fidelity. Hence Goropius Becanus in his Saxonica thinks that from the Hebrew tor and the Latin turtur, the Cimbrian and Belgian word trou, that is, 'fidelity,' is derived by metathesis, and trouwen, that is, 'to marry and to give one's spouse the pledge of conjugal fidelity,' just as the turtledove gives it to its mate. A coin of Heliogabalus survives, on which one sees a woman holding a turtledove with this inscription: 'The fidelity of soldiers,' as if to say: just as the turtledove is faithful to its mate, so let the soldier be faithful to his commander. "The turtledove," says St. Gregory, "after it has once lost its mate, never joins itself to another, but always dwelling in solitude, perseveres in moaning, because it seeks him whom it loved and does not find: so also the holy soul, when absent from her Bridegroom, does not withdraw from love of Him, but always pants and moans in desire for Him; and while she does not find Him whom she greatly loves, because she withdraws herself from every alien love, she shows, as it were in the modesty of her cheeks, the chastity of her heart by her very demeanor and outward behavior." And St. Bernard, On the Way of Living Well, to His Sister, chapter 10: "Beautiful are your cheeks, he says, as those of a turtledove. The nature of the turtledove is that, if by some chance it loses its spouse, it no longer seeks another. O bride of Christ, liken yourself also
to this turtledove, and apart from Jesus Christ your Bridegroom, do not seek another lover. O bride of Christ, be like the turtledove, and mourn day and night with longing for Jesus Christ your Bridegroom, because He has now ascended to heaven, that we may someday deserve to see His face at the right hand of the Father. Beautiful are your cheeks like those of the turtledove. In the cheeks there is usually modesty. Venerable sister, you have the cheeks of a turtledove if, out of reverence for Jesus Christ your Bridegroom, you do nothing against His will; you have the cheeks of a turtledove if, with love and reverence for Christ, you set aside what displeases Him; you have the cheeks of a turtledove if, apart from Christ, you love no other friend." St. Chrysostom has similar things, homily 8 On the Turtledove, volume 5.
Second, the turtledove, in order to preserve its chastity, loves solitude, and nests in remote places, and begets and nurtures its young where they are removed and safe from the attack of enemies. The holy soul does the same. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 40: "It is entirely above you to be betrothed to the Lord of angels. Is it not above you to cling to God and to be one spirit with Him? Sit therefore solitary like a turtledove; have nothing to do with crowds, nothing with the multitude of others; and even forget your own people and your father's house; and the king will desire your beauty. O holy soul, be alone, so that you may keep yourself for Him alone among all, whom you have chosen for yourself from among all. Flee the public, flee even your own household; withdraw from friends and intimates, even from him who ministers to you. Do you not know that you have a modest Bridegroom, who will by no means grant you His presence in the presence of others? Withdraw therefore, but in mind, not in body; in intention, in devotion, in spirit." And after some further remarks: "You are alone if you do not think common thoughts, if you do not desire what is present, if you despise what many admire, if you disdain what all desire, if you avoid quarrels, if you do not feel losses, if you do not remember injuries. Otherwise, not even if you are alone in body are you alone."
Third, the turtledove by its mourning represents a soul that is not dissolute and intemperate, but composed, grave, and temperate in both merits and speech, devoted to prayer and compunction; which restrains gluttony and lust through temperance, anger through patience, faintheartedness through fortitude, etc.: so the three Fathers cited by Theodoret. For the turtledove's song is lamentation; hence the voice of the turtledove was the voice of St. Magdalene mourning her sins: hence the moaning turtledove signifies a meditative soul, which groans and mourns its own and others' faults and the hardships of this pilgrimage and exile of ours. Hence also the turtledove is a symbol of wisdom: for "the heart of the wise is where sadness is; the heart of fools is where gladness is" (Ecclesiastes 7:5); hence also the proverb: "The flesh of the turtledove is the food of the wise"; for, as Aldrovandus teaches in his work On the Turtledove, the flesh of the turtledove yields not a thick but a thin juice, which is easily converted into subtle animal spirits: for these are suited and entirely serve meditation and contemplation. Hence again the turtledove
in its meditative state is a type of providence, which premeditates and foresees the future, as Pierius attests in his Hieroglyphics; hence the text of Jeremiah 8:7: "The turtledove, and the swallow, and the stork have kept the time of their coming."
Fourth, St. Bernard, sermon 40, takes the cheeks to mean right intention, which Christ compared to the eyes (Matthew 6:22); now the cheeks surround and support the eyes; hence Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods: "The cheeks," he says, "protect the eyes beneath them from below, gently projecting. And they are double, because in intention two things must be considered, namely the object and the cause, that is, what you intend and for what reason you intend it." Hear Pliny, book 11, chapter 37: "Below the eyes are the cheekbones, which the ancients called 'genae,' the Twelve Tables forbidding women to scratch them; this is the seat of modesty: there the blush is most visible; below them are the buccae, indicating cheerfulness and laughter." And a little before: "The heavier birds close the lower eyelid; they blink with the same, a membrane covering from the corners. Doves and similar birds (like turtledoves) close both, etc. The outermost rim of the upper cheek the ancients called 'cilium,' whence also 'supercilia' (eyebrows). This, when torn apart by some wound, does not heal." Such precisely is right intention, and likewise chastity and virginal modesty.
Third Principal Sense: On Christ and the Blessed Virgin.
Beautiful cheeks denote the extraordinary purity and modesty of the Blessed Virgin, who like a turtledove continually mourned the death of her Turtledove, that is, of Christ her Beloved: for, as St. Jerome says (Against Jovinian, book 1): "The turtledove, a most chaste bird, always dwelling on high, is a type of the Savior." Hence she herself also offered for her Son at the Purification a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons (Luke 2:24), and with Joseph her husband she preserved chastity, not only conjugal but also virginal, and after his death, virginal widowhood.
Hence she is compared to a bee: for bees know no carnal union, but as virgins they conceive and bring forth their offspring, just as the Blessed Virgin in a wondrous way united in herself virginity and fruitfulness, that is, motherhood. Hear St. Ambrose, book 1, On Virgins: "A virginity worthy to be compared to bees -- so laborious, so modest, so continent. The bee feeds on dew, knows no mating, composes honey; dew also for the virgin is the divine word, because like dew, the words of God descend. The modesty of the virgin is her inviolate nature; the offspring of the virgin is the fruit of her lips, free from bitterness, fertile in sweetness."
YOUR NECK IS LIKE NECKLACES. — Our translator with the Septuagint reads cacharuzim, that is, 'like necklaces'; now they read bacharuzim, that is, 'in necklaces,' as if to say: Your neck is surrounded by necklaces. Moreover, Pagninus and the Rabbis interpret charuzim as torques and pearls strung on a thread: for matrons, to enhance their beauty, are accustomed to adorn their necks with torques and pearls.
First Adequate Sense: On Christ and the Church.
Properly, by the neck, which is subject to burden and yoke as well as to the head, is signified the subjection and obedience of the Church, by which she obeys Christ the Bridegroom and the laws of God in all things -- an obedience which does not so much burden her as adorn her, like a necklace, according to Proverbs 1:8-9: "Hear, my son, the instruction of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother: that grace may be added to your head, and a torque to your neck." See what was said there. Hence, just as the neck is not rigid but flexible and turning in all directions, wherever the head may direct, and therefore round: so also the obedient person is agile and versatile for all works that a superior has commanded. Hear Aristotle, book 4, On the Parts of Animals, chapter 10: "The neck exists for the sake of the windpipe; for it protects both it and the gullet, and guards them with its embrace. In other animals it is flexible and composed of vertebrae; but in the wolf and lion it is stiffened by a continuous bone. For nature intended their necks to be more suited to strength than to other uses." Hence the Chaldean translates: 'and how beautiful are their backs, to bear the burden of my commandments, and may they be upon them like a yoke upon the necks of an ox that plows in the field and sustains both himself and his master.' So also Theodoret and others generally.
Hence first, in Scripture, and even among pagans, a flexible, bowed neck denotes an obedient person; but a stiff neck denotes a rebellious and obstinate one. Hence the text of Isaiah 48:4: "I knew that you are hard, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your forehead is bronze."
Second, just as the neck is between the head and the body, and receives the influence and spirits of the head, and conveys them to all the members, and connects and subordinates them to the head: so also obedience joins subjects to their superior, and conveys his precepts and counsels, his spirit and virtue, into them.
Third, just as the neck contains the windpipe, by which we draw our vital breath, and the gullet, by which we convey food to the stomach: so obedience breathes life and vital spirit into the mind, and supplies not bodily but spiritual food to the will, which is, as it were, the stomach of the soul. Hear Aristotle, History of Animals, book 1, chapter 12: "The neck, which is between the chest and the face, has its front part called the throat and its back part called the gullet; the cartilaginous part of the neck that occupies the front position transmits the voice and breath, and is called the windpipe: but the fleshy inner part that lies before the spine is called the gullet: and the outermost back part of the neck is called the cervix." The same author, On the Parts of Animals, book 3, chapter 3: "The neck," he says, "lies beneath the head in those animals that have it: for not all have it, but only those which possess the parts for whose sake the neck was made, that is, the throat and what is called the gullet; the throat was given for the sake of respiration, for by it animals draw in and return breath, both in breathing in and breathing out: wherefore those that lack lungs also lack a neck, such as the species of fish: the gullet is the passage by which food and drink are swallowed, and so those that lack a neck do not have a visible gullet."
Hence, just as the cheeks denote virgins in the Church, so the neck denotes monks and religious, whose profession is obedience, according to the text: "Subject your neck to the yoke, and let your soul receive instruction" (Sirach 51:34). "Put your foot into its fetters, and your neck into its chains. Bend your shoulder, and do not be weary of its bonds" (ibid. 6:25). And: "Bind them upon your heart, and tie them about your neck" (Proverbs 6:21). For just as a torque encircles and embraces the whole neck, so obedience embraces the whole religious, all his actions, and his entire life, so that he may do nothing unless it pleases his superior. Moreover, just as a necklace woven of pearls contains very many pearls, so obedience contains all the virtues. "Obedience is the only virtue that implants the other virtues in the mind and guards them once implanted," says St. Gregory (Moralia 35, chapter 10). Wherefore obedience is the crown and rosary of all the virtues.
Moreover, for 'necklaces' the Septuagint translate hormiskous, which first, St. Ambrose, sermon 3 on Psalm 118, renders as 'garlands,' as if to say: Obedience does not so much weigh down the neck of the obedient and religious person as it adorns and crowns it like a torque; hence 'religion' is derived from 'religare' (to bind again), because it binds again to God the mind that was formerly torn from God by sin; and what is nobler than to be bound again and united to God?
Hear St. Ambrose: "Your neck is like garlands. Bear the yoke of Christ; it is sweet, if you think them ornaments of your neck, not burdens; therefore lift up your eyes to the Lord your God, and seek God, and you will find Him. Raise your neck; you wear garlands, not chains. Even dumb animals delight in garlands, and seem to themselves more adorned than stripped. The cheeks, like those of a turtledove, will display the insignia of modesty; the garlands of the neck will raise the confidence of freedom: for the yoke of Christ is light, and therefore the neck is not pressed down by it, but lifted up."
Hence Origen, homily 2 out of four, takes the garlands to mean the obedience of Christ even unto death: for this adorned, that is, encircled and beautified, His entire life; therefore he considers the obedience of the Church to be compared to the obedience of Christ: "Great," he says, "is the praise of the bride in this, great is the glory of the Church, where the imitation of her obedience fulfills the obedience of Christ, whom she imitates."
Nyssen, however, derives hormiskous, that is, 'garlands,' from hormous, that is, 'harbor,' because necklaces curve like a harbor, which has the shape of a crescent moon; hence the name Panormus, the noble city of Sicily, meaning 'all harbor' or 'harbor in every respect,' because ships from everywhere come together and converge there. Obedience, therefore, is to a religious person like a harbor, which provides security against all dangers and temptations, so that with a quiet and tranquil conscience one may spend one's entire life in joy. Hence Climacus, step 4: "Obedience," he says, "is the perfect denial of one's own soul and one's own body, a voluntary death, a life without anxiety, a voyage without loss, the burial of one's will, the way of humility, and as if one were making a journey while sleeping." And he adds: "To live in obedience is nothing other than to place one's burden on the shoulders of others, to swim upon the arms of others, and to be sustained in the waters lest we be drowned, but to cross this great sea of life without danger, and indeed by the shortest voyage." The a priori reason is that the obedient person is governed by God: for God has appointed superiors for him, through whom He governs him. Who, then, would fear to err when God is governing and leading, nay, commanding? Well known is that saying of Christ: "He who hears you, hears Me" (Luke 10:16).
Second Partial Sense: On Christ and the Holy Soul.
The neck, that is, the state of subjection, admonishes the soul, first of obedience, which it owes to God and to superiors; second, of humility; third, of patience: for these two are the companions, indeed the supports, of obedience, without which it cannot stand; so St. Ambrose, On Isaac and the Soul, chapter 4: "The soul is praised," he says, "because, illuminated by the heavenly precept, it is now beautiful, now fair, and shows the beauty of chastity, and lifts up the garlands of its neck, in which are the insignia of patience and humility." Wherefore our Father St. Ignatius in the rules of modesty decrees that our members should walk with the neck somewhat inclined, so that by this demeanor they display humility and modesty: "The head," he says, "should be held straight with a moderate inclination forward, not turning to either side. The eyes should be kept lowered for the most part." Thus walked Christ the Lord, of whom Nicephorus writes (book 1, chapter 40): "His neck was gently inclined, so that He did not hold Himself in an excessively erect and extended bodily posture."
Hear also the three Fathers cited by Theodoret: "The neck has been made beautiful like necklaces. For your neck is not of iron, unable to bend because of pride, but because of modesty it can easily be turned, like necklaces wrought of gold: whose probity and purity of gold your humility imitates with unfeigned simplicity. But if the necklace signifies humility that is not at all simulated, as was said, the neck of Christ's bride is commended as being like necklaces, and indicates a multitude of virtues and the humility implicit in each individual virtue. For just as a necklace is first cast by the craftsman in a straight shape, then bent into a circle to accommodate its use: so a man perfect in virtue, while upright with absolute moderation of life, is bent and lowered through humility by compassion for others." They then add that the neck is reason: "The neck encircled by humility is the reason of the soul, which, just as the neck joins the head to the rest of the body, so it connects the mind with the senses, while from the habit of the virtues it applies the mind to the senses through actions, and in turn brings the senses back to the mind according to the precepts of the virtues. It is likewise bent through humility, when it is not lifted up by its own dignity, but is lowered by the abjection of dust and matter."
For this reason religious wear a scapular on their necks, just as the pontiffs in the Old Law placed the ephod on their necks, which reminds both of obedience and patience, just as a necklace hanging from the neck reminds virgins of chastity and men of generosity and manly virtue. For the word 'monile' (necklace) is so called because it 'admonishes' (admoneat) of virtue. For it was originally given to freeborn youths for some outstanding deed; hence Ovid, Metamorphoses 10: 'He gives gems for the fingers, he gives long necklaces for the neck.'
So also the Greek hormiskos, that is, 'necklace,' alludes to horme, that is, 'impulse' and 'drive,' because it casts that impulse for illustrious works of virtue upon men and heroic women; just as the Hebrew charuz, that is, 'necklace' or 'torque,' alludes to charutz, that is, 'active, vigorous, keen for heroic deeds': for to such a person are the necklace and torque owed. Hence T. Manlius received the cognomen 'Torquatus' from the torque he stripped from the Gaul he killed at the Anio, as Livy attests.
Again, soldiers for a deed valiantly performed received from their commander a golden torque placed on their necks, and thence were called 'torquati,' and were of two kinds, simplares and duplares. "The 'torquati,'" says Vegetius (book 2), "were duplares and simplares: for whom the solid golden torque was the reward of valor, and he who had earned it, besides praise, sometimes received double rations -- the duplares two, the simplares one." So St. Agnes gloried in being adorned with a torque and necklaces by Christ her Bridegroom, when to the prefect's son who was seeking her in marriage, she replied indignantly: "Depart from me, you kindling of sin, food of death, for a far nobler and richer Bridegroom has given me His pledge; who, since He is King of heaven and earth, has adorned me with golden garments, and has decorated my ears with distinguished pearls, and my neck-
Third Principal Sense: On Christ and the Blessed Virgin.
All these things already said above all eminently apply to the Blessed Virgin. Moreover, Rupert takes the necklace of the neck to mean the silence of the Blessed Virgin: "Just as," he says, "necklaces protect the chaste bosoms of matrons, whence they are called 'monilia,' because they 'protect' (muniant) the breast, lest any stranger, that is, any shameless person, should lay his hand upon it: so also your neck protects your words, not only lest anything idle or harmful or disordered burst forth through the voice; but also lest your good, your secret, the divine mystery entrusted to you, should lightly find its way or voice, so that a foreign ear, or some daughter, although she may seem to be a daughter of Jerusalem, who perhaps would not know how to guard such pearls as they ought to be guarded on account of swine, and especially on account of Herod and his accomplices, might understand. Truly, therefore, most beautiful of women, most beautiful in your cheeks, most beautiful in your neck, that is, in the most becoming moderation of both your eyes and your words."
VERSE 10. WE WILL MAKE YOU GOLDEN CHAINS, INLAID WITH SILVER.
WE WILL MAKE YOU GOLDEN CHAINS, INLAID WITH SILVER. -- That is to say: We will adorn you with the golden laws of obedience, marked with the silver of wisdom. In Hebrew: 'chains of gold we will make you, studded with silver'; the Septuagint: 'likenesses or images of gold (Symmachus: golden insignia; the fifth edition: twisted gold) we will make you with marks or distinctions of silver'; Symmachus: 'with varieties'; the fifth edition: 'in millet-seeds,' that is, in tiny points of silver; another: 'with variegations'; Vatablus: 'fitting ornaments of gold we will make you with silver studs or pins.' Our translator renders it best: 'inlaid with silver,' that is, variegated with points of silver, like certain little worms whose backs are marked with various colored dots, or which shine and gleam at night like silver. The Syriac translates: 'golden curls we will make you with sheets or plates of silver'; the Arabic: 'images, or figures, or sculptures of gold will be made for you, most like unto you.'
The moray (murena) is a fish identical with the eel, or certainly very similar to it, as is clear from its image shown by Aldrovandus and Rondeletius in their works On Fishes, under 'moray': hence 'murenula' is the name given to a gold necklace, because, with the gold drawing out into thin rods, it is woven into a chain of sinuous pattern, the word being formed from the image of the fish, as Caelius Rodiginus says from St. Jerome (book 4, chapter 10).
Again, just as the moray is marked with various spots as if with dots, so also the murenula is variegated and distinguished with silver dots. Hence Pliny, book 9, chapter 23: "In northern Gaul," he says, "on all morays, seven spots on the right jaw in the pattern of the constellation shine with a golden color, but only in living ones, and they are extinguished together with the life."
Golden chains (murenulae), therefore, are small rods of gold in a sinuous weave, variegated with dots and spots, and thus very similar to the moray fish, which curves itself into a circle, whether they encircle and adorn the hands, the head, or any other limb. Properly, however, they belong to the head and neck, as St. Jerome indicates in his letter to Marcella (epistle 15), where praising the Blessed Asella: "The gold of her neck," he says, "which the common people call a murenula, because the metal stretching into thin rods is woven into a chain of sinuous pattern, she sold without her parents' knowledge." Following him, Cassiodorus says: "Murenulae are an ornament of the virginal and girlish neck: namely, interwoven rods of gold, with very fine threads of silver sometimes intermingled in beautiful variety. And this is what he means by 'inlaid with silver,' that is, arranged and joined together in the manner of earthworms, which they call lumbrics." The murenulae are so called from the likeness of the sea fish called the moray." Hence Aponius reads: 'golden chains we will make,' which St. Anselm and Bernard assign not to the neck but to adorning the ears. Better is Justus of Urgel: "Murenulae," he says, "are an ornament descending from the head, by which the neck is adorned." Finally, 'murena' is derived from myren, that is, 'to flow,' says Eustathius, because, as Macrobius attests, due to its fatness it floats on the surface of the water and cannot submerge itself, being dried out by the sun. Hence Martial, book 13, epigram 77: 'The great moray that swims in the Sicilian deep / Cannot plunge its skin burnt by the sun.'
So likewise the golden murenula floats about the neck, and struck by the sun's rays, it gleams brightly.
In the Hebrew it is thore, which word the Vulgate a little earlier translates as 'turtledove'; hence some here understand a turtledove or small turtledove, but a freshwater one, namely a trout: for this fish, just as it is distinguished by most beautiful spots, so it is most wholesome as well as most flavorful: hence the fifth edition also translates 'twisted gold, like a turtledove, or a trout or moray.' Hence also some consider that 'turtledove' is called in Hebrew tur, as if 'twisted,' because with its twisting neck it continually looks around, exploring whether it might find and see its absent mate somewhere. Others translate thore as 'arrangements, orders, series,' such as are in the linking of rings and plates in small chains. Our translator renders it best as murenulae, that is, small chains and golden torques.
He alludes to Psalm 67:14: "If you sleep among the midst of the lots, (you shall be like) the wings of a dove covered with silver, and the hinder parts of its back in the pale color of gold." St. Gregory, Cassiodorus, and Bede judge these to be the words of the Bridegroom. Better, Justus of Urgel, Anselm, Rupert, and St. Bernard judge them to be the words of the companions of the Bridegroom; hence they say: 'We will make golden chains,' in the plural; not 'I will make,' in the singular.
First Adequate Sense: On Christ and the Church.
The question is asked: What do the golden chains signify?
First, the Chaldean understands the tablets of the Decalogue given by God to Moses on Sinai; for he translates thus: 'then it was said to Moses: Ascend to the firmament, and I will give you two tablets of stone, cut from the sapphire of the throne of My glory, and splendid like the finest gold, arranged in lines, written by My finger, in which are written ten words that are more purified than silver purified seven times: and I will give it through your hand to the people of the house of Israel.'
Second, Cassiodorus, St. Gregory, Bede, Justus, Aponius, and Anselm take the golden chains to mean the charism of understanding the Holy Scriptures, which are called golden either because of the wisdom and clarity of their spiritual sense, or because of the charity they teach; and they are said to be inlaid with silver either because of the brilliance of their eloquence, or because of their resonant preaching, or, as St. Anselm says, so that the doctors may know how to dispense the judgments of Holy Scripture according to each person's capacity and benefit; or, as Aponius says, they are called 'inlaid' because they contain diverse prophecies, some suited to Christ's conception, some to His nativity, some to His passion, some to His resurrection, etc., which, as if interwoven with the silver inlay, gleam elegantly. To these add Nyssen, St. Augustine, Origen, Theodoret, and three Fathers, who take the golden chains to mean the knowledge of the sacred Letters, and especially the figures of the Old Testament.
These, therefore, following the version of the Septuagint, which has: 'likenesses of gold we will make you with marks, or distinctions, of silver, until the king is in his resting place' -- St. Ambrose renders it: 'in his reclining place,' that is, in his throne where he reclines -- explain it thus: Nyssen indeed considers these golden chains to pertain to the mare or cavalry, to which he had just before compared the bride, as if the companions of the Bridegroom, namely angels or holy doctors, address her thus: For you, O soul, who are rightly compared to horses, we will make certain images of truth, and certain likenesses, which cannot accurately and exactly display the beauty of mind that is in you. But you, having received these, will become through faith a yoked beast of burden and a dwelling for Him who is about to dwell in you: for you will be both the seat and the house of Christ. More fully, Origen, homily 2 out of four, interprets it as if to say: Sacred Scripture and the knowledge of God was handed down to the ancient patriarchs through likenesses and riddles, until Christ, rising from death, lay down reclining like a lion (Genesis 49:9); for He revealed the meaning of the prophets and of Holy Scripture. The same author in the same place explains it tropologically thus: The imperfect soul is instructed in divine things through likenesses and examples, until the King is in His resting place, that is, until such a soul advances so far as to receive the King and to have Him reclining in herself; for the Word of God dwells in the perfect soul, according to that saying of Christ: "We will come to him and make Our abode with him" (John 14:23). On the other hand, St. Augustine, book 1, On the Trinity, chapter 8, explains thus: "We will make you likenesses of gold with distinctions of silver," that is,
from the throne, in which the King, descending, may recline and rest. So says Psellus.
The golden chains, therefore, signify the adornment, or the ornament, of Holy Scripture, gleaming with the gold of spiritual senses and shining and resounding with the silver of eloquence. Hear St. Gregory: "The moray is a fish which, when caught, curves itself into a circle, after whose likeness an earring is made, which is called a murenula, by which is signified preaching, which clings to the ears and penetrates them. By murenulae necklaces are tied to the neck, because both wisdom and religion are joined to preachers from the Holy Scriptures. For by murenulae Holy Scripture is understood, which is rightly said to be inlaid with gold and silver, because Holy Scripture gleams with wisdom and is heard throughout the whole world in resonant preaching. For just as by gold wisdom is signified, so by silver holy preaching is represented." To this pertains Psalm 11:7: "The words of the Lord are pure words, (like) silver tested by fire, proven on the earth, purified sevenfold."
Third, St. Jerome (Against Jovinian, book 1) takes the golden chains to mean virginity. Before Christ, he says, the Church had silver in its widows and married women, but received the gold of virginity through Christ. For it seems that here, to the most chaste bride, on account of her chastity, a golden chain studded with silver is given, referring back to what was said: "Your cheeks are like those of a turtledove," that is, she is supremely chaste and modest, like a turtledove. To these add others, who take the golden chains to mean the aureola (special crown) to be given to virgins: for the Hebrew thore, that is, 'murenulae,' is the same as thorim, that is, 'turtledoves,' as if these chains were woven from images of turtledoves, which are a symbol of chastity; granted that from turtledoves (thorim) it was extended to signify images of other things, such as little chains and serpents, from which the ancients' torques and murenulae were composed, as Clement of Alexandria teaches (Paedagogus, book 2, chapter 11). Hence the Septuagint translate thorim as homoimata, that is, likenesses or images in general.
Fourth, Psellus takes the golden chains to mean progress in virtue and holiness, as if the angels thus address the pious soul: Since the King is destined to rest in you, O bride, who chastely love and seek Him, come, allow yourself to be instructed and adorned by us: for although you do not yet gleam with virtues like gold, but still shine like silver, we will nonetheless adorn you to the likeness of gold, and render you similar to the cherubic and flaming and venerable throne, in which the King, descending, may recline and rest. So says Psellus.
To this purpose it is relevant that the Hebrew tore, that is, 'murenulae,' clearly alludes to thora, that is, 'law,' and to tor, that is, 'arrangement, order, series'; hence the Chaldean takes tore to mean the Decalogue; and Origen, Theodoret, St. Augustine, St. Gregory, and the others cited in the second exposition, take it to mean Holy Scripture, which contains and promulgates the law of God.
Therefore upon the so obedient neck of the bride, God bestows as a reward and ornament golden chains, that is, His divine laws, which, since they emanate from the eternal reasons in the mind of God, are in themselves most wise and most beautiful, so that they do not so much bind as adorn the one who admirably obeys and accepts them; under 'laws' understand not only the commandments but also the evangelical counsels and the beatitudes, which will make a person heavenly and angelic, indeed a terrestrial angel. The golden chains given by Christ to the Church are therefore the evangelical laws, which St. Matthew records in chapters 5, 6, and 7, among which the first are the eight beatitudes: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek," etc. For what more beautiful, more worthy, nobler, more divine could be conceived? The Church, therefore, embracing these laws and beatitudes of Christ, is adorned by them as by golden chains aptly connected to one another; for gold, because it is the most flexible and ductile of all metals, is a symbol of obedience.
Hence also the sentences of Holy Scripture, which contain these laws, are golden chains, from whose interweaving the Church grows beautiful; they are golden, because they are full of the spirit of charity; they are marked with silver, because they are tempered by the spirit of knowledge and discretion. Hence Bede: "He encircles the neck with murenulae composed with the craftsman's art, when each faithful soul, in all that it says and does, indeed in everything it lives and breathes, continually attends to the Holy Scriptures, and diligently directs its understanding and words to their example."
Again, these golden chains signify the beautiful and constant acts of obedience, by which Christ, as with new gifts, polishes and adorns the faithful and obedient, and makes them praiseworthy, admirable, and venerable to the whole world: for by gold is denoted the value and excellence of their actions, and by silver the purity, brilliance, and splendor of the same. For, as our Sanchez rightly says, if this most obedient bride is moved by the Spirit of God, it is fitting that the Holy Spirit, who sits upon her neck as charioteer and guide, should cultivate her neck with His gifts and virtues. For those torques, called in Hebrew torim, that is, turtledoves or doves, because the divine Spirit, signified by the dove, loves her as a bride, and as Bridegroom tenderly grasps and embraces her neck.
Moreover, the golden chains denote the hierarchical order of the Church, which wonderfully perfects and adorns her: for this order is nothing other than the order of obedience, by which the patriarchs are subordinated, subject, and obedient to the Supreme Pontiff; the primates to the patriarchs; the archbishops to the primates; the bishops to the archbishops; the priests to the bishops; the deacons to the priests; the sub-
deacons and the other clerics, and to these the laity. Behold this order in Rome, when the Pope celebrates, with the cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and priests assisting him, clad in sacred vestments, together with the ambassadors of kings and princes, etc., and you will truly say that this oracle is fulfilled there: 'We will make you golden chains, inlaid with silver.' For in Hebrew the golden chains are called tore, that is, arrangements, orders, series, which appear most beautifully in this sacred assembly, as also in the other offices and rites of the Church.
Second Partial Sense: On Christ and the Holy Soul.
The holy soul, especially one who has professed obedience and is religious, as a reward for this profession and obedience, is adorned with golden chains marked with silver, that is, with the rules, constitutions, and ordinances proper to each religious order, which represent nothing but the gold of charity and the silver of prudence, by which the order is wonderfully adorned. Again, the golden chains are acts of obedience, by which the entire life of a religious is, as it were, linked together and crowned like a golden chain, variegated with silver dots, that is, with acts of humility, temperance, patience, and the other virtues: for from morning to evening, whatever a religious does, he does according to the rules of obedience. He rises from bed, prays, sings psalms, studies, teaches, preaches, dines, sups, and goes to bed when obedience gives the signal. See Jerome Platus, book 2, On the Good of the Religious State, chapter 5, who also adduces an apt example for this passage in book 3, final chapter, past the middle: that of a certain outstanding young man who, called by God to the Cistercian order, kept putting it off from day to day and began to grow lukewarm. Therefore, when he had returned home from a pilgrimage to Compostela, that very night Christ the Lord appeared to him with two apostles, Peter and James; Peter held a most beautiful book open before the Lord, in which the young man's name 'John' was written. Then the Lord said to St. Peter: "Erase him from My book." But James began to plead with Him for his pilgrim, as he called him, and to promise his amendment besides; but John, seeing that this concerned him, was terrified and trembling, and promised a new life for the future. But the Lord, as if having little confidence in his inconstancy, demanded a guarantor for his resolve; and St. James offered himself. When the young man had awoken and, marveling at these things, had fallen asleep again, the same vision was presented to him once more, and moreover, in that book there appeared this inscription from the Song of Songs: 'We will make you golden chains, inlaid with silver.' He therefore, both invited by this pleasant promise and terrified by those threats, without any delay betook himself to Citeaux, where, having made great progress in virtue, he was first made abbot of Bonnevaux, then also bishop of Valence.
So Platus from the Chronicles of the Cistercians. Relevant here is the example of our Father Peter Faber, who as the first companion of St. Ignatius, founder of the Society of Jesus, having spent his entire life in obedience, traveling through various provinces and everywhere sowing the seeds of piety, and having lived his religious life accordingly, likewise died in obedience. Hence, after death, appearing to a certain religious person, most joyfully he said that he had met death for the sake of obedience, and recounted many things about the joy he had obtained for this reason in heaven. He is deservedly crowned with the aureola of obedience in heaven, who was a victim of obedience on earth. So our Orlandinus in his Life, book 2, chapter 28.
Again, by the golden chains some understand the charisms which the Holy Spirit bestows upon the obedient and religious, and especially the gifts of wisdom and eloquence: for wisdom is denoted by gold, and eloquence by silver, because it resonates beautifully like a bell. Hence St. Gregory, St. Thomas, Bede, and others assign these golden chains to doctors, because just as through the neck the power of sensation passes from the head to the rest of the body, so from Christ the Head, heavenly doctrine is conveyed to the people through the doctors. This neck must be enclosed and guarded by necklaces marked with the image of doves, because the Holy Spirit must encircle the neck and inflate the throats of doctors as if they were truly His trumpet.
Let this neck, therefore, be golden with charity, fervor, and zeal, and silvery with the brilliance of eloquence. Moreover, obedience and religious life supply to the doctor great force and efficacy of doctrine, eloquence, zeal, and spirit: for the obedient person is governed through his superior, and is moved by God and His Spirit, as His voice and instrument. Hence most of the ancient doctors of the Church were religious: namely, three of the four Latin doctors -- St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Gregory -- and as many of the Greek -- St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Chrysostom. Such also were St. Bernard, St. Thomas, St. Bonaventure, and very many others. See Jerome Platus, book 2, On the Good of the Religious State, chapters 25, 30 and following.
Again, the charism almost proper to obedience is the grace of miracles: for God uses the obedient as His instruments, most closely united to Himself, for the conversion of souls, and therefore through them, when there is need, He works miracles. Many examples are found in the Lives of the Fathers, in Cassian, and in St. Gregory (Dialogues, book 1, chapter 12, and book 2, chapter 7).
Finally, the golden chains are the beautiful rites and ceremonies, both of the Church and of the individual religious orders, which wonderfully adorn them.
Anagogically, the golden chain is the aureola (special crown) prepared in heaven for doctors, religious, and the obedient, which is golden through the glory of the soul and silvery through the glory of the body. Hence St. Thomas is depicted with a golden torque hanging from his neck, because in heaven he is crowned with the aureola of these golden chains. Hence also after death he appeared from heaven as if adorned with gems and a torque, as Father Ribadeneira reports in his Life, near the end.
Third Principal Sense: On Christ and the Blessed Virgin.
All these things already said above all belong to the Blessed Virgin. It is proper to her that fruitfulness did not harm but adorned her virginity, just as silver adorns golden chains. Again, the golden chain hanging from the neck of the Blessed Virgin was her Son Christ the Lord, a little child hanging from her neck and nursing, and in turn instilling into her the gold of charity and the silver of humility.
Finally, Rupert says: The golden chains are the discourses of the saints, golden in their meanings, silvery in the brilliance of their expression. "We will therefore make for you the chains of truth, the ornaments of blessing and thanksgiving, by blessing and giving thanks, because I have done thus for you; so that there may be no place where the voice of this praise is not heard, a resonant voice, a high-sounding praise, which, celebrating your name continually, may encircle you and, as it were, hang from your neck." So says Rupert.
THE VOICE OF THE BRIDE. VERSE 11. WHILE THE KING WAS IN HIS RESTING PLACE, MY SPIKENARD GAVE FORTH ITS FRAGRANCE.
WHILE THE KING WAS IN HIS RESTING PLACE (Aquila: 'in his reclining place'; Symmachus: anabklisai, that is, 'in his rests' or 'cessations') MY SPIKENARD GAVE FORTH ITS FRAGRANCE. -- That is to say: While my Bridegroom, who is the King Christ, was at His nuptial table, I the bride, entering to Him, brought spikenard ointment and anointed Him with it, and He was wonderfully refreshed by its fragrance.
'While,' that is, 'until,' as the Hebrew, the Septuagint, and St. Gregory have it, as if to say: As long as the king reclined at the banquet, my spikenard gave forth its fragrance.
By 'resting place' he understands not a bed but a nuptial table, at which the bridegroom reclines with the bride; in Hebrew it is mesab, that is, 'circle' or 'ring': for in ancient times tables were circular, so that they could hold more people, and so that the guests would be nearer to one another and could converse more conveniently with each individual. The dining couches, therefore, on which in the time of Solomon the guests reclined as if lying down, but leaning on their elbows at the table, were arranged in a circle around the table; hence the triclinium was so named, as if it were 'the dining room of three couches.'
For the beauty and sequence of the drama, Origen rightly notes (homily 2 out of four) that the bride, after the address of the bridegroom's companions just mentioned, in which they wonderfully praised her, entered the triclinium, and there offered the bridegroom a wall-gift and table-gift, namely, she poured spikenard ointment over him and delighted the bridegroom with its fragrance; and she narrates this to his companions after the bridegroom's departure; hence she speaks of him in the third person, saying: 'While the king was,' etc.
First Adequate Sense: On Christ and the Church.
First, some take the resting place to mean the throne of divinity, which is His majesty and eternity: for in this, as in His throne, God has sat and rested from eternity; hence in Hebrew it is called mesab, that is, 'circle': for this, returning upon itself in a circular motion, and therefore lacking beginning and end, is the hieroglyphic of eternity, which has neither beginning nor end. Thus the meaning will be, as if to say: The Son of God, resting from eternity in the bosom of the Father, and sitting on the throne and in the banquet hall of His majesty with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and there enjoying the most blessed and fullest rest, deigned from that lofty throne of His to look down upon our lowliness and our need, according to what is said in Psalm 101:18: "He looked upon the prayer of the humble and did not despise their petition, etc. For He looked down from His holy height: the Lord looked from heaven to earth: to hear the groans of the prisoners: to release the children of the slain." For our spikenard, as it were, gave forth its fragrance before the King dwelling in His resting place, when the humility of prayers and supplications, of tears also, groans, and sighs, poured forth by pious people to God for the salvation of the human race, reached the ears of God and inclined Him to mercy, to send His Son from heaven to earth; so Titelmann. So also St. Bernard, sermon 42: "The resting place of the King," he says, "is the bosom of the Father, because the Son is always in the Father. Do not doubt that this King is merciful, whose perpetual resting place is the inn of the Father's kindness. Rightly the cry of the humble ascends to Him who is the font of piety as His dwelling, to whom sweetness is familiar, to whom goodness is substantial, or rather consubstantial: to whom therefore everything that He is, is from the Father, so that in His royal majesty the trembling of the humble may suspect nothing at all that is not fatherly."
But more precisely, others generally take the resting place to mean the Incarnation of the Word and His entire economy and manner of life in the flesh: for this was like a nuptial banquet in which Christ feasted with the faithful and celebrated His wedding, as it were, with the Church, as is clear from the parable of the king's son inviting all to his wedding feast (Matthew 22:3 ff.). This is likewise rightly called an 'accubitus,' Hebrew mesab, that is, 'circuit,' both because Christ's
life was a circle of the most holy actions, virtues, and mysteries; and also because Christ went forth into the world and returned, ascending into heaven and returning to the Father, from whom He had been sent down to earth; and finally because Christ went throughout Judea preaching the kingdom of God, and calling all to it as to His nuptial feast of eternal happiness. Hence Christ, preaching in the Synagogue (Luke 4:16), took as His theme that text from Isaiah 61:1: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me: wherefore He has anointed Me, to preach release to the captives and sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of recompense. And when He had rolled up the scroll, He gave it back to the attendant and sat down" (behold, the resting place), etc. "And He began to say to them: Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Then the spikenard of the Church, that is, the faith of those who heard, gave forth its fragrance. For, as Luke adds (verse 22): "And all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the words of grace that proceeded from His mouth."
There is here, therefore, as in the whole Song of Songs, a prophecy of Christ's Incarnation and economy: for the first and primary bride here is the humanity of Christ, whose Bridegroom is the Word, that is, the Son of God, who by assuming her in the Incarnation betroths her to Himself, and through her, the Church, and each individual faithful and holy soul, as I said in the Prooemium, chapter 2: wherefore the past tenses here are to be understood as future, as is customary among the prophets, as if to say: When the King shall be in the resting place of His flesh, my spikenard will give forth its fragrance.
The meaning, therefore, is, as Hortolanus says: From the time when the divinity of our King appeared to us in His humanity as in His semicircle, from the time He sat in the Synagogue of the Nazarenes, and deigned to invite me, the Church of the faithful, to the feast drawn from the storehouse of Isaiah, I attentively hear Him as the most wise master of truth, faith, and salvation; I believe, venerate, and proclaim Him as the Son of David and the Son of God, the King of Israel and the most eagerly awaited Messiah. Him I sincerely believe and publicly profess to be able to cure the sick, however desperate, by His word alone, and to recall the dead to life, and to cast out and rout demons from the possessed. By these testimonies, I and my companions, from our hearts, as from garments perfumed with the spikenard ointment of faith, drawn from ivory treasure-chests, do invite and wonderfully delight the King, teaching in the Synagogues of Judea and in the temple of Jerusalem, and performing marvelous things with great glory and the admiration of all -- which office of ours the royal Psalmist once celebrated in these verses: "Myrrh, and drop, and cassia from Your garments, from the ivory palaces: from which the daughters of kings have delighted You in Your honor" (Psalm 44:9).
Now, to distribute this resting place of the Bridegroom in detail:
First, Cassiodorus, Bede, Aponius, and St. Ambrose (on Psalm 118, sermon 3) take it to mean the Incarnation of Christ. Hear Cassiodorus, and from him Bede: "The spikenard of the Church gave forth its fragrance, because, when the Son of God appeared in the flesh, the Church grew in the fervor of heavenly virtues: not because it did not have spiritual and God-devoted men even before the Incarnation, but because without any doubt it then devoted itself to more intensive pursuits of the virtues, when it learned that the entrance to the heavenly kingdom lay open to all who lived rightly, as soon as the bonds of the flesh were loosened."
The second resting place of Christ was when He Himself went about preaching through villages and cities, and reclined at table with sinners and others, in order to save them. Again, the resting place of Christ was on the wood of the cross, concerning which Psalm 95:10 says: "Say among the nations that the Lord has reigned" -- from the wood as from a royal throne; and likewise His rest in the tomb: so Justus and Anselm. Hear Anselm: "I rightly ought to love Christ, because He Himself gave me spikenard, namely, virtues; and this while He was in His resting place, that is, in His passion and resurrection, namely, because He Himself suffered and rose again; therefore He gave me virtues, which gave forth their fragrance, that is, their proper fragrance, namely, a good reputation."
The third resting place of Christ was in death: for Christ by dying overthrew the kingdom of death, of the devil, and of sin, and conferred upon us the kingdom of life, grace, and God. So Origen, Theodoret, and St. Jerome (Against Jovinian, book 1), as if to say: After the passion and death of Christ, the spikenard, that is, the virtue of the Church, gave forth a greater fragrance than before; for from it flowed the fortitude of the martyrs, the angelic purity of the virgins, the holiness of the confessors, the perfection of the anchorites: so Philo of Carpathia: "Thus the grateful and mindful bride," he says, "cries out to the Bridegroom: My spikenard gave forth the fragrance of sweetness, that is, You gave me the sweetness of ointments, namely, the efficacy, glory, and beauty of the martyrs and illustrious deeds. For the spikenard gave forth its fragrance, that is, martyrdom, and Your death or passion exhorted the martyrs to suffer for You; for You also suffered for us."
The fourth resting place was that of the Resurrection, in which, rising from the tomb, He reclined in glorified flesh and thereby triumphed over death and hell. So Justus, Anselm, and St. Gregory (Moralia 35, chapter 13), who says: "For when the King is placed in His resting place, the spikenard gives forth its fragrance, because, while the Lord rests in His blessedness, the virtue of the saints in the Church administers to us a great grace of sweetness."
The fifth resting place of Christ is in heavenly glory, where He sits at the right hand of God, as King of kings and Lord of lords; so St. Gregory, Rupert, Bernard, and St. Augustine (On the Trinity, book 1, chapter 8): for then the spikenard of the Church gave forth its fragrance through prayer, by which the apostles and the faithful, praying for the coming of the Holy Spirit, obtained Him, and filled with Him, preached the name and fame of Christ everywhere. Hear St. Gregory: "The King entered His resting place when
it pours itself into the nostrils of the Lord of Hosts. For no fragrance is so pleasing to God, to the angels, and to men, as this humility of the faithful. So Rupert, and St. Bernard, sermon 42, whom hear: "Good," he says, "is the fragrance of humility, which, ascending from this valley of tears, pervading the neighboring regions on every side, sprinkles even the royal resting place with its pleasing sweetness. Spikenard is a humble herb, which those who have more carefully explored the properties of herbs report to be of a warm nature; and therefore through it, I seem to myself not unfittingly in this place to understand the virtue of humility, but one that burns with the vapors of holy love. This I say for the reason that there is a humility which truth begets in us, and it has no warmth: and there is a humility which charity forms and inflames: the latter consists in the affections, the former in knowledge." And further on: "The humility of the bride, like spikenard, spreads its fragrance, warm with love, vigorous with devotion, sweet-smelling in reputation." The same St. Bernard adds that the bride was here reproved and chastised by the Bridegroom for her defects, and then her spikenard gave forth the sweetness of its fragrance, when her humility modestly and humbly bore this reproof and received it as a fatherly gift.
Second, spikenard denotes faith: for this humbly brings the intellect captive into obedience to God who reveals mysteries that surpass all human comprehension. Hence St. Ambrose, on Psalm 118, sermon 1: "Now," he says, "faith gives forth its fragrance, and therefore the Church says: My spikenard gave forth its fragrance; and she says it, expecting the recompense with confidence: the ointment of grace is fragrant, from which the Virgin brought forth, and the Lord Jesus assumed the sacrament of the Incarnation." To this Justus of Urgel adds, who takes the spikenard to mean the profession and preaching of the faith, because everywhere the Church spread the fragrance, that is, the fame, of Christ who suffered and rose again.
Third, the spikenard that is bitter is penitence, says Aponius: for this is the daughter of humility and smells most sweetly in the nostrils of God. Hence, as if literally, St. Magdalene illustrated this passage by her deed, when as a sign of penitence she anointed the feet of Jesus reclining at the table of Simon; and again brought an alabaster jar of precious ointment of pure spikenard and poured it over the head of Jesus reclining in His house. Wherefore Origen, Nyssen, Bede, and Aponius apply this passage to Magdalene. From penitence, therefore, a feast most pleasing to God is prepared, such as Magdalene brought to Christ, not so much when she poured out the spikenard ointment from the broken alabaster jar, as when she poured out her liquefied soul through her eyes. Wherefore St. Bernard, sermon 30 on the Song of Songs, calls the tears of penitents the wine of angels: "Because in them is the fragrance of life, the savor of grace, the taste of pardon, the delight of reconciliation."
Fourth, the spikenard is humble prayer and supplication; hence the Arabic, in place of 'spikenard,' translates 'incense,' which is a symbol of prayer: "Until," it says, "the king comes returning, my incense poured forth the fragrance of sweet-
ness from the bundle of stacte which I have with me for the son of my kinsman." Hear St. Bernard, sermon 42: "You can most fittingly apply this discourse to the primitive Church, if you recall those days in which, after the Lord had been taken up to where He was before, and was sitting at the right hand of the Father in that His ancient, noble, and glorious resting place, the disciples were gathered together in one place, persevering in prayer with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and His brethren. Does it not seem to you that truly at that time the spikenard of the small and trembling bride was giving forth its fragrance? At last, when suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting (Acts 4:2), it was clear to all who remained in that place how pleasing was the fragrance of humility that had ascended, and how acceptable, to which so copious and glorious a reward was so soon given in response."
Fifth, the spikenard is any virtue whatsoever, and the aggregate of all virtues and good works; for, as St. Bernard says (sermon 71): "Morals have their own colors and fragrances." So Cassiodorus, Origen, St. Gregory, Bede, and others.
Moreover, for 'its fragrance,' the Septuagint have 'the fragrance of abroo,' that is, 'of him,' namely, of the king the bridegroom, by which is signified that every virtue of the Church, every beauty, every merit flows from Christ. Hear Origen: "But if it is read, as other manuscripts have it: 'My spikenard gave forth his fragrance,' something even more divine is found, so that this spikenard ointment with which the bridegroom was anointed seems to have brought back not only its own fragrance, which naturally belongs to spikenard, but the very fragrance of the bridegroom himself to the bride; so that in the very act by which she anointed him, she received the fragrance of the bridegroom through the gift of the ointment itself, and this is what she seems to say: My spikenard, with which I anointed the bridegroom, returned to me and brought me the fragrance of the bridegroom, and as if surpassing its own natural fragrance, it brought me sweetness from the very fragrance of the bridegroom himself."
Hence Origen concludes that one who anoints Christ with the spikenard of devotion, preaching, and holy actions, through this very anointing receives and breathes forth the fragrance of Christ, that is, the grace of the Holy Spirit, and a greater fragrance of spiritual doctrine as well as of holiness of life. Nyssen, however, explains to autou, that is, 'of him,' namely of Christ, thus, as if the bride says: From all the virtues which I see in myself, which all together, like many species of spices, make one spikenard ointment, I reach the knowledge of the most perfect virtue of God, and I communicate and breathe it forth to them. Theodoret, however, explains thus, as if to say: From these virtues of mine I have attained the knowledge of God, but only by fragrance, that is, a faint and slender knowledge. Finally, the three Fathers cited by Theodoret explain thus, as if to say: My virtues, which are, as it were, the spikenard of God, display to me the likeness of God who is by nature inaccessible, whose likeness and mark I bear as His image and similitude; wherefore, while I reproduce His likeness by my conduct, I represent Him in myself as the exemplar in its image.
Second Partial Sense: On Christ and the Holy Soul.
All things already said, apply to the soul, changing the name of the Church to the name of the soul. Add that the holy soul is the resting place, that is, the seat and throne, indeed the heaven and temple, in which Christ reclines and rests: so Nyssen and Anselm. Again, by spikenard one can understand Christ Himself, just as He Himself is called a little later a bundle of myrrh and a cluster of henna. Hence the Septuagint translate: 'my spikenard gave forth the fragrance of abroo,' that is, 'of him,' namely of the bridegroom (though some read abris, that is, 'he himself his own'). And the Syriac, following them as usual: 'while the king was in his resting place, my spikenard gave forth its fragrance.' Thus the meaning will be, as if to say: In the resting place, that is, at the nuptial table, where ointments, flowers, spikenard, myrrh, and clusters of henna abound, nothing smells sweet to me except the Bridegroom Christ; compared to Him I despise all other delights. So Theodoret, who also gives the reason why Christ is called spikenard: "She names Christ spikenard," he says, "because He was anointed with that precious pure spikenard, whose fragrance filled the whole house, which signifies the whole world; for the worship offered by pious people to the Lord filled the world with the sweetness of faith." So also Origen, Psellus, Sanchez, and others.
Spikenard, therefore, a humble but fragrant herb, rough but warm and medicinal, represents the humility of Christ, but a sweet-smelling humility; and His passion, but one burning with charity and healing all the diseases of the soul. Hence Honorius of Autun: "Christ," he says, "was spikenard in being born, myrrh in dying, a grape-cluster in rising again."
Third Principal Sense: On Christ and the Blessed Virgin.
The King of glory was in His resting place, that is, He lay for nine months in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, when He assumed flesh from her; and then the spikenard, that is, the virtue and humility of the Blessed Virgin, gave forth its fragrance. "For what else," says St. Bernard (sermon 42), "is 'my spikenard gave forth its fragrance' than 'my humility was pleasing'? Not my wisdom, she says, not my nobility, not my beauty, which were nothing in me, but my humility alone, which was present, gave forth its fragrance, that is, its accustomed fragrance. As usual, humility is pleasing to God; as usual, plainly, and as is His custom, the Most High Lord looks upon the lowly, and therefore, when the King was in His resting place, that is, His lofty dwelling, there too the fragrance of humility ascended: He dwells on high, He says, and looks upon the lowly in heaven and on earth" (Psalm 112:5).
Again, "while the king was in his resting place," that is, while the Son of God was in the bosom of the Father, He perceived the fragrance of the spikenard, that is, the humility of the Blessed Virgin,
and drawn by it, He descended into her womb, becoming man. "Humility," says Rupert, "is the rest of the mind, and whoever finds it, without doubt finds rest for his soul. I sought this rest in all things, and the King looking down saw where He perceived the fragrance of this spikenard from me; He saw, I say, that He could rest here in the sweetness of a quiet soul, that is, a humble one, and He descended from that resting place of His, and rested in my tabernacle. Here He rested, here He dwelt for the full nine months; and He whose she was as Lord, became the Son of that same handmaid."
VERSE 12. MY BELOVED IS TO ME A BUNDLE OF MYRRH; HE SHALL ABIDE BETWEEN MY BREASTS.
MY BELOVED IS TO ME A BUNDLE OF MYRRH; HE SHALL ABIDE BETWEEN MY BREASTS. -- In Hebrew ialin, that is, 'he shall pass the night,' as if to say: At night, when sad thoughts, foul fantasies, and the temptations of the devil press upon us most heavily, as my one sure remedy for all, I will use this bundle of myrrh of Christ's sufferings: with it I will dispel them all, with its fragrance and meditation I will rout and drive them all away. In Greek it is abiologisai, that is, 'he will take up a court,' or 'a stable and perpetual dwelling and abode.' The meaning is, as if to say: Just as women wear myrrh on their breasts for the sake of its pleasant fragrance, to strengthen the heart and head: so I wear on my breast my Bridegroom, uniquely beloved to me, of whom no forgetfulness will ever steal upon me, because He is my love, my fragrance, my strength, who strengthens my heart and head, and gladdens my whole soul.
The Septuagint: 'a bundle of stacte, or drop, my kinsman is to me; in the midst of my breasts he shall dwell'; St. Ambrose, on Psalm 118, sermon 3: "A binding of drop, my cousin; a cluster of henna, my brother, to me: between the midst of my breasts he rests; the spikenard of henna, my cousin, in the vineyards of Engedi"; Aquila: 'a receptacle of myrrh.' For 'kinsman' (fratruelis), the Greek is adelphidos, which St. Ambrose translates now as 'brother,' now as 'cousin'; St. Jerome in his translation of Origen: 'one of the brotherhood'; others: 'a sister's son' or 'nephew.' For Christ was born from the Synagogue (that is, from the Jews), which is the sister of the Church, whose voice is introduced here. Rightly, therefore, the Church here calls Christ the son of her sister, that is, of the Synagogue. The same is signified by the word fratruelis and fraternus; our translator and Symmachus: 'my beloved'; the fifth edition: 'my companion.' Hear Origen, homily 2 out of four: "My kinsman gives me the fragrance of a drop, and this not scattered or dispersed at will, but bound and compressed, so that its fragrance may be rendered denser and more powerful. And this one," he says, "being such, dwells and remains in the midst of my breasts, and makes his rest and abode in the place of my bosom."
Myrrh, as Pliny attests (book 12, chapter 15), is a small tree in Arabia, smaller than the frankincense tree, and grows to a height of about five cubits. Moreover, the authors who have written on this subject agree that it is rough, thorny, with prickly leaves, a hard and twisted trunk, from whose wound a tear flows, sharp in taste with bitterness, which has an excellent power of binding, drying, and cleansing. All of which are indeed so apt for depicting the austerity of life that nothing more fitting could be adduced. Hence the Latin and Greek 'myrrha' is derived from the Hebrew mor, that is, 'myrrh' and 'bitterness,' because myrrh is bitter.
Moreover, the myrrh tree produces a sap or liquid, which is likewise called myrrh, and it is twofold: the first is what the tree itself exudes spontaneously, called stacte, that is, 'drop,' and this is the finest and most fragrant myrrh; the second is drawn out by making an incision in the tree. Again, 'myrrh' signifies the leaves and twigs of myrrh: wherefore a bundle of myrrh properly seems to signify a bundle bound and tied together from the leaves, or twigs, or flowers of myrrh. However, the Hebrew tseror, and more so the Greek apodesmos tes staktes, that is, 'a binding of stacte,' or 'of drop,' denotes a sachet or scent-box in which stacte or condensed liquid is contained. Hence Nyssen, homily 3, explains thus: "My kinsman is to me a binding, which I suspend from my neck above my breast, through which I provide a good fragrance to my body." Hence also the Syriac translates: 'a pouch, or purse, of myrrh is he who loves me.'
First Adequate Sense: On Christ and the Church.
The bride, seeing the king her bridegroom in his resting place, that is, in His Incarnation, passion, cross, and death, which He willingly underwent for the bride, caught up in admiration of such great love, exclaims: "My beloved is to me a bundle of myrrh," as if to say: I will always remember the myrrh, that is, the love of this my Bridegroom, who willingly endured such bitter things for me; I will be grateful to Him, I will love Him, and in return for Him I will not shrink from enduring any bitter things whatever, but will desire and seek them; His bitter and arduous commands, nay even His reproofs and biting words, indeed His scourges and blows, I will willingly receive and embrace. Hence this was the common cry, sentiment, and spirit of the martyrs: Out of love for Christ who suffered so much for me and was crucified, I desire to undergo death, the cross, wild beasts, fires, the rack, and any torments whatever, that I may repay pain with pain and love with love, not equally, but as far as I can. For one does not live in love without pain. Hence St. Ignatius (epistle to the Romans): "My Love," he says, "has been crucified"; and St. Paul: "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world" (Galatians 6:14). For this reason Christ, about to go to the cross, left Himself as a bundle of myrrh to the Church in the Eucharist, to be gazed upon and worshipped perpetually, so that this might be for her a token and image of His passion and cross. Hence Christ, instituting the Eucharist: "This is
He says, My body which is given for you: do this in remembrance of Me" (Luke 22:19), as if to say: In the reception of the Eucharist, and after it, deeply think, meditate, and weigh how much I have done and suffered out of love for you, that you may love Me in return. And Paul: "As often," he says, "as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes" (1 Corinthians 11:25): for the body of Christ, consecrated under the species of bread separately from the blood, which is consecrated in the chalice, vividly represents the separation of the blood and soul (for the soul is in the blood, as Scripture says) from the body, that is, the death of Christ on the cross: hence also the Magi offered to the Christ Child gold, frankincense, and myrrh: 'Gold to a King, incense to God, and myrrh to One who is buried,' says Juvencus, as if to say: We offer Christ gold, to profess that He is our King, to whom as subjects we pay gold as tribute; we offer frankincense, to profess that He is our God, for incense is burned to God; we offer, finally, myrrh, to profess that we believe He will die for us on the cross and be buried: for the bodies of the dead were embalmed with myrrh so that they might remain uncorrupted. So Theodoret: "Myrrh," he says, "indicates the death of the Bridegroom, and the sweetness that came from it to the bride." Hence Philo of Carpathia says that the Church here signifies by the bundle of myrrh that she was betrothed to Christ through the blood and water that flowed from His side.
Myrrh, therefore, is a symbol of Christ: first, because it represents His sorrows and sufferings: for the whole life of Christ was a bundle of myrrh, that is, a continual bitterness and a heap of labors and sorrows. Second, because myrrh surpasses the other aromatic trees in the sweetness of its fragrance: so also Christ surpasses the angels, men, and all creatures in the sweetness of His love and grace, according to what He Himself says of Himself (Sirach 24:20): "Like choice myrrh I gave forth a sweet fragrance." Third, myrrh preserves bodies from corruption: so the passion of Christ breathes incorruption into both minds and bodies, since by the remembrance of it, by His merits and grace, the minds of the faithful overcome all the corruptions of concupiscence, and their bodies will rise from death to immortality on the day of judgment. As a symbol of this, the body of Christ after death was anointed with myrrh and aloes by Joseph of Arimathea (Matthew 27:59).
Fourth, myrrh strengthens the heart and gladdens the head: much more does the passion of Christ do both. Hence the bride says, 'between my breasts'; the Septuagint: 'in the midst of my breasts he shall dwell,' as if to say: In my heart, and in its innermost depth (for the heart is situated between the breasts), the passion of Christ will remain perpetually fixed, and like the most potent myrrh, my heart will be imbued and saturated with it, so that its power may spread from the heart into all the senses, faculties, and members, and strengthen them for all the contests of love, for all the labors of virtue, for generously and eagerly undergoing every kind of death and martyrdom for my Christ. For from the heart flow life, vigor, and vital spirit into all the senses, faculties, and members. Therefore, when the myrrh of Christ's passion occupies the heart, through it He diffuses His power into all the faculties of the soul. Thus it comes about that Christ dwells in us, that we put on Christ, that we are conformed to Him; for Christ is, as it were, the soul of our heart, and, as Jeremiah says: "The Spirit of our heart, Christ the Lord, was taken in our sins: to whom we said: In Your shadow we shall live among the nations" (Lamentations 4:20).
Hence Paul says: "I am nailed to the cross with Christ. Yet I live, now not I: but Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2:20). Just as wool is soaked in oil, as Columella says (book 7, chapter 4), that is, it is imbued, dipped, and steeped in oil; and just as bread is soaked in wine, when it absorbs the strength and juice of the wine in the morsel, which the Italians expressively call 'inzuppare' (to soak): so precisely is the heart of the saints soaked in the sorrows and sufferings of Christ, and absorbs their power, which it then transmits into all the faculties and senses of the soul, so that all breathe and exhale Christ crucified.
Symbolically, Origen, homily 2 out of four, takes the bundle, or, as he reads from the Septuagint, 'the binding of myrrh,' to mean the body and flesh of the incarnate Word: "It seems," he says, "that the body is a kind of binding and bond for the soul, in which binding the drop (stacte) of divine power and sweetness in Christ is compressed." The divinity, therefore, bound to the body, is like a drop or stacte bound in a bundle, or compressed in a vessel. So also Theodoret: "She calls Him a binding of drop," he says, "because He Himself descended like rain upon a fleece, and like drops falling upon the earth (Psalm 71:6); and He was also called by the prophets a 'drop.' There shall be from the drop of this people; Jacob shall be gathered together" (Micah 5:7, according to the Septuagint). Moreover, St. Ambrose, sermon 3 on Psalm 118, reading 'a binding of drop,' explains thus, as if to say: Christ bound Himself to the flesh with the cords of charity: "The Lord Jesus," he says, "taking on a body, bound Himself with the bonds of charity, and not only bound Himself to our members and natural sufferings, but also to the cross."
Moreover, the Chaldean translates: "At that time the Lord said to Moses: Go and descend, for your people has corrupted itself; let Me alone, that I may consume them. Then Moses returned and sought mercy from the face of the Lord, and the Lord remembered the binding of Isaac, who had been bound by his father on Mount Moriah upon the altar; and the Lord turned from His wrath and caused His majesty to dwell in their midst as before." This Jewish exposition of the Jew nonetheless serves the Christian and genuine one already given. For the binding of Isaac for his sacrifice was a type of the binding and sacrifice of Christ on the cross, and this on the same Mount Moriah: for Mount Calvary, on which Christ was crucified, is a part and a hill of this mount.
and strengthen them for all the contests of love, for all the labors of virtue, for generously and eagerly undergoing every kind of death and martyrdom for my Christ.
Second Partial Sense: On Christ and the Holy Soul.
The pious soul should store away the passion of Christ, like a bundle of myrrh, in her breast and heart, so that by it she may strengthen the heart and gladden the mind, for cheerfully and bravely undergoing the labors and sorrows of every virtue, and all the adversities of this life, in imitation and love of Christ. Thus St. Bernard, Sermon 43: "A bundle of myrrh is my Beloved to me; He shall abide between my breasts. Before, a King; now, a Beloved: before, at the royal banquet; now, between the breasts of the Bride. Great is the power of humility, to which even the majesty of the Godhead so readily inclines itself. Quickly the name of reverence has been changed into the word of friendship; and He who was far off has in a short time drawn near. A bundle of myrrh is my Beloved to me. Myrrh, a bitter thing, hard and harsh, signifies tribulations. Foreseeing that these are about to befall her on account of the Beloved, she speaks with rejoicing, confident that she will endure all things manfully. They went, he says, rejoicing from the presence of the council, because they were counted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus, Acts 5:41." He then adds why she says "bundle" and not "burden": "Therefore she calls the Beloved not a burden, but a little bundle, because whatever toil and sorrow may threaten, she counts it light for love of Him. Rightly a bundle, because unto us a child is born, Isaiah 9:6. Rightly a bundle, because the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us, Romans 8:18. For that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation, works for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory, 2 Corinthians 4:17. There shall therefore one day be for us an immense accumulation of glory, which now is a bundle of myrrh. Is it not a bundle, whose yoke is sweet and whose burden is light? Not because it is light in itself (for the harshness of suffering and the bitterness of death are not light), but it is nevertheless light to one who loves. And therefore she does not merely say: A bundle of myrrh is my Beloved; but to me, she says, whom I love, He is a bundle. Whence she also calls Him Beloved, showing that the power of love overcomes the distress of all bitterness, and that love is strong as death." Thus St. Elzear, Count of Ariano, through this bundle of myrrh attained to unshakable gentleness and tranquility of soul: for when he was variously and frequently assailed with taunts, calumnies, mockeries, injuries, etc., even by his own servants, he would immediately turn over in his mind the reproaches, calumnies, injuries, and torments inflicted upon Christ, and did not cease from this meditation until his mind rested tranquilly in the imitation of this patience; whence it came about that he showed no sign of grief or anger, and seemed to lack bile, and to be without bitterness: so his Life records, as found in Surius. By the same bundle, St. Francis, St. Elizabeth, and many others attained to such great humility, patience, and holiness.
Again, a bundle of myrrh is the continual mortification which the life and passion of Christ teach us, which was nothing other than a continual mortification: for this wipes away all the corruption of concupiscence, heals all the wounds of the soul, and strengthens her for every good. Myrrh, says Galen, Book VII of Simple Medicines, purges the chest and lungs, constricts, concocts, and disperses; stacte warms those who have been chilled. More fully, Dioscorides, Book I, Chapter 67: "Myrrh, he says, warms, concocts, produces flavor, etc.; it is swallowed for an old cough, for pains of the sides and chest, in abdominal flux and dysentery; it disperses chills, smooths roughness of the windpipe, clears a dull voice, kills intestinal worms; it is chewed against bad breath, stabilizes the gums and teeth, glues together wounds of the head, heals broken ears and exposed bones, cleanses skin eruptions with vinegar, soothes chronic discharges, fills eye ulcers, removes cataracts, dispels dimness, smooths roughness." The passion of Christ and mortification in the soul and spirit accomplish these same things and more; whence there is no more effective remedy against the temptations of lust, anger, pride, sloth, envy, etc., as perpetual experience attests. Wherefore Gregory of Nyssa, Homily 3, considers that what is signified here is that the soul who has Christ crucified bound in her heart cannot sin with any member or sense: "That soul, he says, which has received the good fragrance of Christ, and has made her heart the binding of this incense, so disposes herself that all the individual pursuits of life, like the members of some body, burn with the spirit that permeates from the heart, with no iniquity in any higher member of the body cooling down the love of God." And Origen, Homily 2 of the four: "The binding of the drop, he says, is understood as the constraint of the teachings of continence, and the knotting together of divine sentences; for the principles of faith are intertwined with one another and bound with the chains of truth." And the three Fathers cited by Theodoret: "It is, they say, the bond and preservation of the drop of divine grace which has been communicated to me, my Beloved: for received through faith, He guards and preserves the spiritual gifts of the Church, and confirms and strengthens the faithful, lest they fall away from the truth." And St. Gregory: "The bodies of the dead, he says, are customarily embalmed with myrrh, lest they putrefy. We apply myrrh to bodies lest they putrefy, when we restrain our members by mortification after Christ's example from the putrefaction of lust, lest, if we leave them without this seasoning, they become, dissolved in putrefaction, food for eternal worms. But what does it mean that the Bride calls her Beloved not myrrh, but a bundle of myrrh, except that, when the holy mind considers the life of Christ from every angle, she gathers together from His imitation virtues opposing all vices, from which she fashions for herself a bundle of myrrh, by which she may eternally cleanse away the putrefaction of her flesh."
Mortification, therefore, and austerity of life purifies the soul, sanctifies her, and makes her wonderfully pleasing and acceptable to God, because it makes her like Christ crucified. Wherefore God customarily rewards her amply with His charisms. To pass over other things, read the Lives of the Saints, and you will find that only those who were of austere life shone with great and frequent miracles, such as St. Martin, St. Anthony, St. Hilarion, St. Benedict, St. Romuald, St. Bernard, St. Dominic, St. Francis, St. Ignatius, and St. Francis Xavier.
Therefore the passion of Christ abides between the breasts, that is, in the heart of the holy soul. Symbolically, between the two breasts, that is, first, between the New and Old Testaments: for each of them foretells and proclaims the passion and cross of Christ, says Philo of Carpathia.
Second, between the breasts, that is, among the teachers who preach Christ crucified, says Justus of Urgel.
Third, St. Gregory: The two breasts, he says, are the love of God and of neighbor. Hear him: "He (the Bridegroom, Christ crucified) is rightly said to abide between the breasts, because in the love of God and neighbor the holy dwelling of Christ is built up. For the holy soul, when she so loves God that she does not despise her neighbor, and so pursues the love of neighbor that she does not diminish the divine, doubtless places breasts on her bosom with which, embracing Christ, she nourishes Him. For Christ is, as it were, nourished and strengthened by these breasts, when He delights in this twofold love, that He may cling the more firmly."
Finally, St. Bernard, Sermon 43, takes the two breasts as congratulation and compassion, according to the words of Paul, Romans 12:15: "Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. But since she lives amid adversity and prosperity and knows that dangers are not lacking in either, she wishes to have the Beloved in the midst of these her breasts, so that, fortified by His continuous protection against both, neither joys may exalt her nor sorrows cast her down." Then St. Bernard adds, and thus earnestly commends this bundle of myrrh by his own example to all: "You too, if you are wise, will imitate the prudence of the Bride, and will not suffer this so dear bundle of myrrh to be torn from the center of your breast, not even for an hour, always retaining in memory and revolving in constant meditation all those bitter things which He endured for you, so that you too may say: A bundle of myrrh is my Beloved to me; He shall abide between my breasts. And I, brothers, from the beginning of my conversion, in place of the heap of merits which I knew I lacked, took care to bind together this bundle for myself and place it between my breasts, gathered from all the anxieties and bitternesses of my Lord — first, those of His infant necessities; then of the labors He endured in preaching, the weariness in traveling about, the vigils in praying, the temptations in fasting, the tears in compassion, the snares in conversation; finally, the dangers among false brethren, the insults, the spitting, the blows, the mockeries, the reproaches, the nails, and similar things, which the evangelical forest is known to have brought forth most abundantly for the salvation of our race." And after many more things which he adds on this subject, he concludes thus: "These things I have called it wisdom to meditate upon; in these I have established for myself the perfection of justice; in these, the fullness of knowledge; in these, the riches of salvation; in these, the abundance of merits. From these comes to me at times the saving draught of bitterness; from these again, the sweet unction of consolation. These raise me up in adversity, restrain me in prosperity, and as I walk the royal road between the joys and sorrows of the present life, they provide safe guidance on both sides, driving back the evils threatening from either direction. These reconcile for me the Judge of the world." Thus far St. Bernard, piously, wisely, and movingly.
Third Principal Sense: On Christ and the Blessed Virgin.
The Blessed Virgin, standing at the cross, offered her Son Christ crucified, like a bundle of myrrh, with her whole heart to God the Father as a holocaust, for the redemption of the whole world, just as Abraham offered his Isaac. After the death and ascension of Christ, bearing His torments bound to her heart — indeed, engraved upon it — she continually ruminated upon them with the deepest sense of sorrow, love, and devotion: nor did she only ruminate, but also actually imitated them, bravely enduring all the persecutions of the Jews and all adversities, and constantly devoting herself to tears, compunction, and mortification, by which she merited to obtain wondrous graces and gifts from God, as she herself revealed to St. Bridget. For this reason she frequently and most devoutly visited Calvary and the places of Christ's passion: for she most intensely felt, through compassion, all the torments of Christ that Christ felt through His suffering, and this not once as Christ did, but throughout her entire life. For she loved Christ far more than herself. Whence she would far rather have suffered all the torments of Christ herself than to see Christ suffering the same. Many times therefore she was a martyr, according to the prophecy of St. Simeon to her: "And your own soul a sword shall pierce," Luke 2:35: so says Rupert.
Verse 13: A cluster of cyprus is my Beloved to me, in the vineyards of Engedi.
You may ask, what is cyprus? First, the Rabbis and following them the Zurich Bible, from the similarity of the word, consider it to be camphor. Now camphor is the gum of a certain tree growing in India, of such great size and height that companies of men can be sheltered beneath its shade. Matthiolus in his commentary on Dioscorides, Book I, Chapter 75, catalogues the powers and properties of camphor. Three noteworthy things about this gum the authors relate. They say that camphor blazes in water; then they report that it becomes moist if placed in fresh, warm bread; they say finally that, unless carefully stored, it sometimes vanishes even from covered containers. These three things certainly suit the Bridegroom exceedingly well, so that He is not undeservedly called the cluster of copher. For in this spiritual flood of the human race, in which the wintry waters — flowing both from their source and bursting forth by wicked will — overwhelmed the world and extinguished the fire of charity, He Himself, standing upright in the midst of the deluge, is fed by the very waves as if by oil, and like a lit lamp sends forth the flame of charity which floods cannot overwhelm. So says John the Carmelite.
Again, Rabbi Abraham takes the cluster of cyprus as dates of the palm tree, which are most delicious.
Second, that clusters of cyprus are grapes growing on the island of Cyprus, or vines brought from Cyprus to Judea, is the view of St. Gregory, Cassiodorus, Bede, Anselm, Rupert, St. Bernard, Titelmann, and others. For Cyprian wine, like Cretan wine (commonly called Malvasia), is excellent, strong, and outstanding, as Pliny testifies, Book XIV, Chapters 1 and 7. And this sense aptly suits Christ our Bridegroom, who, like the richest and most delicious cluster of the most precious and excellent wine, pressed and squeezed in the winepress of His bitter passion, poured out the blood of the grape — as most precious, so also most abundantly — and offered it to His Bride the Church, by drinking of which she is even now vivified and refreshed, gladdened and inebriated.
To this agrees the Chaldean paraphrase, which takes the cluster of cyprus as wine obtained from the grapes of Engedi, which the Hebrews, entering the Holy Land, offered as a libation to God: "They went, he says, to the vineyards of Engedi, and took from there clusters of grapes, and pressed wine from them, and poured a libation from it upon the altar, a fourth part of a hin for each ram."
Third, Justus of Urgel takes cyprus as the cypress tree (cupressus), whose foliage presents a certain resemblance to a cluster. But cyprus and cypress are different things, as is clear from Pliny, Dioscorides, Galen, Theophrastus, and others.
Fourth, Origen, Theodoret, Gregory of Nyssa, and Philo of Carpathia explain the cluster of cyprus as a cluster of blossoming, that is, still flowering and not yet swollen with fruit, namely grapes: for in Greek, kypriazo means "to bloom," and kyprismos means "blossoming." But the Hebrew copher and the Latin and Greek cyprus signify nothing of the sort.
Fifth, others take cyprus as balsam. So Aponius, Bede, St. Bernard, Honorius, Hailgrin, Sotomayor, Sanchez, and others. They prove this first, because balsam is the most fragrant of substances, and is native to Judea in the vineyards of Engedi. Whence St. Jerome on Ezekiel 27: "Balsam, he says, which grows in the vineyards of Engedi;" and in the Epitaph of Paula: "She gazed upon the balsam vineyards at Engedi." Second, because Ecclesiasticus, following Solomon's custom, compares Christ to balsam, Sirach 24:21: "Like unmixed balsam, he says, is my fragrance." Third, because the tree or shrub producing balsam is similar to the vine, as Pliny testifies, Book XII, Chapter 25: "Its seed, he says, is nearest to wine in taste." And a little earlier: "This plant is more similar to the vine than to the myrtle; it is said to be planted from cuttings; recently tied up like a vine, it fills the hillsides like vineyards."
But against this, first, nowhere is balsam called copher or cyprus. Second, balsam does not have clusters or grapes; rather, from the incision of the shrub flows that most fragrant liquid which is called opobalsamum. Sotomayor responds that the cluster of cyprus is the same as a branch of balsam. But the Hebrew escol and the Latin and Greek botrus signify a grape, not a branch: nevertheless, balsam is mentioned here in connection with the vineyards of Engedi. More probably one might say that the liquid flowing from the incised balsam shrub is called a cluster of cyprus, because it congeals and warms like a cluster.
Third, Pliny, Dioscorides, Galen, and indeed Josephus the Jew, Book V of the Jewish War, Chapter 4, distinguish cyprus from balsam.
I say therefore: "Cyprus, says Pliny, Book XII, Chapter 24, is a tree in Egypt with jujube leaves, seed like coriander, and a white, fragrant flower." And as Philo of Carpathia says on Song of Songs 4:13: "Cyprus is a small tree with a white flower, with the most fragrant foliage hanging like ringlets, with leaves like olive; from it is made an ointment called cyprinum, most useful for many purposes, and it has most useful leaves, flowers, fruits, and branches. The finest grows at Ascalon in Judea and at Canopus in Egypt." Cassiodorus in the same place: "Cyprus, he says, is an aromatic tree, having seed similar to coriander, that is, white and somewhat translucent, which is cooked in oil and then pressed out; this extract is called cyprus; from it a royal ointment is prepared." Dioscorides, Book I, Chapter 4, describing cyprus, assigns it these properties: "It opens the pores of the veins, promotes urine for those with stones, and draws fluid to the surface of the skin; it is most usefully drunk; it is a remedy against scorpion stings; applied warm, it benefits uterine chills and obstructions; it expels the menses. Against ulcers of the mouth, even if they are eating away and devouring, its flour is effective; it is suitably added to warming plasters and to the thickening agents of ointments." And Galen, Book VII of Simple Medicines: "The roots of cyprus, he says, are most useful, warming and drying equally without harshness. Therefore they wonderfully benefit ulcers which, because of excessive moisture, admit a scar with difficulty; for they have also something astringent; for which reason they are likewise suited to ulcers of the mouth. Moreover, one must testify that they have a certain cutting power, by which they also benefit those afflicted with stones and promote urine and menses." Matthiolus adds in the same place an illustration of cyprus, in which one can clearly see small leaves with seeds arising at the top of the cyprus, like a cluster or bunch of grapes.
Moreover, that cyprus is the same shrub as the Italian privet, Pliny teaches from the opinion of various authorities, Book XXIV, Chapter 10, where he asserts that privet is the same tree which in the East is called cyprus. And Galen, Book VII of Simple Medicines: "The leaves of cyprus, he says, or of privet, etc., have something digestive and astringent. Therefore some use their decoction to treat burns. They also use it against fiery inflammations and carbuncles. For they dry without causing pain or irritation. Moreover, they are suited when chewed for spontaneously occurring ulcerations of the mouth, aphthous sores, and the thrush of children." Dioscorides implies the same, Book I, Chapter 107: "Privet, he says, is a tree with leaves similar to those of the olive around its branches, etc., with a white, fragrant flower." And he immediately adds: "The cyprinum oil which is made from it warms fragrantly and softens the sinews;" where he implies that cyprinum oil is from privet, and consequently that privet is cyprus. Ruellius expressly asserts the same, Book I, Distinction, Chapter 94, and Matthiolus in his commentary on the passage of Dioscorides just cited. Where he also customarily displays the appearance or form of privet or cyprus in an illustration, in which one can clearly see clusters or grapes of privet or cyprus, similar to grapes that grow on a vine. And he adds: "It produces white, mossy flowers, and bunches, and black fruit." Whence the Arabic version translates cluster of cyprus as "a bunch of flowers": for such is found in privet. Hence also Theophrastus, Book IX of the History of Plants, Chapter 7, asserts that cyprinum, or privet ointment, is the most fragrant.
Rembertus Dodonaeus, however, in his work On Plants, Pemptade 6, Book II, Chapter 13, although he distinguishes privet from cyprus on the grounds that privet loses its leaves in winter while cyprus remains green with perpetual foliage, nevertheless asserts that it is very similar to it; and that privet is called by the Greeks phyllyrea, about which Dioscorides says: "Phyllyrea, he says, is a tree similar in size to cyprus, with leaves darker and broader than olive: it has a fruit similar to that of the mastic tree, black, slightly sweet, clinging together in clusters;" and such exactly is privet.
Moreover, the Syriac Dictionary asserts that copher, that is cyprus, is a certain tree whose dried leaves, reduced to powder and paste, render the hands, hair, and other parts of the body purple. The eyewitness Peter Belon holds the same view, Book II of Observations, Chapter 74, where he says that the cyprus of Solomon is the shrub which the Arabs call alkanna or henna; the Greeks call it scenna; it grows abundantly, similar to privet, in Cairo, Egypt. The Turks and Moors, he says, carefully cultivate it on account of the beauty of its flowers (which, dense and closed, present the appearance of clusters), and their sweet fragrance similar to musk. Whence the Emperor of the Turks annually collects from it a tax of more than eighteen thousand ducats: for the custom has prevailed that all women dye their hands, feet, and part of their hair red or yellow, and men dye their nails red, with the powder of alkanna.
Note: However that may be, cyprus is similar to privet, and in Judea it was most fragrant and bore fruit — namely clusters of remarkable size and flavor, as is clear from this passage and from Song of Songs 4:13. Hence cyprus is named from the Hebrew copher, that is, "expiation" — namely, the expiation of foul odor — because by its fragrance it refreshes a person and drives away stenches, says Marinus in his Lexicon. Copher, therefore, or cyprus, is the shrub of the cyprus tree, which St. Jerome testifies is fragrant and blossoms like a flowering grape cluster, from which cyprinum oil is made, which they likewise call cyprus, the most fragrant and healthful, as Pliny testifies, Book XXIII, Chapter 4. This was more true in the age of Solomon, when Judea flourished with excellence and abundance of all things: for then it was a land flowing with milk and honey, which now appears rough, barren, and stony. Wherefore the cyprus and other aromatic trees, which, cultivated by Solomon's skill and care, yielded excellent fruits, have now either dried up or degenerated from their original goodness, as is known of balsam, which formerly only Judea possessed but now completely ignores. For Solomon had vineyards both near Jerusalem and at Engedi. There were vineyards of the finest vines, cyprus, and balsam, which he himself, by cultivating them with his industry, made far more excellent.
Furthermore, our Delrio probably takes the clusters of cyprus as the most delicate Engedi grapes, which, from the neighboring aromatic cyprus trees, took on a cyprus flavor and presented it to the taster: for it is a property of vines and grapes to absorb the flavor of shrubs or herbs growing near their roots, as experience attests and Pliny teaches, Book XV, Chapter 16. So then the clusters growing at Engedi, drawing in the flavor and fragrance of the nearby cyprus trees, reproduced it, and were therefore held in high esteem, just as muscatel grapes are today in Italy and elsewhere. To these most fragrant and flavorful grape clusters, then, the Bride compares her most beloved Bridegroom. So says Delrio.
First Adequate Sense: On Christ and the Church.
The Bride says: Just as my Bridegroom Christ, on account of the passion He endured for me, is to me a bundle of bitter but fragrant myrrh, which continually dwells between my breasts, that is, in my heart, and is commemorated by it: so likewise He is like a cluster of cyprus, because like it He is most sweet to me in fragrance and taste. For just as copher, or cyprus, expiates foul odors, so Christ by His passion and grace expiates the stench of sins: for copher in Hebrew means the same as "expiation;" whence some translate it as "cluster of expiation," or "of the redemption of iniquity," or "of the price," or "of propitiation." For copher signifies all these things, as if to say: My Beloved, on account of His passion, is to me the beloved of bitter myrrh; but this bitterness is covered, expiated, and sweetened by the fruit of our redemption acquired through it, which He merited and obtained for Himself and for us. So Cassiodorus, Bede, Rupert, Anselm, and St. Bernard.
Whence Honorius of Autun says that Christ was nard in the Incarnation, a bundle of myrrh in the Passion, and a cluster of cyprus in the Resurrection. Now the cluster of cyprus is a gathering and condensation of cyprus flowers: just as grape seeds are packed together in a cluster of grapes; yet it is called here a cluster rather than a flower, because a cluster signifies the multitude and condensation of the flowers, that is, of the gifts of the soul and body of the glorified Christ — namely, impassibility, clarity, agility, subtlety, likewise the liberation of the fathers from limbo, the ascension into heaven, the sending of the Holy Spirit, the preaching of the Apostles, the conversion of the nations, and the other charisms of the Holy Spirit which Christ from heaven conferred, confers, and will confer upon the Church until the day of judgment, indeed for all eternity. This sense is supported by the interpretation of the names; for the Greek kypros, that is, cyprus, means the same as "beautiful" or "beauty." And what is more beautiful than the Resurrection and the glorified body? Again, Engedi in Hebrew can be translated as "fountain" or "eye of happiness": and what is happier than heavenly beatitude, in which the blessed see the essence of God and every good with the eyes of the mind?
Now this cluster of cyprus is said to be "in the vineyards of Engedi," to signify that this cluster is most excellent, both in itself and in the vicinity of balsam and other aromatic trees, whose power and virtue breathed upon it, as Origen notes, Homily 2 of the four, and Cassiodorus, Bede, Aponius, St. Bernard, Sermon 44, and St. Jerome on Ezekiel 27. For balsam, which surpasses all spices in sweetness of fragrance and healthfulness of liquid, as Pliny testifies, formerly grew nowhere except at Engedi: for Engedi is a city and region near Jericho and the Dead Sea, in the tribe of Judah facing west, breathing a most pleasant fragrance from the abundance of aromatic trees, especially balsam: whence it was also called Asasonthamar, that is, "city of palms," because it abounds in palms and balsams. So St. Jerome, Traditions on Genesis, Chapter 14, and after him Adrichomius in his Description of the Holy Land. Now the most fragrant balsam, which heals diseased bodies and preserves dead ones from corruption, excellently denotes the Resurrection of Christ, immortality, salvation, and eternal glory, which He confers upon His elect. Whence St. Ambrose on Psalm 118, Sermon 3: "Engedi, he says, is a place in Judea where opobalsamum is produced; if you seek the interpretation, it means 'temptation' in Latin. For in those vineyards there is a tree; if anyone pierces it, it emits ointment: this is the fruit of the tree; if the tree is not cut, it does not give forth such fragrance and aroma; but when it has been pierced by the hand of the worker, then it distills a tear: just as Christ too, crucified on that wood of temptation, wept over the people, that He might wash away our sins, Hebrews 5:7, and from the bowels of His mercy He poured forth ointment, saying: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, Luke 23:34. The fountain, therefore, was pierced in the wood by a lance, and blood and water came forth from it, John 19:34, sweeter than any ointment, an offering acceptable to God, pouring forth the fragrance of sanctification throughout the whole world, and as balsam flows from a tree, so power went forth from His body." And after some further remarks to the same effect: "He was moving the earth, and He clung to the wood; He was covering the sky with darkness; He was crucifying the world, and He was crucified; He was bowing His head, and the Word was going forth; He was emptied, and He was filling all things; God descended, man ascended, the Word was made flesh, John 1:14, so that the flesh might claim for itself the throne of the Word at God's right hand, John 19: the wound was inflicted, and ointment flowed; a beetle was heard, and God was recognized."
So also Bede, taking the balsam that grows in the vineyards of Engedi as the charisms of the Holy Spirit: "And the Bridegroom, he says, is in the vineyards of Engedi: because the Lord Himself too, appearing in the flesh, is full of the Holy Spirit, and He Himself bestows His gifts on believers." And he adds that Christ is nard, a bundle of myrrh, and a cluster of cyprus: "because first a devout woman anointed with nard the Lord as He reclined at supper; then the disciples wrapped in linen cloths His crucified body, anointed with myrrh for burial; and after this, with the joy of the Resurrection soon arriving, He Himself distributed spiritual gifts to the faithful."
Again, Engedi means the same as "fountain of the kid"; whence it denotes baptism, by which all kids, that is, sinners and sins, are washed away: so Cassiodorus, Bede, Aponius, Anselm, Rupert, Philo of Carpathia, and St. Gregory, whom hear: "At Engedi balsam is produced, which, blessed with oil by the pontifical benediction, becomes chrism, by which the gifts of the Holy Spirit are expressed. Engedi is interpreted as 'fountain of the kid': now the kid was anciently sacrificed for sins. What then is figured by the fountain of the kid, if not the baptism of Christ? in which, when the body is immersed, the soul is washed, and through the faith of Him who bore death for sinners, the human soul believes itself to be cleansed from all sins." And St. Bernard, Sermon 44: "In faith and gentleness He will make him holy, and will give him not oil, but balsam in the vineyards of Engedi. For there is no doubt that the better charisms flow from the fountain of the kid, whose anointing certainly turns kids into lambs, and transfers sinners from the left hand to the right, having indeed first been more abundantly bathed with the anointing of mercy, so that where sins abounded, grace may abound all the more." And earlier, after the beginning of the sermon: "Therefore He calls the vineyards of Engedi the people of the Church, which has the liquid of balsam, the spirit of gentleness, in which she tenderly cherishes the tenderness of the little ones still in Christ, and consoles the sorrows of the penitent. But if any brother has been overtaken in some fault, a man of the Church who has already received this spirit will take care to instruct such a one immediately in the same spirit of gentleness, considering himself, lest he too be tempted. As a type of this, the Church has the custom of anointing with material oil all those who are to be baptized, even bodily."
Second Partial Sense: On Christ and the Holy Soul.
Christ is a cluster of cyprus to the holy soul in the meditation and imitation of His passion and resurrection, and especially in the reception of the Holy Eucharist, which is the memorial of His passion. For in it the blood of Christ is drunk under the species of wine. Whence Zechariah 9:17 calls the Eucharist "the wheat of the elect, and wine that makes virgins flourish." It is therefore like the cluster of cyprus: first, because it contains the blood of Christ, like a cluster pressed in the winepress of the cross; second, because it is the sweetest food, which inebriates the soul with heavenly delights, graces, and joys; third, because through it we shall rise to a blessed and immortal life, as Christ says, John 6:55. Hear St. Bernard, Sermon 44: "If the Beloved is in myrrh, how much more in the sweetness of the cluster. Therefore my Lord Jesus has tempered Himself for me as a most healthful drink — myrrh in death, a cluster in the Resurrection — in tears, in measure. He died for our sins and rose for our justification, Romans 4:25, so that, dead to sin, we might live to justice. Therefore you, if you have mourned your sins, have drunk bitterness: but if you have now breathed again in hope of life by a holier life, the bitterness of myrrh has been changed for you into wine which gladdens the heart of man," Psalm 104:15.
Second, the same St. Bernard, taking the cluster of cyprus as the finest wine which grows on the island of Cyprus, understands by it the fervor and zeal of justice: "For, he says, if you love the Lord Jesus with your whole heart, whole soul, and whole strength, could you possibly bear His injuries and contempt with equanimity? By no means: but, immediately seized by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning, and like a mighty man drunk with wine, filled with the zeal of Phinehas, you will say with David: My zeal has consumed me, because my enemies have forgotten your words; and with the Lord: Zeal for your house has consumed me. This most fervent zeal is therefore wine, pressed from the cluster of cyprus, and the intoxicating cup is the love of Christ." And after some further words: "A cluster of cyprus is my Beloved to me in the vineyards of Engedi, that is, the zeal of justice, the love of my Beloved, is to me in the affections of piety."
Third, Gregory of Nyssa, Origen, Theodoret, and Philo, who take the cluster of cyprus as a cluster still flowering and not yet producing grapes, understand by it Christ, who offers to beginners a certain sweetness of fragrance by which they may advance, so that He may then offer the mature wine of love and fervor. Hear Gregory of Nyssa, Homily 3: "The child Jesus who is born in those who have received Him grows differently in wisdom and age and grace; He is not the same in all, but according to the measure of the one in whom He is, insofar as the one who receives Him is capable, so He appears — either as an infant, or as one advancing, or as perfect — suited to the nature of the cluster, which is not always seen on the vine in the same form, but changes form with time: flowering, mature, ripe, becoming wine. The vineyard therefore declares to its fruit that it is not yet mature and ready for wine, but awaits the fullness of times; not, however, as if it were entirely without the delights to be enjoyed. For through the flower it signifies a certain hope of future grace: and certain hope of grace is already fruition for those who wait with patience." And this "in the vineyards of Engedi," that is, in a rich place where vines put down deep roots, that is, in profound thought and meditation, which supplies the sap of piety to the soul, by which she may grow and pass from flower to fruit of virtue and charity.
Hear also Origen, Homily 2 of the four: "The divine Word, in whom the true vine is formed, does not suddenly produce ripe and sweet clusters; nor does sweet wine that gladdens the heart of man suddenly come from them, but first it produces only the sweetness of fragrance in the blossom. Now this flowering cluster is said to be in the vineyards of Engedi, which is interpreted as 'eye of temptation,' so that the grace of its fragrance may be sent into the beginnings of the soul, that after this she may be able to endure the harshness of the tribulations and temptations that are stirred up against those who believe the word of God, and so finally it offers the sweetness of its maturity." Whence Origen adds that the flower of cyprus has the power to warm. Christ is therefore a cluster of cyprus to those whom He kindles with the fire of charity: these, in Engedi, that is, in the fountain of temptation, do not succumb but bravely overcome it. Hence Philo of Carpathia takes the cluster as the faithful of Christ themselves: "The cluster, he says, as it ripens, brings delight to those who behold it: so those who had begun to believe in Christ, not yet bearing mature fruit, are compared to a flowering cluster; but when they now taste the ripe cluster, clothed in the true faith and charity of Christ, they begin to be perfect and are called by the name of Bride."
Fourth, Aponius, interpreting cyprus as sadness and grief, asserts that Christ is a cluster of cyprus to sinners when He casts into them the spirit of compunction and sorrow for sins, so that He may raise them to the beatitude promised to those who mourn, Matthew 5:5: "Blessed, He says, are those who mourn, for they shall be consoled." For these are at Engedi, that is, at the fountain of the kid, because with the fountain of tears they wash away the foul kids of their crimes.
Tropologically, at Engedi, that is, in the fountain of temptation, the cluster of cyprus is found, that is, Christ, because in temptation and tribulation the grace and consolation of Christ flourish and abound, by whose fragrance and strength the soul afflicted with tribulations is wonderfully refreshed and strengthened, according to the words of the Psalmist: "According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, Your consolations have gladdened my soul," Psalm 94:19. So Theodoret: "Placed in temptations, he says, and assailed by many, she says: I feel Your sweetness." Where therefore we are tempted by the enemy, there we shall be gladdened by Christ; where there is divine temptation, there is divine consolation; where the cross, there refreshment. For Christ promised and merited this for His followers. Whence Paul: "As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, he says, so also through Christ our consolation abounds," 2 Corinthians 1:5. Hence "we glory in tribulations," says the same, Romans 5:3, and we desire and seek them, because we know that in them hidden manna lies concealed, more of divine honey than of human gall.
Third Principal Sense: On Christ and the Blessed Virgin.
Christ on the cross was a bundle of myrrh to the Blessed Virgin; but in the Resurrection He was a cluster of cyprus, when, appearing to her first, He wiped away all the grief of the Passion and converted it into the joy of exultation. So Rupert: "Therefore, he says, my Beloved was to me both a bundle of myrrh, because He was about to die; and a cluster of cyprus, because He was about to rise, and dies no more. A cluster, I say, of cyprus, that is, of a land or island that produces the sweetest clusters and the finest wine; because the wine of the Resurrection is not ordinary, but the finest, and this in the vineyards of Engedi, that is, of the fountain of the kid: for this is what Engedi means." He adds the reason: "Why then have I said this? For this reason, surely, because my Beloved came to call not the righteous, but sinners, so that those who had been dead through sin might rise in the first resurrection; and this in the fountain of the kid, in the fountain of baptism, in the bath of regeneration, by which those who had been kids are regenerated and become sheep; those who had been subject to sins become saints."
Voice of the Bridegroom. Verse 14: Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are those of doves.
"Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, behold, you are beautiful." The Septuagint: "Behold, you are fair, my neighbor" (Symmachus: "my companion"), "behold, you are fair." St. Ambrose: "good." The Chaldean: "When the children of Israel did the will of their King, He Himself in His word praised them in the assembly of the holy angels, and said: How beautiful are your works, my daughter! My beloved congregation of Israel, in the time when you do my will and labor in the words of my law."
As for the dramatic sequence, the Bridegroom, at his banquet couch, gazing upon the Bride as she approached him, and perceiving the sweet fragrance of her nard, and then departing, but listening behind the wall, and hearing her commend the Bridegroom so highly among her companions, saying: "A bundle of myrrh is my Beloved to me; He shall abide between my breasts. A cluster of cyprus is my Beloved to me, in the vineyards of Engedi," could not restrain Himself, but returned to her to repay her love in kind and to praise her beauty. Marveling at her, He therefore says again: "Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, behold, you are beautiful," by which repetition, together with the demonstrative adverb "behold," He signifies that her beauty is extraordinary and admirable. For just as the Bride had celebrated a twofold beauty of the Bridegroom — namely, the Passion in the bundle of myrrh, and the Resurrection in the cluster of cyprus — so in turn the Bridegroom returns and repays a twofold beauty of the Bride. So Theodoret.
Now the proper endowment of women and brides is beauty: hence they are so beauty-loving and eager for adornment. Hence the poet Anacreon: "Nature, he says, gave horns to the bull, hooves to the horse, speed to the hare, a gaping jaw of teeth to the lion, swimming to fish, flying to birds, wisdom to men. What to women? Beauty serves as shields and lances: She who flashes with a fair face strikes like iron and fire."
First Adequate Sense: On Christ and the Church.
Christ praises the beauty of the Church, and by repeating it, signifies that it is twofold, indeed manifold — namely, internal and external, the latter flowing from the former: the internal beauty is situated in the bundle of myrrh and the cluster of cyprus, that is, in the constant meditation and imitation of the passion and resurrection of Christ; the external, however, in the nard, that is, in outward humility and modesty, which breathes its pleasing fragrance to all, according to Psalm 45:14: "All the glory of the king's daughter is from within, clothed about with golden fringes in variety." So Cassiodorus, Bede, and Philo of Carpathia, who place the inner beauty of holiness in a pure and holy conscience, and the outer in an honest and holy manner of life. For true beauty consists in inner adornment, from which the outer flows; otherwise what is exterior and borrowed is paint, not beauty.
He adds the reason for His love, saying, "my beloved"; the Septuagint: "my neighbor"; Symmachus: "my companion"; the Hebrew raiati, that is, "my table companion," who lives with Me and feeds at My table. Plato, in his dialogue On Love, teaches that beauty is a grace and charm which attracts the eyes and souls of beholders to love of itself, and hence is called in Greek kallos, because it kalei (calls) and invites everyone to itself. This is true among human beings, for there beauty is the cause of love; but not with God: there, conversely, love and friendship are the cause of beauty. For God loves human beings not because they are beautiful; but by loving them He makes them beautiful, so that they may be worthy of His love. For the love of God is the principle and cause of all goodness and beauty. For God is essential, immense, and incomprehensible beauty itself; and because that beauty overflows, hence from His immense goodness He pours it forth upon human beings and other creatures, and the more so as they are nearer and closer to Him: those therefore who draw near to God participate more closely in His beauty; and those who draw nearer, the more so; and those who draw nearest, the most. For the soul is like a mirror: if it approaches beautiful things, it receives in itself a beautiful image and form; but if ugly things, an ugly one. So Psellus, cited by Theodoret, whom hear: "Since, with vice expelled from behind, the soul purified by the Word received the circle of the sun into itself and shone together with the light that appeared in her, therefore the Word says to her: You have become beautiful, you who have drawn near to My light, by drawing near attracting the dispensation of beauty. Behold, He says, you are beautiful, My neighbor. Then, when He had restrained Himself and contemplated her as in a certain approach of beauty, He again repeats the same words: Behold, you are beautiful; but first He called her 'neighbor,' and here, one who is known from the appearance of her eyes: For your eyes are those of doves."
To this is added St. Ambrose on Psalm 118, Sermon 3: "Because, he says, the Church had recognized the mystery and was preaching the Lord Jesus as crucified for the redemption of the whole world, she deserved to hear: Behold, you are good, you who call Me good; and you yourself are good who have seen the splendor of My glory, and you yourself are fair and beautiful. What does it mean for Christ to say: You are good, you are beautiful, but that Gospel saying: Be of good courage, daughter, your sins are forgiven you?" Now the Bride had placed the Bridegroom like a bundle of myrrh between her breasts, that is, in her heart: from His beauty, therefore, she was made beautiful; from His radiance she was made radiant.
Anagogically, there is a twofold beauty of the Church: the first, in the present life through grace: for grace is the very loveliness of the soul, because it makes her a sharer in the divine nature, equal to the angels, like Christ, a friend and daughter of God. For grace is the highest participation in God, and in His immense holiness and beauty. The second, in the future life through glory: for this is the beauty not of wayfarers but of the blessed and of angels. So Origen, Homily 3 of the 4: "Fair, he says, is this Church when she is near Christ and when she imitates Christ. But His repeating: Behold, you are fair, can pertain to the future age, where she is no longer beautiful and fair merely by imitation, but by her own perfection, and there He says her eyes are those of doves." Truly St. Augustine, Preface on Psalm 44: "The highest beauty, he says, is justice, because just as the beauty of the body is the just proportion and harmony of all its members with a certain sweetness of color, so the beauty of the soul is justice, by which she assigns to all the powers of the soul and members of the body what belongs to each, and thus renders a person in every respect composed and beautiful, as was evident in the original justice which Adam had before sin, and more so in the justice of Christ and of the Blessed Virgin."
And Clement of Alexandria, Book III of the Pedagogue, Chapter 12: "The most excellent beauty, he says, is the beauty of the soul, when she has been adorned with the Holy Spirit, and inspired with the joys that spring from Him — justice, prudence, fortitude, temperance, love of good things, and modesty, than which no brighter color has ever been seen." And Blessed Isidore of Pelusium, Book III, Epistle 31, to Bishop Lampetius, where among other things he says: "As the standard of bodily beauty is the fitting proportion of the members, so also the ultimate measure of spiritual beauty consists in the mean of virtues," etc.
Second Partial Sense: On Christ and the Holy Soul.
Besides what has already been said, first, St. Gregory assigns a twofold beauty to the soul, a twofold charity — namely, of God and of neighbor: "The Bridegroom calls the Bride beautiful twice, he says, because to the one to whom He gives the love of God and neighbor, He inserts a twofold beauty, in which He delights and which He praises."
Second, the soul is beautiful in two ways: first, in action; second, in contemplation: so the three Fathers cited by Theodoret.
Third, the just person is beautiful in two ways: first, in the beauty and holiness of the soul; second, of the body, according to the words about the virgin: "That she may be holy in body and in spirit," 1 Corinthians 7:34: so Justus and Anselm.
Fourth, St. Bernard, Sermon 45, interprets the twofold beauty as penitence and humility, through which lost innocence is recovered. For St. Bernard considers that the Bride, seated at the Bridegroom's banquet, had been reproved by the Bridegroom for her faults, but had appeased Him with her nard, that is, with humility and humble confession, whence the Bridegroom here celebrates the beauty of the Bride. "For presumption, he says, was followed by correction, correction by amendment, amendment by reward. The Beloved is present, the master is removed, the king disappears, dignity is laid aside, reverence is set down. For pride yields where affection grows strong. And just as once Moses spoke to the Lord as a friend to a friend, and the Lord answered: so now between the Word and the soul, as between two neighbors, a most familiar conversation takes place." And after some further remarks: "The beauty of the soul is humility. I do not say this on my own authority, since the Prophet said before me: You shall sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed, Psalm 51:9: with a humble herb that purges the breast, signifying humility. With this the king and prophet trusted he would be washed after his grievous fall, and thus recover a certain snow-white brightness of innocence."
Third Principal Sense: On Christ and the Blessed Virgin.
The Blessed Virgin was miraculously beautiful, both in body and far more in soul and mind.
St. Bernard assigns a twofold beauty to the Blessed Virgin: the highest innocence and the highest humility. For after the words already cited he adds: "But in one who has gravely sinned, humility, even if it is to be loved, is not to be marveled at. But if someone retains innocence and nevertheless joins humility to it, does he not seem to you to possess a twofold beauty of soul? Holy Mary did not lose her holiness, and she did not lack humility; and therefore the King desired her beauty, because she joined humility to innocence. For He regarded, she says, the humility of His handmaid, Luke 1:48. Blessed therefore are those who keep their garments clean — namely, those of simplicity and innocence — provided they also add the adornment of humility. Assuredly she who is found to be such will hear: Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, behold, you are beautiful."
Again, Rupert interprets the twofold beauty of the Blessed Virgin as virginity and the motherhood of God. See the commentary on Proverbs 31:25, on the words: "Strength and beauty are her clothing."
Finally, Hugh of St. Victor, in his Sermon on the Assumption, which is found at the end of Volume II, takes the twofold beauty of the Virgin as virginity and humility: "O what a partnership, he says: He who is entirely beautiful associates with Himself her who is entirely beautiful. I am entirely beautiful, and you are entirely beautiful. I by nature, and you by grace. I am entirely beautiful, because everything that is beautiful is in Me. You are entirely beautiful, because nothing that is shameful is in you. Beautiful in body, beautiful in mind. In body, the integrity of virginity makes you beautiful; in mind, the virtue of humility renders you beautiful. You are therefore entirely beautiful, snowy in body, sincere in mind." And after some intervening words: "No other woman was fitting for such a one, nor could any other man be found for such a woman. O worthy one of the Worthy, beautiful one of the Beautiful, pure one of the Incorrupt, exalted one of the Most High, mother of God, bride of the eternal King."
Your Eyes Are Those of Doves.
Doves are a symbol of love, fidelity, and conjugal chastity; for in dovecotes the male courts his own dove alone and seeks no other. Hence the Poet: Let doves joined in love be your example. The male and the female — the whole marriage.
First Total Sense: On Christ and the Church.
The beauty of a person is most visible in the face and eyes; for in the eyes the heart and soul shine forth, and all the affections of the soul. Whence St. Augustine on Psalm 41: "The eyes, he says, are members of the flesh and windows of the mind." And Cicero, Book III On the Orator: "The countenance is the image of the soul, and the eyes are its indicators." The Bridegroom therefore praises the beauty of the Bride especially from her eyes, because she has them not fox-like, not wolf-like, not vulture-like — that is, not oblique, deceitful, and dissembling, not envious and rapacious, not roving and looking for prey — but dove-like, that is: first, simple, candid, ingenuous; second, modest, so says Origen; third, straight, for doves do not look sideways but straight ahead; fourth, loving and lovable, for doves do not gaze fiercely but gently and lovingly; fifth, peaceful and gentle: so Bede: "Your eyes, he says, are those of doves, that is, the eyes of your heart are simple and pure, and entirely free from all duplicity of deceiving and dissembling. Likewise your eyes are those of doves, because your senses are endowed with spiritual understanding. Likewise the beloved of Christ has the eyes of doves, because everyone who truly loves Him within is not inflamed by any appetite for external things in the manner of kites, nor plots to do harm to any living thing: which is said to be the gentleness of the dove, which contemplates everything that occurs with a simple, gentle, and humble heart." And St. Bernard, Sermon 45: "Your eyes are those of doves. Now, he says, you do not walk amid great and marvelous things beyond you, but like the simplest of birds you are content with simpler things, nesting in the clefts of the rock, dwelling in My wounds, and willingly gazing with a dove's eye only upon those things which concern Me, incarnate and suffering." The Septuagint translates: "your eyes are peristerai," that is, doves, in the nominative plural, as if to say: Your eyes are so beautiful, bright, and lovable that they seem not so much dove-like as the very doves themselves: you therefore bear doves in your eyes, because whatever is beautiful and lovable in doves, you display and represent in your eyes — such as: first, modesty and chastity; second, that in love she moans instead of singing; third, that she flees what is putrid, filthy, and foul; fourth, that she builds her nests in rocks; fifth, that she delights in waters and sits beside streams. Hear St. Gregory: "Her (the Bride's) eyes are rightly said to be those of doves; because while she groans in temporal things and is carried away to eternal desires, she guards her senses in simplicity and detests carnal desires. For the dove moans instead of singing, in love. And rightly is the holy soul compared to a dove: because while the wicked chatter and rejoice in the love of the world, the elect mind is worn down by heavenly desire, because she fears to lose what she loves while it is delayed." He then adds: "The eyes of doves can also be understood as the preachers of the Church, who preserve the simplicity they preach and, despising visible things, long for eternal things with great groaning." And Psellus, cited by Theodoret: "You are endowed, he says, with the joyful eyes of the virgin dove, since you have turned your eyes from error and directed them toward Me, your Creator. He mentions the eyes of a dove to signify the pure gaze of the virgin. For she has such clean eyes that she gazes purely upon the most beautiful Bridegroom."
Symbolically, Hugh, Book I of the Institutes of the Monastic Life, Chapter 3, takes the two eyes of the dove as memory and intellect: "She has, he says, two eyes, right and left — memory and intellect: with the one she foresees the future, with the other she weeps for the past. These eyes our fathers closed in Egypt, because they did not understand the works of God, nor were they mindful of the multitude of His mercy."
Anagogically, Origen takes the two eyes as the Son and the Holy Spirit, by whom the soul will see in heaven, and will be blessed by that vision: "In the future age, he says, where the soul is beautiful no longer only by imitation but also by her own perfection, He says her eyes are doves, so that the two doves of the two eyes are understood to be the Son of God and the Holy Spirit."
Mystically, St. Gregory, Anselm, and others take the eyes of the Church as the teachers and preachers, to whom Honorius of Autun applies the seven qualities of the dove, that is, the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: "For the dove, he says, nests in the rock, nourishes others' chicks, chooses pure grains, lacks gall, does not hurt with its beak, dwells beside streams, and flies in flocks. So the Church builds in the rock, that is, in Christ, by faith and works; she nourishes with word and example those who are strangers to the word of God; she selects pure teachings from the books of pagans or heretics; she lacks the malice of envy; she harms no one by detraction; she dwells beside the streams of Scripture, so as to escape the swoops of hawks, that is, of demons; and she labors to draw many with her to joys." He then applies these to the prophets and apostles: "Of the one dove, that is, the Church before the coming of Christ, the prophets were the eyes, who foresaw for her the eternal light, Christ: whence they were also called seers. Of the other dove, namely, the Church after Christ's coming, from the same people the apostles were the eyes, who led her to the true light, Christ. The Bridegroom therefore says: O My beloved, to whom I have revealed all the secrets of My Father, because I healed you with the nard of My flesh, redeemed you with the myrrh of My death, inebriated you with the cluster of the Resurrection — behold, in My presence you are beautiful in faith; behold, before men you are beautiful in action; because your eyes, that is, your guardians, are simple like the eyes of doves — namely, both the prophets and the apostles, teachers of the Church. For the eyes guide a person lest he stumble against a stone: so the teachers guide the Church to life, lest she stumble against the law of God written on stone."
Second Partial Sense: On Christ and the Holy Soul.
The dove is a symbol of innocence, and therefore the Saints are called doves, says St. Basil on Psalm 28. Whence St. Chrysostom, Homily 4 on the Patience of Job: "There was, he says, a man in the land of Hus named Job; a dove in the midst of hawks, a sheep in the midst of wolves, a star in the midst of clouds, a lily in the midst of thorns, and a shoot of justice in the city of iniquity." Now the eyes of the dove especially denote the sincere and upright intention of the holy soul: for the dove has a straight gaze, as I said, not an oblique one. For the eye, first, focuses on that toward which it then directs the hands and feet, so that they tend in the same direction; and the eyes of the dove are wholly fixed on what they behold: so the holy soul, first, directs her whole attention toward God as her end, and then directs all her steps and actions toward Him. Second, just as the eye, gazing upon a thing, receives its image into itself and becomes like it: so the soul, gazing upon God, absorbs His form and becomes divine, and like a god on earth. Third, just as the eye directly beholds the thing it focuses on and admits no intermediary: so the soul, focusing on God, must look upon Him alone — not advantages, not honors, nor anything else in between: for whatever is in between impedes the gaze and intention toward God. Fourth, just as the eye can look at several things at once when they are arranged laterally or in a circle: so the soul in her work can aim at several ends of virtues — as for example, she may say: I wish to pray, fast, study, give alms, in order to make satisfaction for my sins to God (which is an act of penance); likewise to please God my love (which is an act of charity); moreover to honor God (which is an act of religion); also to relieve the need of my neighbor (which is an act of mercy), etc. And the more ends of virtues she intends, the better and more meritorious the work is: because this act, although as elicited it is one, yet as commanded it is manifold, because it is commanded by as many virtues as there are intentions in it. This is what Christ says: "If your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light," Luke 11:34. For intention gives the primary goodness to a work, and so if the work in itself is indifferent, a good intention will make it good and like itself. And Zechariah 9:1: "The Lord is the eye of man and of all the tribes of Israel," that is, the Lord is the object toward which the eye and intention of all who are true Israelites — that is, servants and worshipers of God — are directed.
This is supported by the Chaldean version: "And how upright are your works, and your occupations are like young doves, which are clean, to be offered upon my altar." For the intention of pleasing God, and of worshiping and honoring Him in every work, offers that work to God and makes it, as it were, a holocaust. Hence it is signified by the eyes of the dove: for the dove was the victim which God demanded for Himself as a holocaust, Leviticus 1. Moreover, the Syrians did not dare to touch, kill, or eat white doves, but religiously venerated them in honor of Semiramis, the first queen of the Assyrians, into whom they fabled that she had been transformed after death. Whence Tibullus, Book I, Elegy 7: "Why should I tell how the holy white dove flies unharmed through the crowded cities of the Palestinian Syrian?" See Eusebius, Book VIII of the Preparation, Chapter 7.
Third Principal Sense: On Christ and the Blessed Virgin.
The dove is a sign of the Holy Spirit. The eyes of the dove therefore denote the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, that is, the fullness of graces, by which the Blessed Virgin surpassed all men and angels. "Nor is it new, says Rupert, that these seven gifts should be called eyes; for in the prophet Zechariah also they are signified by the seven eyes which are in the one stone, Christ. These My eyes are your eyes, the eyes of doves, the eyes of all graces. You have been made a partaker of all graces, from the time you received Me in your chaste womb, upon whom rest all the aforesaid gifts of the Holy Spirit, as is said in Isaiah, and in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily."
Voice of the Bride. Verse 15: Behold, You are beautiful, my Beloved, and comely. Our couch is verdant.
"Behold, You are beautiful, my Beloved, and comely." The Chaldean: "How beautiful is the majesty of Your holiness: since in the time when You dwell among us, He willingly receives our prayers."
First Adequate Sense: On Christ and the Church.
It is like an amoebean song, in which praise alternates and is reciprocal, as between lovers. The Bridegroom had praised the beauty of the Bride; now she modestly, shyly, and reverently reflects and redirects all praise to the Bridegroom, and professes that from Him she has received all her beauty — that is, the forgiveness of sins, justice, grace, purity, and the power to do good and to merit — as if she says, according to Hortolanus: I hear with a blush the extraordinary praises You give me, O Bridegroom; but I judge You alone to be most worthy of them: for if there is any beauty and justice in me (which I feel to be how slight!), it is a gratuitous gift, drawn and conferred upon me from the inexhaustible fountain of Your beauty, justice, and goodness. For You alone are beautiful of Yourself, and now especially, having resumed Your immortal body, You are comely and outstanding; indeed, You are Beauty itself, placed beyond the chance of all beautiful things, the radiance of the Father's glory and the express image of His substance, by participation in which whatever things are beautiful should be called rather similar to the Beautiful than beautiful themselves. So also St. Gregory, Cassiodorus, Bede, Justus, Anselm, and Rupert, who say that Christ is beautiful in His divinity, comely in His humanity. And St. Bernard, Sermon 45, says He is the same — beautiful in nature, comely in grace: "How beautiful You are to Your angels, he says, Lord Jesus, in the form of God, in the day of Your eternity, in the splendors of the saints, begotten before the morning star, the brightness and figure of the substance of the Father, and indeed the perpetual and in no way false radiance of eternal life! How comely You are to me, my Lord, in this very setting aside of Your comeliness! For where You emptied Yourself, where You stripped off the unfailing light from Your natural rays, there piety shone forth more, there charity blazed more brightly, there grace radiated more abundantly. How brightly You rise for me, O star out of Jacob, Numbers 24:17; how luminous a flower You come forth from the root of Jesse, Isaiah 11:10; how pleasant a light from on high You visited me in darkness, rising from on high! How wonderful and astonishing also in heavenly powers — in the conception from the Spirit, in the birth from the Virgin, in the innocence of life, in the streams of teaching, in the flashes of miracles, in the revelations of the sacraments! How at last, after Your setting, You rise again, O radiant Sun of Justice, from the heart of the earth; how beautiful in Your robe at last, O King of Glory, You ascend into the heights of heaven! How shall not all my bones say for all these things: Lord, who is like You?"
Magnificently, St. Augustine, Preface on Psalm 44: "Let the Bridegroom, he says, now appear beautiful to us who believe, everywhere. Beautiful is God the Word with God, beautiful in the womb of the Virgin, where He did not lose His divinity and took on humanity. Beautiful the infant Word born, because even when He was an infant, when He nursed, when He was carried in arms, the heavens spoke, angels sang praises, a star guided the Magi, He was worshiped in a manger, food for the gentle. Beautiful therefore in heaven, beautiful on earth, beautiful in the womb, beautiful in the arms of His parents, beautiful in miracles, beautiful in scourges, beautiful inviting to life, beautiful not caring for death, beautiful laying down His life, beautiful taking it up again, beautiful on the wood, beautiful in the tomb, beautiful in heaven, beautiful in the understanding."
Finally, Christ was most beautiful both in soul and body, as formed by the Holy Spirit, according to the words: "Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men," Psalm 45:3. Hence in the face of Christ something starlike, indeed the majesty of the Godhead, radiated, as St. Jerome teaches on Matthew Chapter 9. Wisely Tertullian, On the Dress of Women, Chapter 2: "Beauty, he says, is not to be accused — a happiness of the body, an addition of the divine fashioning, a certain urban garment of the soul." Whence also Gregory of Nyssa, Catechetical Oration, Chapter 6, says that man was created by God beautiful in face and appearance, as the image of the exemplar of beauty, namely, of the most beautiful God. But true beauty consists far more in the soul than in the body. For, as St. Augustine says, Tract 32 on John: "As the soul makes the beauty of the body, so God makes the beauty of the soul." And immediately: "The beauty of the body, then, is the soul; the beauty of the soul is God." Ennodius in the Life of St. Epiphanius, Bishop of Pavia: "His beauty, he says, in the light of his body, was an indication of his soul." And he immediately adds that such should a priest be: "That the radiance may surpass the light of his members." And indeed Seneca, Epistle 60: "Virtue, he says, is a great beauty, and consecrates the body that is its own."
Second Partial Sense: On Christ and the Holy Soul.
Gregory of Nyssa explains it thus, as if to say: "Behold, You are beautiful, my Kinsman, and comely. For since nothing else seems beautiful to me, and I have turned away from all things that were previously considered good and beautiful — my judgment about the good no longer errs, so as to consider anything other than You to be good and beautiful: not any human honor, not glory, not worldly splendor, not power: for these, to those who look at the level of sense, are indeed painted with the appearance of good, but they are not what they seem. For how could that be beautiful which in no way endures? For what is honored in this world has its essence only in the estimation of those who think it exists. But You are truly beautiful — not only beautiful, but the very essence of beauty — always such, entirely what You are, neither blooming in time nor again casting off the bloom in time, but extending Your form and beauty together with the eternity of life, whose name was kindness and love toward human beings."
And St. Bernard, Sermon 45, teaches that here is described how the Word of God — namely, Christ — and the soul converse and exchange sweetnesses spiritually in the mind: "The tongue of the Word, he says, is the favor of His condescension; and of the soul, the fervor of devotion, etc. For the Word, then, to say to the soul: You are beautiful, and to call her beloved, is to pour in that by which she both loves and presumes herself to be loved. But for her in turn to call the Word Beloved and to confess Him beautiful is to ascribe to Him without pretense or deceit what she loves and what is loved, and to marvel at His condescension and to be astonished at His grace. Indeed, His beauty is His love; and therefore it is greater, because it is prevenient. With the marrow of the heart, therefore, and with the voices of the most intimate affections, she cries out all the more and more ardently that she must love, inasmuch as she perceived that she loved before she was loved. And so the speech of the Word is the infusion of a gift; the response of the soul is admiration with thanksgiving. And therefore she loves the more, because she feels herself overcome in loving; and therefore she marvels the more, because she recognizes that she was anticipated. Whence she is not content to say 'beautiful' once, but repeats 'comely,' designating by that repetition the preeminence of His beauty."
Third Principal Sense: On Christ and the Blessed Virgin.
The Blessed Virgin, as she noted the mystery of the divinity and incarnation of the Word accomplished in herself above all others, so she also admired above all others the beauty of Christ, God and man; whence Rupert introduces her exchanging sweet words with Christ thus: "He truly venerates in me that I am mother and virgin; I adore in Him that He is God and man. I say therefore: Behold, You are beautiful, my Beloved, and comely. You say to me: Behold, you are beautiful; and I say to You: Behold, You are beautiful. From the time I was made beautiful, You who were always beautiful have become more beautiful. For truly You have increased Your beauty in this, that being God, You deigned to become man. Hence You are beautiful and comely: so beautiful that You are the very substance of beauty; so comely that You are the very glory of humanity. Truly then You say to me: Behold, you are beautiful, and I say to You: Behold, You are beautiful, because You are my beauty. That I am beautiful, therefore, must be attributed entirely to You. For it is not the branch that is the beauty of the flower, but the flower that is the beauty of the branch."
And William the Little, as if to say: Because You are beautiful according to divinity, comely according to humanity. You are not only man, but also God; and therefore William says: "I am not only a mother, but also a virgin; because humanity was added temporally to Your eternal divinity, and fecundity did not replace but was added to my virginity. For just as a mere man cannot have a virgin for a mother, so God made man cannot have a mother unless she is a virgin."
Our Couch Is Verdant.
A beautiful Bridegroom and a beautiful Bride deserve a beautiful chamber and a beautiful house; both are described here, as she says that the couch and bed are strewn with beautiful and fragrant herbs and flowers, and that the house is constructed of cedar beams and cypress paneling.
"Our couch is verdant" — in Hebrew raanana, that is, "green," meaning covered with green herbs and flowers, and therefore verdant, blooming, and springlike. The Septuagint, instead of the Hebrew aph (meaning "also"), seems to have read el (meaning "to"); whence they translate: "to our shady couch," meaning, "you have come" or "come"; so reads the Vatican codex, and so Gregory of Nyssa, Psellus, and the three Fathers cited by Theodoret — as if to say: You, O Christ my Bridegroom, who love the shades of herbs and flowers, come to our couch strewn and shaded with them. Or: You, O Christ, who as God are immense light, yet as man have covered this light with the shadow of a body, so that we might behold that otherwise inaccessible light through a chink, indeed through a shadow, and therefore are called "shady" — come to this couch blooming with flowers and foliage and equally shady, lest outside, as it scorches me, so too the heat of the sun, that is, of persecution, may scorch You.
But the genuine Septuagint reading seems to be that which Origen has, Homily 2 of the two, and Theodoret and St. Ambrose on Psalm 118, Sermon 4, namely: "our couch is shady." For thus the Hebrew and the Vulgate have it. St. Ambrose, however, instead of syskios ("shady") read proskline ("a leaning towards") by contraction; whence he translates: "our repose is shaded."
Tacitly the Bride, who by wandering through gardens and vineyards had felt the heat of the sun and remembered being scorched by it, invites the Bridegroom into the house and chamber, so that there in peace and quiet, removed from crowds and persecutions, they may lead a pleasant and joyful life in mutual conversation, fellowship, and companionship — such a life as those lead who have chosen the lot of Magdalene and the contemplative life: but the Bridegroom soon calls the Bride from this rest to the labors of preaching and the conversion of souls — namely, from contemplation to action, from peace to war, from tranquility to persecutions, from leisure to business, from the house to fields and countryside — in order to increase her virtue, merits, and glory. Whence He adds: "I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys." So Bede and St. Bernard, Sermon 46, who says that the Bride here indicates to the Bridegroom that His bridal chamber is adorned, and thus tacitly invites Him to it.
First Adequate Sense: On Christ and the Church.
You may ask who is the verdant and flowering couch in which Christ and the Church rest.
First, some respond that it is the humanity of Christ: for in this, as in a couch but shadowed and veiled by the flesh, both the most radiant divinity of the Word and the hope of the Church find rest. So Gregory of Nyssa, the three Fathers cited by Theodoret, Psellus, and Alan, whom hear: "The couch of Christ is called the flesh which He assumed, on account of the two uses of a bed. In bed a person labors in sickness, and rests in health. Similarly Christ in human flesh labored in human infirmities before the Passion, and rested in the same flesh after the Resurrection. And he elegantly said: Our couch is verdant, because the flesh of Christ, which previously flourished in life, faded in death, but flourished again in the Resurrection. Whence it is said, Psalm 28: And my flesh has flourished again."
Second, Theodoret takes the couch as Sacred Scripture, which blooms with various teachings as with flowers, the seeds of which the holy soul, receiving into herself, brings forth the spirit of salvation. This couch is called shady because it is protected by the grace of the Spirit and defended from the heat of sin; for what the column of cloud was to Israel, the help of the Spirit is to us. So Theodoret.
Third, Gislerius takes the couch as faith formed by charity, and therefore green and flowering with good works: for through this faith God is in us and we in turn rest in God. For the intellect of man seeks truth in natural opinion, conjecture, and reasoning, as if in a roof — but one that is restless, deceptive, and false; while the intellect of the faithful man seeks truth in divine faith, and there as in a couch finds truth, indeed God. Faith is called a little couch (lectulus, diminutive), because the full couch (lectus), that is, full knowledge, peace, and happiness, will be in the beatific vision. Hence the Septuagint calls this couch shady and dark, because faith is obscure. "For now we see through a mirror in an enigma, but then face to face," 1 Corinthians 13:12.
Fourth, the couch of the Church is the whole of life and the good and pure conscience of the faithful, whose flowers are all the virtues: for in these both Christ and the Church rest peacefully as in a bed, destined to rest more broadly in the same in eternal happiness; wherefore there the faithful and blessed souls will be a bed adorned with every gift, both of grace and of glory, most beautiful and most delightful both to themselves and to Christ. This is supported by the Chaldean version: "In the time when You dwell in our beloved couch, our sons are many upon the earth, and we grow and multiply like a tree planted beside a fountain of waters, whose leaf is beautiful and whose fruit is abundant."
Second Partial Sense: On Christ and the Holy Soul.
The couch of Christ and the holy soul is the chaste, holy mind devoted to the pursuit of virtues, which sprouts forth the flowers and fruits of all good works; wherefore she herself is beautiful with the ornaments of virtues and fragrant with the examples of holy deeds. This couch is shady, as the Septuagint translates, because the holy mind dwells secure under the shadow of Christ dwelling within her, lest she be burned either by the heat of temptation, or the chill of torpor, or the burning of excessive fervor; wherefore she confidently says to Him: "In Your shadow we shall live among the nations," Lamentations 4:20. For only the holy mind fixed on Christ has true rest; because the mind given to desires tosses about in their waves and is driven by a thousand winds of disturbance, according to the words: "But the wicked are like a raging sea that cannot rest, and its waves cast up filth and mire. There is no peace for the wicked, says the Lord," Isaiah 57:21: so St. Ambrose, On Isaac and the Soul, Chapter 4: "For where, he says, do Christ and the Church rest, if not in the works of His people? For where there is immodesty, where pride, where iniquity, there, says the Lord Jesus, the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head," Matthew 8:20. The couch of Christ, therefore, is chastity, humility, patience, prayer, temperance, and especially charity: for by this Christ associates the soul with Himself as a bride, and loves her, and is in turn loved by her, according to the words of Christ: "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him," John 14:23.
Second, Origen, Homily 2 of the two, reading: "Our couch is shady," takes this as the body, in which the soul rests as in a bed, when it is pure and chaste, and leafy with the density of good works.
Third, St. Ambrose on Psalm 118, Sermon 4, reading: "Our resting-place is shaded," considers that three things are denoted by this — namely, the grace of Christ, the Cross, and the hope of future glory, which protect us like shade from the heat of temptations: "Rightly, he says, he signifies a shaded resting-place, because the power of the Most High overshadows those established in the Church. With this shade David asked to be protected, lest the sun burn him by day or the moon by night. This shade is provided by spiritual grace to those fleeing the scorching heats of this world and age. The shaded resting-place therefore belongs to Christ and the Church, to which the eternal rest of God the Father beckons. Let us therefore rest in this shade, weary from the burning heats of our sins. If lust has scorched any, let the cross of the Lord refresh them, on which He reclined to take up our offenses; if guilt has wearied any, let Jesus receive them in His lap and cherish them with a tender embrace. Whence I dare to say that the flesh of Christ is the resting-place of the Church."
Fourth, St. Gregory and Cassiodorus very aptly take the couch as the rest and sweetness of the contemplative soul, who devotes and directs herself to God alone as her Bridegroom. "What, says St. Gregory, do we understand by the couch of the Bride, if not the quiet of leisure? For the mind which loves her Bridegroom Christ uniquely, as far as she can, is free from all worldly cares, and inwardly accumulates the virtues by which she may please her Bridegroom. While she despises all temporal things, she makes a couch for herself with the Bridegroom in the peace of victory, where the more quietly she rests, the more flowers she finds with which to show herself beautiful to the Bridegroom."
To this is added St. Bernard, Sermon 46, who takes the couch as monasteries, in which the religious, bidding farewell to the world, serve God alone. For most things in the Song of Songs properly apply to the faithful soul — not the beginner and imperfect, but the one advancing and tending toward perfection, so as to unite herself wholly to God (for she is the Bride of Christ): such are the religious, as I said in the Preface, following St. Bernard and Bellarmine. But hear Bernard here: "In the Church, he says, the bed in which one rests I consider to be cloisters and monasteries, in which one lives quietly free from the cares of the world and the anxieties of life. And this bed is shown to be verdant when the fellowship and life of the brethren shines, sprinkled as with fragrant flowers by the examples and practices of the Fathers." He then adds that the couch in which Christ rests is obedience: "Otherwise, he says, the Bridegroom will not sleep with you in the same bed — that bed especially which you have sprinkled with the hemlock and nettles of disobedience instead of the flowers of obedience." Whence, rising up against the disobedient who trust in their own prayers: "I am greatly astonished, he says, at the impudence of some who are among us, who, though they have disturbed us all by their singularity, irritated us by their impatience, and despised us by their stubbornness and rebellion, nevertheless dare to invite the Lord of all purity to the foul bed of their concupiscence, with all the urgency of prayer."
He then sets forth the manner in which we ought to prepare and adorn this couch for Christ: "Surely, he says, you must first cleanse your conscience from every stain of anger, contention, murmuring, and envy, and hasten to expel from the dwelling of your heart whatever is recognized as hostile either to the peace of the brethren or to obedience to superiors. Then also surround yourself with the flowers of all good deeds and praiseworthy pursuits, and the fragrance of virtues — that is, whatever things are true, whatever modest, whatever just, whatever holy, whatever lovely, whatever of good repute, whatever virtue, whatever praise of discipline; take care to think upon these things and to exercise yourself in them. You will safely invite the Bridegroom to such a place: for when you have brought Him in, you too will be able to say truly: Our couch is verdant — the conscience, that is, giving off the fragrance of piety, and of peace, and of gentleness, and of justice, and of obedience, and of cheerfulness, and of humility."
Anagogically, Philo of Carpathia, reading: "Our reclining in the shade," takes this as the passage from death to immortality: "For when, he says, they recline unto death, He repays temporal death with eternal life. For henceforth You will be our shade and protection, cries the Bride, according to the words: With His shoulders He will overshadow you, and under His wings you shall hope. And: Under the shadow of Your wings protect me. For in You alone is our refuge and protection. You are our shade, You our defense, You our certain salvation and life. Let us say with David: Even though I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me," Psalm 23:4.
Third Principal Sense: On Christ and the Blessed Virgin.
The couch in which Christ rested for nine months and, as it were, slept, was the womb of the Blessed Virgin, says William the Little; and from it, with the seal of virginity intact, says Rupert, that beautiful flower came forth, of whom Isaiah sings, Chapter 11:1-2: "A shoot shall come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise from his root: and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him."
Symbolically, Aponius takes the couch as the sepulcher of Christ, which is called verdant on account of the spices made from flowers, with which Magdalene and her companions anointed the body of Christ. William the Little adds that the couch, that is, the sepulcher of Christ, is called verdant because Christ rose gloriously from it on the third day: for then the flesh of Christ, as it were, flowered again. Therefore our couch is verdant — that is, with Your flesh flowering again, O Christ, it will bloom with the flowers of the new resurrection, according to the words: "My flesh has flowered again, and with my will I shall give praise to Him," Psalm 28:7.
Fifth, Cassiodorus takes the couch as the peace and tranquility of the Church, in whose enjoyment she more freely devotes herself to vigils, fasts, prayer, and contemplation, and thus flourishes with all good works; and therefore it is a bed of Christ and of holy souls, adorned with every endowment both of grace and glory, most beautiful and delightful both to itself and to Christ. The couch of the soul, says Honorius, is a good conscience, in which, as in a bed, the soul rests securely with Christ, when she exercises herself in prayer and reading, and melts with the love of God; and it is verdant when she provides others with examples of a good life. This sense is very fitting.
Verse 16: The beams of our houses are of cedar; our paneling is of cypress.
The Septuagint: "The beams of our houses are cedars, our paneling is of cypress," as if to say: Our house is beautiful and excellent, being framed with cedars and paneled with cypress. For "cypress," the Chaldean, Vatablus, and the Hebraizers translate "fir trees." Cedar, says Vatablus, which does not feel decay, and fir, which resists weight, signify the word of God. But in Hebrew, "fir" is called berose; here, however, the word is berotim, which is not found elsewhere; but here it is translated by the Septuagint as well as by our Vulgate as "cypress," which authorities are certainly more to be trusted than more recent ones. For "paneling," the Greek is patnomata, that is, panels or coffered ceilings and wainscoting; whence paneled dining rooms are so called, which Servius calls the ceiling of the framework. The Belgians and French say lambris and lambrissé, meaning panels and paneled. Whence Seneca, Book 14, Epistle 91, writes that the luxury of the ancients made revolving ceiling panels for dining rooms, and so fitted them together that one design followed another, and the ceiling changed as often as the courses; as is still done in stages and comedies. So also "laquear," says Sipontinus following Servius, is a diminutive from lacus; for lacus is a flat beam in buildings, from which comes lacunar, and by metathesis laquear; and these paneled ceilings were customarily carved and gilded by the wealthy, as we see done at Rome in the church of the Blessed Virgin across the Tiber, and elsewhere. Although therefore some take "paneling" as the great beams connecting one wall to another, and "beams" as the crosspieces inserted transversely into those beams, to which boards are attached (which Vitruvius calls metopes), nevertheless the opposite is truer — namely, that by "beams" here the main timbers and the entire framework are meant, and by "paneling" the coffered vaults of boards by which the beams and timbers are adorned, so that the ceiling becomes like a sky: for these are called lacunaria because, through the spaces between the timbers into which they are inserted, they present a certain appearance of pools.
In the literal, grammatical sense, this alludes to the house of God, that is, the temple built by Solomon from cedar and cypress wood, 1 Kings 7:3-4, which represented the basilicas and churches of Christians, to be built from the same and similar excellent trees. Whence the Chaldean translates: "Solomon the prophet said: How beautiful is the house of the Sanctuary of the Lord, which was built by my hands from cedar beams! But more beautiful is the house of the sanctuary which will be built in the days of the King Messiah, whose beams will be of the cedars of the garden of delights, and its timbers will be of firs, and junipers, and pines."
First Adequate Sense: On Christ and the Church.
You may ask what the cedar beams and cypress paneling of the Church are.
First, William the Little considers them to be the body and members of Christ, which was the house, indeed the temple, of the divinity: for although this body was in itself corruptible, yet it was of cedar and cypress, that is, incorruptible and imperishable, by reason of the hypostatic union with the Word, according to the words: "My flesh shall rest in hope, and You shall not allow Your Holy One to see corruption," Psalm 16:10.
Second, Theodoret, and following him Gislerius, just as he takes the couch as faith, so fittingly by beams and paneling, that is, by the house, he takes Sacred Scripture: for in it the dogmas of faith are contained as beams, say the three Fathers cited by Theodoret, and the precepts as coffered panels mutually connected and inserted; and these are at the top of the house, because Sacred Scripture was dictated from heaven, as the word of God, and therefore it is incorruptible and eternal like cedar and cypress, and confers upon its followers eternal life — namely, eternal dwellings in heaven, 2 Corinthians 5:1. Hear Theodoret: "Cedar excels in incorruptibility, cypress in fragrance. Both can be found in divine Scripture, which for us is not only a couch, but also a house, a table, and food; nor does it merely suggest sweetness of fragrance, but also promises incorruption, truth, and immortality."
Third, others more commonly and more fittingly and genuinely take the beams of the houses, that is, of the particular churches, as the clergy, prelates, and teachers of those churches, who by their writings and teachings defend the house of God from heretics — as from venomous serpents — and from corruptions of the word of God. They are of cedar because their works are upright, their mind is steadfast, their life incorrupt, their morals imperishable, their reputation is of good fragrance, their teaching puts demons to flight and preserves souls from the putrefaction of vices. The paneling consists of the just and pious subjects, who abstain from mortal sins: these hang from those beams, and like a certain vault of heaven adorned with twinkling stars, they shine forth, themselves of cypress, incorrupt in their manner of life, neither returning like dogs to the vomit of sin, nor yielding to the decay of the old man.
So St. Gregory, Theodoret, Aponius, Bede, Haymo, Anselm, and St. Ambrose, Sermon 4 on Psalm 118. Whence St. Bernard, Sermon 46, considers that this verse denotes all the states of the Church — namely, monks in the verdant couch, prelates and princes in the cedar beams, and the clergy and faithful people in the cypress paneling. To this is added Origen, Homily 3 of the four, who takes the beams as bishops and the cypress as priests: "And the timbers, he says, are called cedars, in which there is both stronger fortitude and a fragrance of sweetness, by which he designates a bishop who is solid in works and fragrant in the grace of teaching. Likewise he called the paneling cypresses, to designate by this that priests ought to be full of the virtue of incorruption and of the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ." And St. Gregory: "Cedar, he says, which represses and puts serpents to flight, signifies the more exalted saints; cypress, the simpler ones." Whence, taking the beams as preachers and the paneling as the people: "The beams, he says, support the roof, while the paneling fills and adorns the house. So in the holy Church, good preachers carry divine Scripture in their heart and on their lips, preaching it to the faithful as a roof spread over them, so that while the Church is instructed by heavenly preaching, it may receive a defense to protect it from the showers of temptations. Now cedar and cypress are said to be imperishable timbers. By these all the elect are well figured, because while they pursue no temporal things with desire, they become eternal, in that their mind is fixed on eternal things." Bede adds that the paneling is fastened to the beams and hangs from them: "Because it is necessary, he says, that whoever in the holy Church desires to shine exalted in virtues should cling with their whole mind to the words and examples of the supreme Fathers, by which they may be suspended from earthly ambitions."
To this also agrees Philo of Carpathia, who takes the cedar beams as the prophets of the Church, and the cypress paneling as the apostles: "Because, he says, just as the delight and ornament of a house are its paneling, so the apostles are to the Church." Hear St. Bernard, Sermon 46: "Moreover, he says, understand the ordinary houses as the congregations of Christians, whom those placed in authority — the Christian princes of both orders — like beams, strongly bind the walls by justly imposed laws, lest each living by his own law or will, like leaning walls and broken-down fences, they fall apart from one another, and so the entire structure of the building collapse and be scattered. The paneling, which hangs firmly from the beams and notably adorns the houses, I take to designate the gentle and disciplined conduct of a well-established clergy and the properly administered offices. For how shall the orders of the clergy and their administrations stand, if they are not sustained and protected by the beneficence, munificence, and power of princes as of beams?" He then gives the reason why the beams are of cedar and the paneling of cypress: "Cedar, since it is an imperishable, fragrant, and lofty wood, sufficiently indicates what sort of men should be chosen to serve as beams. It is necessary therefore that those who are placed over others be strong and steadfast, as well as patient in hope and lifting the summit of their mind to higher things, who, spreading everywhere the good fragrance of their faith and manner of life, can say with the Apostle: For we are the good fragrance of Christ to God in every place, 2 Corinthians 2:15. Cypress likewise, a wood equally of good fragrance and equally imperishable, demonstrates that even every member of the clergy ought to be of incorrupt life and faith, so as to be deservedly assigned to the beauty of the house and the ornament of the paneling. For it is written: Holiness befits Your house, O Lord, for length of days," Psalm 93:5.
Finally Honorius of Autun: "The houses, he says, built by craftsmen with cedar and cypress beams are the cloisters established by the holy Fathers with rules and honest practices. The cedar beams are the superiors, the abbots fragrant with holiness, who fortify others by word and example, and extinguish the worms of sins by mortifying themselves. The cypress paneling are the monks and all religious, whose examples of holiness adorn the temple of God, and who by praying bear the burdens of others. And just as the cypress once cut does not grow green again — whence it used to be carried before the bier of the dead — so they themselves never return to secular things, and always look upon death as present, and aspire by their vows and conduct to be built together into a dwelling of God." So Honorius.
Second Partial Sense: On Christ and the Holy Soul.
First, the cedar beams of the soul are the solid virtues — namely, the four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude, says Honorius; also the constant purity and chastity of mind, says Gregory of Nyssa. For the imperishability of cedar commends eternity, as Pliny attests. The cypress paneling are the external beauties of virtue, such as modesty, reverence, silence, and every exterior composure and beauty of conduct, according to the word of the Apostle: "Let all things be done decently and in order," 1 Corinthians 14:40; and: "We take care to do what is good not only before God, but also before men," 2 Corinthians 8:21. Especially by cedar beams and cypress paneling, as imperishable, is signified the virtue of constancy in hard and adverse circumstances, and consequently of fortitude, patience, and perseverance, by which we endure like beams and bear all burdens and weights imposed upon us. Whence Bede on the cypress: "In that, he says, it is suited to healing bodily sufferings, and in that it does not lose the beauty of its foliage by any blast of wind, it expresses constancy, and the activity of those who adorn the Church with the ornaments of higher virtues." And St. Ambrose, Sermon 4 on Psalm 118: "The soul, he says, does not know corruption when she flourishes with vigorous members, always sustaining with patient magnanimity the heights of justice and other virtues, and therefore does not drain away or fail; because there is nothing cracked or loose in her, nothing shifting, nothing slippery, by which the fault of speech could flow out."
Second, the cedar beams, say Hailgrin and following him Delrio, are the virtues and graces without which there is no salvation; and these, rooted deeply through humility, grow immensely in their branches, and know no decay, like the cedar. The paneling are the divisions of administrations and those graces which serve the beauty of the soul, although they are not necessary for the salvation of each individual — such as prophecy, kinds of tongues, powers, healings, discernment of spirits, and similar gifts — which, if they do not firmly adhere to the beams, easily collapse like loose paneling; and they are of cypress, because although these graces, insofar as they are exercised toward neighbors, ought to be spread out and expanded, yet they must always tend upward to a point, and converge upon that one thing, and narrow like a cypress; which truly is one, just as one thing is truly necessary for us. Moreover, just as cypress is immune from decay because, as Vitruvius says, Book II, Chapter 19, there is in it a certain bitter flavor which defends it from decay and drives away the worms that produce it: so likewise the cause of virtue and constancy is penance, austerity, and mortification, which does not allow the soul to slide into concupiscences (for these are the decay and putrefaction of the soul). Hence Dioscorides writes similar things about cedar, Book I, Chapter 88 — namely, that by a similar bitterness it defends itself from decay and corpses from decomposition, and therefore it is called by some 'the life of the dead.' This is illustrated by the saying: 'Where there is rigor, there is vigor.'
Third, the beams are the grace of God and its various species and modes; the paneling are our actions, by which, cooperating with the grace of God, we as it were adorn her with them, and she in turn far more adorns and gilds the works themselves, because she renders them supernatural, divine, pleasing to God, and meritorious of an eternal reward.
Fourth, the beams of the soul are her very powers and faculties: for from these, as from beams, she is as it were joined together and framed; the paneling are the virtues of the soul's powers, which adorn and strengthen them, so that from these the spiritual house of the soul may rise, in which Christ the Bridegroom may rest as in His bridal chamber. Hear St. Bernard, Sermon 46, who thus urges and persuades the soul: "For the temple of God is holy, which you are, 1 Corinthians 3:17. Take care therefore, brothers, for this spiritual building which you are, lest perhaps, when it has begun to rise to higher things, it totter and collapse if it has not been supported and bound together with strong timbers. Take care, I say, to give it imperishable and immovable beams — namely, the chaste fear of the Lord, that which endures forever; patience, of which it is written: For the patience of the poor shall not perish forever, Psalm 9:19; also long-suffering, which, persevering inflexibly under whatever weight of the structure, extends into the infinite ages of the blessed life, as the Savior says in the Gospel: He who shall persevere to the end shall be saved, Matthew 10:22. But above all things have charity, which never fails, because strong as death is love, relentless as hell is zeal, Song of Songs 8:6. Then strive to lay under these beams and bind to them other beams, equally precious and beautiful, which however you may have at hand, for the paneling work to adorn the house — namely, the word of wisdom or knowledge, prophecy, the grace of healing, the interpretation of tongues, and other such things, which are recognized as more suited to ornament than necessary for salvation." Where by the beams he takes the virtues necessary for salvation, and by the paneling those not necessary, and asserts that from both the house of the mind must be built for each person.
Anagogically, in heaven, both the soul and the body with all their powers, senses, and members will be of cedar and cypress, that is, incorruptible, eternal, fragrant, and glorious.
Third Principal Sense: On Christ and the Blessed Virgin.
The Blessed Virgin was like a house, temple, and heaven of cedar and cypress, in which the Word dwelt. Hear Alan: "These houses are understood as the body of Christ and the body of the Virgin; the beams of the houses are the substances of the bodies, which are called of cedar, that is, imperishable. For cedar is imperishable; just as we believe that the body of Christ was not dissolved by putrefaction — whence we read, Psalm 16:10: 'You will not allow Your Holy One to see corruption' — so it is probable that the body of Mary was also free from the corruption of putrefaction. Whence St. Augustine in his Sermon on the Assumption of the Virgin: 'We believe, he says, that not only the flesh which Christ assumed, but also the flesh from which He assumed it, has been assumed into heaven.' Whence also in the published prayer we read: 'Nor could she be held down by the bonds of death,' etc. And if she did not rise again, why is it said of her: 'Mary has been assumed into heaven?'" "Our paneling is of cypress." The paneling, which adheres to the beams, signifies the infirmities of the bodies which adhered to the bodies of Christ and the Virgin, which are elegantly called of cypress, because cypress is customarily used for bodies that are burned, and a wonderful fragrance is given off by them. So the infirmities that pertain to death, both in the Virgin and in Christ, give off a more wonderful fragrance through the patience they showed in their infirmities. So Alan. See what I said about cedar and cypress on Sirach 24:17, concerning the words: "Like a cedar I was exalted in Lebanon, and like a cypress on Mount Zion."