7. I wish that I may say, may my soul say: Behold, he comes, and he comes not above earthly things, not above valleys; but he comes leaping over mountains; for God, the God of mountains, not of valleys. Where does he leap? He leaps over mountains. If you are a mountain, he leaps over you. He leaps over Isaiah, he leaps over Jeremiah, he leaps over Peter, John, James. Mountains surround him (Psalm 124:2): if you cannot be a mountain, nor have strength, be even a hill, so that Christ may ascend over you; and if he leaps, let him leap in such a way that his leap guards you like a shadow.
8. We have spoken about Christ and the Church; let us now speak about the soul and the Word. The soul of the righteous is the Bride of the Word. If she desires, if she longs, if she prays, and prays continually, and prays without any doubt, and directs her whole being towards the Word, she suddenly seems to hear the voice of the one whom she does not see, and in her innermost sense she recognizes the divine smell of his presence: which is often experienced by those who believe rightly. The nostrils of the soul are suddenly filled with spiritual grace, and she feels the breath of his presence blowing upon her, whom she seeks, and she says: Behold, this is the very one whom I seek, the very one whom I desire.
9. When we think about something from the Scriptures and cannot find its explanation, while we doubt, while we seek, suddenly for us, as if from over the highest mountains, the highest teachings seem to ascend: then appearing for us as if over hills, it illuminates the mind; so that it infuses into the senses what seemed difficult to find. Therefore, the Word becomes present in our hearts as if from absent. And again, when something is obscure to us, as if the Word is being withheld, and as if we desire the advent of the absent: and again, appearing, it shows itself to us as if it is present to us in what we are seeking to know. Therefore, it jumps frequently into the heart of each one: it jumps and goes out, and returns if you follow it, if you seek it, if you ask for it, if you, by the grace of the faithful, ask the Word that had come forth and passed away to be resurrected; just like that which she sought and found, which she said: My brother has passed by: my soul went out with his word (Song of Solomon 5:6).
10. Therefore, even if he jumps over the mountains, follow him; and if he jumps over the hills, follow. For in the mountains and hills are found the hunters of the Lord, who seek those who are captured for life. For thus said God through Jeremiah: Behold, I will send many fishermen, . . . and many hunters, and they will hunt them over every mountain and over every hill (Jeremiah 16:16). Therefore, let the people of God be sought and found in the doctrine, grace, and discipline of Peter and Paul; so that they may not be in the valley, where there is weeping: but in the mountains, from which Christ enlightens each one. And when we read Peter, Christ enlightens. And when we read Paul, Christ enlightens. Paul healed, Christ enlightened; for by invoking the name of the Lord Jesus, he arose, by whose gift he was healed. Peter raised a dead woman, Christ enlightened; and therefore it is said: You wonderfully enlighten from the eternal mountains (Psalm 75:5).
11. Therefore, since we cannot be mountains ourselves, let us stand on mountains or hills; so that when the Lord sends his fishermen and hunters to hunt those who are above every mountain or hill, that is, those who have in their possession knowledge of the precepts of the Law and the Prophets, as well as of the new and old Testament, they may find us prepared, and may gather us like good stalks at the opportune time, sent as reapers; for if anyone is found outside of the mountain or hill, they will not be able to gather them like good stalks, but will be sent to separate the wheat from the chaff (to use another comparison). Therefore, the Lord has many skilled ministers of various tasks. They are both fishermen and hunters, as well as harvesters.
12. If at the time of harvest, which they are directed towards, you wait for the ripe reward, you will be able to see him leaping on the mountains, and you will see the Lord Jesus similar to a young stag, or a young deer on the mountains of Bethel (Song of Songs 2:9). Indeed, he leaps upon the Church, which is the house of bread; because he strengthens the hearts of the faithful. Justly like a young stag; because a young stag feeds on high places. Dorcas is said to be from seeing. For the vision is an increase of the author. What is sharper than Christ, who sees the Father whom no one sees? Or if anyone has seen in Christ, the Son himself revealed. Just as a fawn is like a son, who has inherited the power of his nature from his father; so that hidden things do not escape him, snakes flee, venom does not harm him. Finally, the serpent, who was produced from a man and was brought out of his hiding place, said: Why have you come before the time to torment us? (Matthew 8:29)
13. (Verse 42.) Therefore let us watch this prancing colt, so that we may not fear the serpent. David did not fear. Finally, he said of these serpents: 'I will answer those who reproach me with a word, for I have hoped in your words.' Like a good deer, who had drunk from the springs of water, he did not fear the spirals of human serpents and the poisons of malicious ones. The serpent was not harmful to him, but rather it was prey. The food was the venomous speech of the serpent, and the food of praise of which he said: 'O God, do not be silent about my praise; for the mouth of the sinner and the mouth of the deceitful one are open against me.' (Psalm 108:2). The hunter was being fattened by the words of his fellow hunters. They lifted their hissing mouths of slander and surrounded the innocent one with words of hatred. The good deer, placed among many snakes, was not afraid, the deer of friendship, and the foal of gratitude. They feigned charity, but poured out slander: 'But I,' he said, 'I was praying.' The good deer, harmless among the vipers, grazed. They flashed their forked tongues: but holy prayer fed this one, offering food to those who slandered. He responded to those speaking against him with a word; for a word is nourishment. Finally, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God (Matt., IV, 4). They saw me, he said, and shook their heads (Psalm 108:25). They cursed, but I blessed. Those who spoke against me cursed; I blessed, for I proclaimed the word of the Lord.
14. How good it is to bear abuse, and not to retaliate with abuse! He gains God as his helper who does not know how to be angry with an abusive person. Finally, how great is the grace of patience in the speaker: 'They will curse, and you will bless' (2). Blessed is the one who does not feel the curses. Blessed is the one whom curses do not disturb. For the one who excludes the curses of men by the divine gift of blessing cannot be moved by a curse. The one who has the Word cannot feel a curse, and the one who always has the Word on their lips cannot retaliate with a curse.
15. But there is also a good serpent, whom that stag does not harm. Be cunning, he says, just like serpents (Matt. 10:16). And: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up (John 3:14). In the bronze serpent I am represented. In that wood my serpent was lifted up. Good serpent, a good serpent, who from its mouth poured forth remedies, not poisons. One who knows how to adore this serpent can fear no serpents. About this snake, she who loves says: Behold, he is behind our wall, looking through the windows, appearing above the lattice. My cousin responds and says to me: Arise, come, my dearest one, my beautiful one, my dove; for behold, winter has passed, the rain has gone, it has departed for itself, flowers have appeared on the earth (Song of Solomon 2:9, 12). The snake indeed is the one who, with winter having passed, wanted to shed his body's covering in order to bloom in beautiful appearance. Therefore, the deer and the serpent are the same. The deer, with horns of Law and Grace (its two horns are the Testaments), is swift in its stride, active in its gait, able to traverse the entire world in an instant, celebrated everywhere. The serpent is also good, whose first tooth does not bite the Law, and whose latter teeth are not wounded by the gentleness of the Gospel. It defends its head from harm, the one who came not to abolish the Law, but to protect it from the perfidious interpretations. He swings his tail freely like a whip, desiring to whip his adversaries rather than to destroy them. Like a good serpent, he easily slips into the lap of his beloved and, without any contact, devours the fire in their bones and consumes their very hearts.
16. It is well said today: Behold, I send you as lambs in the midst of wolves (Matt. X, 16). For we celebrate the feast of the saints, on which the bodies of the holy martyrs were revealed to the people, who like good serpents, having cast off the clothing of the flesh, having overcome the harshness of winter temptations, and renewed by the grace of the Holy Spirit, shone forth in the summer light, truly sent as lambs in the midst of wolves. The wolves are the persecutors, all the heretics are wolves: they do not know how to teach, they are accustomed to howl.
17. But let no one be moved, if he is sent in the midst of wolves. By the grace of Christ even the wolf himself is changed. The rapacious wolf Benjamin becomes the apostle Paul, no longer a plotter against the sheep of Christ, but a defender and guardian. It is pleasing to associate with this wolf: by this wolf, it happened that we are safe in the midst of wolves. No one now fears the wolves, when we are fed with them, as it is written: Then the wolf and the lamb will feed together (Isaiah 65:25).
18. (Verse 42.) But now let us consider what the Prophet says: 'And do not take away from my mouth the word of truth completely; for in your judgments I have hoped abundantly.' The Church, or the soul of the righteous, sees the Beloved leaping like a young stag upon the mountains, suddenly looking out from behind the wall of his house, gazing through the windows, appearing above the lattice. She rejoices and is glad, for she is also loved by the Bridegroom, who, wounded with the ornament of love, when first requested, comes to her kisses (for it is said: 'Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth'), and then does not reject the prayers and flattery of the Bride, praising her beloved breasts, and with kindness leads her into the inner chambers of his house. Finally, like one playing with love in a playful manner, he often goes out to be sought by the Bride, and then returns to be invited to kisses, standing behind the wall, looking out through the windows, appearing above the lattice. Thus, he is not entirely absent, nor does he enter as if entirely present, but he himself calls the Bride to himself, so that their mutual encounters may become more pleasing, and they may kindle the force of love with mutual conversations: 'Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come, my dove.'
19. And even if you have a well-founded wall, not the one in the middle that separates the parts of a house, but a building constructed on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, so that its joined structure may grow into a temple and not separate its interior, but strengthen it: if, therefore, you have within you the building of God, and your windows are always open to the east, the Word comes, and stands behind your wall (for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous), and looks through your windows. (Psalm 33:16)
20. What are these windows? We read about windows, about which Jeremiah says: 'Death entered through the windows' (Jeremiah IX, 21), through which greed entered, lust entered. Your eye is a window, death entered through your eye. If you see a woman to desire her, death entered through your eye. If you see the possession of a widow or a minor, and you desire to invade, thinking their age or sex to be defenseless (but they are not defenseless, those whom the Lord wants to be defended), death entered through the window. If you see the beauty of a woman, or the treasures of the lesser, and you arouse your desires, death enters through the window. Just as death enters through these things, life also enters. If you look upon the beauty of a young girl with sacred reverence, you will worship the Lord Jesus, who in his tender years came to the age of old age, a blameless life. And you yourself offer your daughter, so that she may be consecrated by the pious veil; if you look upon the possession of the lesser not as a greedy invader, but as a diligent parent who protects with religious affection; through these windows, Christ looks out to call the Bride, standing above the nets.
21. Excelling in goodness, because he alone is the one whom the snares of sins did not entangle. All were within the snares, in fact, we are still within the snares, because no one is without sin, except Jesus alone, whom the Father made sin for us, not knowing sin. For indeed, he delivered him to the snares, he delivered him to the nets, sending him not in sin, in which all men were, but in the likeness of sinful flesh, so that he would condemn sin in the flesh. It was a sin of the flesh, according to that, because it was condemned by hereditary curse. It was a lure and a servant of sin. The Lord Jesus came and in flesh subject to sin, he exercised the warfare of virtue. Our members have become not weapons of lust, but weapons of virtue. For where there were incentives of lust, there are now dwelling places of chastity. Therefore, he came to the snares, but voluntarily; he came to the nets, but secure.
All things were full of snares, filled with nets. Listen to the one who says: On this path on which I was walking, they hid a snare for me (Ps. 141:4). And in the book of Sirach, you are warned to know that you walk in the midst of snares (Sir. 9:20). As many vices, so many nets: as many sins, so many snares: the inherited bonds already held you captive. Jesus came to the snares, to release Adam: he came to free what had been lost. We were all held by nets, no one could rescue another, when he himself could not strip them off. Such was the necessity, therefore, of someone who, not subject to the shackles of human generation, was not affected by sins, was not seized by greed, was not bound by deceit. This person was Jesus alone, who, though surrounded by the bonds of this flesh, was not captured, was not bound: but breaking and dissolving them, he called the Church to himself even more, foreseeing that it too would learn not to be held by chains. In the end, he was not far from the bonds, so as to undergo death for us: but yet he did not become a slave of death, but a free person among the dead; for he was free, having the power to overcome death. Finally, let him teach you himself, who said: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up (John 2:19).
23. Therefore, let us listen to what he says: Arise, come, my love (Song of Solomon 2:10), that is, rise from the dead, arise from the chains with which you were surrounded. Arise, for I have risen for you: break the bond of wickedness, for I have already broken it for you. Come, for the nets are already loosed. The Virgin has given birth, the child born of the Virgin. He owes nothing to female inheritance, as if he were not bound by the bond of woman. See the middle wall of partition, which divided the harmony of internal affections and stirred up discord in bodily passions, is now broken down, Come, therefore, without worry. I desire to see your face and hear your voice. Come, so that you may see me no longer through nets, but that you may possess the beloved lover's face-to-face with his beloved. Let these ethical things be passed. But let us look, if we can, at the extreme mystery, even with a glance or a line.
But the bride was sitting inside the house, devoted to the Lord, within the wall of the Law and the prophets, founded on the construction of spiritual stones, which enclosed and fortified the royal house, full of joy and gladness. She marveled at the royal treasures, and she looked carefully, desiring to attain the wisdom that would show her these riches. She was in secret, but she sought the interpreter of her secret. The Lord Jesus came, leaping over the mountains. It seemed late to us that he was coming, but he was hurrying. Finally, he jumped and leaped over, so that he might leap over the physical and stony doctrines of the Jews. He stood behind the wall of the house, which was in the old Testament, looking through the window of the Law, through the caves of the prophets. The doors of that house were not yet open: the keys of the knowledge of the gates had not yet opened the barriers by which the internal things of the Law were closed. However, looking from above at the spiritual part, he calls it the Church; so that, rising high through the Law and the prophets, he confidently treads upon the nets of Jewish interpretation and crushes the knots with his bold step. Therefore, she is called proxima, so that she may adhere to Christ, not seeking worldly things; therefore, she is beautiful, so that she may display the beautiful feet of those who evangelize; therefore, she is a dove, so that she may seek spiritual things and leave earthly things behind.
Behold, he says, winter has passed, the rain has gone away, flowers have been seen on the earth (Song of Songs II, 11 and 12). Before the coming of Christ, there was winter: Christ came, and he made summer. Then all things were in need of flowers, devoid of virtue: Christ suffered, and all things began to be fertilized by the sprouts of new grace. The rain of dissolute luxury has gone away, and the clouds that had risen from shameful vices are now dispelled by the serene clarity of a pure conscience. Therefore, those who escape in winter do not follow the Lord's passion, do not take up their cross, and do not follow Christ. The rain hinders the flowers: but now the flowers are seen on the earth. The apostles were good flowers, who spread the fragrance of their diverse writings and works.
26. The time of harvesting has arrived (Ibid., 12); for mature grains are stored in the granaries, and the one who reaps receives wages. The voice of the turtledove has been heard (Ibid.): because it has found a nest for itself, for the Church is the house of chastity. The fig tree that was commanded to be cut down because of its barrenness has begun to bear fruit. The vine, carried out of Egypt, no longer destroyed by walls, is attacked by beasts, not by shapeless thorns anymore, but by fragrant flowers, which used to produce thorns, it now bends with the weight of grapes (Ibid., 13).
27. Therefore, rightly celebrating the Passover of the Lord, the holy David, entering the summer seasons with a fervent spirit, who gathered various fruits in the word of God, avoiding the adversity of winter, says: And do not take away from my mouth the word of truth entirely, because I have greatly hoped in your judgments. How great is the labor to understand a word? How much danger is there if you lose it? And therefore it is said to you: Do not neglect the grace that is in you (I Tim. IV, 14). Carefully cultivate your field like a good farmer, so that your lambs may graze and your crops may flourish (Prov. XXVII, 16). Do not let a word escape from your mouth; for if words do not match actions, they distort the teaching of righteousness. A word is taken away from your mouth when it is said to a sinner: Why do you recite my commandments (Psal. XLIX, 16)? And eloquence itself is silenced if conscience is sick. The birds of the sky come; they too pick up the Word from your mouth, removing the seed of the word from the rock, so that it may not bear fruit.
28. Now let us consider whether the word of truth can also be taken away from the heart. For a rooted and deeply embedded word is difficult to remove from our minds. Finally, it is said by the Lord: Why do you proclaim my justices? (Ibid.) He did not say: Why did you think of my justices? And you take my testament through your mouth? He did not say: Through your heart. Speech is restrained by an unworthy mind, not hindered by repentance. It prohibits insolence, not excludes correction. However, care must be taken so that the inner hearts themselves are not disturbed, and malice does not pour in darkness, so that the heart, blinded by empty thoughts, loses the light of truth and is unable to grasp the brilliance of the word. Therefore, if David prays that the word may not be taken away from his mouth, and if it is taken away, not completely, that is, not wholly taken away: who is so great that he can claim to have the power of grace in his own argument; especially if his life rebukes what his teaching presumes, and if he commits what deserves to be condemned by the judgment of God? For the one who hopes in the judgments of God can keep the word of truth; for while he fears punishment, he preserves grace.
And so he says: And I will always keep your law, forever and ever. He said two, when one would have been enough if he had wanted to signify one. But because the law is promised to be kept not only in the present time of this life, but also in the future after the course of this life; therefore, I think that according to those who serve the heavenly things as examples and shadows, and according to those who in the heavenly places worship God according to the true Law, it promises that they must live, so that they may keep the law here and there. Here in an example, in a mirror, in a riddle: there in the very face of truth.
30. We can also understand this; because διὰ παντός not only signifies that which is always said, but also that which is done in all things; because the one who keeps the Law in all things is the one who, being educated in the Law, born under the Law, and advancing in the degree of his devotion above the Law, is liberated from the Law (for Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law) not without the law of God, but has been received into the law of Christ: or certainly if we keep the Law in all things, if we do not exceed the legitimate discipline of childhood and youth, the conduct of our young adulthood, the maturity of old age, and the path prescribed for each stage of life by no means exceeds the use of our own life. Similarly, our souls also seem to have certain ages through which they pass and journey, so that it can say: I have finished the race (II Tim. IV, 7). Finally, that age of the soul is that of which it is said: And the age of old age is a blameless life (Wis. IV, 9). Therefore, whoever keeps the Law will not stray from it, both in the ages of our body and in the processes of our soul.
31. (Verse 45.) And I walked in spaciousness, for I sought after your testimonies. He who walks according to the commandments walks a narrow and confined path, and walks in spaciousness. From where we read: You have enlarged me in my distress (Psalm 4:2). And elsewhere: In my distress I called upon the Lord, and He heard me in spaciousness (Psalm 118:5). For the wise man walks in the innocence of his heart, and waters overflow from its source onto his streets, who does not confine his mind within earthly and physical things; but directs it towards heavenly things, so that his conduct may be in heaven. Hearing no distress, he says, 'We are under pressure, but not crushed' (2 Corinthians 4:9). And how could he be constricted when his mouth is always open? (2 Corinthians 6:11). So that believers may not be restricted? Let him explain what it means to enter into spaciousness. For he says: 'Although our bodies are under pressure, our hearts are wide open.' You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections (Ibid., 11-12).