Chapter V.
The bridegroom, once again fallen from his soul in his bed at night, etc., is sought in vain; and why? Yet the same is afterwards found; how should he be held? Then, as he ascends from the wilderness with his bride, the daughters of Jerusalem admire him, and escort him to the bridal chamber with a wedding song. He also beautifies the soul itself, which is called closer with various praises.
38. The third process of the soul. But because we must always be anxious, always attentive; and because the Word of God leaps forth like a young goat, or like a fawn, the soul must always be vigilant and strive for what it seeks and desires to hold. Therefore, as if having slipped, the soul says, 'In my bed, I sought the one whom my soul loves during the nights.' Whoever seeks well, let them seek in their bed, let them seek during the nights, neither on holidays nor on nights of rest. Let no time be vacant from the duty of piety; and if it does not find it at first, let it continue in seeking. Therefore, it says: 'I will rise, therefore, and seek in the city, in the forum, in the streets' (Song of Solomon 3:2). And perhaps it has not yet found it, because it sought in the forum, where there are legal disputes; in the streets, where there are markets for the sale of goods. For Christ is not purchased with any money.
39. We can understand it in this way. In the bed, she seeks Christ, and she seeks him with tranquility, with peace. In the nights, she seeks, for he spoke in parables. For he has set darkness as his hiding place; and night reveals knowledge to night. Then, what we say in our hearts, we should be mindful of in our beds. But even so, she does not find, and therefore she says: I will rise up, that is, I will raise up, and I will lift up my intention, so that I may seek diligently, I may seek earnestly: I will enter the city. And it is the soul that says: I am a fortified city, I am a besieged city (Isaiah 27:3). It is a city fortified by Christ, it is the city of Jerusalem in heaven where the interpreters of divine law abound, and the learned in discipline: through them the Word of God is sought. Let me seek, he says, in the marketplace of that city, in that marketplace where the legal experts handle the law, where the oil is sold, which the virgins of the Gospel buy (Matthew 25:9) so that their lamps may always shine, and the smoke of iniquity may not extinguish them. I shall look, he said, in the streets where the waters overflow from those fountains, of which Solomon says they are to be drunk (Prov. V, 15).
While therefore she seeks Christ, she finds the guards who are in the ministry; from them she seeks, Song of Songs 3:3. But the soul that seeks God, even passes the guards. For there are mysteries which even the angels desire to see. Hence Peter says: They have been announced to you, he says, by those through whom they evangelized. The Holy Spirit being sent from heaven, in whom the angels desire to see, 1 Peter 1:12. Therefore, whoever passes the guards, finds the Word. John passed by, who found the Word with the Father (John 1:1).
41. There are also many who seek Christ in leisure and do not find Him, but find Him in persecutions, and quickly find Him. And therefore, as if after temptations, because He is present in the dangers of His faithful ones: 'As soon as I got away from them, it says, I found Him, I held Him, and I did not let Him go' (Song of Songs 3:4). For everyone who seeks, finds; and whoever finds, must cling, so as not to lose Him.
And since we see heavenly mysteries prefigured in the Gospel on earth, let us come to that Mary, let us come also to Magdalene. Let us consider how they sought Christ in the bed of his body, in which he lay dead, on the nights when the angel said to them: You seek Jesus who was crucified; he is not here, for he has risen. Why, therefore, do you seek the living among the dead? (Matthew 28:5 et seq.)? What do you seek in the tomb of one who is already in heaven? What do you seek in the chains of universal imprisonment, who breaks the chains? This is not a tomb, but a dwelling place. Therefore, one of them said: I sought him, but did not find him (Song of Songs 3:1).
43. However, while they were going to the apostles to announce, Jesus, having compassion on them, met them saying: Hail. But they approached and held his feet, and worshipped him (Matthew XXVIII, 9). Therefore, Jesus is held, but he delights to be held in this way, because he is held by faith. Finally, he delighted in that woman who touched him and was healed of a flow of blood, of whom he said: Someone touched me; for I perceive power going out from me (Luke VIII, 46). Touch therefore, and hold him by faith, and faithfully bind his feet; so that power may go out of him, and heal your soul. And if he says: Do not touch me (John 20:17): you hold him; For I have not yet ascended to my Father, he said once. He said: Do not touch me, when he rose again: or perhaps he said to her what she thought was taken by theft, and not raised by his own power. Lastly, in another book you have, that to those who held his feet and adored, he said: Do not be afraid (Matthew 28:10). Therefore, hold on to your soul, just as Mary held on, and say: I held him, and I will not let him go (Song of Solomon 3:4), just as they both said: Let us hold on to you. Go to the Father, but do not abandon Eve, lest she fall again. Lead her with you, no longer wandering, but holding on to the tree of life. Take her clinging to your feet, so that she may ascend with you: do not let me go, lest the serpent once again release its venom, lest it seek again to bite the trace of the woman, so as to overthrow Adam. Say, therefore, to your soul: I hold you, and I will lead you into the house of my mother, and into her secret place, who conceived me; that I may know your mysteries, that I may draw from your sacraments. Receive, therefore, Eve, now no longer covered with fig leaves, but clothed with the holy Spirit, and adorned with new grace; for now she is not hidden as if naked, but shines forth as if surrounded by the splendor of a shining garment, because grace clothes her. But neither was Adam naked at first when innocence clothed him (On Penance, Distinction 2, Chapter But neither was Adam).
Seeing therefore the daughters of Jerusalem cleaving to Christ and still ascending with Him (for He deigns frequently to meet with them who seek Him, and to descend to raise them), they say: Who is this that ascendeth from the desert? (Cant. III, 6) For this desert place of the earth appears rough and uncultivated, covered with the thistles and thorns of our sins. They marvel, indeed, how a soul which was formerly abandoned in hell, can cleave to the Word of God and ascend like a shoot of the vine, raising itself above, as it were smoke that rises up from the fire, and reaching high, and moreover being inflamed with good works. But that smell of pious prayer gives off a pleasant fragrance, which rises up like incense in the sight of God. And in the Apocalypse we read that: Smoke from the incense rises up from the prayers of the saints (Apoc. VIII, 4), which are offered up by an angel, namely the prayers of the saints, on that golden altar which is before the throne of God, and like the sweet fragrance of pious prayer, it burns as an ointment; because it is composed not of requests for temporal and visible things, but especially of myrrh and incense, because it is dead to sins and alive to God.
So, seeing her ascend and not resist, and delighted with the fragrance of her merits, recognizing her as the peaceful bride of that Solomon, they also diligently accompany her to the bed of Solomon; for true rest is owed to her in Christ. The bed of the saints is Christ, in which the weary hearts of all rest from worldly battles. It is on this bed that Isaac rested and blessed his younger son, saying: 'The older shall serve the younger.' Reclining on this bed, Jacob blessed the twelve Patriarchs. Reclining on this bed, the daughter of the chief synagogue rose from death. Lying on this bed, the deceased widow, called by the voice of Christ, dissolved the bonds of death.
46. Therefore, when the bride reaches the rest of the bridegroom, they sing a wedding song, saying to the daughters of Jerusalem: Go forth and see King Solomon, in the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding (Cant. III, 11). They sing the wedding hymn and invite the other powers of heaven, or souls, to see the love that Christ has for the daughters of Jerusalem. Hence, he merited to be crowned by his mother as the son of charity, as Paul shows, saying: For he has delivered us from the power of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son (Coloss. I, 13). The Son of Charity is himself Charity, not having charity from accidents but always having it in his substance as a kingdom, of which he says: 'I was born for this' (John 18:37). And so they say: 'Go forth,' that is, go out from the worries and thoughts of the world, go out from bodily afflictions, go out from the vanities of the world, and see how the peaceful king has charity on the day of his wedding; how glorious he is, because he has given resurrection to bodies and has united souls to himself. This is the great crown of the contest, this is the glorious gift of the espousals of Christ, his blood and passion. For what could he have given more, who did not even spare himself, and offered his own life for us in death?
47. The Lord Jesus himself, also delighted by the faith of this soul, her confession, grace, and praised merits, calls her closer, saying: Come here from Lebanon, my bride, come here from Lebanon: you will pass through and cross over from the beginning of faith from the head of Sanyr and Hermon, from the lion's dens, from the mountains of leopards (Songs 4:8) - that is, leave the body and shed it entirely. For you cannot be with me unless you first journey away from the body; for those who are in the flesh are journeying away from the kingdom of God. Come, he says, come. He has reviewed well, because whether present or absent, you must be present and please your Lord God. Be present, be absent, even though you are still in the body. For to me, all who are present are, whose faith is with me. He is present to me, who came out of the world. He is present to me, who thinks of me, looks at me, hopes for me, for whom I am a part. He is present to me, who has been absent to himself. He is present to me, who has denied himself. He is with me, who is not within himself; because he who is in the flesh is not in the spirit. He is with me, who comes forth from himself. He is beside me, who has gone beyond himself. He is whole to me, who has lost his soul for my sake. And so, come, bride, come, you will pass from the beginning of faith. She passes and passes through lands, and passes through what reaches Christ. She passes rightly by faith, and by the clarity of deeds, which shine like Sanyr and Hermon, that is, the way of the lamp passes by the conquered temptations of the world, and the spiritual wickednesses overcome, seeking the rightful crown of the contest; and so she deserved to be praised by Christ the judge.
48. My sister, my spouse, is a closed garden, a closed garden, a sealed fountain. Your springs are a paradise of pomegranates with fruits from Cyprus (Song of Solomon 4:12). The bride is praised because she is a garden, filled with the fragrance of that field, of which Isaac says: The smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed (Genesis 27:27). Therefore, a virtuous soul exudes the odor of righteousness. And perhaps the field is the Patriarch; the garden is the soul of someone lower, like a portion of the field; and the closed garden, so as not to be invaded by beasts; and the sealed fountain, which, by the integrity of the seal and the perseverance of faith, washes away its own sins. What the Church receives, it has to refer to the grace of virginity, because in the paradise of delight it receives spiritual fruits without labor, so that the souls of the patriarchs, through a kind of rural labor, may contribute their fruits to it, enabling it to enjoy perpetual sweetness. It is rightly called a sealed fountain because the invisible image of God is expressed in it. They also praise the gifts of the soul that were sent by the bridegroom, with which she came endowed. But the souls of the pious are good odors, myrrh, aloes, saffron, by which the grace of gardens breathes, and the stench of sins is abolished.
And so, after the dry proclamation, it seeks the heavy north wind, so that it may not scatter the flowers, the breeze blows gently, that is, it wants to pass through winter, and to enjoy the milder breezes of spring. It invites the groom into its garden. The groom descends, and delighted by the diversity of its fruits, he rejoices that he has found a stronger food, he has also found a sweeter one. For it is like a certain bread of the word, and honey: one speech is more forceful, another more persuasive. And there is another faith, more ardent, like wine: another, more clear, like the juice of milk. Christ feasts on this food within us, drinks this cup, and by the intoxication of his drink, he incites us to surpass lower things and strive for better and best things.