Chapter VI.
He discusses the more perfect processes of the soul, which have been strictly repeated in the previous three movements, more extensively in the fourth. In this, the soul, while sleeping, is awakened by the groom. But while it delays in rising, the Word passes by. However, when it goes out, it finally finds, through the wounds of love, that which it has been seeking and holds on to it in such a way that it no longer loses it.
50. The soul, having drunk the intoxication of heavenly mysteries, and as if intoxicated with wine, and placed in a state of excess or stupor, says: I sleep, and my heart is awake (Song of Songs, 5:2). Then, struck by the light of the present word, with her eyes resting and bent, she is awakened by the Word. This is the fourth process of the soul. For at first, impatient of love and unable to bear the delays of the Word, she prays to be worthy of kisses, and she deserved to see the desired. Secondly, when she was also introduced into the king's chambers and engaged in mutual conversation, she rested in his shadow, and suddenly the Word departed from the midst of their conversation; however, it was not absent for long, but came forth leaping over the mountains and bounding over the hills. And not long after, like a young deer or a fawn, while addressing his beloved, he leaped forth and departed. After searching for him in her chamber, during the night, in the city, in the marketplace, and in the streets and not finding him, she finally called him back through her prayers and her charm, so that she was even called closer by her spouse. In the fourth watch of the night, she herself is awakened by him while she is sleeping, even though she was awake in her heart, so that she could constantly hear the voice of the one knocking. But after enduring a delay while she rises, because she could not comprehend the swiftness of the Word, while she opens the door, the Word passes through, and she herself goes out in his word, and through the wounds sought, but the wounds of love, she finally finds and holds onto, so that she would not later lose it. In summary, these things have been explained briefly in this discourse. (Sup. cap. 3, 4 and 5). Now let's discuss each item individually.
51. And if you sleep, if only Christ knows the devotion of your soul, he comes and knocks on its door and says: Open to me, my sister (Song of Songs V, 2). Well, sister, because the spiritual marriage is between the Word and the soul. For the soul does not know the bonds of earthly marriage and the use of physical union, but it is like the angels in heaven. Open to me, he says, but close to strangers: close to the world, close to the material things, and do not go out to those worldly matters, nor leave your light behind to seek for something foreign; for earthly light casts a dark shadow and the light of true glory cannot be seen. Therefore, open to me, do not open to the adversary, nor give place to the devil. Open yourself to me, do not be constricted, but expand, and I will fill you. And because, as I have journeyed through the world, I have found more troubles and offenses, and I have not easily found where I could rest: therefore, you open yourself, so that the Son of Man may recline his head in you, to whom there is no rest except on the humble and meek.
52. Hearing this, my soul says: Open to me . . . . that head full of dew (cf. Song of Songs 5:2), that is, that soul troubled suddenly by worldly temptations, and as if about to rise, as it was commanded to rise, says, while it gives off the smell of aloes and myrrh, the symbols of burial: I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on again (cf. Song of Songs 5:3)? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them (cf. Song of Songs 5:3)? For it fears lest it rise again into temptations, lest it return into guilt again and sin, and begin to defile its goings forth and the process of its virtues with earthly footsteps. Certainly, in this way, she indicates the perfection of her virtue, which has deserved such great love of Christ; that she may come to it, and knock at his door, and come with the Father, and dine with the same soul, and she with him, as John said in the Apocalypse (Rev. III, 20). For when she had heard in the previous verses: Come here from Lebanon, O bride, come here from Lebanon (Song of Solomon IV, 8); and when she realized that she could not be present to Christ in the flesh, but would be present then, if she were present in the spirit; conforming herself to his will, so that she may be conformed to the image of Christ, she no longer feels the burden of the flesh; she as if sheds the bond of the body; as if forgetful, and if she wishes, she cannot remember that union, she says: I have taken off my tunic, how shall I put it on again? For he took off that tunica, of flesh, which Adam and Eve received after the Fall, a tunica of corruption, a tunica of passions. How shall I put it on? It does not require putting on; but it signifies being cast off, so that it could no longer be a garment for oneself. I washed my feet, how shall I defile them? This means, I washed my footsteps, as I was going out, and as I lifted myself from the intimate bodily association, from that connection and familiarity of carnal embrace, how shall I defile them, so that they may return to the closed chamber of the body, and that gloomy prison of its passions?
53. While she was saying these things, the Word sent his operation like through a cavern, not yet face to face, sent as it were a hand: And my belly, she says, was troubled over it. And I rose up to open to my brother. My hands dropped with myrrh, my fingers with the choicest myrrh upon the handles of the lock. (Songs of Solomon 5:4-5). Let us consider what this signifies. First it seems, as I said, that God sent the Word like through a cavern, not fully and perfectly: then love is stirred up, and conception grows, and from the seeds which the soul has received in a certain intelligible womb it desires to see the whole fulness of his divinity dwelling bodily in him, as we read. He rose so that he might see that Word of God more closely. And in this very act of his, it is signified that he rose by strength and power. For the presence of the Word derived strength for the soul, just as the presence of Mary, when she was burdened with her womb, instructed John, who was situated in the womb, so much so that he leapt in the womb and rejoiced, recognizing the presence of the Lord. He rose to reveal both his works and his accomplishments, which brought death to the world. For the soul that is going to receive the Word should be such that it dies to the world and is united with Christ. For in this way Christ is found and seeks a dwelling for Himself. Then the very ministries of operations, that is, the hands and fingers with which Christ is apprehended, are mortified, which fingers, as it were, the prominence of our deeds we can estimate as works. Therefore, just as from His embrace when He extended His intelligible hands and fingers to apprehend the Word passing through Himself, the pious soul says that it had not yet passed through. And this process takes place when the Word of God passes through and penetrates the soul; for it is written: 'And a sword will pierce your own soul too, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.' (Luke 2:35) Here it is still being passed through, not yet fully penetrated: as Mary is perhaps penetrated in her later years, when the Lord Jesus is placed as a seal in her midst.
54. Finally, another departure of the Word happened immediately; because the soul left in his word, that is, his word followed and left the body, raising itself from its dwelling, and making itself a stranger to it, so that it might be present with God and be a citizen of the saints. For we cannot be both of the flesh and of God. Therefore, in this place, the departure of the soul is signified, as I have said, when it withdraws from the pleasures of the body. Finally, it is written: 'Come out of Babylon, fleeing from the Chaldeans' (Isaiah 48:20). The Hebrew does not flee from the region of Babylon, but is admonished by prophetic discourse to flee from its customs; for there are Hebrews who are in Babylon, and they teach that they have left Babylonian customs. For those of whom the Prophet says that they sat beside the rivers of Babylon, they did indeed sit in the region of Babylon, but they were not partakers of its vices and confusion. For how could they be in that confusion of vices, who wept and repented for having fallen away from the ark of devotion, faith, and the merits of their paternal virtue? But what the soul goes out upon in its search, the Word requires.
55. And when she sought for it, she encountered the guards who were going around the city. They struck me, she said, and wounded me; the guards of the walls took my cloak from me (Song of Solomon 5:7). Indeed, she came like a bride with a cloak to cover her head when the bridegroom would come. Like Rebecca, who, upon learning that Isaac was coming towards her, descended from the camel and covered herself with a cloak (Genesis 24:65): so too this bridal soul anticipated the marriage insignia, lest she be rejected as not having the bridal garment; or lest she veil her head because of the angels. But they struck her so that she might be tested even more. For souls are exercised by temptations. They took away her cloak, seeking to see if she brought true beauty of naked virtue: either because no one should enter that heavenly city without a covering, carrying no deceitful coverings with them. There are also those who ask that no soul carry with them the remains of carnal allurements and bodily desires. The cloak is stripped away when her conscience is revealed. But there is also that which is stripped bare, to whom it is allowed to imitate the one saying: 'The prince of this world is coming, and in me he will find nothing' (John 14:30); for surely in him alone is found nothing, who has not committed sin. Blessed is she in whom he does not find heavy or numerous things, but finds in her the garment of faith and the discipline of wisdom.
56. Therefore, without any loss of himself (because even if someone wants to, they cannot take away true wisdom: even if an adversary objects, there the integrity of a true and harmless conversation shines forth), without any loss therefore, he passed by the guardians, and the Word mixed with the daughters of that heavenly city seeks, and by seeking it arouses love in himself, and where it seeks the Word, it recognizes. It knows what waits among the prayers of the saints, and what clings to them, and understands how it feeds his Church, or the souls of his righteous ones among the lilies. The Lord demonstrated this mystery to you in the Gospel (Luke 6:1) when he led his disciples through the fields on the Sabbath. Moses led the people of Judea through the desert (Deuteronomy 29:5): Christ leads through the fields, Christ leads through the lilies; for through his passion the desert blooms like a lily. Let us therefore follow, so that on the Sabbath day, that great Sabbath, in which there is great rest, we may gather the fruits. Do not fear that the Pharisees will accuse those who gather in the fields. Even if they accuse him, but Christ excuses, and he makes similar those souls who follow him, David his, who above the law ate the bread of offering, already foreseeing the sacraments of the new grace prophetically (1 Samuel 21:6).