Chapter VII.
The soul is praised by the groom because he has sought her so well and steadfastly: because she is faithful, because she is powerful in word, because she is gentle as a dove; finally, because she is fruitful in virtues and free from vices.
Therefore, she is praised by the bridegroom because she has sought him so well and steadfastly (Cant. VI, 3); and therefore, she is not only called sister, but also named well-pleasing, as if she is pleasing to the one who pleased the Father; and beautiful like Jerusalem, like an ordered admiration, because she has all the mysteries of the city, and she is an admiration to all who see her; because she is full of equity and perfection, and she borrows radiance from the light of the Word, always fixing her gaze on it; and she also becomes terrible in a certain order, elevated to the highest level of virtues. And therefore, as if perfect, he says: Turn your eyes away from me, do not look at me with hostility (Ibid., 4), with excessive devotion and faith surpassing the possibility of nature and its own condition, because it is difficult to behold an inaccessible light from the region. Turn your eyes away, he says, from me; because it cannot endure the fullness of his divinity and the splendor of true light. However, we can also understand it in this way: Turn your eyes away from me. You are indeed perfect, but there are still other souls that need to be redeemed and supported. You lift me up by seeing me: however, I have descended so that I may lift everyone up. And even though I have risen and have a seat with the Father, I will not leave you, like orphans abandoned without paternal support, but with my presence I will strengthen you. In the Gospel it is written: Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the world (Matthew 23:20). Therefore, turn your eyes away from me, because you lift me up. For as much as someone directs their intention towards the Lord, they elevate the Lord even more, and they themselves are elevated. Hence, he says: I will exalt you, O Lord, for you have lifted me up (Psalm 29:1). For the holy person exalts the Lord, while the sinner humbles Him. Therefore, He wishes to avert her gaze, so that by not contemplating what she can now follow towards higher things, she may be elevated and not abandon other souls. Hence, in the Gospel, He showed His glory not to all the disciples, but to the more perfect ones (Matthew 17:1). Now, appoint a certain teacher who is willing to explain a difficult matter to the listeners: how, even though he may be powerful in speech and knowledge, he will condescend to the ignorance of those who do not understand and use a simple, clearer, and more familiar speech so that it can be understood. Therefore, whoever among the listeners is more lively in understanding, who can easily follow, he elevates and excites him. Seeing this, the teacher calls him back so that he may allow the teacher to dwell more with the humble and simpler, so that others may also be able to follow.
58. As the Eagle says: When sounding, it refers to the one who has been revealed, attributing his sounding to something worthy of admiration, as if it has great and sonorous works. Revealed, referring to the clarity of his works; or because his works shine before the Father who is in heaven. Hence, you understand that his cloak was not taken away in vain, so that it may shine openly, stripped of merits and naked.
Furthermore, it is praised because it is faithful, powerful in word, fruitful in various fruits, and like a dove with a unity of spirit in which there is peace, which made both one. And it is not composed of diverse elements of conflicting and opposing nature. For what is more different than fire and water, air and earth, from which the creature of our body is composed? But every blessed soul that imitates the one who said: 'That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.' For this is the consummation and perfection. Hence he added: That they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me; that they may be made perfect in one (John, 17:23). Therefore, this soul is one and perfect like a dove, which is simple and spiritual, and is not troubled by the passions of this body, where external battles rage and fears abound within. Finally, Scripture teaches us that this word of unity signifies harmony and peace, saying: And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither did any one say that aught of the things which he possessed was his own (Acts, 4:32).
60. The soul is praised for its fruitful nature, not only because it is fruitful in virtues, but also because it has no evil within itself. For that is honorable and beautiful in which there is no evil. For what is honorable is good, and what is dishonorable is evil. Fruitfulness is the beauty of good works, so sterility is contrary to beauty, since one who is deprived of beauty or attractiveness has evil within them. And what is evil is barren and unfruitful. What evidence could be more clear than nature? For the Earth, which is good, is fertile and abundant, while what is bad is barren and sterile. And what is fertile, that is also beautiful. For what is more beautiful than a full field, with crops swaying, fruit ripening, and vines laden with grapes, or olive trees bending under the weight of their fruit, or the lowly hills and valleys adorned with green grass? And let us use the testimony of Scripture (Gen. XXVII, 27): Jacob was handsome, and therefore the fragrance of a full field was upon him; while Esau was hairy and unattractive (Ibid., 11), and therefore he was rural, unable to bear any fruits. And of the Lord Himself, after He made the Church fruitful, it is beautifully said: The Lord has reigned, He has put on beauty (Ps. 92:1). And elsewhere: You have put on confession and beauty (Ps. 103:2). Therefore, it is clear that beauty is what is fruitful; ugliness, what is unfruitful. The same is the case with the soul alone; because that soul is beautiful which is fruitful in merits, fruitful in counsels: that soul is ugly which is sterile. For the weaknesses of the soul are sterility and matter; for sterility deprives it of its fruits, brings about poverty, instills fear, feeds desires, and empty opinions: thus the soul falls. What then is wickedness, if not a lack of goodness? It is deprived of its own, and relies on others, it is emptied and filled without any measure or limit. However, material vices overshadow the grace of the soul. Ignorance and desire of the soul are diseases: but they pertain more to appearance than to matter. Matter is the flesh, appearance is ignorance and desire. Why then is the flesh accused, when there are such great blemishes in appearance? Because appearance cannot exist without matter. Finally, appearance alone does not make a hatchet. For what would desire be, if the flesh did not inflame it? It is cold in the old, in children as well, because their body is weak: it burns in the youth in whom the force of the body is boiling. Therefore, evil arises from good things; for evil is not actually evil unless it lacks good things (see St. Augustine, Ibid.). However, it is through evil that good things become prominent. Therefore, the absence of good is the source of evil, and the definition of good includes evil, since evil is found through the discipline of good. Good, however, lacks nothing, abounds in itself, provides measure and perfection, and also gives a purpose to everything, upon which everything depends. This is the nature of good, which fills the mind.
61. The pure soul revolves around this, contemplates it, and sees God, and abounds in all good things. Therefore, it says: The throat sweetens, and the whole desire (Songs of Solomon 5, 16). For God is the author of all good things, and whatever exists, all of it indeed belongs to Him. There is no evil there; and if our mind remains in Him, it knows no evil. Therefore, the soul that does not remain in God is the author of evil for itself; thus, it sins: but the soul that sins, it itself will die. For when virtuous bonds are released, one is carried headlong and falls to lower things. But the blessed soul, which no adversities of the body can conquer, is free. This soul, like a sparrow with a broken snare, flies away. For the pleasures of the body are the bait of evils. Whoever seeks these, ensnares his own soul.
But whoever restrains himself from her vices and comes out of her darkness, his soul shines like the dawn, of which it is said: 'Who is she that looks as the dawn, fair as the moon?' (Song of Solomon 6:9) For she looks forth as from a free house. She does not say: 'Darkness covers me, and walls surround me, and who knows if the Most High sees me?' (Ecclesiasticus 23:26) But she rather seeks the light as if from the higher parts of her house, that is, her own body, and, being placed above the world, she contemplates the divine and elevates herself to eternal things, so that she may be present with God, already carrying the light of her works like the moon, carrying her orbit throughout the whole world.
But what the Eagle says: Resounding like the sun, it seems to express the rotation of the celestial axis, the courses of the sun, moon, and stars, and the harmony of the spheres: it seems so to some of our own people as well; since they do not find faith, at least they do not seem to be estranged on account of the sweetness of it.