Chapter 4
[Song of Solomon 4:1] -- How beautiful you are, my friend! etc. He said that the Church is beautiful, repeating it because he saw it to be commendable both in action and in preaching. Clearly in action, by which it ascends to him through the desert, like a column of smoke from aromatics; in preaching, however, by which it strives to bring even its neighbors into its fellowship, saying: Go forth and see, daughters of Zion, King Solomon. And rightly, first by action, then by preaching, according to the example, namely, of him, of whom it is written, "All that Jesus began to do and to teach" (Acts I).
[Song of Solomon 4:1] -- Your eyes are those of doves, etc. Your senses are lofty and venerable in the contemplation of spiritual matters, by which you also deserved to see and recognize my gifts, which you recently expounded; my diadem, which you preached. For, as we mentioned above, the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove, and thus the name of that spiritual grace is fittingly signified.
[Song of Solomon 4:1] -- Without that which lies hidden within. Without the invisible reward in the heavens, which in your pilgrimage on earth you are not yet able to see. For this is the greater beauty of glory, which cannot be worthily evaluated at present. And beautifully, where he praises the simplicity of her eyes, that is, the knowledge of what is hidden in her, he also calls her a friend, according to the Lord's words: "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have heard from my Father I have made known to you" (John XV).
[Song of Solomon 4:1] -- Your hair is like a flock of goats, etc. If the sharpness of the spiritual senses is rightly understood in the eyes of the bride, the purity of countless general thoughts can not inappropriately be recognized in the hair, which in the saints, even though sometimes undertaken for the administration of temporal things, are never separated from the intention of heavenly matters. For it is written that Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in Asia. He was hurrying, if possible, to be in Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost (Acts 20). Here, he was indeed occupied with such thoughts regarding the earthly journey; but he was undertaking the earthly journey with the intention of a heavenly reward. This must also be understood about the trade of tent-making, which he practiced with Aquila and Priscilla, for the thoughts with which they fulfilled it were indeed temporal, but the gaze was fixed on the eternal, so that by this earthly work they might support the ministry of the Gospel, which was heavenly. Thus, the hair of the bride is aptly compared to the flocks of goats that ascended from Mount Gilead. These are clean animals and are accustomed to climbing the heights of cliffs or trees for the sake of seeking food, because evidently, the thoughts of the elect, as we said, even though they engage in earthly matters, nonetheless aim at heavenly things, and even when they care for the needs of the flesh, they direct the sharpness of the mind rather towards the well-being of the soul and the heavenly nourishment. Moreover, in the eyes of the bride, the preachers of the Holy Church can also be understood, through whom the hidden secrets of heavenly mysteries, which the general multitude of believers does not see, are revealed. In the hair, the faithful people can also be understood, who, although they are less skilled in overseeing and governing the steps of the Church, nonetheless provide it with great honor through their numerous acts of obedience. Of these things, the Lord Himself, when preaching to the disciples sent to preach, said, "You will be hated by all because of my name;" he immediately added by consolation, "Not a hair from your head will perish" (Luke 12). This is to say plainly: although the hate of persecutors rages, they cannot even seize your slightest, namely your head, from among those who belong to me. Hair, in this context, is aptly compared to herds of goats; for sinners are customarily designated by goats; and since the entire Church truly acknowledges that it cannot be free from sin, how much more must those who are in a common life do this, because we all offend in many ways (James 3)! Therefore, the faithful have sin, but they nonetheless strive through daily advances of good works toward that life where they may be free from all sin. For this reason, it is aptly added about those same goats: "Which ascended from Mount Gilead:" for they dwell indeed on the mystical mount, all who are united to the body of their Redeemer. But the goats ascended the same mount, seeking the upper parts of the mount to graze, as they who are humble and conscious of their sins and frailty, fired by the very fear of their weakness, always strive to lift themselves up to the pastures of heavenly life in Christ. Indeed, we read in the Book of Numbers and Chronicles that Mount Gilead had very good and abundant pastures. This aptly fits that very high and very fruitful mountain from which the city itself, which is built on it, that is, the holy Church, is wont to say: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want; in a place of pasture, there he has placed me" (Psalm 22). The name of the mountain itself is also pertinent, being called "a heap of testimony." For the Lord is the heap of testimony, because in Him is gathered and united all the multitude of the saints, namely the living stones, who have been proved by the testimony of faith, as the Apostle says. Thus, the hair of the bride is compared to flocks of goats, which, grazing on this mount, always strive to ascend to higher places, because whether the temporal thoughts of the elect or the more fragile people of the Church, the less they find themselves to be free from fault, the higher they seek the help of Him from whom they understand themselves to be liberated.
[Song of Solomon 4:2] -- Your teeth are like a flock of shorn sheep, etc. Just as in the hair of the Church, the people who are still dedicated to more fragile deeds are designated, in the teeth, the more perfect ones and those suited for governing the Church are denoted, because the former excel in number, the latter in firmness; the former inwardly refresh with the word, the latter, even if they grasp less of the internal mysteries, adorn the Church externally with good works. Is not he rightly called the shepherd of the Church, of whom it was said: "Rise, Peter, kill and eat" (Acts 10)? Kill, by teaching to anathematize what they worshipped in their evil ways, and graft them, having returned to the profession of true faith, into the unity of your body, which is the Church of Christ? Indeed, above, these same teachers were designated under the name of eyes; but they are eyes, because they sharply perceive the secrets of spiritual mysteries; they are teeth, because they rebuke the wicked with the word of truth and transfer those rebuked and purified into the holy members of the Church. They are the teeth of the Church, because they prepare the bread of the word of God for its little ones, to whom they themselves are not sufficient to be eaten. Pious nurses are accustomed to chew pieces of bread with their teeth and insert the small morsels into the mouths of infants while nursing, until they gradually lead them away from milk to the use of bread; thus the holy mother Church has teachers who, like breasts, minister the milk of milder doctrine to beginners; these same teachers also provide the bread of stronger word to those who are well progressing. But in order to rightly advance, it is necessary for them to gradually and by parts provoke to learn higher things, and first entrust more open things concerning spiritual secrets to them, and these discussed with careful and diligent exposition, as if already chewed beforehand by teeth, so that by doing this repeatedly, they gradually render them capable of the more interior secrets. These teeth are rightly compared to a flock of shorn sheep that have come up from the washing, because they are cleansed by the font of baptism and stripped of their possessions. And indeed, it is for all to be purified by the washing of Christ's life, because unless one is born of water and the Spirit, and the rest (John 3), it is for the perfect, and especially those to whom the care of feeding his sheep is entrusted, to renounce all that they possess. Which, both those first and foremost teeth of the Church, that is, the apostles, and a great crowd of the primitive Church, are recorded to have done.
[Song of Solomon 4:2] -- All bear twin offspring, etc. The sheep of Christ bear twin offspring, because all whom the holy teachers bring to God through preaching, they instruct in the twin love of the same God and neighbor. They bear twins, because they imbue the disciples whom they instruct with the knowledge of faith and good works. And there is none barren among them: there is no sheep of the supreme shepherd which does not produce offspring of good work; among whom there are many who rejoice in the offspring of both work and doctrine. But neither will those be counted among the barren who, washed by the fountain of salvation, are immediately taken from this life. For they have had the offspring of faith, which either they professed for themselves, or others professed for them; they have had the desire for good works, which they would have exercised among the sheep of Christ, if they had been granted more time. Concerning such it is written: "Being made perfect in a short time, he fulfilled long times" (Wis. 4:13). For his soul was pleasing to God; therefore He hastened to take him away from iniquity (Ibid.).
[Song of Solomon 4:3] -- Like a scarlet ribbon, your lips, etc. The lips of the bride are compared to scarlet because the Church ceaselessly proclaims the price of the Lord's blood by which it was redeemed; but it continually sings: But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians XIV). And it should be noted that her lips are compared not simply to scarlet, but to a scarlet ribbon: for a ribbon is typically used to bind the hair. If by the hair of the bride the faithful people are understood, the ribbon that binds them and fits them more properly to the head, what else is it understood to be but the doctrine of truth? With which it is necessary to confirm the immature minds of believers and diligently apply them to the love and worship of their Creator, lest the wicked roam freely through idle acts and flee from the embrace or adornment of the true head, lest they impede even the eyes, that is, those who ought to show them the light of justice, by undue relaxation. Just as the good deeds of disciples sometimes become an example of virtue for teachers, so more often their neglect causes harm to the teachers' good actions. Therefore, he says, like a scarlet ribbon, your lips, and your speech is sweet, because the Church customarily fortifies and as it were dyes its doctrine, which restrains the minds of the weak from licentiousness, with the memory of the Lord's passion. For nothing more effectively restrains the voluptuous from carnal desires than when they hear or recall that the Lord of glory was pleased to be incarnate and suffer for them. Hence rightly the Lord considers such speech sweet because he very gladly accepts it when he sees us recount and meditate on this to one another, for the sake of which he himself came down to us from heaven. If we say that thoughts are represented by hair and spiritual senses of the faithful by eyes, the end of the exposition is the same: because we restrain the unrestrained wandering of superfluous thoughts by no other order more easily than by the memory and frequent recollection of the Lord’s blood. But also, often when we entertain harmful thoughts with an incautious mind, and are suddenly checked by God, we imprint the sign of the holy cross on our breast and discard what we were contemplating wickedly, as if binding our hair with a scarlet ribbon, because we suppress the loose thoughts with the trophy of sacred blood. If this salutary binding is lacking, they sully the whole beauty of the head by drifting, because they disturb the tranquillity of the mind and cover the sharpness of the eyes, because they obscure the grace of spiritual senses with the improper meditation of carnal things.
[Song of Solomon 4:3] -- Like a fragment of a pomegranate, etc. We have also previously taught that shame is designated by the cheeks, because surely a sudden blush usually spreads over these when we are embarrassed. However, the pomegranate, because it is of a rosy color, quite fittingly hints at the mystery of the Lord's Passion, just as does the scarlet. For it was fitting that the manner of our redemption is indicated frequently in sacred song by the repetition of figures, as also intimated in other prophetic Scriptures. Therefore, because the holy Church is not ashamed of the cross of Christ, but even rejoices in the reproaches and sufferings for Christ, and usually carries the banner of his cross on her face, it is fittingly remembered that her cheeks are like a pomegranate fragment. Nor is it inconsequential that they are compared not to an entire pomegranate but to a fragment; for in a broken pomegranate, both the part of the redness that was exposed is seen, and the part that lay hidden inside, whiteness, is revealed. Thus, the bride has the redness of a pomegranate on her cheeks when the Church confesses the sacrament of the Lord's cross in words. She also shows the whiteness of the broken pomegranate when she proves the chastity of a pure heart through being struck by pressures and deeds, just as the cross itself of her Redeemer reveals what it holds within of saving grace. Again, she shows the red color on her cheeks when the foremost and most eminent of her members, that is, the holy martyrs, shed their blood for Christ. She also adds the white when these same martyrs, during their suffering or after completing their passion, shine forth even with miracles. Nor should we overlook that the pomegranate encloses a great abundance of seeds within one outer peel, whence it is also called the apple of seeds, which indeed cannot be seen when the pomegranate is whole, but become clear how numerous they are when it is broken. So indeed the holy Church, the more she is broken by adversities, the more clearly she reveals how many grains of virtues she embraces under the covering of one faith. And rightly it is added: Besides that which lies hidden within, because indeed the confession of the life-giving cross in the Church can be heard by all, the pressures on the Church can be seen by all; also the brilliance of charisms, which heals the sick, raises the dead, cleanses lepers, drives out demons, and other such things can be viewed by both infidels and the faithful, they can also be marveled at. But she alone knows with what love of invisible life she is held, with what flame she burns in the vision of her Creator, with what love she ignites in the progress of her members.
[Song of Solomon 4:4] -- As the tower of David, your neck, etc. And we have said above about the neck, which signifies the holy teachers who continuously enrich the Church by nourishing it with spiritual sustenance and strengthen it in faith through the words of holy exhortation. But also, the fact that the neck, positioned in the middle, connects the head to the body, aptly suits those through whose ministry the Church is united to Christ, who handed down the nourishment of life received from the Lord Himself. The Apostle, commending the grace of the Gospel, says about them: "Which at first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him" (Hebrews 2). Hence, it is written about Him: "And He gave to the disciples the loaves, and the disciples gave them to the crowds; and they all ate and were satisfied" (Matthew 14). This was done in such a corporal manner to signify also the spiritual acts of the Lord, because evidently, He entrusted the bread of heavenly doctrine to the first members of His Church, namely the apostles, who then served it to the body of the Church subjected to them, and thus succeeded by ministers of the word in order, the full nourishing of salvation was spread throughout the world. That neck is rightly said to be like the tower of David. If the city of David is the Church of Christ, the tower in that city is the unassailable constancy of the preachers who, to defend the edifices of faith and repel the weapons of enemies, were built with higher strength than other believers from the strong hand and beloved king, which the name David signifies. The bulwarks with which this tower is constructed are understood to be either the sacred Scriptures or the defenses of divine gifts. For He compared the neck of the bride to a tower, when the Lord made the first teachers of the Church, with the grace of the Holy Spirit given, invincible to their enemies. He added bulwarks to the tower when He opened their understanding to comprehend the Scriptures (Luke 24), and proved true the words of their preaching against the sayings of the preceding fathers. He added bulwarks to the tower when He also bestowed upon them the gifts of performing signs, so that by new works of miracles they might assert the divine nature of the new things they preached, and through the healing of bodily diseases, they might more easily attract those they taught to the salvation of the soul.
[Song of Solomon 4:4] -- A thousand shields hang from it, etc. The thousand shields hanging from the tower of David are innumerable defenses of divine protection, by which the holy preachers are assisted by the Lord so that they cannot be overcome by enemies, and they also teach their listeners to be helped against the attacks of enemies, whether visible or invisible. All the armor of the mighty is every instruction or operation or heavenly doctrine, through which these same teachers not only evade but also overcome the ranks of evil spirits, when by preaching they rescue many of those whom they had held deceived from their dominion, and transfer them from vessels of wrath into vessels of mercy; and fittingly, where there is mention of spiritual war, there the tower of David, not the tower of Solomon, is set as an example, since the name and person of both kings often represents the figure of the eternal king: for David means strong in hand, or desirable to see, and rightly by this name is designated the Lord, where it is taught to fight against the enemies of the Church, so that it proceeds to the combat unafraid, reminded that it is aided by Him who cannot be overcome, and strives more urgently to conquer the more it knows His face to be desirable to see, to which it will come when the enemy is defeated.