Song of Solomon 8 · The Lantern

Bride to Groom: Who will give you to me as my brother, feeding from the breasts of my mother, so that I may discover you outside, and may kiss you, and so that now no one may despise me?

Thus the God of all, after the manner of wise Solomon, distributes everything in time and season, to the end that, at the right time, the salvation of humankind should be everywhere spread abroad.

Here are shown many infancies in her, from which we ought to learn. First, it was the Creator of everything that is born from the union of masculine and feminine who fabricated a body from a virgin without the assistance of a man. Next, no sin is congenital to humankind, since it comes forth surrounded by the truth of the flesh and free from stain.

Placed under the old Law, she awaited Christ, and ardently desired him who remained in the secret of the Father to come forth through the flesh to human eyes. Whence David too, in his longing, said: 'Arise, and do not reject us forever' (Ps. 43:23). And elsewhere: 'Bow your heavens and descend' (Ps. 144:5).

I will take hold of you and lead you into my mother’s house. There you will teach me, and I will give you a cup of spiced wine, and of new wine from my pomegranates.

Again, referring to the wine mingled with myrrh, the Canticle says, "I will give you a cup of spiced wine."

"I shall lead you into my mother's house and into the chamber of the one who conceived me." Now, what is the house of the all-holy Spirit (of whom the bride was born, after all) if not the divine temple, which resembles the Jerusalem on high, where they enter to speak with the bridegroom, having received the status of bride?

She leads the one she has seized into the house of her mother, because the Synagogue at the end of the world will preach Christ, in whom she believes; and when he has been received through the preaching of the Church, there he will teach the Church: because she will rejoice to be taught, when she sees the Synagogue, now made the same body, being instructed together with her.

His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.

Groom to Chorus: I bind you by oath, O daughters of Jerusalem, not to disturb or awaken the beloved, until she wills.

Chorus to Groom: Who is she, who ascends from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved?

She ascends leaning on the Word of God. For those who are more perfect recline upon Christ, just as John also was reclining at Jesus' bosom. So then she either rested in Christ or reclined upon him or even—since I am speaking of a marriage—as if already given into the power of Christ, she was led to the bridal couch by the bridegroom.

Under the apple tree, I awakened you, etc. The apple tree most aptly symbolizes the wood of the holy cross, on which He deigned to hang for the salvation of all; about which the Church said above in praise, "As an apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons." Under the apple tree, therefore, the Lord awakened the Synagogue, which He recalled from et…

When these senses have been recovered, while the soul sees and hears, smells, tastes, and embraces its spouse, it can sing as a bride the Song of Songs, which was composed for the exercise of contemplation according to this fourth degree, which no one grasps unless he receives it, because it consists more in affective experience than in rational consideration.

Groom to Bride: Under the apple tree, I awakened you. There your mother was corrupted. There she who bore you was violated.

And since you are worthy to be compared not now with humans but with heavenly beings, whose life you are living on earth, receive from the Lord the precepts you are to observe: "Set me as a signet upon your heart, and as a seal upon your arm." [Thus] clearer proofs of your prudence and actions may be set forth, in which Christ the figure of God may shine, who, equaling fully th…

"Stern as death is love." Love is compared with the sternness of death, for, doubtless, once it comes, it summons the mind completely away from the love of the world. Accordingly, abbots must be such that they may perfectly love God and their neighbor; they must have their eyes removed from the evil desires of this world, as Adam did in paradise before the fall.

Such love divides, puts to sleep, and lifts up. It divides, since it cuts away from any other love because of the single love for the Spouse; it puts to sleep and appeases all the powers and imposes silence; it lifts up, since it leads to God. And so man is as dead, wherefore it is said: "Love is strong as death," because it cuts away from all things.

Set me like a seal upon your heart, like a seal upon your arm. For love is strong, like death, and envy is enduring, like hell: their lamps are made of fire and flames.

Though weak in body the women were courageous in spirit. "Many waters cannot quench charity, neither can floods drown it." He whom they sought was dead, but their hope of the resurrection was not quenched.

Many waters could not extinguish love, etc. He calls the many waters and the rivers the onslaught of temptations, which either visibly or invisibly do not cease to attack the souls of the faithful: for they attempt to overcome them both through open adversaries of faith, and through false brethren, and through the hidden snares of the ancient enemy; yet they are not able in any…

Furthermore, this charity gives to the soul a fire. Hence, in the Canticle, "Set me as a seal on your heart... for stern as death is love," when it loves to such a degree that it is totally carried up to the supremely desirable, and sees prosperity as nothing, and adversity as nothing, since all things are like a single straw in a furnace.

A multitude of waters cannot extinguish love, nor can a river overwhelm it. If a man were to give all the substance of his house in exchange for love, he would despise it as nothing.

It is the holy authors who were celebrated in the Old Testament who see the bride's spiritual youth and the immaturity and inconspicuous condition of her breasts. In their capacity as go-betweens and marriage brokers [they] say among themselves, "The king is now on the point of taking our sister as his bride, but she is small and without breasts.

Our little sister, etc. And this is addressed by the Lord to the Synagogue, admiring the faith or reception of the Church of the Gentiles; with great dispensation, calling her their sister, that is, both His and the Synagogue's, so that the same Synagogue may recollect that the presence of its Creator was made through grace, and that it may rejoice more and more for the additio…

Christ calls the Church His sister, because He said of the apostles themselves: "Go, tell My brothers" (Matt. 28:10). But the little sister did not have breasts when the Church existed only in the apostles, in whom she could not nourish herself or others with the milk of preaching (Matt. 26).

Chorus: Our sister is little and has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is called upon?

If she is a wall, let us build a rampart of silver upon it. If she is a door, let us join it together with boards of cedar.

Bride to Chorus: I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers, since, in his presence, I have become like one who has discovered peace.

The vineyard which, it says, was given to the spiritual Solomon is surely the church. And we have already said that Baal-hamon means "in believers." For who believed, apart from those who accepted his commandments?

He entrusted it to the keepers, etc. For the keepers of the Church are the prophets, the keepers are the apostles, the keepers are the successors of the prophets and apostles, who in different ages of the world were given to its governance by divine command; the keepers are the heavenly host of the military, who at all times during the passing of the age take care for the state…

He himself is said to be our Peaceful One, because through him all the human race is reconciled to God. This Peaceful One had a vineyard, because in the labor of carnal precepts he planted the Synagogue, of which it is said: "The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel" (Isaiah 5:7).

The peaceful one had a vineyard, in that which held the peoples. He handed it on to the caretakers; a man brought, in exchange for its fruit, a thousand pieces of silver.

Groom: My vineyard is before me. The thousand is for your peacefulness, and two hundred is for those who care for its fruit.

Bride to Groom: Your friends are attentive to those who have been dwelling in the gardens. Cause me to heed your voice. Flee away, my beloved, and become like the doe and the young stag upon the mountains of aromatic plants.

Christ, detested by coiling snakes and beset by reptiles crawling on the earth, flees from the barren plain; he knows no dwelling except the heights of virtue; he knows no home except among those daughters of the church who can say, "We are a sweet fragrance of Christ to God." For some indeed, it is an odor of death, leading to death, for those who perish; but to others, it is…

Flee, my beloved, etc. This phrase can rightly be understood both concerning the triumph of the Lord's ascension and concerning those things which occur daily in the Church. For the beloved flees after speaking to the bridegroom and his sister, because, having completed the dispensation of our Redemption, he returned to the heavens.

The beloved flees, because he hides himself from reprobate hearts so that he may not be understood by them. For when reprobate minds approach the hearing or reading of God's words with perverse intention, by a just judgment they do not find the truth which they do not seek with a worthy desire.

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