Song of Solomon 5 · The Lantern

I am come into my garden, my sister, [my] spouse; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, beloved ones!

The place of his burial was a garden.… What is he going to say who was buried in the garden? "I gather my myrrh, and my spices"; and again, "Myrrh and aloes with all the finest spices." These were the tokens of his burial, and in the Gospels it is said, "The women came to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared," and "there also came Nicodemus, bringing a mixture of myrrh…

I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey, etc. Those who in sacred writings seek the sweetness of spiritual insights and know how to elucidate them through preaching for the salvation of listeners are compared to the honeycomb. Those who eagerly taste the prepared meals of the word and desire to consume them insatiably are likened to honey.

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.

I slept, but my heart was awake. The voice of my beloved! he knocketh: Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, mine undefiled; For my head is filled with dew, My locks with the drops of the night.

According to the counsel of the apostle, the zealous person can do all things for the glory of God, so that every act and every word and every work has in it power of praise. Whether the just person eats or drinks, he does all for the glory of God.

"I sleep and my heart remains awake." The divine Word, who is to be understood here under the title of the heart, never sleeps or falls asleep while hidden within the veil of the flesh, but he carries the sleeper. He explains this in a deeply mysterious way to the friends and beloveds who believe in him and whom he invites to partake of the joy of human salvation.

In this union the mind is joined to God, wherefore in a certain sense it sleeps, while in another it keeps vigil: "I was sleeping, but my heart kept vigil." Only the affective power keeps vigil and imposes silence upon all the other powers; then man becomes foreign to his senses: he is in ecstasy and hears "secret words that man may not repeat," because they are only in the hea…

— I have put off my tunic, how should I put it on? I have washed my feet, how should I pollute them? —

In this night of the world the garment of corporeal life is first to be taken off as the Lord divested himself in his flesh that for you he might triumph over the dominions and powers of this world.

I have stripped off my tunic, etc. As if he openly says, I have abandoned the affairs of weak matters, how can I take them up again? For he who girds himself for the duty of preaching and takes on the care of governing souls, it remains that he should also be vigilant to provide the necessities of temporal aids to those to whom he preaches eternal things.

His bride stripped herself of her tunic, because she cast off all the outward things by which she was burdened. Concerning this tunic it is said: "Now let him who has a tunic sell it and buy a sword" (Luke 22:36). For he buys a sword by selling his tunic, who renounces temporal things for the sake of eternal ones, and living in holy conduct, acquires the word of preaching.

My beloved put in his hand by the hole [of the door]; And my bowels yearned for him.

I rose up to open to my beloved; And my hands dropped with myrrh, And my fingers with liquid myrrh, Upon the handles of the lock.

Resurrection is not effected in us unless a voluntary death precedes it. Such a voluntary death is indicated by the drops of myrrh dripping from the bride's hands, for her fingers are filled with this spice. She says that myrrh did not come into her hands from any other source—if this were so, myrrh would mean something accidental and involuntary.

By myrrh the mortification of our flesh is figured; hence the holy Church says of her workers who strive for God even unto death: "My hands have dripped with myrrh." Therefore we offer gold to the newborn King if we shine in his sight with the brightness of heavenly wisdom.

Having been touched, she rises to open: because when she receives the spirit of love more abundantly than usual, she immediately thinks about the edification of her neighbor; and by preaching she acts so that, with hearts opened, the Bridegroom, coming to dwell in her neighbors, may find an entrance for entering.

I opened to my beloved; But my beloved had withdrawn himself; he was gone: My soul went forth when he spoke. I sought him, but I found him not; I called him, but he gave me no answer.

The bride says, "I sought him, but found him not." How can the bridegroom be found when he does not reveal anything of himself? He has no color, form, quality, quantity, place, appearance, evidence, comparison or resemblance. Rather, everything we can discover always transcends our comprehension and completely escapes our search.

Hence again she says: "My soul melted when the beloved spoke." For the mind of a person not seeking the form of its Creator is badly hardened, because it remains cold in itself. But if it has now begun to burn with desire to follow him whom it loves, melted by the fire of love it runs.

We make a bolt for the door when, through the pleasures of the flesh, we bar the entrance of the heart against the Bridegroom. But we open the bolt when, having removed fleeting pleasures, we soften our heart—which had previously been hard—into the love of Christ, and make a free entrance for the Bridegroom knocking at the door.

The watchmen that went about the city found me; They smote me, they wounded me; The keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.

I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, If ye find my beloved,...What will ye tell him? — That I am sick of love.

What is thy beloved more than [another] beloved, Thou fairest among women? What is thy beloved more than [another] beloved, That thou dost so charge us?

My beloved is white and ruddy, The chiefest among ten thousand.

All flesh implies birth, with marriage as the means for bringing it about. The person, however, who is not subject to a birth of flesh with respect to the mystery of religion does not submit to the actions effected by human nature or to the passions arising from the mind. He understands that the generation of the flesh belongs to all humankind.

He is white because he is the light of the world, the Sun of righteousness "who enlightens everyone entering the world," according to John the Evangelist and the preaching of the prophets.

But is he still black? Far from it! Your beloved is radiant and ruddy. Beautiful indeed is he whom the flowers of roses and the lilies of the valleys surround; that is, the choirs of martyrs and of virgins: and I who sit in the midst am in harmony with both choirs, a virgin and a martyr.

His head is [as] the finest gold; His locks are flowing, black as the raven;

Hair is also represented by another comparison, wherein the shape of its locks seems to mimic the brilliance of gold. "His hair is like waves of palms," so that they would surely seem to be curly and golden.

His hair lifted like palm trees, etc. The hair of the beloved's head is the throng of saints, who adhere to God with faithful service; and deservedly are they compared to raised palm trees, because they expect the sweetness of perpetual reward. Hence it is that the Psalmist says: "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree" (Psalm 92).

The head of Christ is God. This head is rightly called gold, because in comparison with the Creator every creature is reckoned a most worthless thing (1 Cor. 11). His locks are like clusters of palm branches, black as a raven. What do we understand by the locks of Christ, if not all the faithful?

His eyes are like doves by the water-brooks, Washed with milk, fitly set;

In doves, the eyes are signified. For when it says, "doves over the abundance of the waters," it means this kind of bird when it comes to the waters. There it is accustomed to suffer the attacks of the hawk and to detect its hostile arrival in flight when it sees the shadow of its wings in the waters.

"His eyes like doves on pools of water," once again here by mention of the "eyes" admiring his keen sight. Hence her saying they are like doves "on pools of water" reminds us of the dove coming down on him in the Jordan.

The eyes of the bridegroom are like doves, because the preachers of Christ who show us the way live in simplicity. Moreover, they are said to be beside streams of water, because they always dwell in the refreshment of the divine Scriptures.

His cheeks are as a bed of spices, raised beds of sweet plants; His lips lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.

His hands gold rings, set with the chrysolite; His belly is bright ivory, overlaid [with] sapphires;

His legs, pillars of marble, set upon bases of fine gold: His bearing as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars;

A pillar must rest on the foundation of truth. Truth is golden, and its bases are the bridegroom's legs adorning his hands and head. The foundation may be interpreted as marble. We understand by the Song's words that the body's legs are marble pillars, that is, those persons who support and bear the body of the church by exemplary lives and sound words.

"His form is like choice incense, like cedars." Here again she makes reference to the fact of two natures, calling the divine nature "incense" since by the law incense was offered to God, and by "cedar" referring to the human nature in its not being affected by the rottenness of sin, the cedar of all trees not going rotten.

But those spiritual feet of God, which the penitent must first kiss spiritually, I ought not to pass over. I know your curiosity, which allows nothing to pass by altogether uninvestigated of its own accord.

His mouth is most sweet: Yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, yea, this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

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