Song of Solomon 3 · The Lantern

In my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, and found him not.

To what does this bed refer, upon which the church seeks the one whom its soul loves, if not to the bed of its heart in which wisdom rests, where it seeks our Lord and Savior through continuous meditation? If the bed is the secrecy of the heart, then what is the night in which the church sought the Lord but was unable to find him?

She says she found him and did not let him go before bringing him into her mother's house and the inner chamber of the one who conceived her.

That the Soul Seeking God Has Been Anticipated by Him: and What That Seeking Is, in Which It Has Already Been Anticipated by Him. 1. "In my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loves" (Song 3:1). It is a great good to seek God. I consider this second to none among the goods of the soul. It is first among gifts, last among advances.

I will rise, and will go about the city: in the streets and the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, and I found him not.

But whoever does not find his beloved, it remains that he arise and go about the city, that is, traverse the holy Church of the elect with mind and inquiry; let him seek him through streets and squares, that is, let him observe those walking through narrow and broad ways, so that if he can find any traces of him in them, he may search them out, because there are some, even of s…

Because indeed it burns with the greatest desire, and whatever it holds does not suffice, until it finds the beloved, it therefore adds the constancy of its searching. What do we understand by the city in this place, if not the Church; what by the streets of the city, if not all those who are spiritual?

"Through the streets and squares I will seek him whom my soul loves" (Song 3:2). Still she understands as a little one. I think she supposed that he, having gone forth from the tomb, would have immediately gone into public, so that as usual he might teach the peoples, and heal the sick, and manifest his glory in Israel, if perhaps they would receive him rising from the dead, wh…

The watchmen who keep the city, found me: Have you seen him, whom my soul loveth?

But as we seek, the watchmen who guard the city find us, because the holy fathers who guard the state of the Church meet our good endeavors, that they may teach us by their word or their writing.

What is designated by the watchmen, if not the teachers of the Church? For while they keep watch through writings and words for the sake of winning souls, whenever they perceive even a little desire, they never cease to increase it toward something better.

In order to reach such a summit, it is good for us to be carried above every sense, every rational operation related to the imagination, even to dismiss the angelical intelligences, so that it may be said: "The watchmen came upon me as they made their rounds of the city: I had hardly left them when I found Him whom my heart loves." And this is what Dionysius teaches, to dismiss…

When I had a little passed by them, I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him: and I will not let him go, till I bring him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that bore me.

"In my mother's house and in the chamber where she conceived me." This is the voice of the church speaking. If the church is a mother to all, we must ask for the identity of the mother of the church, in whose house and in whose chamber she is said to have been conceived.

When we pass a little beyond them, we find him whom we love, because our Redeemer, though by humility a man among men, was nevertheless by divinity above men. Therefore when the watchmen are passed by, the beloved is found, because when we perceive that the prophets and apostles are beneath him, we consider that he who is God by nature is above men.

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the harts of the fields, that you stir not up, nor awake my beloved, till she please.

I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles, etc. If we look at the preceding verses, we will not find in them that the bride reached rest or sleep, but rather that, leaping from the bed, with the greatest effort of searching, she reached the discovery of her beloved.

Resting delightfully among them, free from their disturbance, the Bridegroom forbids the wicked, saying: "I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and the deer of the fields, do not stir up nor awaken the beloved until she herself wills it." In this, certainly, he shows that after her conversion he will find some from the Synagogue of the same perfection as very…

Concerning this hierarch, then, and the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the whole of sacred Scripture exists, through which we are taught to be purged, illumined, and perfected, and this according to the threefold law handed down in it, namely of nature, of Scripture, and of grace; or rather according to its threefold principal part, namely the Mosaic law which purges, the prophetic…

Who is she that goeth up by the desert, as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh, and frankincense, and of all the powders of the perfumer?

"Behold the litter of Solomon surrounded by sixty mighty men from the powerful of Israel, each one equipped with a sword and trained for battle." O blessed sight! O litter of sabbath rest! For Solomon's litter reveals nothing other than Christ himself.

We must enquire why on earth they call the bridegroom Solomon. Solomon means "peaceable," as you can find in the Chronicles.

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.

Behold threescore valiant ones of the most valiant of Israel, surrounded the bed of Solomon?

Behold, the little bed of Solomon, etc. Thus, to the little bed and chariot of Solomon, that is, of the peaceful king, evidently our Lord and Savior, is his ascent: namely, to the little bed in which he rests eternally in peace; and to the chariot, from which he is refreshed by the feasts of life without end.

Solomon is interpreted as "the peaceful one." What then is understood by Solomon, if not Christ, of whom it is written: "He himself is our peace, who made both one" (Ephesians 2:14)?

Without doubt Solomon wished to rest in her as in a secure place; but this could not be unless she were strong, because it is said in the Canticle that "sixty valiant ones surround the bed of Solomon." Solomon is interpreted as "the desirable king": sixty valiant ones surround his bed.

All holding swords, and most expert in war: every man's sword upon his thigh, because of fears in the night.

King Solomon hath made him a litter of the wood of Libanus:

King Solomon made himself a palanquin, etc. It is called a palanquin because it carries the bodies of those seated or reclining at a banquet, or because it is usually carried from place to place according to the opportunity of the times.

The timbers of Lebanon are declared to be imperishable. Therefore King Solomon made himself a litter from the timbers of Lebanon, because, according to the grace of His foreknowledge, Christ built the holy Church from saints who would endure forever.

And he said: I have wanted to lead you to this "tree of life." "King Solomon hath made him a litter of the wood of Libanus. The pillars thereof he made of silver, the seat of gold, the going up of purple: the midst he covered with charity." The seat of gold is contemplative wisdom.

The pillars thereof he made of silver, the seat of gold, the going up of purple: the midst he covered with charity for the daughters of Jerusalem.

Every king is proclaimed by soldiers. It was fitting that Jesus also, in figure, be crowned by soldiers. For this reason Scripture says in the Canticles: "Daughters of Jerusalem, come forth and look upon King Solomon in the crown with which his mother has crowned him." But the crown was also a mystery, for it was a remission of sins and release from the sentence of condemnation…

We should think that the use of gold denotes spiritual union, which is precious and divine. For, to demonstrate the union of God and humankind, the ark in the desert was also covered within and without by gold. The purple signifies that number of persons who are called to the kingdom.

Go forth, ye daughters of Sion, and see king Solomon in the diadem, wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousal, in the day of the joy of his heart.

Song of Solomon3