Gregory the Great
Commentary on the Song of Songs
[Editor's note: The commentary on the Song of Songs translated here appears in Migne's Patrologia Latina under the name of Pope Gregory the Great, but it is a composite medieval text. The brief opening section (prologue through roughly Song 1:8/1:9) is Gregory's authentic but unfinished exposition, delivered orally to a small circle of monks and preserved from notes taken by his notary Claudius; Gregory himself expressed dissatisfaction with the transcript and never revised it to completion. The much longer continuation, which carries the allegorical interpretation through the entire biblical book to 8:14, is the work of the eleventh-century Norman Benedictine Robert of Tombelaine, a monk and hermit who lived in seclusion on the tidal islet of Tombelaine near Mont-Saint-Michel. Medieval copyists, recognizing Robert's profoundly Gregorian style, heavy dependence on the saint's imagery, and monastic spirituality, routinely transmitted the two pieces as a single work under Gregory's far more famous name—an attribution that persisted in manuscripts and early prints. This richly allegorical and tropological reading (the Bride as Church or individual soul, the Bridegroom as Christ) proved influential on later medieval exegesis, including the Glossa Ordinaria, and remains a valuable witness to eleventh-century Benedictine contemplative theology.]
INTRODUCTION.
1. After the human race was expelled from the joys of paradise, coming into this pilgrimage of the present life, it has a heart blind to spiritual understanding. If this blind heart were told in a human voice, "Follow God," or "Love God," as was said to it in the Law, once cast outside and grown cold through the torpor of unbelief, it would not grasp what it heard. Therefore the divine word speaks to the torpid and cold soul through certain enigmas, and from things which it knows, it secretly introduces into it the love which it does not know.
2. For allegory constructs a kind of machine for the soul placed far from God, so that through it the soul may be lifted up to God. Indeed, through the interposition of enigmas, while it recognizes something in the words that is its own, it understands in the meaning of the words what is not its own; and through earthly words it is separated from earth. For by that which it does not shrink from as known, it comes to understand something unknown. For through the things known to us from which allegories are fashioned, divine meanings are clothed, and while we recognize the outer words through familiar things, we arrive at inner understanding.
3. For this is why in this book, which is written as the Song of Songs, words of what seems like bodily love are set down, so that the soul, rubbed back from its torpor through the language of its own familiarity, might grow warm again; and through the words of the love that is below, it is aroused to the love that is above. For in this book kisses are named, breasts are named, cheeks are named, thighs are named; in these words the sacred description is not to be mocked, but rather the greater mercy of God is to be considered. For when He names the members of the body and thus calls us to love, we must note how wonderfully and mercifully He works with us. He who, in order to kindle our heart to the prompting of sacred love, extended Himself even to the words of our shameful love. But where He humbles Himself in speaking, from there He exalts us in understanding; because from the language of this love we learn with what power we should burn with love for the divine.
4. But we must carefully consider this, lest when we hear the words of outward love, we remain at perceiving outward things, and the device that is set up to lift us instead weighs us down all the more, so that we are not lifted up. We must therefore, in these bodily words, in these outward words, seek whatever is interior, and when speaking about the body, we must become as if outside the body. To this wedding of the bridegroom and bride it is necessary to come with an understanding of intimate love, that is, with a wedding garment, lest if we are not clothed with a wedding garment—that is, with a worthy understanding of love—we be driven from this wedding feast into outer darkness, that is, into the blindness of ignorance. We must pass through these words of passion to the power of impassibility. For Sacred Scripture is in its words and meanings as a painting is in its colors and subjects, and exceedingly foolish is he who clings so to the colors of a painting that he does not know the things that are painted. For if we embrace the words that are spoken outwardly and are ignorant of the meanings, we are like those who, not knowing the things depicted, hold only the colors. The letter kills, as it is written, but the spirit gives life (2 Cor. 3:6); for the letter covers the spirit just as chaff covers the grain; but it belongs to beasts of burden to feed on chaff, and to humans to feed on grain. Therefore whoever uses human reason should cast away the chaff of beasts and hasten to eat the grain of the spirit; for this indeed is its usefulness, that the mysteries wrapped in the letter be kept concealed. For hence it is written: "The wise conceal knowledge" (Prov. 10:14), because indeed spiritual understanding is covered beneath the covering of the letter. Hence again in the same book it is written: "It is the glory of God to conceal a word" (Prov. 25:2). For to the mind seeking God, God appears all the more gloriously the more subtly and deeply He is searched out, that He may appear. But should we not seek what God conceals in mysteries? We certainly should, for it follows: "And it is the glory of kings to search out a matter" (ibid.). For those who have already learned to rule their bodies and the movements of the flesh are kings. Therefore the glory of kings is to search out a matter, because it is the praise of those who live well to examine the secrets of God's commandments. Therefore, hearing words of human interaction, we must be as if beyond human, lest if we hear what is said in a merely human way, we can perceive nothing of divinity from what we ought to hear. Paul desired his disciples to be, as it were, no longer mere men, to whom he said: "For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not mere men?" (1 Cor. 3:3). The Lord, as it were, no longer reckoned His disciples as mere men when He said: "Who do men say the Son of Man is?" (Matt. 16:13). When they had answered with the words of men, He immediately added: "But who do you say that I am?" For when He says "men" above and then adds "but you," He makes a certain distinction between men and the disciples, because by imparting divine things to them He was making them above men, as the Apostle says: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away" (2 Cor. 5:17). And we know that in our resurrection the body is so joined to the spirit that everything that had belonged to suffering is taken up into the power of the spirit. Therefore he who follows God ought to imitate daily his own resurrection, so that just as he will then have nothing subject to suffering in his body, so now he may have nothing subject to suffering in his heart, so that according to the inner man he may already be a new creature, may already trample underfoot whatever has grown old, and in ancient words seek only the power of newness.
5. For Sacred Scripture is indeed a mountain, from which the Lord comes into our hearts for understanding; of which mountain it is said through the prophet: "God will come from Lebanon, and the Holy One from the shady and dense mountain" (Hab. 3:3). This mountain is both dense in its teachings and shady in its allegories. But it must be known that when the voice of the Lord sounds on the mountain, we are commanded to wash our garments and to be cleansed from every defilement of the flesh, if we hasten to approach the mountain. For it is written that "if a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned" (Heb. 12:20). For a beast touches the mountain when those given over to irrational impulses draw near to the heights of Sacred Scripture and do not understand it as they ought, but irrationally bend it to the understanding of their own pleasure [perhaps "will"]. For every absurd person, or one sluggish in understanding, if he is seen near this mountain, is slain by the most severe sentences as if by stones. For this mountain burns, because Sacred Scripture, to be sure, sets on fire with the flame of love the one whom it spiritually fills. Whence it is written: "Your word is fire-tested" (Ps. 119:140). Whence when certain ones walking on the road heard the words of God, they said: "Was not our heart burning within us, while he opened to us the Scriptures?" (Luke 24:32). Whence it is said through Moses: "In his right hand a fiery law" (Deut. 33:2). By the left hand of God the wicked are understood, who do not pass over to the right side; the right hand of God represents the elect, who are separated from those on the left. In the right hand of God, therefore, is a fiery law, because in the hearts of the elect, who are to be placed at the right hand, the divine commandments blaze, and they are set aflame with the ardor of charity. Let this fire, therefore, burn away whatever rust and decay is outwardly in us, so that it may offer our mind as a whole burnt offering in the contemplation of God.
6. Nor should it be overlooked that this book is called not the Song, but the Song of Songs; for just as in the Old Testament some things are holy and others the Holy of Holies, some are Sabbaths and others the Sabbath of Sabbaths, so in Sacred Scripture some are Songs and others the Song of Songs. The holy things were those in the Tabernacle and those carried out in the outer area; the Sabbaths were those celebrated each week; but the Holy of Holies was received with a certain more secret veneration, and the Sabbath of Sabbaths was observed only on its own appointed feasts. So the Song of Songs is a certain secret and solemn interior reality, a mystery that is penetrated through hidden meanings. For if one attends only to the outward words, it is no mystery.
7. It must also be known that in Sacred Scripture there are some Songs of victory, some Songs of exhortation and attestation, some Songs of exultation, some Songs of help, and some Songs of union with God. A Song of victory is what Mary sang after the crossing of the Red Sea, saying: "Let us sing to the Lord, for He has been gloriously honored: the horse and its rider He has cast into the sea" (Exod. 15:1). A Song of exhortation and attestation is what Moses said to the Israelites as they drew near to the promised land: "Attend, O heaven, to what I shall speak; let the earth hear the words from my mouth" (Deut. 32:1). A Song of exultation is what Hannah, having perceived in herself the fecundity of the Church, sang, saying: "My heart has exulted in the Lord" (1 Kings 2:1). Through herself she expressed the figurative fecundity of the Church's offspring, when she says: "The barren woman has borne many, and she who had many children has grown weak" (ibid., 5). A Song of help is what David sang after battle, saying: "I will love You, O Lord, my strength" (Ps. 17:1). But a Song of union with God is that which is sung at the wedding of the bridegroom and bride, that is, the Song of Songs; which is more sublime than all the other Songs inasmuch as it is offered at a wedding of more sublime solemnity. For through those Songs, vices are avoided; through this one, each person is enriched with virtues. Through those, the enemy is guarded against; through this, the Lord is embraced with intimate love.
8. And it should be noted that sometimes the Lord in Sacred Scripture calls Himself Lord, sometimes Father, sometimes Bridegroom. For when He wishes to be feared, He names Himself Lord; when He wishes to be honored, Father; when He wishes to be loved, Bridegroom. He Himself says through the prophet: "If I am Lord, where is My fear? If I am Father, where is My honor?" (Malachi 1:6). And again He says: "I have betrothed you to Myself in justice and faith" (Hosea 2:20). Or indeed: "I have remembered the day of your betrothal in the desert" (Jeremiah 2:2). And indeed with God there is no "when" and "when not," but because He first wishes to be feared so that He may be honored, and first to be honored so that one may reach Him, He names Himself Lord on account of fear, Father on account of honor, and Bridegroom on account of love. Through fear let one come to honor, and through His honor let one arrive at love. Therefore, by as much as honor is worthier than fear, so much more does God rejoice to be called Father than Lord; and by as much as love is dearer than honor, so much more does God rejoice to be called Bridegroom than Father. In this book, therefore, the Lord and the Church are named not Lord and handmaid, but Bridegroom and Bride, so that one may serve not fear alone, not reverence alone, but also love, and in these outward words the interior affection may be stirred. When He names Himself Lord, He indicates that we were created; when He names Himself Father, He indicates that we were adopted; when He names Himself Bridegroom, He indicates that we are united. But to be united to God is greater than to be created and adopted. In this book, therefore, where He is called Bridegroom, something more sublime is conveyed, since in it the covenant of union is shown. These names are recalled with frequent repetition in the New Testament (because the union of the Word and flesh, of Christ and the Church, has already been accomplished and celebrated). Whence John says, when the Lord was coming: "He who has the bride is the bridegroom" (John 3:29). Whence the same Lord says: "The sons of the bridegroom shall not fast, as long as the bridegroom is with them" (Matthew 9:15). Whence it is said to the Church: "I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:2). Again: "That He might present to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle" (Ephesians 5:27). And again in the Apocalypse of John: "Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb" (Apocalypse 19:9). And again in the same place: "And I saw the bride like a new bride descending from heaven" (Apocalypse 21:2).
9. Nor is it far from a great mystery that this third book of Solomon is placed among his works. For the ancients said there were three orders of life: moral, natural, and contemplative; which the Greeks called ethical, physical, and theoretical. In Proverbs, the moral life is expressed, where it says: "Hear, my son, my wisdom, and incline your ear to my prudence" (Prov. 1:8). In Ecclesiastes, the natural life: for there it is considered that all things tend toward an end, when it says: "Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity" (Eccles. 1:2). In the Song of Songs, the contemplative life is expressed, since in it the coming and sight of the Lord himself is desired; when it is said in the voice of the bridegroom: "Come from Lebanon, come" (Song 4:8). Or indeed he signified the orders and lives of the three patriarchs, namely Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For Abraham held to morality through obedience; Isaac prefigured the natural life by digging wells. For to dig wells in the depths is to search out and examine through natural consideration all things that are below. Jacob held to the contemplative life, for he saw angels ascending and descending. But since natural consideration is not brought to perfection unless morality is first maintained, rightly after Proverbs, Ecclesiastes is placed. And since heavenly contemplation is not perceived unless these fleeting things below are first despised, rightly after Ecclesiastes the Song of Songs is placed. For the first task is to compose one's conduct; afterward to regard all things that are present as though they were not present; and in the third place, with a purified eye of the heart, to behold the things above and within. Thus through these gradations of the books he made, as it were, a kind of ladder to contemplation, so that while first things are conducted well in the world, afterward even the honorable things of the world may be despised, and finally even the inmost things of God may be beheld. Moreover, the coming of the Lord is awaited in this work generally from the voice of the Church, in such a way that each individual soul may also specifically behold the entrance of God into its own heart, as the arrival of the bridegroom into the bridal chamber.
10. And it must be known that in this book four speaking characters are introduced: namely the bridegroom and the bride, the young maidens with the bride, and the bands of companions with the bridegroom. For the bride herself is the perfect Church; the bridegroom is the Lord; the young maidens with the bride are souls just beginning and maturing through new zeal; and the companions of the bridegroom are either angels, who often appeared to men coming from him, or certainly all the perfect men in the Church who have learned to proclaim the truth to men. But those who individually are young maidens or companions are, taken all together, the bride, because taken all together they are the Church. Although these three names can also be understood with respect to each individual person. For whoever loves God perfectly is the bride; whoever proclaims the bridegroom is a companion; whoever still as a novice follows the way of the good is a young maiden. We are therefore invited to be the bride; if we cannot yet achieve this, let us be companions; if we have not attained even this, let us at least come to this bridal chamber as young maidens. Since, then, we have said that the bridegroom and the bride are the Lord and the Church, let us, as young maidens or companions, hear the words of the bridegroom, let us hear the words of the bride, and in their speeches let us learn the fervor of love. And so let the holy Church, long awaiting the coming of the Lord, long thirsting for the fountain of life, declare how she longs to see the presence of her bridegroom, how she desires him.
CHAPTER I. (Chapter I, verse 1.) Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.
1. The Lord had sent angels to her, patriarchs and prophets to her, bearing spiritual gifts; but she sought to receive the gifts not through the servants of the bridegroom, but through the bridegroom himself. Let us place before our eyes the entire human race from the beginning of the world to the end of the world, that is, the whole Church, as one bride who had received pledges through spiritual gift by the Law; but nevertheless she sought the presence of her bridegroom, she who says: "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth." For the holy Church, sighing for the coming of the Mediator of God and men, for the coming of her Redeemer, makes prayer to the Father, that he may send the Son and illuminate her with his presence: so that he may address the same Church no longer through the mouths of the prophets, but with his own mouth. Hence also concerning the same bridegroom it is written in the Gospel, when he sat on the mountain and spoke the words of lofty precepts: "And opening his mouth he said" (Matt. 5:2): as if it were openly said: Then he opened his own mouth, who had previously opened the mouths of the prophets for the exhortation of the Church. But behold, while she sighs, while she seeks him as though absent, she suddenly beholds him present. The grace of our Creator has this quality, that when we speak of him while seeking him, we enjoy his presence. Hence it is written in the Gospel that while Cleophas and another were speaking about him on the road, they deserved to see him present. Therefore, while the holy Church desires the bridegroom who is yet to be incarnate, still absent, she suddenly beholds him present, and adds: (Verse 1.) "For your breasts are better than wine. And the fragrance of your ointments is above all spices."
2. The wine was the knowledge of the Law, the knowledge of the prophets. But when the Lord came, because He wished to preach wisdom through the flesh, He caused it, as it were, to lie hidden in the breasts of the flesh: for what we could by no means grasp in His divinity, we might recognize in His incarnation. Hence not undeservedly are His breasts praised, because the condescension of His preaching accomplished in our hearts what the teaching of the Law could by no means achieve: for the preaching of the incarnation nourished us before the teaching of the Law did. Let her therefore say: Your breasts are better than wine. Confirming this still further, she adds and says: And the fragrance of your ointments is above all spices. The ointments of the Lord are His virtues; the ointment of the Lord was the Holy Spirit, of whom it is said through the prophet: God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions (Ps. 44:8). With this oil He was anointed when He became incarnate; for He did not first exist as a man and afterward receive the Holy Spirit, but because He became incarnate through the mediation of the Holy Spirit, He was anointed with this same oil when He was created as man. The fragrance of His ointment, therefore, is the sweet scent of the Holy Spirit, who proceeding from Him, remained in Him; the fragrance of His ointments is the sweet scent of the virtues which He worked. Now the Church had spices, because she had many gifts of the Holy Spirit, which in the house of God, that is, in the congregation of the saints, gave off the aroma of good reputation and announced the sweetness of the future Mediator. But the fragrance of your ointments is above all spices: because the sweet scent of the Bridegroom's virtues, which came about through His incarnation, surpassed the proclamations of the Law, which had been bestowed in advance by the Bridegroom as pledges. For the Church grew in understanding by as much as she merited to be illumined by the grace of a fuller vision. Those spices of the Law were administered through angels; this ointment was given through His presence. But because by the brightness of His presence the goods of the Law, which were believed to be sublime, were surpassed, let it rightly be said: The fragrance of your ointments is above all spices.
3. But what we have said generally about the whole Church, let us now understand specifically about each individual soul. Let us set before our eyes a certain soul clinging to the pursuit of gifts, receiving understanding from the preaching of others, which through divine grace desires to be illuminated itself as well — so that at some point it may also understand by itself, since it considers that it understands nothing except through the words of preachers — and says: 'Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.' Let him touch me within, that I may know by understanding, and no longer enjoy the voices of preachers, but delight in the touch of interior grace. He was kissing Moses, as it were, with the kiss of his mouth, when he extended understanding to him through the confidence of familiar grace. Whence it is written: 'If there be a prophet, I will speak to him in a dream; but not as to my servant Moses: for I speak to him mouth to mouth' (Num. 12:6). For to speak mouth to mouth is, as it were, to kiss, and to touch the inner understanding with the mind. There follows: (Verse 1.) 'For your breasts are better than wine.'
4. The breasts of God are, as we said before, the condescension of His most humble incarnation. But the wisdom of the world is like a certain wine: for it intoxicates the mind, because it renders it alien to the understanding of humility. Philosophers are intoxicated as if by a certain wine, while they pass through the worldly love of the crowd. Let the Church despise this wisdom and desire the most humble preaching of the Lord's incarnation (let what nourishes her through the weakness of His flesh please her more than what this world exalts through the pride of false prudence), and let her say: 'Because your breasts are better than wine', that is, the most humble preaching of your incarnation surpasses the veiled wisdom of the world. Whence it is written: 'The weakness of God is stronger than man; and the foolishness of God is wiser than man' (1 Cor. 1:25). But because those wise men of this world sometimes seem to devote themselves to certain virtues (for you may see many of them possessing charity, maintaining gentleness, practicing outward respectability in all things — virtues which they display not to please God but to please men; and for this reason these virtues are not virtues, because they do not seek to please God; yet they have a fragrance in human nostrils, since they produce a good reputation in human judgment) — let these be compared to the true fragrance of our Redeemer, let them be compared to true virtues, and let it be said: 'The fragrance of your ointments surpasses all spices.' That is, the sweet scent of your virtues surpasses every appearance of virtue among the wise of this world, because it transcends their counterfeit images by its truth. Because we said that this which has been stated can be understood in a second sense concerning each individual soul, let us still pursue that same meaning more subtly, if we can, with the Lord's help.
5. Every soul that fears God is already under his yoke, but still far off, because it fears: for each one advances toward God only insofar as he loses the punishment of fear and receives from him the grace of charity. Let us place before our eyes the soul of any of the elect, which is kindled by continual desire into love of the vision of the bridegroom, because what it cannot perfectly perceive in this life, it contemplates his loftiness and is pierced with compunction from that very love; for that very compunction which comes through charity, which is also kindled by desire, is as it were a kind of kiss; for as often as the soul is pierced with compunction in love of him, so often does it kiss God. For there are many who already indeed fear the Lord, who already undertake good works; but they do not yet kiss him, because they are not at all pierced with compunction by love of him. This was well signified at the banquet of the Pharisee, who, when he had received the Lord, and when he disparaged in his heart the woman kissing his feet, heard: "When I entered your house, you gave me no kiss; but she, from the moment she entered, has not ceased to kiss my feet" (Luke 7:44). Everyone who already gives alms, who already devotes himself to good works, as it were receives Christ at a banquet, feeds Christ, who does not cease to sustain him in his members; but if he is not yet pierced with compunction through love, he does not yet kiss his feet. Therefore the woman who kisses is placed above the host, because he who is pierced with compunction in desire for the Lord by the inward ardor of the mind is placed above the one who gives his outward possessions. And well was it said: "She has not ceased to kiss my feet." For it is not enough to be pierced with compunction once in the love of God and then rest, but compunction ought to exist and to increase; whence the woman is praised because she did not cease to kiss, that is, she did not at all cease to be pierced with compunction. Whence it is said through the prophet: "Appoint a solemn day with frequent observances, even to the horn of the altar" (Psalm 117:27). The solemn day of the Lord is the compunction of our heart; but then a solemn day is appointed with frequency when one is continually moved to tears for love of him. To which, as if we were to say: "How long shall we do these things? How long shall we be afflicted with tribulations?" He immediately added the limit until which this should be done, saying: "Even to the horn of the altar." For the horn of the altar is the exaltation of the interior sacrifice, where, when we shall have arrived, it will no longer be necessary for us to make a solemn day to the Lord from our lamentation. Therefore let the soul that already desires to be pierced with compunction through love, that already longs to contemplate the vision of its bridegroom, say: "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth."
6. Or certainly the kiss of his mouth is the very perfection of interior peace, upon reaching which nothing further will remain for us to seek. Hence what follows is also fittingly added: 'For your breasts are better than wine.' For wine is the knowledge of God which we have received while situated in this life; but the breasts of the bridegroom we embrace when we already contemplate him in the eternal homeland through the embrace of his presence. Let her say therefore: 'Your breasts are better than wine.' As if to say: Great indeed is the knowledge which you have bestowed upon me about yourself in this life; great is the wine of your acquaintance, with which you inebriate me; but your breasts are better than wine, because then through direct vision and through the sublimity of contemplation, whatever is now known about you through faith is transcended. 'And the fragrance of your ointments is above all spices'; while she excels by the power of knowledge, the power of chastity, the power of mercy, the power of humility, the power of charity. If the life of the saints did not possess the fragrance of spices from their virtues, Paul would not say: 'We are the good fragrance of Christ to God in every place' (II Cor. 1:15). But far more excellent is that anointing of God to which we are one day to be led; far more excellent is the fragrance of God's ointments than the spices of our virtues. And even if what we have already received is great, nevertheless what we are to receive from the contemplation of our Creator is far more excellent. Whence let the soul pant and say: 'The fragrance of your ointments is above all spices'; that is, those good things which you prepare through contemplation transcend all these gifts of virtues which you have bestowed in this life. Let us say to this Church, let us say to this soul, so loving, so burning with love for her bridegroom, whence she perceived so great a desire. Whence she apprehended knowledge of his divinity. But behold, she tells whence she could express it: (Verse 2.) 'Your name is oil poured out.'
7. "Ointment poured forth" is divinity incarnate. For if ointment is in a vessel, it gives off less scent, but if it is poured out, the fragrance of the poured ointment spreads far and wide. The name of God, therefore, is ointment poured forth, because from the immensity of His divinity He poured Himself outward into our nature, and from being invisible, He made Himself visible: for if He had not poured Himself out, He would never have become known to us. The ointment poured itself out when He preserved Himself as God and yet presented Himself as man. Concerning this pouring out, Paul says: "Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant" (Phil. 2:7). What Paul said, "He emptied Himself," Solomon said, "He poured out." Therefore, because the Lord became known to the human race through the humility of the Incarnation, let it be said to Him: "Your name is ointment poured forth." There follows: (Verse 2.) "Therefore the young maidens have loved you."
8. What do we understand by "young maidens" in this passage, if not the souls of the elect renewed through baptism? For the life of sin belongs to the old man, and the life of righteousness to the new. Because, therefore, he poured out his ointment abroad, he made the young maidens burn with love for him; because he presented renewed souls as fragrant with desire for him. Childhood does not yet suit love; old age ceases from love. A child is one who has not yet begun the pursuit of an ardent life; an old man is one who had indeed begun, but has ceased. Therefore, since neither those who have not yet begun burn with love for the Lord, nor those who had begun but have grown cold, setting aside both childhood and old age, the young maidens are said to run — that is, those souls who are in the very fervor of love itself.
9. However, we can understand this in another way. For youth can be referred to weakness. Indeed, the youthful ages are the order of angels, who have been overcome by no frailty, conquered by no weakness. Let it therefore be said: "Your name is oil poured out, therefore the young maidens have loved you;" that is, because through your incarnation you poured out knowledge of yourself outwardly, therefore weak souls are able to love your human nature. For those supreme Powers, as though of youthful age, love you even there where you have not been poured out, because they see you even there where you contain yourself in the state of divinity. You, therefore, who are seen even when not poured out by those highest orders, as by those of youthful age, are poured out outwardly for the sake of men, so that you may also be loved by the young maidens, that is, by weak minds. There follows: (Verse 3.) "Draw me."
10. Everyone who is drawn is drawn against his will, either because he is unable or because he is unwilling. But he who says "Draw me" has something that he wills and something that he does not will [perhaps it should be read "is not able"]. Human nature wills to follow God, but overcome by the habit of weakness, it does not prevail to follow as it ought. Therefore it sees that there is one thing in itself by which it strives, and another thing in itself for which it has no strength, and rightly says: "Draw me." Paul had seen himself as willing yet not able when he said: "With my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh the law of sin" (Rom. 7:25); and, "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind" (ibid., 23). Because, therefore, there is one thing in us that urges us on and another that weighs us down, let us say: "Draw me after you; we will run in the fragrance of your ointments." We run in the fragrance of God's ointments when, breathed upon by His spiritual gifts, we long ardently for the vision of Him.