Song of Solomon 3 · The Lantern

The Bride’s Dream

On my bed in the nights I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him and did not find him.

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?

Since the bridegroom is incomprehensible in his being even to the holy angels, and hence they did not give me an answer to my question, teaching me by their silence that he is incomprehensible even to them, the uncreated to created beings, I left them as well, still searching for my beloved."It was not long after passing them that I found him whom my soul loved.

How the Soul, However Much Corrupted by Vices, Can Still Return Through Chaste and Holy Love to the Likeness of the Bridegroom, That Is, of Christ. 1. As much as the regular hour permitted, which we have appointed for ourselves for speaking, this period of three days has been spent in demonstrating the affinity of the Word and the soul. What profit is there in all this labor?

Let me rise now and go about in the city, in the streets and in the squares; let me seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him and did not find him.

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?

And I said: "I will rise and go about the city; through the lanes and streets I will seek him whom my soul loves." Observe even now that she is lying down who says: "I will rise." This is entirely fitting. Why would she not rise, having learned of the resurrection of the beloved?

The watchmen who go about in the city found me: “Him whom my soul loves — have you seen him?”

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…

Scarcely had I passed from them when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him and would not let him go, until I had brought him to my mother’s house, and to the chamber of her who conceived 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, daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the does of the field: do not rouse and do not awaken love until it pleases.

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…

Solomon Arrives on His Wedding Day

Who is this coming up from the wilderness like columns of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, from all the powders of the trader?

"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.

"Lo, it is Solomon's bed." Let us understand the bridegroom's bed to be the divine Scriptures. When the bride reclines on them, as it were, along with the bridegroom, and receives the seeds of teaching, she conceives, bears, is in labor and gives birth to spiritual benefit.

Faith is a union of the Head with the body. The shining of light as related to faith is called allegory, and it is twofold, one directed to the Head and the other to the body. For there is one directed to the crucified Head, that was born, etc., and another directed to the body, that is, the Church, primitive, intermediate, and final.

See — his litter, Solomon’s: sixty mighty men around it, of the mighty men of Israel.

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 of them grip a sword, trained in war; each man with his sword on his thigh, against terror in the nights.

A palanquin King Solomon made for himself, from the wood of Lebanon.

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.

Its posts he made of silver, its bolster of gold, its seat of purple; its inside inlaid with love by 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 out and see, daughters of Zion, King Solomon in the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, and on the day of the gladness of his heart.

Song of Solomon3

The Bride’s Dream

Solomon Arrives on His Wedding Day