Song of Solomon 8 · The Lantern

O that you were as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find you without, I would kiss you; yes, I should not be despised.

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 would lead you, and bring you into my mother’s house, who would instruct me: I would cause you to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.

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 should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.

I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up, nor awake my love, until it pleases him.

Who is this that comes up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised you up under the apple tree: there your mother brought you forth: there she brought you forth that bore you.

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.

Who is this who ascends from the desert, etc.? But the Church of the gentiles ascends from the desert, because she who had been abandoned by her Creator for a very long time, now advancing with steps of faith and good works, has reached His grace, fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah, where he says, "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad; and the desert shall rejoice…

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.

Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: its coals are coals of fire, which has a most blazing flame.

Christ is the seal on the forehead, the seal in the heart—on the forehead that we may always confess him, in the heart that we may always love him, and a sign on the arm that we may always do his work.

"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.

A person is disposed to the influx of the gift of fortitude through the inextinguishable fire of charity. Whence in the Song of Songs: "Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm: for love is strong as death, jealousy is hard as hell; its lamps are lamps of fire and flames; many waters could not extinguish charity." Do you think you can extinguish a burning furna…

Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be despised.

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…

As Augustine and Hugh maintain, this world is like a certain ring given by the bridegroom to the soul itself: but the bride can love the ring bestowed upon her by the bridegroom in two ways, namely, with chaste love and with adulterous love.

We have a little sister, and she has no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?

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.

What shall we do for our sister, etc.? The Lord speaks to the Church; He speaks to every chosen soul, when He admonishes it for eternal salvation, either through the hidden illumination of His Spirit or the open voice of preachers, in which address divine mercy considers the measure of our capabilities and grants its gifts according to the capacity of human understanding.

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).

If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she be a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar.

I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favor.

Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he let out the vineyard to keepers; every one for its fruit was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.

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).

My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: you, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep its fruit two hundred.

You who dwell in the gardens, the companions listen to your voice: cause me to hear it.

Come quickly, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young deer upon the mountains of spices.

It urges that the bridegroom flee, because already, although it is of earth, it can follow him in his flight. It says this so that it may be like the young deer that escapes the nets; for it desires also to flee and to fly away above the world.

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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