Longing for Her Beloved 1 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.
Athanasius of Alexandria · AD 373 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.
Julian of Eclanum · AD 455 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.
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 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).
2 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.
Cyril of Jerusalem · AD 386 Again, referring to the wine mingled with myrrh, the Canticle says, "I will give you a cup of spiced wine."
Theodoret of Cyrus · AD 458 "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?
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 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.
3 His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.
Bede · AD 735 His left hand is under my head, etc. By His left hand He designates the sacraments of His incarnation and the gifts of His presence; by His right hand, indeed, He symbolizes the rewards that the elect will receive in the future: among these is not only the vision of divine majesty, but also the glory of glorified humanity, and of the same one Mediator between God and men.
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 The left hand of Christ is held to be the present life, while the right hand is the blessed life. Moreover, our head is spiritually understood to be the mind.
4 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.
Bede · AD 735 I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, not to awaken, etc. For such souls are rightly called daughters of Jerusalem, because they are united to the body of the holy Church through the bath of regeneration, because they aspire to the heavenly kingdom, although on the foundation of right faith, they build not gold, not silver, not precious stones, but wood, hay, and stubble.
The Friends The Bride 5 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.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 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.
Bede · AD 735 Under the apple tree, I awakened you, etc. The apple tree most aptly symbolizes the wood of the holy cross, on which He deigned to hang for the salvation of all; about which the Church said above in praise, "As an apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons." Under the apple tree, therefore, the Lord awakened the Synagogue, which He recalled from et…
Bonaventure · AD 1257 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.
6 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 vehement flame.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 And since you are worthy to be compared not now with humans but with heavenly beings, whose life you are living on earth, receive from the Lord the precepts you are to observe: "Set me as a signet upon your heart, and as a seal upon your arm." [Thus] clearer proofs of your prudence and actions may be set forth, in which Christ the figure of God may shine, who, equaling fully th…
Fructuosus of Braga · AD 665 "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.
Bonaventure · AD 1257 Such love divides, puts to sleep, and lifts up. It divides, since it cuts away from any other love because of the single love for the Spouse; it puts to sleep and appeases all the powers and imposes silence; it lifts up, since it leads to God. And so man is as dead, wherefore it is said: "Love is strong as death," because it cuts away from all things.
7 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 contemned.
Cyril of Jerusalem · AD 386 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.
Bede · AD 735 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…
Bonaventure · AD 1257 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.
The Friends 8 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?
Theodoret of Cyrus · AD 458 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.
Bede · AD 735 Our little sister, etc. And this is addressed by the Lord to the Synagogue, admiring the faith or reception of the Church of the Gentiles; with great dispensation, calling her their sister, that is, both His and the Synagogue's, so that the same Synagogue may recollect that the presence of its Creator was made through grace, and that it may rejoice more and more for the additio…
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 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).
9 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.
Bede · AD 735 If she is a wall, let us build on it, etc. It is customary for the Lord Himself often to be designated in Sacred Scripture by the name of a wall or door.
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 When the Holy Spirit is given, the holy Church becomes a wall, because she who was previously timid, being instructed by the same almighty Spirit, is impenetrably strengthened to resist adversaries. This is shown by the same Peter, timid before a servant girl, soon firm against the rulers, to whom he said: "We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).
The Bride 10 I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favor.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 Hence, in the Song of Songs it is said: "I am a wall, and my breasts are towers." The wall is the Church and its towers are the priests, who abound in both the word of nature and moral discipline.
Bede · AD 735 I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers, etc. I am rightly called a wall, because I am built of living stones, because I am united by the glue of charity, because I am placed upon an immovable foundation, and because I cannot be overthrown by any battering ram of a heretic.
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 She had her breasts like a tower, from the time she found peace before the Bridegroom; because after she received the spirit of peace under him, she nourished preachers lofty in contemplation and unbending in strength.
11 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.
Cyril of Alexandria · AD 444 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?
Bede · AD 735 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…
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 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).
12 My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: you, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep its fruit two hundred.
Bede · AD 735 My vineyard is before me, etc. "Truly," he says, "you have been proven worthy because I have entrusted my vineyard to guardians, who would cultivate it with their words and examples alike.
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 His vineyard stands before him, because, the wicked farmers having been destroyed, he instructs the holy Church through good teachers with a benign regard.
The Bridegroom 13 You that dwell in the gardens, the companions listen to your voice: cause me to hear it.
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 The bride dwells in the gardens, because the holy Church, or any holy soul, turns its mind to the fruitfulness of virtues. The bridegroom desires to hear her voice, because it pleases Christ above all that every perfect man should admonish the weak with the word of holy preaching.
The Bride 14 Make haste, my beloved, and be like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 Christ, detested by coiling snakes and beset by reptiles crawling on the earth, flees from the barren plain; he knows no dwelling except the heights of virtue; he knows no home except among those daughters of the church who can say, "We are a sweet fragrance of Christ to God." For some indeed, it is an odor of death, leading to death, for those who perish; but to others, it is…
Bede · AD 735 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.
Robert of Tombelaine · AD 1078 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.