CHAPTER VIII. (Cap. VIII.--Verse 1.) Who will give you to me as my brother, nursing at the breasts of my mother, that I may find you alone outside, and kiss you, and now no one may despise me?
1. 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). And Isaiah, greatly desiring to see him, said: 'O that you would rend the heavens and come down' (Isa. 64:1). The Bride therefore wishes to find the Bridegroom outside and to kiss him, because, placed under the Law, she longs for him to appear in the flesh—so that she might serve him through love, whom previously, not having received grace, she served more through fear than through love. After his kiss she is now despised by no one, because after Christ came and poured the spirit of liberty into his faithful ones, the Church is honored even by the angels themselves. Hence it is that Joshua worshipped the angel (Josh. 5); but to John, who wished to worship him, he said: 'See that you do not do it, for I am your fellow servant and of your brothers who have the testimony of Jesus' (Rev. 22:9). But because the Church received him when he came, while the Synagogue rejected him—she who will receive and love him again at the end of the world—therefore the Church follows after and says: (Verse 2) 'I will take hold of you and lead you into the house of my mother and into the chamber of her who bore me. There you will teach me, and there I will give you a cup of spiced wine and the juice of my pomegranates.'
2. 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. The Church will give a cup seasoned with wine, because she will preach to the Synagogue itself the New Testament together with the Old; and she will season the cup, as it were, with wine, because she will surround the sweetness of the Gospel with the testimonies of the Law, which is harsh, so that it may be held more firmly. She will offer the juice of her pomegranates, because she will set forth the examples of brave men who maintained the unity of the Church even in martyrdom, so that the Synagogue may be set ablaze in their likeness, and, strengthened by the examples of preceding martyrs, may not succumb to the persecutions of the Antichrist. For when she has heard the victories of brave fighters, she will not hesitate to enter the fight in imitation of them. Which she openly reveals when she adds: (Verse 3.) His left hand is under my head, and his right hand will embrace me.
3. 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. Therefore the Synagogue, now converted by the preaching of the Church, strengthened by examples, and uplifted by imitation, says: 'His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.' As if she were saying: since now at last I hold the faith of Christ, I experience his ineffable and desirable grace, and I feel a sweetness I did not know how to desire; now I set aside all earthly things, I even despise the very life of the flesh for love of him, and I long with all my desires to see his blessedness. For indeed, when something embraces a thing, it is understood to hold the thing it embraces entirely within itself. Therefore the left hand is under the head and the right hand embraces, when the holy soul places beneath the mind those things it sees, and with every effort and all its thoughts seeks after those things it does not see. For there are indeed now some who pursue heavenly things with such desire that they count all visible things as nothing; they occupy their mind with heavenly pursuits without ceasing, so that they desire to do nothing else; the soul disdains whatever lies outside spiritual activity, loves this alone, despises the rest, unless perhaps it recognizes those things to be necessary. These truly have the left hand under the head, because with their mind raised up to the blessedness of Christ, they see the present life beneath them. And the right hand of Christ embraces them, because heavenly love, holding them within itself on every side, protects them. Such men indeed delight in holy leisure, in which they enjoyably partake of the love of the blessed life through contemplation. In this contemplation they cleanse the eye of the heart, so that, even while still placed in this flesh, they may see God insofar as it is granted to human weakness — by whose vision they illuminate themselves and refresh themselves with his sweetness. These already experience to some degree that blessedness about which it is said by the voice of Truth in the Gospel: 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God' (Matt. 5:8). For what is future already begins to be fulfilled in them, because even though they still live in the flesh in this world, yet through that which is greater in them, they are already beyond the flesh. By these is fulfilled what is commanded by the divine voice through the Psalmist: 'Be still and see that I am God' (Ps. 46:11). For inasmuch as they live without the tumult of the world, they fix their mind on the vision of God through desire and contemplation. And since many such people from the Synagogue will come through conversion at the end of the world, as we believe, it is rightly understood as spoken of such people: 'His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.' Of whom and for whom the Bridegroom consequently speaks: (Verse 4) 'I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, do not stir up or awaken the beloved, until she herself wills.' But since we have explained this above (at verse 7 of chapter 2, etc.), we decline to explain it again. But concerning this same Synagogue now made into the Church, the daughters of Jerusalem, wondering, ask and say: (Verse 5) 'Who is this who comes up from the desert, abounding in delights, leaning upon her beloved?'
4. Holy Church, or any holy soul, ascends from the desert, because being placed in the exile of this pilgrimage, she reaches toward heavenly joys with her mind and thoughts. Whence Paul also said: Our conversation is in heaven (Phil. 3:20). She abounds in delights, because devoting herself to the meditations of Holy Scripture, she continually feeds her mind on heavenly nourishment. She leans upon her beloved, because trusting in the help of Christ alone, and by his generosity, she is transferred from exile to her homeland. For the Truth himself says to all the faithful: Without me you can do nothing (John 15:5). But whence she received the ability to ascend from the lowest things to the highest, from the desert to the kingdom, the beloved reveals when he adds: (Verse 5.) Under the apple tree I raised you up; there your mother was corrupted, there she who bore you was violated.
5. What is designated by the evil tree, if not the holy cross? Which bore that apple, of which the same Bride says in the preceding passages: 'As the apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons' (Song 2:3). But Christ roused his bride under the apple tree, because when placed on the cross, he called the Church, subject to him, to life; so that she might rise from the sleep of death, and crucifying herself with him, hasten toward the new resurrection. Whence the Apostle also says to any soul that is dead: 'Arise, you who sleep, and rise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light' (Eph. 5:14). And to certain ones who had already risen, he says elsewhere: 'If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above' (Col. 3:1). But because the unbelief of the Synagogue crucified Christ, there follows: 'There your mother was corrupted.' The mother of the Church is said to have been corrupted under the apple tree, because when she fixed her Savior to the wood, she corrupted herself by an abominable crime. He drives home the magnitude of this crime when he repeats the same thing, saying: 'There your mother was violated.' But since blindness has come upon Israel in part, so that the fullness of the Gentiles might enter in (Rom. 11), therefore it is said to the entering Church: (Verse 6) 'Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm.'
6. In the heart are thoughts, and in the arm are works. Upon the heart therefore and upon the arm of the Bride, the beloved is placed as a seal; because in the holy soul how much he is loved by her is shown both in will and in action. For the holy mind bears Christ as a sign both inwardly and outwardly; because while she labors constantly in meditations upon him, she does not cease to imitate him in outward action, so that there should be no doubt that she is his beloved. Concerning this sign the Bridegroom himself said to his disciples: "By this all will know that you are truly my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35). Concerning this love it is soon added: (Verse 6.) "For love is strong as death; jealousy is hard as hell; its lamps are lamps of fire and flames."
7. Rightly, without doubt, love is declared to be strong as death; because when we are put to death to vices through love, what death accomplishes in the senses of the body, love accomplishes in the desires of the mind. For there are some who so love God that they disregard all visible things, and while they reach toward eternal things with their mind, they become nearly insensible to all temporal things. In these persons, surely, love stands forth as strong as death, because just as death slays the outer senses of the body from every proper and natural appetite, so love in such men compels the mind, otherwise occupied, to despise all earthly desires. To those dead and yet living of this kind, the Apostle was speaking: "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3). These without doubt hide their life with Christ, because while they set aside all things that we see, they truly and secretly live in those things that we do not see—namely, in the blessedness of Christ. For because they despise the false life that visibly appears, they hide themselves in the true life, which presents itself as manifest only to invisible eyes. It can also be understood, however, that Christ says this of Himself, declaring: "Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death." As if He were saying: It is fitting that you bear me with you as a sign of my love in your mind and in your action, because in the strength of my love for you I underwent death, so that you, who were dead in unbelief, rising with me, might live spiritually in the newness of faith.
8. But because he would never have been hung on the cross unless the heart of the Synagogue had burned with great envy, therefore it is added: "Jealousy is cruel as hell." For jealousy is taken both in a good and in a bad sense. It is taken in a good sense, as is said through the Apostle: "Be zealous for the better gifts" (1 Cor. 13:11). But it is taken in a bad sense where it is said to Saul through Samuel: "The kingdom shall be taken from you and given to your rival" (1 Kings 17). For David is called his rival, whom Saul is known to have envied. Jealousy is therefore cruel as hell; because while the Synagogue thought it could send Christ down to the underworld, it envied him even unto death with a merciless heart. Jealousy stood forth as cruel as hell; because just as hell tortures without mercy those whom it holds, so the Jewish people, seizing Christ, dragged him to death without any regard for piety. Of which it is well added: "Its lamps are lamps of fire and flames." For just as fire consumes what it ignites, so envy destroyed the Jews from all the virtue of faith; of whom it is well said elsewhere: "And now fire consumes the adversaries." As if it were said: Before they come to the eternal fire, they are consumed in the present, because they carry within themselves the fire of envy, which is not carried without the burning of the one who carries it. This fire of envy brought forth flames when, through the examples by which it was kindled, it grew even among the Gentiles throughout the whole world, even to the point of martyrdoms of Christians. But because on the one hand the fire of envy, and on the other hand the fire of charity rose up, therefore it is added: (Verse 7.) "Many waters cannot extinguish charity, nor will rivers overwhelm it."
9. For the holy martyrs burned vigorously with charity, because they blazed wondrously in the love of God and neighbor. Many waters could not extinguish this charity, because however great the tribulations that befell them, they were unable to change them to hatred. This indeed would be to extinguish charity: if through the tribulations they inflicted, they could have brought them low into hatred of God or neighbor. But since waters have been mentioned, what again is understood by rivers, if not the increase and vigor of the waters themselves? For we know that rivers are usually called living waters. Therefore we take rivers as the greatest tribulations, which, while they boiled over upon the martyrs throughout the whole world, rushed together with great force to extinguish the fire of charity. But because charity lives so powerfully amid the rivers that it would rather consume the rivers than allow itself to be extinguished by them, therefore many even of the persecutors converted themselves to that same charity, so that they gave up whatever they possessed in the world and gave themselves over to the death which they had previously cruelly inflicted upon those who suffered. Whence it is also added: (Verse 7) If a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he will despise it as nothing.
10. God is not loved when there is desire for earthly substance, because earthly love soils the eye of the heart, so that the divine brightness cannot be seen. Against this it is said in the Gospel: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt. 5:8). And the apostle John says: If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15). Nor is it surprising, for how can one love him whom one does not know? Or how can one know him, when one closes the eye of the heart to knowing him? But a man gives all the substance of his house for love when he distributes whatever he possesses in the world for Christ's sake; so that, casting aside what hinders, he may love God, and with the dust of anxieties wiped away, may open his eyes to see. And when he has given all his substance, he regards it as though it were nothing, because after he has wiped clean the eye and beheld God, in the vision of him he counts whatever he had possessed as nothing. The apostles did this, who abandoned not only what they possessed but even what they desired, in order to follow Christ. To them Christ himself, for whom they had left all things, said: When you have done all the things that are commanded you, say: We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do (Luke 17:10). But since, once earthly substance has been cast aside, one does not immediately ascend to perfection—because after possessions have been renounced, there still remains the labor of denying one's very self—so that one may advance by degrees and at some point, made perfect, draw not only oneself but also others along to life, therefore concerning the new and still tender Church, or each individual soul, it is said next: (Verse 8.) Our sister is little, and has no breasts.
11. 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). For what would Peter preach to others, when he denied being a disciple of Christ with cursing and swearing at the voice of a single servant girl (John 20)? The Church, therefore, being small, did not have breasts, because after the resurrection, shut up in one house (Acts 1), she feared not only to preach among her persecutors, but even to be seen. Consequently, therefore, it is said: (Verse 7.) "What shall we do for our sister in the day when she is to be spoken to?" Christ spoke to His sister when He sent the Holy Spirit upon the apostles (Acts 2), and speaking to them inwardly, He taught them all the languages of the world through a manifold distribution. But from whom should He be understood to ask this—He who knows all things—if not from the holy fathers, whom He stirred up to inquire by the Holy Spirit? To them, by the same Spirit by which He led them into the question, He immediately responds fittingly and says: (Verse 9.) "If she is a wall, let us build upon her silver battlements."
12. 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). And again: "Whether it is right to listen to you rather than to God, judge for yourselves; for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:19). And concerning the other disciples it is written: "The disciples went away rejoicing from the presence of the council, because they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus" (Acts 5:41). Behold what kind of wall the Church has become, which just now was most tender and could not bear the step of anyone walking upon it without injury to itself, but now, having received the Holy Spirit as a wonderful craftsman, despises unharmed the insults of an entire assaulting army. Upon which battlements are built, because so that she might not only defend herself but also overthrow her attackers by resisting them, she is granted the power to perform miracles, which when the enemies see them, they are terrified, fearing the weapons of her assault. These battlements are rightly said to be of silver, because the miracles themselves are given together with the preaching of the word. And because silver is a very resonant metal, the battlements are of silver, because through miracles it came about that their words grew strong throughout the whole world and spread the preaching of the faith inflexibly in every direction: which the Psalmist shows, saying: "Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world" (Psalm 18:5). There follows: (Verse 9.) "If she is a door, let us enclose her with boards of cedar."
13. We also say that the Church is rightly the door, which we know received from Christ himself the power of opening and closing. The door undoubtedly exists in its preachers, because through them the entrance to life opens itself to us. Whence it is also said to the first pastor of the Church: Whatever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven (Matt. 16:19). Or the door exists in its own head, because he himself says truthfully of himself: I am the door (John 10:7). Now the door is fastened together with cedar boards, because the holy Church, preaching the faith, is adorned with multitudes of peoples; and when peoples are sprinkled with various virtues — so that, namely, one person gives necessities to the needy from the things he possesses; another, renouncing all things, abstains even from lawful marriage; yet another advances so far that he becomes a preacher to others as well — just as a painting is beautified by many colors, so the Church is honored by many forms of devotion, and growing strong in the Holy Spirit, she joyfully responds, saying: (Verse 10.) I am a wall, and my breasts are like a tower, since I have become in his presence as one finding peace.
14. 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. But what does it mean that he does not say peace, but as it were finding peace; unless it is because while we are in this world, we do not entirely cease from sin, and as long as we live with sin, we do not have perfect peace with him who lived in the flesh without sin? But since the little peace that we have, we hold through the Mediator himself of God and men, therefore it is added (Verse 11): The peaceful one had a vineyard, in that which has peoples; he delivered it to keepers; a man brings for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.
15. 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). This vineyard existed in that which has peoples, because it was established in the Law, which gathered many peoples under itself. Of which peoples it is said: "The peoples have meditated on vain things" (Psalm 2:1). He handed this vineyard over to keepers, because he entrusted the Synagogue to Moses and the other fathers to be guarded. Of which it is well added: "A man brings for its fruit a thousand silver pieces." This vineyard brought forth fruit, because from the Synagogue that great cluster of grapes which was brought from the land of promise—namely Christ Jesus—came forth through his humanity. Of which fruit the Father said to David: "Of the fruit of your body I will set upon your throne" (Psalm 132:11). Whence the Apostle also writes: "Whose are the fathers, and from whom is Christ" (Romans 9:5). By "silver pieces" in this place we understand all earthly substance, of which Peter said to the lame man asking for alms: "Silver and gold I do not have" (Acts 3:6). Therefore a man brings a thousand silver pieces for the fruit of the vineyard, because whoever conducts himself manfully in the faith which he has received willingly and perfectly relinquishes all earthly things, so that he may truly possess Christ. For a thousand is a perfect number, and therefore through it the perfection of any thing is demonstrated. These silver pieces, then, were offered by those in the early Church, of whom it is written in the Acts of the Apostles: "As many as were possessors of fields or houses sold them, and bringing the proceeds laid them at the feet of the apostles" (Acts 4:34). These, gathered together, built from themselves another vineyard, namely the holy Church, and as good farmers propagated it with their blood and extended it by their preaching to the ends of the earth, so that it now fills nearly the whole world and, entrusted to farmers, returns pleasing fruit in its proper seasons. Whence it is said in the Gospel: "He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard to other farmers, who will render him the fruit in their seasons" (Matthew 21:41). Of which vineyard, now entrusted to good men, the Peaceful One himself says: (Verse 12) "My vineyard is before me." His vineyard stands before him, because, the wicked farmers having been destroyed, he instructs the holy Church through good teachers with a benign regard. To which he says: (Verse 12) "A thousand are for you, O Peaceful One, and two hundred for those who keep its fruit."
16. Who are these peaceful ones who are said to be a thousand and two hundred, unless those aforementioned silver coins, which when we perfectly let go of them, we acquire peace for ourselves with the saints through their distribution? Hence also in the Gospel the Lord says: "Make friends for yourselves from the mammon of iniquity, so that when you fail, they may receive you into eternal tabernacles" (Luke 16:9). But what do we understand by two hundred, unless the double recompense which we acquire when we perfectly despise them in this world for Christ's sake? Therefore a thousand and two hundred silver coins belong to the Church, because when all the faithful completely relinquish everything they possess, they both make peace for themselves with the saints and receive the reward of the present life together with the heavenly one. And this is what the Lord says in the Gospel: "Amen, amen, I say to you, there is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time — houses, and brothers, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and fields, with persecutions — and in the age to come, eternal life" (Mark 10:29–30). But for whom is this reward so doubled, unless for those who guard its fruits? And who are those who guard the fruits of the vineyard, unless those who persevere in the holy work they have begun? For a work that is begun with holy desire, if it is not held by steadfastness of mind all the way to the end, is rendered without fruit, because it is prematurely emptied of that from which it had proceeded. And therefore the Lord says in the Gospel: "He who perseveres to the end, he will be saved" (Matthew 10:22). The Bridegroom follows and says: (Verse 13.) "You who dwell in the gardens, friends are listening; make me hear your voice."
17. 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. For the friends listen, because the faithful in the Church await with pious desire that the friend of the bridegroom may speak. And it should be noted that it is a friend who listens; because he who loves God with an undivided mind gladly hears one preaching what he loves. Whence it is said in the Gospel: "He who is of God hears the words of God" (John 8:47). But because while the Church preaches the truth, many do not understand, and many who do perceive it distort it with a perverse understanding; therefore the bride, in response to the one urging her to preach, answers and says: (Verse 14.) "Flee, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag upon the mountains of spices."
18. 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. Hence the very Wisdom of God says: "The wicked shall seek me and shall not find me" (John 7:34). But the beloved, fleeing the reprobate, goes to the mountains of spices; because, leaving the perverse behind, he does not cease to visit holy souls, who are made lofty through contemplation and bear fragrant ointments through the compounding of virtues. Upon these mountains the beloved is likened to a roe and to a young hart of the deer; because in the hearts of holy men it is made manifest that he assumed humanity for us out of loving charity. When he was born from the ancient fathers, he came as a fawn from the deer, as was said above. Though he was rich, he made himself poor so that we might be enriched; and though he was exalted above all things, he took up our lowliness with ineffable condescension. Let us render him immense thanks as long as we live; to him who was handed over to death for us and who rose again into immortality, we owe ourselves—both spirit and body (2 Cor. 8). He who lives and reigns with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, through infinite ages of ages. Amen.