Glossa Ordinaria

I am the flower. Because to the condition of the present time labor is more suited than rest, he rightly summons the bride, delighted with leisure, to the exercises of labors. As if he were to say: You indeed, wishing to render your beauty commendable to me, delight in blossoming with hidden virtues in quiet; but know that I require another kind of beauty in the present, because I am the flower of the virtues, from which every fruit of the field goes forth; because I desire my fragrance to become known to the whole world, which cannot be fulfilled unless, the quiet in which you delight being broken off, you gird yourself for the office of preaching. And the lily of the valleys rather than of the mountains, because the brightness of my humanity, or the splendor of the eternal light, or of the Godhead, I reveal rather to the humble and to those prepared to suffer. As if: Remember that I, who could be born of a virgin, who am God, appeared humbly in the world, showed myself to be a companion to men, came humbly even unto death. Therefore cease to seek the security of rest, whence he adds, As the lily. As a field is adorned with flowers, so the world is adorned with the knowledge of me and with faith.