Cornelius a Lapide

Verse 2. Fragrant with the best ointments.

The Hebrew reads, for the odor of your good ointments, that is, by antonomasia, of the best; the Syriac, for the odor of your sweetnesses. Hence some refer this to the oil that follows, and thus join it with it: "for," that is, on account of, "the odor of your ointments, your name is oil poured out." But our own, however, in vii better explains "odor" as "fragrant things," and refers it to the breasts, which preceded. For noble and elegant women are accustomed to wear at the breast and bosom small scent-bottles and ointment-caskets, that is, small cases containing musk and other sweet odors within themselves, which in Psalm 44:9 are called "houses of ivory": for "house" among the Hebrews signifies any kind of case.

Further, the Septuagint, explaining the word "best," translate: "and the odor of your ointments above all spices." For if the bridegroom's ointments are the best, then they surpass all ointments and spices. This alludes to the rite of the ancients, among whom bridegrooms entered upon their marriages crowned with a garland, and anointed with ointments. Hence it is said of Christ the bridegroom, Psalm 44:8-9: "God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows. Myrrh, and drop, and cassia from your garments, from the houses of ivory." To this applies that saying of Virgil:

Nor now shall my temples sweat with rich myrrh,
Nor shall the bridal torch of pine kindle chaste honors.

First Sense: On Christ and the Church.

The sense, then, is as if he said: "Your breasts are better than wine," on account of their fragrance, or because they are redolent and fragrant with the best ointments. For the new bride, as she had not yet perceived the bridegroom's kisses, so neither the milk of the breasts, except from a distance; but, enticed and allured by their fragrance, that is, by their fame, she desires both the milk of the breasts and the kiss of the mouth. For odor is a symbol of fame, according to that word, Ecclesiastes 7:2: "A good name is better than precious ointments"; and that word, II Corinthians 2:15: "We are the good odor of Christ to God," that is, we spread the fame of Christ everywhere by preaching. Thus Magdalene, enticed by the sweet fame that was spread abroad concerning the holiness, sweetness, and power of Christ, ran to the kissing of his feet. Hence the Chaldee, adapting these words in its own manner to the Synagogue, that is, to Moses and the Jews who were a type of the Church, that is, of Christ and the Christians, translates thus: at the voice of your wonders and of your power, which you wrought for your people, the house of Israel, all the peoples were moved, who heard the fame of your power and of your good signs.

Hence again, the ointments of Christ are the charisms of the Holy Spirit: for these spread abroad from him a most sweet odor and fame everywhere. Hence Rupert: "The best ointments," he says, "are these charisms: the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, the grace of healings, the working of miracles, prophecy, the discerning of spirits, and the rest, which whoever has are of good odor, and are fragrant sweetly like the best ointment. Hence the Apostle: Thanks be to God, he says, who always triumphs through us in Christ Jesus, and manifests the odor of his knowledge through us in every place, for we are the good odor of Christ to God." For of Christ, St. Peter says, Acts 10:38: "God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and power, who went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him." Hence his "fame went out into the whole region," Luke 4:14; and, "the fame of him was spread abroad into every place of the region," ibid., verse 37.

Further, the version of the Septuagint, which has, and the odor of your ointments above all spices, and the Arabic, which follows it, and the odor of your sweetnesses is the most excellent of all sweetnesses, the Fathers expound thus, as if to say: the grace and power of Christ, with which the Father anointed him, surpasses all the gifts, graces, and powers given, not only to Moses and the prophets, but also to all the saints taken together. For, as Habakkuk says of him, chapter 3, verse 3: "His power has covered the heavens," that is, it is heavenly, and transcends the heavens and the heavenly angels: for Christ's power is of itself power itself; Christ's wisdom, justice, charity, etc., is of itself wisdom, justice, charity, etc. itself, says Nyssen. So too Origen, Aponius, and Theodoret — hear him: "Known to me," he says, "are the ointments which Moses compounded, and the oil of anointing, and the incense of the composition; but of all those spices your ointment is the sweetest. He here calls the spiritual grace an ointment, with which he, being filled, imparted to all of us out of his fullness: wherefore blessed Paul, with a clear voice, II Corinthians 2:15: We are, he says, the good odor of Christ to God, in those who are saved, and in those who perish: to some indeed the odor of death unto death, to others the odor of life unto life." For Christ, from the first instant of his conception, received from God, infused into himself, all grace and power, and that in such a degree, perfection, and sublimity, that it is the grace of the head, which is, namely, derived from Christ into all the Saints, as from the head into the members, according to that word: "God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows," Psalm 44:8. For in Christ dwelt not only a likeness, but even "all the fullness of the Godhead," as Paul says, Colossians 2:9. Hence "of his fullness we have all received," John 1:16.

Second Sense: On Christ and the Holy Soul.

Christ the bridegroom shares his breasts, fragrant with the best ointments and charisms, with his bride, that is, with the holy soul, according to that word, I Corinthians 1:30: "But of him you are in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption." Hence St. Gregory, who by the two breasts understands the twofold love of God and neighbor: "These breasts," he says, "are fragrant with the best ointments, because they carry with them the odor of sweetness through the words of wisdom, and the examples of holiness. For whoever refreshes himself with holy charity through the grace of God perceives both the odor and the sweetness of spiritual gifts. By the abundance of these goods he draws every neighbor with him to taste the interior things, and, that they may grow strong in divine love, he nourishes them with these breasts." These, then, are the best, in respect of carnal ointments; because those whom they anoint, they make true kings and priests. The rest, who by the breasts of Christ understand the apostles and evangelical doctors, say that they, by the fragrance of graces, of holy virtues, of works and miracles, and thence of the consequent fame and glory, surpass the holy prophets, patriarchs, priests, and kings of Moses's law. "Because," says Justus Orgelitanus, "they shone with such virtues, and with such miracles, that the odor of their righteousness, spread far and wide, then delighted those who beheld it, and even to this day refreshes all who hear of it, just as one of them himself declares, saying: Thanks be to God, who always triumphs in us in Christ Jesus, and manifests the odor of his knowledge through us in every place," II Corinthians 2:14; and: "Who anointed us, God: who also sealed us, and gave the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts," II Corinthians 1:21-22. See what I have noted in both places.

Finally, St. Bernard, sermon 10 and following, assigns three mystical ointments of the soul: the first, of contrition; the second, of devotion; the third, of piety; each of which he then pursues at length: "The first," he says, "is stinging, producing sorrow; the second, tempering, soothing sorrow; the third, healing, expelling sickness." With this threefold ointment Magdalene anointed, now the feet, now the head of Christ. But the holy soul anoints him most of all with the ointment of praise and thanksgiving, by which she attributes all her grace, all merit, all praise and glory to Christ. The same author, sermon 22, understands by the ointments the four cardinal virtues, which are true in Christ alone, but feigned and false in the philosophers: "What have you to do," he says, "with virtues, you who do not know Christ, the power of God? Where, I ask, is true prudence, except in the teaching of Christ? Where is true justice, except from the mercy of Christ? Where is true temperance, except in the life of Christ? Where is true fortitude, except in the passion of Christ? Only those, therefore, who have been imbued with his teaching are to be called prudent; only those just, who through his mercy have obtained pardon for their sins; only those temperate, who strive to imitate his life; only those brave, who firmly hold to the lessons of his patience in adversities. In vain, then, does anyone labor at the acquiring of virtues, if he thinks they are to be hoped for from any other source than from the Lord of virtues, whose teaching is the seed-plot of prudence, whose mercy is the work of justice, whose life is the mirror of temperance, whose death is the emblem of fortitude."

Third Sense: On Christ and the Blessed Virgin.

Rupert, who takes this passage, as also all the rest of the whole Canticle, properly of the Blessed Virgin, asserts that the breasts of twofold charity granted to the Blessed Virgin were fragrant with the sweetest odor of all the virtues, which the Holy Spirit distributed among others, but gathered together all in the Virgin, and that in such abundance and fullness, that she alone was more fragrant with all of them than the rest of the saints gathered together, according to that word, Ecclesiasticus 24:20: "Like cinnamon and aromatic balsam I have given forth odor, like choice myrrh I have given sweetness of odor, etc. I have borne fruit like the vine, a sweetness of odor: and my flowers are the fruit of honor and honesty. I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the way and of truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue. Come over to me, all you that desire me, and be filled with my generations (that is, with my begotten fruits). For my spirit is sweet above honey, and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb. My memory is unto everlasting generations." See what is said there.

Your name is oil poured out.

Oil is distilled not only from olives, but from any flower, herb, or spice, and it draws out the whole substance, juice, richness, and power of the thing: hence it is called by physicians the quintessence, which, if skillfully mixed with the oil of other spices, makes an excellent and fragrant ointment. Hence the Septuagint, Vatablus, and others translate: your name is ointment poured out; the Syriac: your name is ointment of myrrh; the Arabic: your name is a sweet ointment poured out. For the Hebrew שמן schemen signifies not only oil, but also ointment, and this fits this passage better. For it explains the phrase "fragrant with the best ointments," as if to say: the breasts of your most sweet beneficence, O Christ, are better than wine, that is, than all the pleasures and enticements of the world, because they are fragrant with the best ointments, that is, they breathe forth the best charisms, which you pour out upon all, so much so that you can be called oil, or ointment poured out, and this name is peculiar and proper to you. Hence in the Hebrew there is a beautiful play on words: your שם schem is שמן schemen, that is, your name is oil, and the very godhead of oil. Wherefore Hortolanus explains this thus paraphrastically, but genuinely and wisely, as if to say: Steeped wholly in these heavenly ointments by the Holy Spirit, O Christ, you are fragrant, you smell most sweetly, and by your wondrous words and deeds you have already gained for yourself so great a name: thus your renowned fame, by which — sias, called by the Greeks Christ, by the Latins the Anointed, because in the incarnation, in which, as man, he was anointed and consecrated by the grace of God the Father as supreme Pontiff, Prophet, Lawgiver, King, and Redeemer of the world.

Hence he poured out this ointment of his grace upon all who believe in him, and pours it out daily: hence from Christ all are called Christians. "For when he handed over his power and authority to the apostles, the whole world was steeped most holily in piety," says Philo Carpathius. Hence also in baptism Christians are anointed, visibly with the ointment of chrism in the body, and invisibly with the grace of the Holy Spirit in the soul, says Theodoret. Wherefore Nazianzen, in his oration on Holy Baptism: "Let us," he says, "be fragrant with that ointment poured out for our sake, receiving it in a spiritual manner, and being so formed and changed by it that from us too a sweet odor may be breathed forth." For just as Magdalene, pouring out ointment upon the head of Christ, filled the whole house with a sweet odor, so Christ, pouring out his graces upon the faithful, has filled the whole Church, indeed the whole world, with the sweetest odor of the Gospel. So too Cassiodorus, Justus Orgelitanus, Bede, and St. Gregory — hear him: "The name," he says, "of the bridegroom is Christ; but the name of the bridegroom is poured out as it were like oil, because whoever are truly reckoned by the Christian name overflow with charity, by which they are softened; and, that they may send forth the flames of good examples, they are continually steeped in that same charity." And St. Augustine, discourse 3 on Psalm 30, understanding by the ointment of Christ his mercy: "Nor," he says, "did you keep the ointment of your mercy in Jerusalem as if in a vessel, but as though the vessel were broken, the ointment was diffused through the world, that what is said might be fulfilled: Your name is ointment poured out; and thus you magnified your mercy in the city of the surrounding region, that is, pouring out your mercy among all the nations." In like manner Philo Carpathius understands by the ointment the most burning charity of God and of Christ poured out and lavished upon us. For this reason pontiffs, no less than kings and princes, are anointed with oil, that they may pour out full charity upon their subjects. Hence of Jesus the priest and Zerubbabel the prince it is said, Zechariah 4:14: "These are the two sons of oil, who stand before the Ruler of the whole earth." And of Elijah and Enoch it is said, Apocalypse 11:4: "These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks, standing in the sight of the Lord of the earth." See what is said in both places.

Further, Eusebius, book IV of the Demonstration, chapter 15, adds that Christ, not only as man, but also as God, was from eternity anointed with oil, that is, received from the Father the fullness of the Godhead: "That power," he says, "of the supreme and unbegotten divine essence, which avails all things, supplies every good, furnishes every beauty, the divine Spirit, applying and adapting it by a fitting and proper likeness, calls oil. Wherefore he calls both Christ himself, and him who is a partaker of that, anointed." And, after a few words

You will ask, what is this name? First, the Chaldee takes it as the name Jehovah: "And your holy name," he says, "is heard in the whole earth, which is chosen more than the oil of anointing, with which the heads of kings and priests are anointed." Hence many take the name here to be that of God, who at the creation of the world poured out his goodness and beneficence upon all creatures like oil, and at its redemption sent forth, indeed poured out, the bowels of his mercy, namely his Only-begotten, into our flesh. For Jehovah signifies being itself, and the ocean, or immense sea, of being, and the first principle of all things, from whom all things beg and draw their being as from a fountain; but Jehovah was transformed into Jesus, when God, made man, poured out the sea of his grace and salvation upon all the faithful. Eusebius adds, book IV of the Demonstration, chapter 5, that Jehovah, that is, God the Father, pours out his whole Godhead into the Son through generation; but that the Father and the Son transfuse the same into the Holy Spirit through spiration. Hence the same author, book V of the Demonstration, 1, calls the Son the fragrance of the Father.

Further, the name Jehovah, that is, of God, formerly known to the Jews alone, and, as it were, shut up in Judea, was spread and poured out through the whole world by Jesus, that is, the Word incarnate, when at the preaching of the apostles all nations, even the godless, knew, loved, and glorified God. So Origen, Anselm, and others. Hear St. Ambrose, book III On Virgins, after the middle: "This ointment always was, but it was with the Father: it was in the Father: it was fragrant only to angels and archangels, as it were within the vessel of heaven. The Father opened his mouth, saying: Behold, I have set you as a covenant of my race, as a light of the nations, that you may be for salvation even to the end of the earth: the Son descended, all things were filled with a new odor." And a little further on: "The Son of God himself, in the body as in a vessel, at first held in his own odor, awaiting the time, as he says: The Lord gives me a learned tongue, that I should know when it is fitting for me to speak a word. The hour came, he opened his mouth: the ointment went forth, when power went out from him. This ointment was emptied out upon the Jews, and was gathered by the Gentiles: emptied out in Judea, and it was fragrant in all the lands."

And, a few things being interposed: "Him," he says, "who alone was anointed with this whole oil, and who was made prince of that paternal fragrance which is divine and shared with no others, and who alone was begotten from him — declared God the Word, God from God, by the communication of the unbegotten Begetter — he called Christ and Anointed."

But properly it is here treated of Christ as man; for thus he is the bridegroom of the Church, and therefore is called Christ, that is, Anointed, and that so abundantly and fully, that he is named not only anointed, but even ointment and oil: "Oil," he says, "poured out is your name," by which pouring out he consecrated Christians into mystical kings and priests, according to that word, I Peter 2:9: "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of acquisition: that you may announce the virtues of him who called you out of darkness into his admirable light."

Christ, then, as man, was anointed with a twofold oil or ointment, that is, with a twofold grace. The first is the grace of the hypostatic union, by which flesh was united to the Word, and man was made God. The second, following from the former already mentioned, is the habitual grace infused into the soul of Christ, which not only sanctified him, but also constituted him the fountain of holiness and the head and cause of all the saints: for from this followed the whole outpouring of grace upon all the faithful and saints of every nation, age, sex, condition, rank, and order: "The Jew," says St. Bernard, "has the oil, but not poured out; he has it in his books, but not in his heart. What does it profit you to read over the pious name of the Savior in books, and not to have piety in your conduct?" But the Christian receives piety in his conduct from Christ, who receives the unction of Christ in his heart.

Finally, by the name is understood the thing and the person signified by the name, as if Bede says: "Oil poured out is your name," that is, you are rightly named, O Christ, that which you are, namely full of the Spirit, and of his gifts, which you pour out abundantly upon others. For oil denotes the Holy Spirit and his charisms, which Christ, at Pentecost, distributed generously upon the apostles and the rest of the faithful, according to that word: "I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh," Joel 2:28.

Thirdly, the proper name of the bridegroom of the Church is Jesus: for the name Christ is a name of office; but the name Jesus is proper to the person, namely of that man who is united hypostatically to the Word. For the name Jesus was imposed on him at the circumcision, just as upon us in baptism the name of Cornelius, Peter, Paul, etc. is imposed; for Jesus signifies Savior, such as the God-man alone was, that is, the Word incarnate; for he pours out this saving grace, varied and manifold, upon the faithful, that they may attain to salvation and eternal glory, according to that word: "For neither is there any other name given to men under heaven, in which we must be saved," Acts 4:12. For Jesus pours out upon virgins the grace of virginal chastity, upon widows that of widowhood, upon the married that of the married state, and to martyrs he inspires fortitude, to doctors he gives doctrine, to religious their religious life, to anchorites solitude, to the active their action, to the contemplative their contemplation, etc.; and all these things he does not drip sparingly, but pours out abundantly, and that with a wondrous fragrance of sweetness, so that to the holy soul nothing is sweeter, nothing more delightful, than to think of, to name, to invoke Jesus. "Jesus," says St. Bernard, "honey in the mouth, melody in the ear, jubilation in the heart: nothing is sung more sweetly, nothing is heard more delightfully, nothing is thought more sweetly, than Jesus the Son of God. Jesus, the sweetness of hearts, the living fountain, the light of minds, surpassing all joy and all desire." See the whole hymn of St. Bernard on the name of Jesus.

The Church, therefore, and the faithful soul say to Christ: You are Jesus to me, you are my Savior, you are my salvation, you pour out the ointment of your salvation upon all the saints. For this ointment of your name is composed of the most precious spices of your divinity and your humanity, namely of your flesh, blood, and soul, most richly adorned with every gift and virtue, mingled with your divinity. So St. Cyril, books IV and IX, On Adoration.

And therefore the name of Jesus includes the name Jehovah, and all the other names of God and of Christ, which are: Emmanuel, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Father of the world to come, Prince of Peace, etc., Isaiah 9:6; Numbers 14:18. Hence the name of Jesus was so sweet and lovable to St. Paul, that he repeats it often in individual clauses, and is sweetened together with it. Hence in his few Epistles he repeats it two hundred and nineteen times, but the name of Christ four hundred and one times. St. Ignatius did the same, as is clear from his Epistles, especially in the Epistle to the Romans, where also that saying: "My Jesus, my love, has been crucified." So too St. Dionysius, who, chapter 4 of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, page 3: "We know," he says, "that the most august Jesus, supersubstantially a fragrant odor, fills our mind with divine delight by spiritual distributions;" and St. Francis, says St. Bonaventure in his Life, "whenever he uttered or heard the name of Jesus, being filled inwardly with a certain jubilation, he seemed wholly changed outwardly, as if a honeyed savor had transformed his taste, or a harmonious sound his hearing."

The name of Jesus is called purak; the Septuagint, exkevosen, that is, emptied out and poured out, both at the circumcision, where, pouring out the firstfruits of his blood, he merited this name; and at the passion and the cross, where he poured out for us his whole blood, spirit, and life, according to that word: "He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in habit as a man. He humbled himself, made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross," Philippians 2:7-8. Ointment shut up in a vessel is not perceived, but poured out it spreads its fragrance upon all. So the name of Jesus, as it were shut up in Christ, was not perceived; but when it poured itself out at the circumcision and the cross, it breathed forth the sweetest odors of love and of all the virtues upon all, say Theodoret, Philo Carpathius, and Aponius:

"Like water," he himself says, "I am poured out: and all my bones are scattered," Psalm 21:15. Hear St. Ambrose, sermon 1 on Psalm 118: "Your name is ointment poured out, that is, this whole world stank with the unclean impurities of divers crimes; now it breathes everywhere with the sweetness of chastity, the ointment of faith, the flower of integrity." The same, book On Isaac and the Soul, chapter 3: "In the word breathes the odor of grace, and the remission of sins, which, diffused throughout the whole world, has filled all things as with an ointment poured out, because throughout all the grievous filth of vices has been wiped away."

Further, oil is a symbol, first, of peace and tranquility; hence that saying: "Calmer than oil." For oil is so calm that it calms even the raging sea: for which reason divers, when going down into the sea, are accustomed to scatter oil, so as to render it both quiet and clear, and bright, so that by this light they may find what, sunk and lost in it, they are seeking, as Pliny testifies, book II, chapter 103.

Secondly, oil is a symbol of grace and mercy; hence among the Greeks the names elaios and eleos, that is, oil and mercy, are close, so that one seems to have taken its force and name from the other. To this applies what Pliny says, book XV, chapter 2: "For those gathering olives there was a most ancient law: Do not strip the oil, nor beat it out." For this reason, at the nativity of Christ, at Rome a fountain of oil gushed forth, which flowed continuously with oil for a whole day, signifying that Christ was now being born, who would scatter the oil of sweetness, clemency, and grace throughout the whole world. This prodigy is related by Osorius, book VI, chapter 19, and Eusebius in the Chronicle, Paul the Deacon, and, from these, Baronius.

Thirdly, oil is a symbol of richness and of the warmth which love and charity bring; for oil is airy, and contains much spirit, and therefore floats upon water, says Aristotle, book II On the Generation of Animals, chapter 2. Hence too "the olive fattens the flock," says the same author, book VIII History of Animals, chapter 10. The same asserts that bees delight in the olive, so that they may make honey. Pliny adds from Theophrastus, book XV, chapter 2: "The cause of oil is heat; wherefore it is sought both in the presses and even in the store-rooms with much fire." The same, chapter 4: "It is," he says, "the nature of oil to warm the body, and to fortify against cold."

Fourthly, of the odor and fragrance of a good example, of name and fame; for oil here is understood not pure, but artfully mixed from various kinds of spices and odors, and therefore is understood to be most fragrant.

Fifthly, oil is a sign and cause of cheerfulness: for it gladdens those anointed, and makes them sleek and joyful and bright; hence that saying: "That he might make the face cheerful with oil," Psalm 103:15.

Sixthly, oil, and still more ointment, is a symbol of pleasure and delight; hence formerly at banquets the guests were anointed with precious ointments for elegance and delight.

Seventhly, oil comforts the body, and restores strength to limbs wearied either by a journey or by any labor. Hence the Samaritans, at the warning of the Prophet, sent back to their homeland the captives whom they had led away from Judea, after refreshing them with food and drink, and anointing them with oil to remove the weariness of the journey, II Paralipomenon 28:15. Hence too athletes, about to contend in the stadium, anointed themselves with oil for greater strength; and the victors were crowned with olive. Hear Pliny, book XV, chapter 4: "Roman majesty conferred great honor upon the olive, crowning the troops of knights with it on the Ides of July; thus those celebrating lesser triumphs; and at Athens the victors were crowned with olive." The same, book XXIII, chapter 4: "By every oil," he says, "the body is softened, and receives vigor and strength, etc. It dulls all poisons. And it is a remedy for weariness and chills: it drives out colic with a warm drink; likewise the creatures of the belly; it is useful for wound-plasters, it cleanses the face, etc. It is more helpful to the lethargic, and when the disease is subsiding. It is a remedy for headaches: likewise for the burning heat of fever." He adds more on this subject.

Eighthly, it is very well known that oil is applied for the healing of wounds; hence that word, Isaiah 1:6: "Wound, and bruise, and swelling sore, it has not been bound up, nor dressed with medicine, nor fomented with oil." And that Samaritan of the Gospel is related to have poured oil and wine into the wounds of the half-dead man, Luke chapter 10, verse 34.

The name of Jesus supplies all these things: for, first, it calms the angry, and quiets all the passions; secondly, it brings, indeed pours out, grace and mercy; thirdly, it enriches and warms the soul with heavenly love and ardor; fourthly, it breathes upon all the sweetest beauty of grace and fame; fifthly, it gladdens the sorrowful; sixthly, it feeds the faithful with heavenly delights, indeed inebriates them; seventhly, it strengthens martyrs and those fighting for virtue, and those wearied by the contest, so that they may overcome all kinds of torments cheerfully and nobly, and it crowns the victors; eighthly, it heals all the wounds of the soul.

Hear St. Bernard, sermon 15: Formerly, he says, this name was "not only poured, but poured out: for it had already been poured in. Already the heavens possessed it, already it had become known to the angels. But it has been sent forth outside; because what had been poured into the angels in such a way that it was still private, has been poured out even upon men, so that even then it was rightly cried out from the earth: Oil poured out is your name." And further below: "O blessed name! O oil poured out everywhere! How far? From heaven into Judea, and thence it has run out into every land; and from the whole world the Church cries out: Oil poured out is your name. Poured out indeed, for it has not only overflowed heaven and the lands, but has sprinkled even the lower regions, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue should confess and say: Oil poured out is your name." And after some things: Oil, he says, "gives light, feeds, and anoints; it fosters fire, nourishes the flesh, soothes pain; it is light, food, medicine. See the same now also of the bridegroom's name: it gives light when preached, it feeds when thought upon, it soothes and anoints when invoked. And let us run through each point. Whence do you think comes, in the whole world, so great and so sudden a light of faith, if not from the preaching of Jesus? Was it not in the light of this name that God called us into his admirable light? To those enlightened by it, and seeing light in that light, Paul may rightly say: You were once darkness, but now light in the Lord." And after a little: "Nor is the name of Jesus only light, but it is also food. Are you not comforted as often as you remember it? What else so enriches the mind of one who thinks of it? What so restores wearied senses, strengthens the virtues, quickens good and honest habits, fosters chaste affections?

Every food of the soul is dry, if it is not moistened with that oil; it is tasteless, if it is not seasoned with this salt. If you write, it has no savor for me, unless I read Jesus there. If you dispute or discuss, it has no savor for me, unless Jesus has sounded there. Jesus, honey in the mouth, melody in the ear, jubilation in the heart. But he is also medicine. Is any one of you sad? Let Jesus come into the heart, and from there leap into the mouth: and behold, at the rising of that name's light, every cloud flees away, and calm returns. Does someone slip into crime, and, despairing, run further to the snare of death? Does he not, if he invokes the name of life, immediately breathe again unto life? For whom has there ever stood before the face of the saving name the hardness (as is usual) of heart, sluggishness, torpor, rancor of soul, the languor of sloth? For whom, when the fountain of tears has perhaps dried up, has it not, upon Jesus being invoked, immediately burst forth more abundant, flowed more sweetly? For whom, trembling and fearful amid dangers, has the name of power, when invoked, not at once provided confidence, and driven out fear?" Finally he concludes thus from what has been said: "Nothing so restrains the onset of anger, calms the swelling of pride, heals the wound of envy, checks the flow of lust, extinguishes the flame of desire, tempers the thirst of avarice, and puts to flight the itch of every unseemliness. For when I name Jesus the man, I set before myself one meek and humble of heart, kind, sober, chaste, merciful, and in short conspicuous for every honesty and holiness; and the same, God omnipotent, who by his example may heal me, and by his help may strengthen me. All these things sound together for me, when Jesus has sounded. I take, then, for myself examples from the man, and help from the mighty one, etc. May he always be in your bosom, always in your hand, so that all your thoughts and acts may be directed toward Jesus. Finally you are also invited: Set me (he says, chapter 8:6) as a seal upon your heart, a seal upon your arm." See more in the same author, sermons 15 and 18.

Therefore the young maidens have loved you.

St. Bernard, sermon 19, adds "exceedingly," but the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin do not have this. He calls the young maidens the Churches and souls new in faith and righteousness, and recently regenerated in Christ through baptism, who, like young maidens, gradually advance and grow, both in age and in virtue, so that at last they may merit to be perfectly joined to Christ, and intimately united to him by the spiritual bond of marriage and by a kiss. So Cassiodorus, Bede, Haymo, Justus, and others. In Hebrew, for "young maidens" is עלמות alamoth, that is, virgins; for עלמה alma is the word for a virgin, because she is hidden and unknown to a man, from the root עלם alam, that is, he hides, as I have shown at length, Isaiah 7:14, on that word: "Behold, a virgin (in Hebrew haalma, that is, that virgin, namely the Virgin Mother of God) shall conceive and bear a son." The sense, then, is as if he said: The young maidens, that is, souls new in faith and virtue, as it were virgins hidden from the corruptions of the world, while they smell the fragrance of the oil or ointment, that is, of the charisms of Christ the bridegroom, and while they perceive how the name of Jesus Christ is oil, or ointment poured out, and that most sweet and most fragrant, being enticed by this odor and this sweetness are carried away into love of him, and love him tenderly. Hence the Chaldee translates: and therefore the just have loved to walk after the way of your goodness, that they may possess this age and the age to come.

Cassiodorus notes, and from him Bede and Haymo, that the young maidens are called in the feminine: Because, he says, the souls of the saints, the more conscious they are of their own greater frailty, the more they love Christ. Further, the cause of their love is "oil poured out," that is, the poured-out liberality of Christ. Hence Rupert: "Unless," he says, "the oil had been poured out, unless the Word had been made flesh, imperfect souls would not have dared to love God, indeed they would not even have dared to hear him; whence also they said: Let not the Lord speak to us, lest perhaps we die," Exodus 20:19. So too Origen: Unless, he says, Christ had emptied himself out like an ointment, no one could have grasped him in that fullness of the Godhead, except perhaps alone

the bride, as if to say: The perfect grasp Christ in his divinity, and the imperfect in his humanity; hence for their sake Christ poured himself out into flesh, made man. And St. Bernard, sermon 19: "The pouring out, indeed," he says, "makes the name graspable, and, once grasped, lovable, but only to the young maidens. Those who are more capable rejoice in it whole, and have no need of it poured out. The angelic creature beholds, with unhindered keenness of mind, the great abyss of the divine judgments, blessed by the ineffable delight of their supreme equity, and rejoices, moreover, that it is committed to effect through its own ministry, and made manifest, and therefore rightly loves the Lord Christ."

Again, others understand by the young maidens souls not imperfect, but vigorous and perfect, who have grown up in virtue, so that they can both communicate the same to others, and bear spiritual children to Christ, such as the martyrs are, says Philo Carpathius. So too Theodoret and St. Gregory, Morals, book 19, chapter 9. For adolescence, that is, youth, is the middle age between childhood and old age, and therefore is a mature, settled, and the best age. Hence some translate from the Hebrew thus: because the young maidens have loved you, therefore your name is oil or ointment poured out for them. Hear Nyssen, homily 1: "Only," he says, "that soul, which has passed through the infant state, and has arrived at the flower of spiritual age, and has received neither spot nor wrinkle, nor anything of the kind; and which neither lacks feeling on account of infancy, nor is feeble on account of old age, is called in this passage a young maiden; she loves with her whole heart and all her strength that beauty, of which thought finds neither description, nor example, nor interpretation."

This too is true; for at the beginning of the Church so much grace of Christ was poured out upon the faithful recently baptized, that it inflamed them with the love of Christ, and made them at once heralds and martyrs of the same.

Christianity introduced into the world the pursuit of chastity and angelic purity, and therefore he who was born of a virgin surpassed all the angels in virginity and purity. For this reason the first faithful converted by the apostles were, for the most part, all virgins or celibates, so much so that many thought that the law of Christ forbade marriage, and enjoined celibacy upon all Christians, as is clear from the question which the Corinthians put to St. Paul, whether the use of marriage was lawful for Christians? I Corinthians 7. And before all these the Blessed Virgin bore the standard, who was the first to vow virginity to God, and therefore merited to become the Mother of God. For, as St. Bernard says, homily 2 on Missus Est: "Such a birth befitted a God of this kind, that he should be born of none but a virgin. Such a childbearing also befitted the Virgin, that she should bear none but God." And so by the young maidens here all the faithful are understood, but especially virgins: for these, perceiving the fragrance of Christ above the rest, love none but him; hence too they follow the Lamb wherever he goes, Apocalypse 14:4. Such were St. Catherine, St. Cecilia, St. Dorothy, St. Agnes, whose wondrous love for Christ St. Ambrose vividly describes, sermon 9, of whom the Psalmist sings: "After her shall virgins be brought to the king," Psalm 44:46.