Cornelius a Lapide

Verse 6. Tell me, whom my soul loves, where you pasture, where you lie down at midday, lest I begin to wander after the flocks of your companions.

TELL ME (you, O my bridegroom, who are he) WHOM MY SOUL LOVES (more than herself, because you are the soul and life of my soul, for Christ is the son of charity, and charity itself, says Origen, homily 2 of the four), WHERE YOU PASTURE, WHERE YOU LIE DOWN AT MIDDAY (for "where" in Hebrew is אֵיכָה echa, which can also be translated "how," as though the bride were asking to be taught by the shepherd-bridegroom the manner of pasturing the flock), LEST I BEGIN TO WANDER AFTER THE FLOCKS OF YOUR COMPANIONS. — For "you lie down" in Hebrew is תַרְבִּיץ tarbits, that is, to lie down, to recline, to make your flock rest. St. Ambrose, in the book On Isaac and the Soul, chapter 4, reads "where you remain," and holds that three senses of Holy Scripture are denoted here.

Literally, the bride, wandering about while keeping the vineyards, scorched by the sun's rays, discolored and darkened, asks the shepherd-bridegroom for a place where, as under a shelter, she may rest with the flocks and lie down at midday, that is, in the heat of the sun, so that she may hasten to him, lest she be scorched by the sun, but there enjoy the shade, rest, and pasture of her bridegroom, lest otherwise, seeking shade, she begin to wander and fall among the bridegroom's companions, that is, rivals, competitors, and adversaries. For shepherds are accustomed at midday to lead their flocks to the stalls or woods, or shady valleys, lest they be struck by the heat of the sun, but there partly ruminate and digest the food they had eaten in the fields, and partly receive fresh food prepared by the shepherd. The bride, therefore, in the heat of midday seeks shade by which she may be refreshed, and thinks none better than

that in which the bridegroom lies, beside whom the midday heat need not be feared.

Primus Sensus Adaequatus, De Christo et Ecclesia.
First Full Sense, Concerning Christ and the Church.

Parabolically and properly, it is signified according to the letter that the Church, afflicted and discolored by the heat of the persecution of Jews and gentiles, asks Christ her bridegroom for a place in which he may pasture his faithful, and with them seize refreshment by lying down at midday, that is, in the heat of tribulation, so that there she may be pastured, animated, and strengthened by the bridegroom, lest otherwise she fall among the bridegroom's companions, that is, rival heretics, or impious men, by whom she would be fed on the fodder of heresies, errors, and vices. Whence the Chaldee, applying this in his own manner to the Jews, vexed and tempted by idolaters in captivity, translates thus: «When the time came for Moses to be released from this world, he said before the Lord: It is manifest before me that this people will come to sin, and go into captivity; now, therefore, tell me how they are governed, and how they will dwell among the peoples, whose decrees are harsher to them than the heat and burning at midday, in the turning of Tammuz.»

Aptly Bede: «Well,» he says, «does she call him whose protection she implores the beloved of her soul; for the graver the danger from which she desires to be delivered, the more she loves him by whom she knows she is to be received.»

More movingly Nyssen, homily 2: «Declare to me,» he says, «whom my soul loves; for thus I name you, since your name surpasses all thought and understanding, nor can the whole of rational nature utter or comprehend it. For your name, by which your goodness is known, is my soul's relation to you; for how should I not love you, who have so loved me — even though I were so black — that you laid down your soul for the sheep whom you pasture? No greater love can be conceived than that your soul should exchange itself for my salvation.»

Note that midday, when the sun burns, is a symbol, first, of the heat of persecution and affliction, when it is, as it were, at its height and summit; for then especially the Church invokes Christ, that he may afford her help and refreshment. So Cassiodorus and Bede: «Christ,» he says, «who pastures his sheep, lies down among them at midday, because he restores the hearts of his faithful, lest they dry up within from the heat of temptations, with the memory of supernal sweetness, and is wont himself to remain propitious in them.» To this St. Gregory adds, who takes midday for the heat of vices: «At midday,» he says, «Christ pastures and lies down under the shade, because in the refreshment of the Holy Spirit he prepares for himself as it were rest and food. For by midday is expressed the heat of vices, and by the shade is designated the state of spiritual grace. When midday, then, burns, Christ rests in the shade, because while the heat of vices blazes among the reprobate, he himself grants his bride the spirit of refreshment, and makes in her for himself a delightful place of rest. But this the bride begs to have declared to her, which is never revealed to anyone except to one who receives that same gift of sanctifying grace.»

Second, midday is a symbol of the highest clarity of faith, equally as of the highest charity: for at midday the day is clearest, and equally hottest. The bride, therefore, asks for the bridegroom's place at midday, that is, she asks to be led from the dawn, that is, from a slight knowledge of God, to the clearest contemplation of God and of the things of faith, by which, illuminating them, she may dispel all the errors of the Jews and other unbelievers like clouds. She also asks for the most ardent charity, that being kindled it may conquer and overcome all the heat of persecution and tribulation, according to that: «Many waters could not quench charity, neither shall the floods drown it,» Canticles 8:7. To this belongs that of Habakkuk 3:3: «God will come from the south;» «by which is signified midday, that is, the fervor of charity and the splendor of truth,» says St. Augustine, book 10 of The City of God, chapter 32. Whence Origen here, homily 2 of the four: «The bride,» he says, «asks of the bridegroom that he show her the place of his secrecy and rest, since, impatient of love, she desires to hear the bridegroom even at midday, especially at that time when the light is clearer, and the splendor of the day is perfect and pure, that she may attend him as he pastures or refreshes the sheep.» The same, homily 1 of the two: «I do not seek,» he says, «other times, when in the evening, when at dawn, when you pasture at the setting of the sun. I seek that time when, in the flourishing day, when in full light, you dwell in the splendor of your majesty.» And St. Ambrose, Hexameron book 4, chapter 5, addressing Christ, thus says: «You pasture at midday, that is, in the place of the Church where justice shines, where judgment gleams; like midday, where no shadow is seen, where the days are longer, because for them the sun of justice lingers longer as in summer.» The same, sermon 2 on Psalm 118: «Those who have received you,» he says, «as the author of salvation, are at midday: for them your grace shines, for them it burns like midday; for them you have become midday, who are pastured in your riches, and hope in you. Therefore, as David says, He shall bring forth their justice as the light, and their judgment as the noonday,» Psalm 36, verse 6. The same, in the Exhortation to a Virgin: «Where does Christ remain, if not where the midday of justice shines? Wherefore it is said: He has placed his tabernacle in the sun,» Psalm 18, verse 6.

Hence Theodoret teaches that here midday is assigned as the mark of true faith and consequently of the true Church, that is, the clear, public, and universal preaching of the orthodox faith throughout the whole world; for in it Christ takes his midday rest, and from this the Church is called catholic, that is, universal, or shining throughout the whole world; whereas the sects of heretics seek hiding places and corners, and lurk only in one province or another. So too St. Augustine, book On the Unity of the Church, chapter 14.

Third, some hold that the Church here asks of Christ where he lies down at midday, that is, where he lay in the manger, when newly born. For although he was born after midnight in darkness, yet by his own light he illuminated the world, so that it seemed not to be night, but midday, according to what is said of the angel announcing to the shepherds the birth of Christ: «And behold, the angel of the Lord stood by them, and the brightness of God shone round about them,» Luke 2:9.

Better, however, one may take midday for the crucifixion of Christ, for he was crucified at midday, and the cross of Christ affords to the Church and the faithful, against all the heat of persecutions and tribulations, a sure and faithful shelter and solace. The dawn of Christ's life, then, was in his nativity, the day in his preaching, midday on the cross, evening in the tomb. So Philo Carpathius. Tacitly, then, the bride — that is, the Church and the faithful soul, who plainly desires to be conformed to Christ crucified, and to bear and imprint his cross upon herself — asks how (for the Hebrew אֵיכָה echa signifies both "how" and "where"), how, I say, Christ at midday, that is, in the most burning heat of pains and torments, at the sixth hour namely, lay upon the hard couch of the cross, so that she may temper her own mind and zeal to his likeness, and finally fix and form herself wholly to the pattern of Christ crucified at midday.

Fourth, midday is a symbol of Jerusalem and Zion, where Christ taught, and instituted the first Church of the faithful and the saints, according to Isaiah 2:3: «Out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.» For Jerusalem lies toward the south. For the first faithful, in doubtful matters and in every tribulation, fled to the Blessed Virgin and the apostles dwelling in Jerusalem, that they might receive from them light, strength, and fervor, as is clear from Acts 15:13.

Again, midday is the Roman Church, to which St. Peter, at Christ's command, transferred his primacy and pontificate from Jerusalem and Antioch; whence to her, as to a shelter and refuge, the faithful flee from the whole world in any difficulty or doubt, that they may be enlightened by her in the faith, and kindled in the love of God. In her, then, are the pastures of orthodox doctrine, faith, and divine things. Hence Aponius takes midday for the Chair of Peter, or the Apostolic See: «These pastures,» he says, «namely of evangelical doctrine, which was revealed to Peter, the prince of the apostles, no soul sees, except one who has followed the footsteps of Peter in believing and confessing.»

Furthermore, the Donatists wrongly abused this passage, to prove that among them in Africa was the true Church, because Africa is situated toward the south; but St. Augustine rightly refutes them, sermon 50 On the Words of the Lord According to John: First, that these are the words of the bride, that is, of the Church, seeking the place of the bridegroom at midday, and not of the bridegroom seeking the bride Church; second, that Egypt, which is not in their communion, and which they were never able to draw into their communion, lies more toward the south than Africa; third, that in Africa there were two Churches: one of the Catholics, and the other of the Donatists; the bride, therefore, asks in which of these the bridegroom lies down and pastures, as if to say: «O whom my soul has loved, tell me, teach me. For I hear that in the south, that is, in Africa, there are two parties, indeed many factions. Tell me, then, where you pasture, which sheep belong to you, which fold there you bid me love, to which I ought to attach myself, lest perhaps I become as one veiled. For they mock me as one hidden, they insult me as one lost, as one existing nowhere else. Lest, then, I become as one veiled, as one hidden, over the flocks of your companions — the Donatists, the Maximianists, the Rogatists, and the rest of the pests who gather apart, and therefore scatter — I beg you, tell me whether I should seek my shepherd there, so that I may not fall into the whirlpool of rebaptism.» So Augustine. See the same, book On the Unity of the Church, chapter 14.

Secundus Sensus Partialis, De Christo et anima sancta.
Second Partial Sense, Concerning Christ and the Holy Soul.

The holy soul, discolored by the heat of the sun, that is, of tribulation, temptation, and concupiscence, seeks the help of Christ, who, like the noonday sun, illumines his faithful with true knowledge, and inflames them with great love of God, that they may cheerfully and ardently overcome all hardships, according to Ecclesiasticus 34:19: «The eyes of the Lord are upon them that fear him, a protector of might, a strengthening of virtue, a cover from the heat, and a shade from the noonday.» And that of Isaiah 25:4: «For you have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his tribulation: a hope from the whirlwind, a shade from the heat.» They flee, therefore, to Christ, of whom Jeremiah says: «The breath of our mouth, Christ the Lord, is taken in our sins: to whom we said, Under your shadow we shall live among the nations,» Lamentations 4:20. Whence the bride, having obtained that which she asks here, says at chapter 2:3: «I sat down under his shadow, whom I had desired.»

Hence midday marks the state of perfection, in which the soul loves God with the whole heart, with the whole mind, and with all its strength. Hear St. Augustine, sermon 50 On the Words of the Lord According to John: «Tell me where you pasture, where you lie down at midday. What does midday signify? Great fervor, and great splendor. Make known to me, then, who are your wise ones, fervent in spirit, shining in doctrine. Make known to me your right hand, and those learned of heart in wisdom. Let me cling to them in your body, be joined to them, enjoy you together with them. Tell me, then, where you pasture, where you lie down at midday, lest I fall in among those who say other things of you, feel otherwise of you, believe other things of you, preach other things of you, and have their own flocks, and are called your companions because they live from your table, and handle the sacraments of your table; for they are called sodales because they eat (edant) together, as if simul edales,» etc.

Hence the same St. Augustine, epistle 48 to Vincentius, takes midday for the just, «in whom, shining with light and fervent with charity, Christ rests as it were at midday.» But in the book On the Unity of the Church, chapter 18, Christ lies down at midday, that is, he says, in those «who have charity, and do not divide unity.» Wherefore Aponius takes midday for holy virgins, monks, and religious; for «the path of the just, as a shining light, goes forward and increases even to perfect day,» Proverbs 4:18. Hear Origen, homily 2 of the four: «If ever Christ the sun of justice manifests to his Church the lofty and steep secrets of his virtues, he will be seen to teach also the pleasant pastures and the noonday resting-places. For while she still has the beginnings of learning, and receives, so to speak, the first rudiments of knowledge from him, then let the Prophet say: And he shall help her early in the morning. Now, then, because she seeks more perfect things, and desires loftier things, she demands the noonday light of knowledge,» according to Psalm 36:5-6: «Reveal your way to the Lord, and he will do it. And he will bring forth your justice as the light, and your judgment as the noonday.»

Again Nyssen, homily 2, holds that the bride here asks for the food of the Eucharist, strengthened by which she may seize the way to the noonday of heavenly glory: «Teach me,» he says, «to say, O pious soul, where you pasture, that having received the saving pasture I may be filled with everlasting nourishment, which whoever does not eat cannot enter eternal life; and running to the fountain, may I draw the divine draught, which you, as from a fountain, offer to those who thirst, pouring forth water from your side, this vein opened by iron, which whoever shall have tasted becomes a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life: for if you pasture me on these things, you will make me lie down entirely at midday, when, sleeping together in peace, I shall rest in the light that lacks shadow, the sun shining over my head, in which you make those whom you have fed to lie down, when you shall receive your children with you into your resting-place. But no one is judged worthy of this noonday rest who has not been a son of light and a son of the day: but whoever has equally separated himself from the darkness of evening and of morning, that is, from where evil begins and where it ends, he is set by the sun of justice at midday, that he may lie down in it.» The Eucharist is rightly called midday, both because it contains Christ, who is himself the light of the world; and because against all temptations and concupiscences it affords a noonday shelter; and because it confers the fullness of charity, and of heavenly delights and lights, according to that: «Jesus, etc., having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end (of love, that is, to the utmost),» John 13:1.

Anagogically, midday is a type of heaven and heavenly glory: for as at midday the sun puts forth its whole power of illuminating and warming, and communicates it to the whole earth, so Christ in heaven puts forth, as it were, the whole power and glory of his divinity, first upon his own humanity, then upon the Blessed Virgin and all the saints, whom he thereby fills, heaps up, and blesses in body and soul with every joy, delight, and all good things. In this life, then, is the dawn of faith, in the other the midday of vision and love, according to that: «I shall be satisfied when your glory shall appear,» Psalm 16, verse 15. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 33: «O truly midday, fullness of fervor and light, station of the sun, banishment of shadows, drying up of marshes, driving away of stenches! O everlasting solstice, when the day shall no longer decline! O noonday light, O springtime mildness, O summer beauty, O autumn abundance, and (lest I seem to have passed anything by) O winter's rest and repose! Or rather, if you approve this more, then winter alone has departed and withdrawn. This place, he says, of such great brightness, peace, and fullness, show to me, that, just as Jacob, still remaining in the body, saw the Lord face to face, and his soul was saved, Genesis 32:30: so I too, in your light and in your beauty, through an ecstasy of mind, may deserve to contemplate you pasturing more abundantly, resting more securely. For even here you pasture, but not to satiety; nor is it permitted to lie down, but one must stand and watch because of the terrors of the night. Alas! neither clear light, nor full refreshment, nor a safe dwelling; and therefore show me where you pasture, where you lie down at midday. You call me blessed, when I hunger and thirst after justice, Psalm 64:6. What is this to the happiness of those who are filled with the good things of your house, who feast and exult in the sight of God, and delight in gladness? Psalm 67:4;» and, a few words intervening: «All things here fall short of the perfect for me, more than I wished, and nothing secure. When will you fill me with gladness with your countenance? Psalm 15:10. Your countenance, O Lord, will I seek: your countenance is midday. Show me where you pasture, where you lie down at midday. I know well enough where you pasture without lying down: show me where you pasture and lie down,» Psalm 26:8.

Hence St. Augustine, on Psalm 54, takes midday for blessed eternity: «In the evening,» he says, «in the morning, and at midday, I will speak and declare: and he shall hear my voice. Preach the gospel, do not be silent, tell what you have received. Evening, of things past; morning, of things future; midday, of things everlasting. Therefore, as to what he says, in the evening, this belongs, that his voice is heard; for the end is at midday, but from there it does not decline toward setting. For at midday the light is exalted, the splendor of wisdom, the fervor of love. Evening, morning, and midday: in the evening the Lord on the cross, in the morning in the resurrection, at midday in the ascension. And I will tell in the evening the patience of him who died, I will declare in the morning the life of the resurrection, I will pray that he may hear at midday, sitting at the right hand of the Father.»

Mystics and contemplatives take midday for the highest degree of contemplation and love. Whence St. Lawrence Justinian, On the Tree of Life, tract On Prayer, chapter 10, assigns six degrees of contemplation, and sets down this sixth and highest: «The sixth degree of contemplation is when that mind, from the irradiation of the divine light, knows

those things from which all human reason falls short, and the understanding of intelligible things loses its reasoning, and transcends all human reason and purpose. From this a river's outflowing impulse gladdens the mind of the contemplative with the memory of the abundance of God's sweetness: in which taste, since the power of God, and his virtue and glory, majesty, goodness, beatitude — shining forth of themselves into the affection of the contemplative's heart for the contemplation of his lovable things — easily leads a man on with his whole heart to love God; this above all snatches the lover into the beloved, because he himself is in himself whatever is lovable in him, who is the whole of what he is because he is good: by love of this very good the pious affection so stretches itself out that it does not call itself back from there, until it has been made one spirit with him: which when it has been perfected in him, he is now separated and divided from the Saints of saints, from that highest beatitude of the supercelestial ones, only by the veil of mortality, which nevertheless he enjoys in consciousness through faith and hope in him whom he loves.»

Tertius Sensus Principalis, De Christo et B. Virgine.
Third Principal Sense, Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin.

First, Honorius of Autun expounds it thus of her: «Mary's soul loved Christ, therefore all the secrets of the Father became known to her. The most chaste virgin was midday, shining and fervent with the Holy Spirit, into whom Christ turned aside from the heat of the lustful, and lay down in her humility, and was pastured in her chastity. Lest I wander, etc. That is, make known to all that you have rested in me, lest the heretics tear it apart, saying: If a virgin gave birth, it was a phantasm. And I wander among their flocks, because in their secret places and conventicles I am their psalm.»

These things are true, but less fitting to this passage. Second, Rupert applies these words to the Blessed Virgin seeking Christ, lost for three days, and finding him in the temple: «Son,» she says, «why have you done so to us? behold, your father and I have sought you sorrowing,» Luke 2:48. For in the temple is midday, that is, the doctrine of truth, and the burning preaching of charity.

Third, the same Rupert and William, and after them Delrio, hold that by these words the Blessed Virgin aspires, first, to heaven; second, to her own Christ, that she may enjoy him face to face, as if to say: Take me up where you were taken up, that I may pasture with you, lie down with you, I who once so devotedly fed you, and so often laid you down to rest. You were once sent forth from the seat of your greatness, that you might be with me and labor with me: send me forth now from the prison of this toilsome life, that I may be with you, and rest with you after such great labors of a mother's love. Third, she does not add whom he pastures, or whom, so as to exercise our understanding; because there he pastures not only his own, that is, the holy angels, but also his own humanity with the perpetual delights of his divinity; whence it will afterward be said that he himself is pastured among the lilies: he pastures as God, he is pastured as man. Fourth, she adds at midday, because there is the everlasting midday, there the continual fervor of divine brightness, where Jesus lies down, where the humanity united to divinity rests. There the pious mother asked to be pastured by God himself, to be pastured together with the man himself, there to lie down with her own Jesus. Fifth, that the companions are the apostles, who in the dispersion of the nations were, as it were, wandering, carrying the Gospel about the whole world; and that the pious mother asks that, now that all her maternal offices were completed, having served her time and full of days, she not be bidden to undergo, along with the apostles, a new labor of journeys and preaching, for which the apostles themselves, sufficiently instructed by the grace of the Holy Spirit and heavenly light, were equal.

COLLUM TUUM SICUT MONILIA.
YOUR NECK IS LIKE JEWELS. — Our translator, with the Septuagint, reads כחרוזים cacharuzim, that is, like jewels; now they read בחרוזים bacharuzim, that is, in jewels, as if to say: Your neck is encircled with jewels. Moreover, Pagninus and the Rabbis interpret charuzim as necklaces and pearls pierced and joined by a thread: for matrons are accustomed, to procure adornment for themselves, to ornament the neck with necklaces and pearls.

Furthermore, the word "amicta" or "adoperta" can be taken in five ways: first, for a harlot, for she was once accustomed to cover and veil herself with a little cloak or veil out of shame, lest she be recognized, as is clear concerning Thamar, Genesis 38:15; whence Vatablus translates, lest, wandering among the flocks of your companions, I appear cloaked, that is, as a little harlot: others, why then as one who turns aside, and diverts to the flocks of your companions? that is, of those who call themselves your companions, though they are anything but that.

Second, and better, "cooperta," that is, mourning, for mourners are accustomed to cover the head and face with a veil, especially widows, who mourn the death of a husband, as if to say: Why, when you, O my bridegroom, are absent, should I, your bride, appear a widow, and mourning your absence as if it were death?

Third, "cooperta" could mark the modesty, honor, and virginal shame of the bride, who veils and covers herself, lest she be able to be seen by the bridegroom's companions, as Rebecca veiled herself and covered herself with a cloak, when she saw Isaac her bridegroom, Genesis 24:65. For thus virgins and honorable brides veil themselves, according to the precept of the Apostle, 1 Corinthians 11:5. See Tertullian, and from him St. Cyprian, in the book On the Veiling of Virgins, and the book On the Dress of Women. So Origen, homily 1, whom hear: «For unless you tell me, I begin to be tossed about wandering; and while I seek you, I run into the flocks of others; and because I blush before others, I begin without delay presently to cover my face. For I am indeed a beautiful bride, and I do not show my bare face to others, except to you alone, whom I have long since kissed.» And St. Jerome, epistle 22 to Eustochium, teaches from this passage that virgins ought to veil the face not in part, but wholly and entirely: «Jesus,» he says, «is jealous, he does not want your face to be seen by others, though you may make excuses and pleas; I covered my face with a drawn veil, and I sought you there, and said: Tell me, lest I ever be made as one veiled over the flocks of your companions; he will be indignant and say: If you have not known yourself,» etc.

Fourth, St. Augustine, epistle 48 to Vincentius, and the book On the Unity of the Church, chapter 14: "Cooperta," he says, that is, obscure, hidden, and unknown. For the Church has been placed by Christ at midday, that she may be visible and conspicuous to all: therefore it does not befit her to be covered, that is, hidden and concealed, as are the churches of the Donatists and other heretics. So too Origen, who asserts that the Church, or the soul the bride of God, for this reason seeks the resting-places of Christ, and asks of God the fullness of knowledge, lest she seem to be one of the schools of the philosophers, which is called "covered," because among them the truth is covered and unknown.

Fifth, and best, "cooperta" is the same as wandering and straying, as our translator translates: for women, when they leave the house and go elsewhere, for the sake of decency cover and veil themselves. The bride, therefore, asks of the bridegroom a place where he lies down at midday, that is, in the heat of persecutions, that she may take refuge with him, lest otherwise, she says, I, that is, my faithful who are my members, especially in the primitive, new, and tender Church, be scattered, and, wandering, turn aside to the gentiles, idolaters, heretics, and philosophers, and be led into their error — those who boast themselves companions of Christ and true shepherds and teachers of truth, though they are companions and ministers of the devil.

OF THE COMPANIONS. — First, Origen, homily 2 of the four, takes "companions" for the angels, to whom God has distributed and entrusted the particular care of each of the nations, as if to say: Lest I wander among the nations, and be subjected to their presiding angels, I who am subject to Christ alone as bridegroom, and to his vicar St. Michael: for he is now the president of the Church, as he once was of the Synagogue.

Second, Rupert takes "companions" for the scribes and pharisees, as if to say: Show me, O Christ, where you pasture your faithful, lest otherwise I fall back into my former masters, namely the Mosaic scribes, who would draw me back to Judaism and Jewish traditions and superstitions, just as the Magi, seeking Christ with the star for their guide, when it hid itself from them as it were at midday, fell in with Herod and the scribes, who persecuted Christ, and, on account of Christ, the Magi returning to their own country by another way, Matthew 2:16.

Third, St. Bernard, sermon 33, takes it for demons, especially the noonday ones, who indeed, although they are night, that is, dark through malice, nevertheless fraudulently simulate and display the midday of Christ, that is, his splendor and fervor, in order to entice and deceive the faithful, according to Psalm 90:6: «From the assault and the noonday devil.» And so, he says, unless there shine upon the heart of him whom some such noonday demon has taken to tempt, a true midday rising from on high, which convicts and exposes the false one, he cannot be guarded against at all, but the demon will without doubt tempt and undermine him under the appearance of good, persuading the unwary and unforeseeing man of evil in place of good. And then midday, that is, greater brightness, appears tempting, when it puts forward as it were the image of a greater good.

Fourth, and best, by "companions" you may take heretics, philosophers, and other masters of error, who strive to draw flocks of disciples after themselves, and thereby draw new Christians away to themselves in fact: for this is what the Church here desires to avoid. So Cassiodorus, Justus of Urgell, Philo Carpathius, St. Anselm, and Bernard.

Theodoret rightly notes that heretics call themselves companions of Christ, because they carry about the habit and name of Christ, and prate nothing with the mouth but the Gospel of Christ, but oppose him in heart, according to that of Paul: «Having indeed a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof,» 2 Timothy 3:5. Again, heretics have the same baptism and other sacraments as Christ and Christians have. Finally they are called "companions" not because they are friends, but because they strive to contend with Christ as if on equal terms, promising the same goods to their own followers that Christ promises to his own adherents; whence also they name them after their own name — Donatists from Donatus, Arians from Arius, Pelagians from Pelagius — just as Christians are called from Christ. Wherefore by these the Church (that is, the more modest faithful in the Church) is made to wander, to err, and is led about and whirled «by every wind of doctrine, in the deceitfulness of error,» says Paul, Ephesians 4:14.

Tropologically, St. Gregory takes "companions" for perverse Christians and false brethren, among whom the faithful fear to fall, lest they be perverted by them: «Truly,» he says, «he in whom Christ does not lie down wanders; because the mind which that sweet and weighty spirit of Christ does not fill is carried about, dissolved into many thoughts. But who are the companions of Christ, through whose flocks the bride fears to wander, but false Christians of every sort? who are called brothers of Christ either by name alone, or even by communion of the sacraments; because they are joined by cohabiting in the Church to the elect, whom he himself called brothers. Their multitudes are well called flocks by way of reproach: because, while they live without order like irrational animals, they are handed over to seducing spirits to be devoured. Through flocks of this kind wanders whoever, driven out by the basest desire, imitates the folly of the reprobate through like desires.» For concupiscence is wandering, and makes a man a wanderer, so that from one thing, which having experienced he loathes, he passes to another and another without end, because he seeks satisfaction in them, and does not find it, according to that, Isaiah 57:17: «He went away wandering in the way of his own heart.» And that of Jeremiah 50:6: «My people has become a lost flock: their shepherds have seduced them, and made them wander on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting-place.» Concupiscence, therefore, leads the soul about from one pleasure to another, from one crime to another, and whirls it, as a stone is whirled in a sling, to every injury and violence to be inflicted on one's neighbor, and to every wickedness, according to that, Wisdom 4:12: «The inconstancy of concupiscence perverts the mind.» This is signified by the word περιφερομένη, that is, turned about or whirled in a sling, as Symmachus translates.