Cornelius a Lapide

Verse 12. A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, he will abide between my breasts.

A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, he will abide between my breasts. — In Hebrew, ילין ialin, that is, "he will pass the night," as if to say: At night, when sad thoughts, shameful fantasies, and the temptations of the demon press upon me most, as the one sure remedy for them all, I will use this bundle of myrrh of the passions of Christ; by it I will scatter them all, by its scent and meditation I will put them all to flight and rout them. In Greek it is abiologisai, that is, he will receive a court, or a stable and continual habitation and dwelling. The sense is, as if to say: As women carry myrrh on their breast for the sake of its good scent, to strengthen the heart and the head, so I carry on my breast my Bridegroom, uniquely beloved to me, of whom no forgetfulness will ever steal upon me, because he is my love, my fragrance, my strength, who strengthens my heart and head, and gladdens my whole soul.

The Septuagint: a binding of stacte, or of the drop, my cousin is to me; he will abide in the midst of my breasts; St. Ambrose, on Psalm 118, sermon 3: "A binding of the drop is my cousin; a cluster of cypress is my brother to me; he rests between my breasts; a cypress-nard is my cousin, in the vineyards of Engaddi"; Aquila: "one received, of myrrh." For "fratruelis" in Greek it is adelphidos, which St. Ambrose translates now as "brother," now as "cousin"; St. Jerome, in Origen's version, "fraternal"; others, "sister's son," or "nephew." For Christ was born of the Synagogue (that is, of the Jews), which is the sister of the Church, whose voice is here introduced. Rightly, therefore, does the Church here call Christ the son of her sister, that is, of the Synagogue. The word "fratruelis" and "fraternal" signify the same thing; our own and Symmachus, "my beloved"; the fifth edition, "my companion." Hear Origen, homily 2 of the four: "My brother smells to me of the drop, and this not diffused, nor scattered as one pleases, but bound together and constricted, so namely that its scent may be rendered denser and more vehement. And this one, being such, he says, abides and remains in the midst of my breasts, and makes his rest and dwelling in the place of my breast."

Myrrh, on the testimony of Pliny, book XII, chapter XV, is a small tree in Arabia, smaller than the frankincense tree, and grows to a height of about five cubits. The authors who have written on this matter agree that it is rough, thorny, with prickly leaves, a hard and twisted trunk, from whose wound flows a tear, sharp in taste with bitterness, which has an excellent power of gluing, drying, and cleansing. All these things indeed are so fitting for depicting the austerity of life, that nothing more fitting could be brought forward. Hence the Latin and Greek "myrrha" is derived from the Hebrew מור mor, that is, myrrh and bitterness, because myrrh is bitter.

Moreover, the myrrh tree pours out a sap or liquid, which is likewise called myrrh, and this is of two kinds: the first is that which the tree itself sweats out spontaneously, which is called stacte, that is, "drop," and this is the best and most fragrant myrrh; the second is that which is drawn out by an incision of the tree. Again, "myrrh" signifies the leaves and shoots of the myrrh tree: wherefore "a bundle of myrrh" properly seems to signify a bundle bound and gathered together from the leaves, or little branches, or flowers of myrrh. The Hebrew tseror, however, and still more the Greek apodesmos tēs staktēs, that is, "a binding of stacte," or of the drop, denotes a little sachet or scent-box, in which the stacte or condensed liquid is contained. Whence Nyssen, homily 3, explains thus: "My brother is to me a binding, which I hang from my neck upon my breast, through which I furnish a good scent to my body." Hence too the Syriac translates: "a purse, or pouch, of myrrh, is he who loves me."

First Sense, the Complete One: Concerning Christ and the Church.

The Bride, seeing the King her Bridegroom at his repose, that is, in the incarnation, passion, cross, and death, which he willingly underwent for the sake of the Bride, caught up in admiration of so great a love, cries out: "A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me," as if to say: I will always remember the myrrh, that is, the love, of this my Bridegroom, who so willingly underwent such bitter things for me; I will be grateful to him, I will love him, and in turn I will not refuse to undergo whatever bitter things for him, but I will desire and pursue them; his bitter and arduous commands, indeed even his rebukes and biting words, nay even scourges and blows, I will willingly take up and embrace. Whence this was the common voice, sense, and spirit of the martyrs: Out of love for Christ, who suffered and was crucified for me, I desire to undergo death, the cross, wild beasts, fires, the rack, and whatever torments, so that I may repay pain for pain, love for love — not in equal measure, but as far as I am able. For without pain one does not live in love. Whence St. Ignatius, in his letter to the Romans, says: "My love has been crucified"; and St. Paul: "Far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ: through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world," Gal. VI, 14. For this reason Christ, about to go to the cross, left himself, as it were a bundle of myrrh, to the Church in the Eucharist, to be perpetually beheld and venerated, so that this might be to her as a token and image of his passion and cross. Whence Christ, instituting the Eucharist, says: "This is my body which is given for you: do this in remembrance of me," Luc. XXII, 19, as if to say: In the receiving of the Eucharist, and after it, think deeply, meditate, weigh how much I have done and suffered out of love for you, so that you in turn may love me back. And Paul: "As often as you shall eat this bread and drink the cup: you shall show forth the death of the Lord until he comes," I Cor. XI, 25: for the body of Christ under the species of bread, consecrated separately from the blood, which is consecrated in the chalice, represents to the life the separation of the blood and the soul (for the soul is in the blood, as Scripture says) from the body, that is, the death of Christ on the cross: hence too the Magi offered to the Christ-child gold, frankincense, and myrrh: Gold to the King, incense to God, and myrrh to the one to be entombed, says Juvencus, as if to say: We offer Christ gold, to declare that he is our King, to whom, as subjects, we pay gold as a kind of tribute; we offer incense, to declare that he is our God, for incense is burned to God; we offer, finally, myrrh, to declare that we believe he was to die on the cross for us and be buried: for the bodies of the dead were embalmed with myrrh, so that they might remain uncorrupted. Thus Theodoret: "Myrrh signifies the death of the Bridegroom, and the sweetness that comes from it to the Bride." Whence Philo of Carpathia says that the Church here, by the bundle of myrrh, signifies that she is betrothed to Christ through the blood and water which flowed from his side.

Myrrh, therefore, is a symbol of Christ: first, because it represents his sorrows and sufferings, for the whole life of Christ was a bundle of myrrh, that is, continual bitterness, and a heap of labors and sorrows. Second, because myrrh surpasses the other aromatic trees in sweetness of scent: so too Christ surpasses angels, men, and all creatures in the sweetness of his love and grace, according to what he himself says of himself, Eccli. XXIV, 20: I "have given a sweetness of odor like choice myrrh." Third, myrrh keeps bodies uncorrupted: so the passion of Christ breathes incorruption into both minds and bodies, since by remembrance of it, by its merits and grace, the mind of the faithful overcomes all the corruptions of concupiscence, and their bodies will rise from death to immortality on the day of judgment. As a symbol of this fact, the body of Christ after death was anointed with myrrh and aloes by Joseph of Arimathea, Matth. XXVII, 59.

Fourth, myrrh strengthens the heart and cheers the head: much more does the passion of Christ do both. Hence the Bride says, "between my breasts"; the Septuagint: "he will abide in the midst of my breasts," as if to say: In my heart, and in its innermost depth (for the heart is situated between the breasts), the passion of Christ will cling, fixed continually; and by it, as by a most efficacious myrrh, my heart will be steeped and soaked, so that its power may creep from the heart into all the senses, powers, and members, and strengthen them for all the struggles of love, for all the labors of virtue, for undergoing every kind of death and martyrdom for my Christ generously and eagerly. For from the heart flow life, vigor, and the vital spirit into all the senses, powers, and members. Wherefore when the myrrh of Christ's passion occupies the heart, through it, it diffuses its power into all the powers of the soul. Thus it comes about that Christ dwells in us, that we put on Christ, that we are conformed to him; for Christ is, as it were, the soul of our heart, and, as Jeremiah says: "The spirit of our heart, Christ the Lord, was taken in our sins: to whom we said, In your shadow we shall live among the nations," Thren. IV, 20.

Whence Paul says: "I am nailed with Christ to the cross. And I live, now not I: but Christ lives in me," Galat. II, 20. Just as wool is soaked with oil, as Columella says, book VII, chapter IV, that is, it is imbued, dipped, and steeped with oil; and just as bread is soaked with wine, when in a morsel it drinks in the strength and juice of the wine, which the Italians tellingly call inzuppare: so entirely is the heart of the saints soaked with the sorrows and sufferings of Christ, and drinks in their power, which it then transmits into all the powers and senses of the soul, so that all of them breathe out and exhale the crucified Christ.

Symbolically, Origen, homily 2 of the four, by "bundle," or, as he himself reads from the Septuagint, "binding," of myrrh, understands the body and flesh of the incarnate Word: "The body, he says, seems to be a certain binding and bond to the soul, in which binding the drop (stacte) of divine power and sweetness in Christ is bound fast." The Godhead, therefore, bound to the body, is as it were the drop or stacte bound in the bundle, or confined in the box. So too Theodoret: "He calls him the binding of the drop, he says, because he came down like rain upon a fleece, and like drops that drip upon the earth, Psalm. LXXI, 6; and he was also called by the prophets a drop. There shall be, out of the drop of this people, Jacob shall surely be gathered together," Mich. V, 7 (according to the Septuagint). Moreover St. Ambrose, sermon 3 on Psalm 118, reading "a binding of the drop," expounds it thus, as if to say Christ bound himself to the flesh with the cords of charity: "Taking up a body, he says, the Lord Jesus bound himself with the bonds of charity, and bound himself not only to our members and natural sufferings, but also to the cross."

Moreover the Chaldee renders it: "At that time the Lord said to Moses: Go and go down, for your people have corrupted themselves; let me alone, that I may consume them. Then Moses turned back, and sought mercy from the face of the Lord, and the Lord remembered the binding of Isaac, who had been bound by his father on Mount Moria upon the altar; and the Lord turned from his wrath, and made his majesty dwell in the midst of them as before." This exposition is Jewish, of a Jew, yet it serves the Christian and genuine exposition already assigned. For the binding of Isaac for his sacrifice was a type of the binding and sacrifice of Christ on the cross, and that on the same Mount Moria: for Mount Calvary, on which Christ was crucified, is a part and hill of this mountain.

...for all the struggles of love, for all the labors of virtue, for undergoing every kind of death and martyrdom for my Christ generously and eagerly. For from the heart flow life, vigor, and the vital spirit into all the senses, powers, and members.

Second Sense, the Partial One: Concerning Christ and the Holy Soul.

Let the pious soul store up the passion of Christ, as a bundle of myrrh, in her breast and heart, so that by it she may strengthen her heart and cheer her head, for undergoing, in the imitation and love of Christ, joyfully and bravely, all the labors and sorrows of every virtue, and all the adversities of this life. Thus St. Bernard, sermon 43: "A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me; he will abide between my breasts. Before, a king; now, a beloved: before, in royal repose; now, between the Bride's breasts. Great is the power of humility, to which even the majesty of the Godhead so easily bends itself. Quickly the name of reverence was changed into the word of friendship; and he who was far off has in a short time been made near. A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me. Myrrh, a bitter thing, signifies the hard and rough things of tribulations. Foreseeing that these things impend for the sake of her Beloved, she speaks with rejoicing, confident that she will undergo all things manfully. The disciples, he says, went rejoicing from the presence of the council, because they were held worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus, Actor. V, 41." He then adds why it is called a fasciculus and not a fascis: "For this reason, finally, he calls his beloved not a fascis, but a fasciculus, because whatever of labor and pain impends, he counts it light for love of him. Well is it called a fasciculus, because a little child is born to us, Isai. cap. IX, vers. 6. Well is it called a fasciculus, because the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the future glory that shall be revealed in us, Roman. cap. VIII, vers. 18. For that, he says in II Corinth., cap. IV, vers. 17, which in the present is momentary and light of our tribulation, works in us, beyond measure, in sublimity, an eternal weight of glory. There will be, then, at some time, for us, a vast heap of glory, which is now but a fasciculus of myrrh. Is it not a fasciculus, whose yoke is sweet, and whose burden is light? Not because it is light in itself (for neither the harshness of suffering nor the bitterness of death is light), but light nevertheless to one who loves. And therefore he does not say only: A bundle of myrrh is my beloved; but, he says, to me, to me who love him, is he a bundle. Whence too he calls him beloved, showing that the power of love overcomes the trouble of all bitterness, and because love is strong as death." Thus St. Elzear, Count of Ariano, by this bundle of myrrh, attained to an unshakeable gentleness and tranquility of soul: for when he was harassed variously and frequently with jeers, slanders, mockeries, injuries, etc., even by his own servants, he would immediately turn over in his mind the reproaches, slanders, injuries, and torments inflicted on Christ, nor did he cease from this meditation, until his mind came to rest tranquilly in the imitation of this patience; whereby it came about that he gave no sign of pain or anger, and seemed to lack bile, and to be amarbia: thus his Life has it in Surius. By the same bundle, St. Francis, St. Elizabeth, and many others attained to such great humility, patience, and holiness.

Again, the bundle of myrrh is unceasing mortification, which the life and passion of Christ teach us, which was nothing other than continual mortification: for this wipes away every corruption of concupiscence, and heals all the wounds of the soul, and strengthens it for every good. Myrrh, says Galen, book VII of the Simples, purges the chest and the lung, binds, digests, and disperses; stacte warms those who are chilled. More fully Dioscorides, book I, chapter LXVII: "Myrrh, he says, warms, digests, produces flavor, etc.; it is swallowed for chronic cough, pains of the sides and chest, for flux of the bowels and dysentery; it disperses chills, smooths the roughness of the windpipe; it clears a hoarse voice, kills the worms of the belly, is chewed against a heavy breath of the mouth, firms the gums and teeth, glues the wounds of the head, cures broken ears and bared bones, purges impetigo with vinegar, soothes long-standing catarrhs, fills up ulcers of the eyes, removes white spots, disperses dimness, and smooths roughness." The passion of Christ, and mortification, effect the same things and more in the soul and spirit; whence no remedy is more efficacious than it against the temptations of lust, anger, pride, sloth, envy, etc., as constant experience establishes. Wherefore Nyssen, homily 3, judges that it is signified here that the soul, which has the crucified Christ bound in its heart, cannot sin in any member or sense: "That soul, he says, which has received the good scent of Christ, and has made its heart a binding of this incense, so disposes itself that all the several pursuits of its life, like the members of some body, glow with the spirit that pervades from the heart, no iniquity in any deep member of the body chilling its love toward God." And Origen, hom. 2 of the four: "By the binding of the drop, he says, is understood the constriction of the containing of dogmas, and the knottedness of the divine sayings; for the reasons of the faith are knit together with one another, and bound fast with the bonds of truth." And the three Fathers, in Theodoret: "He is, they say, the knot and preservation of the drop of divine grace, which has been communicated to me: my beloved: for, received through faith, he says, he guards spiritual things, and preserves the gifts of the Church, and confirms and strengthens the faithful, lest they fall away from the truth." And St. Gregory: "The bodies of the dead, he says, are wont to be embalmed with myrrh, lest they putrefy. Indeed we apply myrrh to bodies lest they putrefy, when, after the example of Christ, we restrain our members, through the mortification of the same, from the putrefaction of lust, lest, if we should let them go without this seasoning, dissolved in putrefaction, we make them food for eternal worms. But what is it, that the Bride names her beloved not myrrh, but a bundle of myrrh, except that, while the holy mind considers the life of Christ from every side, it gathers together, from the imitation of it, virtues that fight against all vices; from which it fits for itself a bundle of myrrh, whereby it may wipe away forever the putrefaction of its flesh."

Mortification, therefore, and austerity of life, purifies the soul, sanctifies it, and makes it wonderfully pleasing and acceptable to God, because it makes it like to Christ crucified. Wherefore God is accustomed to reward it abundantly with his gifts. To say nothing of other things, read the Lives of the Saints, and you will find that only those became famous for great and frequent miracles who were of austere life, such as were St. Martin, St. Anthony, St. Hilarion, St. Benedict, St. Romuald, St. Bernard, St. Dominic, St. Francis, St. Ignatius, St. Francis Xavier.

The passion of Christ, therefore, abides between the breasts, that is, in the heart of the holy soul. Symbolically, between the two breasts, that is, first, between the New and the Old Testament: for both foretell and preach the passion and cross of Christ, says Philo of Carpathia.

Second, between the breasts, that is, between the doctors, who preach Christ crucified, says Justus Orgelitanus.

Third, St. Gregory: The two breasts, he says, are the love of God and of neighbor. Hear him: "He (the Bridegroom, Christ crucified) is rightly said to abide between the breasts, because in the love of God and of neighbor the holy dwelling of Christ is built. For a holy soul, while it so loves God that it does not despise its neighbor, and so pursues the love of its neighbor that it does not diminish the love of God, without doubt places for itself breasts in its bosom, by which, embracing Christ, it may nourish him. For Christ, as if nourished by the breasts, is strengthened, while by this twofold love, that he may cling more firmly, he is delighted."

Finally St. Bernard, sermon 43, understands the two breasts as congratulation and compassion, according to that saying of Paul, Rom. XII, 15: "To rejoice with them that rejoice, to weep with them that weep." But because, moving between adverse and favorable things, she knows that dangers are not lacking on either side, she wishes to have her beloved in the middle of these her breasts, so that, fortified by his continual protection against both, neither may joys puff her up, nor sorrows cast her down. St. Bernard then adds, and thus by his own example he closely commends this bundle of myrrh to all: "You too, if you are wise, will imitate the prudence of the Bride, and will not suffer this so dear bundle of myrrh to be torn away, even for an hour, from the chief place of your breast; ever keeping in memory all those bitter things which he bore for you, and turning them over in constant meditation, so that you too may be able to say: A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, he will abide between my breasts. And I, brothers, from the beginning of my conversion, in place of a heap of merits, which I knew were lacking to me, took care to bind together for myself this bundle, and to place it between my breasts, gathered from all the anxieties and bitternesses of my Lord: first, namely, those necessities of his infancy; then, the labors he bore in preaching, the fatigues in going about, the vigils in praying, the temptations in fasting, the tears in compassionating, the snares in conversing; and lastly, the dangers among false brethren, the reproaches, the spittings, the blows, the mockeries, the revilings, the nails, and other things like these, which the evangelical forest is known to have brought forth most abundantly for the salvation of our race." And after many more things which he adds on this matter, he concludes thus: "To meditate on these things I have called wisdom; in these I have set for myself the perfection of righteousness, in these the fullness of knowledge, in these the riches of salvation, in these the abundance of merits. From these comes to me, at times, a wholesome draught of bitterness, from these again the sweet anointing of consolation. These raise me up in adversity, restrain me in prosperity, and, as I walk the royal road amid the joys and sorrows of this present life, offer me safe guidance on both sides, driving off from me on this side and that the evils that threaten. These reconcile to me the judge of the world." Thus far St. Bernard, devoutly, wisely, and movingly.

Third Sense, the Principal One: Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin.

The Blessed Virgin, standing by the cross, offered her Son Christ crucified, as a bundle of myrrh, with her whole heart, to God the Father as a holocaust, for the redemption of the whole world, just as Abraham offered his Isaac. The same, after the death and ascension of Christ, bearing his torments bound to her heart, indeed engraved upon it, continually pondered them with the utmost sense of sorrow, love, and devotion: nor did she only ponder them, but also actually imitated them, bravely enduring all the persecutions of the Jews, and all adversities, and giving herself continually to tears, compunction, and mortification, whereby accordingly she merited to obtain wonderful graces and gifts of God, as she herself revealed to St. Bridget. For this reason she frequently and most devoutly visited Calvary and the places of Christ's passion: for she herself, by compassion, felt most vehemently all the torments that Christ felt by suffering, and that not once, as Christ did, but throughout her whole life. For she loved Christ far more than herself. Whence she would far rather have suffered herself all the torments of Christ, than see Christ suffering those same torments of hers. Many times, therefore, she was a martyr, according to that prophecy of St. Simeon to her: "And your own soul a sword shall pierce," Luc. cap. II, 35: thus Rupert.