Cornelius a Lapide

The Voice of the Bridegroom. Verse 14. Behold, thou art beautiful, my friend, behold thou art beautiful, thine eyes are of doves.

Behold, thou art beautiful, my friend, behold thou art beautiful. — The Septuagint: behold thou art comely, my near one (Symmachus: companion), behold thou art comely; St. Ambrose: good. The Chaldee: "When the children of Israel did the will of their King, He in His word praised them in the assembly of the holy angels, and said: How beautiful are thy works, my daughter! My beloved, the congregation of Israel, at the time when thou dost my will, and labor in the words of my law."

As to the sequence of the drama: the Bridegroom, reclining at his table, beholding the Bride coming in to him, and perceiving the sweet fragrance of her nard, and then withdrawing — but listening behind the wall, and hearing her, among her companions, commending the Bridegroom so highly, saying: "A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, he shall abide between my breasts. A cluster of cypress is my beloved to me, in the vineyards of Engaddi," — could not contain himself, but returning to her repaid her the exchange of love, and praised her beauty. Admiring her, therefore, he says again: "Behold, thou art beautiful, my friend, behold thou art beautiful," by which repetition, as also by the demonstrative adverb behold, he signifies her beauty to be exceptional and admirable. For as the Bride had celebrated the twofold beauty of the Bridegroom — namely, his passion in the bundle of myrrh, and his resurrection in the cluster of cypress — so in turn the Bridegroom repeats and repays the twofold beauty of the Bride. So Theodoret.

Further, beauty is the proper dowry of women and brides: hence they themselves are so fond of adornment and eager for ornament. Hence the poet Anacreon: "Nature," he says, "gave horns to the bull, hooves to the horse, swiftness to the hare, the gape of teeth to the lion, swimming to fishes, flying to birds, prudence to men. What to women? Beauty in place of shields and lances — as iron and fire strike, so she who flashes lightning with a beautiful face."

First Sense (Full): Concerning Christ and the Church.

Christ praises the beauty of the Church, and by repeating it signifies that it is twofold, indeed manifold — namely, internal, and external, which flows from the internal: the internal beauty consists in the bundle of myrrh and the cluster of cypress, that is, in the continual meditation upon and imitation of the passion and resurrection of Christ; the external, however, in the nard, that is, in humility and outward modesty, which breathes its pleasing fragrance upon all, according to that word of Psalm 44:14: "All the glory of the king's daughter is from within, clothed about with varieties in golden fringes." So Cassiodorus, Bede, and Philo Carpathius, who place the internal beauty of holiness in a pure and holy conscience, the external in honest and holy conduct. For true beauty is situated in internal comeliness, from which the external flows; otherwise, what is exterior and adventitious is paint, not comeliness.

He adds the cause of his love, saying, my friend; the Septuagint: my near one; Symmachus: my companion; the Hebrew רעיתי raiati, that is, my table-companion, who livest with me, and art fed at my table. Plato, in the dialogue On Love, teaches that beauty is a grace and charm which allures the eyes and minds of those who behold it to love of itself, and that it is therefore called in Greek κάλλος, because it calls (καλεῖ) all things to itself, that is, it summons and invites. This is true among men, for there beauty is the cause of love; but not with God: for there, conversely, love and friendship are the cause of beauty. For God does not love men because they are beautiful; but by loving them he makes them beautiful, that they may be worthy of his love. For the love of God is the beginning and cause of all good and beauty. For God is himself essential, immense, and incomprehensible beauty; and because that beauty overflows, hence out of his immense goodness he pours it forth upon men and the rest of creatures, and the more so, the nearer and closer they are to himself: those, therefore, who draw near to God, they draw near to a share in his beauty; and those who draw nearer, share more; and those who draw nearest, share most. For the soul is like a mirror: if it approaches beautiful things, it receives into itself a beautiful likeness and form; but if deformed things, a deformed one. So Psellus, in Theodoret, whom hear: "Since, vice having been driven from behind her, the soul, purified by the Word, received into herself the circle of the sun, and shone together with the light which appeared in her, therefore the Word says to her: Thou art made beautiful, who hast drawn near to my light, by that drawing-near attracting the bestowal of beauty. Behold, he says, thou art beautiful, my near one. Then, having restrained himself, and having beheld her as it were in a certain increase of beauty, he repeats again the same saying: Behold, thou art beautiful; but the first time he named her near one, here however her who is known by the appearance of her eyes: For thine eyes are doves."

To this comes St. Ambrose, on Psalm 118, sermon 3: "Since," he says, "the Church had known the mystery, and preached the Lord Jesus crucified for the redemption of the whole world, she deserves to hear: Behold, thou art good, who callest me good; and thou thyself art good who hast seen the comeliness of my glory, and thou art thyself comely and beautiful. What is it for Christ to say: Thou art good, thou art beautiful, but that word of the Gospel: Be steadfast, daughter, thy sins are forgiven thee?" Now the Bride had placed the Bridegroom, as a bundle of myrrh, between her breasts, that is, in her heart: from his comeliness, therefore, she was made comely, from his brightness she was made bright.

Anagogically, the beauty of the Church is twofold: the first, in the present life, through grace: for grace is itself the charm of the soul, because it makes her a partaker of the divine nature, equal to the angels, like unto Christ, the friend and daughter of God. For grace is the highest participation in God, and in his holiness and immense comeliness. The second, in the life to come, through glory: for this is the beauty not of wayfarers, but of the blessed and of the angels. So Origen, homily 3 of 4: "This Church," he says, "is comely, when she is near to Christ, and when she imitates Christ. But that he repeated: Behold, thou art comely, can pertain to the age to come, where she is now beautiful and comely not only by imitation, but by her own perfection, and there he says her eyes are doves." Truly St. Augustine, Preface on Psalm 44: "The highest beauty," he says, "is justice, because as the beauty of the body is the just proportion and harmony of all its members with one another, together with a certain sweetness of color: so the beauty of the soul is justice, whereby it assigns to all the powers of the soul and the members of the body what is their own, and thus makes the whole man composed and comely throughout, as was manifest in the original justice which Adam had before sin, and more so in the justice of Christ and of the Blessed Virgin."

And Clement of Alexandria, book III of the Paedagogus, chapter 12: "The best beauty," he says, "is the beauty of the soul, when it has been adorned by the Holy Spirit, and by those things which arise from him — inspired joys, justice, prudence, fortitude, temperance, love of good things, and modesty, than which no color has ever been seen more radiant." And Blessed Isidore of Pelusium, book III, epistle 31, to Bishop Lampetius, where among other things he has this: "As the fitting proportion of the members is the rule of bodily beauty, so also the furthest line of spiritual beauty consists in the moderation of the virtues," etc.

Second Sense (Partial): Concerning Christ and the Holy Soul.

Besides what has already been said: first, St. Gregory assigns to the soul a twofold beauty, a twofold charity, namely of God and of neighbor: "Twice beautiful," he says, "the Bridegroom calls the Bride: because to whomever he grants the love of God and of neighbor, he implants in her a twin beauty, in which he delights, and which he praises."

Second, the soul is beautiful in two ways: first, in action;

second, in contemplation: so three Fathers, in Theodoret.

Third, the just man is beautiful in two ways: first,

in the beauty and holiness of the soul; second, of the body, according to that saying about the virgin: "That she may be holy in body and in spirit," 1 Corinthians 7:34: so Justus and Anselm.

Fourth, St.

Fourth, St. Bernard, sermon 45, interprets the twofold beauty as penance and humility, by which lost innocence is recovered. For St. Bernard holds that the Bride, sitting with the Bridegroom at his table, had been reproved for her faults, but had appeased him with her nard, that is, with humility and humble confession, whence her beauty is here celebrated by him. "For indeed," he says, "reproof followed presumption, amendment followed reproof, reward followed amendment. The beloved is present, the master is put away, the king lays aside his state, dignity is stripped off, reverence is set aside. For pride yields, where affection grows strong. And as of old Moses spoke as a friend to a friend, and the Lord answered: so now also, between the Word and the soul, as it were between two neighbors, a familiar conversation is celebrated." And after some things: "The comeliness of the soul is humility. I do not say this of myself, since the Prophet said before: Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed, Psalm 50:9 — by the humble herb, purgative of the breast, signifying humility. By this herb, after his grave fall, the king and prophet trusts that he is washed, and thus recovers a certain snowy whiteness of innocence."

Third Sense (Principal): Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin.

The Blessed Virgin was marvelously beautiful, both in body, and far more in soul and mind.

St.

Bernard assigns to the Blessed Virgin a twofold beauty, the highest innocence and the highest humility. For after the words already quoted he adds: "But in one who has grievously sinned, humility, though lovable, is nevertheless not admirable. But if someone retains innocence, and nonetheless joins humility to it, does he not seem to you to possess a twin beauty of soul? Holy Mary did not lose her sanctity, and did not lack humility; and therefore the King desired her beauty, because she joined humility to innocence. In the end, he says, he regarded the humility of his handmaid, Luke 1:48. Blessed, therefore, are they who keep their garments clean, namely of simplicity and innocence, provided they also add the putting on of the beauty of humility. Surely one who is found to be of this sort will hear: Behold, thou art beautiful, my friend, behold thou beautiful."

Again, Rupert interprets the twin beauty of the Blessed Virgin as virginity and the maternity of God. See what was said on Proverbs 31:25, on those words: "Strength and beauty are her clothing."

Finally, Hugh of St. Victor, in a sermon

On the Assumption, which exists toward the end of tome 2, takes the twin beauty of the Virgin as virginity and humility: "O what a fellowship," he says, "the wholly beautiful one joins to himself the wholly beautiful one. I am wholly beautiful, and thou art wholly beautiful. I by nature, and thou by grace. I am wholly beautiful, because all that is beautiful is in me. Thou art wholly beautiful, because nothing that is base is in thee. Beautiful in body, beautiful in mind. In body, the integrity of virginity makes thee beautiful; in mind, the virtue of humility displays thee beautiful. Wholly beautiful, therefore, art thou, snow-white in body, sincere in mind." And, with some things interposed: "No other was fitting for such a one, nor could any other be found for such a one. O worthy one of the worthy, comely one of the comely, pure one of the incorrupt, exalted one of the Most High, Mother of God, Bride of the eternal King."

Thine eyes are of doves.

Doves are the symbol of love, fidelity, and conjugal chastity; for in dovecotes the male applauds his dove alone, and seeks no other. Whence the Poet: Let doves joined in love be an example to thee. The male and the female: the whole of wedlock.

First Sense (Total): Concerning Christ and the Church.

The beauty of man is discerned chiefly in the face and the eyes; for in the eyes the heart and the soul shine forth, and all the affections of the soul. Whence St. Augustine, on Psalm 41: "The eyes," he says, "are members of the flesh and windows of the mind." And Cicero, book III of De Oratore: "The countenance is the image of the mind, and the eyes are its informers." The Bridegroom, therefore, praises the comeliness of the Bride chiefly from her eyes, in that she has eyes not fox-like, not wolf-like, not vulture-like — that is, not sidelong, deceitful, and feigned, not envious and rapacious, not wandering about in search of prey — but dove-like, that is, first, simple, candid, ingenuous; second, chaste, so Origen; third, straight, for doves do not look sideways, but straight; fourth, loving and lovable, for doves do not gaze fiercely, but gently and lovingly; fifth, placid and gentle: so Bede:

"Thine eyes," he says, "are of doves, that is, the eyes of thy heart are simple and clean, and altogether free from every duplicity of deceiving and feigning. Again, thine eyes are of doves, because thy senses are endowed with spiritual understanding. Again, the friend of Christ has the eyes of doves, because everyone who truly loves him within is not inflamed, after the manner of kites, with desire for external things, and plots to bring harm against none of the living: which is said to be the gentleness proper to doves, which contemplates with a simple, mild, and humble heart all that comes its way."

And St. Bernard, sermon 45: "Thine eyes are of doves. Now," he says, "thou dost not walk among great things, nor among things too wonderful for thee: but, like a most simple bird, thou art content with simpler things, nesting in the clefts of the rock, dwelling upon my wounds, and gladly, with a dove-like eye, gazing only upon those things which concern me, incarnate and having suffered."

The Septuagint translates, "thine eyes [are] doves" (περιστεραί), that is, doves, in the nominative plural — as if to say: Thine eyes are so fair, so bright, so lovable, that they seem not so much dove-like as to be doves themselves: thou bearest, therefore, doves in thine eyes, because whatever is beautiful and lovable in doves, this thou displayest and representest in thine eyes — such as, first, modesty and chastity; second, that in love it moans instead of singing; third, that it flees things rotten, foul, and fetid; fourth, that it builds its nests for itself in the rocks; fifth, that it delights in waters, and dwells beside rivers.

Hear St. Gregory: "Her (the Bride's) eyes are rightly said to be of doves; because while she moans amid temporal things, and is caught up to eternal desires, she guards her senses in simplicity, and detests fleshly desires. For the dove, indeed, moans in love instead of singing. And rightly is the holy soul compared to a dove: because while the reprobate chatter and rejoice in love of the world, the chosen mind is worn down in heavenly desire, because it fears lest it lose, while it is delayed, what it loves."

He adds then: "By the eyes of doves may also be understood the preachers of the Church, who keep the simplicity which they preach, and, despising visible things, sigh after eternal things with great groanings."

And Psellus, in Theodoret: "Thou art endowed," he says, "with the pleasant eyes of a virgin dove, when thou hast turned thine eyes away from error, and directed them upon me, thy Creator. He mentions the eyes of a dove, to signify the pure gaze of a virgin. For she has eyes so clean, that she looks purely upon her most beautiful Bridegroom."

Symbolically, Hugh, book I of De Institutione Monastica, chapter 3, takes the two eyes of the dove as memory and understanding: "It has," he says, "two eyes, right and left, memory and understanding: with the one it foresees the future, with the other it laments things past. Our fathers closed these eyes in Egypt, since they did not understand the works of God, nor were mindful of the multitude of his mercy."

Anagogically, Origen takes the two eyes as the Son and the Holy Spirit, by whom the soul will see in heaven, and by that vision will be made blessed: "In the age to come," he says, "where the soul is now beautiful not only by imitation, but by her own perfection, he says her eyes are doves, so that the two eyes of the dove may be understood to be the two, the Son of God and the Holy Spirit."

Mystically, St. Gregory, Anselm, and others take by the eyes of the Church the doctors and preachers, to whom Honorius of Autun applies the seven gifts of the dove, that is, the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: "For the dove," he says, "nests in the rock, feeds young not its own, chooses pure grains, lacks gall, does not wound with its beak, dwells beside streams, flies in flocks. So the Church builds upon the rock, that is Christ, by faith and works; nourishes with word and example those alienated from the word of God; chooses pure sentences from the books of the gentiles or of heretics; lacks the malice of envy; wounds no one by detraction; dwells beside the streams of the Scriptures, so that it may escape the seizures of hawks, that is, of demons; it labors to draw many with it to joys." He then applies this to the prophets and apostles: "The eyes of the one dove, that is, of the Church before the coming of Christ, were the prophets, who foresaw for her Christ the eternal light: whence they were also called seers. The eyes of the other dove, namely of the Church after the coming of Christ, arose from the same people as the apostles, who led her to the true light, Christ. The Bridegroom, therefore, says: O my friend, to whom I have disclosed all the secrets of my Father, because I have healed thee with the nard of my flesh, redeemed thee with the myrrh of my death, made thee drunk with the cluster of my resurrection — behold, in my presence thou art beautiful in faith, behold, before men thou art beautiful in action; because thine eyes, that is, thy overseers, are simple like the eyes of doves, namely both the prophets and the apostles, the doctors of the Church. For the eyes lead a man, lest he stumble against a stone: so the doctors lead the Church to life, lest it stumble against the law of God written on stone."

Second Sense (Partial): Concerning Christ and the Holy Soul.

The dove is the symbol of innocence, and therefore the saints are called doves, says St. Basil on Psalm 28. Whence St. Chrysostom, homily 4, On the Patience of Job: "There was," he says, "a man in the land of Hus named Job; a dove in the midst of hawks, a sheep in the midst of wolves, a star in the midst of clouds, a lily in the midst of thorns, and a sprout of justice in a town of iniquity." But the eyes of the dove chiefly denote the sincere and upright intention of the holy soul: for the dove has, as I said, a straight gaze, not a sidelong one. For the eye, first, is fixed upon that toward which it then directs the hands and feet, that they may tend to the same point; but the eyes of the dove are wholly fixed upon what they look at: so the holy soul, first, is wholly fixed upon God as its end, and then directs toward him all its steps and actions. Second, as the eye, fixing upon some thing, receives its likeness into itself, and is made like to it: so the soul, fixing upon God, imbibes his form, and becomes divine, and as it were an earthly god. Third, as the eye directly beholds the thing at which it aims, and admits no intervening medium: so the soul, fixing upon God, ought to regard him alone, not advantages, not honors, nor anything else intervening: for whatever is intervening impedes the gaze and the intention toward God. Fourth, as the eye can look at several things at once, arranged laterally or in a circle: so the soul, in its work, can intend several ends of virtue at once, as for example it might say: I wish to pray, to fast, to study, to give alms, that I may make satisfaction to God for my sins — which is an act of penance; likewise, that I may please God, my love — which is an act of charity; besides, that I may honor God — which is an act of religion; and further, that I may relieve my neighbor's need — which is an act of mercy, etc. And the more ends of virtue it intends, the better and more meritorious the work is: because this act, though as elicited it is one, yet as commanded it is manifold, since it is commanded by as many virtues as there are intentions within it. This is what Christ says: "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be lightsome," Luke 11:34. For the intention gives the primary goodness to the work, so that if the work is in itself indifferent, a good intention will make it good, and like to itself. And Zechariah, chapter 9:1: "The Lord's is the eye of man, and of all the tribes of Israel," as if to say: The Lord is the object upon which the eye and the intention of all those who are true Israelites — that is, servants and worshippers of God — is fixed.

To this belongs the version of the Chaldee: "and how right are thy works, and thy occupations, like the young of the dove, which are clean, that they may be offered upon my altar." For the intention of pleasing God, and of worshipping and honoring him in any work whatsoever, offers that work to God, and makes it, as it were, a holocaust. Hence it is noted by the eyes of the dove: for the dove was the victim which God demanded for himself as a holocaust, Leviticus chapter 1. Indeed, the Syrians did not dare to touch, kill, or eat white doves, but worshipped them religiously in honor of Semiramis, the first queen of the Assyrians, into whom they fabled she had been changed after death. Whence Tibullus, book I, elegy 7: "Why should I tell how, untouched, the white dove, sacred to the Palestinian Syrian, flits through crowded cities?" See Eusebius, book VIII of the Praeparatio, chapter 7.

Third Sense (Principal): Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin.

The dove is an indicator of the Holy Spirit. The eyes of the dove, therefore, denote the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, that is, the fullness of graces, by which the Blessed Virgin excelled all men and angels. "Nor is it new," says Rupert, "that the seven gifts themselves should be called eyes; for also in the prophet Zechariah they themselves are signified by the seven eyes which are upon one stone, Christ. These eyes of mine are thine eyes, the eyes of doves, the eyes of all graces. Thou hast been made a partaker of all graces, from the time thou didst receive me in thy chaste womb, upon whom rest all the aforesaid gifts of the Holy Spirit, as is said in Isaiah, and in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."