Cornelius a Lapide

VERSE 2. AS THE LILY AMONG THORNS, SO IS MY LOVE AMONG THE DAUGHTERS.

For "lily," the Chaldee, Vatablus, and others translate "rose," since this is thorny, and springs from a thorny branch, not the lily. But Solomon does not say that this lily springs from a thorny branch, but simply that it is among thorns, as if to say: As a lily placed among thorns shines forth, so my love, that is, my bride, shines out among the rest of women. Again, lilies often spring up among brambles and thorns, as when they are planted or sown next to thorny hedges. Whence the Septuagint translate: as a lily in the midst of thorns, so my companion (Aquila: my love; the fifth edition: my beloved) in the midst of the daughters.

The Chaldee, expounding this of the Synagogue, that is, of the captivity of the sinning Jews, explains it thus, as if to say: As the lily is pricked by thorns, so the Synagogue is punished for its sins by the Babylonian or Roman captivity; whence he himself, taking these as the words of the bride, that is, of the Synagogue, translates thus: but at the time when I turn aside from the ways that are right before him, and he himself takes away the majesty of his holiness from me, I am compared to a rose, which springs up among thorns, by which its leaves are pierced and torn: so I am pricked and torn because of the most wicked impositions in captivity, among the provinces of the peoples.

FIRST, THE ADEQUATE SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Church.

The bridegroom, in verse 1, called himself the lily; now he transcribes the same name and praise onto the bride, but with "to"—among thorns—added. I explained lily at verse 1; here I shall explain "to"—among thorns.

First, three Fathers in Theodoret explain it thus, as if to say: As the lily sown among thorns rises up and is born out of them, so the Church of the Gentiles was called and born out of the thorns of unbelief and of the unbelieving Gentiles. Christ therefore acted like a hunting dog, says Hugh, who, pursuing the wild beast, thrusts his head among the thorns' prickles, not fearing to be torn, so that he may catch the beast: he drew the Church, as it were a beast hiding among thorns, that is, among the reprobate, but he endured the pricking of the thorns even to the shedding of blood, in token of which he wore a crown of thorns on his head upon the cross.

Second, and more genuinely, as if to say: As the lily among thorns far surpasses them in beauty, fragrance, and whiteness, so the Church surpasses all other sects of the Jews, of philosophers, of politicians, etc. So Origen, Theodoret, and Justus of Urgel.

Third, as if to say: As the lily springs up and thrives among thorns, so the Church thrives and flourishes in the midst of heretics and wicked Christians, who prick and tear at her like thorns; but she nonetheless remains, like a lily, in her whiteness, fragrance, and splendor of doctrine and holiness, indeed amid persecutions she shines with a greater fragrance and brilliance of renown. So St. Gregory, Aponius, Philo of Carpasia, St. Bernard here, and St. Augustine, in the book On the Unity of the Church, chapter 13. Hear Honorius: As I am (says the bridegroom) the lily of the valleys, namely the adornment of the humble: so you will be, my love, the lily of thorns, that is, the glory of the nations; and as I am the lily among thorns, namely the Jews pricking and tearing me: so you will be, O Church, my love, among the Gentile daughters of Babylon, that is, of confusion, who will prick you, tormented with many thorns, and will tear you with many torments. In the thorn three things are noted: it quickly flowers, quickly withers, pricks with prickles: so the wicked quickly flourish in riches, quickly wither in virtues, and are fit for fire, and prick the good with their evil ways.

Anagogically, St. Augustine, in the fifth book On Baptism, against the Donatists, chapter 27, takes the bride as the Church of the elect, and the thorns as the assembly of the reprobate, as if to say: As thorns surround the lily, so the reprobate surround the elect; but these flourish amid the reprobate in grace and glory, like a lily among thorns: "for daughters," says Rupert, "when spoken of absolutely, almost never have a good meaning, as in these: The daughters ran to and fro upon the wall. But they have provoked, etc., Genesis 49:22, and elsewhere: Many daughters have gathered riches, etc., Proverbs 31:29. And so the thorns and the daughters are the blasphemies of the Jews, the sects of the heretics." Moreover, by "daughters" he denotes especially the daughters of Sion, that is, the women of Jerusalem and the Jewish women.

SECOND, THE PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Holy Soul.

First, Origen, homily 3 of four, explains it thus, as if to say: Among the daughters, that is, the worldly and carnal souls, who are made effeminate by the pleasures of the flesh, and are by them pricked and tormented as if by thorns, and who as daughters were born of their father the devil: the holy soul flourishes like a lily, which has no care or anxiety for food or clothing, but transfers all of that to God; wherefore it is wondrously clothed and fed by him with fragrance and beauty. For in like manner the pious soul is touched by no care of the flesh, but resting in the providence of God is nourished, adorned, and made radiant by him. Whence Christ, by this likeness of the lily, persuades the faithful not to be anxious about food and clothing, Matthew 6:28. Origen has similar things in homily 3 of four.

Second, St. Ambrose, in the third book On Virgins, takes the lily among thorns as the compunction of the heart; for thus he says: "As a lily among thorns. Does not, amid the harshness of labors and the contritions of souls, the flower of a good fragrance rise up, because God is appeased by a contrite heart?"

Third, St. Gregory takes the lily among thorns as the innocence of life amid the harmful: "Well," he says, "as the lily among thorns, so the bride is declared to be among the daughters; because although there are many in the Church who confess Christ with words alone, but in their works pursue nothing but human anxieties, only that soul is reckoned in the dignity of the lily which rises from the root of mortality to heavenly beauty, and by its purity keeps for itself the whiteness of heart and body, and refreshes its neighbors, one and all, with the fragrance of a good reputation."

Fourth, Gregory of Nyssa, homily 4, explains it thus, as if to say: As the lily is born and flourishes among thorns, so the holy soul grows in virtue amid tribulations, and shines all the more. And St. Ambrose, On the Institution of Virgins, chapter 14: Christ, he says, was a lily in the midst of thorns, when he was in the midst of the Jews who slandered him, accused him, and crucified him. By his own example, therefore, he rouses the faithful to endure and overcome persecutions and any tribulations with a strong spirit. So Cassiodorus, Aponius, and Anselm. For God has hedged this whole life about with so many thorns, that is, tribulations, so that the soul, seeing itself pricked by them everywhere, might withdraw its love from all the goods of the world, since they are thorny, and place it wholly in God the bridegroom. Thus thorns preserve the lily, that is, the purity and virginity of the soul. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 48, treating this excellently and wisely: "I was turned in my anguish, while the thorn is fastened in, Psalm 31:4. The thorn is guilt, the thorn is punishment, the thorn is the false brother, the thorn is the wicked neighbor. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. O shining lily, O tender and delicate flower! The unbelieving and the subverters are with you: see how carefully you must walk among thorns. The world is full of thorns: they are in the earth, they are in the air, they are in your flesh. To move among these, and not be harmed at all, belongs to the divine power, not to your own virtue. But, he says, be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world, John 16:33. Even if, then, you see on every side the prickles of tribulations aimed at you like the points of thorns, let not your heart be troubled, nor let it fear, knowing that tribulation works patience, patience proof, proof hope, and hope does not disappoint, Romans 5:3. Consider the lilies of the field, how they thrive and shine among thorns. If God so cares for the grass, which is today and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more his love and his most dear bride? Finally, the Lord keeps all who love him, Psalm 144:20. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters." He then adds something which wondrously heightens and completes the force and splendor of this lily: "It is," he says, "no small title of virtue indeed, to live a good life among the wicked, and to keep the whiteness of innocence and gentleness of manners among the malicious; but still more if, to those who hate peace, you show yourself peaceable, and a friend even to your enemies. This will indeed vindicate for you, by a certain right of property, the likeness given you from the lily, since it does not cease to illustrate and adorn, with its own whiteness, the very thorns that prick it. Does not the lily then seem to you, in a certain way, to fulfill the perfection of the Gospel, by which we are to pray for those who slander and persecute us, to do good to those who hate us, Luke 6:23. Do likewise, then, and your soul will be the friend of the Lord, and he will praise you, saying of you: For as the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters." Is not this the great power of the lily—great, I say, is the virtue of the holy and apostolic soul—that it not only overcomes thorns, but turns them into lilies, that it makes a Paul out of a Saul, a preacher out of a persecutor, an angel out of a demon? Fittingly, St. Jerome, epistle 140 to Principia, compares St. Marcella and Asella to the lily: "You have," he says, "in the study of the Scriptures and in the holiness of mind and body, Marcella and Asella: of whom the one may lead you through the green meadows, and the various flowers of the divine volumes, to him who says in the Canticle: I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys (for Marcella was learned in Scripture, as the same Jerome teaches in epistle 16); the other, herself the flower of the Lord (Asella), may deserve to hear with you: As the lily in the midst of thorns, so my companion in the midst of the daughters."

THIRD, THE PRINCIPAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin.

Rupert expounds it thus, as if to say: As Christ, like a lily, was pierced through by the thorns of the Jews and the heretics: so also the Blessed Virgin was pricked and transfixed by the same. "And so," he says, "these thorns and daughters are the blasphemies of the Jews, the sects of the heretics: whatever thorns of this kind tore me: whatever daughters of this kind envied you, and spoke ill of me. Where I was pricked by thorns, indeed even fastened by nails, you, present, suffered with your mind wounded together with mine; and where your virginity is disparaged by the daughters, I too am spoken against with envy. But just as I indeed endured the thorns, yet overcame them: so too it will truly be proclaimed of you, that you have destroyed all heresies." Hence St. Augustine says: "Christ Jesus offers up his flesh, Mary the virgin offers up her mind." In the Revelations of St. Bridget, book 6, chapter 30, St. Agnes revealed to her that the Blessed Virgin endured, as it were, as many sword-strokes through her compassion as the wounds and blows she foresaw and saw in her Son. Hear what St. Bridget writes of the Blessed Virgin in the Angelic Sermon, chapter 16: As the rose is wont to grow among thorns, so the Blessed Virgin grew in this world amid tribulations; and just as, as the rose grows, the thorns grow too, so this most chosen rose, Mary, the more she grew in age, the more sharply she was pricked by the thorns of stronger tribulations: what these tribulations of hers were, she explains in what follows.

Again, from this passage Galatinus and Bellarmine, volume 3, book 4, chapter 15, hold that the Virgin was conceived without any original stain: for just as from a thorny plant, without thorns, a rose is born, in which there is a wonderful pleasantness to the sight and a sweetness to the smell, so from so many sinners was born the innocent and holy Blessed Virgin. You may say the same of the lily. Wherefore, as Blessed Peter Damian says, sermon 3, On the Nativity of the Virgin: "Born of the thorny stock of the Jews, she shone white with the purity of virginal chastity in her body; she blazed, moreover, with the ardor of a twofold charity in her mind, she was fragrant everywhere with the odor of good work, she tended toward sublime things with the continual intention of her heart." For the thorns, among which the lily is said to be, and from which the rose takes its origin, the Fathers interpret as the lineage of the Mother of God, from which she herself contracted nothing harsh, nothing rough, but was wholly sweet and pleasant, no otherwise than as a lily and a rose came forth. Wherefore Sedulius, book 2, On the Most Holy Virgin, sang thus: And as amid sharp thorns the soft rose rises, having nothing that harms, and outshines its mother in honor: so, Mary coming from the sacred stock of Eve, the new Virgin atoned for the crime of the ancient virgin: as the thorn brought forth the rose, Judea brought forth Mary.

The Church, praised by the bridegroom as is customary, returns the praise upon him; and each does this in a bucolic manner, that is, pastoral and rural, the likeness being drawn from the countryside and trees. For here the bridegroom is represented as a shepherd, and the bride as a shepherdess, feeding the flock, and tending gardens, fields, and vineyards. She says, therefore: You praise me, O bridegroom, for shining forth like a lily among thorns; but this I have from you, who first shone forth like an apple tree among the barren trees of the forest: for you, as a bridegroom to his bride, have shared with me beauty and pre-eminence. For the bridegroom makes his own goods common to the bride, indeed her very own.