Commentary on the Song of Songs (Commentarium in Canticum Canticorum)

THE VOICE OF THE BRIDEGROOM.

VERSE 1. I AM THE FLOWER OF THE FIELD, AND THE LILY OF THE VALLEYS.

I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys. — The Arabic: "of the torrents" (for lilies, because they are dry, rejoice in waters); the Septuagint translate as Ours does; but the Tigurine: "I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily rejoicing in the valleys"; Vatablus: Saron is interpreted as of fullness, or rather abundance: just as God, he says, is called Saddai, that is, the fullness and abundance of all good things: for Sharon, says Adrichomius, is a city and a level region, rich and most fertile, very suitable for fattening flocks, and therefore the king's animals were pastured there. It extends from Caesarea of Palestine, and reaches as far as Joppa. This region, on Jerome's testimony, according to the quality of its soil, at once brought forth the fruit of faith when Peter was preaching, Acts 2:41, to which Solomon here alludes. For "flower" in Hebrew is חבצלת chabatstelet, which Pagninus, Marinus and Vatablus translate as "rose"; the Septuagint and St. Jerome here, "flower"; the same, at Isaiah 35:1, translate it "lily"; hence the Syriac for "flower of the field" translates "lily of a most fertile place"; others, "vaccinium," concerning which Virgil: "the white privets fall, the dark hyacinths are gathered." No wonder, for the Hebrew names of trees, flowers, and gems are polysemous, common to many species. For "lily" in Hebrew is שושנה schoschanna, which Guidacerius here translates "violet"; but the Chaldean and Galatinus, book VII, chapter 5, translate "rose," because this one grows among thorns, not the lily. Hence for what follows, "As the lily among thorns," they themselves translate, "as the rose among thorns." But the Septuagint, Aquila, Symmachus at Psalm 45:1, and St. Jerome, Aben-Ezra, R. Salomon, the Tigurine, Vatablus and others here translate sosanna as "lily," from שוש sches, that is, six, namely from the leaves by which it is adorned, says R. David.

Hence also the Phoenicians and Arabs call the lily susana. Whence Athenaeus, book XII, Eustathius on Dionysius, and others testify that Susa, the royal city of the Persians, was so named from the abundance of lilies growing there: just as the island of Rhodes was named from the rose, because it displays the appearance of a rose, and Florence from the flower; from Susanna too is named the oil susinum, which is made from lilies, concerning which Pliny, book XIII, chapter 1.

Further, the Chaldean, inverting the words, translates thus: the assembly of Israel said: At the time when the ruler of the age places his majesty among me, I am like a green lily from the paradise of delight, and my works are beautiful as the rose which is in the field of the garden of delight.

FIRST, ADEQUATE SENSE, Concerning Christ and the Church.

Theodoret, Gregory of Nyssa, St. Ambrose on Psalm 118, sermon 5, the Chaldean, the Hebrews, Philo Carpathius, likewise Genebrardus, Vatablus, Luis of León and Osorius judge that these are still the words of the bride, not of the bridegroom. For she had said, "Our bed is flowery"; now she shows from where it is flowery, namely, because, she says, "I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys." Or, as our Sanchez holds, with the sense turned back from Christ toward the Church, as though Christ were to say to her: You, O bride, say that the bed is flowery, and that the ceiling of our house smells sweetly, being of cedar and cypress; but I ought to be a flower to you, to whom nothing ought to please or give fragrance except me. This exposition is favored by the fact that there is immediately added, "As the lily among thorns, so is my friend among the daughters"; no one doubts that these words are the bridegroom's, not the bride's. As if the bridegroom should say: What wonder is it, if I require of you, O bride, that you hold me in place of a flower, in place of cypress and cedar, and that nothing flower or give fragrance to you except me, since you are in that place to me that the other daughters of Jerusalem are, in comparison with you, thorns and thorny bushes, while you are composed with the fragrance and whiteness of lilies; wherefore I ask or wish nothing great or undue, since I wish to appear to you just as you yourself appear to me. Obedient to this voice, the faithful bride often sings, in this wedding-song: "My beloved is mine, and I am his."

Furthermore, the Church is called the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys, for various reasons: first, Philo Carpathius offers this reason, as if to say: I, the Church, am the flower of the field on account of the prophecies of the prophets, but the lily of the valleys on account of the Gospel which I preach; for this breathes more sweetly and more health-giving, since it suggests not only precepts, but also counsels of perfection, saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are they that mourn," etc. And therefore Christ: "Consider, he says, the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labor not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these," Matthew 6:28.

Second, St. Ambrose, sermon 5 on Psalm 118, verse 1: the Church, he says, is the flower of the field on account of the fragrance of faith and the other virtues; but the lily, on account of the splendor of works. The same, in the book On the Institution of Virgins, chapter 15: the Church, he says, is the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys, because in the valley of this world she breathes forth the grace of a good fragrance by the diligent confession of sin.

Third, three Fathers, in Theodoret, judge the Church to be the flower of the field among the Jews, but the lily of the valleys among the Gentiles, as if the Church were to say: "I, as regards the Gentiles, who through unbelief were deprived of natural equality, and weighed down by a whirlwind of vices, were like a lily rising from the depths to the heights, and ascending from the root through the stem to a fitting greatness, lest it be hidden by the depth of the valleys, but display its lofty beauty — I rest upon faith in Christ, and, having emerged through purification from the confusion of vices, and at the summit of contemplation, I am adorned with the beauty of the virtues."

Fourth, others judge that the Church here invites the bridegroom to the little bed, that is, to the leisure and secrecy of contemplation, from the fact that she herself, wandering among the Gentiles in the action of evangelizing, was despised and trodden down by them, like a flower which is born in the open field, and like a lily in the valleys, which is trodden underfoot or plucked equally by all men and by beasts.

Finally, some expound it thus by antithesis, as if to say: I indeed, who am the bride, that is, the Church of Christ, am a flower, but of the field, not of the garden, that is, common, ordinary, cheap and lowly; but you, O my bridegroom, shine forth in splendor as much as in fragrance, like the whitest and most fragrant lily of the valleys.

But better, the same Theodoret, Origen, Aponius, Cassiodorus, Bede, Anselm, Rupert, Honorius here, and St. Ambrose, in the book On the Soul and Isaac, chapters 4 and 5, Cyril, On the Incarnation of the Only-begotten, chapter 9, judge these to be the words of the bridegroom, not of the bride, and this is required by what immediately follows: "As the lily among thorns, so is my friend among the daughters"; no one doubts that these words are the bridegroom's, not the bride's. Christ therefore is the flower of the field, or, as it is in Hebrew, the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys, and therefore he makes his own little bed flowery for the Church (for he alludes to this), as he said a little before, as if to say: You have rightly said, O bride, "Our bed is flowery," but know that it is flowery, not from you, but from me: "for I am the flower of the field," etc. Thus Bede: Christ therefore is the flower of the field.

First, because just as the flower is the ornament of the field, so Christ is the ornament of the world, say Origen, St. Ambrose, Bede and others: for Christ is so much the flower and glory of the world, that he contains in himself the appearance, the fullness and the excellence of all flowers and glories. Whence Justus of Urgel explains thus: "I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys, that is, I am the glory of the world in the humility of virginity." Christ therefore is a flower, by reason of his exceptional glory and the fullness of grace, by which he is beautiful above the sons of men. That flower, namely, of which it is said in Isaiah, chapter 11:1: "There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him." He is a flower that never withers, whose beauty never fails, whose fragrance is never diminished, whose vigor never perishes, equally always white and ruddy, equally always fragrant, equally full of grace and truth. Thus Titelmann.

Second, because just as the flower of the field is abundant and manifold, and is not enclosed in a garden, but is exposed to be plucked and cherished by all, so also is Christ.

Hear Alan: "The field is called the human nature of Christ; for just as in a field a variety of flowers springs up, so in the human nature of Christ a plurality of virtues. In it was the violet of humility, the rose of patience, the lily of chastity. The flower of this field was Christ, that is, glory according to his divinity, because also from the power of his divinity he had in his human nature the fullness of gifts. Now the human nature of Christ is elegantly signified by a field, on account of its breadth and flatness, because in it there was no stumbling-block of error. Whence also it is said of him: The lily of the valleys. Because perfect humility was in Mary, and in the human nature of Christ, therefore the person of the Virgin, and the human nature of the Word, are called valleys, on account of the eminence of their humility; and not only valleys, but also convalles, by reason of the resemblance, because the Virgin was especially like Christ." For this reason Christ willed to be born outside the city, in a field and open country, just as the Blessed Virgin was born in a field amid the bleating of sheep, says Damascene, book IV, On the Faith, chapter 15.

Third, just as a flower springs up in a field of its own accord, without seed, without ploughing, so also Christ was born of a virgin without the work of a man. Therefore, just as a flower has the sun in the sky for its father, and a plant in the earth for its mother: so Jesus's Father in heaven is God, and on earth his mother is the Virgin. And just as flowers are begotten by the heat of the sun, and the falling of the dew: so, without the work of a man, with the Holy Spirit overshadowing, and the dew of divine grace falling, this flower of Jesse came forth; a flower, that is, the glory of the field. Again, just as a flower is born from earth and dung: so Christ sprang up, like a most pure flower, from an earth defiled by sins. Whence he himself is called צמח tsemach, that is, the rising one, namely the shoot and the flower, Zechariah 3 and 6. Hear St. Ambrose, book II, On the Holy Spirit, chapter 5: "Christ, he says, is the flower of Mary, who, about to scatter the good fragrance of faith over the whole world, sprang up from a virginal womb. A flower, when cut, keeps its fragrance, and when crushed, increases it, and does not lose it when plucked away; so also the Lord Jesus, on that gibbet of the cross, neither withered when crushed, nor vanished when plucked away; but, cut by that piercing of the lance, he flowered forth more beautiful with the sacred blood of a poured-out color, himself not knowing how to die, and breathing out upon the dead the gift of eternal life."

Fourth, Christ is the flower of the field, in Hebrew saron, that is, of the plain, because he was born humble, in a level land, from a humble virgin. Again, saron, that is, most beautiful, because in Sharon, being, as I said a little before, most rich and most fertile, the roses and flowers were more beautiful and more fragrant than in other places, according to that, Isaiah 35:2: "The glory of Libanus is given to it, the beauty of Carmel and Sharon."

Fifth, the flower signifies that the time of Christ's incarnation would be spring: for in spring the flowers shine forth. Thus Christ was conceived and made incarnate on the 25th day of March, for which reason on that day the Church celebrates the feast of so great a mystery under the name of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin. Thus Cassiodorus, Honorius and St. Bernard.

Sixth, the flower here is the rose, as Vatablus and others also translate. But what is more beautiful than the rose, what more fragrant, what more wholesome? So also Christ is the beauty, the fragrance and the health of the world. See what I said about the rose at Ecclesiasticus 24:18, on the words, "And as a plantation of roses in Jericho." Therefore the bridegroom Christ is beautiful, like a rose turning purple and a whitening lily, according to that, chapter 5:10: "My beloved is white and ruddy."

AND THE LILY OF THE VALLEYS.

But here understand "lily," not that fragrant little flower which the common run of herbalists now improperly calls "lily of the valley." This lily is called "of the valleys," because lilies more easily come forth in valleys, into which dew and rain run down from the mountains, and there they are more fragrant and more beautiful; for since they are dry, they need much moisture. So also Christ is a white and fragrant lily, born from a humble earth and a virgin. "In the lily," says Honorius, "five things are considered, because it is white, having a prominent golden color, and it is fragrant, and open, and always bent: so Christ is white in his humanity, golden in his deity, fragrant in his preaching, open in receiving penitents, bent in condescending to sinners, and in raising them up"; he himself is the lily of the valleys, namely the ornament of the faithful. For just as valleys are between two mountains, so the faithful are between two laws, or between two peoples, the Jews and the Gentiles.

Second, the petals of the lily are, on the outside, most white, but within, in the middle of the flower, there appears a threefold ray of yellow color, and plainly golden: thus Christ outwardly displayed a most pure humanity, but within contained a golden deity, indeed the whole Holy Trinity: "Because in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily," Colossians 2:9. Thus Aponius: "The flower of the field, he says, Christ was before the incarnation, because, shining in the whole field of the heavens, he stood forth admirable to the heavenly spirits; but after the incarnation he was made the lily of the valleys, when he descended into the valley of tears, and brought three things: the abolition of sin, the wiping away of falsehood, and the refreshment of concupiscence: just as the lily displays three things from itself, whiteness, fragrance, and, for whatever is burned by fire, a remedy." And Bede: "Beautifully, he says, in the lily the outer whiteness first opens itself little by little, and thus at last the grace of the golden color, which lay hidden within, comes into view: because the Lord, born in the world, was at first a man, exalted to those who truly believed in him; but as time went on, he became known as true God." But St. Ambrose, on Psalm 118, sermon 5, inverting the comparison: In Christ, he says, just as in the lily, there was the whiteness of divinity and the ruddiness of humanity. To this Cyril of Alexandria adds, in the book On the Incarnation of the Only-begotten, chapter 9, who explains thus, as if to say: Just as fragrance is invisible in the visible lily, so the incorporeal deity in Christ the man, through the hypostatic union, was as it were embodied.

Third, St. Ambrose, book II, On the Holy Spirit, chapter 5: "Christ, he says, is the flower of the field, because, like a flower, when crushed and torn in the Passion, he gave forth a greater fragrance."

Fourth, great is the fecundity of the lily. For "nothing is more fruitful than it," says Pliny, book XXI, chapter 5, "a single root often sending out fifty bulbs." So what is more fruitful than Christ, from whom so many thousands, indeed millions, of Christians have been born?

Fifth, no flower is loftier than the lily: so nothing is loftier than Christ. Hear Pliny vividly depicting the glory of the lily, book XXI, chapter 5: "Nor does any of the flowers have a greater height, sometimes of three cubits, with a stalk always languid and not sufficient for its burden. Its whiteness is exceptional, with the petals striped on the outside, and gradually loosening themselves from narrowness into breadth, in the shape of a cup, with the lips turned back around the rim, and with a slender thread and seed; with saffron-colored stamens standing in the middle. Thus the fragrance and the color are twofold, one of the calyx, another of the stamen, a narrow difference."

Mystically, Origen: Christ, he says, was a flower without glory to the Jews, because he was despised by them; but a glorious lily to the Gentiles, because they acknowledged and honored the glory of Christ.

Symbolically, Honorius: the field, he says, that is, unploughed ground, is the order of virgins in the Church, whose flower is Christ, because he is their delight, their crown, and their reward. But the valley is the order of the married, situated between virgins and the continent, as it were between two mountains, of whom Christ is the lily, namely their whiteness and joy. "And as the lily is among thorns," in comeliness and fragrance: so the Church of the perfect is among the daughters of Jerusalem, that is, among the imperfect, standing out by the comeliness of her life and the fragrance of her doctrine. The perfect are so called, because they have left behind all worldly things, the Lord saying: "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor," Matthew 19:21. They are called imperfect, because they still make use of the world, of whom it is said: "Your eyes have seen my imperfection, and in your book all shall be written," Psalm 138:16.

Fifth, Christ is the lily of the valleys, because in the valleys, that is, in the humble, he awakens the hope of future glory: for God exalts and glorifies the humble. For the lily is a symbol of hope. I gave the reason at Hosea 14:6, on the words, "Israel shall spring forth as the lily." The valley of humility, therefore, is the lily-bed of virginity, of grace, and of glory.

Finally, Christ flowers and gives fragrance, like a lily, in all the saints, namely as a lily of purity in virgins, of patience in martyrs, of humility in cenobites, of penitence in penitents, of doctrine in doctors, etc. Whence St. Gregory: "Rightly, he says, does Christ name himself a flower, who, while he exterminates the thorns of sinners, adorns the mind of the bride with the beauty of his justice, and, while he applies the heavenly desire to the nostrils of the heart, refreshes the interior of the soul, as it were, with fragrance."

More clearly, St. Bernard, sermon 47: "The flower, he says, is virginity, the flower is martyrdom, the flower is good action. Virginity is in the garden, martyrdom in the field, good work in the bridal-chamber." And after some words: "He himself is the flower of the garden, a virgin, a rod born of a virgin. The same is the flower of the field, a martyr, the crown of martyrs, the form of martyrdom. Finally, he was led forth outside the city, he suffered outside the camp, he was lifted up on the wood, to be gazed upon by men, to be mocked by all. He is likewise the flower of the bridal-chamber, the mirror and example of all beneficence."

SECOND, PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the holy soul.

First, Gregory of Nyssa, homily 4, teaches that Christ is the flower of the field in holy souls, whom he makes fruitful by his grace, so that they become like a very ample and most fertile field, which brings forth every kind of flower. Origen adds, homily 3 of the four, that Christ is the flower of the field to beginners and the simple, but the lily of the valleys to those who are advancing, for the brightness of wisdom and modesty. For he himself is the brightness of eternal light, the splendor and figure of the substance of God, Wisdom 7:26.

Second, Cassiodorus, Bede and St. Ambrose, in the place already cited, say that Christ is the flower of the field in any of the faithful whatever; but the lily of the valleys, that is, of the humble, because in the humble his grace shines forth the more.

Third, Ambrose, book III, On Virgins: "The flower of the field, he says, is Christ, because he frequents the simplicity of pure-minded parents; but the lily of the valleys, because he is the flower of humility and simplicity."

Fourth, and most fittingly, Christ is the lily in chaste and pure minds, such as are those of the valleys, that is, of the humble: for the shoot and flower of humility is chastity and virginity. Thus St. Jerome, epistle 8 to Demetrias: "Christ, he says, as it were the author and prince of virginity, speaks confidently: I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys." Again, the chaste soul itself is a lily. For, as Theodoret explains: "The lily, while it shines with outward comeliness, also contains within a golden little flower. Such is the soul, surrounded by the splendor of justice, and bearing in its inmost recesses the spiritual gift of wisdom and knowledge."

Hence also the bees, chaste and virgin, seeing that they produce their offspring without intercourse and make honey, delight in the lily as in something virginal, on the testimony of Pliny, book XXI, chapter 12. For this reason an angel brought down from heaven, to St. Cecilia and St. Valerian, who preserved virginity in marriage, crowns of roses and lilies, as their Life relates. The same thing happened to Sts. Julian and Basilissa, as appears from their Life in Surius, on the 9th of January, and to others of the same kind and virtue. Give, therefore, lilies to the virgins with full baskets.

Anagogically, Eucherius, on the third book of Kings: "Christ, he says, is a lily on account of the glory of the resurrection, white outside on account of the glory of the body, but golden within on account of the brightness of the soul. And indeed before the Passion he was a lily as it were closed, since indeed through the Passion he was crowned with glory and honor; but after the Passion, a lily opened wide, insofar as, in the humanity he had assumed, he showed the power of the divine brightness which he had with the Father, before the world was." But Theodoret asserts that Christ was the flower of the field in the incarnation, but the lily of the valleys in the descent to the dead: for among the dead are the lowest valleys of the world.

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

All these things belong pre-eminently, above all others, to the Blessed Virgin. Singularly indeed, in that from her, as from an unploughed field, there came forth a beautiful flower, namely Christ, and from her womb, as from a most humble valley, there was born a most beautiful and most fragrant lily, namely the same Christ, as I said a little before from Alan and others.

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.

THE VOICE OF THE BRIDE. VERSE 3. AS THE APPLE TREE AMONG THE TREES OF THE FOREST, SO IS MY BELOVED AMONG THE SONS.

AS THE APPLE TREE AMONG THE TREES OF THE FOREST. —

The Arabic: as the pomegranate in the tree of the forest, so is my beloved among the sons; Vatablus: among the young men, as if to say: By as much as the apple tree shines forth, stands out, and excels beyond the other trees of the forest; by as much as it imparts a more useful and wholesome air than they, where it casts its shade; by as much as its fruits are better than acorns; by as much as the man who feeds on these excels all the other living creatures that feed on those: by so much, and indeed by much more, does my heavenly bridegroom excel all other men and the beloved, that is, both those who are loved and those who love. Further, the Chaldean renders it: behold, as the beautiful and praiseworthy citron-tree among the fruitless trees, and the whole world knows it: so was the Ruler of the age praiseworthy among the angels at the time when he was revealed on Mount Sinai, when he gave the law to his people. In Greek mallon, in Latin malus or melum, or literally melum (as Origen's translator has it, whence also the Italians call fruits mele), it is a fruit-tree bearing fruit. Now fruits in general are all those growths that have a soft rind; as nuts have a hard one: wherefore figs, pears, grapes, peaches, cherries, plums, sorb-apples, medlars, olives, dates, etc., are reckoned as fruits.

Dionysius the Carthusian adds here: "Although," he says, "there have been many holy virgins, yet in comparison with the most blessed Virgin they seem to have been as thorns, insofar as they had something of fault in them; and although they were pure in themselves, yet the tinder was not entirely extinguished in them: they were thorns also to others, who were pricked by concupiscence at the sight of them. But the Virgin Mother of God was utterly immune from all fault, the tinder was fully extinguished in her; and yet she was filled with intense charity: wherefore she so pierced the hearts of those who beheld her with her inestimable virginal chastity, that she could be desired by no one; rather, she even extinguished their lust for the hour."

Again, as the lily avails against serpents and poisons, so the invocation of the Blessed Virgin is a singular remedy in every temptation of vice, and especially of lust, as experience confirms. Hear Pliny, book XXI, chapter xix: "The roots of the lily," he says, "have this, that they bear fruit against the strikes of serpents when drunk in wine, and against the poisons of mushrooms." Dioscorides indeed, book III, chapter xc, where he treats of the lily: "The leaves of the herb," he says, "applied, help against the bites of serpents; the same, boiled in water, help burns of fire, and, prepared with vinegar, wounds." The same Dioscorides, book XV, chapter i, teaches that the root of another kind of lily, which in Latin is called iris, but in Italian lilium coeleste, drunk with vinegar, cures the bites of venomous animals. And Peter Matthiolus, in his Commentary, adds that the same root, pounded into powder and drunk with vinegar, is universally beneficial against all poisons.

First, then, the Church compares Christ the bridegroom to the apple, that is, to the fruit-tree, because as the apple tree is fruitful and excels the other trees of the forest, which are barren and unfruitful, so Christ excels all angels and men: for all of these are of themselves like unfruitful trees, but by the grace of Christ and of God they have in many ways ennobled their blossom against the strikes of serpents, and have this, that they bear the fruits of the virtues of grace and glory. So Origen, Cassiodorus, Bede, and others. Further, St. Bernard, sermon 48, maintains that Christ is here compared and preferred to men only, not to angels, and this is strictly true, as Nyssen, Aponius, Philo Carpathius, Rupert, and others also hold.

Second, as fruits breathe out a sweet fragrance, so too Christ draws all to himself by his fragrance and fame. Hence the fruit is called in Hebrew תפוח tappuach, from the root פוח puach, that is, "he breathed out, exhaled," because fruits exhale a sweet fragrance. Hear St. Ambrose, sermon 5 on Psalm 118, verse 1: "As the apple among the trees of the forest. A fruit of this kind has a pleasing fragrance, such that it surpasses the fragrance of other fruits. Christ, then, fastened to the wood, like an apple hanging on a tree, poured forth the good fragrance of worldly redemption, which wiped away the heavy stench of sin, and poured out the ointment of the living draught."

Third, the apple, or fruit-tree, has under it various species of trees, which accordingly produce fruits and produce of different kinds, and these of excellent flavor, color, and fragrance, such as golden apples, Median apples, pomegranates, peaches, quinces, apricots, and citron apples: so too Christ brings forth all the species of virtues and graces, as virginity in virgins, martyrdom in martyrs, contemplation in contemplatives, etc.

Fourth, Christ is truly for us a fruit and an apple, that is, food by which we are fed and nourished, both in the doctrine of the Gospel, as Theodoret, St. Ambrose, Bede, Aponius, and St. Bernard hold; and properly, as Philo Carpathius, Origen, Nyssen, and Anselm judge, in the Eucharist. A fruit, says Nyssen, delights your senses — sight by its color, smell by its fragrance, and taste by its flavor. Christ does the same. Philo Carpathius adds that the fruit gives food, and gives drink also: so too Christ, he says, in the Eucharist gives his flesh for food, his blood for drink. Whence Aponius and Psellus understand by the apple here the pomegranate, from which a red and watery juice is pressed out, just as from the side of Christ on the cross flowed blood and water. Hear St. Gregory: "Rightly, then, by the apple is Christ figured, and by the trees of the forest the rest of men: because in Christ alone, as often as we seek the food of salvation, we find it; in his words and examples we refresh our souls with sweet and wholesome fruit. He himself is indeed the tree of life, which he grants to us. He it is who, while he breathes himself into us, feeds the soul. But in the rest, if we find any refreshment, it is not theirs, but Christ's, that we take from them, because whatever is in them apart from God, we find without doubt to be deadly to us."

Fifth, Nyssen, homily 4, teaches that Christ descended into the forest of this life, that he might make the wild trees fruitful — namely, that he might make the unfaithful faithful, the impious pious, the unchaste chaste, the proud humble: just as a branch of the apple tree, grafted onto a beech, or another forest tree, in it and from it produces its own fruits and apples.

All these things, with the name changed, apply to the holy soul and to the Blessed Virgin.

Finally, "the apple among the trees of the forest" is the cross, and Christ crucified in the midst of thieves, say Aponius, Psellus, Theodoret, Rupert, and St. Bernard. And this, first, because, as Adam sinned in an apple, by eating the fruit forbidden by God, so Christ made satisfaction in an apple, hanging on the cross, so that where the fault had been committed, there satisfaction too might be made; and that he who "was conquering by the tree, might also be conquered by the tree." Second, because the apple tree has the shape of a cross (just as also the mast in a ship, with its yardarms and sails): for the trunk has the shape of the beam, and the branches, of the crosspiece on the cross: for on the spread branches of the apple tree, just as on the crosspiece, the outstretched arms of the crucified can be fastened with nails. Third, because this very thing is confirmed by what follows: "Under his shadow, whom I had desired, I sat: and his fruit was sweet to my throat," as if to say: under the apple, that is, under the cross of Christ, I sat, and tasted his fruit. Fourth, because it is the opinion of many that the cross of Christ was made from the palm: and the palm is an apple tree, because it bears dates, which, since they have a sweet and soft rind, are called fruits. Fifth, because this is signified, chapter 8, verse 5, when it is said: "Under the apple tree I raised thee up," where more is said on this matter.

Whence, alluding to this, Fortunatus, and after him the Church in the Office of the Passion and of the Cross, sings thus: Faithful cross, above all others, one and only noble tree: no forest bears such a one in leaf, flower, bud: sweet the wood, sweet the nails, sweet the burden it sustains.

The bride says therefore: "As the apple among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the sons," as if to say, with St. Ignatius: "My love is crucified"; I love none, save Christ crucified. And with 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," Galatians 6:14. Hear St. Ambrose, on Psalm 118, sermon 5, verse 1: "These are the dwellings of the cross of Christ and of the burial, in which the Church was wounded, but with the wound of charity. For it is a wound, which Christ received; but it is an ointment, which he poured out; it is an apple, which hung. This apple the Church tasted, and said: And his fruit is sweet in my throat. And that you may know that the Lord is the apple, you have read above: As the apple among the trees of the forest, so is my kinsman."

UNDER HIS SHADOW, WHOM I HAD DESIRED, I SAT: AND HIS FRUIT WAS SWEET TO MY THROAT.

The Septuagint: in (Symmachus: under) his shadow I desired and I sat, that is, I ardently desired his shadow, and having desired it I enjoyed it, and sat most pleasantly under it; Vatablus: whose shadow I sought, and under it I will sit; the Arabic: I desired to be overshadowed by his shadow, and I sat.

She persists in the comparison of the apple tree: for the apple tree gives a better shade than the plane tree, whose shade nevertheless is reckoned most pleasant, on the testimony of Pliny, and of Plato in the Phaedrus, where he brings in Socrates disputing under a plane tree: "For this plane tree," he says, "is spread quite wide with spreading branches, and tall, and its height and shade are exceedingly beautiful and pleasant," etc.

For fruit-bearing trees, such as the apple tree, as they are in themselves more temperate and sweeter than the unfruitful and wild ones, so too they give off a more temperate and sweeter shade than those: add also the fruit, by which they relieve the hunger, heat, and thirst of travelers resting beneath them.

Note: under the shadow signifies the bride's betrothal: for the bride of old was accustomed to be covered by the bridegroom with a canopy, or covering, or cloak, by which it was signified that she, as a bride, was under the bridegroom's care and protection. Whence Ruth, chapter 3:9, seeking marriage with Boaz, who as the nearest kinsman was bound by the old law to take her, says to him: "Spread thy cloak over thy handmaid, for thou art a near kinsman," that is: take me into thy shadow, namely into thy family, house, care, and protection; take me to wife, betroth me to thyself, and, as a sign of betrothal, join me to thyself under the shadow and covering of thy cloak. And God says to the Synagogue, Ezekiel 16:8: "Behold, thy time," he says, "the time of lovers: and I spread my mantle over thee." The same was the rite of the gentiles. Whence Euripides, in Stobaeus, brings in a father thus instructing his daughter: "When thou hast come under the cloak of an excellent man, leave the rest of the concerns to thy husband." Finally, Gabriel said to the Blessed Virgin, Luke 1:35: "The power of the Most High shall overshadow thee," as if to say: the Holy Spirit, as a bridegroom, shall receive thee with his shadow, and shall accomplish in thee the hidden incarnation of the Word. The Chaldean, taking these things according to the custom of the law given by Moses to the Synagogue and the Jews, renders it thus: for a time I desired to dwell in the shadow of his majesty; and the words of his law were sweet to my throat; and the rewards of his precepts are kept for me in the age to come.

FIRST, ADEQUATE SENSE. Concerning Christ and the Church.

You will ask: what is that shadow of Christ, which the Church, and the holy soul, embraces, and under which she joyfully sits and rests?

They answer, first, some that it is the Incarnation, or the Word incarnate: for this, as the sole remedy for her thousand ills, the Church awaited most eagerly through so many thousands of years. For the Word is light, and immense radiance, whose shadow is the body and the humanity assumed by him; for this, like a shadow, hides and veils the deity and majesty of the Word. The humanity, therefore, is the shadow of the divinity, which through its thin veil shines and gleams dimly.

Second, properly and genuinely, the shadow of Christ is the providence, care, and protection of the Church and of the holy soul, as of his bride, according to that word of Isaiah, chapter 51:16: "In the shadow of my hand I have protected thee, that thou mayest plant the heavens, and found the earth." So Origen, Nyssen, Cassiodorus, Ambrose, Philo, St. Anselm, and others. From this power of Christ, as though animated, the shadow of St. Peter healed whatever sick it touched, Acts 5:15. Hence Jeremiah says of Christ: "In thy shadow we shall live among the nations," Lamentations 4:20, and Hosea 14:8. The Septuagint render it: unto our couch, shadowy — namely, the bridegroom Christ. And the Psalmist: "And in the shadow of thy wings I will hope," Psalm 56, verse 2.

Third, the shadow of Christ is the Holy Spirit: for as a body casts a shadow, and by it is veiled and overshadowed, so Christ, as God, breathes forth the Holy Spirit, and by him is, as it were, veiled and covered. Hence the Holy Spirit, overshadowing the Blessed Virgin, formed in her womb the body of Christ, as he is man, organized it, animated it, and joined it hypostatically to the Word of God, Luke 1:31; just as a hen, brooding over her eggs with the shadow of her wings, forms the chick by her warmth, animates it, gives it life, and hatches it, says Theophylact on Luke 1. Hear St. Gregory: "The shadow of Christ is the protection of the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit overshadows the mind which he fills, because he tempers every heat of temptations; and while the breath of his inspiration gently touches the mind, whatever harmful heat it was enduring, he drives away; and the mind which the excessive heat of vices had perhaps already made withered, the shadow of the Holy Spirit, protecting, restores, so that, while it rests sitting in his inspiration, it gathers strength, by which it may run more vigorously to eternal life."

Fourth, Origen, Theodoret, Philo Carpathius, and St. Ambrose, on Psalm 118, sermon 5, understand by the shadow the old law, under which the Church says she sat before Christ, while she still dwelt in the Synagogue of Moses: for the law was the shadow of the Gospel, as Moses was of Christ, and the Synagogue of the Church.

Fifth, fittingly St. Bernard, sermon 48, understands by the shadow faith, which is shadowy and obscure: for we walk by faith and not by sight, but faith leads us to clear vision in the heavens.

SECOND, PARTIAL SENSE. Concerning Christ and the holy soul.

The holy soul under the shadow of Christ crucified does not stand, but sits, that is, is continually engaged through meditation, prayer, and contemplation, especially while she is tormented and pressed by some temptation or tribulation, as by the heat of the sun: for Christ crucified, as he shares with her his cross, so too he shares with her a participation in his strength; indeed he often soothes her with great and wondrous consolations from heaven, so that she would rather be on the cross with Christ than in delights with the world. Whence also Blessed Francis Xavier, in his labors and hardships in the Indies, so overflowed with heavenly sweetness that he cried out: "It is enough, Lord, it is enough; for my mind cannot bear so great a weight of joys in this life." So St. Ambrose, on Psalm 118, sermon 5. This is what the Psalmist sings: "But the children of men shall put their trust under the covert of thy wings. They shall be inebriated with the plenty of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of thy pleasure," Psalm 35:8. Theodoret notes, in the Philotheus, or History of the Holy Fathers, chapter 9, that the soul devoted to Christ crucified looks up to, loves, and venerates not only Christ himself, but also his garment, his house, his shoes, and whatever, however slight, bears some shadow of him.

Second, the shadow of Christ is the sacrament of the Eucharist, for in it, under the appearances of bread, the deity and humanity of Christ are hidden: which the faithful accordingly eagerly desire, and under it they rest securely: so St. Bernard, sermon 48.

Third, the shadow of Christ are the saints: for as a shadow is an image of the body, but slight and inadequate, so the life of the saints is an image of the life of Christ, but only a shadowy one, not equaling it: wherefore the pious soul, while she dwells in the company or congregation of the faithful and the saints, is protected by it as by a shadow, and is cherished by its holy examples and counsels. So three Fathers, in Theodoret.

Fourth, Origen thinks that by the shadow is signified progress in virtue: for as the shadow grows from midday into the evening, so too the virtue of the holy soul grows and advances day by day. Again, the shadow leads to the body. "Make it, then," says Origen, "so that, when thou art worthy of the shadow, thou mayest be able to grasp his shadow, and when this is accomplished, his body — if I may so speak — from which the shadow is born, will come to thee, and then thou shalt feel the sweetness of his fruit, and shalt say: And his fruit was sweet to my throat."

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

The shadow signifies the betrothal of the Blessed Virgin, as I said a little before, according to that word, Luke 1:35: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also that Holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." This overshadowing, then, as it were betrothed her to the Holy Spirit, who accordingly formed in her Christ, the Holy of Holies, and then filled her with the most sweet fruit of consolation and contemplation.

Again, the shadow of the Blessed Virgin was not only the Holy Spirit, but also Christ: for here he is called her beloved, that is, her bridegroom. For the Blessed Virgin supremely desired his coming and incarnation: wherefore before his coming she sat under his shadow, both because from faith in Christ's being incarnated in her she drew all her grace, even in advance of the incarnation itself; and because her whole hope, desire, consolation, protection, and every good was to hope for Christ who was to be born, to see and love him as he was being born, and to enjoy him now born.

AND HIS FRUIT WAS SWEET TO MY THROAT.

The Septuagint: to my jaws; Vatablus: and his fruit is most sweet to my palate. You will ask: what here is the fruit of Christ?

I answer, the first fruit of Christ is the remission of sins, justification, grace, and the virtues. Likewise the preaching of the apostles, and the conversion of the nations: so St. Ambrose, on Psalm 118, sermon 5.

The second fruit of Christ are the fruits of the Holy Spirit, which St. Paul enumerates, Galatians 5:22, saying: "The fruit of the Spirit is: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness," etc. For Christ, sending the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and the faithful at Pentecost, sent together with him these his gifts and fruits likewise. So three Fathers, in Theodoret.

The third fruit, real and bodily, sweet to the throat, both of body and of soul, is the Eucharist, by which Christ feeds us, and with whose sweetness, as of heavenly manna, he inebriates the mind. So Aponius, Rupert, and St. Bernard, sermon 48. For the love of Christ and his benefits, such as the Eucharist, are represented here under various figures and schemes.

The fourth fruit of Christ is his speech and heavenly doctrine, and therefore most wholesome and most sweet: whence also it is called the Gospel, that is, the good and happy tidings, because it announces the kingdom of heaven, and the way of arriving there. So Nyssen, homily 4, and St. Ambrose, note on chapter 16 of Exodus.

The fifth fruit is continual meditation on the law of the Lord, says Origen; and still more the contemplation of Christ, and of his deity, and of his incarnation, passion, etc. So St. Gregory; hear him: "Christ himself exists as a fruit-bearing tree, planted in our heart through faith; and if our mind worthily loves it, and constantly cultivates it, it undoubtedly brings forth beautiful and useful fruits within. Which, while the mind receives and eagerly eats them, it sets aside all the pleasures of the world for the sake of its sweetness. For it is very sweet for it to think on heavenly things, to fix its inmost eye on eternity, so that at times the mind, kindled, is even pierced with weeping, and, lifted up amid tears by the food of angels, is fed on wisdom itself the more eagerly, the more sweetly. Hence it is that what follows is added: He brought me into the wine cellar." So St. Magdalene, sitting at the feet of Jesus, was fed by the contemplation of Christ as by heavenly manna; whence she deserved to hear from him, Luke 10:42: "Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her forever." And St. Augustine, in the Soliloquies, chapter 22: "I beseech thee," he says, "that all things may grow bitter to me, that thou alone mayest appear sweet to my soul." The same, in the Manual, chapter 20: "The loving soul," he says, "is drawn by vows, is borne by desires, hides its merits, closes its eyes to majesty, opens them to delight, placing itself in salvation, and acting confidently therein. By love the soul withdraws and departs from the bodily senses, so that she does not feel herself, who feels God. This happens when the mind, enticed by the ineffable sweetness of God, in a certain way steals itself from itself, indeed is carried away and slips from itself, that it may enjoy God unto delight. Nothing is so delightful — were it not so brief. Love gives familiarity, familiarity with God gives boldness, boldness gives taste, taste gives hunger. The soul which the love of God touches can think of nothing else, desire nothing else, but often sighs, saying: As the hart desireth the fountains of water, so my soul desireth thee, my God." And after some things: "A safe and firm rest for the weak and for sinners is in the wounds of the Savior. There I dwell secure: through the wounds his inmost parts lie open to me: whatever is lacking to me from myself, I take for myself from the inmost parts of my Lord, since they overflow with mercy, nor are there wanting openings through which it may flow out. Through the openings of the body, the secrets of the heart lie open to me, the great sacrament of piety lies open. The inmost parts of the mercy of our God lie open, in which the dayspring from on high hath visited us. The wounds of Jesus Christ are full of mercy, full of piety, full of sweetness and charity." So St. Bonaventure, when visited by St. Thomas Aquinas, and asked from what book he drew such wise, such pious and sweet thoughts and words as he poured forth in teaching and writing, showed him the image of Christ crucified, and said: "This is the book, my father, that suggests to me all that I teach and write. For at the feet of this crucified one my soul draws greater light from heaven than from all reading, disputation, and study." So our Father Ribadeneira, in the Life of St. Bonaventure, from the Chronicles of St. Francis.

Anagogically, St. Bernard, sermon 48: "She says," he says, "And his fruit was sweet to my throat. Rightly had she desired his shadow, from whom she was to receive both refreshment and nourishment alike. For the rest of the trees of the forest, even though they have the shade of comfort, yet have not the nourishment of life, not the perpetual fruits of salvation. For there is one author of life, one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who says to his bride: I am thy salvation. Not Moses, he says, gave you this bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven, John 6:32. Therefore she had desired above all the shadow of Christ, because he alone is the one who not only cools the heat of vices, but also fills with the delight of the virtues."

VERSE 4. HE BROUGHT ME INTO THE WINE-CELLAR; HE SET IN ORDER CHARITY IN ME.

HE BROUGHT ME INTO THE WINE-CELLAR (in Hebrew, "into the house of wine" — for the Hebrews call by the name "house" a cellar, a stable, a bedchamber, indeed every vessel and receptacle), HE SET IN ORDER CHARITY IN ME. — Fittingly to the sequence of the drama, after the bride has said, "His fruit is sweet to my palate," she adds: "The king brought me into the wine-cellar," because fruit, that is, food and eating, excites thirst, which, accordingly, that the bride might relieve it, after eating the fruit she is led into the wine-cellar. Again, as St. Bernard rightly says, sermon 49: "Having had," he says, "a conversation as desired, exceedingly sweet and familiar, with her beloved, when he departs the bride returns to the young maidens, so refreshed and kindled by his sight and speech that she appeared like one drunk. And as they marveled at the novelty and asked the cause, she answered that it was no wonder if she burned with wine, since she had entered the wine-cellar; and so it is according to the letter. According to the spirit too she does not deny that she is drunk, but with love, not wine — except that love is wine."

These, therefore, are the words of the bride to her companions, or young maidens, to whom she recounts that she was led by the bridegroom into the wine-cellar, and there, having drunk the wine of charity, likewise received the order of charity. Moreover, the Septuagint render it: "Bring me" (O young maidens, or rather, O companions of the bridegroom, namely the apostles and doctors) "into the wine-cellar, set in order charity in me," as if to say: I burn with love of the bridegroom, and therefore I am parched with spiritual dryness and thirst; you, then, O companions of the bridegroom, bring me into the cellar of wine, where I may quench this thirst, and at the same time, set in order charity in me, that is, adorn me with those garments, those jewels, and all the other things which may make me lovable to the bridegroom, and which may become a bride of so great a bridegroom, that I may deserve to celebrate the wedding with him devoutly. Hence also the Syriac, in its own way

PRIMUS SENSUS ADAEQUATUS, De Christo et Ecclesia.

The bride was led by the bridegroom from the shadow of the apple tree into the cellar of wine, that is, into a place of delights and nectar, where she drinks the wine of charity, that she may grasp the grace of the mysteries and the sweetness of joy, says St. Ambrose on Psalm 118, sermon 5.

You will ask, what is this wine-cellar? First, Origen, homily 3 of the four, Theodoret, and others take it as the house of wisdom, namely the schools or temples into which the faithful people are led, that there they may draw from the doctors and preachers the wine of true wisdom, that is, of the knowledge, fear, and love of God. Hence St. Gregory and Aponius take by this cellar the sacred Scripture, for this pours out to us the wine of heavenly wisdom; and by this, says St. Gregory, charity is set in order in the bride, because in her doctrine it is plainly learned how God and one's neighbor are to be loved in due order. To this the Chaldean paraphrast comes, who nevertheless in his own way adapts these words to the Law of Moses given to the Synagogue: "The assembly of Israel said," he says, "The Lord brought me into the house of the school of the doctrine of Israel, on Mount Sinai, that I might learn the law from the mouth of Moses, the great scribe." This bears on the fact that Christ calls the old law old wine, but the new law and the Gospel, new wine, which they put into new wineskins, and both are preserved, Matth. chapter 9, verse 17.

Second, others better take by the wine-cellar the altar: for on this the priests consecrate, draw, and distribute the eucharistic wine, namely the blood of Christ, according to the precept of Christ. So Nyssen, homily 4, Psellus, Rupert, and Paschasius Radbertus, treatise On the Eucharist, chapter 11. Thus the sense is, as if to say: The king bridegroom himself brought me into the wine-store, that is, he bade me enter to the altar of God, and there to take the cup of the Lord's salvation, which gladdens God, which gives life to man: thus in place of the vineyard which I abandoned, I have obtained the cellars of a better nectar. Solomon alludes here to that of Proverbs, chapter 9, verse 1: "Wisdom has built herself a house, etc. She has slain her victims, mingled her wine, and set forth her table." See what is said there.

Third, and very fittingly, the wine-cellar is the congregation of the faithful in Zion, to which the fullness of the Holy Spirit was given from heaven at Pentecost, by which he filled the apostles and the faithful with heavenly gifts, ardors, and fervors, so that, as if drunk with the new wine of divine love, they proclaimed the great works of God, Acts 2. So Justus of Urgell and St. Bernard, sermon 49: "Does not," says St. Bernard, "that house seem to you to have been a wine-cellar, in which the disciples were likewise gathered together, Acts 2:2, when suddenly there came from heaven

a sound, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting, and fulfilled the prophecy of Joel? And did not each one of them, going out drunk from the abundance of that house, and drenched by the torrent of so great a delight, rightly say: Because the king brought me into the wine-cellar?" See the same St. Bernard, sermon 3 On Pentecost. The wine-cellar, therefore, is the fullness of the Holy Spirit, or of charity and zeal.

Symbolically, three Fathers in Theodoret take by the wine-cellar the mystery of the incarnation, as though the Church were saying to the angels, or to the apostles and doctors: "Bring me into the wine-cellar, that is, teach me the divine reasons of the incarnation; for he calls God the Word wine, which affects the souls of those who taste it with joy, and leads them on to the Godhead. The cellar of this wine is the flesh assumed by him; into which cellar the Church indeed is brought, destined to become one flesh with Christ. For thus the Apostle interprets that passage: And the two shall be in one flesh, Ephes. 5:32: But I speak, he says, in Christ and in the Church; for the Church of the faithful, while she partakes of the flesh and blood of Christ, and is made one body with him, and learns from the angels the reasons of the incarnation, and confirms them by her conduct, enters into the cellar of wine. Brought into me, set charity in order — namely, that communion of divine grace which you enjoy in order — set it in order in me too, instituting each of the faithful, according to the measure of each, in the divine mysteries, in order."

Mystically, Theodoret, Cassiodorus, Bede, and Anselm take by the wine-cellar the Church, in which we draw the wine of wisdom and of divine love. See Hugh of St. Victor, sermon 45 of the Monastic Institutes, where he shows that the individual souls of this cellar are the wine-casks. Hence Origen, homily 2 of the two, introduces the bridegroom speaking thus to the novices: "Bring me into the house of wine. Why do I remain so long outside? Behold, I stand before the door, and knock: if anyone opens to me, I will go in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. He speaks likewise to the catechumens: Bring me in, not simply into the house, but into the house of wine. Let your soul be filled with the wine of gladness, with the wine of the Holy Spirit, and so bring me into your house — the bridegroom, the Word, wisdom, truth."

SECUNDUS SENSUS PARTIALIS, De Christo et anima sancta.

The wine-cellar is the house of prayer and the pursuit of prayer and contemplation; for in it God sets before the faithful the wine of consolation, exultation, love, and divine fervor. So St. Gregory, Cassiodorus, Haymo, St. Bernard, and others. Hear St. Gregory: "For what," he says, "do we more fittingly take by the wine-cellar, than the very secret contemplation of eternity? In this eternity the holy angels are made drunk with the wine of wisdom,

while seeing God himself face to face, they are satisfied with every spiritual delight. If the holy mind is led in by the bridegroom, setting aside all temporal things, it enters into this, in which it tastes, as much as is granted to it, of those angelic delights. And if, because it is still held in a corruptible body, it is not perfectly satisfied, yet from that very little which it snatches in passing, it considers how much it ought to love what it loves." And St. Bernard, sermon 49: "If anyone," he says, "obtains by praying to go out of himself in mind into that divine secret, from which he presently returns burning most vehemently with divine love, and boiling with zeal for justice, and moreover exceedingly fervent in all spiritual pursuits and duties, so that he can say, Psalm 38:4: My heart grew hot within me, and in my meditation a fire is kindled — such a one, when out of the abundance of charity he has begun to belch forth the good and wholesome drunkenness of the gladness of wine, will not undeservedly be declared to have entered into the wine-cellar. For since there are two excesses of blessed contemplation, one in the intellect, the other in the affection; one in light, the other in fervor; one in knowledge, the other in devotion: a truly pious affection, and a breast warm with love, and an infusion of holy devotion, and also a vehement spirit filled with zeal, are brought back from nowhere else than from the wine-cellar; and to whomever it is granted, with an abundance of these, to rise from prayer, he can say in truth, that the king brought me into the wine-cellar." The same St. Bernard, sermon 23, assigns three cellars to the bridegroom: the aromatic, the unguent, and the wine-cellar: the first he says belongs to discipline; the second, to nature; the third, to grace. And he adds that it is called the wine-cellar, "because in it is stored the wine of zeal fervent in charity. Nor ought he at all to be set over others, who has not yet deserved to be brought into it. It is altogether necessary that he burn with this wine who presides over others, just as the Doctor of the Gentiles burned when he said, II Corinth. xi, 29: Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is scandalized, and I do not burn? Otherwise you rather shamelessly desire to preside over those whom you do not care to profit; and whose salvation you do not zealously seek, you too ambitiously claim subjection to yourself."

Moreover, the wine which is drunk in the cellar of God is charity and love, says William. Nothing is chaster, more savory, or warmer than this wine: chaster, because the more it is drunk, the more it extinguishes the thirst of concupiscence; more savory, because it gives a taste of how sweet the Lord is, and therefore gladdens the heart of man; warmer, because like fire it inflames the minds of the devout, burns the reins and the heart, powerfully inebriates the soul, and leads even to forgetfulness of self: truly, such drunkards will possess the kingdom of God.

The mystics, or contemplatives, take by the cellars the innermost and highest union of the soul — not of just any soul, but of the bride, that is, of one eminently holy and contemplative — with Christ in the Eucharist; a union which comes about not only through the common affection of charity, but also through effect, and the real conjunction of the purest minds with Christ; which is accomplished in the depth of the heart, and, as it were, in the innermost center of the soul, by an ineffable act of love and a mutual embrace; to which one sometimes happily passes over from that former state, through the singular goodness of God, just as in divine prayer one sometimes arrives from contemplation at a real union with God, and an embrace. Now they say that this most blessed union is nothing other than the innermost manifestation of the presence of Christ himself, hidden in this Sacrament — not so much through vision and revelation, as through the sweetest embraces, by which he binds the soul so ineffably and sweetly, that she most certainly perceives his real presence, his kisses and embraces, and tastes his goodness and ineffable sweetness at its very source.

This wonderful union, if considered on the part of Christ, is nothing other than the inflowing, or manifestation, of Christ himself, existing hidden in the Sacrament, yet showing himself to the most purified minds under the aspect of the highest light, and reaching to the flesh and spirit by a certain ineffable contact: which contact is nothing other than the sweetest embrace, and kiss of Christ, by which he caresses his most beloved bride. On the part of the soul, however, it is a mutual embrace, which is followed by an experiential perception of Christ himself, through which spiritual sweetness is possessed in God himself. This perception, moreover, corresponds to the merits or disposition of no man, since it is a grace freely given, and granted by the mere liberality of Christ to very few. So, from St. Cyprian, St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure, and others, our Salianus, book XI On the Love of God, chapter 12.

Far more intimately, more profoundly, more delightfully, more ineffably, blessed souls are united to God through the beatific vision and love, by which they are plunged and absorbed in the Godhead, as if in an ocean of happiness and of all good things, so that they can think, will, love, or desire nothing other than God, or for God's sake.

TERTIUS SENSUS PRINCIPALIS, De Christo et B. Virgine.

Rupert asserts that the Blessed Virgin was brought into the wine-cellar, when, wine failing at the wedding at Cana of Galilee, she procured, through the miracle of Christ, a most delicate wine for the guests; and at the wedding of the whole world, that is, of the whole race of mortals, she procured through Christ the mystical wine, namely the incorruption of souls and the immortality of bodies. "He therefore brought me into the wine-cellar," she says, "and set charity in order in me; that is, he made me understand that he came for this, that he might turn the watery infirmity of the human race into his wine, that is, into the strength of his immortality, and that I ought to prefer the divine will to my own affections. For this is to have charity set in order: to wish indeed that so beloved a one should not die, but to desire the more the salvation of the whole human race."

ORDINAVIT IN ME CHARITATEM.

In Hebrew, דגלו עלי אהבה dighlo alai ahava, that is, his banner over me is charity; the Septuagint seem to have read (as indeed some still read) with a different pointing, דגלו dighlu, that is, array as under a banner, or set in order; hence they render, set in order over me charity; and Symmachus, heap up over me charity; and St. Ambrose, sermon 5 on Psalm 118, establish in me love; and the ancient rabbis, make notable, or magnify over me charity. Our translator, the last letter ו vau being omitted, seems to have read דגל dagal, that is, he set up a banner, that is, he raised a standard, that is, he set in order charity in me. But it is not necessary to have recourse to this: for from the Hebrew dighlo alai ahava, that is, his banner over me is charity, if you understand the verb to be in the present tense, you may rightly translate, his banner over me is charity, that is, he has set up as a banner over me charity, or he has raised the banner of charity over me, which our translator aptly rendered, he set in order charity in me, in the sense which I shall soon give; but the Septuagint, understanding an optative or imperative, let it be, or be it, render, let his banner over me be charity: understand and supply, Bring it about that his banner over me be charity, that is, array, or set in order, charity over me. The Septuagint are followed by Symmachus, St. Ambrose, and the rabbis; St. Jerome, however, book III on Zachariah, chapter 14, reads, put charity upon me; the Syriac, they have set in order toward me, or against me, love; lastly the Arabic, they have set in order against me temptation, or trial.

You will ask, why do our translator and the Septuagint render the Hebrew דגל dagal, that is, he set up a banner, or raised a standard, as he set in order? I answer, because he set in order is here in force a military term, and signifies the ranks of armies, camps, and battle-lines. For the whole force, and the whole strength of an army, consists in its correct ordering; if this is preserved, there is a sure hope of victory; but if the ranks are thrown into confusion, its defeat and ruin are certain. Hear Vegetius, book II On Military Affairs, chapter 13: "The ancients, because they knew that in the battle-line, once battle was joined, the ranks and lines were quickly thrown into confusion, in order that this might not happen, divided the cohorts into centuries, and assigned to each century its own standard, so that from whichever cohort or century a soldier was, it was inscribed in letters on that standard, which the soldiers, reading or looking at, could not stray from their own comrades in any tumult."

The same author, chapter 20, teaches that the Romans deposited part of the soldiers' pay at the standard proper to each cohort, so that the soldiers might fight the more bravely for it, since they knew they were fighting for their own pay. The bride, therefore, says: The bridegroom, leading me into the wine-cellar, and giving me to drink the wine of charity, so filled and strengthened me with it, that he seemed to have drawn up and arrayed out of it a strong army, and a sturdy battle-line, in me, with which against all enemies, persecutions, temptations, tribulations,

concupiscences and vices, I might fight, both bravely and wisely, conquer, and triumph unconquered over them. For the various duties and acts of charity are, as it were, many soldiers of charity, who, joined together, make up its army. Hence Symmachus renders, heap up over me charity.

Furthermore, just as in an army strength consists in the correct disposition and ordering of the soldiers, so too the strength of charity consists in the correct distribution and ordering of its duties and acts. For God is to be loved first, then, for God's sake, one's own soul, third one's neighbor, and this too in his own rank and order: for first are to be loved one's bodily and spiritual parents, then brothers, next relatives, then the rest of mankind, each in his own rank and order. But if you invert the order of charity, you destroy and overturn charity. He set in order charity in me, therefore, is nothing other than if he had said: He stationed me under the banner of charity, he bade me serve as a soldier in this order. And our translator, like the Septuagint, rightly used the word to set in order, both because, as St. Augustine says, book XV, chapter 22 On the City of God, "nothing is other than perfect and true virtue, than the order of love"; and because the bride meant this by these words: I am not maddened by that sweet nectar, concupiscence does not boil up in me, I am not driven into frenzy, nor do I wander about like a raving bacchante; but I remain properly composed, my love is sober, and I keep full possession of the due estimation of things and persons, and of order and arrangement, because I follow charity as my guiding star; this is always ordered, no less than a battle-line drawn up with its standards. For thus charity places God in the first place, herself second, her neighbors third; and among these neighbors themselves, some in the front ranks, some in the middle of the line, some in the rear guard. So Nyssen, Aponius, Honorius, and others here, and St. Fulgentius, book I to Monimus, chapter 20, St. Augustine, or whoever is the author (for the style is unlike St. Augustine's), book On the Substance of Love, chapters 4 and 5, and from these, Delrio.

This bears on the distribution of duties, like soldiers, in the Church, and the order of their distribution, of which the Apostle speaks, I Cor. xii, 4: "There are diversities of graces, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of workings, but the same God, who works all things in all." And a little after, verse 28: "And some indeed God has set in the Church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, kinds of tongues, interpretation of speeches."

Moreover, from the Hebrew דגל dagal, that is, he set up a banner, many senses can be drawn, and these savory and profound. First, Vatablus translates, whose (the bridegroom's) banner toward me is love. For leaders are accustomed to draw soldiers after them by a standard; thus the bridegroom drew the bride to himself and to his camp by love as by a standard.

Second, just as in a captured citadel the victor's banner is raised, on which his emblem is seen displayed: so the bride, conquered by the benefits of the bridegroom, and by them taken and possessed, has the charity which is the bridegroom's banner now raised over her. Hence the Chaldean paraphrast renders: "And I have taken up the banner of his precepts upon me in love, and I said: All that the Lord has commanded, I will do and hear."

Third, Gislerius, as if to say: The bridegroom, bringing me into the house of wine, into the house of love and delight, raised up in me a love which I was to follow in all things; he set it before me to follow, and to keep it ever unharmed, just as soldiers follow and defend a standard.

Fourth, Sotomayor, as if to say: Just as in a well-ordered battle-line the soldiers, legions, cohorts, and decuries are accustomed to look to the standard, or standard-bearer, for victory and glory: so I always have my bridegroom set before my love as a goal, and I direct and measure all my actions toward him, that they may be pleasing to God, honorable and well-ordered, and finally worthy of glory, according to what Paul commanded, I Corinth. chapter 10, 31: "Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or do anything else: do all things for the glory of God."

Moreover, the banner of Christ's charity is the banner of the cross. For on the cross Christ showed his unconquered and supreme charity, both toward God and toward men; whence by it he triumphed over sin, death, the devil, and hell. For this reason, Constantine the Great carried before his camp, against Maxentius and other tyrants, this banner of the cross, shown to him in the sky with this motto: "In this sign you shall conquer," and he named it the labarum, as it were the end of labors, that is, the end and limit; for by it he laid low all his enemies, as Eusebius witnesses, book I On the Life of Constantine, chapter 22 and following.

Fifth, Titelmann, from the Chaldean, translates: his glue, or joining, to me, is charity, as if to say: The bridegroom is intimately joined to me through charity, and is, as it were, glued together, just as papers are glued together.

Sixth, the rabbis translate, he made charity notable in me, or his mark toward me is love, as if to say: The bridegroom loves me not commonly, but remarkably; for he has shown me remarkable and outstanding offices of love. Or: he has poured into me a great, remarkable, and burning charity, with which I might love him in return.

Seventh, with the greatest vigor of all, our Sanchez, together with the Syriac, translates: he arrayed love against me as an army arranged under standards, that is, drawn up through battle-lines and banners, as if to say: I could not resist the strength of the bridegroom, because he himself poured out all the forces of love upon me, because he overwhelmed me with his offices and benefits, and pierced and wounded me as if with arrows of love: conquered, then, pierced, and overwhelmed by love, I give and devote myself entirely to the victor. But the battle-lines which the bridegroom set in order in me, and armed with which he set about to storm my mind, are those things which vehemently entice one to love in return: first of all, the most gentle character of my bridegroom himself, his singular devotion to me, his generous disposition, his outstanding beauty, his loving endearments, his exquisite gifts, his dowry-vineyard.

…of banners: one is Christ's, the other Lucifer's, and each enlists soldiers, and calls to his own banner whoever he can. The emblem of Christ's banner is charity, of Lucifer's, cupidity. Now, in the wine-cellar of each, each kind of wine is drunk; here again there is an allusion to those who enlist soldiers: for these lodge in taverns, and there, pouring out wine for newcomers, thus entice them to enlist under the name of military service. Again, the Cossacks, the Dutch, and many others, when they wish to undertake some arduous and dangerous venture, are accustomed to set before the soldiers casks of wine (and that repeatedly, until they are heated with it), so that, burning with wine, they might lay aside the fear of death, and rush boldly upon the enemy. Thus Christ gives us to drink of his blood in the Eucharist, that, drunk with his love, we might generously rush even into death and martyrdom, if need be.

Tropologically, charity stands out above the other virtues, and raises a banner above them all, and calls all to it; and if they follow it, they transcend all things, and heap upon themselves great praise and merits, as the Apostle teaches, 1 Cor. xiii, 4: "Charity," he says, "is patient, is kind," etc. Hence charity orders the other virtues as if they were the battle-lines of God: in the first place it sets faith; second, humility; third, hope; fourth, penitence; fifth, patience; sixth, mercy, etc. Again, this order of charity establishes the virtues themselves, and makes them firm and solid. Hence St. Ambrose, Psalm. cxviii, serm. 5, vers. 1, reads, establish love in me, and thus explains it: "Good encampments (a military station and fortification), where there is the fullness of charity."

Nyssen, however, homily 4, referring the Greek τάξατε to military ranks, translates it now as set in order, now as establish and confirm: "Because," says the bride, "she who had first been beloved, through disobedience was reckoned among the enemies, now has returned to that same life, joined to the Lord through charity, she now says: Confirm this grace for me, and make it stable and unmoving, you friends of the bridegroom, preserving for me, by your zeal and diligence, an inclination toward that which is better."

Finally, the weapons, that is, the offices of charity, are unconquered, nor can anyone resist them, according to that saying, cap. viii, 6: "Love is strong as death, jealousy hard as hell, etc. Many waters have not been able to quench charity, nor will the rivers overwhelm it." Indeed, the philosophers too held the same view: "If you wish to be loved," says that one, "love."

That I might play the part of Pylades, let someone play Orestes for me:
This is not done with words; Marcus, that you may be loved, love.

Do you wish, then, to overcome your enemy, indeed to subdue him, and make him your friend? Anticipate him with kindnesses and benefits: for thus "you will heap coals of fire upon his head," Rom. xii, 20.

Hence St. Augustine, book XV On the City of God, chapter 22, teaches that virtue is nothing other than the order of love, and vice nothing other than the disorder of love. For every creature, he says, since it is good, and

can be loved both well and badly: well, namely, when order is preserved; badly, however, when order is disturbed, etc. Hence it seems to me that the short and true definition of virtue is, the order of love — for which reason, in the holy Song of Songs, the bride of Christ, the city of God, sings, set in order charity in me. When, therefore, the order of this charity, that is, of love, was disturbed, the sons of God neglected God, and loved the daughters of men. By these two names the two cities are sufficiently distinguished." For in the city of God there is order of love, but in the city of the devil there is disorder of love: because the pious love God above all things, and all creatures for God's sake; but the impious love creatures more — for example, honor, gold, delights — than the Creator. Moreover, because this order of charity is difficult, therefore the Church, and the holy soul, asks of the angels and holy men: "Set in order charity in me," according to the Septuagint. Hence St. Jerome, epistle 8 to Marcella: "Love," he says, "has no order, and impatience knows no measure; hence in the Song it is enjoined as something difficult: Set in order charity in me."

To this St. Bernard comes near, sermon 49, who by the ordering of charity understands discretion, which tempers and directs zeal: "Zeal without knowledge," he says, "is always found to be less effective, and less useful; and indeed it is very often felt to be quite harmful. The more fervent, therefore, the zeal, and the more vehement the spirit, and the more overflowing the charity, the more watchful knowledge is needed, to suppress the zeal, temper the spirit, and set the charity in order."

Moreover, Aponius teaches that charity is ordered in the Church, since she has learned it from the contemplation of the highest order, which is in the Holy Trinity: "In this order of charity," he says, "what else is to be believed to be first instilled, than that one should believe and acknowledge that the Father must be named first, in whom the Son is always, as a word in a voice; the Son second, in whom the Father is always; the Holy Spirit third, who is proved by true reason to proceed from the voice and the word, from the Father and the Son, according to that at the beginning of the Decalogue: You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart; the second order is: with all your soul; the third order is: with all your strength."

For more on the order and the ordering of charity, see St. Bernard, sermons 49 and 50, where he assigns this order of love: that the love of God should be preferred to the love of man, and, among men themselves, the more perfect to the weaker, heaven to earth, eternity to time, the soul to the flesh. And he adds that charity always prefers the better in affection, but not in action; for in action, greater love and care must be shown to those more in need, and to those whose care has been entrusted to you, than to outsiders, however holier they may be. But hear a few words out of many: "Give me a man who strives after ordered love, looking down on earth, looking up to heaven, using this world as though not using it, and discerning, by a certain innermost savor of the mind, between things to be used and things to be enjoyed,

All these things are easy to apply, both to the holy soul, and to the Blessed Virgin, in whom charity was so ordered, that she would rather her Son should die than that souls should perish. Hear Rupert, who introduces her speaking thus: "He had already long taught me the order of charity, that I should indeed bear grief, and the sword of a just grief, in mind or soul, yet not wish God's purpose to be turned aside — a purpose that would result in glory and honor to himself, and in perpetual salvation for the human race."

VERSE 5. SUPPORT ME WITH FLOWERS, SURROUND ME WITH APPLES: FOR I LANGUISH WITH LOVE.

For "surround me with apples," in Hebrew it is, "strew me among fruits"; the Tigurina, "spread apples beneath me"; Vatablus, "strengthen me with apples"; the Septuagint, "press me close among apples"; the Scholastics, "surround me with apples"; others, "heap fragrant fruits upon me," namely aromatic ones, such as golden apples, citrons, pomegranates; the Syriac, "they have set me amid delights, they have walled me about with apples, for I am weak with love." For "flowers," in Hebrew it is אשישות ascischoth, which the Hebraists render as "flagons," "cups," "bowls of wine." But the bride had already been filled with wine in the wine-cellar. Wherefore our version better renders it "flowers," both because flowers correspond to apples, and because those who suffer a swoon are wont to have their soul and breath recalled by a gentle and sweet scent, such as that of flowers. Whence also the Septuagint render it μύρος, that is, "ointments," which are made from fragrant flowers: where, however, Origen notes: "In the Greek," he says, "it reads: Strengthen me with myrrh; naming myrrh as a certain kind of tree, which the Latins, thinking it was called myrrha, interpreted as ointments." Origen therefore reads, in place of μύρος, that is "ointments," μύρραις, that is, "trees of myrrh," that is, the flower or the tear of myrrh: for it is the flower, by its scent, that revives those who languish, not the tree. But in the homily translated by St. Jerome, ananthinis is reported from another translator; and ananthe is the flower of the vine, or of the wild vine, when it is in flower. See Dioscorides, book V, chapter 3, and book I, chapter 57.

Again, Symmachus clearly renders it, "make me recline in flower." It seems, then, that our version, equally with the Septuagint and Symmachus, interprets the Hebrew asisoth as "flowers," perhaps from the root שוש sos, that is, "he rejoiced"; for flowers are the joy of spring, the laughter of the fields, the delight of nature and of man. Thus, in Isaiah 16:7, it is said: "For those who rejoice (in Hebrew it is אשישים lauscischim) over the walls of baked brick," as our version and Symmachus render it, so that asisoth is called whatever gladdens and brings about joy. Or, indeed, our version took אשישות asisoth for ציצות tsitsoth, that is, "flowers": for the letters ש and צ, since they are related, and of almost the same sound, are frequently interchanged with one another. But the initial aleph is taken as emphatic and formative of the noun, not indeed as radical: wherefore asisoth here is the same as tsitsoth, that is, flowers. Finally, asisoth properly signifies foundations or supports, which in this place are to be understood in reference to languishing, namely as things that revive, and that recall the soul to itself from a swoon: and such are flowers, and similar fragrant things.

The bride, in the wine-cellar, filled herself so much with the wine of divine love, that, the bridegroom withdrawing, she would faint in soul from the vehemence of love, grow weak, and collapse. She therefore calls her companions, and cries out to them: Bring aid, bring flowers and fruits to me as I falter, by whose fragrance I may call back my fleeing spirit, and by a heap as it were a throne and by pillows may I be raised up and, once raised, be sustained. Thus the Church began to languish, after Jesus, having instituted in her the venerable Sacrament of His body and blood, sent the Holy Spirit, who inflamed the hearts of the faithful with an incredible ardor of charity and of martyrdom, and with a fervent zeal of leading very many others along with themselves to eternal glory. Hence, indeed, those words breaking forth from the marrow: "I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Who will free me from the body of this death? I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me. Thou knowest, Lord, that I love thee." Thus St. Bernard, sermon 51: "After all these things," he says, "the bridegroom withdrawing in his manner, she declares herself to languish with love, that is, because of love. For the more pleasant the presence she had experienced, the more troublesome she afterward felt the absence. For the withdrawal of a thing that you love is an increase of desire; and what you desire more ardently, you lack more painfully. She asks, accordingly, meanwhile to be cherished with the fragrances of flowers and fruits, until he returns again, whom she endures with the greatest difficulty tarrying."

...fruits, of which here, to be sustained and supported: because upon flowers and fruits, that is, upon the bosom of the bridegroom, she reclines and rests.

Furthermore, John of Carmel explains it thus, as though the bride were saying to her companions: For my bridegroom, who is the flower of the field and the apple tree among the trees of the woods, sustain me, suffering a swooning of soul on his account. Surround me with apples, that is, encircle me with the bridegroom as with a fiery rampart, that by his fire I may gradually be burned, until the fire that is sought consumes me, like a phoenix devoting itself to death. The bride, then, seems to imitate the phoenix, whose nature it is, when it is about to die, to gather the shoots of aromatic trees, and the tops of flowers, so as to build a nest, in which, lying down, it is burned by a kindled fire. It gathers shoots of cinnamon, amomum, frankincense, and similar shrubs, spikes of nard, and similar flowers. Thus the bride, according to the sense here explained, asks that a nest be made ready for her from the apple tree and the flowers of the field, in which, lying down, she may await death, about to pass through the fire of the bridegroom, dying to herself, and to be carried over into the life of the bridegroom.

Second, three Fathers found in Theodoret, Philo Carpathius and Nyssen, understand by flowers and apples the virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit, and especially the gift of fortitude, which strengthens the faltering soul. Moreover Philo explains "surround me with apples" thus, as if to say: "Bury me among the number of the just." Others understand by flowers and apples the heavenly consolations which God sends into holy souls in desolation.

Third, plainly and genuinely, Titelmann: "Flowers," he says, "and apples, are the most sweet and most honeyed words and deeds of Christ, by the memory and meditation of which the Church and the pious soul, languishing with desire for him, sustains and strengthens itself, until it sees him face to face, and enjoys his presence, just as a bride, languishing with love for an absent bridegroom, consoles herself with his words and promises and letters and little gifts, which she keeps by her, and beguiles the time, until he returns, and speaks with her mouth to mouth."

To this may be added Theodoret, who by flowers, or, as he himself reads from the Septuagint, "ointments," and by apples, understands the memory of Christ: "Support me with ointments," that is, he says, strengthen me and fortify me with the sweetness of the bridegroom, lest anything shake and weaken me. Heap upon me that continual fragrance, lest I forget the bridegroom, and stray to other things. With apples, that is, with the fruits of the bridegroom, surround me, that, sitting under his shadow, and anointed with his ointments, and surrounded with fruit, I may preserve the perpetual memory of him: for I am wounded with love of him, since he himself is the chosen arrow, which pierces souls.

Here too belongs the explanation of St. Ambrose, on Psalm 118, sermon 5, who by flowers and apples understands the memory and meditation of the crucified Christ; for this sustains and strengthens the failing soul, as fixed upon the cross of Christ: "These," says St. Ambrose, "are the dwelling-places of Christ and his burial, in which the Church is wounded: it is an ointment, which he poured out; it is a fruit, which hung." And St. Bernard, in the treatise On Loving God, near the beginning, by apples understands the Passion, by flowers the Resurrection of Christ.

Tropologically, St. Gregory understands by flowers the beginning faithful, and by apples those who are advancing and perfect: "By flowers," he says, "are designated all those who are tender and beginning; but by apples the perfect faithful are designated. For the bride, because she languishes with love, desires to be supported by flowers and surrounded by apples, because, while she is affected with the desire of eternity, while she seeks with total anxiety how she may arrive there, since she finds no perfection at all while she lives in the flesh, wearied she rests in her desire. And in this alone she rejoices, if she looks about her, either at those in whose progress she herself may advance, or at those in whose progress she can receive consolation for her languishing." The same has this more fully, book II on Ezekiel, homily 15. So too Cassiodorus, Justus, Anselm, and St. Bernard, sermon 51, whom hear: "Support me with flowers, etc. When that which is loved is present, love flourishes; it languishes when it is absent. This is nothing other than a certain weariness of impatient desire, by which the mind of one vehemently loving must necessarily be affected in the absence of the one he loves, while, wholly in expectation, he reckons any delay, however small, as slowness. And therefore she asks that the fruits of good works be heaped upon her along with the fragrances of faith, in which, while the bridegroom delays, she may meanwhile rest."

To this Origen may be added, who says that the Church leans upon catechumens as upon flowers, and upon the holy faithful as upon apples and trees. And Aponius: "The Church," he says, "desires to be supported by flowers, that is, by pure and chaste souls: and by apples, that is, by the apostles, who sprout forth from Christ, as from the apple tree, through doctrine."

Finally, Rupert, adapting these things to the Blessed Virgin, asserts that she desires to be supported by flowers, that is, by acts of faith, and by fruits, that is, by good works.

FOR I LANGUISH WITH LOVE. The Hebrew, "for I am weak with love"; the Septuagint, "for I am wounded of love"; Symmachus, "for I am wounded by a love-potion." These derive the Hebrew חולה chola not from חלה chala, that is, "he was made weak," but from חלל chalal, that is, "he wounded, he slew": for the quiescent verbs ain-vau are often interchanged with verbs doubling the ain, that is, the second radical, as chol or chala are interchanged with chalal, and vice versa, and one borrows from the other its tenses, conjugation, and inflection.

Furthermore, that languor is born from vehement love, indeed a disease by which the body grows thin, withers, and wastes away, which is accordingly called ἔρος, that is, "love," or the disease of love, the physicians teach, and it is evident from the example of Amnon, who was pining for Thamar, 2 Kings 13:2. So too the son of Seleucus, sick with love, was wasting away, a disease unknown to all, which the physician Erasistratus shrewdly detected from the unusual pulse of the arteries, as Plutarch witnesses in his Demetrius, and Valerius Maximus, book V, chapter 7.

Furthermore, that the animal spirits are nourished by fragrant things such as flowers, and that failing powers are refreshed and restored by the sweet breath of a fragrant thing drawn in by smell, the physicians and natural philosophers teach, such as Hippocrates, in the book On Nourishment, toward the end; and Galen, On the Usefulness of Breathing, chapter 5, where he asserts that it is necessary, from a great inhalation through the nostrils, that the chief part of nourishment be supplied to the animal spirit; and Avicenna, treating of the cure of fainting, affirms that the spirit is nourished most of all by good scents.

You will ask, what are the flowers and apples, by which the bride asks to be supported?

First, our own Sanchez and John of Carmel understand this to be Christ himself, who, in verse 1, called himself the flower of the field, the lily of the valleys, and the apple tree among the trees of the woods. The bride therefore says: "Support me with flowers," etc., as if to say: Place me in the bosom and embrace of the bridegroom. He immediately explains this further, and describes what kind of support that heaping of flowers and fruits will be, when he says: "His left hand is under my head, and his right hand will embrace me." Which is nothing other than, with flowers and

Note, this languor arises from a melting; and this melting is an effect of love, by which the soul itself is soothed and softened, so that the thing it most ardently desires may be impressed upon it through a certain embrace and penetration. And that this may happen, it opens itself entirely, and lies open so that, as it were through opened pores, it may draw in the thing loved, just as fresh bread is wont to draw in water. Now upon this melting, by which the soul gapes toward the bridegroom, there follows another effect of love, truly most distressing, which is called languor, which she expressly notes, saying: "For I languish with love." This languor, then, arises in the faithful soul, when it is so wholly carried into the love of the bridegroom, and, as it were melted, is dissolved, that, altogether forgetful of itself, it does not know what is happening to it, and toward all things that are done here below lies as it were stupefied and without feeling, so that it can neither see, nor wish to see, anything else, nor hear, nor taste, except its beloved; so that it may say with the Apostle, Galatians 2:20: "And I live, now not I: but Christ lives in me." This languor of love also seems to be signified in what follows through the melting of the soul, the same bride saying: "My soul melted, as the beloved spoke," Canticle 5:6.

Indeed, Plato thus defines love: "Love is an ardor of the soul, dead in its own body, living in another's." This languor of charity the bride drew from the wine-cellar of the Eucharist, and of the Holy Spirit: just as St. Catherine of Siena, and similar holy virgins, used to feel the same after the sacred communion. Wherefore St. Felicula, the foster-sister of St. Petronilla, when the torturers were saying, "Deny that you are a Christian, and you will be released," replied: "I will not deny it; now I have begun to see my lover, in whom my love is fixed." Excellently Boethius: "O happy race of men! if love, by which the heaven is ruled, should rule your minds." Blessed Philip Neri: "Wounded by the love of God," says the Author of his Life, "he languished continually: and his heart burned with such ardor, that, when it could not be contained within its own bounds, the Lord marvelously enlarged his chest, two small ribs having been drawn apart and raised."

Further, St. Bernard here, and more clearly, in the treatise On Loving God, near the beginning, explains this languor as a failing of love: "These apples," he says, "these flowers, with which the bride meanwhile asks to be surrounded and supported — I believe because she feels that the force of love could easily grow tepid in her, and in some manner languish, if it were not continually fostered by such incentives."

But others everywhere understand this languor as an excess of charity, by which the soul wastes away from desire for God and grows thin in the flesh, according to that: "My flesh has failed, and my heart, O God of my heart," Psalm 72:26. Hear St. Gregory, book II on Ezekiel, homily 15: "What, then, are the bridal chambers in the holy Church, but the hearts of those in whom the soul is joined through love to the invisible bridegroom, so that it burns with desire for him; no longer desires anything that is in the world, reckons the length of the present life a punishment, hastens to depart, and to rest in the embrace of love, in the vision of the heavenly bridegroom? And so death, when it is now such, receives no consolation of the present life, but sighs for him whom it loves from the marrow, is fervent, pants, is anxious. The very safety of its own body becomes worthless to it, because it is pierced through with the wound of love. Whence also in the Canticle it says: I am wounded with charity. But it is an evil health of the heart, that does not know the pain of this wound; but when it has begun now to pant after heavenly desire, and to feel the wound of love, the soul becomes healthier from the wound, which before was sick from health." So too Aponius, Justus of Urgell, Anselm, and others judge that this languor proceeds from an immense desire for eternal life, and for union with Christ in heaven. Whence it is clear that this languor of the bride was joined with sleep and ecstasy, from the fact that the bridegroom adds: "I adjure you, etc., that you stir not up, nor make my beloved to awake."

To this belongs that saying of St. Jerome, epistle 22 to Eustochium: "Let us too love Christ, and always seek his embraces, and every difficulty will easily appear light, and, wounded by his dart, let us say, through the passing of the hours: Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged!" Thus St. Augustine was wounded with charity, as is evident from the Soliloquies, chapter 1, and book IX of the Confessions, chapter 2: "You had pierced," he says, "our heart with your charity; and we carried your words transfixed in our inmost parts, and the examples of your servants, whom you had made bright out of black, and living out of dead, heaped up in the bosom of our thought, burned and consumed our heavy torpor, lest we should sink into the depths, and inflamed us powerfully, so that every breath of the deceitful tongue of contradiction might be able to inflame us the more fiercely, not to extinguish us."

Tropologically, Philo Carpathius and Ambrose, on Psalm 118, sermon 5, teach that the Church and the pious soul are wounded with charity, when out of love for Christ they willingly endure persecutions, blows, wounds, and martyrdom.

Finally, the Blessed Virgin, after Christ's ascension into heaven, languished with desire and love for him, says Rupert, and so, gradually dissolved by this languor, at last died without fever or any other illness, as Francisco Suárez, and other weighty theologians, judge. This same thing the Blessed Virgin revealed to St. Bridget, book VI: "I prepared myself," says the Mother of God, "for my departure, going about, in my custom, all the places in which my son had suffered: and when on a certain day my mind was rapt in wonder at the divine charity; then my soul, in that very contemplation, was filled with such exultation, that it could scarcely contain itself, and in that very contemplation my soul was released from the body."

Mystics and contemplatives refer these things to the highest, as it were ecstatic, degree of contemplation and love: for, as Dionysius the Carthusian says, in the treatise On the Fountain of Light, article 18: "From so great an excess of contemplation, and from the impulse, ardor, and boiling-over of love, there are generated, through a certain overflow into the sensitive part and the body, languor, weakness, sorrow, and leanness, a loathing of bodily food, an incapacity for the use and motion of the members and senses, and a rigidity of the whole body. Nor in these holy acts does the mind take note of time, it does not perceive delays; rather, in these it is most vehemently in a state of wonder, nor can the holy soul sufficiently wonder at the charity, the piety, the condescension, and the munificence of God toward itself, and within itself, which he shows, communicates, applies, and pours into it so lovingly and familiarly, so graciously and munificently." See our own Alvarez de Paz, at the end of volume III, where he treats at length of contemplation, and assigns fifteen degrees of it: the first is, the intuition of truth; the second, the withdrawal of the powers into the interior of the soul; the third, spiritual silence; the fourth, quiet; the fifth, union; the sixth, the hearing of the speech of God; the seventh, spiritual sleep; the eighth, ecstasy; the ninth, rapture; the tenth, the bodily appearance of Christ and the saints; the eleventh, the imaginary appearance of Christ and the saints; the twelfth, the intellectual vision of God; the thirteenth, the vision of God in darkness; the fourteenth, the wondrous manifestation of God; the fifteenth, the clear and intuitive vision, which St. Augustine, St. Thomas, and several others attribute to St. Paul, when he was caught up into the third heaven, where he heard secret words, which it is not lawful for man to speak. Thus St. Francis, languishing and dying with desire for God and heaven, sang, as it were a nightingale and a swan, his swan-song: "Bring my soul out of prison: the just wait for me until you reward me"; and, failing with this languor of love, and gasping toward Christ, he died. With a similar languor, from a vehement desire for Christ, Blessed Teresa is recorded to have died. O holy, O joyful, O blessed death! which gives life to those who are dying, and blesses and glorifies those who love!

Wherefore, whoever truly loves Christ, and languishes with his love, let him often sigh toward him, and through ardent affections of the mind aspire toward him, and let him, with the bride, constantly shoot forth toward him prayers of love, like darts, as arrows of fire. Again, Richard of St. Victor asserts that the summit and peak of charity is a love incurable or violent, of which he assigns three degrees: the first is, wounding love. Now the heart is said to be wounded by love, when, pierced through by the arrow of love, it burns inwardly, seethes, gasps, groans, sighs, unable to restrain itself because of the vehemence of love; whence also it happens that it often grows pale, and wastes away for love; the second is called binding love, namely when the mind is so bound by the love of God, that it meditates on nothing else, forgets all other things, whatever it does, whatever it speaks, it always offers to the present Lord; for it beholds him in the mind, retains him in perpetual memory, thinks of him sleeping, thinks of him waking; therefore this binding and the closest union follows the wounding, by which the mind thirsts for God alone himself, beholds him alone, nothing besides the one Lord is sweet to it, it rests in one alone; it is refreshed by one; if anything else occurs to it that does not serve this one thing, it soon casts it out; it suppresses and violently drives away all desires, pursuits, and exercises, which do not conduce to the attaining of the longed-for goal of its desire. But when it is granted to enjoy its one, then, believing itself to abound in all good things, it admits nothing else. After this follows the third degree of violent love, causing languishing: this languor arises, when, from this vehemence of love, the mind is caught up into God, who is an abyss of light, so that the human soul, at this moment of time, forgetful of all outward things, does not know itself at all, and passes wholly into its God.

VERSE 6. HIS LEFT HAND IS UNDER MY HEAD, AND HIS RIGHT HAND SHALL EMBRACE ME.

AMPLEXABITUR ("shall embrace"), that is, amplexetur ("may embrace"), as the Syriac renders it. For the Hebrews often put the future in place of the optative, which they lack. Hence Vatablus renders it: let his left hand be placed under my head, and let the right hand of the bridegroom embrace me: for lovers are accustomed — as, for example, parents with the little children whom they tenderly love — to place the left hand under the head, and then to embrace the whole body with the right, and press it to their own bosom and breast, as if to say: Bride, in like manner let the bridegroom embrace me with his left hand and his right, and so join me most closely to himself and bind me with a circle of arms, as also of love. Hence Symmachus renders it: let his right hand be wound about me. He alludes to the couches of the table and of the marriage-bed, on which the guests so lay, that is, reclined, that the one before would place his left hand under the head of the one following, and so receive him into his bosom, so that afterward, with the right hand, if he wished, he might be able to embrace him. Thus St. John reclined at the Last Supper on the bosom of Christ, which was a sign of the highest love.

The Bride, languishing with love and having suffered a swoon, as if in ecstasy desires to be sustained by the scent of flowers and fruits; but not content with these, as being of but modest strength for overcoming her languor, she at once sighs for her Beloved, as the only one who can cure her languor. She says, then — says Hortolanus: Woe is me, I am failing, my Bridegroom, bring help, save me, I beg! My head nods, place your left hand under it, I pray: my limbs are loosened with cold; with your powerful right hand, embrace me, I beseech you, about my middle; cherish me in your bosom, lest I fall: upon you alone I cast myself; in you I place all my faith and hope. You, who alone are able, sustain my spirit, broken by fear of the evils that threaten, with your own spirit; strengthen my weak flesh with your immense power, that my spirit may remain whole, my soul and body whole, for you always, and be kept for you until your return to me.

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

You will ask, what do the left hand and the right hand signify? The left hand denotes the lesser benefits; the right, the greater: first, then, the left hand denotes the humanity of Christ, the right his deity; for the left hand is a symbol of weakness and of weak humanity, but the right is a symbol of strength and of most strong divinity. The humanity of Christ sustained the head of the Church, that is, Adam, when it raised him up, and his posterity fallen into sin, and restored them to grace and justice. Again, the same sustained the head, that is, the faith of the Church, for the obtaining of the remission of sins, justice, and salvation; for the humanity and passion of Christ conferred all these things: so Origen and St. Bernard, Sermon 4 on the Feast of All Saints.

Second, the left hand designates the grace of the present life, the right the glory of the future and eternal life, as if to say: Let Christ by his grace direct me in this life, and advance me to the glory of eternal happiness, that there the right hand of his divinity may embrace me, and give me the crown of the eternal kingdom. The left hand of the bridegroom, then, is placed under the head for merit, the right embraces for the crown. So Cassiodorus, Carpathius, Bede, and St. Bernard, Sermon 4 On the Vigil of the Lord's Nativity, where he says thus: "The left hand indeed lifts up, the right receives. The left heals and justifies, the right embraces and beatifies. In his left are contained merits; in his right, rewards; in the right, I say, are delights, in the left are remedies."

Hence again the same St. Bernard here, Sermon 51, taking this verse not optatively but effectively, explains it thus, as if to say: The left hand of Christ now sustains my head through grace; but his right hand will embrace me in heaven through glory; for present grace is a sure pledge of heavenly glory, and the merits of this life give a sure hope of the future reward: "He does not say," says St. Bernard, "he embraces, but he will embrace me, that you may know her to be so far from ungrateful for the former grace, that she has anticipated the second by an act of thanksgiving."

Third, St. Ambrose, on Psalm 118, Sermon 14, on verse 5, takes by the left hand earthly and temporal goods, by the right heavenly and eternal: "Both arms of the bridegroom," he says, "are extended to useful things; yet each hand has something proper to itself. In the right is length of life; but in the left are riches and glory." Proverbs 3:16: "The left is the rewarder of things present, the right of things to come: the left is under the head of the bride, the right above, which embraces the whole bride. And so that is, as it were, a support of present rest, and therefore the Son of man had not where to lay his head, because, though he was rich, he was made poor." These things, scattered in that place, says St. Ambrose. So too Bede, and St. Thomas, who understand by the left the prosperity of this life, by the right eternal life. Where he notes that the head of the bride is sustained by the left hand; yet so as not to be abandoned by the right, and that the left is under the head, the right above; because these lower things ought so to be beneath, that they do not call away from things eternal, do not weigh down the head, but rather raise it, and stir us up to the love of him who has so liberally bestowed them upon us. Thus

also Justus of Urgell, St. Anselm, and St. Gregory — hear him here: "By the left hand of the bridegroom, the present life; by the right, however, eternal life is designated. But by the head of the bride, the mind, which rules the soul, is understood. But the left hand of the bridegroom is said to be under the head of the bride, and his right hand shall embrace her, because she always places temporal life beneath her mind; but eternal life she desires to embrace in every way. For these things which she sees she magnanimously tramples underfoot with a lofty mind, and occupies herself with heavenly duties. These she endures out of necessity; for those she sighs with the utmost desire, as if bound to the right arm of the bridegroom. Into which, when she enters a little, she rests delightfully, and by the love of that rest she altogether disdains worldly tumults. Thus the bridegroom loves the more one who so rests, and by her rousing he drives away all the wicked," saying: "I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem," etc. To this pertains that of Proverbs 3:16: "Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and glory." See what is said there.

Fourth, the left hand indicates adversity; the right, however, prosperity: but the head of the Church are the bishops and prelates, the body are the rest of the faithful: the holy prelates, then, Christ embraces with the left hand, that is, he exercises and perfects them with adversities; but the faithful with the right hand, that is, he soothes and advances them with prosperities and consolations.

To this pertains what Xenophon writes, in Book VIII of the Cyropaedia, that Cyrus wished the princes of his trust to recline at his left, because the left is more exposed to treachery than the right, or rather that they might be nearer to his heart, for the heart inclines toward the left: in like manner shepherds and prelates are near the heart of Christ, because they are supremely dear to his heart and his care, inasmuch as upon them the salvation of the faithful depends.

Fifth, the left hand is the Old Law, because it sustains the head of the Church, because it points to the true Messiah, that is, Christ the Savior, and bears witness to him; the right hand is the New Law, whose grace surrounds and binds the whole Church, that its efficacy may keep and fulfill the whole law: wherefore the new law supplements and perfects the old, just as the right hand supplements and strengthens the weakness of the left, as is clear from Matthew 5 and following. Again, the Old Law is marked by the left, because it was a law of fear and of penalties; the new, however, by the right, because it is itself the law of love and of grace and of eternal glory. So St. Jerome on chapter 4 of Zechariah, and Eucherius, Book II on Genesis.

Finally, the primary bride in the Song is the humanity of Christ, whom the Word betrothed to himself as friend and bride in the Incarnation, and embraced with left hand and right, that is, on every side, as I said in the Proem, chapter 8.

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

First, Theodoret, and the three Anonymous writers found in him, and St. Bernard, Sermon 51, take by the left hand the threat of punishment; by the right, however, the promise of the kingdom; for by both Christ draws the soul to himself, and joins it to himself: "There is a time," says St. Bernard, "when our mind is servilely oppressed by dread of punishment; and then the left hand must be said to be by no means under the head, but above the head: nor can a soul so affected say at all: For his left hand is under my head. But if, advancing from this

spirit of servitude, one passes over into a certain worthier disposition of spontaneous obedience, so that one is rather invited by rewards than constrained by punishments; and still more if one is moved by love of the good itself: then one will be able to say without doubt, that his left hand is under my head: since one has overcome that servile fear, which is on the left, by a better and more excellent disposition of mind, and has drawn near, with worthy desires, even to that right hand itself, in which are all the promises, the Prophet saying to the Lord: Delights are in your right hand even to the end, Psalm 15:11; whence also, with a sure hope conceived, one speaks with confidence: And his right hand shall embrace me;" and then, exulting, one says with the Psalmist, Psalm 4:9: "In peace, in the very same, I will sleep and I will rest: especially since the reason that follows is at hand: For you, Lord, have singularly set me in hope." These things says St. Bernard. The same, in the same place, taking it more according to the letter, understands by the left and the right an all-embracing protection, by which God guards and embraces the soul that pants after him. "Therefore," he says, "he does not endure the trouble of his beloved: he is present, for, summoned by such great desires, he cannot delay. And because he had found her, while he was absent, faithful in her works, and solicitous for gain, in this namely, that she had been bidden to gather flowers and fruits for herself; he also returned this time with a more generous recompense of grace. Finally, with one of his arms he sustains the head of her as she lies, preparing the other for embracing, that he may cherish her in his bosom. Happy the soul that reclines on the breast of Christ, and rests between the arms of the Word."

To this pertains the version of the Chaldee: When, he says, the people of the house of Israel walked through the desert, there were clouds of glory surrounding them on the four winds of the world, so that heat should not have dominion over them, nor sun, nor rain, nor hail. For the pillar of cloud protecting the Hebrews in the desert was a type of the protection by which the Holy Spirit protects the faithful of Christ in the Church.

Second, Aponius expounds this in three ways: first, he refers it to the martyrs, whom Christ sustains with his left hand, that is, with the promise of the heavenly kingdom, and embraces and strengthens with his right, that is, with his grace and help: "For all torments," he says, "and death itself undergone for Christ, are delights to holy souls for the acquiring of eternal joys; wherein the Church, dissolved with delights, rejoices to be held in the embrace of her beloved Christ, that she may be worthy, for the sake of him who made her, to endure the atrocity of torments.

Second, to the holy soul, as if she herself were saying: Christ sustains me with the left hand of compunction, lest I turn aside to the left of the flesh and of concupiscence; the right hand of tribulations holds me, lest I slip away to the right of pride. Third, as if to say: The left hand of Christ, that is, the shield of faith, is under my head; the right hand, however, that is, with the sword of prayer, embraces and arms me.

The mystics and contemplatives take this saying of the highest degree of contemplation, by which the soul is intimately united to God through the contemplation of the intellect and through the ardor of the will, and, as it were with these two arms, mutually clasps and embraces him. For then God allures the heart, and, soothing it as it were with the arms of his illumination and inflaming, draws it to a certain higher and purer embrace of love. And as here the knowledge is more subtle, so also a nobler affection flourishes, which does not cling to divine delights, but, the soul having passed beyond all these, desires to rest in the bare arms of God. By these, on account of the greatness of the delight, the heart is dilated, and, its pores as it were laid open, gapes, and is wounded; and this wound is sometimes wont to grow so severe, and the onrush of love to increase so much, that the human heart cannot be equal to such increases; but succumbs to it by a most happy death, which kind of death is said to have befallen certain ones — the most blessed Mother of God, St. Teresa, and not a few others besides.

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

First, Rupert takes by the left hand the consolations which God granted to the Blessed Virgin in this life; such as to see the Holy Spirit descend upon herself and the apostles, the Gospel preached throughout the whole world, the nations converted to Christ, etc. "And his right hand shall embrace me," that is, the glory of the Father, in which he himself is, shall wholly surround and fill me, when he shall have led me out of the present age and taken me up: namely, that right hand, such as the Psalmist hints at, saying: "Delights are in your right hand even to the end," Psalm 15:11.

Second, William Parvus, and from him Delrio, takes by the left hand the bitterness of Christ's passion, by the head the mind of Mary, by the right the joy of the resurrection: she herself, then, said: "I languish with love," because in the passion this languor of the mother openly betrayed itself. The mind, divinely illumined, sees, he says, how usefully and how healthfully the most sweet Son is to die; how brief a delay he is to make in death, and how gloriously, after a little while, he is to triumph. And behold, on account of this: "His left hand is under my head;" for it does not go beyond my head, so that reason should yield to feeling, and my Son be mourned by me as one about to descend into corruption, not as one having power to lay down his soul, and to take it up again. But I am most certain that his right hand shall embrace me, that the glory of his resurrection will quickly gladden me, that it will not merely touch, but embrace; not as the passion saddened only for a little while, so also the resurrection

will gladden me only cursorily and for an hour; but, the sackcloth of my grief being torn away, it will surround me with perpetual gladness. For his brief death my grief is brief, but because, rising from the dead, he now dies no more, the motherly love within me will enjoy an immortal gladness.

THE VOICE OF THE BRIDEGROOM.

VERSE 7. I ADJURE YOU, DAUGHTERS OF JERUSALEM, BY THE ROES AND HARTS OF THE FIELDS, THAT YOU STIR NOT UP, NOR MAKE THE BELOVED TO AWAKE, UNTIL SHE HERSELF PLEASE.

For "the beloved," in Hebrew it is אהבה ahavah, which signifies both "beloved" and "love"; hence Vatablus translates, "do not awaken love," that is, the bride who supremely loves and is loved; for the abstract is put for the concrete by epistasis, to signify the vehemence of love in the bride, which is so great that she herself seems to be not so much one loving and loved, as love itself. Hence the Syriac for "the beloved" translates "the essence of love," or "the very being of love"; the Arabic, "love."

The bride, languishing with love, falls into sleep and a swoon of soul, wholly carried away into desire for the bridegroom; wherefore, borne by the young maidens to the little bed, she fell asleep upon it. The bridegroom therefore adjures her companions not to rouse her from this holy and sweet sleep, but to allow her to rest in it until she herself awakes of her own accord — by which adjuration he shows how pleasing to him this sleep of love is. For the languor of love is the sweet sleep of love; wherefore she remained in the little bed of this sleep, and did and said all the things that follow to the end of this chapter; for in the following chapter, namely iii, verse 1, she herself says: "In my little bed through the nights I sought him whom my soul loves." So Origen, Aponius, and others. The Septuagint translates: "I have adjured you by the powers and forces of the field, if you shall stir up and rouse" (Ambrose, on Psalm cxviii, sermon 3: "if you shall lift up and rouse"; the Scholiast: "if you shall awaken from sleep") "love, until it please." By "powers," whether potencies and forces, or "strengths of the field," understand plants, trees, and shrubs, and whatever is beautiful and excellent in the field.

The Chaldee, referring these words in its own manner to Moses and the Hebrews making their way into Canaan, translates thus: "After these things it was said to Moses in prophecy from the face of the Lord, that he should send messengers to explore the land, and when they had returned from exploring it, they spoke ill of the land of Israel, and they tarried forty years in the desert. Moses opened his mouth, and thus said: I adjure you, congregation of Israel, by the Lord of hosts and by the strongholds of the land of Israel, that you contend not proudly to go up to the land of Canaan, until it be the will from the face of the Lord, and the whole generation of the men of war be consumed, and they die out of the midst of the camps; as your brothers the sons of Ephraim were proud, who went out of Egypt thirty years before the end had come, and fell into the hand of the Philistines who dwelt in Gath, and they slew them: but wait until the time of forty years, and afterward your sons shall enter in, and shall possess it."

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

He adjures — that is, the bridegroom, namely Christ, calls to witness with a threat or an imprecation — the daughters of Jerusalem, that is, the Jews, scribes, and rulers (whence in Hebrew, for "you" it is אתכם etchem, masculine, as if to say: You, O citizens of Jerusalem, you, O Jews), lest they disturb the faith, peace, and progress of the Church arising, or rather fervent, in Judea — as if to say: Let it suffice you that rage has been vented upon me, as it pleased you. I do not yet permit you to rage against my most sweet bride, whom I have taken into my faith and protection, and whom I have bidden to be at ease of mind. Behold, she prays at home, hedged about with the guard of angels: by these holy minds I call you to witness, that you disturb not her at prayer, nor make a din against her who, with mind at rest, falls asleep upon my faith and promises, nor cause her any trouble, unless you wish to provoke the heavenly hosts, by whom you shall pay the penalties of your crimes. For since they see more keenly than the roes themselves, they perceive your counsels however hidden. Far swifter than roes and harts, they run most swiftly to their own, and bring aid to their little clients. All are ministering spirits sent by me for the guardianship and ministry of my Church, for the sake of those who shall receive the inheritance of salvation, Hebrews i, 14. For just as of old I drove out the Canaanites from Judea through angels for your favor; so through them I will likewise drive you out of it for the favor of my Church, if you resist it, namely its apostles and its Christian faithful. Allow, therefore, my Church to take the just sleep of peace and devotion, and to rest as long as it wills, to obtain the kingdom of heaven, and to reign peacefully in it. So Hortolanus, Titelmannus, and others.

Again, you may adapt this saying to the apostles sitting in Sion after the ascension of Christ, and given over to silence and prayer until the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, filled with whom, having spontaneously broken their silence, they began to preach publicly the great works of God and of Christ, and this by the precept of Christ: "Sit," he says, "in the city, until you be endued with power from on high," Luke xxiv, 49. Christ therefore forbids anyone to disturb the quiet of the apostles, until the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Moreover, Christ properly warns the daughters of Jerusalem, that is, individual believers, especially the more imperfect and lighter ones, not to disturb the peace of the Church by discordant conduct, scandals, schism, or tumult, until she herself please — that is, continually, for she will always will peace. So Delrio.

Further, take "the roes and harts of the fields" according to the letter, as it sounds: for this is here a hunter's oath, by which the bridegroom, as a rustic and rural shepherd, adjures the hunters by the harts and roes which they themselves hunt in the fields and woods, after the manner of the daughters, that is, of the virgins of Tyre, who are neighbors to Judea, who used to devote themselves to hunting, according to that of Virgil, Aeneid 1:

Virginibus Tyriis mos est gestare pharetram.

Such was Diana. For we are accustomed to swear by things supremely beloved, such as harts are supremely beloved to hunters, Genesis xlix, 21. Hence the Septuagint translates, "by the powers and forces," or "strengths of the field," that is, by everything that is powerful or strong in the fields and woods, or by all the fruitfulness of the fields, and whatever things are born or nourished from them, or by everything that is dear and pleasant to you (for this is what the Hebrew צבי tsevi signifies) in the field — as if to say: If you violate this my imprecatory adjuration, O Jews, by persecuting the Church and the Christian faithful, it shall come to pass that your hart shall perish, your roes shall be barren, your fields likewise shall turn to stone and grow barren, and what you shall have sown Titus and the Romans shall reap, and finally your whole region shall be laid waste and overthrown, as in fact it came to pass.

Mystically, by the harts and roes understand either the angels, who like fawns run with wondrous swiftness through the fields of the world, and through every corner of the Church, for the ministry of the faithful and the salvation of the elect, and who dwell on the mountains, that is, in the heavens, and who, like roes, see most keenly all things that are done in the Church, and provide for the faithful all things opportune for salvation: so Origen, Philo Carpathius, Nyssen, and others. Or the prophets and patriarchs, on account of the eminence of their knowledge and the sublimity of their manner of life, by which, like harts, they climbed with the Blessed Virgin the mountains of the virtues: so Theodoret and Rupert. Or the apostles and doctors, who teach heavenly things, and are eager to send men on to heaven: so Aponius. Or "holy souls stripped of their bodies," says St. Bernard, "on account of the excessive keenness of their sight, and the swiftness of their leap:" for in mind they leap into the mountains of heaven, and the hills of eternity: so Rupert. Further, St. Anselm explains it thus, as if to say: If you wish to have the natures of the roe and the hart, which the saints have, I adjure you not to sin, and by your disobediences to remove from that repose the soul languishing with love and persisting in contemplation. He then pursues at length the nature and gifts of the roe, and adapts them to the saints and contemplatives.

THE SECOND, PARTIAL SENSE. Concerning Christ and the holy soul.

Christ adjures any and all, first, not to hinder or disturb, by any word or deed, the quiet of the holy soul, its zeal for virtue, and its progress, whereby it strives toward the heavenly Jerusalem as its citizen and daughter, but that each should rejoice in another's progress as in his own, says Aponius. Justus of Urgel adds that it is taught here that good works ought to be voluntary, not forced: "For then," he says, "the beloved is not roused, until she herself please, when the vows of the saints are offered to the Lord by spontaneous will."

Second, the sleep of the soul is a forgetfulness of human things, so that it may attend wholly to God and heaven, such as anchorites, monks, and religious practice: for, as St. Basil says, question 6, in the Rule More Fully Disputed: "The denial of oneself is nothing other than the utmost forgetfulness of all the things of the higher life, and a withdrawal from one's own wills." God loves this kind of sleep very greatly, and he decrees to others with a severe warning that they disturb it by no means whatsoever. But if by the harts you understand the angels, it is a pious thought, says Sanchez, to meditate that it is asked of the maidens by this adjuration, that they bring no trouble upon the angels who, with great zeal, and perhaps over a long time, have led the bride to this point, that she may rest in the bridegroom's bosom: nor should they deprive them of both great delight and the fruit of their labor. Let those who are a scandal to others see here how gravely they provoke and offend God, from whose embrace the bride is torn away, and the angels, by whose work also it was brought about that, forgetful of all others, she loves and cares for one bridegroom alone.

Third, the sleep of the soul is prayer, meditation, contemplation, ecstasy. Christ therefore forbids busy Martha to call away his Magdalen, as though idle, from this sleep of devotion. Whence John the Carmelite expounds it thus, as if to say: "I call you to witness, daughters of the Church, by myself, who am like the roes and harts, that you dare not rouse the soul, whom I snatch to myself in ecstasy, or in any life-giving sleep, to attend to the salvation of others, until, at my bidding, she herself please." So Cassiodorus, Bede, Anselm, and St. Gregory, whom hear: "Harts and hinds are declared to be clean animals. What then do we understand by harts and roes, but faith, and hope, and charity? While we keep these clean for ourselves, by them we climb the high mountains of contemplation. But the holy soul of the bride of Christ desires to rest from all the disturbances of the world, and, its earthly desires lulled to sleep, longs to sleep in holy leisure in the bosom of the bridegroom, so much so that it grows weary even of necessary conversation at times, and rejoices, the more quietly, so much the more serenely, in converse with the bridegroom alone. But the carnal who are in the Church sometimes rouse her importunately as she sleeps, wishing to entangle her in the affairs of the world: because they reckon her life useless, when they observe her abstaining from their cares." And after some things: "These are forbidden, under the weight of the adjuration, to rouse the beloved — namely, lest they hinder or disturb, by any word or deed, the mind which girds itself to be free for God, and strives to cling to spiritual pursuits alone, toward the heavenly Jerusalem, as its citizen

and daughter — hindering or disturbing it by any word or deed in any way whatsoever, but that each should rejoice in another's progress as in his own, says Aponius. And yet not all care for one's neighbor is forbidden her: for indeed every perfect soul must discern both when to devote itself to heavenly contemplation, and when to serve the usefulness of neighbors. This liberty of being free for God the bride most gladly receives, and immediately embraces the word of the bridegroom, and says: "The voice of my beloved," etc. And St. Bernard, sermon 51: "Great," he says, "and astonishing is this condescension, that he makes the contemplating soul to rest in his bosom, and moreover guards it from besetting cares, and protects it from the disquiets of actions and the troubles of business, nor does he allow it to be roused at all, except according to his own will alone." The same pursues at length, sermon 51: "May my soul die," he says, "the death (of the just, as Balaam said, Numbers xxiii, 10), even if it may be called the death of angels, that, going beyond the memory of present things, it may strip itself not only of the desires but also of the likenesses of things lower and corporeal, and that its converse may be pure with those with whom there is a likeness of purity. Such a going-beyond, I think, is called either simply, or chiefly, contemplation. For not to be held by the desires of things while living is a mark of human virtue; but not to be entangled, in beholding, by the likenesses of bodies, is a mark of angelic purity." And after some things: "You err, if you think to find this side of it a place of quiet, a secret of solitude, a serenity of light, a dwelling of peace; but give me one who has arrived there, and I confess without hesitation him to be at rest, who may deservedly say: Return, my soul, into your rest; for the Lord has done good to you," Psalm cxiv, 7.

Further, the Septuagint translates: "I have adjured you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers" (others, "by the hosts") "and by the forces of the field, if you shall stir up and rouse his love, until he please" — as though these were not the words of the bridegroom, but of the bride, by which she adjures the young maidens to rouse her love, and not let it sleep or grow torpid, until he himself please, that is, that they subject her love to the will of the bridegroom. But the bridegroom desires to be loved by all; for he came to cast fire upon the earth, and what does he wish, but that it be kindled? Luke xii, 49. So Origen, Theodoret, and three of the Fathers. But these words are discordant with the Vulgate, as equally with the Hebrew, in which it is clear that these are the words of the bridegroom concerning the bride: תחפץ technais, that is, "she will please," which is feminine.

Wherefore, still less does the exposition of Psellus correspond to the Hebrew and the Vulgate, who, following the Septuagint, judges that here the holy soul begs help from the roes, that is, from the angels, that it may be able to attain to salvation and the perfection of charity (which alone God wills); and that of Nyssen, homily 4, who thinks it is signified here that in our zeal for charity we ought to imitate the angels until the will of God, which is that all men be saved, be fulfilled. And that of St. Augustine (or whoever is the Author) in the Speculum, chapter iii, volume III, who judges that here the Church rouses the faithful to martyrdom, which is the summit of charity, to which Christ wishes to advance them. And that of the three Anonymous authors in Theodoret, who judge that here the wise soul exhorts the weaker ones to bear Christ in mind so long, until he himself will to impart to them a clear vision of himself. And that of St. Ambrose, on Psalm cxviii, sermon 5, who supposes it is said here that Christ was, through the incarnation, roused into the light, but through the resurrection, awakened: whence by the roes and harts he understands Christ himself: "Or," he says, "Christ is roused in those who first come to him, he is awakened in those who, after having come to him, have fallen asleep: Christ, therefore, sleeps in the negligent, he is awakened in the saints."

The mystics and contemplatives refer these words to that prayer which they call "of quiet," because in it all the faculties of the soul are at rest: in which, says Blessed Teresa, the soul understands in a certain wondrous manner that God is now near to it, and as it were contiguous, so that with slight effort it can arrive at union with the divine. The prayer of quiet, then, is that by which the mind as it were sleeps in God, only the point of the will operating, almost insensibly, in the one who loves — just as a half-sleeping infant sucks at its mother's breasts, which, if they are taken away, it wakes and weeps, and by its weeping shows how great a good it has lost, which, while sleeping, it seemed not to reckon nor to feel. For the whole soul enters into itself, and gathers itself about God, so that it seems neither to feel nor to hear, and to be asleep and half-dead, until it returns to itself; then, having experienced it, it feels how great a good it has lost. In this prayer, then, the soul's own mind and will as it were sleep and die, and pass over into the divine, and are moved and driven by it, just as one who sails is moved not by himself (since he is at rest, and meanwhile sleeps), but is carried by the ship, as it were resting, toward his homeland, and is borne into the desired port. Such, then, is like a sleeping child

THE SECOND PART OF THE CANTICLE, OR THE SECOND ACT OF THE DRAMA,

TWO. THE ADOLESCENCE AND GROWTH OF THE CHURCH ARE DESCRIBED, UP TO CHAPTER III, VERSE 6, JUST AS HE DESCRIBED THE INFANCY OF THE CHURCH FROM CHAPTER I UP TO THIS POINT.

This adolescence of the Church was after Pentecost, when the apostles, having received the Holy Spirit, set out to the nations, and founded churches everywhere. See what was said in the Proem, chapter iii.

THE VOICE OF THE BRIDEGROOM.

VERSE 8.

THE VOICE OF MY BELOVED! BEHOLD, HE COMES LEAPING UPON THE MOUNTAINS, BOUNDING OVER THE HILLS. VERSE 9. MY BELOVED IS LIKE A ROE, OR A YOUNG HART: BEHOLD, HE STANDS BEHIND OUR WALL, LOOKING THROUGH THE WINDOWS, PEERING THROUGH THE LATTICES.

THE VOICE OF MY BELOVED! BEHOLD, HE COMES LEAPING UPON THE MOUNTAINS, BOUNDING OVER THE HILLS. The Hebrew מקפץ mekappets, that is, contracting himself upon the hills: for those who wish to leap strongly and far draw in their limbs and strength, that they may leap more powerfully. Vatablus: "hastening over the hills."

MY BELOVED IS LIKE A ROE, OR A YOUNG HART. The Chaldee, after its custom, refers this to the deliverance of the Hebrews out of Egypt: "When," he says, "the people of the house of Israel dwelt in Egypt, their cry went up to the high heavens; then the glory of the Lord was revealed to Moses upon Mount Horeb, and he sent him into Egypt, that he might redeem them, and lead them out from the oppression of their subjection to the Egyptians: and the time appointed was shortened for the merits of the fathers, who were compared to mountains, and he diminished from the time of servitude a hundred and ninety years for the righteousness of the mothers, who were compared to the hills. Verse 9. Israel, now assured, said: At the time when the glory of the Lord was revealed in Egypt on the night of the Passover, and he slew every firstborn, he rose upon the swiftest lightning, and ran like a roe and like a young hart of the harts, and protected our houses."

THE FIRST, FULL SENSE: Concerning Christ and the Church.

The bride, borne to her little bed in the languor of her love, and there falling asleep, heard confusedly and faintly the voice of the bridegroom drawing near and leaping over the mountains, that he might hasten swiftly to the bride who was languishing with love; wherefore this voice of his was sent from afar, and was therefore faint and subdued, as St. Ambrose teaches, sermon 6 on Psalm 118, verse 1. Or this voice may have been that of the bridegroom enjoining silence upon the young maidens, lest by any noise they should wake the bride, as St. Gregory and St. Bernard would have it. Or it may have been some other, as Origen holds. Whence the bride, recognizing the voice of her beloved by the prompting of love, and exulting, cries out: Behold, my beloved is here; for this is the voice of my beloved, which I hear, who, as I see, bears the utmost care for me, and does nothing else than care for and further my love,

my tranquility, my peace, and every good: wherefore, like a young hart and a roe, he leaps most swiftly over the mountains and hills, that he may be present with me and come to my aid. So John of Carmel: "The voice," he says, "of my beloved — which alone could do this — sounded with its divine power, and awakened me."

This maxim can be expounded in three ways: first, of the incarnation of Christ, as if to say: I, the Christian Church, now arising as Christ is born, in the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, the apostles and disciples, languishing and sighing with love of Christ, that he himself might redeem the human race from sin and death, now begin to hear his voice, both preaching in his own person and through John the Baptist, as three Fathers cited in Theodoret would have it: for this one's voice was the voice of Christ; whence he himself says: "The voice of one crying (namely, Christ's) in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord," Isaiah 40:3 and Matthew 3:3. Behold, then, the Son of God comes in the flesh, to redeem me, and betroth me to himself: "Leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills." By the mountains and hills understand all the orders of angels, over whom Christ, leaping from heaven to earth, passed, and set himself below them all, being made man, according to that word of David: "Thou hast made him a little less than the angels," Psalm 8:6, and Hebrews 2:7; and as St. Bernard says, sermon 55: "For indeed he appeared as a young hart, the little one who is born to us." So too Cassiodorus and Bede: Christ, they say, is a young hart, because he was made the lowliest among men, and, as Isaiah says, chapter 53:3, the last of men. St. Anselm adds that Christ is a young hart, because, weighed down by no bulk of flesh, and adorned with all virtues, he is marked out just as a young hart is marked with spots. He is likewise called a roe, says Justus of Urgell, on account of the likeness of sinful flesh, which he assumed. Or by the mountains and hills understand the holy patriarchs and prophets: for through the midst of very many generations, says Titelmann, after a long series of preceding fathers, he at last appeared to the world, born of a virgin. For he leaps over, as it were, as many mountains and hills as there were different generations of the preceding fathers before him, from whom he proceeded according to the flesh. He leapt, namely, from that lofty mountain, Abraham, the father of our faith, to his son Isaac, from him to his son Jacob, and thence to the others, and, as it were by single leaps, drew nearer to our mortality: until at last he appeared manifest in our mortal flesh. The chief leap, then, of which mention is made here, is that of God's admi-

See Rupert, who applies all this to the silence, contemplation, and ecstasy of the Blessed Virgin. Again, apply this likewise to her trust and resignation to the providence of God, by which, knowing herself to be supremely dear to God and to Christ his Son, and an object of his care, she rested secure and slept, as it were, within his arms and in his bosom — both during the passion and cross of Christ, and during the persecution of the apostles and the Church carried on by the Jews after the death of Christ, and in whatever doubts and adversities.

Christ, then, like lightning passing over the mountains — that is, the angels — and the hills — that is, the patriarchs — and all the generations of the fathers, says St. Bernard, sermon 54, leapt down into the most pure womb of the Virgin, and into the manger: thence he leapt over into Egypt, says Nazianzen; thence, returning, he leapt onto the cross: from the cross and the tomb he leapt back up into heaven. Hear St. Ambrose on Psalm 118, sermon 6, verse 1, who thus represents the bride as speaking: "I desire that charity be roused up in me; I think myself wounded by charity, and charity itself hastens the more to me. I said: Come; he leaps and bounds over: I ask him to come with grace, he works increases of grace; and as he comes, he carries with him the growth of grace; and in coming he gains, because he too is eager to please his beloved. He leaps upon the heights, that he may ascend to the bride: for the bride's chamber is the tribunal of Christ. He leaps upon the Church, he bounds over the Synagogue. He leaps upon the nations, he bounds over the Jews. Let us see him leaping. He leaps from heaven into the Virgin, from the womb into the manger, from the manger into the Jordan, from the Jordan onto the cross, from the cross into the tomb, from the tomb into heaven." And after many things which he interposes: "He leaps upon the Church, which is the house of bread, in that he strengthens the hearts of the faithful. Fittingly like a young roe, because the roe feeds on the heights. It is called dorcas, from derkein, to see, for the sight of roes is sharper. What is more fitting to Christ than this, who saw the Father, whom no one has seen? Or if anyone has seen him, it is in Christ; the Son himself has revealed him. Fittingly like a young hart, as a son in whom the father's power of nature has grown, so that nothing hidden escapes him, serpents flee him, and poisons do not harm him."

Christ, then, leapt down from heaven onto the ground and into the mire, and from the mire leapt back up into heaven. So Cassiodorus, St. Gregory, Bede, and others.

Secondly, it can be expounded of the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, as if to say: The apostles and the faithful, after Christ's ascension into heaven, shut up in Zion for fear of the Jews, and devoting themselves to prayer and contemplation, on the day of Pentecost felt the help and the voice of Christ coming to them, when he sent the Holy Spirit upon them. For then "there came suddenly a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind approaching, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them divided tongues, as it were of fire, and it sat upon each one of them; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in various tongues, according as the Holy Spirit gave them to speak," Acts 2:2. Wherefore, armed with this spirit, they set at naught and overcame the threats of the Jews and the high priests; indeed, they subjected all the nations to Christ.

Moreover, together with the Holy Spirit the Son himself descended upon the apostles, and likewise the Father: for the three persons are consubstantial with one another, and what one works outwardly, the other two work as well. Whence Christ, about to go into heaven, promised the apostles, saying, John 14:18: "I will not leave you orphans: I will come to you;" namely, with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, say Rupert and St. Cyril, book 9 on John, chapter 45. Finally, the Holy Spirit was, as it were, the voice of Christ, which through the mouth of the apostles preached and spread the faith of Christ throughout the whole world; whence Christ says of him: "He shall glorify me: because he shall receive of mine, and shall show it to you," John 16:14.

The Holy Spirit, finally, made the apostles leap over mountains and hills — that is, all the windings of their journeys, all difficulties, all persecutions and tribulations, all the obstacles to the Gospel — that they might spread the faith of Christ and his Church throughout the whole world. Whence St. Gregory says here that Christ is like a roe leaping upon the mountains and bounding over the hills, because he surpassed all the saints in the patience of his working, when he raised himself from death, sent the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, and turned the nations to himself. Nyssen says that Christ leapt over the mountains, because he subjected the demons to himself. Origen, however, because he subjected to his faith all the kingdoms of the world and all kings, however exalted. Theodoret, however, because he overthrew the altars and temples of the idols, which had been erected upon the mountains. Whence Symmachus renders it: "ascending against the mountains, leaping forth against the hills." Finally, up to this point Solomon has described the infancy of the Church, but here he depicts her adolescence and growth as far as chapter 3:6, as I said in the Proem: and this began at Pentecost, and was increased still more thereafter.

Thirdly, Christ leaps over mountains and hills when, in any persecution and adversity of the Church, he is present most swiftly from heaven like lightning, extends counsel and help, and causes her to overcome and rise above all things, according to that promise and oracle of Christ: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it," Matthew 16:18. And: "I am with him in tribulation: I will deliver him, and I will glorify him," Psalm 90:15.

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

Christ, through holy inspirations, leaps into the soul; the mountains and hills are the powers of the soul, raised up by the grace of God, and panting after heavenly things. First, then, Christ leaps into the intellect, when, like the sun, he sends into it the rays of heavenly light, that it may see how good, how useful, how beautiful, how delightful is the work of virtue — for example, of charity, religion, contempt of the world, martyrdom, chastity, patience, humility, etc.; secondly, from the intellect he leaps into the will, breathing into it the goads of warmth, that is, the impulses of holy love, by which it may love and ardently will the work of virtue; thirdly, he leaps into the imagination and the sensitive appetite, sending into it spiritual joy, so that it does not resist the intellect and the will, but rather complies with it,

and impels the soul to embrace this work; fourthly, he leaps into the hands and the feet, and all the senses and members, when he impels them actually to carry out the good work which the mind has conceived, however difficult and arduous, according to that word of Isaiah, chapter 40:31: "But they who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall take up wings like eagles, they shall run and not labor, they shall walk and not faint;" surmounting and rising above all mountains and hills, that is, all difficulties and obstacles, generously and eagerly. Hear St. Ambrose on Psalm 118, verse 6, sermon 6: "He hath rejoiced as a giant to run the way. His going out is from the highest heaven, and his meeting is unto the height thereof: and there is no one that can hide himself from his heat. Therefore even now he leaps, and even now he runs from the heart of the Father upon his saints, from the east upon the west, from the north upon the south. He it is who ascends over the west, he over the heavens of heavens toward the east. He ascends over the mountains, he over the hills. Would that I, wretched as I am, might say it; let my soul say: Behold, this one comes, and he comes not upon earthly things, not upon the valleys, but he comes leaping upon the mountains. For God is the God of mountains. Where, then, does he leap? He leaps upon the mountains. If you are a mountain, he leaps upon you. He leaps upon Isaiah, he leaps upon Jeremiah, he leaps upon Peter, John, James. The mountains are round about him. If you cannot be a mountain, and are not able, be at least a hill, that Christ may ascend upon you; and if he bounds over, let him bound over, that the shadow of his passing may keep you."

Wherefore Christ, leaping into the soul, is "like" to "a roe and a young hart," first, on account of his own swiftness, which he likewise communicates to the soul, when he makes it swift in carrying out its devout purpose. Secondly, because, like a roe, he is of the keenest sight, by which he looks about on all things, and foresees all that will profit the soul, and removes all that will harm it, and communicates this same gift to the soul itself, so that it may exactly foresee and look about upon all things that are to be done. So Theodoret, and St. Bernard, sermon 54. For roes have the keenest eyes: whence in Greek they are called dorkades, from derkein, that is, to see.

Thirdly, because, just as harts draw serpents out of their caves by their breath and devour them — whence they are called elaphos, apo tou elain ophin, that is, from drawing out the serpent — so likewise Christ exposes, dashes down, disperses, and destroys all the temptations of the flesh, the world, and the devil which are suggested to the soul. So Philo of Carpasia. Fourthly, Christ will be judge as it were a roe, because with the keenest sight he will see and judge all the hidden words, thoughts, and deeds of men. Whence St. Bernard, sermon 55: "But you who desire the coming of the Savior, fear the scrutiny of the judge, fear the eyes of the roe, fear him who says through the Prophet: And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, Zephaniah 1:12. He is of sharp sight: his eye will leave nothing unsearched. He will search the reins and hearts, and the very thought of man shall confess to him, Psalm 5:10. What then of the pillar in Babylon, if scrutiny awaits Jerusalem?" And after some things: "It is greatly to be feared, when it comes to this, lest under so subtle an examination many of the sins of our righteousness (as they are thought to be) should appear. There is one thing, however: if we judge ourselves, we shall not indeed be judged, 1 Corinthians 11:32. A good judgment, which withdraws and hides me from that strict and divine judgment. I utterly dread to fall into the hands of the living God." Hebrews chapter 10:31.

Fifthly, Origen: Christ, he says, and the saints are roes in contemplation; harts in action, by which they kill serpents, that is, mortify their passions and vices. The physicians assert, he says, that within the inward parts of the roe there is a certain humor, which drives away dimness from the eyes, and sharpens even the dullest sight. Fittingly Christ is compared to it, because he not only sees the Father himself, but also causes him to be seen by others, whose sight he himself has healed.

Hear St. Gregory, homily 29 on the Gospel: "Behold, this one comes leaping upon the mountains — in coming, indeed, for our redemption, he made, if I may so say, certain leaps. Do you wish, dearest brothers, to recognize his very leaps? From heaven he came into the womb, from the womb he came into the manger, from the manger he came onto the cross, from the cross he came into the tomb, from the tomb he returned into heaven. Behold, that he might make us run after him, the Truth, manifested through the flesh, gave us certain leaps. For he exulted as a giant to run his way, that we might say to him from the heart: Draw us after thee: we will run to the smell of thy ointments. Whence, dearest brothers, we ought to follow with our hearts to that place where we believe he has ascended in body. Let us flee earthly desires; let nothing in the lowest things delight us any longer, we who have a Father in the heavens."

Morally, Aponius gathers from this that the devout soul, in tranquility, ought always to keep the ear of the heart raised and attentive, so as to receive carefully the voice of Christ, whether speaking through preachers, or by himself inspiring good desires into the mind, and therefore to devote itself to prayer, that it may obtain the grace by which it may carry them out and bring them into deed. For, as Nyssen says, this voice and inspiration of Christ does not stand still nor remain, but, like a young hart, bounds over and passes on.

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

Christ, bounding over the mountains and hills of the patriarchs, leapt into the womb of the Virgin, and from her took up flesh, when "the Word was made flesh," as I have already said. Whence he himself says: "Before the hills I was brought forth," Proverbs 8:25. In this he outstripped in swiftness the roes, that is, the angels — indeed, the very messenger Gabriel himself — the same archangel bearing witness, says St. Bernard, sermon 54, when he says: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. What? He leaps — him whom you but now left in heaven, you find in the womb? Nor has he merely flown, and flown across, upon the wings of the winds. You are outdone, O Archangel: he has leapt over you, who sent you ahead." The same St. Bernard, sermon 4 On the Ascension, teaches that Christ leapt upon various mountains of virtue. He went, he says, from virtue to virtue, that God might be seen in Zion: hence on the mountain of Tabor he was transfigured, on a mountain he chose the apostles and promulgated the Gospel, on a mountain he spent the night in prayer, on the mountain of Calvary he was crucified, from the Mount of Olives he ascended into heaven, upon the mountain of Zion he sent the Holy Spirit. Again, Christ made the Blessed Virgin leap upon the mountains, when he continually urged her to lofty acts of virtue, and by name when he moved her to go into the hill country to greet Elizabeth.

Tropologically, St. Bernard, sermon 54: Christ, he says, leaps upon the mountains, that is, upon the humble; for humility alone exalts, humility alone is the mountain and the true height: he bounds over the hills, that is, the proud, whom pride has made hills, but not mountains: "For God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble," 1 Peter chapter 5:5.

Otherwise, John of Carmel: Christ, he says, leaps upon the mountains, when he visits those greater in charity; he bounds over the hills, that is, those not so lofty, whom he does not affect with the like delight, but as it were passes them by. So too St. Bernard, in the place already cited, and Cassiodorus, Bede, Origen, and St. Ambrose, book On Isaac and the Soul, chapter 4: "Upon souls of greater grace he leaps," he says, "over those of lesser grace he bounds, etc., who with a weak heart cannot grasp his power." And St. Anselm: "Leaping upon the mountains — this is, he says, setting his feet and dwelling among the perfect, and even making them leap, as he did Paul, whom from a persecutor he swiftly made the greatest of preachers: bounding also over the hills lower than the mountains, in whom, although God does not leap in the same way as in the perfect, yet he does bound over them; because he shows them a certain knowledge of his mysteries, though not so full."

Again, Origen says that Christ leaps upon the mountains, that is, upon the teachers and eminent saints, when in them, through the abundance of their teaching, he becomes "a fountain of water springing up unto life everlasting," John chapter 4:14. And Cassiodorus: "Upon these mountains," he says, "the beloved is said to give his leaps, and over these hills he is said to bound, because the Lord is wont to illumine the hearts of the exalted with the frequent grace of his visitation; and beautifully he is said not to remain upon these hills, but to leap, or to bound over them; because the sweetness of inward contemplation, however high it is by reason of the knowledge of heavenly things, is just as brief and rare by reason of the heaviness of minds still held down by the weight of the flesh."

Symbolically, Origen takes the mountains for the New Testament, and the hills for the Old: for in the reading of Holy Scripture, and its meditation, Christ is found, and leaps into the minds of men. Hence Philo of Carpasia says that Christ leapt upon the prophets, and bounded over the apostles; but St. Bernard says that he leapt upon the mountains, that is, upon the angels, patriarchs, and prophets; and upon the hills, when he appeared to some of the people.

Anagogically, Justus of Urgell takes the voice of the beloved for the trumpet of the archangel, who at the end of the world will cry out: "Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment." Whence Aponius: Christ, he says, is like the roe, which has a whiteness in its hindquarters, because in the age to come he will show forth his presence. And St. Bernard, sermon 55: Christ, he says, is like the young hart and the roe, on account of his mercy toward the elect, and his judgment upon the reprobate: for the young hart signifies the desire of one leaping to the heights; the roe, judgment.

Morally, let Christians learn here from Christ to ascend, like roes, to the heights of prayer and of every virtue, and to be swift, cheerful, and agile for every act of kindness, and every good work: for, as St. Ambrose says: "The grace of the Holy Spirit knows no slow undertakings;" for he himself is a consuming fire, "who (accordingly) maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire," Hebrews chapter 1:7. Truly, Ecclesiasticus, chapter 31:27: "In all thy works be quick, and no infirmity shall come upon thee." See what is said there.

VERSE 9. BEHOLD, HE STANDS BEHIND OUR WALL, LOOKING THROUGH THE WINDOWS, PEERING THROUGH THE LATTICES.

For "looking," the Hebrew is maschgiach, that is, looking intently, and with the mind's close observation, that is, gazing, namely, watching all the gestures, actions, and words of the bride, and that studiously and exactly. The Hebrew metsits, that is, blossoming forth, or bursting out and gleaming like a flower, and showing itself faintly, and offering itself to be seen "through the lattices." Fittingly the beautiful head, face, and eyes of the bridegroom are compared to a flower; for the head is adorned with hair as with flowers, and the face is of a rosy color, and the eyes gleam in their sockets, like flowers in their calyx. For, as Luysius says, flowers, when they first burst forth, seem to us more joyous and brighter than when they have unfolded their round of leaves, nor do they then appear whole, but show only the tips of their little heads: for thus the bridegroom, more beautiful than any flower or rose, seemed to have brought his head to the window, and to have opened his rosy mouth.

The Septuagint render it: ekkoptōn dia tōn diktyōn, that is, looking forth through the nets, that is, through the latticed windows, or through the lattices. St. Ambrose, sermon 6 on Psalm 118, reads, "standing out through the nets." St. Jerome, book 3 on Isaiah, chapter 12, "appearing through the nets." This signifies that the bridegroom, hastening to the bride, clearly beheld her through the cracks and lattices of the house, but was not seen by her; indeed, he showed himself to her only obscurely, through the lattices, to be gazed upon, so as to arouse in her a greater reverence and desire for himself, and in turn to insinuate himself to her honorably, modestly, and bashfully. So St. Bernard. For those who look out through lattices see others clearly; but they themselves can be seen by those others only obscurely and faintly. So Origen. Whence the Arabic renders it, "looking forth through the cracks."

THE FIRST, FULL SENSE: Concerning Christ and the Church.

This maxim, in sense, coheres fully with the preceding; whence in the Bibles too it is joined with it in the same verse. It is therefore to be expounded in conformity with it. Therefore Cassiodorus, Bede, St. Ambrose, St. Gregory, St. Bernard, and others, who expound the preceding maxim of the incarnation of Christ, explain this one likewise of the same: for the wall of the incarnate Word, or of the deity, is his own humanity, by which he conceals his deity, as if to say: The Son of God, coming in the flesh, standing behind it as behind a wall, looks forth through its eyes and senses, as through latticed windows, upon the Church and her faithful, and through these same the flower and beauty of his deity shines through and gleams forth, but faintly, obscurely, and in part, and, as it were, by halves. Wherefore Christ, as God, beholds us perfectly, clearly, and immediately; but we behold his deity only through a shadow, or through the cracks and lattices, that is, through his humanity. God, then, being born man in the flesh, was a rose that is metsits, that is, emerging, sprouting forth, and blossoming, which, opening itself and gradually unfolding, showed forth, as it were through the lattice-work, that is, through theandric operations, as St. Dionysius says in On the Divine Names — that is, operations of God made man, springing, so to speak, from the God-man, or from the incarnate Word — the rosy countenance of his deity and its sweetest fragrance lying hidden within, in shadow; since Christ the man, behind the wall, that is, behind his intervening body, hid his deity, yet in such a way that he displayed it to be beheld faintly, and in part, as it were through lattices, as he did in the transfiguration, in his miracles, and in his other divine works. In heaven, however, he will show forth his divinity to the blessed without lattices, that is, clearly and face to face, to be seen.

In this life, then, the lattices of his humanity tempered the light and brightness of his deity, so that he might speak and act with men, lest their gaze should be dazzled; just as he appeared to Moses and to the Hebrews, veiled in a mist and a pillar of cloud, Exodus chapters 13 and 20. So Cassiodorus and the others already cited, and St. Bernard, sermon 56, who also explains "he stands": "He stood," he says, "through the power of his divinity, who fell through the weakness of the flesh, he himself saying: The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak, Matthew chapter 26:41." Hear St. Gregory here: "As it were behind our wall the incarnate Christ stood, because in the humanity he assumed, his divinity lay hidden. And because human weakness could not bear his immensity, if he showed it, he set up the obstacle of the flesh; and whatever great thing he wrought among men, he did as though hiding behind a wall. Now he who looks through windows and lattices is partly seen, and partly hides himself: so too the Lord Jesus Christ, while both working miracles through the power of his divinity, and enduring humble things through the weakness of the flesh, looked forth as it were through a window and lattices: because, hidden in the one, in the other it appeared who he was." And St. Bernard, sermon 56: "Further, by lattices," he says, "and windows, through which he is said to look, he means the senses (as I think) of the flesh, and human affections, through which he took experience of all human necessities. In short, he himself bore our languors, and himself carried our sorrows, Isaiah 53:4. By human affections, then, and bodily senses, he made use of them as of openings and windows, so that, made man, he might know by experience the miseries of men, and become merciful." And after some things: "And he found as many openings in our ruinous wall, full of cracks, as he felt experiences of our weakness and corruption in his own body."

Secondly, you may more fitly expound this maxim, in view of what follows, of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit. For Christ showed himself, through the Holy Spirit sent by him upon the apostles, through the fiery tongues as though through lattices, through which he himself beheld the apostles clearly; but the apostles beheld him only obscurely. Again, you may refer this maxim to the Eucharist, which the faithful began especially to frequent after the coming of the Holy Spirit. For in the Eucharist Christ beholds us clearly, not only in his deity, but also in his humanity, through the sacramental species of bread and wine as through lattices — not only with the eyes of the mind, but also of the body, as many theologians hold; but he is seen by us only through faith and in a riddle, that is, through the sacramental species, and much more through the consolations, illuminations, and spiritual tastes which he shows to those who eat, so great and so sublime that they seem not only to perceive Christ with their eyes, but even to savor and taste him with the taste of the mind, as happened to St. Francis, St. Monica, St. Catherine of Siena, and other saints.

Here belongs the version of the Chaldee, who explains this of the paschal lamb; for in this the type of the Eucharist was expressed: "And he protected," he says, "our houses, in which we were, and he stood behind our walls, and looked forth through the windows, and gazed through the lattices, and saw the blood of the Passover victim, and the blood of circumcision that was marked upon our doors, and looked down from the high heavens; and he saw his people, who were eating the victim of the solemnity roasted with fire, with its inward parts, and with wild lettuces and unleavened bread, and he spared us, and gave no power to the destroying angel to destroy us."

Thirdly, you may take this maxim of any coming of Christ whatsoever, by which he visits, protects, defends, and enlightens the Church and the faithful, especially in persecution or tribulation, as if to say: Christ, after his ascension

into heaven, clothed with the light of glory as with a garment, from there beholds the Church as though through lattices, and comes to her aid, and provides for all things; and he is not seen by her except through the effects of grace, protection, and help. So Aponius, who likewise teaches the manner in which Christ now shows himself, now hides himself, to the Church and the afflicted soul: "The soul," he says, "has invisible enemies, who invisibly and unceasingly assail it, carried about within the enclosure of its own mind; and they reduce it so completely into the prison-house of vices that it cannot at all go forward to run the way of God's commandments, until, called back by its prayers, he comes as if hidden, and stands, and watches its struggle; and yet he does not show himself, lest, with the enemies wholly put to flight and the fight ceasing, it should perish through the torpor of idleness; but he looks, as it were, through windows, lending the help of his gaze, so that the soul may receive strength to resist, and the enemy's assault, its terror lessened, may somewhat subside; and he looks through windows — namely, the soul's senses, by which it carries on bodily thoughts, if they are not defiled with filth."

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

The lattices here can be taken not only of the bridegroom, of which I have already spoken, but also of the bride, that is, of the soul. Christ, then, is as it were the sun, who longs to illumine all the faithful with his light, and to kindle them with the warmth of his charity; but a wall stands in the way, both of the flesh, and of concupiscence, and of our sins, which do not admit these rays: Christ, then, on account of his immense thirst for souls, searches out the cracks and lattices, that is, all occasions, by which, through pious images, sermons, preaching, and inspirations, he may enter into the eyes and ears, and thence into the mind, and instill into it his light and warmth. So Aponius, Bede, Rupert, and St. Bernard, sermon 56. Hear Origen, homily 2, of the two, who, reading from the Septuagint, "standing out through the nets": "Where," he says, "the bridegroom does not look forth, there death is found ascending, as we read in Jeremiah: Behold, death ascends through your windows. When you look upon a woman to lust after her, already death ascends through your windows. Standing out through the nets. Understand that you walk in the midst of snares, and pass beneath overhanging engines. All things are full of nets. The devil has filled everything with snares. But if the word of God comes to you, and begins to stand out from the nets, you will say: Our soul, as a sparrow, has been delivered out of the snare of the hunters. The snare is broken, and we are delivered. The bridegroom, therefore, stands out through the nets, making a way for you. Jesus came down to earth, and subjected himself to the nets of the world." St. Ambrose has similar things, on Psalm 118, sermon 6, verse 3, where among other things he says that Christ stands out above the nets, that is, sins; because he alone is free from them, and therefore dissolves all those of others.

Hence St. Anthony saw the whole world spread over with snares, into which souls fell as they flew up from earth to heaven, and were caught by them like birds, or fish by a net: for which reason, groaning and crying out: "Lord, who shall escape these snares?" He heard: "Humility." So St. Athanasius, in his Life.

Again, just as parents and teachers pretend to go away, and then hide themselves behind a door and a wall, so as to see through cracks and lattices, or bars, what their children and pupils are doing, when they think themselves free and unwatched by anyone, and, if they observe them applying themselves modestly to their studies, reward them; but if, on the other hand, they see them, books cast aside, chattering, playing, fighting, they punish them; so likewise Christ, going away into heaven, there, as it were, hides himself, and thence beholds all our deeds, words, and thoughts through the cracks, so that, seeing all, he may be seen by none, to this end: that he may reward those who do well, and punish those who do evil. Moreover, Christ from time to time shows himself present to the soul through grace and consolation, by which he soothes it, and then the soul is borne cheerfully to every good; for, as St. Bernard says: "He rides sweetly whom the grace of God carries;" but sometimes he as it were departs from the soul, and absents himself, when he leaves it in desolation of mind, in dryness, in temptation, so that he may see its struggle: but if he sees it constant in good, he at once hastens to it, comes to its aid, and consoles it.

So he seemed to abandon St. Anthony for a short time, in his fierce struggle with demons appearing in the form of wolves, lions, tigers, asps, and serpents; but as Anthony fought bravely, he at once appeared in a shining light, and when Anthony complained and said, "Lord, where were you?" he answered: "Anthony, I was here, and I was watching you fight." So St. Athanasius, in his Life. So St. Stephen, struggling with the Jews, "looking up steadfastly to heaven, saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing (to fight for him) on the right hand of God," Acts chapter 7.

Mystically, Justus of Urgell: Christ, he says, looked forth through the windows and lattices, when, his side pierced by the lance, and blood and water coming forth from it, he bestowed the sacraments upon the Church.

Symbolically, Origen, Theodoret, and Philo take the wall for Holy Scripture: for through its letter, as through a latticed wall, we behold God hidden and speaking within it, and God through it speaks to us, instructs us, consoles, exhorts, and strengthens us, etc. Hence Philo of Carpasia takes the wall for the Law, the windows for the prophets, the nets for the apostles, to whom Christ said: "Come after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men," Matthew chapter 4:19.

Again, the same Origen, and St. Ambrose on Psalm 118, sermon 2, verse 3, take the wall for the structure of good works: for this Christ secretly beholds, directs, furthers, and perfects. But three Fathers cited in Theodoret take the lattices, or nets, for the connection of the virtues; for these, fortified by their mutual interweaving with one another, keep out the entry of birds, that is, of demons.

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

Christ, made incarnate in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, gazed upon her as it were from behind the wall of her womb, and was felt and beheld by her. Again, Christ, beholding from his mother's womb St. Elizabeth and St. John the Baptist, filled them with the Holy Spirit, by which it came about that St. John, hidden in Elizabeth's womb, recognized Christ lying hidden in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, and worshipped and adored him, according to that word: "For behold, as soon as the voice of thy salutation came into my ears, the infant leaped for joy in my womb," Luke chapter 1:44.

Tropologically, St. Bernard, sermon 56, takes the lattices, which are narrower, for compunction: for through this, and upon this, the bridegroom looks; because "a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise," Psalm 50:19; but the windows, which are wider, he takes for the voice of exultation and praise. "But if," he says, "at times, the heart being dilated in charity through consideration of the divine condescension and mercy, it pleases the soul to give way to a voice of praise and thanksgiving, I think that I am then opening, not a narrow, but a most ample window to the bridegroom standing behind the wall, through which (unless I am mistaken) he looks the more gladly, the more fully a sacrifice of praise honors him." Theodoret has similar things.

Anagogically, Christ in this life stands behind the wall of our flesh; but in death, when it is dissolved, he will show himself clearly to our soul, to be seen and enjoyed face to face: so Origen, Cassiodorus, Bede, and St. Augustine, Confessions book 13, chapter 10. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 56: "Our sins," says Scripture, Isaiah 59:2, "separate between us and God. And would that only one wall of the body stood in my way, and that I suffered only that one obstacle which is sin in the flesh, and that there were not many ramparts of vices standing between. For I fear that, besides that which is in nature, I have added very many things from my own iniquity, by the interposing of which I have removed the bridegroom too far from me, so that, if I wished to speak the truth, I should have to confess that he stands to me behind walls, rather than behind a wall." And with several things interposed: "No such thing was to be feared for the soul of Paul, for whom only a single wall stood in the way of the sight and embrace of his beloved, namely, the law of sin, which he found in his members. This is the concupiscence of the flesh, of which he could not be wholly rid, as long as he was in the flesh. With this one wall alone interposed, he was not journeying far from the Lord; whence also he longed, crying out, Romans 7:24: Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? knowing that, by the shortcut of death, he would at once arrive at life."

VERSE 10. Behold, my beloved speaks to me: Arise, hasten, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come.

In the Hebrew it is: my beloved answered, and said to me: Arise for thee, etc., come for thee, where "to tibi" is redundant twice: for the sense is, arise and come. Note that "she answered" indicates the bride, since she had noticed the bridegroom standing behind the wall and looking through the lattices, and had invited him, with hushed words, or by nods or gestures, to enter the house and to speak with her face to face. The bridegroom answered this invitation that he did not wish to enter the house, but rather to call the bride outside to himself, into the field and the vineyard, since spring was now approaching, in which all things grow green and flower: wherefore it was time for going into the country, for pruning the vines, for gathering the unripe figs, etc. Further, St. Bernard, sermon 57, says: "He comes," he says, "the bridegroom, in the angels, he hastens in the patriarchs, he draws near in the prophets, he is present in the flesh, he regards in the miracles, he speaks in the apostles. Or thus: he comes by the affection and zeal of showing mercy, he hastens by the zeal of helping, he draws near by humbling himself, he is present more fully, he looks ahead to those to come, he speaks teaching and persuading concerning the kingdom of God. Thus, then, is the coming of the bridegroom."

St. Bernard then goes on to teach how vigilantly we ought, together with the bride, to watch for the coming of the bridegroom. For he who says with the Psalmist, Psalm 24:15: "My eyes are ever toward the Lord"; and because "I kept the Lord always before my sight," Psalm 15:8: shall not this one receive a blessing from the Lord, and mercy from God his savior? Psalm 23:3. He will indeed be visited often, nor will he ever fail to know the time of his visitation, however secretly and stealthily he who visits in spirit may come, as a bashful lover.

FIRST SENSE, THE ADEQUATE ONE. Of Christ and the Church.

Christ the bridegroom calls the primitive Church as his bride — namely the apostles, the Holy Spirit now having been received at Pentecost — to cultivate the vineyards, that is, the churches of Judea and of the other nations. He says therefore: Arise from the little bed of your rest — enough has been given to bed and sleep — hasten to evangelize. "My love," that is, my bride, "come," to set forth through Judea and the other provinces, so that you may win souls for me, and bring all nations to me, and to my faith and worship; for it befits you to be like me, your bridegroom, who was sent by the Father into the world to evangelize the kingdom of God, as Isaiah foretold, chapter 61, verses 1 and 2: "The Spirit of the Lord," he says, "is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me: he has sent me to bring good tidings to the meek, that I might heal the contrite of heart, and preach release to the captives, and opening to those shut up, that I might proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord, and a day of vengeance to our God: that I might console all who mourn." This, then, was the golden age of the Gospel, which succeeded the iron age and yoke of the Mosaic Law, by which accordingly the Church — that is, the apostles and apostolic men — is invited to evangelize fearlessly and ardently among the nations everywhere.

MY DOVE. — The apostles, in evangelizing, are compared to doves: first, on account of their whiteness and simplicity, according to that saying of Christ, Matthew 10:16: "Be prudent as serpents, and simple as doves." Second, on account of their swiftness, because they flew through the whole world most swiftly in evangelizing it. Third, on account of their faithfulness, for the dove, joined to her mate as to a spouse, keeps faith with him, and looks upon no other: thus the apostles were faithful to Christ in hunger, thirst, persecution, etc., even unto death and martyrdom. Fourth, on account of their fruitfulness, for the dove lays eggs and bears young every single month, while other birds bring forth their young only once a year: thus the apostles brought forth very many sons for Christ, for "their sound has gone out into all the earth," Psalm 18:5; whence Isaiah, foreseeing them, chapter 60, verse 8, cries out in wonder: "Who are these, that fly as clouds, and as doves to their windows?" See what is said there. Fifth, the dove is a symbol of purity, chastity, and innocence: for the dove shrinks from filth, and drinks no water except what is pure and clear; whence Varro, On Farming, book 3, chapter 7: "The water," he says, "that flows in for the doves to drink and to wash themselves in ought to be pure: for these birds are exceedingly clean."

Sixth, the dove is most indulgent toward her young and offspring, whence she is a living image of the devoted mother Church toward all, but especially toward the children and household of the faith, whom she has begotten through the washing of regeneration. For indeed (as those who have written on the nature of things relate) the dove even plucks out her own feathers to warm her young: for when nesting in raging cold, and placing her brood in the nest, she does not hesitate even to pluck out her own feathers, so that the little ones may lie more softly; whereby it comes about that the mother herself often wastes away from the cold. The Church does the same. Hear Paul, 1 Thessalonians 2:7 and 8: "When we might have been a burden to you as apostles of Christ: but we became little children in the midst of you, as if a nurse should cherish her children. Thus, longing for you, we desired eagerly to hand over to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own souls, because you had become most dear to us."

MY BEAUTIFUL ONE. — The apostles were beautiful with every grace and the comeliness of virtues, and therefore, in evangelizing, they drew all men to themselves and to Christ, according to that saying: See what is said there. St. Ambrose says excellently, in his book On Isaac and the Soul, book 4: "Arise," he says, "come, my neighbor, that is, arise from the delights of the world, arise from earthly things, and come to me, you who still labor and are burdened; because you are anxious about the things of the world. Come above the world, come to me, because I have overcome the world. Come near to me, now beautiful with the comeliness of eternal life, now a dove, that is, gentle and mild, now wholly full of spiritual grace." And St. Bernard, sermon 57: "For indeed," he says, "she is rightly called love, who by preaching, counseling, and ministering diligently and faithfully seeks the bridegroom's gains. Rightly a dove, who nonetheless, groaning and beseeching in prayer for her own faults, does not cease to win divine mercy for herself. Rightly also beautiful, who, shining with heavenly desire, puts on the comeliness of contemplation of the things above, only in those hours in which she can do so fittingly and opportunely." Then he teaches that these three gifts are represented by Martha ministering, Lazarus as it were groaning beneath the stone, and Mary contemplating.

SECOND SENSE, THE PARTIAL ONE. Of Christ and the holy soul.

First, Christ rouses the pious soul from the sleep of self-indulgence, negligence, and faint-heartedness, and bids it arise, so that it may climb to higher degrees of charity and of the virtues, tend toward higher things, and always advance in the grace, love, and obedience of God: for the perfection of this way and of this life consists in continuous and perpetual progress, namely that the just man should follow God who calls him, and strive day by day more and more to make himself like to his purity and holiness, so that he may merit to receive an everlasting rest and a more illustrious crown of glory in the heavens. "Arise," therefore, that is, lift yourself up; in the manner of one rising, strive toward higher things, hasten running, and, like a dove, fly to your nest through the increase of charity. O bride, truly beautiful, to whom both the comeliness of the virtues and the readiness of your deeds lend loveliness. Walk, and come to me: that is, "Go forth prosperously in your comeliness and your beauty." This is what the Psalmist says: "Blessed is the man whose help is from thee: he has disposed ascents in his heart, in the vale of tears, in the place which he has appointed. For the lawgiver will give a blessing, they will go from virtue to virtue: the God of gods will be seen in Sion," Psalm 83, verse 6.

Wherefore the holier one is, the more he aspires to greater holiness, and strives earnestly: for it is a sign of lesser holiness — indeed of a holiness failing and perishing — to be unwilling to advance in it, but to wish to remain fixed in one's own state and degree; which is impossible: for not to wish to progress is to wish to fail, as St. Bernard teaches, epistle 154. Whence St. Paul, Philippians 3:13, after so many contests and races, says: "Brethren, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching myself forth to those that are before, I press on toward the mark, unto the prize of the supernal calling of God in Christ Jesus"; and he adds: "Let as many of us then as are perfect be of this mind." And Romans chapter 12, verse 11: "In diligence," he says, "not slothful: fervent in spirit: serving the Lord." So Origen, homily 2: "Why," he says, "arise? why hasten? I endured for you the rage of the storms, I took upon myself the waves that were owed to you: my soul became sorrowful for you even unto death: I have risen from the dead, the doors of death broken, and the chains of hell loosed; therefore I say to you: Arise and come." And Nyssen, homily 5: "Arise," he says, "come, my neighbor, my fair one, my dove. She hears the command, is confirmed by the word, is roused, draws near, approaches. She is rendered beautiful, she is named a dove: beautiful, because, drawing near to God, she has received in herself, like a mirror, the image of the divine beauty; a dove indeed, because beautiful on account of the image of the Holy Spirit received. The soul becomes love by knowing God; beautiful by keeping the humility of Christ; but she is made a dove because, seeking nothing of earthly desires apart from the most humble food and covering of the body, but always keeping the simplicity of doves, she joins herself to the Holy Spirit."

And St. Gregory: "On account of faith," he says, "Christ calls his bride love, dove on account of simplicity, beautiful on account of her works, etc. He therefore exhorts her to arise and come, because it is fitting that whoever hastens to the love of Christ should cast off, as far as he can, the sluggishness of the flesh, and gird himself quickly to attain the things eternal."

Second, Cassiodorus, Bede, and St. Anselm hold that here the soul is called forth from the leisure of contemplation to the business of action, from rest to struggle and the dust of combat, from the lot of Magdalene to the lot of Martha, so that she may devote herself to the salvation of her neighbors, and make them like herself, and lead them to heaven. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 57: "In short, the bride hears that she should arise and hasten, no doubt to the gains of souls. For this is what true and chaste contemplation brings about: that the mind which it has vehemently kindled with the divine fire, it sometimes fills with such zeal and desire of winning for God those who may love him in like manner, that she most gladly interrupts the leisure of contemplation for the pursuit of preaching; and again, having in some measure obtained her wish in this regard, she returns to that same contemplation all the more ardently, the more fruitfully she remembers she interrupted it; and likewise, having tasted contemplation, she returns more vigorously, with her accustomed eagerness, to the winning of gains."

Further, St. Bernard notes, sermon 58, that it is not said "go," but "come" (indeed Nyssen reads "come of your own accord"; although "come of your own accord" is not in the Hebrew, yet it is understood), because Christ does not command imperiously, but sweetly invites to the labors of the active life. St. Bernard then asks why the bridegroom, who a little before forbade the bride to be roused from sleep, soon himself rouses her from sleep and calls her to labors: just as Christ in his passion, granting a little sleep to the apostles who were weighed down by long vigil, at once broke it off, saying, "Arise, let us go: behold, he who will betray me draws near," Matthew chapter 26, verse 46; and he answers: "Recognize," he says, "the alternations of holy rest and of necessary action; and that in this life there is neither abundance of leisure for contemplating, nor length of leisure, where the more urgent and pressing usefulness of duty and work presses upon us. According to his custom, therefore, the bridegroom, when he perceives that his beloved has rested a little while in his own bosom, does not delay to draw her again to those things which have seemed more useful. Not, however, as though against her will (for he himself would in no way do what he forbade to be done), but for the bride to be drawn by the bridegroom is indeed to receive from him the desire by which she is drawn — the desire of good works, the desire of bearing fruit for the bridegroom: for to her, indeed, the bridegroom is life, and to die is gain."

Anagogically, the dove is a symbol of the contemplative, heavenly, and blessed life; whence Varro, book 3 of On Farming, holds that the dove (columba) is named from the rooftops (culmina) of the farmhouse, on which she is accustomed to dwell. Hence in the Life of St. Marina we read that a dove placed a crown upon her in her martyrdom, and said: "Peace to you, handmaid of God: now take courage, receiving the heavenly crown from the hand of the Most High." Again, an angel in the form of a dove carried the soul of St. Amator up into heaven, as is related in the Life of St. Germanus, chapter 5. St. Benedict saw the soul of his sister St. Scholastica ascending to heaven in the form of a dove, as her Life records. The soul also of the abbot St. Spes flew up to the realms above like a dove, so that, as St. Gregory says, book 4 of the Dialogues, chapter 10, "God might show by this very form how simple a heart that man had served him with." Thus too a dove, gazing with fixed eye upon the Blessed Beatrice d'Este, foretold to her the passing from this life to the heavenly one, as Bernard Scardionius relates in her Life. Thus too a dove, alighting on the head of St. Fabian, declared him worthier of the pontificate, and therefore to be chosen. The same, alighting on the neck of St. Chrysostom as he celebrated Mass, declared his holiness and heavenly life. St. Radegund, invoked by shipwrecked men, flying around their ship in the form of a dove, delivered them from danger, as her Life records. Aldrovandi recounts many examples of this kind concerning doves, in his work On the Dove, page 404 and following. Finally, at the baptism of Christ, the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, descended from heaven upon him and rested, Luke 3:22.

THIRD SENSE, THE PRINCIPAL ONE. Of Christ and the Blessed Virgin.

Rupert holds that by these words is signified the immense desire of the Word to assume flesh from the Blessed Virgin, and that she is accordingly invited by them to give her consent at once to the angel Gabriel announcing it to her. "You," he says, "are my love through humility, my dove through charity, my beautiful one through chastity, etc. Come, then, Mary, come: for Eve fled into hiding. Come, and believe the angel bringing good news: for Eve believed the serpent whispering. Come, and crush the head of the serpent: for Eve was enticed by the head, and delighted by the belly, and bound by the tail of the serpent. Come, and say: Behold the handmaid of the Lord: for Eve, hiding and defending herself alike, said: The serpent deceived me, and I ate. This is the voice of my beloved, and thus he speaks to me: Arise, hasten, and come. Arise through faith, hasten through hope, come through charity."

Again, by these words, "Arise, hasten," Christ calls the Blessed Virgin, first, so that, although pregnant, she should arise and go into the hill country with haste to greet Elizabeth, and to serve her. Further, that she should hasten to Bethlehem, and there give birth to Christ, as being in the homeland of David, and in the house of bread: for Christ is the bread of angels, equally as of men.

Finally, many hold that by these words Christ most sweetly invited his mother, in death, to himself in heaven: wherefore she breathed out her most holy soul, not from sorrow, but from desire and love of Christ.

VERSE 11. FOR NOW THE WINTER HAS PASSED, THE RAIN HAS GONE, AND WITHDRAWN.

VERSE 12. THE FLOWERS HAVE APPEARED IN OUR LAND, THE TIME OF PRUNING HAS COME: THE VOICE OF THE TURTLEDOVE IS HEARD IN OUR LAND.

This is a periphrasis of spring and of vernal delightfulness, to which the bridegroom calls the bride from her little bed into the fields and vineyards for their cultivation. For in spring, winter with its cold, snow, frost, and rain has passed, flowers appear, the vines and shrubs are pruned, the turtledove and the other birds sing: for turtledoves hide themselves in caves for the whole winter in such a way that there is no one who would assert that he has seen a turtledove in winter, on the testimony of Aristotle, Hist. Anim. book VIII, chap. XVI; wherefore where the turtledove appears, it is a certain sign that winter has passed and spring is beginning. In a similar way Ovid depicts spring, Fasti book I:

Then all things bloom, then is the new age of the season,
And a new bud swells from the teeming shoot.
And the tree is now covered with newly formed leaves,
And the sprout of the seed comes forth upon the top of the soil;
And the birds soothe the warm air with their harmonies,
And the flock plays in the meadows, and frolics.
Then the suns are mild, and the swallow, till now unknown, comes forth,
And fashions her work of clay beneath the high beam.

Understand "flowers" not of the vines, but of violets, hyacinths, tulips, etc., for vines do not flower before they are pruned: for in Hebrew it is nitsanim, a word which signifies not only flowers, but also the first sproutings, or the first berries and buds germinating forth from stocks and shrubs, such as can here also be understood in the vines. For "of pruning" in Hebrew is zamir: which Vatablus and other Hebraists render "of singing"; for in spring the nightingales and the other birds sing. For the root zamar properly signifies to prune, or to cut into vines and trees: thence it is transferred by metaphor to a musical cutting, or to song, whereby voices are cut by certain inflections, measures, and tones, so as to present a modulation pleasing to the ears; whence a psalm and psalmody are called mizmor: hence also the Arabs call a choir of singers zambra. But our translator renders it better, "of pruning," both because the voice of the turtledove sufficiently signifies the singing of birds; and because the Septuagint, the Chaldean, Aquila, and Symmachus render it "of pruning"; and because the bride is here invited to the cultivation of the vines, namely to pruning, so that they may bring forth abundant grapes and wines; and finally, because we see that at the beginning of spring the vines are pruned before the vernal equinox, before they bud and flower, and Pliny teaches that this is to be done by vine-dressers, book XVIII, chap. XXVI: "Have the pruning," he says, "completed by the equinox"; and he adds that this must be done before the cuckoo begins to sing; but the cuckoo sings at the beginning of spring, on the testimony of Aristotle, Hist. Anim. book IX, XLIX. Whence Oppian calls the cuckoo the first herald of spring. And Columella, On Agriculture, book IV, chap. X and XIV: "There are two seasons for pruning," he says; "but the better one (as Maro says) is the vernal one, before the shoot buds forth, since, being full of moisture, it receives an easy, light, and even cut, and does not resist the pruning-hook."

Furthermore our Sanchez understands this pruning not of the vines, but of the balsam: for the little balsam-tree, when cut with a bone or a piece of glass, drips a most sweet and most fragrant opobalsam, on the testimony of Pliny, book XII, chap. XXV, and Hegesippus, book IV, chap. XVII. For Solomon's most excellent vineyards were in the field of Engaddi, in which soil alone the balsam was once found; and he takes "pruning" for the very tear or drop which flows down by the pruning, that is, metonymically for the opobalsam itself; but this drips not at the beginning of spring, but in the maturity of spring, namely about the solstice, when summer begins. This rightly applies to Christ, who dripped the opobalsam of doctrine, charity, and holiness in his life, and of blood and water, by which we are washed, on the cross; whence Ecclesiasticus, chap. XXIV, 21, says: "My odor is as unmixed balsam." But here it seems to be treated of the beginning of spring, when winter and rain have just passed, and when the turtledove and the birds begin to sing; wherefore it seems that the pruning of vines and shrubs should rather simply be understood here. I confess, however, that here spring is to be understood not only as beginning, but also as advancing and mature, and summer itself as well: for the apostles, who are noted here, began to preach after Pentecost, as I shall now say.

The Chaldean, according to its custom referring these things to the Jews freed from Egypt, thus renders it: "For behold, the time of subjection, which is like winter, has ceased; and the years, which I told Abraham amid the divisions, have been shortened; and the dominion of the Egyptians, which is compared to continual rain, has passed and gone away, and you shall not see them again forever." Verse 12: "Moses and Aaron, moreover, who are compared to palm branches, appeared, that they might bring forth miracles in the land of Egypt; and the time of the pruning of the firstborn has come; and the voice of the Holy Spirit of redemption, which I told Abraham your father. For now you have heard what I said to him, and also the people whom they shall serve, I will judge, and afterward they shall go out with great substance; and now I wish to do what I swore to him by my word."

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

Christ the bridegroom calls the primitive Church as it were his bride, namely the apostles, the Holy Spirit having now been received at Pentecost, that they may cultivate the vineyards, that is, the churches of Judea and of the other nations. He says therefore: Now winter, that is, the rigor and fear of the Mosaic law, say Origen, Theodoret, and St. Gregory, and the cold and frost of the infidelity of the nations, has passed, the rain of errors and vices has gone away, because the vernal sun, namely the Holy Spirit, has shone forth, who by his heat put to flight both the winter and the rain, and with the south wind of his grace blowing, has brought forth in our land the flowers of the saints, such as the first believers were, and of the martyrs, such as the Holy Innocents, St. James, St. Stephen and his companions: therefore the time of pruning has come, in which you, O apostles, may cut away the ignorance and infidelity of the Jews and the nations, and every desire for temporal things, with the sword of faith, so that they may bring forth the fruit of good works.

THE VOICE OF THE TURTLEDOVE IS HEARD IN OUR LAND. — The turtledove here, solitary, chaste, and groaning, was St. John the Baptist, says Nyssen, whose voice and life were nothing other than a groaning and a preaching of penance: "Do penance," he says, "for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," Matth. III, 2, and Luke III, 3. John therefore was the end of the old law, and the beginning of the Gospel, according to that word of Christ: "The law and the prophets were until John: from that time the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone uses violence toward it," Luke chap. XVI, verse 16. Again, the "voice of the turtledove" was the preaching of St. Peter and the apostles. Whence, this having been heard, the Jews, repenting of the killing of Christ by themselves, said: "What shall we do, men and brothers? But Peter said to them: Do penance, he says, and let each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit," Acts chap. II, verse 37. He said the same thing to Cornelius the Centurion, who, being the first of the Gentiles to be converted to Christ by St. Peter, opened the door for the apostles to go forth and convert all the nations, Acts chap. X, verse 32. The time of the new law, therefore, was the spring of the gospel, in which Christ, like a sun, by the heat of his grace dispelled the whole winter of infidelity and concupiscence, and brought forth flowers and the fruits of good works; whence then appeared the flowers of the martyrs, the prunings, that is, the mortifications and austerities of religious and anchorites, the turtledoves of widows and virgins, who castrated themselves out of love for Christ, for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. For the turtledove is an exemplar of chastity, say Aponius, St. Bernard, and others. Indeed St. Augustine, homily 33 among the 50, and St. Jerome, book I Against Jovinian, and St. Ambrose, book On Isaac, chap. IV: "Where," he says, "before was unchastity, there now is chastity." So too Cassiodorus, Bede, Anselm, Rupert, and others. Furthermore by "flowers" Origen understands any believers whatsoever, Aponius the innocents slain for Christ, St. Ambrose, on Psalm CXVIII, sermon 6, the apostles: "Good flowers," he says, "are the apostles, who poured forth the fragrance of their various writings and works."

By the voice of the turtledove, Cassiodorus, Bede, and Rupert understand the preaching of the apostles; Philo Carpathius, that of Paul; St. Cyril, book XV On Adoration, that of Christ; St. Gregory, that of the Church.

THE SECOND, PARTIAL SENSE, Concerning Christ and the holy soul.

First, Christ calls the sinning soul to penance and justice, saying: Rise from the bed of sin, for now the winter of sins, and the rain of concupiscence, have passed: for my grace has shone upon you, which may warm you with love, and bring forth the flowers and fruits of penance and virtues, that you may become beautiful as a dove to your God.

Wherefore three acts of penance are noted here, namely contrition through the flowers, confession through the voice of the turtledove, satisfaction through the pruning: for the act of contrition is, as it were, a flashing-forth flower of faith, hope, and charity, from which is born the fruit of justification; the voice of the turtledove

For the turtledove, most chaste, persisting continually in groaning when her mate has died, is a likeness of persevering love, as St. Basil teaches, homily 8 on the Hexaemeron, St. Ambrose, book V of the Hexaemeron, 13, and Nazianzen, in his oration to the Virgin, says:

The turtledove, widowed of her husband,
Seeks him, extinguished, with continual groaning and mourning.
O truly wise bird!

Thus St. Augustine groans, sighs, and pants after God in his Meditations, especially chap. XXXVI, where among other things he says: "Give me an evident sign of your love, a well-watering fountain of tears continually flowing forth, that the tears themselves also may bear witness in me to their love, that they themselves may declare, they themselves may speak, how much my soul loves you, while, from the excessive sweetness of your love, it cannot keep itself from tears, etc. Give me the upper watering and the lower watering, that my tears may be my bread day and night."

...is the groaning confession of the penitent; the pruning is satisfaction, whereby, through fasts, tears, and other penal works, past guilt is chastised, and the occasion of future guilt is cut off and cut down.

To this end serves the fact that the turtledove is a symbol of penance: for after the death of her mate she groans and mourns perpetually; she never perches on a green branch as before, but always on a dry one; she never looks at herself in water, lest the image and memory of her dead mate should come upon her; nor does she drink clear and limpid water as before, but muddy and slimy water, indeed she stirs up clear water with her foot before she drinks, as the naturalists relate, and Sanchez from them; whence Baptista Mantuanus:

Just as, when she has lost the partner of her marriage-bed, through the fields
The turtledove flies alone, nor drinks in shining waters,
Lest she be saddened by the seen image of her former companion,
Nor thereafter is she borne to settle on a green trunk.

Secondly, Christ calls the holy soul from idleness and torpor to the pursuit of virtue and good works, namely that it may bring forth the flowers of almsgiving, the pruning of fasting and mortification, and the voice of the turtledove, that is, prayer and meditation; likewise pious groanings, and sighs flowing from a devout heart full of love, by the instinct of the dove, that is, of the Holy Spirit, concerning which the Apostle says, Rom. chap. VIII, verse 26: "The Spirit himself asks for us with unspeakable groanings." Whence St. Bernard, sermon 59: "The voice of the turtledove," he says, "why not of turtledoves? Perhaps the Apostle resolves this, where he says: Because the Spirit himself asks for the saints with unspeakable groanings, Rom. VIII, 26. So it is: he himself, who makes them groan, is clothed in groaning, and however many there may be whom you hear groaning in this way, the voice of one sounds through the lips of all."

He adds that the turtledove signifies lovers of silence and solitude, and consequently of prayer and groaning: for the turtledove loves solitude. For in solitude Christ speaks to the heart, says Origen, indeed Hosea II, 14. Furthermore, how the desires, ever sprouting anew from our ingrained corrupted nature, are to be mortified by a continual and unceasing mortification, St. Bernard beautifully teaches, sermon 58. Moreover, as St. Ambrose says, book II, Apology of David, chap. III: "There is a winter not of time, but of the mind, which strips the fruitful field of the soul of every flower, when cold steals into the mind, when the warmth of the mind vanishes, when the vigor of feeling is dissolved, when excessive moisture floods into the mind, when the inner sight grows dim." Nyssen vividly depicts this winter, homily 5, where he also says that the soul sanctified through the grace of Christ brings forth the flowers of the virtues, and will bring forth fruit in its own time. So too Cassiodorus, Origen, Bede, Anselm, and Bernard understand the flowers as the virtues, namely the beginnings of holiness.

Thirdly, the voice of the turtledove is to groan, and by groaning to sigh toward God; whence Virgil:

Nor will the turtledove cease to groan from the airy elm.

Anagogically, the holy soul is here called from the exile of this life to the heavenly homeland and glory; Christ therefore says to her: Come into my bridal chamber, my bride, O holy soul, now the winter of torpid mortality has passed; the rain of fleeting concupiscence, as well as of hardships, persecutions, anguishes, cares, which continually rain down abundantly upon men in this life, as it were a rain from heaven, has now gone away and withdrawn; the flowers of heavenly glory now appear; the time of pruning, namely that in which all the roots of vices and miseries may be cut away from you by death, has come; the voice of the turtledove, with which groaning you have many times sighed for this redemption of your body, has been heard; come therefore, enter into the place of glory and blessed immortality. So St. Gregory: "Flowers," he says, "are said to have appeared in the land, because holy souls, when they depart from their bodies, are received in heaven. And because, although in this life there was winter, they did not grow torpid in good work, as soon as they departed, they flowered gloriously in the land of the living. Well therefore it follows, what he says: The time of pruning has come, because the greater the number of the elect gathered in heaven, the more quickly the reprobate are cut off from the Church as useless branches, so that the world may come to an end the sooner." And a little after: "What is signified by the turtledove but the Church? What is designated by the land of the bridegroom but that blessed life? But the voice of the turtledove is said to be heard in the land of the bridegroom, because while the holy Church prays according to her desire, she is most mercifully heard by Christ in heaven." So too Origen, Justus Orgelitanus, Theodoret, and others, who understand by the winter the disturbances and tribulations of this life, and by the rain the storms of vices. St. Gregory adds, homily 16 on Ezekiel, that the flowers are the foretastes of heavenly glory, which the saints draw from God in this life, and especially at death: "Then," he says, "the flowers appear in the land, because, when the soul has begun to foretaste certain first sweetnesses of the life of eternal blessedness, it is, as it were, already scented amid flowers as it departs, which, after it has gone forth, it will possess more abundantly in the fruit."

Furthermore St. Ambrose, sermon 6 on Psalm CXVIII, reads for "the time of pruning" "the time of cutting," "in which," he says, "the ripe grain is stored in barns, and he who reaps receives a reward." Whence also Philo Carpathius says that this is the time of death.

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

At the beginning of spring, namely on the 25th day of March, under the equinox, the angel Gabriel announcing to the Blessed Virgin the conception of Christ, and she giving her consent, the Word was made flesh. Then therefore the long winter of the prophets and of the most harsh law passed, the rain of sins, and of the wrath and threats of God, went away, and a most delightful spring, blooming with the flowers of grace, of reconciliation and remission of sins, and of the opening of heaven, appeared, when the sun of justice, Christ the Lord, arose; then likewise was the time of pruning, that is, of grace and penance, through which the depraved habits of sins are cut away, and the harmful delights of concupiscences are cut off: for through it a spiritual circumcision is made in the spirit, of which that circumcision of the Jews in the flesh was a type and shadow, Rom. II, 29. Then the voice of the turtledove, that is, of the most chaste Virgin sighing for the incarnation of Christ, was heard: "Behold," she says, "the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word," Luke I, 35: so Rupert. Again, the voice of the turtledove was the exultation of John in the womb of his mother, when she was greeted by the Blessed Virgin, then pregnant with Christ, Luke I, 41. To this the voice of the turtledove was the voice of the widow Anna, who, at 83 years of age, not departing from the temple, spoke of Christ to all who awaited the redemption of Israel, says Justus Orgelitanus. The flowers of Judea can also be called Christ, says Origen, and John, already conceived in the womb of his mother.

Moreover the Fathers judge that there is described here the most happy time, in which Christ in the flesh (for the flesh and humanity of Christ is here the primary bride of the Word, as I said in the Proem, chap. II) dwelt among the Jews, and in spring, namely at the Passover, suffered and rose again. So Cassiodorus, Bede, Origen, Theodoret, Nyssen, Philo, Aponius, Rupert, Bernard, sermon 58, who teaches that the time of winter was for the apostles from the Passion of Christ until the coming of the Holy Spirit, who dissolved the winter, that is, the cold of fear and torpor, by the ardor of his charity, and turned it into a divine spring and summer; and by the rain he understands the blasphemies of the Jews, the pharisaic traditions, the loquacity of the philosophers, the erroneous doctrines of heretics, and all turbulent spirits. "Christ," says St. Bernard, "rose and appeared as a flower from the earth, and with him many bodies of the saints, like many flowers, rose and appeared to many." Whence a Christian poet thus depicts the spring of nature and of Christ:

In spring the burgeoning fields are renewed,
The buds return upon the vine-shoot, and green
Grows the foliage in the groves, all the grass
In the garden grows young again.
The vernal season flourishes before its time,
Spring, the whole glory and charm of the year,
And spring, welcome to the gods above, is the origin
Of things and of the seasons.
God sent the messenger of heaven to Mary
In spring; and then by the cross he conquered the enemies
Of hell, and Christ took away
The iron of Lachesis.

Finally, Hugh of St. Victor, in his sermon On the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, toward the end of tome II, teaches that the voice of the turtledove is the voice of the love with which the Blessed Virgin was aflame: "The voice of the turtledove," he says, "sings to love and to affection, and the turtledove has a singular affection, to which it sings joy when present, or affection when absent. Therefore the voice of the turtledove is wholly about love, and the turtledove knows nothing else besides love; and to it there is a singular love, which joins no other to the sole one; and an eternal love, which adds no second to the first. Therefore the voice of the turtledove sings to love, and the voice of the turtledove is the song of love, and hearts burn at the voice of the turtledove; one thing it is that the voice of the turtledove sounds, and it always sounds and resounds that, and never grows weary of it. It always sings the same, since it always loves the same. And who will be worthy to hear the voice of the turtledove? It sings in solitude, and the turtledove always loves solitude, because it seeks a singular love." And a few words having been interjected: "O beautiful one among the daughters of Jerusalem, you have heard the voice of the turtledove, you have heard and understood. He was speaking within, and you were within; therefore you heard and understood, and said: The voice of my beloved! For you understood that it was the voice of the beloved, and that it was about love; for you would not have understood unless you had loved, because it was a word of love, and it could not be understood except by one who loves. The beloved was speaking, and he was speaking to his beloved, and love was being commended. Since therefore you have heard the voice of the beloved, and understood the love, delay no longer, rise quickly."

VERSE 13. THE FIG TREE HAS PUT FORTH ITS GREEN FIGS: THE FLOWERING VINES HAVE GIVEN THEIR SCENT. RISE, MY FRIEND, MY BEAUTIFUL ONE, AND COME.

THE FIG TREE HAS PUT FORTH ITS GREEN FIGS, THE FLOWERING VINES (Symmachus: "the flower of the vine has given") HAVE GIVEN THEIR SCENT. RISE, MY FRIEND, MY BEAUTIFUL ONE, AND COME. — The Septuagint: "the fig tree has brought forth its buds, the flowering vines have given their scent." For "flowering," the Greek is kyprizousi, that is, cyprissantes — that is, flowering and giving forth fragrance after the manner of the cyprus. The first figs are called grossi, which sometimes fall unripe, but give a sample and a hope of the ripeness and perfection of the rest; sometimes they ripen, and are sweet and pleasant, as Columella attests, book V, chapter X. Understand grossi here, then, as either the ones that fall, or rather the ones that are ripening: for in Hebrew it is pag, whence the Latin ficus; but pag some Hebrews derive from panag, with the middle nun elided, that is, "it has been made delightful": for fresh figs are the delight of mouth and stomach, especially the grossi, or the first ripe ones, of which it is said in Micah chapter 7: "My soul has desired the early figs." For "flowering," the Hebrew is semadar, which signifies the flower or bud of the vine, when it is already beginning to form berries, and is producing the small grains of the grapes. Behold, this confirms what I said at the preceding verse — that the spring noted here is not merely beginning, but also advancing, or full-grown: for the fig trees are putting forth their grossi, and the vines are flowering and forming berries, in a spring now fully grown.

He names the fig and the vine above the other trees, because the fruit of these — namely figs and grapes — are the sweetest and most excellent: for the fruit of all other trees has something watery, raw, and undercooked in it; the fig alone, on account of its heat, has nothing raw, but is wholly ripe and thoroughly cooked; nor does it have any stones or kernels, but only pure juice, edible, and sugary, or honeyed. Whence a certain one said that the fig is a purse of honey: with these fruits the bridegroom invites the bride from her little bed into the field and the vineyard.

FIRST SENSE, THE FULL SENSE: Concerning Christ and the Church.

With the apostles preaching in the spring, that is, at Pentecost, and thereafter, "the fig tree put forth its grossi" — that is, many Jews were converted to Christ — and "the flowering vines" (that is, the Gentiles beginning to believe) "gave the scent" of a holy life, of reputation, and of example, and from this a hope of great fruitfulness, namely of the conversion of absolutely all the nations. But just as some grossi ripen, while very many fall unripe, so few of the Jews remained constant in the faith; for very many of them fell away from the faith, and relapsed into Judaism; for Christ by his preaching converted many out of the crowd, but the greater part of them fell away out of fear of the chief priests and scribes, especially when they saw Christ suffer, be crucified, and die. Likewise John the Baptist, by his austerity and the effectiveness of his preaching, converted many of the Jews, but many of them relapsed into their former sins. Whence Christ, in John 5, speaking of John, says: "He was a burning and shining lamp; but you were willing to rejoice for an hour in his light," as if signifying that their conversion had been only for an hour. But John himself accused some as not believing sincerely: "Brood of vipers," he said, "who has shown you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth, therefore, fruits worthy of penance," etc.

Furthermore, how few of those who believed Christ as he preached remained faithful is clear from this: that while he was still preaching, many of the disciples went back, so that, turning, he said to the Twelve: "Do you also wish to go away?" John 6:68. When he was handed over to his passion, he was abandoned even by these same Twelve, and denied by nearly everyone, while the whole multitude of the Jews cried out loudly before the face of Pilate: John 19:15, and Matthew 27:25: "Away with him, away with him, crucify him, crucify him. His blood be upon us," etc. Finally, how unripe and grossus that fruit of Jewish repentance was is clear from what Paul says to the Jews: "It was necessary that the word of the kingdom of God be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles," Acts 13:46. But indeed "the flowering vines gave their scent," most pleasing indeed: for the peoples of the Gentiles, scattered throughout the whole world, who until the coming of Christ had been fruitless, as if in a kind of perpetual winter of idolatry, at the preaching of the holy apostles at once began to flower, and by flowering poured forth a most sweet and most pleasing scent into the nostrils of the Lord of Hosts, who accordingly, by the breath of its virtue and its renown, far surpassed all the holocausts and incense of the old law. So say St. Gregory, Nyssen, Cassiodorus, Bede, Philo, Anselm, Rupert, and St. Bernard. Christ represented this same thing in a deed, when, being hungry, he sought fruit from a fig tree, and not finding any, he cursed it, saying: "Let no fruit grow on you forever: and immediately the fig tree withered," Matthew 21:19; for this fig tree, just like the one which the master ordered cut down on account of its barrenness, Luke 13:6, represented the Synagogue, that is, the dryness and reprobation of the Jews in the faith, as St. Jerome, Gregory, Hilary, and the rest of the Greek and Latin Fathers teach with unanimous consent.

Hear St. Ambrose, book VII on Luke, chapter 13, comparing the fig tree with other trees: "Other trees," he says, "bear the blossom before the fruit, and by their blossom foretell the fruits to come; this tree alone from the start puts forth fruits in place of blossoms. In other trees the blossom is shaken off, and the fruits are born; in this one the fruits fall, so that fruits may succeed them; therefore those first, empty of fruit, come forth in place of a blossom." Then applying the same to the Jews and the Gentiles: "Consider now," he says, "the observances and the dispositions of the Jews, who, like the first fruits of a poorly-fruiting Synagogue, fell away after the likeness of a falling grossus, so that fruits enduring beyond the age of our race might succeed them. For the first people of the Synagogue, weak as if from a dried-up root of works, could not draw up the richness of natural wisdom. And therefore, as though useless, the fruit fell, so that, as it were from the same little tendrils of the fruitful tree, out of the richness of the ancient religion, the new people of the Church might emerge. Therefore that people, which was, ceased to be, so that this people, which was not, might begin. Yet the first of Israel, whom a branch of a stronger nature had raised up under the shadow of the law and of the cross, colored in the double sap in the bosom of each, after the example of the ripening grossus, surpassed the rest in the grace of most beautiful fruits — to whom it is said: You also shall sit upon twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel," Matthew 19:28.

To this belongs the exposition of St. Anselm: "The fig tree put forth its grossi," that is, he says, the precepts of the old law fell like useless fruit. For, as St. Bernard says, sermon 60: "And truly, what was not grossus in that nation? Certainly neither their acts, nor their affections, nor their understanding, nor even the rite which they had in worshipping God. For their action was wholly in wars, their affection wholly in gain, their understanding in the grossness of the letter, their worship in the blood of cattle and herds." He then adds that this production of grossi was brought to completion by the Synagogue of the Jews: "When it killed Christ, then its malice was completed, according to what he himself had foretold to them: Fill up the measure of your fathers, Matthew 23:32; whence, on the point of giving up his spirit on the gibbet, 'It is consummated,' he says, John 19:30. Oh, what a consummation this accursed fig tree gave to its own grossi, and thereupon was condemned to everlasting dryness!" And after several things inserted: "From then, therefore, it could be said that the fig tree put forth its grossi, when now, that is, the observances of that people had begun to be, as it were, at their utmost end, so that, according to the old prophecy, when the new things came, the old would be cast away, Leviticus 26:10. Not otherwise indeed than how the grossi fall, and give way to the good figs rising up beneath them." St. Bernard then adds that, just as serpents are put to flight by the scent of the flowering vine, so demons were put to flight by the fervor of the first Christians; and he adds: "But if, for the soul-vine, the work is the blossom, the reputation is the scent, what is the fruit? Martyrdom. And truly the fruit of the vine is the blood of the martyr." So too St. Gregory: "The fig tree," he says, "put forth its grossi, because Holy Church sent her martyrs ahead to the eternal homeland." So too Aponius.

Symbolically, the fig tree is Christ and the cross of Christ: first, because the fig tree has branches and leaves that are sparse, straggling, and of little worth — so Christ and the cross, in outward appearance, were, to worldly men, worthless and despised. Second, because the fig tree puts forth no blossoms, but instead of blossoms at once gives fruit, and that most sweet — so Christ at once gave most sweet fruits, when he saved the Jews and the Gentiles. Third, because many hold that the forbidden fruit which Adam ate was a fig — so Theodoret, Gennadius, Isidore, and others whom I cited at Genesis 3:6; it was fitting, then, that the cross of Christ either be made of fig wood, or be signified by it, so that the fig, which had given death to the disobedient Adam and to his posterity, might give life to the obedient Christ and to Christians. Hence Belon, who traveled through the Holy Land and the whole East, book II, Observations 88, indicates that the material of the cross of Christ was fig wood, because this tree is common in Palestine, and would also be common in the workshops of craftsmen — though others think otherwise, as I shall say at chapter 7, verse 8. The vines are the apostles, because, transplanted from the whole world though they were of little worth, they brought forth for God and Christ the abundant grapes and wine of the conversion of the nations.

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

The fig tree and the vine that every believer must cultivate is the soul: for this, if it is rightly cultivated, will give figs most sweet of gentleness, patience, almsgiving, and sweetness of conduct and of speech; and grapes, and the wine of charity, which kindles the mind and makes it drunk with the love of God. Hence that saying of Proverbs 27:18: "He who keeps the fig tree shall eat its fruit." See what is said there. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 60: "I say, moreover, by the grace of God which is in us, that we have both figs and vines. Figs indeed are those who are sweeter in their conduct; vines, however, are those who are more fervent in spirit. Everyone who conducts himself among us in common and sociable fashion, and not only lives among the brothers without complaint, but also, with much sweetness, offers himself to be enjoyed by all in every office of charity — why should I not most fittingly say that he plays the part of a fig tree?" And after several things inserted: "Now those who are vines show themselves stricter than sweet toward us, acting with a vehement spirit, zealous for discipline, most sharply correcting vices, fitting to themselves most suitably that saying: Have I not hated those who hate you, O Lord, and pined away over your enemies? Psalm 138:21; likewise: The zeal of your house has eaten me up, Psalm 68:10. And to me indeed the former seem to excel in love of neighbor, the latter in love of God."

More generally, Theodoret understands by the grossi the first fruits of the soul's faith, which the fruits of good works follow. Now, who the grossi are, St. Bernard explains thus at the start of sermon 60: "Truly the fig tree is a people fragile in flesh, small in understanding, humble in spirit, whose first fruits (to play for a moment on the name) are grossi indeed, and earthly. For it is not the way of the common crowd to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, Matthew 6:33; but rather, as the Apostle says, Matthew 6:23, to think on the things of the world, how they may please their wives, or the wives their husbands: such as these will have tribulation of the flesh; but in the last things we do not deny that they will attain the fruits of faith, if they have a good last confession, and especially if they have redeemed the works of the flesh with alms. Therefore the first fruits of the common people are not fruits at all, no more than the grossi of fig trees" — which are of no use for anything, except that the fruits to follow are, as it were, certain forerunners of them, but they themselves fall unripe and give place to those ripening, being themselves in no way fit to grow further.

Anagogically, the fig tree and the vine represent the sweetness of the heavenly homeland: for there God will give us to drink of heavenly figs and divine wine, according to that promise of Christ: "And I appoint to you a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table," Luke 22:29, and "I say to you, I will not drink from now on of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I shall drink it new with you in the kingdom of my Father," Matthew 26:29. Hence too Christ represented the end of the world, and the day of judgment and resurrection, by the fig tree: "Behold the fig tree," he says, "and all the trees: when they now bring forth fruit of themselves, you know that summer is near. So also you, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near," Luke 21:29.

To this belongs the Chaldee Version, which refers these things to the entry of the Hebrews into the Promised Land, where each one sat quiet and glad under his own vine and fig tree. For this entry was a type of the entry into the land of the living, that is, into heaven. Hear the Chaldean: "The assembly of Israel, which is compared to early figs, opened its mouth, and spoke a song by the reedy sea, and even the children and infants praised the Ruler of the world with their tongues: at once the Ruler of the world said to them: Arise, O congregation of Israel, my beloved and my fair one, go forth from here to the land which I swore to your fathers."

Further, just as the grossi precede the figs, and foretell their fruitfulness, so good acts of virtue are forerunners of the sweetest fruits, which we shall fully enjoy in heaven: so Nyssen. Hence, again, Origen, homily 4 of the four, understands by the flowering vines the angels, who, he says, "bestow upon men their scent, that is, the good of doctrine and instruction, by which they instruct and imbue souls, until they come to perfection, and begin to become capable of God." And after several things: "The angelic virtues," he says, "with whom the elect and the blessed will be associated in the resurrection, who will be like the angels of God, are themselves the flowering vines and vineyards, which bestow their scent on each soul, and the grace which it first received from the Creator, and now, having been lost, has recovered again, and by the sweetness of a heavenly scent at last drive away the stench of mortality and corruption cast off from them."

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

"The vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel," says the prophet Isaiah, chapter 5, verse 7. The vines, then, that is, the prophets and patriarchs, says St. Bernard, "worshipped Christ, who was to be born and to die in the flesh, but did not then give that same scent of theirs, because they did not display in the flesh what they had perceived beforehand in the spirit; they did not give their scent, because they did not make public their secret, waiting for it to be revealed in its own time. But they gave it afterward, when, through the successions of generations, they had brought forth for the ages Christ, born from themselves according to the flesh by a virgin birth. Then plainly, I say, those spiritual vines gave their scent, when the kindness and love for mankind of our Savior God appeared, Titus 3:4, and the world began to have present, him whom few as yet had perceived beforehand while absent." And after several things: "It is said, then, that the vines gave their scent, either because faithful souls spread abroad everywhere a good opinion of themselves, or because the oracles and revelations of the Fathers were made known to the world, and their fragrance went out into all the earth, as the Apostle says, 1 Timothy 3:16: And manifestly great is the mystery of piety, which was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, appeared to angels, was preached to the Gentiles, was believed in the world, was taken up in glory." Hence three Anonymous writers in Theodoret understand by the flower of the vines, that is, of the Church, the three Magi, who were the first fruits of the believing Gentiles, when they came to Bethlehem to the Mother of God, and offered to Christ frankincense as to God, gold as to a king, and myrrh as to a mortal man, one who was to die for the salvation of mankind.

RISE, MY FRIEND, MY BEAUTIFUL ONE, AND COME. — By this repetition, says Nyssen, the soul is roused to advance always in virtue, and to progress in spirit: "For to him," says Nyssen, homily 5, "who truly rises, there will never be lacking the need always to rise; nor for him who runs to the Lord will the broad and wide space of the field ever be used up, for the completing of the divine course. For one must always be rising and being roused, and never cease drawing nearer through the course. Wherefore, as often as he says: Rise and come, so often are further ascents toward that which is better added by the Word, in the things that follow in sequence." St. Bernard, however, sermon 61: "The bridegroom commends his great love," he says, "by repeating the words of love. For repetition is the expression of affection, and the fact that he again urges his beloved to the labor of the vineyards shows how solicitous he is for the salvation of souls: for you have already heard that the vines are souls."

VERSE 14. MY DOVE IN THE CLEFTS OF THE ROCK, IN THE HOLLOW OF THE WALL, SHOW ME THY FACE, LET THY VOICE SOUND IN MY EARS: FOR THY VOICE IS SWEET, AND THY FACE COMELY.

MY DOVE IN THE CLEFTS OF THE ROCK, IN THE HOLLOW OF THE WALL (in Hebrew, in the secret place of that step or stairway — Vatablus: in the recess of the stairs, or in the hidden part of the step, that is, of the spiral staircase, that is, he says, of Christ, through whom we shall ascend to Christ), SHOW ME THY FACE. — The Vatican Septuagint: thou, my dove, in the covering (Saint Ambrose and Origen: in the veil) of the rock, beside the outer wall; Saint Ambrose, sermon 6 on Psalm 118: beside the fortification; the Complutensian: come thou, my dove, in the covering of the rock; the Syriac: in the veil of the hedge, clinging to the outer wall, show me thy countenance: for wild doves nest not in dovecotes as tame ones do, but in the clefts of rocks and the hollows of walls, that is, of rubble, of heaped-up stones, of ruined walls, as if to say: Remember, O bride, that thou, no less than I, art a rustic shepherd, who, like a free and wild dove, dwell in the country amid the ruins of buildings and rocks: therefore go forth from the house and the city, and go on with me into the field, where we shall happily live as rustics, be fed, and be delighted. Hence Origen judges that here is signified not the terminus from which but the terminus to which — namely, the place to which the bride, at the bridegroom's invitation, ought to come — as if to say: Come, that thou mayest dwell with me in the clefts of the rock. "He adds this," he says, "in order to show her the place to which she ought to come, which place is situated under the covering and shelter of the rock; and this same place is not so much beside a wall as beside a certain outer wall; and it is called an outer wall when, outside the walls that surround the city, another wall is built, and it is a wall before the wall."

Thus the sense will be, as if to say: Come, O bride, and go forth from the house and the city into the fields; there, in shady tents cut out of the rock, we shall dwell in quiet and gladness. So too Rupert, and Saint Bernard — hear him: "Fear not, O bride, as though these works of the vineyards, to which we exhort thee, were bound to hinder or interrupt the business of love. There will indeed be, in this too, some use toward that which we likewise desire. Vineyards, indeed, have walls, and lodgings pleasing to the modest."

Our Sanchez more fittingly judges that here is signified the terminus from which: for the bride is called forth from the clefts of the rock into the open air of the vineyards, that she may draw a free breath from the free and clear sky. The bride, he says, being timid and intent on her own comfort, keeping herself at home on account of the harsh cold of winter, hiding herself like a dove in the clefts of the rock, shrinks from the open sky and the hard ground, whose harshness she thinks to be grievous; she dares not spend the night in the open air with the bridegroom; she loves her couch, and there she warms and indulges herself, just as certain wild beasts in their dens, and the creeping kind of animals in their caverns, avoid the discomforts of the winter season. From this retreat, therefore, and softness, he calls the bride forth, affirming that he himself has provided sufficiently, so that there is nothing in this marriage which she need fear. For although in the field there must be endured rains, heat, labors and sorrows, indeed death itself for the salvation of souls, yet the love of Christ, crucified for you, makes all these things sweet, and beneath the gall of the cross God hides honey and manna of wondrous delight: which, having tasted and explored it, the bride, perceiving how sweet the cross of Christ is, of her own accord calls the bridegroom into the field of labor and of the cross, chap. 7, 11.

Furthermore, the Chaldee refers this to the Hebrews shut in by mountains and rocks, when they crossed the Red Sea: "When," it says, "Pharaoh the impious pursued the people of the house of Israel, the assembly was like a dove which is shut up in the clefts of the rock, which a serpent hems in from within, and a hawk hems in from without: so the assembly of Israel was shut in on four sides of the world, since before them was the sea, and behind them the enemy pursued, and on their two flanks were deserts full of fiery serpents, which bit and killed the sons of men with their venom: but forthwith it opened its mouth in prayer before the Lord, and a voice came down from the high heavens, and thus it said: Thou, congregation of Israel, who art compared to a clean dove, and art hidden in the enclosure of the clefts of the rock, and in the hidden places of the steps, show me," etc.

FIRST, FULL SENSE. ON CHRIST AND THE CHURCH.

Christ, the Holy Spirit having been sent at Pentecost, makes the Church — struck with fear of the Jews, and hiding like a dove in the caves of the rock, that is, the apostles lying concealed in Sion after Christ's ascension and given over to prayer and to meditation on the passion of Christ — courageous and strong, and calls her forth, that they may come out into public, and there, in the fields and villages, show their face to themselves and to the rest, and make the voice of preaching to be heard, as being sweet to themselves and salutary to their hearers. Thus of old, in the time of the emperors Decius, Gallienus, Diocletian, who persecuted the faithful, bishops and Christians hid themselves in caves, caverns, and crypts, which even now exist in subterranean Rome, and strike a sacred awe into those who behold them.

Wherefore by the clefts of the rock, the Fathers understand symbolically the five wounds of Christ (for he is the rock, 1 Cor. 10:4); indeed Zechariah, chapter 3:9, saw a stone with eyes, engraved with carving, that is, Christ incised in his passion with his own wounds and marks: see what is said there. So Saint Gregory: "By the clefts of the rock," he says, "I would gladly understand the wounds of the hands and feet of Christ hanging on the cross; and by the hollow of the wall I would, in the same sense, say the wound of the side, which was made by the lance." And rightly is the dove said to be in the clefts of the rock and in the hollow of the wall, because when, in the remembrance of the cross, she imitates the patience of Christ, while she brings those very wounds back to memory for the sake of example, it is as the dove in the clefts: thus the simple soul finds in the wounds the nourishment by which she may grow strong. Yet by the clefts of the rock the mysteries of the incarnation of Christ can also be signified, and by the hollow of the wall the very protection of angelic guardianship can be figured."

And Rupert: "And they shall look (says Zechariah, chapter 12:10) upon me, whom they have pierced: for the nails of Christ and the lance are the wounds of my soul; in these I dwell and groan, like a dove in the clefts of the rock, on account of the piercing of the nails; in the hollow of the wall, on account of the wound of the side: for Christ is the rock and the wall; for while existing mortal and passible he was the wall, but when he had risen from the dead, he is the most solid rock." So too Cassiodorus, Bede, Justus, Anselm, and Aponius, who says that Saint Thomas dwelt absorbed in these wounds of Christ, when, Christ appearing after the resurrection and showing them, he exclaimed: "My Lord and my God."

Hear Saint Bernard, sermon 61: "The clefts of the rock," he says, "are the wounds of Christ, quite rightly: for Christ is the rock. Good clefts, which establish the faith of the resurrection, and the divinity of Christ." "My Lord," he says, "and my God, John 20:28." Whence was this oracle brought back, if not from the clefts of the rock? In these the sparrow finds for herself a house, and the turtledove a nest, where she may lay up her young: in these they strike a sacred awe into those who behold them.

sanctia; so too Aponius understands by the clefts of the rock the four Gospels, and by the hollow of the wall the doctrine of the apostles, through which the Church and the faithful soul come to the knowledge and worship of God. And Saint Ambrose, on Psalm 113, sermon 6, following the Septuagint: "Come," he says (O Church, O soul betrothed to Christ), "according to the Gospel, the bulwarks of thy faith are the deeds of Christ, the supports of thy walls are the words of the Lord, the passion of the Lord's body is thy strength." Similar things are held by Gregory of Nyssa and three Anonymous writers in Theodoret, and by Philo of Carpasia, who says that we are here called to the defense of the rock, that is, to the Gospel, by which we are defended against all the snares of the devil, whose outer wall is the old law. By both laws, therefore, both the new and the old, we are defended."

But Saint Jerome, book 1 Against Jovinian, says that Christ is for us a most firm rock and outer wall, according to that, Isaiah 26:1: "The city of our strength is Sion: the Savior will be set in it as a wall and an outer wall."

SECOND, PARTIAL SENSE. ON CHRIST AND THE HOLY SOUL.

Saint Bernard, sermon 61, asserts that pious and religious souls dwell in the clefts of the rock (whence also, in truth, the Essenes under Saint Mark, and the anchorites in caves and crypts, gave themselves to prayer and to the praises of God), that is, by meditating in the wounds of Christ; but martyrs, by imitating them, and by suffering with Christ and for Christ: "The kind leader," he says, "wills that the face and eyes of his devoted soldier be lifted up to his own wounds, that from this he may raise up his soul, and by his example render him stronger to endure. Indeed he will not feel his own, while he gazes upon those of the other. The martyr stands exulting and triumphing, though his whole body be torn; and as the iron probes his sides, not only bravely but eagerly he watches the sacred blood well up and boil forth from his flesh. Where then is the soul of the martyr at that time? Surely in safety, surely in the rock, surely in the inmost parts of Jesus, the wounds indeed lying open for entry. If it were in its own inmost parts, the iron searching them it would surely feel; it would not bear the pain, it would succumb and deny. But now, dwelling in the rock, what wonder if it has hardened after the manner of the rock?" Then, enlarging upon this same point, he adds: "But neither is this a wonder, if, being exiled from the body, it does not feel the pains of the body. Nor does numbness cause this, but love. For sensation is suppressed, not lost. Nor is pain absent, but it is overcome, but it is despised. Therefore from the rock comes the fortitude of the martyr, thence truly strong enough to drink the cup of the Lord. And this inebriating cup, how excellent it is! Psalm 22:5. Excellent, I say, and pleasant, no less to the emperor who watches than to the soldier who triumphs. For the joy of the Lord is our strength. Why should he not rejoice at the voice of so brave a confession? Finally he even seeks it with desire: Let thy voice, he says, sound in my ears. Nor will he delay to repay the exchange according to his own promise: immediately, that whoever has confessed him before men, he too will confess before his Father." Matt. 10:36.

But by the hollow of the wall the same Saint Bernard, sermon 62, together with Cassiodorus, Bede and Anselm, understands the communion of saints, and the guardianship of the blessed angels and men, who watch over the pious and the elect, so that through them the ruins of the fallen angels, that is, of the demons, may be restored in the heavenly homeland, and this is brought about through the wounds and merits of Christ. In the meditation and invocation of these, therefore, he asserts that the pious soul ought to dwell. "It will be permitted, therefore," he says, "to each one of us, even in this time of our mortality, to secure for himself, in whatever part he will, the hollows of the heavenly wall — now indeed to revisit the patriarchs, now to greet the prophets, now to mingle with the senate of the apostles, now to be inserted into the choirs of the martyrs, and also, running through the ranks and dwellings of the blessed powers, from the least angel even to the cherubim and seraphim, to survey them with the whole eagerness of the mind, according as each one's devotion shall lead him."

Symbolically, Saint Anselm understands by the clefts of the rock the kind providence, mercy and protection of Christ, to which the holy soul flees, and under which, secure, it lies hidden.

Anagogically, Saint Bernard, by the rock and the wall, and its hollow and clefts, understands the secret of the heavenly glory of God and of the blessed, in which the pious soul dwells by contemplating. For thus he says: "It is evident that there are two kinds of contemplation: one concerning the state and happiness and glory of the city above, in which that vast multitude of the heavenly citizens is occupied, whether in action or in leisure. The other concerning the majesty, eternity, and divinity of the King himself. The former is in the wall; the latter in the rock." And Origen, following the Septuagint: "The soul," he says, "is called forth outside the wall and is led on as far as the outer wall, when, casting away the things that are seen and are temporal, it strives toward the things that are not seen and are eternal: and it is shown to her that this journey is to be made under the covering of the rock," that is, under the firm and solid teachings of Christ. If, therefore, the soul is covered and veiled by the doctrine and faith of Christ, it can safely arrive at that secret place, where, with face unveiled, it may contemplate the glory of the Lord." Then, several things being interposed, he adds: "We can further add this also concerning the place of the outer wall, that the outer wall is the bosom of the Father, in which the only-begotten Son, being placed, declares to his Church all things whatsoever are contained in the secret and hidden bosom of the Father." Whence also a certain one, taught by him, said: No man hath seen God at any time; the Only-begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. Thither therefore Christ calls his bride, that he may also teach her concerning all things that are held with the Father, and say: For I have made known to you all things that I have heard from my Father. And: Father, I will that where I am, there also my minister may be, John 3:26.

THIRD, PRINCIPAL SENSE. ON CHRIST AND THE BLESSED VIRGIN.

Christ was incarnate in the hollow of the wall, that is, in the hidden place of the virginal womb, according to that, Isaiah 51:1: "Look unto the rock from which you were hewn, and to the hollow of the pit from which you were cut," and was born in the cleft of the rock, that is, in the cave of Bethlehem, which had been hewn out of the rock, according to that: "And she laid him in a manger, because there was no room for him in the inn," Luke 2:7. Whence Saint Jerome, epistle 18 to Marcella, inviting her to Bethlehem, where he himself was living with Saint Paula: "With what speech," he says, "with what voice shall I set forth the cave of the Savior, and that manger where the little infant cried, a thing to be honored by silence rather than by the humblest speech." And after some things: "Behold, in this little cleft of earth (Bethlehem) the Founder of the heavens was born; here he was wrapped in swaddling clothes, here he was seen by the shepherds, here he was shown by the star, here he was adored by the Magi," etc.

Rupert refers these things to John the Baptist, who, existing in the cavern, that is, in his mother's womb, on hearing the voice of the Blessed Virgin greeting his mother Elizabeth, leaped for joy, because, through her, recognizing, loving, and adoring Christ conceived in her womb, he was cleansed from original sin, and filled with the Holy Spirit.

Finally, by the cleft of the rock can be understood the sepulcher of Christ, which had been hewn out of the rock, from which he rose again in glory. For this place, no less than Mount Calvary, where the cross of Christ had been fixed in the rock, and the other places in which Christ had suffered, the Blessed Virgin frequently and devoutly visited and went about, so that she seemed almost to dwell in them.

SHOW ME THY FACE, LET THY VOICE SOUND IN MY EARS: FOR THY VOICE IS SWEET, AND THY FACE COMELY.

Gregory of Nyssa, Philo, and Psellus judge that here the bride speaks, and asks for the presence and conversation of the bridegroom. Then, says Philo, Christ showed his comely face, when the Word was made flesh and when he was transfigured; and his sweet voice, when he called those who labored, restored health, and forgave sins. But all the rest assert that these are the words of the bridegroom to the bride, who wishes and asks that the bride uncover her face, veiled and covered with the veil of the rock, and show it bare and clear, says Origen, so that in it, as in a mirror, the bridegroom may behold his own image, says Theodoret, and so that he may polish, paint, and perfect her, and lead her to a pure contemplation of heavenly things, as Origen would have it, according to that: "But we all, beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord," 2 Cor. 3:18: for by these words Christ calls back the apostles, timid and hidden in Sion, that at Pentecost they may boldly show their face to the people, and preach the gospel to them, as I said a little before: for what we do to our neighbors out of love of God, this we do to God, according to that word of Christ: "As long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me," Matt. 25:40.

Whence Saint Ambrose, on Psalm 118, sermon 6, verse 6, reading: "Show me thy face, and make known thy voice, for thy voice is pleasant, and thy face beautiful:" the voice, he says, is pleasant, because confession is made with the mouth unto salvation; and the face is comely, because it is not ashamed of its author, it is not confounded by its redeemer. She shows, therefore, her face, bearing before her the sign of the cross; and she makes known her voice, taking up the authority of preaching."

Let strong preachers, therefore, after the manner of the apostles, come forth into the pulpit out of the clefts of the rock, that is, out of the solitude of prayer and of meditation on the passion of Christ, that they may preach Christ crucified fearlessly, with great fervor and spirit of piety. Let them, therefore, show their face, that is, let them preach with an eye to Christ alone, not for the sake of their own gain, and let them turn their face away from all creatures, and turn it toward God alone through prayer, that they may be illumined by him, and conform to him their face, that is, their manner of life, just as Moses, conversing with God on Sinai, received from him a horned face, that is, horns of light breathed upon his face. Whence the Chaldee renders: show me thy countenance, and thy good works: make thy voice to be heard, for thy voice is sweetness in prayer in the house of the little sanctuary, and thy countenance is beautiful in good works.

The bridegroom, therefore, here asks that there be shown to him by the Church the purity of faith and of works, as a comely face, and the preaching of heavenly doctrine, as a sweet voice. So Cassiodorus, Saint Gregory, Bede, Origen, Theodoret, Anselm, and others. Hear Saint Gregory: "For what do we understand by the face, but the faith by which we are known by God? And what do we understand by the voice, but preaching? But the bridegroom commands that the bride show him her face, because whoever says he has faith, it is necessary that he exercise himself in good works, so that the interior faith may become known in exterior works; but it is also necessary that the voice of preaching follow the works, because whoever perfectly extends himself in holy works, it follows that he exhort his neighbors, each and all, to do the same. Therefore it follows: For thy voice is sweet, and thy face comely. For then both the voice pleases and the face is made comely, when preaching follows the works, and in turn good works accompany the preaching." And Cassiodorus: "Show me," he says, "thy face," which I gave thee in baptism, and when I cleansed thee from all sin. "Let thy voice," he says, "sound in my ears," that it may proceed from the sincere intention of my love, so that you preach for no other reason than for me.

But Aponius refers these things to the Jews converted by the apostles: "At the teaching of the apostles," he says, "the Church, as it were out of the cave of unbelief, began, her heart now pierced, to show her face to the Creator; and she who, by the fall of so great a crime, had defiled her face, persecuting the Lord of majesty, drenched with the blood of the just one, whom she had poured upon herself by her own voice, saying: His blood be upon us — now turned to herself, says: Show me thy face, let thy voice sound in my ears, etc. And so her voice, which had called forth a horrid, choked voice, most bitter and lamentable with the hoarseness of impiety, saying: Crucify him, crucify him — by such a draught and medicinal cup of the blood of Christ which they had shed, has been renewed to a tuneful sweetness, confessing that she believes him to be God, whom, as a man, she had condemned before Pilate."

Symbolically, the comely face signifies the beauty and comeliness of the holy mind conversing with God: for this is the face of man, not the outward, but the inward; the voice, however, signifies the pious groanings and sighs of the mind toward God: both are most pleasing and most delightful to God, so much so that by them God feeds and delights himself, according to that: "And the bridegroom shall rejoice over the bride, and thy God shall rejoice over thee," Isai. 62:5. Both make the preacher powerful and effective. Hear Saint Bernard, sermon 62: "For how much the preaching of truth, joined with purity of mind, pleases him, he shows, when he immediately adds: For thy voice is sweet. And that it does not please, if the face displeases, he demonstrates, when he straightway subjoins: And thy face is comely. What is the comeliness of the inward face, but purity? In many this has been pleasing without the voice of preaching; that, without this, in no one. Truth does not show herself to the impure; wisdom does not entrust herself to them. What then do they speak, which they have not seen? What we know," he says, "we speak, and what we see we testify. Do you, then, dare to testify to what you have not seen, and to speak what you do not know? Do you ask whom I call impure? He who seeks human praise, who does not preach the gospel without charge, who evangelizes in order to eat, who reckons piety as gain, who seeks not the fruit, but the gift."

Furthermore, Rupert applies these things most fittingly to the Blessed Virgin: "Show me," he says, "thy face," and by showing it correct what Eve sinned, and hid her face from me in the midst of the tree of paradise — in that very place, namely, in which she sinned, inasmuch as she took pleasure in her own sin, and defended her sin. "She did not show me her face," when I said: Where art thou? her voice did not sound in my ears, the voice of confession which ought to have sounded, at least when I said: Why hast thou done this? just as also when I blessed her, saying: "Increase and multiply;" no voice sounded in my ears, for she sang no song of thanksgiving for so great a benefit, by which I was appointing her the mother of so great a generation, one who was to possess so great an inheritance of the kingdom of God. Do thou show me, as indeed thou dost show, thy face. Let thy voice sound in my ears — the voice, I say, of confession and of thanksgiving. For thy voice is sweet in this, that thou art my dove, and intent upon the clefts of the rock; like a dove thou hast groaning instead of song — in singing thou groanest, in groaning thou singest, and the very exultation with which thy spirit exulted in God thy Savior is full of groanings, full of tears." "But thy face is comely," because great is thy faith, great is thy humility. These things Rupert, word for word, but with some things cut away for the sake of brevity. Now, literally, Nicephorus, from Saint Epiphanius, History, book 2, chapter 23, thus depicts the face of the Blessed Virgin: "Her face not round and sharp, but somewhat longer," etc. "She was wholly free from haughtiness, simple, and in no way affecting her countenance, bringing with her nothing of softness, but cultivating an excelling humility." The face of Christ was similar; for Christ, lacking a father, took after his mother. Hear Nicephorus, book 1, chapter 40: "He had a face neither round nor sharp, but such as his mother's was, inclining a little downward, and moderately ruddy; bearing before it a gravity and prudence joined with gentleness, and a placability devoid of anger. In short, he was altogether most like to his divine and immaculate mother."

Anagogically, by these words Christ calls forth the pious soul from the cavern of this life to heavenly glory, as I said above: for the face of such a soul is cleansed from every stain, even venial, and therefore comely;

VERSE 15. TAKE FOR US THE LITTLE FOXES, WHICH DESTROY THE VINEYARDS; FOR OUR VINEYARD HAS FLOURISHED.

TAKE FOR US THE LITTLE FOXES, WHICH DESTROY (the Septuagint has "which exterminate," Symmachus "corrupt") THE VINEYARDS: FOR OUR VINEYARD HAS FLOURISHED. The Septuagint: "and our vineyards cyprizosin," that is, they bud and flourish like cypress-vines; the Arabic: "and our vineyard will flourish, once the little foxes that corrupt them have been caught." The word "little" must be referred to "foxes," as is clear from the Hebrew, the Greek, and the Vulgate: wherefore it is a wonder that Origen, Philo Carpathius, and others refer the word "little" to "vineyards." Judea abounds in foxes, as is clear from the three hundred foxes which Samson caught, Judges 15:4. But foxes, more than other wild beasts, harm vineyards, both because they burrow beneath them and uproot them, and because they plunder and feed upon the grapes; but the little foxes, since they are wanton and do not yet have strength enough to uproot the vines, nibble them, gnaw them, and pluck off the flowers while the vines are tender and in flower, and burrow in the earth near the roots, so that the vines are deprived of moisture, and, exposed to the soil, are scorched by its rays and wither; moreover, the little foxes, once grown larger, uproot the vines. Moreover the little foxes, being inexperienced, can easily be deceived and caught, but once grown larger, not so: for they are most cunning, according to the saying: "An old fox is not caught by a snare."

Finally, he bids the foxes be caught while they are small and weak in strength; for foxes breed in spring, when the vineyards flower: wherefore if you then neglect to catch and root them out, they will greatly multiply their offspring, and increase. Further, Pliny, book XXIII, chapter VIII, writes that foxes are killed by bitter almonds: "They say," he writes, "that if they eat them, and it does not happen that they lap water nearby, they die." The Chaldaean understands by "foxes" the Amalekites, who tried to hinder the advance of the Hebrews into the holy land, and who were therefore captured and slain by Moses and Joshua, Exodus 17:13.

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

Christ bids the Church, that is, the apostles, that in preaching the Gospel and founding vineyards, that is, Churches, they catch the little foxes, that is, the heretics even then arising: for these, craftily like foxes, subvert the faith and the Church; such in the time of the apostles were the Judaizers, who wished to mix with the Gospel and to observe circumcision, and the other precepts of the old law. Likewise Simon Magus, the first heresiarch, Menander, Basilides, Carpocras, Ebion, the Gnostics, etc.: therefore he bids that the frauds and errors of these, while they are still small and cling to but a few, be uncovered, and be refuted and rooted out by arguments, says St. Bernard, not by arms, lest they grow strong, and pervade and corrupt the whole Church like leaven. So St. Gregory, Cassiodorus, Aponius, Origen, Bede, Theodoret, St. Anselm, and others everywhere.

Hear St. Augustine on Psalm 80: "Foxes signify the treacherous, and especially fraudulent heretics, deceitful ones, lurking in hollow, winding lairs, and deceiving, reeking with a foul stench. Against which stench the Apostle says: We are the good odor of Christ unto God in every place. These foxes are signified in the Song of Songs, where it is said: Take for us the little foxes that exterminate the vineyards, lurking in winding lairs. Take for us, that is, convict them for us: for you catch him whom you convict of falsehood." For, as St. Bernard says: "When deceit is exposed, when fraud is laid bare, when falsehood is convicted, then most rightly is the little fox said to be caught, which was destroying the vineyards." So Ezekiel, chapter 13:4: "Like foxes," he says, "in the desert, were your prophets, O Israel. They see vain things, and divine a lie, saying: The Lord says, when the Lord has not sent them."

Further, how these foxes, that is, the heretics, are to be caught, St. Augustine so teaches on Psalm 80: "Foxes are wont to have such burrows, that they enter by one side and go out by the other. At each opening the catcher of foxes has set his nets. Tell me, is it from heaven, or from men? They perceive that he has stretched his net on both sides, from which to catch them, and they say among themselves: If we say from heaven, he will say to us: Why then did you not believe? For he bore witness to Christ. If we say from earth, the people will stone us, since they hold him as a prophet." And, a little further on: "Let us see whether we too can catch certain little foxes: let us set traps at each opening, so that from whichever side the fox wishes to go out, it may be caught. For example, to the Manichean who fashions for himself a new god, and sets up in his heart what does not exist, let us say and ask him: Is the substance of God corruptible, or incorruptible? Choose what you will, go out by whichever way you will, but you will not escape. If you say corruptible, you will be stoned, not by the people, but by yourself: but if you say God is incorruptible; how did the incorruptible one fear the nation of darkness? What could the nation of corruption have done to the incorruptible one?"

Cassiodorus and Bede note that after "vineyards" in the plural, "vineyard" is named in the singular when he says: "Our vineyard has flourished," because all the particular Churches come together, and form one common and universal Church. St. Bernard, sermon 64, presses the word "for us," when he says: "Take for us the foxes. He could, he says, have said: Take for me; but delighting in fellowship, he preferred for us. O sweetness, O grace, O power of love! Is it thus that the highest of all has become one of all? Who did this? Love, ignorant of rank, rich in rank, mighty in affection, effective in persuasion. What is more violent? Love triumphs over God. Yet what is so not violent? It is love. What is this force, I ask, so violent unto victory, so conquered unto violence? Finally he emptied himself, that you may know it was love's doing, that fullness was poured out, that height was made level, that singularity was joined in fellowship."

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

The foxes are fraudulent suggestions, which the demon, the flesh, or the world suggest to the soul under the appearance of good, so as to lead it to evil: for it cloaks vice with the veil of virtue, for Satan transforms himself into an angel of light, 2 Corinthians 11:14: wherefore these must be caught at once while they arise and are small, so that their fraud, deceit, and error may be uncovered, lest, grown up and strengthened, they cannot be caught and uprooted. Nyssen notes that the demons who tempt man are not called lions, bears, tigers, but foxes, and little ones at that, because their powers are small and weak, so that they can at once be repelled and overcome by a man who is noble and steadfast; they are armed, therefore, with the cunning of foxes: wherefore their cunning devices must be diligently tracked down and scattered. St. Bernard adds that they are called little, because their suggestions are subtle, and visible only to those who are sharp of mind. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 63: "For the wise man, his life is a vineyard, his mind, his conscience. For the wise man will leave nothing in himself untilled, nothing waste." And, after a few words: "And good is the vineyard of the just man, nay rather, the just man himself is the good vineyard, for whom virtue is the vine, action the branch, the testimony of conscience the wine, the tongue the winepress of expression: finally, this is our glory, he says, the testimony of our conscience, 2 Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 12. Do you see that in the wise man nothing lies idle? Speech, thought, conduct, and whatever else proceeds from him — why should not the whole of it be God's husbandry, God's building, and the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth? What, finally, of himself could perish, since even his leaf shall not fall? But such a vineyard will never lack assaults, will never lack snares. For indeed, where there are many riches, there are many who eat them up, Ecclesiasticus 5:10. The wise man will be as careful to guard his vineyard as to cultivate it, and will not allow it to be devoured by foxes." Then, in sermons 64 and 65, he reviews various examples of these foxes, such as that of the monk who left the monastery to convert his parents, but did not win them over and lost himself; of others who leave the monastery to preach sermons, or to live for themselves alone and for God; of others who associate with women under a pious pretext, in order to instruct them in the spirit; but soon the spirit passes over into the flesh; for, as St. Bernard prudently says in sermon 63: "To be always with a woman, and not to know a woman — is this not more than raising a dead man? What is lesser, you cannot do; and do you wish me to believe you in what is greater?"

Secondly, the little foxes are relaxations of rule and discipline in small matters, as for example when in a monastery or college a breaking of silence is overlooked, the appropriation of small things, permission not asked, slight disobediences, etc. For unless these are corrected, they creep on, grow, and become great, so that in the end they overturn all rule and discipline; wherefore what the wise man advises must be done: Resist the beginnings: the remedy comes too late, when the evils have grown strong through long delays.

Hence St. Bernard, sermon 63, asserts that, besides foxes, cold too is harmful to vines; for it scorches and dries them out: so cold, that is, the torpor that creeps over a religious, scorches and dries up his virtue; for from it presently, he says, as usually happens in the body with those in fever, a certain stiffness of soul comes on, and vigor grows sluggish, a feigned weariness of strength arises, a dread of austerity is intensified, fear of poverty grows anxious, the spirit contracts, grace is withdrawn, length of life is drawn out, reason is lulled to sleep, the spirit is extinguished, the fervor of the novice cools, a wearisome lukewarmness grows heavy, brotherly charity grows cold, pleasure flatters, false security deceives, habit calls one back. What more? The law is disregarded, right is renounced, what is lawful is proscribed, the fear of the Lord is abandoned. At last the hands of shamelessness are given over, that rash step is presumed, that disgraceful one, that most base one, full of ignominy and confusion, the leap from excess into the abyss, from the pavement into the dungheap, from the throne into the sewer, from the heavens into the mire, from the cloister into the world, from paradise into hell. It is not for this occasion to set forth the beginning and origin of this plague, or by what art it may be avoided, or by what virtue overcome."

Thirdly, the little foxes are detractors and whisperers, as much as flatterers, who divide vineyards, that is, gatherings and societies, and subvert the souls of the faithful. So St. Bernard, sermon 63: "The worst fox," he says, "is the hidden detractor, but no less wicked is the smooth flatterer. The wise man will be on guard against these, and will take pains, so far as lies in him, to catch those who do such things, but to catch them by kindnesses and services, by wholesome warnings, and by prayers to God on their behalf. He will not cease to heap coals of fire of this sort upon the head of the slanderer, and likewise upon that of the flatterer, until (if it can be done) he takes away envy from the heart of the one, and pretense from the heart of the other, thereby fulfilling the command of the bridegroom, who says: Take for us the little foxes, which destroy the vineyards."

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

Herod of Ascalon was a fox, wishing craftily to kill Christ; wherefore he sent the Magi to Bethlehem, so that they themselves might search out the place of Christ's birth and report it back to him: for he pretended that he too wished to worship Christ, so that by this means he might catch and kill him; but he was outwitted by the Magi, when they, having received a warning from heaven in their sleep not to return to Herod, went back to their own country by another way, Matthew 3:12. Hence the son of this Herod of Ascalon, Herod Antipas, of a foxlike disposition just as his father, is called a fox by Christ: "Go," he says, "tell that fox," Luke 13:32. So Rupert: "Do you not see," he says, "that this wild beast (the savage Herod) bit the tender shoots, that this cruel beast killed the infants in Bethlehem of Judah, the city of David? Catch, catch them, for our vineyard has flourished, etc. Its fruit is still a flower, and not yet a cluster, it has not yet ripened, and therefore it is exceedingly harmful for a vineyard of this kind, or its flower, to be cut down or destroyed. Let it grow first, and let fruit come forth from the flower, let the Gospel be established, and let it be known from signs and mighty works that the Holy of Holies has come, and this will be the flower having come into fruit, and the cluster having ripened. Then, if a cluster of this sort should be cut off, let it be kept, and carried on the pole of the cross, that by the experience of its resurrection and its sweetness it may be known what manner of land, what manner of kingdom is his, to which those little foxes that destroy the vineyards do not belong."

VERSE 16. MY BELOVED IS MINE, AND I AM HIS, WHO FEEDS AMONG THE LILIES.

In the Hebrew, "who feeds among the lilies," that is, who feeds his sheep in pastures excelling in abundance, color, and fragrance of lilies. The Chaldean renders: "At that time they were converted in penance; then Moses the prophet stood, and prayed before the Lord, and Joshua the minister who was girded, and he went forth from beneath those clouds of the glory of the Lord, and with him the just men, who are like the rose in their works, and they entered into battles against Amalec, and they crushed him and his people in the name of the Lord, who slew and ground them to pieces at the edge of the sword."

FIRST SENSE (THE ADEQUATE ONE). Concerning Christ and the Church.

Cassiodorus and Bede judge that the bride is here praying, as if to say: Would that my beloved were mine, or were present to me, and I to him! Would that my beloved might deign to be joined to me by the glue of charity, and I be joined to him by the bond of obedience, obeying his commands! says Cassiodorus. But all the rest judge that the bride here is not wishing, but asserting and affirming: My beloved is mine, and I am his, according to the sense which I shall now give. From verse 8 and 10 up to this point, the bride, having suffered a swoon of love while reclining on her couch, has reported the words of the bridegroom, by which he calls the bride to himself into the field and the vineyard for labors for the salvation of souls, and likewise testifies to a tender love toward her: now the bride, speaking in her own person, repays love for love, and shows herself ready to obey the bridegroom calling her and to go out into the vineyard for labors, and says: "My beloved is mine, and I am his;" because just as he "feeds among the lilies," so I too am most zealous for lilies, that is, for whiteness and purity: "My beloved is mine," understand: he gives himself entirely; hence I too shall eagerly give myself wholly to him, indeed I do give myself in very deed, I am at leisure for him alone, I serve him, and I strive to please him. Wherefore what he wills, this I too will; he wills that I pass from the couch to the field, from leisure to labor, this same thing I too will: for his willing and not willing is my willing and not willing. Symmachus renders it in the genitive, "and I am his," as if to say: I am wholly the bridegroom's, just as the bridegroom is wholly mine, so much so that he is that which I am, so that we seem to be not so much two as one and the same. For a friend is another self, and lovers have, as it were, one heart and one soul: for the soul of the one who loves is more where it loves than where it animates, that is, it is more in the beloved than in the lover himself.

Hence, in a civil sense, the bridegroom and the bride are reckoned one and the same person, according to that: "They shall be two in one flesh. This is a great sacrament, but I speak in Christ and in the Church," Ephesians 5:31: for just as the essence of matrimony consists in the mutual consent of the spouses to marriage; so the union of Christ and the Church, as of bridegroom and bride, consists in mutual love, and the consent of a mystical marriage, namely that Christ loves no other, and wills to have no other bride, than the Church; and the Church in turn loves no other, nor wills to have any other bridegroom, than Christ; from which there then follows a mutual living-together, and mutual services and duties through the whole of life; all this is signified by "My beloved is mine, and I am his," as if to say: Because Christ loved me first as his bride, hence I in turn love him as bridegroom, indeed his love goes before mine, and is the cause of it.

"For I do not love him because he, loving me first, breathed his own love into me through prevenient grace, according to that: 'Christ loved the Church, and delivered himself for her, that he might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of water in the word of life, that he might present to himself a glorious Church,' Ephesians 5:25. Depart, then, evil foxes, who by your wiles attempt to separate the Church from Christ. For I, the Church, keep faith with Christ my bridegroom, so that I love none besides him; he in turn keeps faith with me, so that he has no beloved besides me, and wills to have no other bride." St. Bernard, sermon 68, notes that the bride, that is, the Church, and the holy soul, say this while the bridegroom Christ is absent; say it, I mean, not to the young maidens, but to herself, and out of the abundance of affection, not so much speaking as belching forth the abundance of love; and therefore that her words are truncated, incomplete, imperfect, and are to be filled out in this way: My beloved is mine, that is, is wholly intent on me, and I in turn am wholly intent on him. "He on me," says St. Bernard, "because he is kind and merciful; I on him, because I am not ungrateful. He gives me grace out of grace, I give him grace for grace; he for my deliverance, I for his honor; he for my salvation, I for his will; he for me, and not for another, since I am his one dove; I for him, and not for another." And earlier, admiring this condescension of Christ, he exclaims: "How wonderful it is, that she claims his intention as it were her own, saying: My beloved is mine? Yet not content with that, she goes on to boast still further, that she responds to him as it were on equal terms, that she requites the favor. For there follows: And I am his. An insolent word, and I am his. No less insolent, my beloved is mine; except that each together is more insolent than either alone. O what a pure heart, a good conscience, and an unfeigned faith dares to say! He is intent, she says, on me. Is that majesty, then, so intent upon this one, on whom the governance and administration alike of the whole universe rests; and is the care of the ages transferred to these matters alone, nay rather, to the leisures of this love and desire? Even so, plainly. For she herself is the Church of the elect, of whom the Apostle says, 2 Timothy 2:10: All things, he says, for the sake of the elect. And who doubts that the grace and mercy of God is toward his saints, and his regard toward his elect? We do not, therefore, deny providence to the rest of creatures: the bride claims the care for herself."

The same St. Bernard, in his sermon on the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, near the end, says that by these words is signified a wrestling-match of love, in which the bridegroom wrestles with the bride, conquers, and is conquered.

To this may be added the expositions of other Fathers: that of Gregory of Nyssa, which is this: "I have seen face to face him who abides forever, and who for my sake arose in human nature from my sister the Synagogue, and in him I rest, and become his dwelling-place"; that of Philo of Carpasia: The Church says, he states: "My beloved is mine," that is, he gives me wisdom, and I shall give him a heart; he gives me wisdom from the heavens, and I in turn shall repay him the fruit of faith, hope, and charity from the nations: for I feel that I am mightily loved by him, and for that reason I shall always cling most firmly to him. That of Theodoret: Just as the bridegroom has preferred me above all, so I set him before all others, and I do not suffer myself to be joined to another; I shrink back from those who are called foxes and deceivers: for it would be absurd that I, who am so greatly loved and adorned, should not respond to him who loves me, according to my powers, in love. Like this seems that which was written by the Apostle, 1 Corinthians 6:13: "But the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord: and the Lord for the body." That of Justus of Urgell: "Christ has the Church in his body, and the Church has Christ in her head, and since this connection cannot be sundered, she rightly said: My beloved is mine."

SECOND SENSE (THE PARTIAL ONE). Concerning Christ and the Holy Soul.

The holy soul says to Christ, states Theodoret: "My beloved lives for me; and I live for him, not for myself," as St. Paul says, Galatians 2:20. But Aponius: "My beloved is mine, says the holy soul, he grants the grace of calling, the mark of redemption, the most bright freedom of adoption. And what do I give him? The obedience of my will, the zeal for preserving the integrity which he implanted through nature. What does he give me? A singular example of preserving virginity, by being born through a Virgin. And what do I give him? A singular joy in being born again through baptism, in keeping his commands with my whole heart, in imitating the angelic and heavenly nature, so that the untouched body may return to paradise, which by being born into the world it had brought forth from the untouched womb of its mother. For just as the devil is fattened on bloody wrath and the accursed mire of lust; so too Christ is fed on the lilies of mercy, meekness, and chastity." St. Gregory expounds more briefly, and more clearly, as if to say: "I hold constantly to the friendship of my beloved, because I feel his constant benevolence toward me; because while I have his kindness as something familiar to me, it is hard for me to hear whatever is barked against him by his enemies, and while I see, in his continual presence, what sort of one he is; if his adversaries put forward any error contrary to the truth which I have come to know in the vision of him, I do not withdraw from it." Finally, the love of Christ is a virgin, because it is directed wholly, purely, and virginally to Christ alone, according to that saying of Paul: "I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ," 2 Corinthians 11:2.

St. Bernard asks, sermon 69: Since Christ is the bridegroom of many, indeed of all holy souls, how is he wholly intent on each one? And he answers: "First indeed, because in the most simple nature of the bridegroom's divinity, it is as it were one looking upon many, and as it were many looking upon one. He will not be many with respect to a multitude, nor scanty with respect to fewness; nor divided with respect to diversity, nor confined to one; nor anxious with cares, nor disturbed or troubled with solicitudes. Thus indeed intent on one, so as not to be detained; thus on many, so as not to be distended."

A fitting example is found in the rational soul: for it loves as a whole, and informs and animates all and each of the parts of its body, so that it is wholly in the body, and wholly in each of its parts; for so God gives the whole of his love to all, and the whole to each of his saints. Bernard then adds that Christ, in betrothing to himself the soul, brings with him the Father and the Holy Spirit, that they too may equally betroth the soul to themselves, according to that: "If any man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him," John 14:23. "What is it," says Bernard, "for the Word to come to the soul? To instruct it in wisdom. What is it for the Father to come? To move it to the love of wisdom, so that it can say: Because I have become a lover of its form, Wisdom 8:2: to love is of the Father, and therefore the coming of the Father is proved by an infused love."

He then subjoins the signs of the coming of the Word and of the Father: "If I feel," says Bernard, "my understanding opened, so that I understand the Scriptures, or a word of wisdom as it were bubbling up from within, or mysteries revealed by an infused light from above, or indeed a certain most ample bosom of heaven, as it were, spread open to me, and richer showers of meditation flowing down from above into my mind: I do not doubt that the bridegroom is present. For these are the riches of the Word, and of his fullness we have received these things. But if there is likewise poured into me a certain humble, yet rich, devotion of an inward sprinkling, such that the love of a truth once recognized generates in me a certain necessary hatred and contempt of vanity, lest perchance either knowledge puff me up, or the frequency of visitations exalt me; then I feel altogether that I am being dealt with as by a father, and I do not doubt that the Father is present. But if I persevere in responding to this condescension always with feelings and acts worthy of it (as far as it is in me), and the grace of God is not empty within me; he will even make his abode with me, the Father nourishing, as well as the Word instructing." He then asks whence the soul knows that the bridegroom is wholly intent on her, so that she may dare to say: "My beloved is mine," and he answers, that she knows this "from the fact that she feels that she loves, and loves vehemently, and likewise does not doubt that she is vehemently loved in return, and from her singular intention, solicitude, care, work, diligence, and zeal, with which she watches unceasingly and ardently, as to how she may please God, she equally and without doubt recognizes all these same things in him, remembering his promise: In what measure you shall have measured, it shall be measured to you again," Matthew 7:2. And after some words: "Nor does she who loves doubt that she is loved. So it is. Love brings forth a well-deserving of the soul, and its foregoing mention makes the soul intent, and solicitude makes it solicitous. For I do not know by what nearness of nature a soul, once the face is revealed, will be able, as a rival, to behold the glory of God; presently it must be conformed to it, and be transformed into the same image.

That saying of the comic poet is well-worn: "Every lover is a madman."

THIRD SENSE (THE PRINCIPAL ONE). Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin.

The Blessed Virgin could say to Christ: Thou alone art to me a son uniquely beloved, and I am to thee a mother (nay, and as it were a father) most beloved, who art fed among the lilies of my virginity and of Joseph my husband; for from this virginal union it was fitting that thou shouldst be born, as it were the son of virginity, indeed its leader and standard-bearer; this is what the prophet Isaiah says, chapter 7, verse 14: "Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel," that is, God with us: so Rupert. Hear St. Anselm, book On the Excellence of the Virgin, chapter 4: "The love," he says, "which a father and a mother, each singly, owe to their son; the love, too, which an only son owes to his father and mother, that son of the true virgin owes to his mother alone: for as other sons are born of a father and a mother, so her son was born of that mother alone. And so the love of this mother for her son, and of this son for his mother, exceeds all the loves of parents for their children, or of children for their parents."

Again, Guerric the abbot, sermon 2 On the Assumption: "Come," he says, "my chosen one, and I will place in thee my throne. Thou hast given me a share in this, that I am man; I will give thee a share in this, that I am God." And Blessed Peter Damian, sermon 2 On the Nativity, having reviewed the three ways in which God is in any creature, subjoins: "In a fourth way he is in one creature, namely Mary the mother, by identity, because he is the same as she. Here let every creature be silent and tremble, and scarcely dare to look upon the immensity of so great a dignity. The Lord dwells in the Virgin, with whom he has an identity of one nature."

Finally, St. Bernard, sermon 71: "For me," he says, "to cleave to God is good. Good indeed, if you should cleave to him in every part. Who is it that cleaves perfectly to God, except one who, remaining in God as one beloved by God, has nonetheless drawn God into himself by loving? Therefore, since man and God cleave to one another on every side, they cleave on every side, enmeshed in one another by an inward and mutual love. By this I would say without doubt that God is in man, and man is in God." This applies above all to the Blessed Virgin. The same St. Bernard, sermon 29: "The love of Christ is a chosen arrow, which not only pierced the soul of Mary, but passed through it, so that it left no particle in her virginal breast empty of love, but she loved with her whole heart, her whole soul, her whole strength, and was full of grace." Thus Bernard. And Hugh of St. Victor, whose words St. Thomas reports, Opusc. 8: "Because," he says, "the love of the Holy Spirit burned uniquely in the heart of the Virgin, therefore it worked wonders in the flesh, to such a degree that God and man was born of her. Luke 1:35: That which shall be born of thee, the Holy One, shall be called the Son of God."

St. Bernard gives the reason: "What wonder is it," he says, "if Mary loves above all, who is loved above all?" Sophronius gives several other reasons, in his sermon On the Assumption: "Consider," he says, "and weigh with how great sorrows the Blessed Virgin was afflicted after Christ's ascension into the heavens; consider with what love she was tormented, and with what longing this virgin was aflame, as she turned over in her mind all the things she had heard, had seen, had known, with how great and unceasing a fire of devoted love she was consumed! with how many stirrings of heavenly secrets she was moved, filled as she was with the Holy Spirit! for even though she loved Christ with her whole heart, her whole soul, and her whole mind, yet daily she was inflamed, present though absent, with new feelings of longing, all the more powerfully indeed, the more she was illumined within by divine visitations, she whom the grace of the Holy Spirit had filled wholly, whom divine love had made wholly glow, so that in her there was nothing worldly to violate her feelings, but a continual ardor and an inebriation of the love that suffused her, of him who was both her Lord and her son. Perhaps, then, we believe that out of excessive love she dwelt in the place where he is said to have been buried, so that her inward love might be fed by pious gazing, not because she sought him, now living, among the dead, but that she might console herself with her own looks, and embrace with the embraces of her mind him whom she had borne. The love of Christ gave birth to longing, and the longing, growing ever more, was as it were renewed by fresh fires."

Who feeds among the lilies. For "lilies," the Hebrew has schoschannim, which the Chaldean and certain Hebraizing scholars render as "roses," as I said above. Symmachus renders it "flowers": the Hebrew is, who feeds among the lilies. "feeds," namely both his sheep and himself, that is, "is fed," as our own renders it; although "is fed" is sometimes taken for "feeds," as though it were a verb of the deponent kind. The Septuagint has poimainon, that is, acting as shepherd among the lilies; Symmachus, "and I am his who feeds flowers," that is, who feeds his sheep in the manner of whitening lilies, brightly. It could also be rendered from the Hebrew, who feeds the lilies, that is, nourishes and cherishes virgins, and likewise virginity, and the rest of the virtues, or who is fed by lilies, that is, is delighted by virgins as much as by virtues. But "is fed among the lilies" means he is fed in the most joyful and beautiful pastures, such as those which are adorned with lilies flowering among the grasses. The Hebrew roe, and the Greek poimainon, that is, to feed, or to act as shepherd, notes that Christ diligently performs, with regard to the Church and the souls of the faithful, all the duties of a good shepherd, namely to hold and love her, to procure fodder, to be familiarly present to her, to lead her out to pasture and bring her back, to feed, water, care for, and rule her, to defend her from wolves and thieves, even at the peril of his own life, and to render the other offices of a shepherd, which the Psalmist describes, Psalm 22:2, and Christ, John 10:9. Christ, therefore, both feeds, and is fed, among the lilies, that is, among chaste, pure, and holy souls, especially virgins; he feeds them with his teaching, example, grace, sacraments, indeed with himself in the Eucharist.

Hear St. Ambrose on Psalm 118, sermon 14, verse 1: "Good pastures are the divine sacraments. There you pluck a new flower, which gave the good fragrance of the resurrection; you pluck the lily, in which is the splendor of eternity; you pluck the rose, that is, the blood of the Lord's body. Good pastures too are the books of the sacred Scriptures, in which we are fed by daily reading, in which we are refreshed and renewed, when we taste the things that are written, or, having sipped them with the tip of our lips, chew them over more frequently. By these pastures the flock of the Lord is fattened. Good, too, are the pastures of Christ, who feeds among the lilies, that is, in the splendor of the saints." Gregory of Nyssa adds: "This is the good shepherd, who does not feed his flock with hay, but with the Holy Spirit, signified through the purity and fragrance of lilies." Theodoret joins in, who judges that the pastures of Christ are called lilies, because they are white, rich, sweet, and fragrant like lilies. The same author, however, further below, says that Christ feeds among the lilies when, through holy teachers, he promulgates his most pure laws.

Again, Christ not only actively feeds, but is also passively fed, among the lilies, that is, he is delighted by pure and chaste minds, especially by virgins, and by their purity, virginity, and virtues. So say St. Gregory, Cassiodorus, Bede, Justus, Anselm, and the rest of the Latins. "What is signified by the lilies," says St. Gregory, "except pure souls? who, while they retain the whiteness of chastity, through their good reputation smell sweetly to all their neighbors. The bridegroom, therefore, is fed among the lilies, because without doubt he is delighted by the chastity of souls, who both preserve in themselves the cleanness of the flesh, and by their bright thoughts are pleasing before him, and give to their neighbors, as it were, the sweetness of fragrance by their example."

Hence that saying of St. Ambrose, which the Church uses in the Office of Virgins: Thou who feedest among the lilies, encircled by the choirs of virgins, adorning thy brides with glory.

Christ, says St. Bernard, sermon 70, as God reigns above the stars, as man he is fed, not on the lilies, but among the lilies: "For he who is Lord in the highest is beloved in the lowest, reigning above the stars, and loving amid the lilies." Then he teaches that these lilies mystically are truth, meekness, justice, and the rest of the virtues, but two especially, namely continence and innocence; for among these Christ is fed and delighted, according to that, Psalm 44:5: "Proceed prosperously and reign, because of truth, meekness, and justice:" indeed, "as many virtues, so many lilies," says Bernard. "What is the end of the virtues with the Lord of virtues? For if the fullness of the virtues is in Christ; so too is the fullness of the lilies. And perhaps for this reason he called himself a lily, because he is wholly occupied among the lilies, and all things that are his are lilies: his conception, his birth, his manner of life, his sayings, his miracles, his sacraments, his passion, his death, his resurrection, his ascension. Which of these is not white, and does not smell most sweetly? For indeed so great was the brightness of heavenly light that shone forth at his conception from the overflowing abundance of the Spirit, that the holy Virgin herself would not have endured it, had she not been overshadowed by the power of the Most High. Further, his birth was made white by the incorrupt virginity of his mother, his manner of life by the innocence of his life, his sayings by truth; his miracles by purity of heart, the sacraments by the secret of piety, his passion by the will to suffer, his death by the freedom not to die, his resurrection by the fortitude of the martyrs, his ascension by the fulfillment of the promises."

The same author, sermon 71, teaches that Christ is fed among the lilies, that is, among the pure observance of his laws: "Therefore," he says, "he who is always without vices is never without lilies, because he is wholly and always white, beautiful in form above the sons of men. Do thou, then, who hearest or readest these things, take care to have lilies about thee, if thou wilt have this dweller among lilies dwelling in thee. Let thy work, thy zeal, thy desire, proclaim themselves to be lilies, by a certain moral whiteness and fragrance of the things themselves. Morals too have their colors, and they have their fragrances, etc. The intention of the heart, and the judgment of conscience, gives color to thy work," the fragrance, by one's reputation.

And with several things intervening: "The bridegroom, therefore, since he is virtue, delights in himself among the virtues; and since he is a lily, he willingly dwells among the lilies; and since he is whiteness, he is delighted by white things. And perhaps this is what is meant by being fed among the lilies, to be delighted by the whiteness and fragrance of the virtues. And indeed he was once fed bodily at the house of Mary and Martha, reclining even in body among the lilies (I mean those women, for they were lilies); nonetheless he refreshed his spirit by the devotion and virtues of the women."

He then teaches that for Christ to feed is the same as to be fed, because he himself feeds us with his grace and virtues, and by these same things he is fed and delighted: "But," he says, "while feeding, I think, he is nonetheless himself fed, and indeed with the food which he gladly eats, namely our advancement. For the joy of the Lord is our strength. Thus, therefore, he both feeds while being fed, and is fed while feeding, at once refreshing us with his spiritual joy, and rejoicing equally over our own spiritual advancement. His food is my repentance, his food is my salvation, his food is I myself, etc. I am chewed when I am reproved, I am swallowed when I am instructed, I am cooked down when I am changed, I am digested when I am transformed, I am united when I am conformed." The same St. Bernard, in the sermon on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, near the end, explains it otherwise: "Notice," he says, "that it seems to indicate a place, not a food, nor does it express by what he is fed, but among what. For perhaps he is fed not by the food, but by the company, of the lilies; nor does he eat the lilies, but he dwells among them; for lilies please rather by fragrance than by taste, and are more fit for sight than for eating. Moreover, although the just man springs up like the lily, yet the bridegroom is not fed toward the lily, nor does he delight in singularity. Hear, finally, him dwelling among the lilies: Where, he says, two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Matthew 18:20. Jesus always loves the midst, the Son of man, mediator of God and men, always rejects byways and resting-places apart."

Furthermore, Christ feeds souls in different ways, each according to its own inclination, state, and disposition: wherefore he gives to subjects obedience, to superiors prudence in ruling, to virgins the love of virginity, to the married the affection of conjugal chastity, and strength to bear the ways of a spouse, of children, and of servants that differ from their own; to martyrs he gives unconquered constancy in torments, to teachers keenness in teaching, to preachers effectiveness in preaching, to the rich an impulse toward tolerance, etc.

VERSE 17. UNTIL THE DAY BREATHES, AND THE SHADOWS ARE INCLINED. RETURN: BE LIKE, MY BELOVED, TO A ROE, AND TO A FAWN OF THE DEER, UPON THE MOUNTAINS OF BETHER.

UNTIL THE DAY BREATHES, AND THE SHADOWS ARE INCLINED (the Septuagint has "be moved," that is, be removed) — this refers to what preceded: "My beloved is mine, who feeds among the lilies," though some refer it to what follows — RETURN: BE LIKE, etc., as I will say shortly. Note the phrase aspiret dies: for it is customary, as the light rises in the morning and the day begins, for a pleasant breeze to breathe, which the rising sun produces by its heat at dawn, as it were in the dew of the air; for it dissolves and stirs the vapors gathered by the cold of the night, and from these produces gusts and winds; wherefore Theodoret expounds less correctly, as if to say, "Until the day breathes," that is, until the heat of the day passes, and the dew of salvation breathes forth. Now the word iaphuach, then, signifies "blow," "breathe upon," "breathe through," "breathe again," "breathe out," and this is what the Greek diapneuse in the Septuagint signifies, as if to say: throughout the day, that is, throughout this whole time of this life, "my beloved is mine, and I am his," and likewise throughout this whole time "he feeds among the lilies." But our own translator more fittingly renders it "breathes," for while the day breathes, the shadows and darkness of night come to an end. Hence more aptly St. Gregory and others everywhere consider that by "shadow" here is meant the night; for the night is shadowy, and as it were pure shadow, which is inclined, that is, fails, and, as it is in the Hebrew, flees, that is, vanishes, as the sun rises at dawn, but gradually and step by step: for the more the sun ascends, the more the shadows diminish, so that at midday there is almost no shadow at all; again, the day breathes when the sun rises, not when it sets, for then it expires and comes to an end.

Symbolically, St. Bernard, Sermon 72, takes "shadows" to mean the demons, who on the day of judgment will be inclined before the elect and the blessed, that is, will be made subject, and, as vanquished, will be subjected to the victors. The same author again takes "day" to mean the beatific vision, by which all the shadows of error, pretense, and ignorance will be dispelled. Finally he adds that the fullness of eternal felicity is signified by the word aspiret. "Therefore," he says, "that will be the fullness of the breathing day. It, I say, will add to the measure of the inspired fullness, to the abundance of the inbreathing day, working beyond measure unto a sublime weight of glory, so that the overflowing addition of glorification abounds even into the bodies. For this reason it is called not spirans but adspirans, because it adds to that which breathes within, the Holy Spirit signifying this through the preposition added: because those whom it illumines within, it adorns without, and clothes them with the robe of glory." And after some words: "Since, then, two days have gone before in us — one indeed inspirans for the life of the body, the other respirans in the grace of sanctification — while a third yet remains, adspirans in the glory of the resurrection; it is clear indeed that what went before in the Head will one day be fulfilled in the body — surely a great sacrament of piety, and the testimony of the Prophet, who says: He will make us live after two days: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight, Hosea, chapter 6, verse 3."

Further, the pointing which is found in the Hebrew Bibles, whose author is not Solomon but the later rabbis or Masoretes, connects these words, until the day breathes, and the shadows are inclined, with what follows, return, be like, my beloved; and this connection is also fitting, and gives fitting senses, as is clear to one considering the senses about to be given, when combining with them these words, until the day breathes.

First, some take "day" to mean the Gospel, and by "shadows" the old law, which was a type and shadow of the Gospel, as if to say: when the light of the Gospel appears, the shadows will vanish, that is, the observances and typical ceremonies of the old law. So Justus of Urgell and St. Augustine, Oration Against the Jews, chapter 6.

Second, others take "day" to mean the clear knowledge of truth and eternity; for once the holy soul has attained this, it puts to flight and drives from itself the shadows of the vanity of temporal things. So Gregory of Nyssa.

Third, and genuinely, take "day" to mean the life and glory to come, and by "shadows" the darkness and hardships of the present life, as if to say: Christ feeds among the lilies, that is, dwells among pure souls, for as long as the shadows of this life endure; for when the day of glory has breathed and shone forth, he will dwell among the blessed in the splendors of the saints. For if in the valley of tears he feeds among the lilies, among what and how great lilies will he feed on the day of the wedding and of everlasting glory? Christ now feeds me among the lilies of chastity and grace; but when the day of happiness has breathed, he will feed me among the lilies of charity and glory; then the love of the absent Bridegroom will be turned into the joy and enjoyment of his presence; then faith will be changed into vision, hope into possession, charity into clarity, hardship into glory, death into life, corruption into incorruption, mourning into rejoicing. So St. Gregory, Cassiodorus, Bede, St. Bernard, and the rest. Here, then, the pious soul, weighed down by love within the body, groans and sighs, until the day of blessed eternity breathes, and the shadows of wretched mortality are inclined: "Here indeed it is night," says St. Gregory. "But there it will be day, because here we grow dim in the vision of truth, whereas there God himself, the whole truth, will shine forth upon our minds." Further, St. Bernard, Sermon 71, says that Christ in this life feeds on lilies, that is, on the virtues, because here they are mixed, rough, and imperfect, whereas in heaven he will drink of them, because there they will be liquid, refined, subtle, and perfect.

Some, with our own Sanchez, hold that the phrase inclinentur umbrae is a periphrasis for evening; for in the evening, after midday, as the sun declines, the shadows are inclined, according to that line of Virgil: "And longer shadows fall from the high mountains." Hence also Aquila, for donec aspiret dies, renders donec cesset dies; for in the evening, while the day ceases, the breeze and winds breathe. Hence Pliny, Book II, chapter 47: "The sun," he says, "both increases and checks the winds, increasing them at its rising and its setting"; and Aristotle, in the Problems, section 25, question 4: "The wind," he says, "begins either at sunrise or at sunset." Hence Virgil: "The breezes breathe toward night." Hence from the Hebrew it can be translated, donec exspiret, that is, until the day comes to an end: for Hebrew words are simple, and are therefore used for all compounds, since the Hebrews lack these.

REVERTERE: SIMILIS ESTO, DILECTE MI, CAPREAE, HINNULOQUE CERVORUM SUPER MONTES BETHER.

RETURN: BE LIKE, MY BELOVED, TO A ROE, AND TO A FAWN OF THE DEER, UPON THE MOUNTAINS OF BETHER.

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

Various senses here are assigned by various authors. The first is, as if the Bride were to say: I see you, O my Bridegroom, delighting to feed your flocks in the woods and mountains, such as are the mountains of Bether; for there you feed among the lilies, and by this you invite and call me, saying, "Arise, make haste, my love"; that you, then, may satisfy your own zeal for souls as well as mine, quickly and swiftly, return like a roe and a fawn — in Hebrew sob, that is, go about, survey, and visit our flocks, namely the Christian faithful, who feed in Bether, that is, in division, that is, they dwell in divided places and particular churches spread throughout the whole world — and feed them with your holy teaching, grace, consolation, inspiration, sacraments, etc. So Theodoret and the three Anonymous authors in him, Psellus, and Philo of Carpathus, who hold that the Bride here entreats that the Bridegroom return to the pastures, so that all his faithful may enjoy and be illumined by his sight, and that he himself may impart to them his sweetness and love.

The second sense is plainer and fuller, as if the Bride were to say: I permit indeed, nay I desire, O Bridegroom, that you visit, instruct, strengthen, and perfect our faithful spread throughout the whole world; but I would wish this to be done promptly and swiftly, that you run quickly through them, like a roe or a fawn, to this end, that, once they have been visited, you return at once to me: for I intimately desire your presence, nor can I be satisfied with it, and it is more fitting for the Bridegroom to be present with and assist the Bride, that is, for Christ to be present with the universal Church, than with particular churches. This sense is required by the word revertere, as our translator and the Septuagint render it: it also looks back to what was said in verse 8: "The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills," so that he might at once fly to me, who am already fainting from love, sustain me, and restore me to myself: wherefore my beloved is like a roe, and a fawn of the deer. So St. Bernard, Bede, and others. Hear St. Bernard, who here notes that the powerlessness of love knows no shame; for the Bride at once recalls the Bridegroom, to whom a little before she had given leave to depart. "An untimely recall," he himself says, Sermon 74, "is a sign of one great love, and of the other's great lovableness"; and Sermon 73: "Excessive love does this. For it is that which, triumphing over and taking captive within itself every sense of shame, every measure of fittingness, every counsel of deliberation, gives rise to a certain neglect of all modesty and propriety, and a certain carelessness. For see now how she demands that he, scarcely yet begun to go, should nevertheless already return. She even asks him to hasten, indeed to run, like some wild creature of the woods running swiftly, for instance, a roe, or a fawn of the deer. This is the letter's tenor, and this is the portion of the Jews."

You will ask, what are the mountains of Bether? The answer is that they are the mountains of Bethel (as the Arabic renders it), where Jacob saw a ladder stretched from earth to heaven, by which the angels ascended and descended to God, who rested upon the ladder, and therefore, anointing the place with oil, he consecrated it, and called it Bethel, that is, the house of God, Genesis 28:12 and 19. But the mountains of Bethel are called the mountains of Bether, that is, of division, because they are divided and split apart, so as to contain several cities and valleys between them, and consequently several mountains, as it were, cut into various hills, so that roes leap from one to another. Hence by the Septuagint they are called the mountains koilomaton, that is, of hollows. Some read kyklomaton, that is, the mountains of circuits, to which access is not easy, but one must go a long way around them through winding paths before reaching the summit; for such places roes and fawns seek out, so as to be safe from hunters. St. Ambrose, Book III, On Virgins, reads with the Syriac, "mountains of spices"; for so they are called here, chapter 8, verse 14, for these mountains abound in spices. Hear Adrichomius, in the Description of the Holy Land, page 16, number 43: "Bethel, or Bether, are mountains that are fruitful, wooded, and planted with trees; full of grass and aromatic herbs, and therefore stags, roes, and fawns frequent their heights, of which mention is made in the Canticles."

Symbolically, then, the mountains of Bethel or Bether fittingly represent the universal Church, divided and distinguished into her various particular churches: for the Church is, "the mountain of the house of the Lord on the top of the mountains," Isaiah 2:2; because by her faith, hope, teaching, conversation, and heavenly contemplation she surpasses all the sects of the Jews, heretics, and Gentiles, and therefore appears to dwell now not on earth but in heaven with the blessed, according to that saying: "Our conversation is in heaven," Philippians 3:20. Wherefore all these particularly represent the monasteries and colleges of religious: first, because a monastery and cloister is a Bether, that is, a place divided and separated from the company of seculars; second, because the mountains of Bether are steep and rugged, and broken by hollows and rough places; third, just as roes and fawns flee to these precipitous and inaccessible mountains, that they may be safe from dogs and hunters, so likewise religious flee to cloisters, that there they may be safe and removed from the temptations and dangers of the world. There, then, Christ feeds among the lilies of purity, which grow on the mountains of Bether, that is, of separation, prayer, and contemplation. To this bears the Chaldaic version, which expounds thus concerning the holy patriarchs: "And the Lord wished to destroy them from the world, had there not remained before him the memory of his oath, which he swore in his word to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who were most swift in his worship, like a roe and a fawn of the deer; and also of the offering which Abraham offered, his son Isaac, on Mount Moriah, and before this he had given him his offerings, and had divided them equally."

Hence Philo of Carpathus, by "the mountains of the valleys," as the Septuagint renders it, understands the eminent holy and just; for these are mountains through the excellence of virtue, by which they rise above the world and all worldly things, and they are also valleys through humility, by which, humbly, as valleys, they receive the teaching and grace of God, as rain from the heavens. So also Ambrose, Sermon 14 on Psalm 118. But the three Anonymous authors in Theodoret, by "the mountains of the valleys," understand the teachers who, like mountains over valleys, stand far above and excel their disciples, as if to say: "Show yourself like them, coming among the souls that are teachers, which stand out like mountains among the disciple-souls that are weighed down by the waves of disturbances, so that by their work you may drive off and put to flight those pestilent beasts, which hollow out the natural equality of untrained souls, and establish their lairs within them, and thus restore to them their former equality."

On the other hand, Theodoret and Gregory of Nyssa, Homily 6, by "the mountains of the valleys" understand the proud among the humble, as Gregory of Nyssa says: "See like a roe, you who behold the thoughts of men; destroy the brood of sin, as a fawn destroys that of the serpent. Run as swiftly as possible, divine Word, to the mountains of the valleys: for whatever exalts itself against the truth is a pit, and not a mountain; a hollow, and not a rising summit. If you run to these, every valley will be filled, and every such mountain will be humbled."

To this may be added St. Anselm, who thinks the Church here prays to Christ, that he may help her as she labors in the conversion of unbelievers: "Return," he says, "that is, condescend to these, and breathe upon them within, because otherwise our labor will be fruitless: Return, and be like a roe, etc. It is the nature of the roe and the fawn that, although they dwell on the summit of the mountains, they nevertheless come down into the hills, so as to be seen by those below. For since Christ dwells on the mountains, that is, in the eminent, on account of the virtues, he is asked to come down from them, and through them to the knowledge of those below."

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

Christ from time to time seems to depart from the holy soul, either on account of her defects and venial lapses, or to test her faith and constancy, or to increase in her the desire for himself, and to advance and perfect the soul in spirit, while he leaves her without taste, without consolation, without joy, arid and dry, in desolation, persecution, temptation, sadness, darkness, or a like affliction of soul or body. Wherefore the soul, pierced by this goad, sighing the more ardently for the Bridegroom Christ, cries out for his return and his help: Return to me, O my beloved, and hasten swiftly like a roe or a fawn, that you may console me, help me, strengthen me, confirm me, advance me.

Our Sanchez adds that the pious soul, having learned that she has set up many hindrances to love, and conscious of her own weakness, trusting little in herself, prays to the Bridegroom that, although he wanders over the mountains of Bether — that is, amid rough places and windings and a thousand other hindrances, which might have delayed one otherwise prompt and eager for every duty — he nevertheless bear these things patiently, and, with a spirit wholly unconquerable in enduring them, and a gentleness wholly admirable in forgiving, devour these troubles, leap over these obstacles, and at last, although through Bether, that is, through broken and rugged places, nevertheless come to her by a straight and swift course.

And Luis of León: The faithful soul, he says, asks, when the shadows are inclined, that is, when the day is now inclined toward its setting, and the darkness of dangers and temptations is rushing in, that he help her, with no delay interposed: "Be like," he says, "a roe, and a fawn of the deer." This, without metaphor, David was saying properly and literally, Psalm 69, verse 2: "O Lord, make haste to help me," and again, Psalm 30, verse 3: "O Lord, make speed to deliver me." And this is said by the Bride not only for the purpose of urging on God, and of bringing it about that he hasten to bring help, but also to admonish us that, at the very first beginning of an evil thought, as soon as a wicked desire has begun to enter the mind, at the first sight of the enemy, indeed even at the first rumors and suspicions of war, before, through our negligence, any disturbance or tumult arises within us, we should lift up our eyes to heaven, and turn our heart wholly to God, repeating this with tears: "Return, my beloved: be like a roe, and a fawn of the deer"; and, most ardently commending our welfare to him, let us ask of him that he hasten and make speed to free us, not only from evil, but even from the suspicion of evil. To this may be added Cassiodorus, who expounds it as if to say: O Christ, who through the flesh, which as a little one you assumed like a fawn, ascended like a roe into the heights of the heavens, visit us with your consolation and grace, illumine and gladden us.

Further, how God visits the holy soul is taught first by St. Bernard, Sermon 74, and this from experience, by which he asserts that he has often felt this visitation of God in his own soul: "Living," he says, "and effective it is" (the Word of God, namely Christ), "and as soon as it came within, it awakened my sleeping soul, moved it, and softened it, and wounded my heart, for it was hard and stony and in poor health. It began also to root up and destroy, to build and to plant, to water dry places, to illumine dark ones, to unlock what was shut, to inflame what was cold, and moreover to turn crooked things into straight ones, and rough ways into plain ones; so that my soul blessed the Lord, and all that is within me blessed his holy name. Thus, then, the Word the Bridegroom, entering into me on several occasions, never made his entrance known by any signs, neither by voice, nor by appearance, nor by movement." And after some things which he interjects on this matter, he adds: "From the renewal and reformation of the spirit of my mind, that is, of my inner man, I perceived, however imperfectly, the appearance of his beauty, and from the contemplation of all these things together I was struck with awe at the multitude of his greatness. But because all these things, once the Word has withdrawn, just as if you were to take the fire from under a boiling pot, at once begin to lie sluggish and cold with a certain torpor; and this is to me the sign of his withdrawal. My soul must needs be sorrowful, until he return again, and my heart grow warm again within me as before: and let that be the sign of his return."

Second, Aponius says that the Bridegroom departs when he chastises the sins of the Bride, that is, of the soul; and returns when, appeased by her repentance, he is reconciled to her: "The prolonging," he says, "of Christ in the Church is then, when he permits tribulation to be brought in to chastise the people; but his return is when, bent by prayers toward mercy, he runs back to the footsteps of his own mercy more swiftly than he had leapt forth in avenging; made like the course or habit of the roe, and the fawn of the deer, whose nature is, when a voice sent forth from behind resounds before them on the mountains, while they suppose that something is coming to meet them, to return with a swifter course to the place from which they had departed. And this is the reason that, when provoked by enemies, they are unwilling to abandon their accustomed haunt, just as Christ also, although provoked and exasperated by the sins of men, nevertheless did not abandon the accustomed haunt of his mercy."

Mystically, Justus of Urgell considers that here is signified the ascension of Christ into heaven: "When the Church," he says, "suggests that her beloved is going back, and calls him like a roe and a fawn, she shows that the ascension of Christ into heaven is to be compared to clean and swift animals. For these, with swift course, leap over the higher parts of the mountains; but Christ has gone above all lofty things; and it is well added, above the mountains of Bethel, that is, of the house of God, because he has been raised above all the saints." But Aponius considers that here the Church prays that Christ, having died, may rise from death: "Above the mountains of Bethel," he says, "in that she prays that he return, within whose borders Christ was crucified, she is shown to have prophesied the swiftness of the resurrection to be celebrated on the third day."

Tropologically, Bede judges that here the pious soul, tending toward perfection, asks that Christ show her a foretaste of heavenly happiness: "I beseech you," he says, "that from your general instruction you turn back more often to illumine more sublimely the hearts of the perfect, and just as the sight of the roe, or the fawn of the deer, on the mountains is indeed rare, yet accompanied by the delight of those who behold it, so in lofty minds may you present, whatever they may be, the traces of your greatness. I pray that the sweetness of immortal life, which you promise to all my members in the reward to come, you may also reveal to some, even on the journey, to be beheld, though from afar. And the name of the mountains fits well also the minds of those who have learned to open the eyes of the heart to the contemplation of heavenly things, when it is said, upon the mountains of Bether, which is interpreted 'a house rising up,' or 'a house of watches.'"

Anagogically, St. Gregory considers that here the pious soul asks Christ that he come quickly to judgment, so that in it she, together with the pious, may obtain glory; and the impious, who afflict the pious, may obtain hell: "From us," he says, "the beloved then departed bodily, when after the resurrection he ascended into heaven; but he will return, when at the end of the world, all the bodies of men having been raised, he will be made manifest in judgment: this manifestation the holy souls here ask for. Then Christ will truly appear like a roe and a fawn of the deer upon the mountains of Bether, because he will come to judgment in the same form of humanity which he took from the Church, who is signified by the roe, when in this world, from the lineage of the fathers, he was born humble as a fawn of the deer; and then, above all the highest, who stand out like mountains in the Church, which is the house of God, he will stand out more sublime." St. Bernard has similar things, Sermon 73.

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

Rupert considers that the Blessed Virgin here asks of Christ, now dead, that he hasten his resurrection like a fawn, and not remain in the tomb for a full three days, that is, 72 hours, but cut that short, so that he rise again at once after 33 hours: "Return quickly," he says, "do not delay, for my soul desires you, etc. The time of three days is indeed short, but for your beloved and your dove, desiring and groaning with a wounded mind, it has not, my beloved, been hastened enough. Shorten this very three-day period, and be like, in returning, a roe and a fawn of the deer, that is, be most swift in completing your course; in the heart of the earth, that is, in your tomb, do not spend the whole three days. It suffices for the fulfillment of the truth of the Scriptures, if you spend, lying in the tomb, a small part of the first day, that is, the last three hours, and some part of the third, namely six hours, which is half the night, together with the second day, that is, with the Sabbath. For three whole days are seventy-two hours. This would be too long." Then he adds another, numerical, reason: "Let thirty-three hours suffice, a number composed of two sets of three, of ten, and of a single one. The Blessed Trinity, against whom the first man sinned, must be appeased in you, and through you, and concerning yourself, my beloved, my flesh and my blood, my God and my Lord; but let this be done most quickly and with great haste, as the roe or the fawn of the deer is most swift upon the mountains; according to your name, by which you were commanded through the Prophet to be called: Make haste to take away the spoils, hasten to plunder. Scarcely, then, having waited out thirty-three hours, return over the mountains of Bether, that is, rise again and appear to the princes of the house of God, namely to your apostles and to me, whose great desire you especially are, as much as theirs, indeed much more than theirs."

The same Rupert considers that the Blessed Virgin here prays for the conversion of her own people, namely the Jews: "Return," he says, "be like a roe upon the mountains of Bethel," that is, near the fathers of the house of God, for this is what Bethel means. As if to say: Have mercy on the Jews, for they are the sons of Abraham and of the holy patriarchs, who were Bethel, that is, the house, family, and Church of God.

Again, the Jews are the mountains of Bether, that is, of division and separation; because through pride they divided and separated themselves from the faith of the patriarchs, who believed in the Christ who was to come, and consequently from God, from the Church, from heaven, from salvation, and from every good.

Likewise the Blessed Virgin still prays for sinners, who, like the mountains of Bether, have through sin proudly separated themselves from God and from the grace of God, as if to say: Return, O beloved, to the soul that was once yours, which is now tyrannically possessed by the devil; look, like a roe, with lynx-like eyes, upon its most wretched servitude and tyranny, by which it is oppressed by the devil, and, like the fawns of the deer, which by their breath draw out and kill serpents, as Pliny testifies, Book VIII, chapter 32. From the caverns of these souls draw out the Tartarean creatures — not so much serpents as monstrous dragons — which dwell in the mountains of Bether, that is, in the pride of division, namely in proud hearts, as well as in hell, where, on account of pride, they have been divided and cut off from God and from heaven for all eternity.