1642
“The Voice of the Bride. 1. LET HIM KISS ME WITH THE KISS OF HIS MOUTH. — The bride seems immodest, who, contrary to the custom of honorable and modest women, is the first to court the bridegroom, and immediately, without any preface, demands his spiritual kiss; but drunk with holy love she does not know how to blush: for where there is love, there is neither fear nor shame. "Headlong love," says St. Bernard, "waits for no judgment, is not tempered by counsel, is not restrained by shame, is not subject to reason. I ask, I entreat, I beseech: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth: and, as St. Bernard says: "The measure of loving God is to love without measure." Tuccius here recounts at length very many kisses of Christ and the Church. The bride is silent about the person of the bridegroom, and says only "let him kiss," because since she dwells in her mind on nothing but the bridegroom, she supposes that others too dwell on nothing else in their minds. Hence she expresses the act but is silent about the person, inasmuch as she reckons him — being most well known to herself, as also to all others, and present to the thoughts of all — to be so to everyone; just as Magdalene, John 20:15, when asked by Christ appearing in the guise of a gardener: "Woman, why do you weep? whom do you seek?" answered: "Lord, if you have taken him," etc.: taken whom? Christ, of course — who, as he is her love, indeed her mind and her heart, so she judged him to be the same for everyone else: for she, wholly filled with Christ, thought that neither she nor others could think of anything but Christ. Yet there is here in the bride a certain modesty, in that she does not direct her speech to the bridegroom so as to say, "Kiss," but addresses others as though intermediaries, saying, "Let him kiss me," as the same St. Bernard notes. So Magdalene, drunk with love, without shame, "burst in upon the banquet unwelcome," says St. Ambrose, but "welcome for the benefit she brought," so as to kiss not the mouth but the feet of Christ. But here the bride, not content with the kiss of the feet, which belongs to servants and subjects, aspires to the kiss of the mouth, which belongs to brides and to those who love supremely, as parents kiss their children, brothers kiss one another mutually, a friend kisses a friend. "O how great is the power of love!" exclaims St. Bernard, sermon 7, "how great the confidence in the freedom of the spirit! What is more evident than that manifest charity casts out fear?" And St. Augustine in the Manual, chapter 19: "Love," he says, "knowing nothing of rank, knows no reverence"; and chapter 20: "The loving soul is carried by its vows, drawn by its desires, disregards its merits, closes its eyes to majesty, opens them to delight," etc. This agrees with what St. Gregory writes concerning love, Book VI, Epistle 24 to Anastasius, where he shows that love presumes equally with power, and speaks freely as with authority and command. And Chrysologus, sermon 147: "Love," he says, "knows no judgment, lacks reason, knows no measure, takes no comfort from impossibility, admits no remedy for difficulty. Love, unless it reaches what it desires, kills the lover. Love cannot help seeing what it loves. Hence it is that all the Saints counted all they had earned as small, if they did not see the Lord. Hence it is that love which longs to see God, though it has no judgment, nevertheless has zeal of devotion. Whence Moses dares to say to God: If I have found favor before you, show me your face." Add that the bride does not court the bridegroom first, but is stirred and called by the bridegroom, First, the Total and Adequate Sense, Concerning Christ and the Church. It is the voice of the patriarchs, says St. Bernard, and of the Synagogue, says St. Thomas, longing for the coming of Christ, as if to say: Since Christ has so often promised me his coming through the prophets, I have eagerly and anxiously awaited him for three thousand years; let him come then, and "let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth," so that, assuming my flesh and mouth, he may speak to me through it and join himself to me, so that he who once opened the mouths of the prophets may now open his own mouth. Hear Origen: "How long does my bridegroom send kisses through Moses, send kisses through the prophets? Now I long to touch his own mouth; let him himself come, let him himself come down. She therefore prays to the bridegroom's father, and says to him: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. And because she is such that in her that prophetic word may be fulfilled in which it is said: While you are still speaking, I will say, behold, I am here:" the bride, the bridegroom's father hears, and sends his own son. Seeing him whose coming she was entreating, she ceased praying, and speaks to him face to face: For your breasts are good, above wine, and the fragrance of your ointments above all spices." So also Theodoret, Aponius, and Bede. as will be evident from what follows: "Your breasts are better than wine"; for these "breasts," that is, the bowels of mercy shown by the bridegroom to the bride, call her forth, indeed render her bold to ask for the kiss, because they instill in her a wonderful love and confidence in the bridegroom. For, as Christ says, John 6:44: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him," through grace that stirs and calls, as the Council of Trent, session VI, teaches and defines from St. Augustine. Theodoret adds: "When, therefore, she has understood the bridegroom's beauty, strength, riches, kingdom, which he holds over all, his eternal, incorruptible power which will have no end, she longs to see him, and to rush into his embrace, and to give him spiritual kisses." Add that this voice belongs not so much to the Synagogue as to the Church, which, after the incarnation of Christ, says "let him kiss," that is, let him continue to kiss me, and let him ever increase this kiss of his love in me. Hence in the Hebrew it is, let him kiss me with kisses. LET HIM KISS ME WITH THE KISS OF HIS MOUTH. — The Hebrew: he shall kiss me from the kisses (Vatablus: with the kisses) of his mouth. "He shall kiss," that is, let him kiss: for the Hebrews signify the optative by the future, which they lack. The Septuagint: let him kiss me with kisses (Origen, in Jerome's rendering, has "with a kiss") of his mouth; the Arabic: let him kiss (the Syriac renders it in the past tense, "he has kissed") me with the kisses of his mouth. "Kisses" in the plural signifies the vehement desire and love of the bride for the bridegroom, such that his presence cannot satisfy her, and she longs for it to be continual. For, as the Poet says: True love knows no measure to observe; This kiss of Christ, physically considered, is the hypostatic union itself; for by this he joined flesh to the Word, humanity to God, just as by a kiss the bridegroom is joined to the bride. Hence St. Bernard says: the one kissing is God, the one kissed is man, the kiss is the union of both, through which one person of both comes to be, who is at once God and man: for a most chaste kiss is a symbol of kinship and affinity; whence among all peoples parents kiss their children, brothers, kinsmen, relatives by marriage: for which reason Cato kissed the women related to him by blood, out of fatherly love, so as to know whether they smelled of wine. For among the Romans of old it was not lawful for women to drink wine; and if they had drunk it, they were held to be intemperate and unchaste, as Tiraquellus shows with many examples, Law IX On Marriage, no. 206. Much more does God, in kissing and visiting the soul, examine whether it smells of delights and vanities, and chastise it for these, according to that word: "You have tried my heart, and visited it by night: you have tried me with fire, and iniquity has not been found in me," Psalm 16:3. But the ethical, or moral, kiss is the inmost affection and love by which Christ is most closely joined to the Church and to the faithful soul. Hear St. Bernard here, sermon 2, expounding this longing for a kiss in the bride devoutly and movingly: "What are these half-uttered words of the prophets to me? Let him himself, rather, who is beautiful in form above the sons of men, let him himself kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. I no longer listen to Moses: for to me he has become a man of hindered speech. Isaiah's lips are unclean; Jeremiah does not know how to speak, for he is a child, and all the prophets are without tongue. Let him himself, he of whom they speak, let him himself speak: let him himself kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. Let him no longer speak to me in them or through them, since it is dark water in the clouds of the sky, but let him himself kiss me with the kiss of his mouth, whose gracious presence and the streams of his wondrous teaching may become in me a fountain of water springing up into life everlasting." Note, the kiss is a symbol, first, of reconciliation, since when one has offended another, he is reconciled to him by a kiss, as the father was reconciled to the prodigal son, Luke 15:20; second, of peace and concord; third, of greeting and good wishing, whence the Apostle: "Greet one another with a holy kiss," 2 Corinthians 13:12; fourth, of love and intimate union; whence the divine Hierotheus, in St. Dionysius, On the Divine Names, chapter 4, says that love has the power of joining, mingling, and uniting: which is signified by the kiss. For all these reasons the Church and the faithful soul demand the kiss of Christ, as Cosmas Damianus says: How long, best founder of our race and Father God, will you be angry with your suppliants? How long, angered, will you withhold your promises to humankind, and let them be entreated in vain? To what end will your kindness, once poured out abundantly upon man, contract itself and keep to its own treasures? Will nothing move you — the world's dominion seized by Satan; nothing — the sons reduced to slavery; nothing — the necessity of sinning, and even of dying, imposed on those who did not sin by themselves; nothing — the law given for life, yielding equally to ruin; nothing — the pledge given, and the vows and prayers of the devout? Just is, we confess, your indignation. Just are the judgments you exercise upon us; for incredible was your kindness to man at the first, the honors of your most ample decree, and the immense benefits you conferred upon him. But in contrast to your so great kindness stands our incredible impiety toward you, in return for the most ample honors atrocious injuries, and in return for such immense benefits, which no man could match, the gravest guilt. But now for three thousand years your wrath has raged against our whole race, against the sons, I say, of Adam, who, not knowing that bitter eating of the apple, nor their father's transgression, and innocent like lambs, yet guilty from their father, pay the penalty; the same are your sons by a better right. Have pity on your own, O Lord. Let your mercy, then, exalt itself above judgment. Let Christ come, promised to Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and the rest of the prophets, let him put on our flesh, and through it grant us the kiss of reconciliation: for he himself is the propitiation for the sins of the world, he himself our peace and salvation, he himself our love, our soul, our breath, and our life. "The breath of our mouth, Christ the Lord," says Jeremiah, "was taken in our sins: to whom we said, In your shadow we shall live among the nations," Lamentations 4:20. Join me, then, to him at last, betrothed as a bride from the beginning of the world. Fill me with his embraces and kisses. Let him himself cleanse me by the touch of his sacred mouth, let him join his rosy and divine mouth to mine. Let him fix a thousand kisses upon me. Let him himself be our peace, who grants your peace and good will. Let him, finally, join and cement me to himself with the glue of charity, that I may become one spirit with him, and one body; nor let us any longer be two, but let one man arise from both. I await you, then, as you come, O my most longed-for bridegroom; I wait for your presence soon; and the more hope of your embracing and kissing me is given by our escorts and groomsmen, the more our desire swells and burns within us, and my healing soul grows sick with longing. Cease, I beg, to address me now through envoys, to confirm your promise through go-betweens; come yourself, speak yourself in person. Receive my pledge, and give me yours in return; embrace me yourself, kiss me yourself, you who alone can make the most present remedy, you, I say, take pity on one who loves beyond her strength, and heal, I pray, our grief. The same was the longing of all the prophets who most greatly desired the bridegroom Christ and his bride the Church. Let a few out of many be heard. Hosea 2:19: "And I will espouse you to me forever: and I will espouse you to me in justice and judgment, and in mercy, and in compassion: and I will espouse you to me in faith." Likewise also through the prophet Jeremiah it is said, 2:2: "I have remembered you, pitying your youth, and the love of your espousal, when you followed me in the desert, in a land that is not sown." And through Isaiah, 61:10, likewise the voice of the Church says: He set a mitre on me as on a bride, and "clothed me with the garments of salvation: and surrounded me with the robe of justice, as a bridegroom decked with a crown, and as a bride adorned with her jewels." And through Zechariah, 9:9, he announces this same glory to the trembling Church, saying: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion: BEHOLD YOUR KING will come to you, just, and a savior: he himself poor, and riding upon a colt the foal of an ass." So Aponius cites the words of the prophets. The desires of all these, then, Solomon here expresses. Symbolically, the three Persons of the Holy Trinity are noted here: by "let him kiss" the Father; by "of his mouth" the Son, for he is the mouth and word of the Father; by "kiss" the Holy Spirit, for he is the bond, the love, and as it were the kiss by which the Father and the Son kiss one another. So St. Bernard, sermon 7, who says that the Church here asks for the kiss, that is, the Holy Spirit. The Church and the soul therefore ask that the whole Holy Trinity kiss it, that is, join itself intimately to it through affection, so that it may become a holy temple of the Holy Trinity, indeed become one spirit with it. "For he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit," 1 Corinthians 6:17. For a kiss joins the mouth of the one kissing to the mouth of the one kissed, to signify that the soul is joined in a like manner to the other's soul, so that of two lovers there comes to be, as it were, one lover, one soul, one spirit. So the Word, kissing our flesh and humanity, breathed into it his spirit and his divinity, so that one and the same might be God and man, in that two natures, humanity namely and deity, came together into one person of the Word. Further, the Chaldean understands by "kiss" the law given through Moses: for by this God betrothed Israel, and bound and obligated him to himself: "Blessed," he says, "be the name of the Lord, who gave us the law by the hand of Moses the great scribe, written on two tables of stone, and spoke with us face to face, as a man who kisses his companion." This sense, though Jewish, serves us, and to it Solomon here alludes, indeed presupposes it as a type. For Moses, giving Israel the kiss of doctrine and the divine law, was a type of Christ kissing Christians with the kiss of his mouth, by which, most lovingly embracing their mouth, he taught the new law and the evangelical doctrine, and by it bound and betrothed them to himself. Whence very many of the Fathers understand by "kiss" the doctrine of Christ, so that the kiss is as it were an oracle. So Origen, Philo of Carpasia, Anselm here, and St. Jerome, Epistle 146 to Damasus, and St. Gregory, Moralia XIX, 22, who adds that St. Matthew alluded to this kiss when he said of Christ, chapter 5:2-3: "Opening his mouth he taught them, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit," etc.; "then," says St. Gregory, "he opened his own mouth, who had before opened the mouths of the prophets." Second, the Partial Literal Sense, Concerning Christ and the Holy Soul. What I have already said concerning Christ and the Church can be applied to the holy soul, only changing the name of the Church to the name of the soul; to which add that this can be expounded of the soul, first, as penitent; second, as innocent and just; third, as meditating and contemplating, fixed on God; fourth, as loving and in ecstasy. Fourfold, then, you may expound this passage of the soul: first, of the soul as penitent, as if to say: Eternal Father, may it please you to be reconciled to me, a sinful soul who have gravely offended you, but who through your calling and grace am now penitent, and grant me the kiss of peace, by which you may wipe away every offense, indeed abolish and blot it out, and reconcile me to yourself, and restore me to your former friendship and grace; for just as a kiss belongs to two mouths and bodies, so peace is the close union of two hearts. Christ, therefore, first stirs and calls the soul lulled asleep by sin, striking it with his grace, saying: "Rise, you who sleep, and Christ will give you light," Ephesians 5:14; or: "Kiss me with the kiss of your mouth," according to that word of the Psalmist which the Church so often prays: "Turn us, O God, our salvation," Psalm 84:5; and that word of God through the prophet Zechariah, 1:3, calling sinners to himself: "Return to me, and I will return to you." So Magdalene, called inwardly by Christ, ran to the kiss: so teaches the Council of Trent, session VI. Further, the espousal of the soul with God comes about through the virtues, especially faith, penitence, chastity, charity, according to that word: "The charity of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to us," Romans 5:5, as I have shown at length on 2 Corinthians 11, on that word: "I have espoused you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." Hence St. Agnes: "With his ring," she says, "my Lord Jesus Christ has betrothed me, that I may admit no lover besides him; as a bride he has adorned me with a crown; I am espoused to him whom the angels serve, whose beauty the sun and moon admire. I love Christ, into whose bridal chamber I shall enter, whose mother is a virgin, whose father knows no woman, whose instruments sing to me with modulated voices; whom, when I have loved him, I am chaste; when I have touched him, I am clean; when I have received him, I am a virgin." So from St. Ambrose, sermon 90, the Church in the ecclesiastical office of St. Agnes. Finally, with what zeal and love God invites sinners to this kiss of reconciliation, St. Dionysius vividly depicts, in the Epistle to Demophilus: "What," he says, "of the fact that he most kindly bears with those relaxed even into pleasures, and delaying their return on that account, and himself deigns to give an account, indeed relieves them even with promises, and soothes them with blandishments? And while those who return to him are still far off, he runs to meet them, glad and welcoming, and, embracing them wholly, kisses them wholly, and does not reproach them for their former turning away, but, content with their present conversion, both makes a feast day and calls together his friends." Second, those purified from sin and justified ask for the kiss of Christ, by which, namely, Christ breathes his Spirit into them, so that by it, like the eagle, they may be renewed from sluggishness and old age, and be kindled in the love of God, as those who mutually breathe upon and inspire one another. This alludes to the forming of Adam's body from the slime of the earth, into whom God, as it were kissing him, "breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul," Genesis 2:7. For just as the soul, when it takes up and, as it were, kisses the body, animates and vivifies what was lifeless, so the grace of the Holy Spirit, kissing the soul, vivifies it, indeed deifies it, and makes it a daughter and heir of God. So St. Ambrose, book On Isaac and the Soul, chapter 3: "She asks," he says, "for the kiss of the bridegroom, by which the spirit of the one kissing is poured into her." Hence symbolically St. Bernard understands by "kiss" the Holy Spirit, who is the kiss, that is, the love of the Father and the Son. Hear him, sermon 8: "She asks for a kiss, that is, she invokes the Holy Spirit, through whom she may receive at once the taste of knowledge and the seasoning of grace." And a little after the beginning of the sermon: "It suffices," he says, "for the bride, if she is kissed by the bridegroom's kiss, even if she is not kissed by his mouth. For she thinks it no small or vile thing to be kissed by the kiss, which is nothing other than to be filled with the Holy Spirit." The bride, therefore, says: "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth," that is, may the eternal Father join himself most closely to me by the spirit of his Word, and make me a partaker, by that hidden union, of his own nature. For through grace we become partakers of the divine nature, as St. Peter says, second Epistle, chapter 1, verse 4. Third, those who pray and contemplate ask for and receive the kiss, that is, the illuminations, impulses, and divine fervors of the Holy Spirit. Whence St. Ambrose, in the place already cited: "The kiss of the Word," he says, "is the light of sacred knowledge." And Nyssen, homily 1: "Because the bridegroom's words," he says, "are spirit and life; whoever is joined to the spirit becomes spirit; and he who is joined to life passes from death to life: therefore the spiritual soul desires to draw near to the fountain of life, namely to the bridegroom's mouth, whence the words of eternal life gushing forth fill the mouth that draws them in." St. Bernard, sermon 1: "Whose (Christ's) living and efficacious word," he says, "is indeed a kiss to me — not, of course, a joining of lips, which sometimes falsely feigns peace of souls; but plainly an infusion of joys, a revelation of secrets, a certain wondrous and in a manner indistinguishable mingling of the heavenly light and the enlightened mind. For he who cleaves to God is one spirit." Fourth, those loving and wholly devoted to divine love ask for, and obtain from God, the kiss of burning and full charity, concerning which Nyssen, homily 1: "As Moses," he says, "who was counted worthy (Exodus 33) to speak with God face to face, was held by a greater desire of such kisses, asking to see him whom he desired, though God had appeared to him so often, just as if he had never contemplated him. So all the rest, in whose deepest inward parts the divine longing dwelt, never stopped their longing, whatever came to them from God, by which they might enjoy him whom they desired, seizing it as material and kindling for a greater desire. In what way, too, does the soul, which even now is joined to God, remain unable to be satisfied by enjoyment, since the more abundantly it is filled with enjoyment, the more vehement is the desire that flourishes in it, and so it says: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth." Hence St. Agnes, appearing gloriously to her parents after death: "Do not," she says, "mourn for me; for I am joined to him in heaven, whom, placed on earth, I loved with my whole heart, my whole spirit, my whole mind's devotion." Repeat here her other words, cited above for another reason. This bears on what St. Bernard, sermon 3 and following, distinguishes as a threefold kiss: first, the kiss of the feet, by which penitents with Magdalene kiss the two feet of Christ, namely mercy and truth, so that by truth they may condemn their sins in repenting, by mercy they may hope for pardon in trusting; second, the kiss of the hand, by which the just and those making progress kiss the hands of Christ, while they offer him the good works of the virtues, and in turn receive from him the gifts of graces; third, the kiss of the mouth, by which the perfect soul, thirsting for God alone, and longing to cling to him alone, says: "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth," that is, let him pour into me and breathe into me the Holy Spirit, that I may be wholly united to my beloved Christ. To this religious men and those zealous for perfection strive, who renounce the love of all things for themselves, that they may transfer it wholly to God, so that, namely, they may be free for God alone, and betroth themselves to him by the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Hence Blessed Giles, companion of St. Francis, when asked "what was the way of perfection?" replied: "One to one," as if to say: The soul will be perfect if it joins and hands itself wholly, one to one, to God. "This kiss," says St. Bernard, "is not a noise of the mouth, but a jubilation of the heart; not a sound of the lips, but a movement of joys: therefore it does not suit an infant soul, newly converted to Christ, but one already advanced, and which, now arriving at perfect age and marriageable years (of merits, not of time), has become fit for the wedding of the heavenly bridegroom." For this soul alone can say: "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth, for your loves are better than wine," as others render it. Then, how one must ascend by degrees to the kiss of the mouth, St. Bernard teaches thus: "Prostrate yourself first for kisses of the feet, and water them with your tears, and do not rise from there before you hear: Your sins are forgiven you; and then, as much as you have advanced in grace, so much will you be enlarged in confidence. From there you will be able to advance to the kiss of the hands, when you have begun now to act vigorously and perseveringly in the works of all the virtues. Then finally perhaps you will dare to lift your head toward that very mouth of glory (I say this trembling and with fear), not only to gaze upon it, but also to kiss it. The kiss of the feet, then, belongs to beginners; of the hands, to those making progress; of the mouth, to the perfect." Finally, three anonymous Fathers in Theodoret, and St. Ambrose, book On the Sacraments, chapter 2, hold that this kiss is real, which the holy soul seeks, when it desires to receive Christ sacramentally in the Eucharist, and ardently desires his embrace: "The soul," he says, "sees itself cleansed from all sins, and worthy to approach the altar of Christ; for what is the altar but the form of the body of Christ? She sees the wondrous sacraments, and says: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, that is, let Christ fix a kiss upon me. Why? Because your breasts are better than wine, that is, your meanings are better, your sacraments are better than that wine, which, although it has sweetness, has gladness, has grace; yet in that there is worldly gladness, while in you there is spiritual delight." Hence St. Agnes: "Now my body," she says, "is joined to his body, and his blood has adorned my cheeks: to him alone I keep faith, to him I commit myself with entire devotion." Excellently St. Cyril, book XI on John, chapters 26 and 27, explaining that word of Christ to the Father concerning the disciples: "That they may be one, as we also are one. I in them, and you in me: that they may be made perfect in one," John 17:23, teaches that through the receiving of the Eucharist we become one with Christ, and through Christ one with God. Whence he draws this axiom: "The bond, then, of our union to God the Father is Christ: to us indeed as man, but to God the Father as God naturally united." He adds the reason: "For it was not possible for human nature, subject to corruption, to ascend to immortality, unless the immortal and unchangeable nature had descended to it, and, by communion and participation of itself, had raised those reformed from the bounds of our mortality to its own good. We are, therefore, made perfect, and led back to union with God the Father through the mediation of the Savior, that is, of Christ." Whence he concludes: "We ought therefore to marvel at the kindness of the divine nature, which deigns to communicate to creatures what is properly its own." Further, through this kiss holy souls draw wondrous consolations of heavenly love, tastes and delights, so that they disdain all earthly pleasures, and say with Paul, Philippians 3:8: "For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as dung, that I may gain Christ"; wherefore, fed on this divine nectar and ambrosia, indeed already drunk, they seem to themselves to be as it were in paradise, and to enjoy God with the angels and the blessed. Whence they say: "Our conversation," our thought, our mind, our love, our delights, our life "is in heaven." And with the Psalmist: "My soul has thirsted for you, how many ways my flesh also," Psalm 62:2. And: "But it is good for me to adhere to God," Psalm 72:28. And: "Lord, what have I in heaven, and besides you what do I desire upon earth? The God of my heart, and my portion, God, forever," ibid., verse 25. This is what God promises the pious soul through Hosea, 2:14: "Behold, I will allure her, and lead her into the wilderness: and I will speak to her heart." See what is said there. Hence what the Vulgate has at Exodus 33:11: "The Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man is wont to speak to his friend," namely when he gave Moses the law to be promulgated to the Hebrews: the Chaldean here, verse 2, understanding by "kiss" that same law given by the mouth of God and of Moses to the Hebrews, thus renders it, he spoke with us face to face, as a man who kisses his companion. Hear St. Gregory here: "The mouth of the bridegroom is the inspiration of Christ: the kiss of the mouth, the sweet love of that inspiration. The bride, therefore, seething with desire, and burning to embrace her bridegroom, says: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth, as if to say: Let him come, whom above all things, indeed alone, I love, who may touch me with the sweetness of his inspiration; for when I feel his kiss, I forsake myself in a sudden change, and am at once melted and transformed into his likeness. For the holy mind grows weary of all it perceives through the body, and longs to be wholly transformed into those spiritual things; and while these things clamor around it, it flees into those, and seeks to hide itself, that it may not perceive these; and therefore it seeks the kiss of the bridegroom, because if he does not draw it by the bond of most welcome love, it, held fast by the force of its own most troublesome heaviness, finds no way at all to bring itself to him; but the loving bridegroom, feeling its anxiety, cherishing its love, hearing its voice, extends the kiss, and lest it grow weary with longing, soothes it with a taste of his sweetness, and while he shows his presence, kindles it to a greater kiss of love." All these kisses of God are especially felt, and, as it were relished with delight, by men eminent in holiness, prayer, and contemplation, and thereafter in ecstasy, who perceive the wondrous inflowings and visitations of God, most sweet but inexplicable in human words, and known only to one who has experienced them; such as Paul felt, when he was caught up into the third heaven, where, as though transformed into Christ, he said: "And I live, now not I: but Christ lives in me," Galatians 2:20. This was experienced bodily, through sight, by St. Gertrude, who thus narrates of herself, Book II of the Revelations, chapter 22: "Once, when I was wholly intent on the psalmody, you, Lord, gave, ten times and more, a most sweet kiss to the mouth of my soul. O kiss far surpassing all fragrance of spices, and all sweetness of honey!" At other times she often felt God flow into her soul, as the sun flows into the air with its splendor, from which inflowing her soul was suffused, now with wondrous virtues of grace, now with ineffable serenity and joy; for it penetrated intimately every marrow, sense, and power of the soul. Mystics and contemplatives understand by this kiss the highest degree of contemplation, by which the soul, long and much exercised beforehand in humility, prayer, meditation, patience, and the other virtues, is raised by God to an immediate and intimate contemplation and union with himself; by which it comes about that the soul now rests, not in virtues, nor in divine consolations, nor in discourses or images, nor in any created thing, but immediately in God alone, through contemplation and love, and says: "In peace, in the selfsame, I will sleep, and I will rest," Psalm 4:9. This union, through the divine inflowing, as St. Dionysius teaches, and after him St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure, Hugh, Richard, Gerson, Laurentius Justinianus, Tauler, Ruysbroeck, Herp, Suso, and others like them, who have written on mystical theology. This inflowing is that by which God of himself flows into the intellect and will of man, and becomes intimately present to him, communicates himself wholly, shows himself, and joins himself immediately under the aspect of an object: to the intellect indeed under the aspect of an immense light, but not so clear and open as that which is in the blessed; to the will under the aspect of the highest good, so that God binds the will intimately to himself and to his own essence, as to the highest good, so much so that the will immediately tastes and feels his goodness, and is delighted and enjoys it. For then the intellect is suffused and raised by God with wondrous light, so that it knows him in the highest manner, though not by direct vision (for this is proper to the blessed), and thus presents him to the will as present, under the appearance of the highest and most delightful good; whereby it comes about that the will and the whole soul, impelled by God, is most ardently swept into that good, embraces it fully, and exhausts all its powers in loving it, and binding itself to it, and kissing it; hence it comes about that the soul thereafter neither hears, nor feels, nor sees, nor thinks, nor loves anything besides God, and hangs wholly suspended from him, as in rapture and ecstasy: which is the mystical espousal and marriage of the soul with God through mutual clinging and enjoyment, whereby, as St. Ambrose says, the soul espoused to God is wedded to the eternal Word, and the Word flows into the soul, not in the apex of the mind, but in its very center and depth, and binds it to himself. This only one who has experienced it can grasp. St. Bernard had experienced it, who accordingly, sermon 31, says that the bride, burning with the love of God, is not content with other illuminations or revelations, "unless, by a special prerogative, she receives him flowing in from heaven into her inmost affections and into the very marrow of her heart, and has ready at hand him whom she desires, not figured, but infused; not appearing, but working"; and shortly after: "Yet I would not say that he appears as he is, although he shows nothing else in this manner than what he is"; and Richard of St. Victor, treatise On the Degrees of Violent Charity: "Often," he says, "under this state the Lord comes down from the heavens, often he visits one sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, often the glory of the Lord fills the tabernacle of the covenant; yet in such a way does he show his presence, that he in no way shows his face; he pours in his sweetness, but does not show his beauty; he pours in delight, but does not show clarity." In particular, Blessed Teresa, treatise On Perfection, seventh Mansion, chapters 1 and 2: "To the soul," she says, "remaining in that center, by intellectual vision the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, and all three Persons, are made manifest; yet a certain most sweet inflaming of the spirit precedes this manifestation, like a certain most luminous cloud, and there, by a certain admirable knowledge, she perceives in what manner the three Persons are one substance, one power, one wisdom, and one God, so that what we hold by faith, the soul in a manner knows by intuition." Further, the effects of this union are: first, an ardor of love, so that the soul burns with love, melts, and is transformed into God, and supremely desires to see him, and to enjoy him face to face. Second, a wondrous peace, sweetness, and gladness of soul, by which the soul, tasting "that the Lord is sweet," is so inebriated and absorbed by his sweetness that it despises and disdains all else, and now seems to itself almost blessed, and to be separated from the blessed only by the body, as by a wall set between, according to that word of Isaiah, 58:14: "Then you shall delight in the Lord, and I will lift you up above the heights of the earth"; indeed, sometimes by the force of the burning spirit the body is raised aloft, and ascends toward heaven, as happened to St. Magdalene, St. Francis, St. Ignatius, and others. Third, a great inflowing of virtues and graces, so that the soul plainly attains the divine likeness, and becomes most beautiful, indeed is made God-formed, and as it were deified, and conformed to Christ; whence its beauty is so celebrated by the bridegroom in the Canticle: wherefore, after the manner of Christ, it embraces crosses and torments, rejoices in reproaches, exults in adversities, glories in persecutions, as St. Paul did. Fourth, a sublime and perfect knowledge of the divine mysteries, and an illustrious contemplation of God himself, though in obscurity, as St. Dionysius says, approaching nearest to the clear and visible knowledge of the blessed, to which pertains that word of Isaiah, 58:10: "Your light shall rise up in darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday. And the Lord will give you rest continually, and will fill your soul with brightness." Fifth, such a soul has God, as it were, always present in its mind, and converses and speaks with him, even though it does not see him clearly, just as one converses with a friend in darkness and an obscure place, whom he hears but does not see. Third, the Principal Sense, Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin. What has been said of the just soul belongs, by a far greater right, to the Blessed Virgin, who was the standard-bearer of all the just. Besides those, a fourfold kiss of God properly belongs to the Blessed Virgin alone. The first is the kiss of the Holy Trinity, by which, from eternity, before all men and angels, God the Father chose her for himself as daughter, the Son as mother, the Holy Spirit as bride, that through her and her son might come about a kiss, that is, the reconciliation of the whole human race. For this reason she was the first to vow virginity to God, that she might dedicate herself wholly, in body and soul, to God, and say: "My flesh and my heart have failed: the God of my heart, and my portion, God, forever," Psalm 72:26. The second is the kiss of longing and sighing, by which she, above all the patriarchs, most ardently desired the incarnation of the Word, for the reconciliation and salvation of the world. She, therefore, as it were the mother of all the faithful and the saints, wonderfully desiring the salvation of the whole world, said with seraphic ardors of longing: "Let him kiss us with the kiss of his mouth." Wherefore, when she read and pondered that oracle of Isaiah, 7:14: "Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel," she cried out: Send, O Lord, this virgin, who may bear Emmanuel for us: would that I might deserve to see this virgin, would that I might deserve to become her handmaid! Wherefore by these most ardent desires she merited of congruity the incarnation of Christ itself, indeed his maternity, so that she alone, of all, should become the mother of Christ, as the theologians teach, and Francisco Suárez, part III, question 2, article 10, disputation 10, section 8. Whence St. Gregory, on 1 Kings 1: "She raised," he says, "the summit of her merits even to the throne of the Godhead"; and St. Jerome, Epistle 22 to Eustochium: "Set before yourself," he says, "Mary, who was of such purity that she deserved to be the mother of the Lord"; and St. Anselm, On the Praises of the Virgin, chapter 8: "The most holy purity and the most pure holiness of her heart, transcending the purity and holiness of every creature by an incomparable sublimity, earned this, that she should become most fully the restorer of the lost world." The third was the kiss in the Incarnation of Christ: for then the Holy Spirit espoused her to himself as bride, that in her and from her most pure blood he might form the body of Christ, according to that word of the archangel Gabriel: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also that Holy One who will be born of you shall be called the Son of God," Luke 1:35. "Was not this word of the angel," says Rupert, "the word and the pledge of that kiss of the mouth of the Lord already at hand?" Wherefore, when she gave her consent to the Holy Spirit for the incarnation of the Word, with the highest humility and equally with charity, saying: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word," then in very deed she said: "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth," that is, let the Son of God take flesh from me, and kiss it and unite it intimately to himself. And at that same instant, the Holy Spirit working, in her sacred womb was accomplished the kiss of God with humanity, by which peace and justice kissed one another, when the Word was made flesh. "Truly," says Rupert, "your soul melted, as the beloved spoke," namely God the Father, in a wondrous utterance, an ineffable utterance, while he inserted the substance of his Word, together with that love of his which is the Holy Spirit, deep into your mind, into your womb; in which you have appeared to have neither one like before you, nor to have one following after." Again, the flesh assumed by Christ was the flesh of the Blessed Virgin; wherefore when Christ assumed his flesh, he assumed the flesh of the Blessed Virgin, and impressed upon it, as it were, the kiss of the hypostatic union, and thus, as it were, deified her. The fourth kiss was bodily, in the nativity of Christ, when she bore Christ, and, as a mother, kissed her son with the highest reverence and love, and from these frequent kisses of her beloved, felt herself breathed upon by wondrous ardors of the Godhead. Hence in the Hebrew it is, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. To this bears that prophecy of the Sibyl concerning Christ, to be born of the Blessed Virgin, in Virgil, Eclogue 4: Begin, little boy, to know your mother by her smile. Hence pious and grave men prudently judge that the Blessed Virgin, as soon as she had borne Christ, adored and greeted him with the deepest reverence, saying: "Welcome, my God, my Lord, and my son," and at once gave a kiss to his feet as to God, to his hands as to Lord, to his mouth as to son; and then wrapped him, naked, in swaddling clothes, and put him to her breasts, and gave him virgin milk; and Christ, in turn, smiled and beamed upon his mother with his mouth, eyes, and joyful countenance. Anagogically, Christ, in the resurrection, by kissing, as it were, the dead body, will breathe a soul into it, that it may live again, and will share with the saints the gifts of his glorious body. A type of this was Elisha, who by kissing the dead boy raised him to life; for, as it is said, 4 Kings 4:34: "He put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes," etc. Whence "the boy yawned seven times, and opened his eyes." Elijah did the same, 3 Kings 17:21. Again, the blessed in heaven kiss Christ; whence Paul, Philippians 1:23: "I am straitened," he says, "between the two: having a desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ." In imitation of this, the pagans fashioned the tale of Diana kissing Endymion and raising him from his death-bringing sleep, as Pierio relates, Hieroglyphica 50, chapter 29. Moreover, as to the soul, the blessed in heaven, and above all the Blessed Virgin, seeing the face of God, through this vision continually, as it were, kiss God, and from him draw all the gifts, delights, and joys of the Godhead, according to that word: "They shall be inebriated with the plenty of your house: and you shall make them drink of the torrent of your pleasure. For with you is the fountain of life: and in your light we shall see light," Psalm 35:9. It is told of the soul of a certain saint, who had endured many hardships in this life, that when, after death, he appeared to a friend, and the friend asked whether joys had been rendered him equal to such great sorrows, he replied: That very first greeting of the heavenly ones, with which they embraced me as I entered heaven, and especially the first kiss of Christ, with which he kissed me, was so sweet to me, and so pierced my inmost being, that it at once made me forget all my labors, and took from me and wiped away the memory of all my sorrows, according to that word: "God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes: and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more, for the former things have passed away. And he who sat upon the throne said: Behold, I make all things new," Revelation 21:4. Because your breasts are better than wine. First, the Adequate Sense, Concerning Christ and the Church. St. Bernard, sermon 9, holds that these words can be taken either as the bridegroom's, or as the bride's, or as those of the bride's companions; but that these are properly and genuinely the words of the bride is clear from the word "because": for this word gives the reason why the bride so desired the kiss of the bridegroom — namely, because she had experienced, either in herself or in others, the sweetness of the bridegroom's breasts, as if to say: Because the sweetness of milk, that is, of spiritual consolations from your love, as it were flowing from your breast, I have tasted, when at first you allured and called me to yourself, hence I aspire to your kiss, so that from it I may draw your breath, spirit, and soul, from which all sweetness flows, as it were from the very fountain. The nursing breasts, then, denote the love that gives wondrous consolations and sweetnesses. There is a twofold breast, a twofold love; one eternal, by which God has loved the bride from eternity with everlasting charity; the other created, placed in the human will of the bridegroom Christ, thence to cherish the bride with a mother's affection from the first instant of his conception, as a breast bursting forth from the chest, or rather from the heart. Hence St. Agnes: "Honey," she says, "and milk I have received from his mouth"; and the Psalmist, Psalm 30:20: "How great is the multitude of your sweetness, O Lord, which you have hidden for those who fear you," and have perfected it for those who hope in you, says Aponius. Hear Haymo, and through him St. Thomas: "By the breasts of Christ, the sweetness of the Gospel is understood, by which the infancy of believers is nourished as by milk: for wine signifies the austerity of the law; but the breasts of Christ are better than wine, because the sweetness of the Gospel is better than the austerity of the law." You will say, how are breasts, which are proper to women, attributed to the bridegroom, inasmuch as he is a man? I answer, first, in parables some things are said which suit not so much the parable as the thing signified by the parable. The breasts, then, are to be understood not so much as bodily, but as spiritual things signified by bodily ones: for by these Christ feeds his faithful. Again, just as Scripture borrows metaphors from animals, as it calls Christ a lamb, an ox, a lion: so also it borrows from women, so as to give him breasts, by which it signifies the bowels of mercy. I answer, second, certain men, who have both sexes, namely the male and the female, have breasts, such as hermaphrodites. By these breasts, then, it is signified that Christ is not only the father of the faithful, but also their most loving mother, inasmuch as he, like a mother, feeds us with his mystical breasts. Hence Christ is called patrimator, that is, father-mother, according to that word which he himself, as the eternal wisdom of the Father, says of himself, Sirach 24:24: "I am the mother of fair love." Christ, therefore, to signify that he is not only bridegroom, but also father and mother, names breasts, by which he suckles and feeds the Church as a daughter with a mother's affection and love. Third, the Hebrew דודים dodim signifies both loves and breasts, for breasts are a symbol of love; whence the Hebrews here, in place of "breasts," render "loves." Hence Vatablus renders, your loves surpass wine in goodness. It seems that our translator and the Septuagint read דדים daddim instead of דודים dodim; for daddim signifies breasts, but dodim, loves, says Marinus in the Lexicon. Whence when דודים dodim is written with a vau, so that it cannot be read daddim, the Septuagint and our translator always render "loves," or "beloved," never "breasts." Here, however, דדים is written without a vau; whence they read daddim, that is, breasts. Others, on Origen's testimony, render, your speeches are better than wine: these, for דודים dodim, seem to have read דברים debarim, that is, words, speeches; or at any rate they explain "breasts" by "speeches" and "discourses": for by these Christ feeds us. Fourth, lovers, says Titelmann, from excess of love, are wont to mix and confuse their words, and speak, as it were, foolishly: so here the bride, out of the vehemence of love, as if forgetting the bridegroom's manly condition, attributes to him breasts, so as to indicate his immense beneficence, and her own supreme affection for him. For love makes lovers mindless. Fifth, by "breasts" Nyssen understands the heart, which is covered by the breasts; and Titelmann: "We could," he says, "understand by 'breasts' the breast itself, where the place of the breasts is, so as to be understood to commend the sweetness and devotion of the Lord's breast, which it was given the beloved disciple to experience, reclining upon his breast, or rather in the bosom of the bridegroom, at that memorable supper; which breasts and breast, moreover, for the bride's sake, were at last pierced through on the cross, and poured out blood and water like wine and milk for the regeneration of believers." Finally, most plainly and most easily, with Delrio and Sotomayor, you may answer that men have small breasts, namely nipples, both for the protection and fostering of the heart, as Galen teaches On the Use of the Parts, which also, accordingly, sometimes give milk, as Aristotle expressly teaches, Book I of the History of Animals, chapter 12, and Book III, chapter 20: "In men," he says, "after puberty a little (milk) is expressed in some, but by more frequent sucking it is reported to have come out abundantly in some." [Latin succum, "juice"; probably for suctum, "sucking"] Whence also St. Augustine, in Book IV of the City of God, chapter 12, says the pagans gave Jupiter a breast, just as the Hebrews call God Shaddai, as if to say, breasted. Indeed Isaiah too, 46:3, gives God a womb and a belly, and 66:11, breasts and milk. Finally Clement of Alexandria, in the Pedagogue, chapter 6, fittingly shows that Christ the Lord is, as it were, the breast of God the Father, that is, the love and delight of God the Father: in which sense Christ the Lord himself, John 1:18, affirms that he is in the bosom of God his Father: to such a degree does God the Father delight in himself in Christ his son, and take delight in him out of exceeding love. You will ask, second, what the breasts here signify. First, our Gaspar Sánchez understands by "breasts" the lips, for with these, as it were breasts of Christ, he poured out the milk of his doctrine, by which he feeds us. Whence certain ones, in Origen, render, your speeches are better than wine. This sense fittingly coheres with what precedes, as if to say: "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth, because your breasts," that is, the lips of your mouth, "are better than wine." Hence also R. Saadiah renders, your saliva is better than wine. For the saliva of Christ gave light to the blind man, John 9:6. Second, Nyssen understands by "breasts" the heart, which the breasts surround and cover: for in the heart is the seat of love, as also of wisdom; whence the Wise Man, Proverbs 23:26: "Give me," he says, "my son, your heart." Hear Nyssen, homily 1: "But altogether, he who understands 'heart' as the hidden and secret power of divinity, will not err; and we may reasonably reckon the 'breasts' as the operations of the divine power on our behalf, by which God nourishes the life of each, like a nurse, giving fitting nourishment to each of those who receive it." The bride, then, in asking for a kiss, asks to be joined to the heart of Christ, indeed asks that it be given to her, that she may possess it wholly, and his whole love; just as St. Catherine of Siena asked of Christ that his heart be given to her, and obtained it — not indeed his own substantial heart (for who would believe this?), but an effect formed by Christ, conformed and similar to her own heart. Third, Titelmann understands by "breasts" the breast: for in it are the breasts, which signify the affection, love, and beneficence of Christ, as Sánchez says: "O my beloved, if I am permitted to sleep between your breasts, that is, between the left and the right, which is allowed the bride, indeed is customary; or to draw in, through lawful kisses, that sweetest breath, which is breathed out from your breasts, that is, from your inmost heart, which is far sweeter than the finest wine and the best ointments: this will be my remedy for all things, indeed present before all ointments." Fourth, Origen, Bede, Justus, Cassiodorus, Philo of Carpasia, and Aponius understand by the two breasts the two Testaments, namely the Old and the New, or the doctrine of the prophets and the apostles: for both, like a twofold breast, feed the faithful, and once fed the Jews, as also Christians. Hear St. Ambrose, sermon 1 on Psalm 118: "As one despising all her pleasures and delights, desiring to cling to heavenly commands, she says: For the best precepts of your Testaments, above every appetite of the flesh, and the pleasure of the age: for she remembered that she had thus fallen before, in Eve." Fifth, our Sánchez understands by "breasts" the inward parts, from which the breath is drawn in breathing; whence the Syriac renders "breasts" as "inward parts." Since, says Sánchez, the bridegroom's breath, chapter 5, verse 16, is called most sweet — for this is the meaning of that: "His throat is most sweet" — the bride therefore seems to desire the kiss so greatly, because through it she draws in the bridegroom's breath and soul, which is far sweeter than wine and the best ointments. That the heart is signified by the name "breasts," see chapter 7, on that word: "I will give you my breasts." Or perhaps (which I think more likely) it signifies that she greatly desires the time of the wedding, because then, by custom, the bride lies in the bridegroom's bosom, that is, between the left and the right, which is the place of the breasts, and is called the bosom. Now nothing is more powerful to still the soul's anguish than the bosom or breasts of the bridegroom, where the bride is to take her rest. Perhaps "breasts" are taken for "kisses": nor is this a harsh manner of speaking, if by "breasts" you understand love: for love is used in place of a kiss by that figure by which the thing signified is put for the sign; which often happens in sacred Scripture. By "breasts," then, the bride asks that the sweet and fragrant breath of the bridegroom's inward parts be breathed upon her: for which reason, in former times, more refined men and women chewed mastic, so as to give off a sweet and fragrant breath, on the testimony of Clement of Alexandria, Pedagogue III, chapter 3. This opinion is favored by what follows: "Fragrant with the best ointments." Thus Sánchez. Sixth, and genuinely, breasts signify the sweetest faculty and power of nursing: for Christ, with his most sweet doctrine and grace, nourishes the faithful, as it were, sweetly with two breasts; the breasts of Christ, then, are his very wisdom and beneficence, from which sweetness of speech, and the sweetness of doctrine and of words, flow forth as it were like honeyed milk, which is sweeter than any wine of carnal pleasures, inasmuch as that is sharp and biting. For wine is a mark and cause of raging lust, according to that word: As Venus rages in wine, fire in fire. But the milk of Christ just mentioned brings the faithful, as newborn infants, as St. Peter says, to the full age of virtue, and to perfect life, because it does not gush forth, like the vine and wine, from the depths of earthly wisdom or secular literature, but rains down from on high, from heaven, like manna and the morning dew. Again, just as the breasts surround the heart, and draw their power, as it were, from it, so doctrine and grace proceed from the heart and breast of Christ, and, as it were, offer and present it to us. Moreover, as breasts are the seat of loves and delights, according to that word, Proverbs 5:19: "A most dear hind, and a most agreeable fawn; let her breasts inebriate you at all times," so likewise the seat of the same is the breast and heart of Christ, full of every consolation and grace. Just as, then, in maternal breasts, infants have all their nourishment and comfort, and seek or desire nothing else beyond them, so for the holy Church, in the breasts of divine mercy, devotion, and beneficence, is placed all good, all nourishment, all comfort. She seeks nothing beyond, she refuses to be consoled except in God: Better, she says, are your breasts to me than the most delicious wine, than everything which in this world, whatever, however much, or of whatever kind, can bring consolation or joy. Your beneficence delights me more, and what I receive from you of spiritual nourishment or holy delight, than all the bodily pleasures of this world. After I have once sucked these breasts, after I have once tasted the sweetest milk, which is drawn and sucked from them out of the hidden bowels of your mercy, I cannot taste or look upon other breasts; I abhor other consolations, my soul altogether refuses to be consoled except in God. So Titelmann and others generally. Hear three anonymous Fathers in Theodoret: "He mentions the breasts, because they are near the heart, in which the chief seat of the mind is, whence the fountains of doctrine flow: she admires, then, the bridegroom's breasts as fountains of good things, from which conveniently both infants still, and also the perfect, are nourished; and she says these are better than wine, which, by the testimony of divine Scripture, gladdens the heart of man. For figuratively he called wine gladness, so as to declare that gladness superior to all human pleasures, which proceeds from his gifts to the devout. But if you wish to understand the breasts mystically as well, by these admirable breasts, more excellent than wine, think of those ineffable fountains of the altar, from which all we, foster-children of devotion, are nourished." By these last words they understand by "breasts" the Eucharist, in which, with his own flesh as it were food, he feeds us, and with his blood as it were drink and milk, he gives Christ to drink, suckles and inebriates us: for these are the intrinsic breasts of Christ, since the others are extrinsic. Whence St. Chrysostom, homily 60 to the People and 83 on Matthew: "Who," he says, "shall tell of the powers of the Lord, and make all his praises heard? What shepherd ever nourished his sheep with his own limbs? Many mothers, after childbirth, have given their infants to other nurses: this he himself refused to do, but nourishes us with his own body, and joins us to himself, and cements us to himself." And, a few words later: "Do you not see with what eagerness of spirit infants seize the breast, with what pressure they fasten their lips upon the nipple? Let us too, with no less desire, approach this table, and the spiritual nipple of this chalice: rather with greater desire, let us, like nursing children, suck in the grace of the Spirit; let there be one sorrow to us, one grief, if we are deprived of this spiritual food." Again, Christ nourishes us with his doctrine, his grace, his miracles, his examples, his passion, his wounds. Whence also the side of Christ on the cross was opened by Longinus's lance, and from it, as from a breast, flowed blood and water like milk, by which he nourishes us, John 19:34. The outward breasts of Christ are the apostles and evangelists (whence the apostle Judas was surnamed Thaddeus, that is, "breast-bearing": for thad in Chaldean signifies breast; and Lebbaeus, that is, "little heart": for לב leb is heart): concerning whom hear Justus, bishop of Urgell: "We not unfittingly understand the breasts of Christ as the apostles and evangelists: for through them we are nourished in faith, and refreshed with spiritual food. And they are shown to be better than wine, because the evangelical doctrine is recognized as more eminent than the law once given. In short, there figure, here truth; there, as it were, the austerity of wine, showing only that the neighbor is to be loved and the enemy hated; here, the sweetness of grace admonishes us to pray for enemies, and to love those who hate us." And St. Gregory: "These," he says, "are the breasts, that is, the teachers, who, fixed in the ark of the breast, give them milk to drink, because, themselves clinging to the secrets of the highest contemplation, they nourish us with subtle preaching." This is what Isaiah sings, 66:11: "That you may suck, and be filled from the breast of her consolations (Jerusalem's, that is, of Christ and the Church): that you may milk out, and abound with delights, from the abundance of her glory"; and shortly after: "You shall be carried at the breasts, and upon the knees they shall caress you. As one whom the mother caresses, so will I comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem." Hear the Hortolanus here, expressing the bride's words, pathetically and wisely, congratulating herself on the bridegroom's breasts: O how great your kindness to me, my bridegroom! Behold, I who once, humble and squalid, lay grieving in mourning and filth, now, by a free gift, raised from the depths of squalor to royal dignity, go about resplendent, adorned, crowned with a diadem and every royal ornament and array, the sister and bride of the highest King, the wonder of the whole world, and the most welcome spectacle of all things divine. You, the only-begotten Son of God, best and greatest, God yourself also best and greatest, whom the heavenly Father cherishes as his only delight in his own bosom, having become a partaker of my nature, you count it among your highest delights and pleasures to make me, your lowly and abject handmaid, a partaker of your nature, to ennoble me by marriage with you, to cherish me in your bosom, to delight me with every pleasure, God on earth, man in heaven. Angels join choirs with men on earth, men with angels in heaven. Through you all things have become one mingling. Through you has come the forgetting of wrongs, enmities removed, war suddenly dissolved, God reconciled to men, sin blotted out, death slain, an entrance made into heaven hitherto inaccessible to us. Thence gush the most abundant fountains of all graces, milky eloquence flows from your mouth, from it breathes a divine breeze, which carries and snatches me up into heavenly delights. My body indeed crawls upon the earth, yet my mind is already with you in heaven, my sweetest bridegroom, enjoys your love in heaven, and goods of that kind, which neither the human eye can see, nor the ear hear, nor our mind of itself grasp in thought. Hence Aponius understands by the two breasts, symbolically, the two Johns, the Baptist and the Evangelist: the latter, who as it were most intimate with Christ, reclined at supper upon his breast, and thence sucked the streams of grace as from breasts. Hear Aponius: "It will not be unfitting to understand the two breasts of Christ as properly the two Johns, Baptist and Evangelist, who, after the kisses of the aforesaid sacrament, were given to the Church as most full breasts. Since the one shows the Church him alone who takes away the sin of the world, and as the Lamb; the other, in the beginning, the Word God abiding with God the Father; who, by their immaculate life, so clung to his breast in love, as it were breasts, while the one still shows to the little and nursing Church the true man under the name of the immaculate Lamb; the other, from the effect of creating, shows in the beginning the maker of all things, the Word God, through whom all things were created." And Origen, homily 1: "It is certain," he says, "that John is said to have rested in the chief place of Jesus's heart, and in the eternal senses of his doctrine, in the Gospel, there seeking and searching out the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, which were hidden in Christ Jesus." Mystically, the breasts of charity are better than wine, because they are never straitened, never empty, but always overflow and abound with gifts. Certain naturalists relate that the raven, when it recognizes its young, since it has no milk, feeds them with its own flesh and blood. Whence the Poet: And charity is never without milk, Milk it does not give in abundance, but gives blood in abundance; so Christ, out of most ardent charity, on the cross poured forth blood in abundance, by which, like a pelican, he brought his dead young back to life and nourished them. Truly these are the breasts of charity. Hear St. Gregory: "The breasts of the bridegroom are the love of God and neighbor: from these breasts he nourishes his bride with the milk of devotion, and amid the whirlwinds of temptations he cherishes and nourishes her by these, and, that she may persevere, refreshes her. But what is signified by wine, if not worldly care, by which the mind of any worldly person is intoxicated, so that it becomes, either wholly or almost, insensible to the knowledge of the invisible? But the breasts of the bridegroom prove better than wine, because that kills, these nourish; that troubles the eyes of the mind, these sharpen them; that makes even the wise apostatize, these make even the unlearned truly most wise. As often as the bride chews and, in the abundance of love, sucks these, so many sayings of wisdom does she draw into the belly of her memory. For holy charity pacifies the heart, strengthens the mind in temptations, and, that the soul of the just may be the seat of wisdom, grants it quiet, and prepares a place." Further, St. Bernard, sermon 9, understands by the two breasts the kindly long-suffering of God, by which he waits for sinners to repent, and the kindly reception, by which he now embraces and nourishes the penitent. Further, the breasts particularly denote the consolations, tastes, and spiritual delights, with which God nourishes, gladdens, and strengthens the soul, and this indefatigably and continually. For the breasts of man and of earthly pleasures are quickly exhausted, and dry up; but the breasts of Christ pour out an unfailing, perpetual milk of delights, and that most readily and most abundantly. WINE. — By "wine," understand any of the world's pleasures, as I have said; mystically, the austerity of the Mosaic law, and the crudeness of the doctrine of the philosophers, says Anselm: for over both the sweetness of the milk of evangelical doctrine prevails. Moreover, some understand by "wine" wrath, indignation, punishments, and vengeance, which not seldom pass between lovers, according to that word of Micah, 2:11: "I will drop upon you into wine, and into drunkenness," that is, I will prophesy, and give you to drink the wine of divine fury; I will foretell the punishments with which God will make you drink, and will, as it were, make you drunk. So the sense will be, as if to say: Better are the breasts of divine love, than the wine of that same indignation, both because they are sweeter, and because they are more effective: for men are drawn more by love than by fear, by affection than by indignation, by benefits than by punishments. Or, as if to say: Even if I have offended you often, my bridegroom, and you might justly be indignant with me, yet the sweetness of your breasts, that is, of your mercy and love, surpasses all the sharpness of wine, that is, of your wrath: for it is proper to you to have mercy and to spare; wherefore you have always shown greater proofs of love than of indignation toward me. Finally, St. Bernard, sermon 9: "Your breasts are better than wine," that is, he says, "the richness of grace which flows from your breasts is more effective for me toward spiritual progress, than the biting rebuke of prelates." Second, the Partial Sense, Concerning Christ and the Faithful Soul. You may apply to the soul what has been said of the Church, only changing the name. Whence the Chaldean renders, above the multitude of love, with which he loved us more than the seventy nations. The soul, therefore, espoused to Christ, says to him: "Better are (O bridegroom) your breasts than wine," that is, better to me, and more pleasing to my taste, is the milk of your doctrine and grace, than every wine of human consolation, delight, prudence, and cunning: for this weakens both mind and body alike, embitters, torments, dissolves the soul, deceives, makes foolish, drives mad, according to that word: "They who were brought up in scarlet have embraced dung," Lamentations 4:5; and that word: "Who has woe? whose father has woe? who has quarrels? who falls into pits? who has wounds without cause? who has redness of eyes? Surely they who linger long at the wine, and study to drink up cups?" Proverbs 23:29-30. See what is said there. But your milk, above all human pleasures, gladdens, satisfies, guards from harm, strengthens against falling, makes strong in good, dispels the clouds of the mind, calms wrath, vain loves and hatreds, and fills the heart with the love of God and of neighbor. This milk the Psalmist had tasted, whence he exclaims: "How great is the multitude of your sweetness, O Lord, which you have hidden for those who fear you!" Psalm 30:20. me. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 9: "The pleasure of the flesh," they say (pious souls espoused to Christ), "by which a little before we were held drunk as if by wine, these spiritual delights, which your breasts distill to us, conquer. And beautifully they compare carnal affection to wine: for as the grape, once pressed, no longer has anything to pour out again, but is condemned to perpetual dryness, so the flesh, in the pressure of death, is dried up from all its delight altogether, and revives no more to lusts. Whence the Prophet: All flesh is grass, and all its glory as the flower of the field. The grass is withered, and the flower has fallen, Isaiah 40:6; and the Apostle, Galatians 6:8: He who sows in his flesh, shall of the flesh also reap corruption. And again, 1 Corinthians 6:13: Food for the belly, and the belly for food: but God shall destroy both it and them." He then adds, concerning the pleasures of the world: "See, however, whether this proportion perhaps applies not only to the flesh, but also to the world; since it too passes away, and its concupiscence; and since all things that are in the world have an end, their end will not be an end. But breasts are not so; for when they have been drained, they take up again from the fountain of the mother's breast what they may give to those who suck. Rightly, then, are the breasts of the bride said to be better than the love of flesh or of the world, since they never dry up, however many nurslings there be, but always abound from the bowels of charity, so as to flow again: for rivers flow from her belly, and there comes to be in her a fountain of water springing up into life everlasting," John 7:38. Finally, St. Bernard, sermon 10, assigns two breasts to prelates: the maternal affection of congratulation and of compassion, which the Apostle prescribes, Romans 12:15, saying: "Rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep": so that congratulation pours out the milk of exhortation, and compassion that of consolation; and by both the spiritual mother is watered, when through prayer she draws in the bridegroom's kiss. Third, the Principal Sense, Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin. "What," says Rupert, "do we rightly understand by her breasts, but her sweetness? And what is her sweetness, but the Holy Spirit? Such sweetness is beautifully distinguished into two breasts, because two gifts of that same Holy Spirit are given. The one is given for the remission of sins, by the breast of which gift none of the saints of old, before this Blessed Virgin, was ever nursed. The other is given for the distributions or divisions of the various graces, by the breast of which the holy fathers were nursed, and prophesied, and worked many miracles." Further, the breasts properly communicated by God to the Blessed Virgin are the divine motherhood itself: for of this the breasts are the mark, since these, as soon as a woman gives birth and becomes a mother, swell and are filled with milk to nourish her offspring. For God the Father, as he begot the Son, inasmuch as he is God, so also gave to the Blessed Virgin, as a mother, to bring forth that same Son, inasmuch as he is man: which is her highest dignity, surpassing every wine of created excellence, and requires the highest excellence of all graces. For, as St. Thomas teaches, part I, question 25, article 6, God, of all things created by him, can create others better and nobler, except three, namely, the humanity assumed by the Word, the beatific vision, and the motherhood of God: for these three, since they have God for their object, can be surpassed by no thing, and transcended by no created gift. Hence that woman in the Gospel exclaimed: "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that nursed you," Luke 11:27. And St. Augustine, placing himself between the Blessed Virgin and Christ crucified: "Here," he says, "I am nursed from the breast, here I am fed from the wound." This milk of her breasts the Blessed Virgin, visibly sharing it with a certain clerk of Nevers devoted to her, already breathing his last, restored him to life and health, as Blessed Peter Damian relates, Book VI, Epistle 29: "For when," he says, "his spirit, as if about to depart, anxiously fluttered in his breast, behold, the glorious Mother of God stood visibly by him, and, pressing milk from the nipple of her sacred breast, dropped it into his lips, and at once, by the antidote of divine power, he, his strength resumed, recovered from his weakness, and soon, clothed in clerical vestments, went to the church, and, joyfully joining the choir of psalm-singing brothers, offered a marvelous spectacle to those who saw it. It is said too that at that time certain traces of milk were still to be seen on his lips." Thus far Damian. The same thing happened to St. Fulbert, bishop of Chartres, who, illustrious for doctrine and holiness, died in the year of the Lord 1028. For when he himself was wondrously devoted to the Blessed Virgin, and his tongue had been seized by a sacred fire, so that he was entirely burning, one night when he was tormented beyond his custom, a noble matron presented herself to be seen by him, by whom he was advised to open his mouth to her: which when he had done, at once she pressed milk from her sacred breasts into his mouth; by which his tongue was so cooled, that it extinguished all the burning, and restored him to perfect health. But lest it should be thought an illusion or a phantasm, some drops remained on Fulbert's cheek, which he himself carefully gathered up in a handkerchief, and to this day they are kept with the greatest veneration in the treasury of the church of Chartres. So the Annals of the Church of Chartres have it, and William of Malmesbury, Book III On the Deeds of the English, and Baronius, volume XII, year of Christ 1028. It is also reported that St. Bernard, sprinkled by the same milk of the Blessed Virgin from the same source, became, in speaking and writing, milky and honey-flowing, especially where he treats of the praises of the Blessed Virgin and of the incarnate Word. Whence also with the hymn of the same, whose beginning is: "Hail, Queen, mother of mercy," which Hermann the Cripple, Count of Vernigen [Wernigerode], professed as a monk in the monastery of St. Gall, about the year of the Lord 1040, composed, and which we hear sung far and wide in the churches in the evening in honor of the Blessed Virgin, St. Bernard was wonderfully delighted. Hence he wrote several sermons on this hymn: and so the Canons of Speyer, when St. Bernard entered the church of the Blessed Virgin at Speyer, sang this hymn, St. Bernard himself, three times bending the knee, singing along: "O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary!" In memory of this event these very words, incised in bronze letters on tablets set into the ground in the same places, are still seen at Speyer.”
Commentary on the Song of Songs, ch. 1, v. 1
Source