Sermons on the Song of Songs

“Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His Mouth.”

Our lesson for to-day, my brethren, shall be read from the book of experience. Turn your eyes, therefore, upon yourselves and let each examine his conscience on what I shall have to say. First of all, I should like to know if to any of you it has ever been given to say with sincerity, “Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His Mouth.” For it is not every man that can speak thus from his heart. But he who has even once received this spiritual kiss from the Lips of Christ, such a one will surely solicit again what he has learned by experience to relish, and will ask that the favour be repeated. In my opinion, no one can even know what it is except him who has experienced it. It is a “hidden manna,” for which only he who has eaten still hungers. It is a “sealed fountain,” in which “the stranger hath no part” and for which none will thirst save him who has drunk thereof. Listen to one who had enjoyed the experience, soliciting a repetition of the favour. “Render to me,” he cries, “the joy of Thy salvation.” Far, then, be it from a wretch like me, laden as I am with sins, still the sport of carnal passions, who has never yet tasted the sweetness of the spirit, altogether ignorant of and a stranger to internal delights—far be it from such a one to make any pretensions to a grace so sublime!

However, I will point out to a soul so favoured the position which it becomes her to occupy with regard to her Beloved. Let her not rashly try to reach at once the Lips of her most serene Bridegroom, but rather, like me, let her throw herself in fear at the Feet of her most dread Lord, trembling, and with downcast looks, and not daring, like the Publican, to lift her gaze to heaven. Otherwise, her eyes, accustomed only to darkness, will be in danger of being dazzled by the lights of the spiritual firmament and overwhelmed by the excess of its glory. Or, blinded by the unparalleled splendours of the Divine Majesty, they may be overcast with a cloud of denser darkness than belonged to their former state. O whosoever thou be that art such a soul, do not, I implore thee, do not regard as mean or contemptible that place where the holy Penitent laid aside her sins and clothed herself in the garment of sanctity! There the Ethiopian woman changed her colour, being restored to the whiteness of her long-lost innocence. Then, indeed, she was able to answer those who addressed her in words of reproach, “I am black but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem.” Do you wonder, my brethren, by what art she effected such a change, or by what merits she obtained it? I will tell you in a few words. She “wept bitterly,” she heaved deep sighs from her inmost heart, she was agitated interiorly with salutary sobbings, and thus she spat out the venomous humour. The heavenly Physician came speedily to her aid, because His “word runneth quickly.” Is not the word of God a spiritual medicine? Yes, truly, and a medicine that is “strong and active, searching the heart and the reins.” As the Apostle says, “the word of God is living and efficacious and more penetrating than any two-edged sword, reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts.” After the example of this blessed Penitent, do thou also, O miserable one, cast thyself down there that thou mayst cease to be miserable. Do thou also prostrate thyself upon the earth, embrace those Feet, appease Them with kisses, bathe Them with thy tears, although thereby not Them but thyself wilt thou be cleansing. So shalt thou be made as one of the “shorn sheep that cometh forth from the washing.” Consequently, thou wilt not dare to lift up thy face, overwhelmed with shame and grief, until thou also hearest the consoling words, “Thy sins are forgiven thee”—until thou hearest these others, too, “Arise, arise, O captive daughter of Sion! arise, and shake from thee the dust.”

Even after thus impressing the first kiss on the Foot, do not raise thyself immediately to the “kiss of the Mouth.” There is another step to be taken before thou canst attain to this, an intervening kiss, which ought to be imprinted on the Hand. The necessity for such a gradual approach may be explained as follows. If Jesus should say to thee, “thy sins are forgiven thee,” what would this avail, unless I henceforth abstained from sin? I have put off my tunic; if I again put it on, wherein have I profited? If after washing my feet, I soil them again, what have I gained by the Washing? Polluted with sins of every description, I lay prostrate long in the “mire of the dregs.” Yet, it is a worse thing to relapse after purification than never to have been purified at all. For I remember that He Who made me whole said to me, “Behold, thou art made whole; go, now, sin no more lest something worse should happen thee.” But He Who gave me the will to repent must also give me the grace of perseverance. Otherwise I shall repeat the crimes I now repent of, and make my “last state worse than the first.” Woe to me, even after my conversion, if He withdraws His Hand, without Whom I can do nothing—absolutely nothing, either towards the recovery or towards the preservation of grace. Hence I hear the Wise Man counselling, “Repeat not a word in prayer.” Another cause of fear to me is the threat pronounced by the Judge against the “tree that bringeth not forth good fruit.” On account of such considerations, I confess that the first grace, that is, the grace of repentance, does not quite content me. I still require a second grace, which shall enable me to “bring forth fruits worthy of penance,” and prevent me from “returning to the vomit.”

It behoves me, then, to impetrate the grace of conversion and perseverance before I aspire to things higher and holier. I do not want to reach all at once the summit of sanctity. I prefer to mount thither step by step. God is pleased with the modesty of the penitent in the same degree in which the sinner’s boldness offends Him. Thou wilt more easily gain His favour by keeping within due bounds, and by not ambitioning what is too high for thee. From the Feet to the Mouth is a high and difficult leap, and a way of approach not quite becoming. What! Still bestrewn with the ashes of penitence, wilt thou dare to touch those sacred Lips? Only yesterday drawn out of the mire of thy sins, dost thou want to be admitted to-day to the contemplation of the glory of His Countenance? No! thou canst not attain to that sublimity without using the step of His Hand. Let It first cleanse thee, let It lift thee up. How shall It do this? By supplying thee with the merits whereon thou mayst presume. Dost thou ask what these merits are? I will tell thee. They are the works of piety, viz., the beauty of continence and the worthy fruits of penance. By them thou shalt be raised up from the dunghill unto the hope of hearing greater things. Surely in receiving the gifts, thou wilt not forget to kiss the Hand of the Giver. That is, thou must give glory, not to thyself, but to His name. And thou must give Him this glory, not alone for His mercy in pardoning thy sins, but also for His generosity in adorning thee with virtues. Otherwise thou wilt have to see how thou canst harden thy forehead against this sharp-pointed reproach of St. Paul: “What hast thou which thou hast not received? And if thou hast received it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?”