Sermons on the Song of Songs

“Behold He cometh, leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills.”

To-day, my brethren, I intend to propose to you another interpretation of those words of the Spouse which occupied us on the last occasion. I have reserved it purposely for the present. And it shall be for you to compare the two expositions and to select the one which pleases you most. There is no need, I suppose to recall to your minds what was spoken yesterday, a I am sure you cannot have forgotten it in so short space. But even if anything should have escaped you memory, it can easily be recovered, because all I said then has been written down exactly as it was delivered and inscribed with the style, as have been my other sermons also. Wherefore, listen now to something new. “Behold,” exclaims the Spouse, “He cometh, leaping on the mountains, skipping over the hills.” She is speaking of her Bridegroom, Who then undoubtedly leaped upon the mountains when He was sent by His Father to preach the Gospel to the poor. For whereas He was Lord of all, He disdained not to discharge the angelic office, and made Himself the “Angel of the great Counsel.” He Who was wont heretofore to employ created spirits as His messengers, now descended to the earth in person. He Himself “hath revealed His justice in the sight of the gentiles.” Of the angels St. Paul says, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?” He, therefore, Who was above them, descended to their level and made Himself as one of them, disregarding the interests of His own glory in His desire to accumulate grace for us. But attend to Himself. “The Son of Man is not come,” He says, “to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a redemption for many.” Now, none of the other angels can be said to have ever done anything like this, so that in the devotedness and fidelity of His service, He has skipped over every one of them, as many as seemed to minister to the necessities of man. Faithful Minister, Who gave His Flesh for our food, and His Blood for our drink, and His life for our ransom! Surely faithful, Who, in the fervour of His Spirit, in the ardour of His love, and in the zeal of His piety, not alone leaped upon the mountains, but even skipped over the hills! That is to say, He surpassed and exceeded all others in His devotion to our service. For He is the same Whom “God, His God hath anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows,” and therefore with unrivalled alacrity “He hath rejoiced as a giant to run the way.” Thus, He skipped over the Archangel Gabriel and reached the Virgin before him, as the same heavenly prince acknowledged when he said, “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.” What is this thou sayest, O Gabriel? Hast thou found in Mary’s womb the Lord Whom but now thou didst leave behind in heaven? Yet how can that be? The explanation is that “He flew upon the wings of the winds” and so was first to arrive. Thou art conquered, O Archangel. Thou hast been skipped over by Him Who sent thee to herald His coming.

Or, at all events, He may be said to have leaped upon or in the mountains when He showed Himself to the patriarchs of old in the persons of His angels. This interpretation appears to be more in harmony with the propriety of the words. For it is not said that He leaped on the mountains (saliens in montes), but in the mountains (saliens in montibus); which seems to imply that He leaped in the angels by giving them the power and the impulse to leap themselves. In the same sense He is said to speak in the prophets and to work in the virtuous, inasmuch as He enables the former to utter good words and the latter to perform good actions. Besides, some of the angels have acted as His vicegerents, so that they spoke, not in their own name as celestial princes, but in the name of the Lord. For instance, the angel who conversed with Moses did not say, “I, the servant of the Lord,” but, “I the Lord.” And he repeated this several times. The Bridegroom, I therefore, leaped in the mountains, viz., in the angels in whom He spoke and manifested His presence to men. For He leaped to men, but in the angels. He leaped in the subject creature, since He could not leap in Himself, in His own Divine nature. He who leaps must pass from one place to another, which is manifestly impossible to God. He leaped, then, in the mountains, that is, in the angels, being unable, as remarked, to leap in Himself. And He leaped even as far as the hills, namely, to the patriarchs, and the prophets, and the other spiritual persons on earth. But He went yet further, for He skipped over the hills when He deigned to manifest Himself and to speak in the same angelic representatives, not only to great and holy men but even to some ordinary people, aye, and to many women also.

But perhaps by the name of hills are here designated the “powers of the air,” who are no longer classed with the mountains, as having lost, through their pride, the eminence of virtue. Yet neither have they stooped to the humility of valleys, or should I say, to the valleys of humility? It is to them, I have no doubt, the Psalmist is alluding, where he says, “The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the Lord.” Therefore He, Who leaped in the mountains, skipped over the hills—the swelling but barren hills, which hold an intermediate place, as it were, between he lofty eminences of the perfect and the deep valleys of the penitent—and disregarding and despising them, descended to the low-lying regions, in order that the “vales might abound with corn.” The hills, on the contrary, have been cursed with an everlasting barrenness and sterility. For it is against them that the Prophet pronounced the malediction, “Let neither dew nor rain come upon you.” And lest there should be any doubt that he was addressing the angels who prevaricated, under the figure of the mountains of Gelboe, he added, “Where many fell wounded.” How many of the army of Israel have fallen on those accursed hills from the beginning of the world, and still daily fall! It is of such the same Prophet speaks in another place, where he says to the Lord, “Like the slain, sleeping in the sepulchres, whom Thou rememberest no more; and they are cast off from Thy Hand.”

It is no wonder, therefore, my brethren, that those heights, which are aerial hills rather than heavenly mountains, should be found barren and unfruitful, since they are visited neither by dew nor rain. For the Author of grace and the Bestower of all blessings has skipped over them, on His way down to the valleys, that He might there refresh the humble amongst men with the spiritual waters of holiness, and so enable, them to “bring forth fruit in patience,” some thirty-fold, some sixty-fold, and some a hundred-fold. Hence, the Psalmist says, “Thou hast visited the earth, and hast plentifully watered it, and hast many ways enriched it.” He visited, not the air, but the earth, and so “The earth is full of the mercy of the Lord.” For, “He hath wrought salvation in the midst of the earth,” not surely in the midst of the air. This I maintain against Origen, who, by his impudent heresy, crucified again the Lord of glory, but now in the air, for the redemption of the demons; whereas, St. Paul, the confidant of God’s mysterious designs, distinctly affirms that “Christ, rising again from the dead, dieth now no more; death shall no more have dominion over Him.”