Sermons on the Song of Songs

So it is, sweet Jesus. The days whereof Thou spokest have come. For “the creature itself groaneth and travaileth in pain even till now,” “waiting for the revelation of the sons of God.” And not alone the irrational creature. For “even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption of the sons of God, the redemption of our body,” “knowing that while we are in the body we are absent from the Lord.” Nor are such groanings fruitless, since they deserved to receive the merciful response from heaven, “By reason of the misery of the needy and the groans of the poor, now will I arise, saith the Lord.” Even in the days of the patriarchs these mourning voices were heard. But they were rare; and each holy soul kept her mourning within herself, saying with the Prophet, “My secret to myself, my secret to myself.” Even he who said, “My groaning is not hidden from Thee,” plainly implied that his groaning was hidden from all others, since to the Lord alone he declared it to be manifest. At that time, therefore, it could not be said, “The voice of the turtle is heard in our land,” because the mourning was still confined to a few and had not yet reached the ears of the multitude. But when that loud cry went forth, “Seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the Right Hand of God,” then all began to imitate the mourning turtle, because all had the same motive for mourning. For all then had knowledge of the Lord, according to what is written in the Prophet Jeremias, “All shall know Me, from the least of them even to the greatest, saith the Lord.”

But if the mourners be many, why is there but the voice of a single turtle? “The voice of the turtle,” so we read. Why not rather “of the turtles”? Perhaps the Apostle gives us the reason where he says that “The Spirit Himself asketh for us with unspeakable groanings.” So it is, my brethren. The mourning turtle here referred to is the Holy Spirit, Who makes men to mourn. Hence, however many they may be whom we hear mourning, it is always one and the same voice that issues from the lips of all. And why should we not call that the voice of Him Who forms it in the mouths of mortals according as the necessities of each require? “For the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man unto profit,” as the Apostle declares. But hear from Christ Himself in the Gospel that the Holy Ghost has really a voice, “The Spirit breatheth where He will, and thou hearest His voice, but thou knowest not whence He cometh and whither He goeth.” Yet although Nicodemus, as a dead teacher, instructing the dead in the “letter that killeth,” was ignorant of this, we, my brethren, should not be ignorant, we who “have passed from death to life” through the grace of the vivifying Spirit, and who, enlightened by the same Spirit, and taught by certain and daily experience, feel assured that our desires and our groanings come from Him and go to Him, and through Him find mercy in the eyes of God. For how could God refuse to hear the voice of His own Spirit? “And He knoweth what the Spirit desireth, because He asketh for the saints according to God.”

Nor is it for its mourning alone that the turtle is commended; it is also commended for its chastity. It was indeed by this characteristic that it deserved to be appointed as the ransom for the Virgin’s Child. “They carried Him to Jerusalem to offer for Him a sacrifice, as it is written in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons.” And although the image of the pigeon (columba) is usually employed elsewhere to designate the Holy Spirit; nevertheless, on account of this bird’s lustful habits, it would have been unbecoming to offer it as a sacrifice for the Child Jesus, except at an early age, when its instincts were as yet undeveloped. But as the turtle is known to live its whole life chastely, there was no necessity to mention its age at all. Moreover, the turtle is content with a single mate. If it loses the first, it does not seek a second, thereby rebuking even successive polygamy amongst men. The reiteration of marriages may perhaps be excused from serious fault, inasmuch as it is a remedy for the greater evil of incontinence. Yet it is a shameful thing to stand in need of such a remedy.

It is a shameful thing, I say, that reason and virtue cannot accomplish for man, what natural instinct does for the turtle. You may observe this bird, during the time following the death of its partner, fulfilling with constancy and diligence all the duties belonging to a faithful widowhood. You will find it always alone; you will everywhere hear it mourning. Never can you behold it perched upon any green bough—by which it would warn you to avoid the dangerous bloom of corrupting pleasure. Besides, it spends most of its time on the high mountain peaks or on the tops of trees, in order to teach us to despise earthly things and to love the things of heaven, as is especially becoming in persons vowed to the observance of chastity.

From what has been said we may gather that the preaching of continence is also the voice of the turtle. For the counsel of chastity was not known in the beginning, when to the children of Adam it was rather said, “Increase and multiply and fill the earth.” Indeed, that turtle’s voice would have been heard to no purpose whilst the kingdom of the resurrection had not yet been announced, in which men shall live far more happily than here, though “they shall neither be married nor take wives, for they shall be equal to the angels of God.” Or do you suppose, my brethren, that it was then the time for preaching chastity when every barren daughter of Israel lay under a heavy curse? when the patriarchs themselves practised polygamy? when the law obliged a brother to marry his brother’s widow? But when from the mouth of the heavenly Turtle there sounded forth that commendation of the “eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven,” and when the voice of another most pure turtle was heard throughout the world counselling virginity, then, for the first time, it could be said with truth, “the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.”