Sermons on the Song of Songs

“Behold my Beloved speaketh to me.”

“Behold my Beloved speaketh to me.” Observe here, my brethren, the progress of grace. Notice the order of the divine condescension. Mark also the devotion and vigilance of the Spouse, how her watchful eye discovered the Bridegroom’s coming, and with what diligence she has studied all His actions. He comes, He hastens, He draweth nigh, He is present, He looks, He speaks, and nothing of all eludes her zeal or escapes her attention. The Bridegroom comes in the angels, He hastens in the patriarchs, He draws nigh in the prophets, He is present in the flesh, He looks in His miracles, He speaks in His apostles. Or thus: He comes in His love and in His purpose to show mercy, He hastens in His zeal to accomplish our redemption, He draws nigh in His voluntary humiliations, He is present to His contemporaries, He looks forward upon the future generations, He speaks in His instructions and exhortations concerning the kingdom of God. Such therefore is the Bridegroom’s coming. He brings with Him the blessings and the riches of salvation. All that belongs to Him overflows with delights, abounds with consoling and salutary mysteries. Now because the Spouse loves, therefore she is vigilant and circumspect. And blessed the soul “whom the Lord shall find watching.” He will not “skip over” her, nor pass her by. Rather He will stand and speak to her. He will speak to her in the language of love, for He will speak to her as a bridegroom is wont to speak to his bride. Hence, such a soul can say, “Behold my Beloved speaketh to me.” Rightly does she call Him her Beloved, since He has come, not to reproach her for her faults, but to assure her of His affection.

The Spouse, my brethren, is not one of those whom the Lord justly reproves for that they “know how to discern the face of the sky, and yet cannot know the signs” of His coming. For she is so sagacious, so prudent, and so faithfully vigilant, that she observes His approach whilst He is yet afar off, notices that He leaps in His haste, and marks most particularly how He skips over the proud in order to come by humility to her who is humble. And when He stood outside and tried to conceal Himself behind the wall, she discovered His presence. She even became aware that He was looking at her through the windows and lattices. And now as a reward for so much devotion and loving watchfulness, she is permitted to hear His voice. For had He looked at her without speaking, she would have been troubled rather than consoled, not knowing whether the silent regard expressed love or indignation. Thus, He once looked at Peter whilst speaking not word, and the Apostle wept, haply because the Bridegroom had gazed upon him in silence. The Spouse, on the contrary, has not only been allowed to feel the glance of His Eye, but has merited also to hear the sound of His voice; and therefore far from weeping, she exults in an excess of gladness, and joyously exclaims, “Behold my Beloveth speaketh to me.” You see, my brethren, that the look of the Lord, whilst in itself it remains always the same, has not always the same efficacy. Its influence varies in conformity with the varying merits of those upon whom it is bent, inspiring some with fear, imparting to others consolation and peace. Thus, “He looketh upon the earth and maketh it tremble.” On the other hand, He looked on Mary and filled her with His grace. “He hath regarded the humility of His handmaid,” she says, and for this reason “behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.” This is not the language of sorrow or of terror, but the language of joy. It is in the same manner that He has looked upon the Spouse here. Therefore she does not tremble like the earth; neither does she weep as Peter wept, because she does not, as he did, “savour the things that are of men”; but her soul is full of gladness, inasmuch as the words of the Bridegroom declare with what affection He has regarded her.

Only listen, my brethren, to the salutation which He addresses to her, and you will understand how little of anger there is in it and how much of love. “Arise,” so he calls to her, “Arise, make haste, My love, My dove, My beautiful one, and come.” Happy the soul which deserves to hear herself greeted in this way! Do you suppose, my brethren, that we shall find amongst ourselves one who is so vigilant, so observant of the time of his visitation, so diligent in watching for the Bridegroom’s coming, and in noting its every circumstance, that “when He cometh and knocketh he may open to Him immediately”? What is said here is indeed to be understood of the universal Church, yet not in such a sense as that each of the faithful (who, taken collectively, constitute the Church) may not claim a participation in the plenitude bestowed upon her. For in this respect we are all equally called, without distinction as without exception, “that we may possess the blessings by inheritance.” Hence a certain holy man made bold to say to the Lord, “I have acquired Thy testimonies for ever by inheritance, because they are the joy of my heart.” He is speaking no doubt, of the inheritance which was to him the evidence as it was the consequence of his being the son of the Father Who is in heaven. For “if a son, an heir also, an heir indeed of God, and a joint heir with Christ.” And surely that is a precious possession which he boasts of having acquired by inheritance, namely, the testimonies of the Lord. Would to God that I were found worthy to receive even one testimony from the Lord! But it is not over one, but over many such testimonies that the Psalmist exults. Thus he says again, “I have been delighted in the way of Thy testimonies, as in all riches.” And in truth, what are the riches of salvation, what the infusion of spiritual joy, what that real yet cautious tranquillity which the just enjoy, but so many testimonies of the Lord? “For not he who commendeth himself is approved,” says the Apostle, “but he whom God commendeth.”