Sermons on the Song of Songs

Furthermore, when every stain of sin and all the rust of evil habits have been burned out by this fire, and when the conscience is thoroughly cleansed and tranquillised, if thou dost now experience a sudden and unusual expansion of mind, with an infusion of heavenly light, which illumines thine intellect and gives it either an understanding of the Scriptures for the instruction of others, or a knowledge of secrets for thine own consolation, here, beyond doubt, is the Bridegroom’s Eye looking in through thy window, “and bringing forth thy justice as the light, and thy judgment as the noon-day.” Thus shalt thou have fulfilled in thee the word of Isaias, “Then shall thy light rise up in darkness, and thy darkness shall be as the noon-day.” But surely it is not by the open door but rather through the smaller apertures of windows and lattices, that this ray of dazzling brightness obtains admission, so long, at least, as the dilapidated wall of the flesh remains standing. Thou errest, my brother, if thou art hoping for anything better, no matter to what purity of heart thou mayst have attained, since the great contemplative, St. Paul himself, has affirmed, “We see now through a glass in a dark manner, but then face to face.”

Now, after this glance of wonderful condescension and compassion, thou shalt hear the Bridegroom’s voice sweetly and gently intimating the divine will. This voice is nothing else but the love of God in thy heart, which cannot remain idle, and which is now soliciting and urging thee concerning what relates to the service of the Lord. For the Spouse has heard that voice bidding her to arise and make haste, doubtless to labour for the salvation of souls. It is the characteristic, my brethren, of true and pure contemplation that it not only inflames the soul with the fire of divine charity, but it also occasionally fills her with such zeal and desire to gain others to God who shall love Him as she loves Him herself, that she gladly interrupts her contemplative repose and devotes herself to the labour of preaching Afterwards, having satisfied this longing, at least to a certain extent, she returns to her solitude with all the more eagerness in proportion as she knows that her apostolic efforts have been fruitful. Then, when she has recruited her strength once more with the sweet food of prayer, she again issues forth with renewed zeal and energy to resume her work for souls. But during such alternations of labour and repose, the soul, as a rule, is very uneasy. She is agitated by fears and anxieties lest, whilst being drawn this way and that by the rival attractions, she should bend more than is right to one side or the other, and so deviate even by a hair’s-breadth from the straight way of the divine will. Perhaps holy Job was experiencing something like this when he said, “If I lie down to sleep, I shall say, when shall I rise? And again I shall look for the evening.” That is to say, “when enjoying leisure, I accuse myself of neglecting my external work; and when exteriorly occupied, I again accuse myself of having interrupted my prayer.” You see the holy man, how anxiously he hesitates between the fruit of zealous action and the quiet of loving contemplation; and although ever occupied in what is good, yet ever also doing penance for imaginary shortcomings, and never ceasing to pray with tears that God would manifest to him His will. For in such perplexities the sole remedy, the sole refuge is prayer and repeated sighs to God, that He may vouchsafe to instruct us unceasingly as to what He would have us do, at what time, and in what measure. It seems to me that we have these three things, viz., preaching, supplication, and contemplation, designated and commended to us in the three titles given to the Spouse. For deservedly does the Bridegroom call her His love, since she labours so loyally and zealously to promote His interests, by preaching, by teaching, and by other ministrations. Deservedly, too, is she called His dove, because sighing, like a dove, and making supplication for her sins, she never ceases to conciliate for herself the divine compassion. And with equal justice she is named His beautiful one, for always glorified with the longing after things supernal, she puts on, besides, the loveliness of heavenly contemplation, whenever she can obtain a vacant and opportune hour.

But consider also, my brethren, if we have not a type of this threefold occupation of the same soul, in the three persons who dwelt under the one roof, and who were all the dear and familiar friends of the Saviour. I am speaking of Martha, who ministered to Him; of Mary, who sat in repose at His Feet; and of Lazarus, who lay groaning, as it were, beneath the sepulchral slab, supplicating the grace of a resurrection. These remarks have been suggested by the admirable sagacity and vigilance which the Spouse is represented as exercising, whilst she watches the ways for the appearance of her Bridegroom, so that she can tell exactly when and with what haste He is approaching; and is so keenly on the alert that by no suddenness of change can she be so surprised and taken unawares as not to know when He is far from her, when near, and when actually present. Thus has she deserved that He should not merely condescend to look upon her with mercy, but should also deign to console her with words of tender affection, making her to “rejoice with joy because of the Bridegroom’s voice.”

But I have also affirmed—although it is a bold thing to say—that each and every soul amongst us, provided she watches like the Spouse, shall also, like the Spouse, be saluted as His love, consoled as His dove, and embraced as His beautiful one. And perfect shall be reputed every soul wherein the virtues represented by these three titles are found together in due order and degree; so that she knows how to weep for herself, to rejoice in God, and at the same time has the will and the power to assist others in their necessities, pleasing to God, watchful over herself, helpful to her neighbours. Yet where shall we find one so perfect? However, if we have not all the three characters existing together in each of our souls, we seem at least to possess them singly in different sections of the community, and all in the whole. And God grant they may be long preserved amongst us! For have we not Martha, the beloved of the Bridegroom, in those who are employed in the faithful administration of exterior offices? Have we not Lazarus, His mourning dove, in our novices, who, but recently dead to their sins, are yet groaning with the pain of still smarting wounds and the terror of judgment; and who believe themselves to be “like the slain sleeping in the sepulchres, whom (no one) remembereth any more,” until, at the bidding of Christ, the heavy tombstone of their oppressive fear shall at last be taken away, and they shall rise to a new life in the assured hope of pardon? And have we not also the contemplative Mary in the persons of those who, after many years of co-operation with the grace of God, have been able to attain to a higher and more blissful state, wherein, confident of their forgiveness and no longer brooding anxiously over the sad memory of their sins, they experience an unfailing delight in meditating continually upon the law of God, and even sometimes “beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord”? We shall examine in the next sermon why He Who a little before seemed to guard the repose of His Spouse, and forbade her to be disturbed, now exhorts her to arise and even to make haste. May He Himself be with us, to reveal to us the meaning of this mystery also, for He is the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ Our Lord, Who is over all things, God blessed for ever. Amen.