Sermons on the Song of Songs

Blessed is the man that devotes and applies himself fervently and frequently to the work of hollowing this mystical wall. But still more blessed he who makes for himself hollows in the Rock. For we are permitted, if we have the power, to excavate even the Rock. Yet for this the soul has need of a purer keenness of edge, of a more strongly-directed intention, and of greater merits of sanctity. But who can pretend to such qualifications? He, at all events, might do so who said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Same was in the beginning with God.” Does it not seem to you, my brethren, as if the Evangelist had plunged into the very Heart of the Word, and brought forth from Its innermost recesses the sacrosanct essence of Wisdom Divine? And shall we not say the same of him who used to “speak wisdom among the perfect, the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery, which none of the princes of this world knew”? Did not that pious explorer, after penetrating with a keen yet devout curiosity, the first and second heaven, bring down to earth from the third this mystery of wisdom? Neither did he keep it to himself, for he has faithfully delivered it to us in the most faithful words he could find. But he also “heard secret words which it is not granted to man to utter.” That is, it was not granted to him to utter these secrets to his fellow-men, but he was allowed to speak of them to himself and to God. We may therefore imagine the Lord consoling St. Paul’s solicitous charity, and saying to him, “Why art thou troubled because human ears cannot take in what thou hast conceived in thy mind? ‘Let thy voice sound in My Ears.’ Even though thou art not permitted to reveal thy secret to mortals, be not grieved thereat, since thy voice may give pleasure to the Ears of God.” Do you not observe how this holy soul is now “sober” out of charity for us, and now “transported to God” because of her purity? Holy David was another soul qualified to excavate the Rock. And consider if he is not himself the man of whom, as of a different person, he speaks to God and says, “For the thought of man shall give praise to Thee: and the remainders of the thought shall keep holiday to Thee.” Therefore as much of the prophetic thought as could be expressed by the Prophet’s words and example he immediately made manifest to all, in order thereby to “give praise to the Lord among the people.” But the rest, “the remainders of the thought,” he reserved to God and to himself, keeping holiday with the Lord, in “gladness and rejoicing.” This is what the verse I have just quoted is intended to convey to us. Hence we may infer that the Prophet, by zealous preaching, used to expend for the people’s salvation whatever he could of all that his curious and eager mind was able to draw from wisdom’s secret fountain; whilst the incommunicable residue became for himself an additional motive for praising God with festive jubilee. Notice how nothing goes to loss in divine contemplation. For whatever cannot contribute to the edification of the people, with that especially we may render “to our God joyful and comely praise.”

It follows from what I have said that there are two kinds of contemplation. The one considers the stability, the state, the happiness, and the glory of the heavenly Jerusalem, and in what manner of repose or activity the mighty multitude of its citizens occupy themselves. The other has for object the King Himself, His Divinity, His Majesty, His Eternity. By the former we make hollows in the wall, by the latter in the Rock. And if the excavations in the Rock are the more difficult to make, more precious in proportion are the treasures they reveal to us. Nor need you be afraid of that penalty wherewith Holy Scriptures threaten the “searchers of Majesty,” provided you bring a pure and simple eye to this contemplation. You shall not be “overwhelmed by glory,” but rather admitted to glory, unless indeed you seek your own glory instead of the glory of God. For it is not God’s glory but his own that overwhelms a man, because whilst he is bent on the latter and pressed down by the weight of ambition, he cannot lift up his head to contemplate the former. Let us, therefore, my brethren, shake off this yoke from our necks, and then we may securely excavate the Rock, “in Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” But if you are not yet reassured, listen to what the Rock Himself says, “They that work in Me shall not sin.” Oh, “who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest!” For the meek and the simple shall find rest there where the deceitful shall be overwhelmed, as well as the proud and the lovers of vainglory. The Church is a dove, and is therefore at rest. She is a dove because of her innocence and because of her mourning. She is a dove, I say, because she has “with meekness received the ingrafted word,” according to the advice of St. James. And she rests in the Word, that is to say, in the Rock, for the Word is the Rock. The Church, consequently, dwells in the clefts of the Rock, through which she looks into the interior and beholds the glory of her Bridegroom. Neither does that glory overwhelm her, because she does not attempt to arrogate it to herself. She is not “overwhelmed by the glory,” because she is not a “searcher of Majesty,” but a seeker of the divine will. As regards the Divine Majesty, she does indeed venture to look upon it occasionally, not however as a searcher but merely as an admirer. But even if she happens sometimes to be drawn up to that Majesty in a spiritual ecstasy, “this is the finger of God” mercifully exalting the creature, not the creature’s temerity impudently invading the privacy of God. For when even the Apostle thinks it necessary to excuse the boldness of his intrusion, by explaining that he then suffered a rapture, what other mortal shall presume to take upon himself the fearful responsibility of searching out, by his own efforts, the secrets of the Divine Majesty, and of intruding as a rash inquirer into the most awful mysteries of the Godhead? Therefore I believe that by the “searchers of Majesty” are meant such irreverent invaders of Majesty, not they who are ravished but they who encroach. And it is of these we are told that they “shall be overwhelmed by glory.”