Sermons on the Song of Songs

“Catch us the little foxes.” See how companionably He speaks Who has no companion. He might have said, “for Me,” but He preferred to say, “for us,” delighting to make us His associates. Oh, the sweetness! Oh, the beauty! Oh, the power of love! And is the Highest of all become thus as one amongst all? Who hath wrought this wonder? It is love, my brethren—love, which knows nothing of dignity, abounds in condescension, is mighty in its emotions, resistless in its pleadings. What can be more powerful than love which triumphs over God Himself? Yet at the same time what more gentle since it remains always love? What, I ask, is the nature of that force so violent in the pursuit of victory, and so unresisting under violence? “He (the Son of God) emptied Himself” in order to make us understand that it is through the influence of love alone that the Plenitude has been poured out, the Supreme levelled down, the Singular made an associate. With whom, O admirable Bridegroom, with whom dost Thou associate Thyself so familiarly? “Catch us the foxes,” Thou sayest. For whom with Thyself? Is it for the Church of the gentiles? Yea, for that Church which is a collection of sinful mortals. We know her and what she is. But Thou, Who art Thou, That art so devoted and so zealous a Lover of this Ethiopian Spouse? Not surely another Moses, but a greater than Moses. For art Thou not He Who is declared “beautiful above the sons of men”? But this is saying too little; for Thou art also the Splendour of Eternal Life, and the Brightness and Figure of the Father’s Substance, and lastly art Thyself over all things, God blessed for ever. Amen.