Sermons on the Song of Songs

But I must now return to the zeal of His mercy, that is, the zeal which He infuses into us rather than exercises Himself. For the zeal which He exercises is the zeal of His justice, as I have already explained; and the examples I have cited of those transgressors on whom this zeal has been so terribly exercised, are doubtless sufficient to alarm us. Therefore will I fly from the face of the fury of the Lord whither I may find for myself a place of refuge: I will fly to that zeal of piety which burns so sweetly, yet so powerfully atones. Shall it be said that charity atones not? Nay, but it does atone, and with power. I have even read of it that it “covereth a multitude of sins.” I ask further: has it not the power and the sufficiency to bring down and humble every kind of “haughtiness of the eye” and of the heart? Most assuredly it has. For “charity is not puffed up, is not ambitious.” If therefore the Lord Jesus would vouchsafe to visit me, or rather to come into my heart, not in the zeal of His fury, nor yet in the zeal of His wrath, but in charity and in the spirit of sweetness, “jealous of me with the jealousy of God”—for what is so much God’s as charity? although in truth it is rather God Himself than something that belongs to Him—if, I say, He would condescend to come into me, thus meek and loving, I should thereby understand that He has come not alone, but that His Father also is with Him. What indeed can be so like the Father as such condescension? Hence, He has been called not only the Father of the Word, but also the “Father of mercies,” because, namely, it is His very nature “to have pity always and to spare.” If ever, like the disciples journeying to Emmaus, I perceive that my understanding has been “opened” and enabled to comprehend the meaning of Holy Scripture; or if I feel the words of wisdom welling up, so to speak, from the bottom of my heart; or if I am conscious of an infusion of heavenly light, in which mysteries are made manifest; or finally, if the mighty breast of heaven seems to bend upon my soul and to pour down upon my mind a more than usually abundant rain of holy meditations, then, my brethren, I can have no doubt of the Bridegroom’s presence within me. For such spiritual treasures all belong to the Word, and it is of His fullness that we receive them. But if at the same time I feel in my inmost soul a plentiful outpouring of the grace of humble devotion, so that I not only know the truth, but love it also, and from this love conceive a kind of spontaneous hatred and contempt for vanity, lest I should be inflated with knowledge or lifted up by the frequency of divine visitations—I then realise that I am being treated with fatherly affection, and I cannot resist the persuasion that the Father Himself is at hand. And if thereafter, so far as it depends upon me, I persevere in corresponding faithfully to this grace of condescension by worthy sentiments and worthy actions, so that I may be able to affirm with St. Paul, “His grace in me hath not been void,”—I may now feel assured that the Father Who fosters me, and the Son Who instructs me, have not only come to me, but have even taken up Their abode with me.

How great a grace of holy familiarity between the Word and the soul must spring out of this divine indwelling! And from such familiarity how great a grace of confidence! There is no longer any reason that I can see why a soul thus privileged should not presume to say, “My Beloved to me.” For in her consciousness that she loves the Bridegroom, and loves Him ardently, she has convincing evidence that He loves her also and loves her with similar ardour. In like manner with regard to her devoted attention to Him, her solicitude and carefulness for His glory, her laborious and diligent service, her zeal, which keeps her constantly and eagerly on the alert, ever anxious to know “how she may please God”—she has no doubt at all that He, in His turn, is looking after her interests with the same watchful assiduity; because she remembers His promise, “With what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Nevertheless the Spouse in her prudence is careful to claim for her own part only the return of love, recognising that she has been prevented by the grace of her Bridegroom. Therefore it is that she puts in the first place the giving which belongs to Him, when she says, “My Beloved to me, and I to Him.” Thus we see how from her own dispositions and sentiments towards God she comes to know what His feelings are for her. Such in truth is the case. It is God’s love for the soul that excites the soul’s love for Him; it is His antecedent attention to her that makes her attentive to Him; it is His solicitude for her that is the cause of her solicitude for Him. For once the soul is enabled to “behold the glory of the Lord with open face,” by some, I know not what, affinity of nature, she is immediately and of necessity conformed thereto and “transformed into the same image.” From what has been said, we may gather that, such as we make and present ourselves to God, such also will He exhibit Himself to us. This is what the Psalmist means where he says to the Lord, “With the holy Thou wilt be holy and with the innocent man Thou wilt be innocent.” And why may we not say with equal truth, “With the loving Thou wilt be loving, with the reposeful Thou wilt be reposeful, with the attentive Thou wilt be attentive, and with the solicitous Thou wilt be solicitous.”? Indeed He has Himself declared, “I love them that love Me; and they that in the morning early watch for Me, shall find Me.”

You observe, my brethren, how He gives us here an assurance that we possess His love when we offer Him ours. But not only this. He also tells us that He watches with solicitude over our interests whenever He perceives us to be solicitous for His. Art thou vigilant in His service? Then He also is vigilant in thine. Rise up in the night to begin thy vigils, hasten as much as thou pleasest, even anticipating the matin hour: thou shalt not be beforehand with Him, thou shalt find Him already waiting for thee. In this emulation of charity thou wouldst be acting rashly wert thou to attribute to thyself either precedency or superiority. For He loves thee more than thou lovest Him, and His love for thee is older than thy love for Him. If the Spouse knows all this, yea rather because she knows all this, art thou surprised to hear her glorying that the infinite Majesty of God, neglecting, as it were, every other interest, attends exclusively to her, and that she in her turn disengages herself from all created objects in order to devote herself to Him with her whole heart’s affection? I must now bring my discourse to an end. But before concluding, I want to speak one last word, astonishing indeed, yet strictly true, for the benefit of those amongst you who may be called spiritual persons. What I desire to say is this: The soul that sees God beholds Him so intent upon herself as if she were the sole object of His solicitude. Hence the confidence with which she affirms that her Beloved attends to her and she to Him; for she also can have regard to nothing except to Him and to herself. How good Thou art, O Lord, to the soul that seeks Thee! Thou runnest to meet her, Thou dost embrace her, Thou revealest Thyself to her as her own Bridegroom, Thou Who art her Lord, yea Who art over all things, God I blessed for ever. Amen.