Sermons on the Song of Songs

Some of the sectaries, however, dissenting from the rest, acknowledge the lawfulness of marriage, yet only between two virgins. But I fail to see on what valid grounds such a distinction can be established, except that these heretics seem to emulate each other in tearing to pieces the sacraments of the Church, every one according to his own particular fancy; just as vipers are said to rend with their venemous fangs the vitals of the mother that bears them. For with regard to what they are represented as saying about the first of all marriages, namely, that it was a marriage of virgins, how, I ask, can that be regarded as prejudicing the liberty of the matrimonial contract so as to render it unlawful unless the parties be virgins? But they throw out obscure hints of having found I know not what in the Gospel, which as they vainly pretend, lends support to their ravings. I suppose it is the words which the Saviour added after quoting this testimony from Genesis, “God created man to His own image and likeness, male and female He created them,” namely, “what therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.” “God,” say these heretics, “joined together our first parents because they were both virgins, and thereafter it was not lawful for them to separate. But the marriage which other than virgins presume to contract has no divine sanction.” But, I ask, who told you that the reason why God joined together Adam and Eve was their virginity? For the Scripture does not say so. “But were they not virgins?” Certainly they were. Yet it is not the same thing to assert that they were virgins when married, and that they were married because they were virgins. Nay, you do not even find it expressly mentioned that the two were virgins, although of this there can be no doubt. The text, “male and female He created them” distinctly refers not to the integrity of their bodies but to the diversity of their sex. And that for wise reasons. For it is not the former but the latter that the matrimonial alliance essentially demands. Therefore, the Holy Ghost, when instituting marriage, prudently mentioned the distinction of sex, but made no allusion to virginity, in order to leave the crafty little foxes no opportunity for mere juggling with words. How gladly they would have profited by such an occasion! Although, as a matter of fact, it would not have helped their cause in the least. For even if the Holy Spirit had said, “virgins He created them,” instead of “male and female He created them,” what would you have gained thereby? Could you thence conclude immediately that marriage was permitted to none but virgins? Yet with what triumph you would have seized the purely verbal advantage! How you would have denounced second and third marriages! How you would have insultingly censured the Catholic Church for allowing the licentious to be united in lawful wedlock, which she does all the more unhesitatingly, because she knows well that they will henceforth live in honour who would else have lived in sin. Perchance you would even reprehend the Lord Himself for commanding the Prophet Osee to marry a sinner. But the Spirit of God has not given you this occasion of heresy, and nevertheless, even without it, you have chosen to be heretics. For the very passage of Scripture which you attempted to make the foundation of your error, you have now discovered to be rather in your way. It has turned out to be no help to you at all, but very much of a hindrance.

But hear now another text, which, if it does not correct you entirely, must at least utterly confound you, for it completely shatters and annihilates your heresy. “A woman,” so we read, “is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband die, she is at liberty; let her marry to whom she will: only in the Lord.” It is St. Paul that here grants the widow permission to marry “whom she will.” And yet you forbid her, laying down the law that none but a virgin shall marry, and she only to a virgin. So that you do not allow even the virgin to marry “to whom she will.” Why would you thus shorten the arm of God? Why would you limit the freedom of marriage which His generosity has left unrestricted? Why would you confine to the virgin a liberty allowed indiscriminately to the sex? Certainly St. Paul would never have made such a concession unless it were lawful. But I am saying too little when I represent him as only conceding marriage to widows. He positively wills that they should marry. “I will therefore,” he says, “thai the younger should marry.” Nor can there be any doubt that he is speaking in this place of widows, since the context puts that beyond question. Therefore what he allows because it is lawful, he wills also because it is expedient. And does the heretic prohibit what is both lawful and expedient? Surely the only result such a prohibition can have will be to expose him for the heretic that he is.

It remains for us now, my brethren, to press the foxes with the remaining part also of the Apostle’s prediction. For, as he foretold of them, they “abstain from the meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving.” In this again they prove themselves heretics, not simply because they abstain, but because their abstinence is the avowal of heretical doctrines. I also abstain sometimes; but my abstinence is intended as a satisfaction for sin, not as the profession of an impious superstition. Surely we do not blame St. Paul for chastising his body and reducing it to servitude? Thus I abstain from wine, because in wine there is luxury, as Holy Scripture tells me. However, I use a little when I am weak, according to the Apostle’s advice. I abstain from flesh meat also, lest by unduly fostering the flesh, I should foster at the same time the vices of the flesh. Even dry bread I will study to eat in measure, because when the stomach is filled with food, one finds it hard to be attentive at prayer; and besides I should be afraid of being reproached by the Prophet Ezechiel were I to eat my bread to satiety. Nay, I will accustom myself to be sparing even in the use of cold water, lest bodily repletion should excite the motions of concupiscence. But the heretic has very different motives for his abstinence. Thus milk he holds in horror, as well as all that is made from it, with everything else connected in any way with procreation. If only he denied himself such things, not because they are the fruit but because they are the stimulants of passion, how commendable would his abstinence be and how worthy of a Christian!

But what can he mean by this general exclusion of every kind of food which has its source in concupiscence? The distinction of meats thus clearly expressed makes me suspicious. Yet if thou wilt explain that thou art only following the doctor’s prescription, I shall not blame thee for taking care of thy flesh, “for no one ever hated his own flesh,” provided however that thou dost keep within the limits of moderation. If thou sayest that thou art conforming to the rules of asceticism, that is, carrying out the recommendations of the spiritual physicians, I shall even commend the virtue thou dost exercise in subduing the flesh and bridling thy passions. But if, influenced by the Manichean fanaticism, thou proscribest the benefit of God, so that what He created and bestowed upon us “to be received with thanksgiving,” thou, not only as an ingrate, but even as an impudent censurer, dost presume to pronounce unclean and to avoid as evil—in that case, far from praising thy abstinence, I shall rather abhor thy blasphemy: I shall rather look upon thee as unclean who dost attribute uncleanness to the creatures of God. “All things are clean to the clean,” says St. Paul, that most excellent judge, and there is nothing which is unclean except to him who esteems it so. “To them that are defiled and to unbelievers,” continues the Apostle, “nothing is clean; but both their mind and their conscience is defiled.” Woe to you that repudiate with scorn the food which God has created, who regard as unclean and unworthy of being assimilated to your bodies the aliments which He has provided! For on account of such blasphemy the mystical body of Christ, which is the Church, has repudiated yourselves as defiled and polluted.