Sermons on the Song of Songs

Therefore, my brethren, He Who is the Shepherd of the whole flock, emptied Himself even to the extent of feeding like one of His own sheep; He was found among the lilies; He was seen by the Church; by appearing needy Himself, He won the heart of His needy Spouse; and He became her Beloved because He resembled her in poverty. Yet not for this alone, but also on account of His “truth and meekness, and justice.” His truth in fulfilling His promises, His meekness in pardoning her sins, His justice in condemning the proud demons together with their chief. Such, therefore, has He revealed Himself in order to win the love of the Spouse, truthful by His nature, meek towards men, and just in behalf of men. O Divine Bridegroom, truly deserving of love, and worthy to be embraced with our whole heart’s affection! What reason has the Church now for hesitating to entrust herself entirely and with all devotion to One so faithful to fulfil His engagements, so merciful to forgive, so righteous to defend? Before mentioning His truth, His meekness, and His justice, the Psalmist said to Him, “With Thy comeliness and Thy beauty set out, proceed prosperously.” Whence has He this comeliness and beauty? From the lilies, I have no doubt. What is more beautiful than a lily? Nothing surely. Neither can there be anything more comely than the Bridegroom. What, then, are these lilies to which He is indebted for the “loveliness of His beauty”? “Proceed prosperously and reign,” continues the Psalmist, “because of truth, and meekness, and justice.” Here you behold the spiritual lilies, lilies, I say, which have sprung up out of the earth, which glitter above the earth, which in their fragrance surpass the sweetness of aromatic spices. It is, therefore, among these lilies that the Bridegroom loves to feed, and it is certainly to them is due all His beauty and comeliness. Without the lilies, there was “neither beauty in Him nor comeliness,” as the Prophet speaks, that is to say, considered according to the weakness of the flesh.

Truth, my brethren, is a beautiful lily, resplendent in its brightness, excelling in its odour. For it is the “brightness of eternal life,” the splendour and the image of the Substance of God. Yes, it is indeed a lily, one which the earth produced after receiving the new benediction, and which it “prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to the revelation of the gentiles.” So long as the earth lay under the primeval curse, it yielded only thorns and thistles. But now, at the blessing of the Lord, “truth is sprung out of the earth,” as a most beautiful “flower of the field” and a “lily of the valleys.” You can know this lily from its brightness, which, immediately after the first appearance of the flower, dazzled in the night the eyes of the shepherds, as we read in the Gospel, “And behold an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the brightness of God shone round about them.” And justly does the Evangelist say “the brightness of God,” because it was not the glory of the angel that shone through the darkness, but the glory of the lily. The angel was present to the shepherds, whereas the light of the lily was visible from Bethlehem. You may recognise the lily also from its fragrance, whereby it made itself known even to those who lived far remote. The Magi indeed beheld the star, but men of their gravity would never have followed such a guide, had they not been also attracted by the sweet odour of the new-born lily. Oh, truly a lily is truth, thus vivifying faith, with its perfume and with its splendour illuminating the mind! Turn your gaze now, my brethren, to the Person of Christ, Who says in the Gospel, “I am the truth.” And consider how close is the analogy between the truth of God and the lily of the valleys. Perhaps you have not observed it before, but let me now call your attention to the fact that from the centre of this flower there springs a number of little golden rods or filaments, which are surrounded by the petals of dazzling white, beautifully and fittingly arranged in the form of a crown. You have here symbolised the gold of Christ’s Divinity, crowned with the purity of His Human Nature, that is to say, you have Christ Himself “in the diadem wherewith His mother hath crowned Him.” For in the diadem wherewith His Father hath crowned Him, He inhabiteth light inaccessible, and in that we cannot behold Him so long as we abide in the flesh. But of this later.

Meantime, His truth is for us a lily. But so too is His meekness. Yea, His meekness is an excellent lily, possessing the whiteness of innocence and the good odour of hope, “for there are remains for the peaceable man,” as the Psalmist says. The man of meekness is a man of strong hope, and not less is he, even here below, a luminous model of social life. Why should I not give the name of lily to a virtue which is redolent of hope and shining with charity? Moreover, if “truth is sprung out of the earth,” the same must be said of meekness. Whoso would call this in question must also doubt the earthly origin of “the Lamb, the Ruler of the earth,” the Lamb That was “led to the slaughter” and That “opened not His mouth.” But it is not alone truth and meekness that are sprung out of the earth, for justice has proceeded from the same source, according to the Prophet Isaias, who says, “Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just; let the earth be opened, and bud forth a Saviour, and let justice spring up together.”

Nor can you doubt that justice is a lily when you recall the words of Holy Scripture, “The just shall spring forth like the lily and shall flourish for ever before the Lord.” Therefore this is not the lily “which to-day is and to-morrow shall be cast into the oven,” since the lily of justice is to flourish for ever. And it “shall flourish before the Lord,” with Whom “the just shall be in everlasting remembrance, he shall not fear the evil hearing,” that evil hearing, namely, whereby the reprobate shall be commanded to go into the oven of eternal fire. Moreover, is there any soul on which the brightness of this lily does not shine, excepting indeed such as dislike it? For it is a sun, yet not that sun which is made “to rise upon the good and the bad.” Its light is certainly never seen by those who shall say, “The light of justice hath not shined unto us, and the sun of understanding hath not risen upon us.” They, however, have seen it, all to whom it has been said, “But unto you that fear My name, the sun of justice shall rise.” Therefore, the brightness of this lily only shines for the just; its perfume is diffused even to the wicked, but not for their advantage. Thus, we have heard one of the just declaring, “We are the good odour of Christ unto God in every place in them that are saved and in them that perish, to the one indeed an odour of death unto death, but to the others an odour of life unto life.” Who, even though he be the most abandoned of criminals, does not approve the just man’s judgment, however little he may love his way of life? But happy he who condemns not himself in that which he approves. For he is condemned by his own judgment whosoever does not love the justice which he approves. Hence such a one evidently is miserable rather than happy, as being self-condemned. For can there be anyone more miserable than the man to whom the odour of life is a herald not of life but of death? Nay, not the herald but the bearer of death.