Sermons on the Song of Songs

Perhaps, therefore, when the Spouse speaks of her Beloved as feeding among the lilies, she only wishes to inform us how greatly He is pleased with the whiteness and the fragrance of the virtues. Of old, it is true, He used to “feed among the lilies,” even corporally, whilst He reclined at table and took corporal food with Mary and Martha (who were undoubtedly lilies) and at the same time refreshed His Spirit with the devotion and the virtues of these saintly women. Had some prophet come into the room at such a time, or an angel, or any spiritually-minded person, provided he could recognise the Majesty of Him Who was being entertained there, would he not be stupefied at the sight of so much condescension on the part of God, and so much familiarity between Him and the two sisters, holy indeed in soul and body, but still of the earth and of the weaker sex? And would he not have reason to testify and to say, “I have seen the Bridegroom, not only dwelling, but actually feeding among the lilies”? In this way, therefore, the Beloved has been found feeding among the lilies in both senses, I mean, according to the flesh and according to the spirit. It seems to me that He also fed the lilies in return, but spiritually. Surely He could not have been fed by them unless they at the same time were being fed by Him. Oh, how He consoled their timidity! How He rejoiced their humility! How He enriched and enlivened their devotion! This makes it plain to you that for Him to be fed is to feed. But consider now if the converse be not equally true, namely, that for Him to feed is to be fed. “God that feedeth me from my youth until this day,” says the holy Patriarch Jacob. Kind Father of the family, Who has solicitous care for the members of His household, especially in the evil days, feeding them in their hunger, providing them with the “bread of life and understanding,” and so nourishing them unto immortal vigour! But I have no doubt that in feeding them He also feeds Himself. For the food which He most “gladly eateth” is our progress in virtue. Hence the Prophet declares, “The joy of the Lord is our strength.”

It is thus, my brethren, that the Bridegroom feeds Himself by feeding us, and feeds us by feeding Himself; because, namely, whilst He replenishes our souls with spiritual gladness, He at the same time finds pleasure for Himself in our advancement towards perfection. My penitence is His food, my salvation is His food, yea, I myself am His food. In the words of the Psalmist, does He not “eat ashes like bread”? But I am ashes, because I am a sinner, and therefore am I eaten by Him. I am masticated when I am reproved; I am swallowed when I am instructed; I am undergoing decomposition in the stomach when I begin to change my life; I am digested when I am transformed into His image; I am assimilated when I am conformed to His will. “Wonder not at this,” my brethren. The Bridegroom both feeds us and is fed by us in order to unite us the more closely to Himself. Without such reciprocity of relation we should not be perfectly one with Him. For were I to feed on Him whilst He did not feed on me, He, just as now, would appear to be in me, yet I should not truly be in Him. On the other hand, if He were to feed on me without my feeding on Him, I could not be said to have Him in myself, although He would still contain me. Thus in neither of these two cases would there be perfect union between us. Therefore, let Him feed on me, so that I may be in Him; and, conversely, let me feed on Him, so that He may be in me. In this way we shall be fully and firmly united to each other, He abiding in me and I in Him.

Do you wish me, my brethren, to illustrate what I have been saying by an example? Then lift up your eyes to an instance of unity far more sublime, yet similar to this, the unity of the Word with His Father. Now if the Bridegroom were in the Father in such a manner that the Father would not be likewise in Him, or if the Father were in the Bridegroom in such a manner that the Bridegroom would not be likewise in Him,—I make bold to say it, Their union would come short of perfection, if indeed it deserved to be called union at all. As it is, however, the Word is in the Father, and the Father in the Word. Therefore, the union between Them is in all respects perfect, and the Father and the Word are truly and entirely one. In this way, then, the soul for whom “it is good to adhere to her God,” must not consider herself perfectly united to Him, until she has perceived that He abides in her and she in Him. Not that she can say, even then, that she is one with God in the same sense in which the Father and the Word are one; although the Apostle assures us that “he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Thus we have Scriptural authority for the union of spirit between God and the soul, but not for any unity of nature. I speak not of myself, who am only a sinner, but no creature whatever, whether of earth or of heaven, unless one who has taken leave of his senses, will dare to usurp the words of the Only-Begotten and presume to say, “I and the Father are one.” On the other hand, dust and ashes though I be, nevertheless, relying on the testimony of Scripture, I should feel not the slightest hesitation in claiming to be one spirit with God, if only I were convinced by indubitable evidence that I adhered to Him, like one of those who abide in charity, and consequently abide in God and have God abiding in them; because they feed on God and God feeds on them. It is to this kind of union the Apostle refers, as I think, when he says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” What then? The Word says, “I am in the Father and the Father is in Me,” also, “I and the Father are one,” that is, one Nature. Man’s claim is less: “I am in God and God is in me, and we are one spirit.”

But surely the Father and the Son have not to feed on Each Other in order to comprehend Each Other and thus coalesce in a unity of nature; just as Creator and creature assimilate each other by a species of mutual “manducation,” and are thereby rendered one, not indeed in nature, but one in spirit. Far be such a thought from us, my brethren! For the mutual circuminsession of Father and Son is very different from the mutual indwelling of God and His creature; as also the unity which results in the one case is infinitely more perfect than that realised in the other.