Sermons on the Song of Songs

These remarks, my brethren, have been suggested to me by the name and the image of the hart, because I wished to show you how, after the example of the Spouse, we may apply them to the Bridegroom without the least prejudice to His Majesty. But why do I say “without prejudice to His Majesty,” when the comparison has not left even His weakness without honour? He is a Hart; He is a Little One; and He is also declared to resemble the roe, as having been “made of a woman.” Nevertheless He is said to abide “on the mountains of Bethel,” and to be “made higher than the heavens.” Notice how the Apostle does not speak of Him as being or existing higher than the heavens, but says, “made higher than the heavens,” and that deliberately, lest it should be thought that the Bridegroom was proclaimed higher than the heavens only in His Divine Nature, according to Which He said, “I am Who am.” And even where He is preferred to the angels, He is described not as being better or naturally better, but as having been made better than they. Such considerations clearly prove that not only in right of what He is from eternity, but also by reason of what He has been made in time, He claims for Himself all pre-eminence, pre-eminence over every principality and every power, pre-eminence over all creatures, as being “the First-born of every creature.” Thus “the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” These are the words of St. Paul. But it seems to me that he might have said with equal truth that the same divine foolishness and the same divine weakness were wiser than the wisdom and stronger than the strength of the angels. In this way, then, the words of our present text can be considered as belonging to the universal Church.

But now, as regards each particular soul—for the individual soul is also the Spouse of God, provided she loves Him with tenderness, with prudence, and with constancy: every spiritual person can ascertain for himself what has been his own experience in this matter. As for me, my brethren, I shall feel no shame in telling you all openly what it has been given me to enjoy of such graces. For although it may appear of little value and contemptible when described, even so I shall not be concerned; because he who is spiritual will not despise me for that, and he who is not spiritual shall not be able to understand me at all. However, I will reserve the recital for another discourse. And perchance there are some who may be edified by the heavenly inspirations which your prayers shall obtain for me in the interval from Him Who is the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ Our Lord, Who is over all things, God blessed for ever. Amen.