Sermons on the Song of Songs

“The Watchmen who kept the city found me.”

This word of finding, my brethren, if I remember aright, has given us pause; for hearing the Spouse declare that she has been found by the preachers of the Gospel, we have hesitated in doubt as to her meaning. The reason of this hesitation and uncertainty I have already indicated to you in the preceding discourse, when we judged that there was something hidden here which required to be examined into. But we were then approaching the end of the sermon, and the discussion of the matter in question could not be completed in the little time that remained. So it was held over. And what now remains but that I should discharge my debt to you? Well, then. In the working out of the “great mystery,”—I refer to that which the Doctor of nations interpreted to mean the chaste and holy marriage of Christ with His Church, which is indeed the work of our salvation—in this, I say, there are three factors co-operating with each other, namely, God, the angels, and men. As regards God, why should He not busy and concern Himself with the nuptials of His own beloved Son? So indeed He does, and with His whole mind and heart. And He alone would be sufficient for the work, without the assistance of angels or men, whereas they without Him could accomplish nothing at all. Consequently if He has made them His associates in carrying out His design to redeem the human race, it was not because He wanted any support for Himself, but only because He wished to afford us an opportunity of meriting. For He has decreed that man must find his merit in labour, as it is written, “The labourer is worthy of his hire”; and again, “Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour,” whether he be one who plants in faith, or one who waters what another has already planted. And further, by employing the ministry of the angels in the work of saving men, He has caused the former to be loved by the latter. But men are in turn objects of love to the angels. This may be inferred from one fact especially, because, namely, it is from the human race, as these celestial spirits well know, that the losses which their city sustained in the primeval rebellion have to be made good. It is surely only becoming that the kingdom of charity should be governed by no other laws than the holy and mutual loves of those who are destined to reign everlastingly together, by their pure affections for each other and for God.

But although the three agents co-operate with each other, each works in a manner consonant with his nature and dignity, and so there is a wide difference in their respective modes of operation. Thus God accomplishes all His designs with no greater effort than it costs Him to will them, without any agitation, without any motion, without any dependence on place or on time, on instruments or on persons. For He is the Lord of the Sabbath who “judgeth all things with tranquillity”; and He is also wisdom that “disposeth all things sweetly.” The angels, likewise, work without agitation, yet not without motion both in space and in time. But human activity is always attended with agitation of mind and with bodily and spiritual movements. For man has received a command to work out his salvation “with fear and trembling,” and to “eat his bread in the sweat of his brow.”

Having discussed these preliminary questions, let us now, my brethren, consider together that in this most magnificent work of our salvation there are three things which have to be attributed exclusively to the divine authorship, and with regard to which God has anticipated all His auxiliaries and co-operators. The three things I speak of are predestination, creation, and inspiration. Of these, predestination did not begin, I do not say with the beginning of the Church, or even with the beginning of the world, but at no point of time at all, because it was before all time. Creation began with time. Inspiration takes place in time, when and where it pleases God. It admits of no doubt that, according to predestination, there never has been a time when the Church of the elect was not with God. Should the unbeliever marvel at this, let him hear something which is still more wonderful, namely, that the same Church of the elect has never been otherwise than pleasing and beloved. What is to prevent me from boldly proclaiming the great secret which has been revealed to me out of the Heart of God by that faithful publisher of heavenly counsels, I mean the Apostle St. Paul? For it is he who, amongst many other mysteries, has not hesitated to manifest this also of the riches of the divine goodness, where he says, “He hath blessed us with spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. As He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in His sight in charity.” And he adds, “Who hath predestined us unto the adoption of children through Jesus Christ, unto Himself; according to the purpose of His will, unto the praise of the glory of His grace, in which He hath graced us in His beloved Son.” Nor can there be any doubt that these words are spoken in the name of all the elect, by whom the Church is constituted. But which even of the blessed angels could have found this Church in the fathomless depths of eternity and before she was brought forth into the light as a part of this creation, except he to whom I God, Who is the only true Eternity, condescended to reveal her?

But even after she has appeared at the Creator’s bidding amongst the other visible forms and figures of the created universe, she was not immediately discovered by any human person or by any of the angels, because as yet she could not be recognised, being overshadowed by the image of the earthly man and covered with the mist of death. For it is certain that none of the children of Adam has ever entered this life without this shroud of universal confusion, He alone being excepted Who alone “walked without blemish.” I speak of Emmanuel, Who nevertheless for us and from us assumed to Himself the likeness, though not the reality, of our malediction and our sin. For so we read of Him that He appeared “in the likeness of sinful flesh, and of sin hath condemned sin in the flesh.” Of the rest, all have come into the world under the same cloud, the elect as well as the reprobate. There is no distinction in this matter. All have sinned, and all carry about with them the evidence of their shame. For this reason, then, the Church, even after she had been brought into existence and took her place amongst other created things, could not yet be found or recognised by any creature, because she still lay concealed in a wonderful manner both within the bosom of a blessed predestination and amidst the mass of miserable damnation.

But she, who had been concealed from everlasting by predestinating Wisdom, who at the beginning of time had been likewise kept hidden by creating Power, was at last, in due season, made manifest by the visitation of grace, according to the operation to which a while ago I gave the name of inspiration. I have entitled it so, because it is really something infused into the human spirit from the Spirit of the Bridegroom, as a preparation for the Gospel of peace, that is to say, to prepare a way for the Lord and for the Gospel of His glory into the hearts of all those who have been predestined to eternal life. In vain would the watchmen have laboured in preaching if this grace of inspiration had not gone before. But when they beheld how the “word runneth swiftly,” when they saw the gentile nations being converted to the Lord with the utmost facility, and all tribes and tongues coalescing in the unity of faith, and the ends of the earth brought together by the influence of the same Catholic mother, then, I say, they understood concerning the riches of divine grace which were concealed from the beginning of the world, treasured up in the bosom of eternal predestination; and they rejoiced at having found her whom God before all ages had chosen for His Spouse.