Sermons on the Song of Songs

Rightly, therefore, does the Spouse, renouncing all other feelings, abandon herself entirely to love alone, since in the interchange of love she has to correspond to a Bridegroom Who is Love Itself. For even when her whole being has been dissolved and poured out in love to Him, what after all is her love compared with the never-failing outflow from Love’s own Fountain? Love surely does not abound in an equal degree in her who loves and in Him Who is Love, in the soul of man and in the Word of God, in the Bride and in the Bridegroom, in the creature and in the Creator, any more than the water equally abounds in him who thirsts for it and in the well which is its source. What then? Shall her hope of the heavenly nuptials, and her yearning desire, and her ardent love, and her confident expectation, be all disappointed and perish wholly, because she cannot in running keep up with a giant, or contend with honey in sweetness, or equal the meekness of a lamb, or rival the purity of a lily, or emulate the brightness of the sun, or compete in love with Him Who is Charity? Certainly not. For although the Spouse, as a creature, is less than her Creator, and hence loves also less, yet if she loves with her whole being, her love is perfect and wanting in nothing. Wherefore, as I have told you already, it is love of this kind that constitutes the spiritual marriage of the soul with the Word. For she cannot love in this perfect way without being perfectly loved in return, so that by the consent of the two parties the marriage is ratified and completed. But perhaps some may have a doubt as to whether the soul is anticipated and surpassed by the Word in loving. That, however, is quite certain: He loved her long before she began to love Him, and He loves her far more than she loves Him. Happy the Spouse who has deserved to be prevented with the blessing of such exceeding sweetness! Happy the Spouse to whom it has been given to experience an embrace of such surpassing delight! This spiritual embrace is nothing else than a chaste and holy love, a love sweet and pleasant, a love perfectly serene and perfectly pure, a love that is mutual, intimate, and strong, a love that joins two, not in one flesh, but in one spirit, that makes two to be no longer two but one undivided spirit, according to the testimony of St. Paul, where he says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” And now, concerning these questions, let us rather listen to her whom the unction of grace and frequent experience have quickly qualified to be our instructress in all the ways of love divine. But perhaps we had better hold over this point and deal with it in a special sermon. For we should only spoil what is excellent matter by attempting to compress it within the few moments now available at the conclusion of to-day’s discourse. And so with your permission I will make an end here where the sequence of thought does not warrant it, so that we may reassemble to-morrow in good time and with eager minds to consider the pure delights which the holy and happy soul deserves to experience with the Word and from the Word, her heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus Christ Our Lord, Who is over all things, God blessed for ever. Amen.