Sermons on the Song of Songs

“I sought Him Whom my soul loveth.” To this, O Spouse, hast thou been brought by the benignity of Him Who has prevented thee, Who has been beforehand in seeking thee and beforehand in loving thee. Certainly thou wouldst never have sought Him hadst thou not first been sought by Him, just as thou wouldst never have loved Him had He not first loved thee. Therefore thou hast been prevented, not with one blessing only, but with two, prevented in loving and prevented in seeking. Love is the cause of the seeking; the seeking is at once the fruit and the evidence of love. The fact that thou art loved should banish any suspicion that it is for judgment thou art sought; whilst the fact that thou art sought should prevent thee from complaining that thou hast been loved in vain. Both manifestations of kindness and sweetness combine to animate thy courage, to dispel thy fears, to bring about thy return, and to arouse thy affection. Hence this zeal, hence this ardour in seeking Him Whom thy soul loveth, because there is no doubt that thou wert not able to seek Him at all until He began to seek thee, and now when thou art sought by Him thou art not able not to seek Him.

But do not forget from whence thou hast been brought hither. However, let me now, like St. Paul, transfer to myself what I am going to say. This will be the wiser course. Art thou then, O my soul, that faithless Spouse, who deserting her first Husband, with Whom she had lived so happily, violated her plighted troth and went after other lovers? And now after keeping company with them so long as thou hast found it pleasant, perhaps until they repudiated thee with scorn, art thou now, I ask, so impudent, so brazen, as to wish to return to Him Whom in thy arrogance thou didst despise? What? Dost thou want to come forth into the light, thou for whom it would be more proper to hide thyself in darkness? And dost thou run to be caressed by thy Bridegroom from Whom thou hast deserved nothing but hard stripes? It will be strange if thou findest not that, instead of a Husband, thou hast offended a Judge. Happy the man who hears his soul making answer thus to these reproaches: “I have no fears because I love. And in this I have a proof that I am also loved; for certainly unless I were beloved I should not have the power to love Now she that is beloved has no reason to be afraid. But as for souls that do not love, they indeed have good cause to fear. How can they be otherwise than always uneasy, always on the look-out for danger? I do love, and I find it as impossible to doubt that I am loved in return as to doubt the reality of my own love. Nor can I feel afraid of the presence of Him of Whose love for me I have had experimental proof. Shall I tell you in what? In this, that unworthy as I was He not only sought me, but He even touched my heart with His grace, and thereby gave me an infallible indication that He was seeking me. Why should I not respond to Him in His seeking as I respond to Him in His love? Shall He be angry with me now for seeking Him in return, He Who showed no indignation against me even when I treated him with scorn? No, certainly not. He Who sought me when I despised Him will not despise me now when I seek Him. The Spirit of the Word is kind, and kind is the communication He makes to me, telling me and convincing me of the Word’s desire and affection, which cannot be concealed from Him, ‘for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God, and is the confidant of the thoughts which He thinks ‘of peace and not of affliction.’ Wherefore, then, should I not feel encouraged to seek Him after having experience of His clemency and proof of His pardon?”

My brethren, to have these truths urged upon one is to be sought by the Bridegroom, to be convinced of them is to be found. But “all men receive not this word.” What are we to do with our little ones? I speak of those amongst us who are still but as children in the spiritual life, yet not without sense, because they have attained to the beginning of wisdom, “being subject one to another in the fear of Christ.” By what means, I ask, shall I be able to prove to them that the case is with the Spouse as I have represented it to be, since they have not as yet discovered in their own experience anything like what I have described? But I will refer them to a witness whose testimony they are bound to accept. Let them read in the Holy Book that which, because they cannot see it in the heart of another, they perhaps hesitate to believe. It is written in the Prophet Jeremias, “If a man put away his wife and she go from him and marry another man, shall he return to her any more? Shall not that woman be polluted and defiled? But thou hast gone after many lovers: nevertheless return to Me, saith the Lord, and I will receive Thee.” These my brethren, are the words of God Himself, and it is not lawful for us to doubt them. Believe therefore what it has not yet been given you to experience, so that by the merit of your faith you may attain sooner or later to the fruit of enjoyment. I think I have now explained sufficiently what it is to be sought by the Word, and how such seeking is a necessity, not for the Word, but for the soul, although this knowledge can be acquired more fully and more pleasantly from experience than from any merely verbal instruction. It remains for me, then, to show you in the next discourse how souls athirst for God ought to seek Him by Whom they are sought. Or rather we have to learn this from that Spouse who is represented to us here as seeking Him Whom her soul loveth, the Bridegroom of the soul, Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Who is over all things, God blessed for ever. Amen.