Sermons on the Song of Songs

She is now living, she has now restored to her the sense of sight, she is now established in good, but all by the power and operation of the Word. She stands upon the two feet, as it were, of knowledge and love, and is held erect by the Hand of the Word. She stands, yes, but let her believe that it is to herself are addressed the words of warning, “He that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall.” Dost thou imagine that thou art able to stand by thine own strength, whereas thou wert not able to rise by thine own strength? To me this appears impossible. And dost thou ask the reason? “By the Word of the Lord,” says the Psalmist, “the heavens were established.” And shall a thing of earth, thinkest thou, be established without the same Word’s assistance? Why, therefore, if earth has the power to stand of itself, does a man of earth pray thus to the Lord, “Strengthen Thou me in Thy words”? He had even learned by experience how impossible it was for him to stand without the divine help. For it is the same voice that we hear in the psalm saying, “Being pushed I was overturned that I might fall; but the Lord hath supported me.” Dost thou ask who it was that pushed him? There were more than one. Man is pushed by the devil, he is pushed by the world, he is pushed also by man. But who is this man that pushes? Each one of us, my brethren, is pushed by himself. “Wonder not at this.” So powerful a pusher of himself and overthrower of himself is man, that if one would only keep his hands off himself, he should have but very little to fear from the push which others could give him. Hence St. Peter asks, “And who is he that can hurt you, if you be zealous of good?” The hand wherewith thou pushest thyself is the consent of thy will. If, therefore, whenever the devil suggests evil to thee, or the world attempts to urge thee to what is unlawful, thou dost withhold thy consent, refusing to “yield thy members to serve iniquity,” not suffering “sin to reign in thy mortal body,” thou hast shown thyself to be “zealous of good,” and malice consequently has no power to harm thee. And see if so far from harming, it does not rather help thee. For it is written, “Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise from the same.” “They have been confounded who sought thy soul,” whilst thou with the Psalmist art able to sing, “If they shall have no dominion over me, then shall I be without spot.” Thou hast certainly given signal proof that thou art “zealous of good” if, in accordance with the Wise Man’s counsel, thou “hast pity on thine own soul,” if “with all watchfulness thou keepest thy heart,” if in obedience to the injunction of St. Paul thou dost “keep thyself chaste.” Otherwise, although thou shouldst gain the whole world, whilst yet thou sufferest the loss of thine own soul, I certainly shall not account thee to be zealous of good, since the Saviour Himself does not so account thee.

There are, then, three powers conspiring for the overthrow of him who stands. Of these, the devil pushes by envy and malice, the world by the wind of vain-glory, and man by the dead weight of his own corruption. The devil has only the power to push thee: he cannot cast thee down if thou deniest him thy help by refusing to consent to him. Hence we read in Holy Scripture, “Resist the devil and he will fly from you.” It is he who, through envy of their happy state, pushed our first parents when they were standing in paradise. Nevertheless he would not have succeeded in making them fall, had they not consented to his suggestion. It is he again who, by his pride, was cast headlong down from heaven, pushed by none save himself—which should make us understand that we are ourselves in much greater danger of falling in the same way, pressed down as we are by the weight of our own very substance. The world also pushes us, because it is wholly “seated in wickedness.” All men are pushed by it, but none are overthrown except its friends, that is to say, those who consent to it. I have no desire for the friendship of the world lest it should occasion my fall, because “whosoever will be a friend of this world becometh an enemy of God.” And there can be no fall more desperate than this. From what has been said it clearly follows that the most dangerous push of all is that which a man receives from himself. For whereas he can be made to fall by his own impulse without being pushed by any other, he cannot be made to fall by the impulse of others unless he also pushes himself. To which of these opposing powers must we offer the greatest resistance? Surely to that which is all the more dangerous in proportion as it is the more interior, which is able to cast us down by itself alone, and without which the rest can do nothing. It is not without good reason that the Wise Man prefers “him that ruleth his spirit” to “him that taketh cities.” This, my brethren, contains a very important lesson for us. It teaches us that we have need of virtue, and not of any natural virtue, but only of that wherewith we must be “endued from on high.” Such virtue, if it is perfect, gives the soul an easy victory over herself, and arms her with invincible might against all her enemies. For it is an energy of mind which knows not how to yield to any force in defence of the reason. Or, if you prefer, it is a vigour of soul which acts unconquerably with and in behalf of the reason. Or, finally, it is a spiritual power which, so far as depends upon it, governs and directs all things in accordance with reason.

“Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord?” Anyone who makes an endeavour to attain to the summit of this spiritual mountain, that is to say, who strives to reach the perfection of virtue, shall be able to realise how difficult is the ascent thither, and how hopeless to attempt it without the assistance of the Word. Happy the soul that makes herself such an object of wonder and delight to the watching angels that she can hear them saying of her, “Who is she that cometh up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her Beloved?” But in vain would be her efforts to rise if she leaned not on Him. By leaning on Him she is also enabled to vanquish herself; and thus made mistress of herself, she can bring all her feelings and passions under the rule of right reason. Like a skilful charioteer she shall drive the fourfold chariot of the mind, by which I mean the four emotions of anger, fear, desire, and love. And she shall reduce to captivity and render subservient to virtue, under the direction of judgment, every carnal affection and every bodily sense. How should not all things be possible to her since her Beloved on Whom she leans is almighty? What unbounded confidence is expressed in the words of St. Paul, “I can do all things in Him Who strengtheneth me”! There is nothing which renders more glorious the omnipotence of the Word than the fact that He makes omnipotent all who put their trust in Him. For, so it is written, “all things are possible to him that believeth,” and surely he is omnipotent to whom all things are possible. The soul, consequently, if she does not presume on her own strength, and deserves thereby to be strengthened by the Word, shall be able to govern herself, in such a way that “no iniquity shall have dominion” over her. Thus, I say, whilst she leans on her Beloved and is “endued with strength from on high,” no force, no fraud, no enticement shall have the power either to cast her down from a standing position or to overthrow her authority.