Sermons on the Song of Songs

Since, therefore, it is your privilege to sing the praises of God in common with the heavenly choristers, as being “fellow-citizens with the saints and domestics of God,” “sing ye wisely.” As sweet food is pleasing to the palate, so is a psalm to the heart. Only let the devout and prudent soul be careful to grind it with the teeth of her intelligence, if I may use the expression, and not gulp it down whole and unmasticated, for otherwise the spiritual palate cannot enjoy the taste, pleasant and “sweet above honey and the honey-comb.” Let us offer Christ a honey-comb, like the Apostles, at the celestial banquet and the table of the Lord. Just as the honey is found in the comb, so should devotion be felt in the words, for “the letter killeth” if swallowed down without this seasoning of the Spirit. But if, like St. Paul, you “sing in the spirit, and sing also with the understanding,” you, too, shall recognise the truth of what Jesus said, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” You shall likewise understand the saying of Wisdom, “My Spirit is sweet above honey.” So “shall your soul be delighted in fatness,” and “your whole burnt-offering be made fat.” So shall you appease the King, and gain the favour of His princes, and secure to yourselves the good will of all the heavenly court. The blessed above, “smelling a sweet savour” in heaven, shall say of you also, “Who is she that goeth up by the desert as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh, and frankincense, and of all the powders of the perfumer?” As David sings, “The princes of Juda are their leaders, the princes of Zabulon, the princes of Nephthali.” That is to say, the angels act as leaders for those who sing the praises of God, who observe continence, and are given to divine contemplation. For well do these our princes know how pleasing to their King are the laudation of our psalmody, the constancy of our temperance, and the purity of our contemplation. Hence they are careful to demand from us such first-fruits of the Spirit, which are really nothing else than the first and fairest fruits of wisdom. You are aware, of course, that Juda signifies in the Hebrew “one praising or confessing,” Zabulon “the dwelling of strength,” and Nephthali “the stag set free.” The stag, indeed, by reason of his agility and powers of leaping, is a figure which admirably expresses the spiritual ecstasies of the contemplative. Also, just as that animal is wont to penetrate the shadows of the forest, so is the contemplative accustomed to pierce through the obscurity of mystical meanings.

We know, too, my brethren, Who it was that said, “The sacrifice of praise shall honour Me.” But as “praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner,” is it not of absolute necessity that it should be accompanied by the virtue of continence, which will secure that “sin shall not reign in your mortal body”? Yet that continence which seeks human glory, has no merit in the eyes of God. Indispensably necessary, therefore, is purity of intention, whereby the soul has the wish to please Him alone and the power to unite herself to Him closely. Now, to be united to God is simply to see God, and this is granted only to the clean of heart, as their special prerogative. A clean heart had the Prophet David, who said to the Lord, “My soul hath stuck close to Thee,” and, “But it is good for me to cleave to God.” By seeing he cleaved, and he saw by cleaving. To the soul, then, that is well exercised in the virtues just mentioned, the messengers of heaven manifest themselves familiarly and frequently, particularly if they observe her to be assiduous at prayer. Who will grant me that my “petitions may be made known to the household of God” through your mediation, O benevolent princes! Not merely to God, for to Him even “the thought of man confesseth,” but to the household of God, so as to include also those who dwell with Him, both blessed angels and beatified souls of men. I am “needy”—who will “raise” me “up from the earth”? I am “poor”—who will “lift” me “up out of the dung-hill,” that so “I may sit with princes and hold the throne of glory”? Yet I doubt not they will gladly introduce into the palace one whom they condescend to visit even on the “dung-hill.” And if they rejoice at our conversion, can they despise us when we have been exalted in glory?

In my opinion, therefore, it is these ministering spirits to whom the Spouse, in her prayer, addresses herself and opens her heart, as being the domestics and friends of the Bridegroom, when she says, “Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His Mouth.” And notice the familiar and friendly conversation of a soul still imprisoned in the flesh, with these celestial powers. She is eager to be kissed; she asks what she desires; yet she does not name Him Whom she loves. The reason is that she feels sure they do not require to be told, since He is the ordinary subject of conversation between herself and them. Hence she does not say, “Let this or that one kiss me,” but only “Let Him kiss me.” So, Mary Magdalen did not mention by name Him Whom she was seeking, but merely said to the Stranger Whom she believed to be the gardener, “Sir, if thou hast taken Him away.” Taken whom? She does not specify, because she thought that what her own heart could not for a moment forget, must be equally present to the thoughts of every one. In the same manner the Spouse, speaking to the companions of the Bridegroom, to whom, as she was aware, her secret was known, suppressed her Beloved’s name, and broke out abruptly with the request, “Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His Mouth.” About this kiss, my brethren, I will say no more to-day. But in to-morrow’s discourse you shall hear whatever thereon, in answer to your prayer, the grace of the Holy Spirit, Who teacheth all things, shall further inspire me with. For it is not by flesh and blood that this secret is revealed, but by the Holy Ghost, “Who searcheth the deep things of God,” Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, and liveth and reigneth with Them for evermore. Amen.