Sermons on the Song of Songs

Do you, also, my brethren, if you would pick your steps cautiously amidst such mysteries of truth, ever bear in mind the counsel of the Wise Man, “Seek not the things that are too high for thee, and search not into things above thy ability.” In matters of this nature, walk in the Spirit, not by the light of your own intelligence. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit does not excite curiosity, but rather enkindles charity. Justly, therefore, does the Spouse, in seeking Him “Whom her soul loveth,” refuse to put her trust in the senses of the flesh, or to be satisfied with the vain reasonings of human curiosity. But she solicits a kiss, that is, she invokes the Holy Spirit from Whom she shall obtain both the food of knowledge and the seasoning of grace. That is true knowledge which is imparted by means of a kiss, and is accepted with love, because a kiss the token of love, Consequently, the “knowledge” which “puffeth up,” which is unaccompanied by charity, does not proceed from a kiss. But neither can this kiss of love be claimed by those who indeed “have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.” For the grace of the kiss communicates at once both the light of knowledge and the warmth of love. It is in truth “the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,” Who, like the bee bearing wax and honey, has wherewith to light the lamp of knowledge and to infuse the sweetness of devotion. Wherefore, let not him who has understanding of truth without love, nor him who has love without understanding, ever imagine he has received this kiss. With it error and coldness are alike incompatible. So, for the reception of the twofold grace of this all-holy kiss, let the Spouse on her part get ready her two lips, namely, her intelligence for “understanding,” and her will for “wisdom.” Thus, glorying in a perfect kiss, she will deserve to hear these words of consolation, “Grace is poured abroad on thy lips, therefore hath God blessed thee for ever.” Accordingly, the Father, when kissing His Son, “uttereth” most fully to Him the secrets of His Divinity. This Holy Scripture indicates to us by the words, “Day to Day uttereth speech.” But this eternal and divinely-sweet embrace it is given to no creature whatsoever to behold, as I have already remarked, the Holy Spirit, common to Father and Son, being the sole Witness and confidant of Their mutual knowledge and love. “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath Him his counsellor?”

But perchance some one will say to me: “How then hast thou come to know what thou confessest has been revealed to no creature?” I have an obvious answer. “The Only-Begotten, Who is in the Bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him,” not indeed to me, miserable and unworthy as I am, but to the holy Baptist, the “friend of the Bridegroom,” whose words these are. And not only to him, but also to St. John the Evangelist, as being “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” For his soul, too, was pleasing to God, truly worthy both of the name and of the dowry of a spouse, worthy of the embrace of the Bridegroom, even worthy of the privilege of reclining on the Bosom of the Lord. St. John derived from the Heart of the Only-Begotten, what He derived from His Father’s, but not the Evangelist alone. The same is true of all to whom “the Angel of the Great Counsel” addressed the words, “I have called you friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father I have made known to you.” From the same Heart was derived the knowledge of St. Paul who received his Gospel “not from man, nor through man, but by revelation from Jesus Christ.” Most certainly, all these could say with as much joy as veracity, “The Only-Begotten, Who is in the Bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” And what, my brethren, was this “declaration” but a kiss bestowed on them? Yet it was the kiss of the Kiss, not the Kiss of the Mouth. Listen: “I and the Father are One”—there you have the Kiss of the truth. Also here, “I am in the Father and the Father in Me.” This is the Kiss from Mouth to Mouth. But let no creature presume to claim It. It is a Kiss of love and of peace. But that love “surpasseth all knowledge,” as that peace “surpasseth all understanding.” Nevertheless, what “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man,” that God revealed to St. Paul by His Spirit, that is, by “the Kiss of His Mouth.” Therefore, the mutual Indwelling of the Son in the Father and of the Father in the Son is the Kiss of the Mouth. The kiss of the Kiss is that of which we read, “For we have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit That is of God that we may know the things that are given us from God.”

In order to make the distinction clearer, I say that He, Who receives the plenitude, receives the Kiss of the Mouth; and he, who receives of the plenitude, receives the kiss of the Kiss. A great saint indeed is Paul. Yet however high he can raise his mouth, although he can reach up to the third heaven, he can never attain to the Lips of the Most High. Let him be content with his own measure, and as he cannot mount to that “Face of glory,” let him humbly pray that It would stoop to his level and send down a kiss from above. But He, Who “thought it not robbery to be equal with God,” so that He could say, “I and the Father are One,” as He is associated with the Father as an Equal, embraces Him also as an Equal, and, instead of soliciting a kiss from a lower level, at an equal elevation presses Mouth to Mouth, thus, by a singular prerogative, receiving the Kiss of the Mouth. Christ’s Kiss, consequently, is the plenitude, Paul’s but a participation. The Master can boast of having obtained the Kiss of the Mouth; the disciple the kiss of the Kiss.

Yet happy is that kiss of participation whereby we not only know God, but also love the Father, Who, without doubt, is not fully known until He is perfectly loved. My brethren, is there amongst you one who sometimes, in the depths of his heart, hears the Spirit of the Son “crying Abba, Father”? If such there be, let him feel assured of the love of the Father, for he has the testimony of his own conscience that he is led by the same Spirit as the Son. O soul who art such, whosoever thou be, have courage, have confidence, and fear nothing. In the Spirit of Christ thou canst recognise thyself as the daughter of the Father and as the spouse and sister of the Son. Spouse and sister, both these titles may be found applied in Sacred Scripture to the soul that is such. This I can show without much labour. Thus, the Bridegroom says to His Bride, “I am come into My garden, O My Sister, My Spouse.” She is a Sister as having the same Father, a Spouse as having the same Spirit. If carnal matrimony unites two in one flesh, why should not spiritual nuptials have greater efficacy to conjoin two in one Spirit? Moreover, we have the testimony of St. Paul that “He that cleaveth to God is one Spirit.” But hear also from the Father how lovingly and how condescendingly He calls the faithful soul His daughter, and yet invites her as the bride of His Son to the embraces of that Son: “Hear, O daughter! and see, and incline thine ear, and forget thy people and thy father’s house, and the King shall desire thy beauty.” Behold from Whom this spouse demands a kiss. O happy soul! take care and be reverent, because He is the Lord Thy God, perhaps not so much to be kissed as to be adored with the Father and the Holy Ghost for ever and ever. Amen.