Sermons on the Song of Songs

And perhaps we have here that darksome mirror through which, as you have read, the Apostle gazed, and which is fashioned, so it seems, by angelic hands out of such pure and beautiful images. Thus we may ascribe to God that representation of spiritual truth which in itself is quite distinct from any phantasy of corporeal properties, whilst we attribute to the ministry of angels all the splendid imagery with which it appears surrounded and clothed. In a different reading of the same text this seems to be more clearly indicated. According to that version the companions of the Bridegroom say, “We, the artificers, will make for thee images of gold, with distinctions or ornaments of silver.” The phrases, “inlaid with silver” and “with ornaments of silver” do not differ in meaning. To my mind this appears to signify that not only do the holy angels form within us, by suggestion, the imaginative representations referred to, but they even supply us with suitable words to express what they have enabled us to conceive; so that our ideas, dressed out in apt and becoming language, may be comprehended by our hearers with greater ease and pleasure. But you may object and say to me, “What is there in common between silver and language?” Well, the Psalmist shall give you the answer: “The words of the Lord,” he says, “are pure words, as silver tried by the fire.” It is in this sense, then, that the ministering spirits of heaven make for the Spouse, whilst she sojourns upon earth, “chains of gold, inlaid with silver.”

But observe, my brethren, how the Spouse asks one thing and obtains another. She longs for the repose of contemplation, only to have enjoined on her the laborious office of preaching. She thirsts for her Bridegroom’s presence, and is charged with the anxious duty of bringing forth and nourishing children for Him. Nor is this the only occasion she has been so treated. Once before, as I recollect, she met with a similar rebuff. She was sighing for the embraces and the kisses of her Beloved, but received the answer, “For thy breasts are better than wine,” by which she was reminded of her motherhood, and of the duty of suckling her little ones and fostering her children. Perhaps you will discover for yourselves further instances in other verses of this Canticle, if you are willing to seek them out. Do we not find the same thing prefigured of old in the history of the holy patriarch Jacob, when he was defrauded of the long expected and eagerly desired embraces of her whom he loved, the fruitful and blear-eyed Lia being substituted, without his knowledge or consent, for the beautiful but barren Rachel? In the same way here, the Spouse, desiring to know and asking where her Beloved pastures and reposes in the noonday, instead of the information solicited, receives “chains of gold, inlaid with silver,” that is, wisdom and eloquence, doubtless for the office of preaching.

We learn from this, my brethren, that the kisses of divine contemplation must be often interrupted for the purpose of giving suck to the little ones, and that no one ought to live for himself alone, but all for all. Woe to those who have received the capacity for conceiving worthy sentiments of God and fittingly expressing them, if they look upon religion as a source of gain, if they make subservient to vainglory the talents entrusted to them to be employed in the service of their Master, if they are high-minded and unwilling to condescend to the humble! Let them fear lest what the Lord says by the mouth of the Prophet Osee should apply to themselves, “I gave them My gold and My silver; but they have used My gold and My silver in the service of Baal.” Listen now to the answer which the Spouse makes on receiving thus a reproof from her Bridegroom and a promise from His companions. She is neither angered by the one nor elated by the other, but behaves in accordance with what is written, “Rebuke a wise man and he will love thee,” and, with reference to gifts and promises, “The greater thou art, the more humble thyself in all things.” That she regulated her conduct by these counsels will appear from her reply. But, with your leave, I shall make that the text of another sermon. Meantime, let what has been said excite us to glorify the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ Our Lord, Who is over all things, God blessed for ever. Amen.