Sermons on the Song of Songs

And surely it is right and reasonable that the “foolishness of God” and the “weakness of God” should be preferred to the wisdom and the strength of man. For by the barren forest trees, amongst which the apple-tree stands distinguished, we are to understand the race of men, of whom the Prophet testifies that “they are all gone aside; they are become unprofitable together: there is none that doth good, no, not one.” “As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons.” Of all the trees in the wood, there is only One that yields fruit, I mean the Lord Jesus, Who, in His Human Nature, although exalted over the rest of men, is made “a little less than the angels.” For, by a wonderful and admirable dispensation, He has made Himself as Man inferior to the angels over whom as God He holds sovereign sway. “You shall see the angels of God,” He said to Nathaniel “ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” That is, in one and the same Person, Jesus Christ, the angels ascend when they worship with awe the Divine Majesty, and descend when they lovingly minister to the weakness of the flesh. Therefore, as the Spouse finds a sweeter consolation in thinking of His voluntary lowliness than in the thought of His infinite greatness, she is more ready to magnify His grace, to extol His mercy, and to stand amazed at His marvellous condescension. She prefers, then, to admire Him as a Man amongst men, rather than as God exalted above the angels; for it is only amongst men He is admirable as a Man, just as the apple-tree is conspicuous, not amongst the garden trees, but only amidst the trees of the wood. Nor does she think His glory will be lessened by the consideration of His infirmity which magnifies His goodness and His loving-kindness. For whatever is subtracted from that glory in one respect is added to it in another; because if she desists from the praise of the loftiness of His Majesty, it is only to render more manifest the graciousness of His condescension. Therefore, just as the Apostle declared the “foolishness of God” and the “weakness of God” to be wiser and stronger than men, not wiser and stronger than the angels; and just as the Prophet proclaimed the Word Incarnate to be “beautiful above the sons of men,” not above the angels, in the same way here, and evidently speaking under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, the Spouse, using the image of the fruitful apple-tree and the unprofitable trees of the forest, asserts the superiority of the God-Man over every merely human greatness, but not in comparison with angelic excellence.

“As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons.” Not without reason does the Spouse say, “among the sons.” For whereas the Bridegroom is the Only-Begotten of the Father, yet He laboured without envy to acquire unto Him many other sons by adoption, and “He is not ashamed to call them brethren,” “that he might be the First-born amongst many brethren.” But it is only right that He Who is the Son by nature should be preferred to all who are sons by the adoption of grace. Hence it is said, “As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons.” And very properly is the Beloved compared to the apple-tree, which He resembles both in the refreshing shade He affords, and also in that He produces excellent fruit. For unquestionably He may be called a fruit-bearing Tree, Whose “flowers are the fruit of honour and riches,” and of Whom, under the form of Wisdom, it is written, “She is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her.” Amongst all the trees of the spiritual forest not one is found worthy to be compared to this; because however great and beautiful the others may appear, however capable of assisting us by their prayers, their ministrations, their instructions, and their examples, Christ alone, the Wisdom of God, is the Tree of life, Who alone is “the Living Bread which came down from heaven and giveth life to the world.”

Therefore, since He is the Tree of life, the Spouse goes on to say, “I sat down under His shadow, Whom I desired; and His fruit was sweet to my palate.” No wonder she desired the shadow of Him from Whom she hoped to receive both food and shelter. For the other woodland trees do indeed offer a cooling shade, but they yield no nourishment for the support of life, no fruit of everlasting salvation. There is but one “Author of life,” “and one Mediator of God and man, the Man Christ Jesus.” It is He Who says to His Spouse, “I am thy salvation,” and to the Jews, “Moses gave you not bread from heaven, but My Father giveth you the true Bread from heaven.” This, then, is the reason why the Spouse yearned particularly for the shadow of Christ, because, namely, in Him alone could she hope to be sheltered from the noxious heat of the passions, and at the same time to be fed and filled with the sweet food of the virtues. “I sat down,” she says, “under His shadow, Whom I desired.” The shadow of Christ is the Flesh of Christ. Faith in Him may also be considered His shadow. For Mary the Flesh of her own Son served as a shadow. But my shadow is the faith of which He is Author and Object. And yet is it not true, that to me also, when I eat It in the Sacrament, His Flesh becomes a shadow? Whilst Mary, on the other hand, must have participated with me in the refreshment afforded by the shadow of faith, seeing that it was said to her, “And blessed art thou that hast believed.” “I sat down under His shadow, Whom I desired.” Compare this with the words of the Prophet Jeremias, “A Spirit before our face (is) Christ the Lord, under His shadow we shall live among the gentiles.” That is to say, we live in His shadow whilst we are amongst the gentiles, but when we are with the angels we shall live in His light. We are in the shadow so long as “we walk by faith, and not by sight.” Therefore, the just man who “liveth by faith,” liveth in the shadow. But not only just but blessed is he who liveth by understanding, because he is no longer in shadow, but in the light. David was a just man, and lived by faith, when he said to God, “Give me understanding and I will learn Thy commandments, that I may live.” For he knew that understanding follows upon faith, and that to understanding is to be revealed the Light of life, and the Life of light. We must first enter the shadow and thence pass out into the light beyond the shadow; for, as it is written, “If you will not believe, you shall not understand.”