Sermons on the Song of Songs

She certainly will not disdain to compare herself to this heaven of heavens. It also, like the other, is stretched out like a curtain, not indeed over extents of corporeal spaces, but in the spiritual affections of pure intelligences. And it is diversified with the works of the great Artificer, as wonderful as they are various. Again, there are in this heaven of heavens distinctions, not of colours but of glories. For “God indeed hath set some” Angels, others Archangels, others Virtues, others Dominations, others Principalities, others Powers, others still Thrones, still others Cherubim, and others again Seraphim. These are the stars that adorn the heaven of heavens. These constitute the embroidery of this curtain, which is one of those belonging to my Solomon, and indeed is distinguished above all the others by the endless variety of decorations which make up its multiform glory. But this immense curtain contains within itself innumerable others, all equally curtains of Solomon, since every one of its blissful and holy inmates may be truly called in itself a curtain of Solomon. For they are all kind and “stretched out” in charity, extending even to us. Nor do they begrudge us a share in the glory which they enjoy themselves, but rather desire it for us, and for this reason some of their number are content to associate with us, busying themselves about our interests and taking us under their care. “For are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?” Wherefore, just as all these blessed spirits, considered as a collective unity, are called the “heaven of heaven” (coelum coeli) in the singular, so, regarded as a multitude of distinct and independent beings, they are named the “heavens of heavens” (coeli coelorum) since each angel is a heaven in and by himself, and to each may be applied the words “stretching out the heavens like a curtain.” You now understand, I think, what these curtains are which the Spouse is proud to resemble, and to what Solomon they belong.

Let us next consider the glory of her who compares herself to the heavens, and to that heaven which is the more glorious in proportion as it represents the Divine Perfections in a more excellent way. Not unreasonably does she derive a similitude thence whence she has derived her existence. For if she likens herself to the tents of Cedar on account of the body which is drawn from the earth, why should she not boast of an equal resemblance to heaven, by reason of the spirit which is heavenly in its origin? Especially, when her life bears witness to that celestial parentage, as well as to the dignity of her nature and the nobility of her fatherland. She adores and honours one God, like the angels. She loves Christ above all, as do the angels. Like the angels, she is chaste; but her chastity, unlike the chastity of the angels, is preserved in the flesh of sin and in a frail body. Lastly, she seeks and relishes only the things that are above where the angels abide, and not the things which are upon the earth. What could be a more evident mark of celestial origin than so to retain the inborn resemblance to the spiritual creation in a world where everything is material? to exhibit the glory of a heavenly life on earth and in exile? to live as an angel in a body that is almost bestial? Effects of this character have for their cause not an earthly, but a divine principle, and clearly indicate the supernal birth of the soul wherein they are manifested. But listen to St. John declaring the same more explicitly: “I, John, saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” And he adds, “And I heard a great voice from the throne saying: Behold the tabernacle of God with men, and He will dwell with them.” Why, do you ask? As I believe, in order that He may take to Himself a Bride from amongst men. Strange! He came for a Spouse yet came not without a Spouse. He sought a Spouse, whilst having a Spouse with Him. Shall we say that there are two Spouses? God forbid! One “is My Spouse,” He has told us, “My Dove is but one.” But just as He desired to form His different flocks of sheep into one “that there may be one fold and one Shepherd”; so, likewise, in order that there may be one Bridegroom and one Bride, it has pleased Him to unite the Church of men which He has established on earth, to that other Church in heaven, composed of the multitude of angels, which, as a Spouse, has cleaved to Him from the beginning. Therefore, by this her union with the earthly Spouse, the heavenly has not been duplicated but only made perfect. And so she understands what the Bridegroom says of her, “My perfect one is but one.” Besides conformity with the will of the same Beloved makes one of the two Spouses here, by similarity of devotion, as it will make them more one hereafter by equality of glory.

So you see, my brethren, that both come from heaven, Jesus, the Bridegroom, and His Bride the New Jerusalem. He, in order to make Himself visible, “emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man.” But in what form or beauty, or clothed with what splendour are we to suppose that John, the Seer of Patmos, beheld the Spouse descending? Perhaps he recognised her in the multitude of angels, whom he observed “ascending and descending upon the Son of Man”? But it is better to say that he then saw the Spouse, when he saw the Word made flesh, acknowledging the “Two in the one flesh.” For when our Most Holy Emmanuel established on earth a school of heavenly doctrine; when the visible image of that supernal Jerusalem, “which is our mother,” and the “loveliness of her beauty,” were revealed to us, as reflected through and in the human life of the Bridegroom, what else did we contemplate but the Spouse in her Beloved, admiring in one and the same Lord of Glory both the “Bridegroom decked with a crown” and the “Bride adorned with her jewels”? Therefore, He Who descended is the Same Who also ascended, that “no man may ascend into heaven, but He That descended from heaven,” one and the same Lord being a Bridegroom in His Head, viz., in His Divinity, and as a Bride in His Body, viz., in His Human Nature. And not in vain did this heavenly Man appear here below, because from earthly men He has made multitudes heavenly like unto Himself, as it is written, “And such as is the heavenly, so also are they that are heavenly.” From that time, the life of men on earth has approximated to the life of the angels. Like the celestial and blissful Spouse above, she also, that has been called “from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon,” cleaves with chaste affection to her heavenly Bridegroom, to Whom, although not yet, like that other, united by vision, she is nevertheless espoused through faith. This is what God promised by the mouth of His Prophet, Osee, saying, “And I will espouse thee to Me in justice, and judgment, and in mercy, and in commiserations; and I will espouse thee to Me in faith.” Hence, she endeavours to conform herself more and more perfectly to her heavenly Model, learning from Him to be modest and sober, to be chaste and holy, to be patient and compassionate, to be “meek and humble of heart.” By the practice of these virtues she tries, even during her exile here below, to please Him “on Whom the angels desire to look”; so that, whilst she burns with the same ardent desire as these, she may thus prove herself a “fellow-citizen with the saints” and a “domestic of God,” a “beloved one,” and a Spouse.