Sermons on the Song of Songs

But if she grows and progresses, so that, overstepping the limits of a straitened and ungenerous love, she attains, in perfect liberty of spirit, to the broad plains of spontaneous kindness, and endeavours to stretch out the curtains of her good will, so as to cover all her neighbours, loving each as she loves herself, surely, then, we can no longer justly say to her, “what more dost thou do?” For has she not done much more in making herself so much more ample? Charity, I say, bears such an ample heart that it embraces all within itself, even those whom it recognises as connected with it by no ties of relationship, those to whom it is bound by no hope of future favour, and those to whom it is under no debt of gratitude for benefits already received; for it is subject to no obligations except that of love, whereof the Apostle says, “Owe no man anything, but to love one another.” But the soul may proceed still further. She may even do violence to the kingdom of charity, and, as a pious invader, prevail so far as to occupy its territories to their uttermost bounds. This she will have accomplished when she understands that not even to her enemies must the bowels of her piety be closed, when she does good to those who hate her, prays for those who persecute and calumniate her, and tries to live in peace even with those who hate peace. Then, without doubt, the breadth of that soul shall be as the breadth of heaven; her height shall be as the height of heaven, and her beauty as the beauty of heaven. And thus shall be fulfilled in her that which is written, “stretching out the heavens like a curtain.” In this heaven of wonderful breadth, height, and beauty, not only will the sovereign, immense and all-glorious Deity condescend to dwell, but He will even walk at large in its wide expanses.

Do you perceive, my brethren, what varieties of heavens the Church contains within her, whilst, in her universality, she is herself an immense heaven, “stretched out from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth”? Then see also, by consequence, to what she is to be compared in this particular, unless perchance you have forgotten the examples I gave you a while ago, of the “heaven of heaven,” and the “heavens of heavens.” Therefore, after the pattern of that Jerusalem, which is above, and is our mother, this of earth, which is still in exile, has its heavens, viz., its spiritual men, illustrious in their lives and reputations, sound in faith, firm in hope, “stretched out like curtains” in charity, sublime in contemplation. They distil rain, too, these spiritual heavens, but it is the saving rain of the word, just as they thunder in their reproofs and lighten in their miracles. Also, they “shew forth the glory of God”; because “stretched out like curtains” over the whole earth, they exhibit a “law of life and discipline” inscribed in themselves by the finger of God, in order “to give a knowledge of salvation to His people.” They publish, moreover, the Gospel of peace, as being the curtains of Solomon, the “Peaceful.”

In these spiritual, yet earthly, curtains of holy men, my brethren, you now recognise the image of the supernal, which were described quite recently, in connexion with the adornments of the Bridegroom. You also recognise the queen standing at His right Hand, decorated with similar, yet inferior ornaments. For she, even “in the place of her sojourn,” as well as “in the day of her power,” possesses not a little of glory and beauty “in the splendours of the saints.” But not like her Beloved is she crowned with the complete and consummated glory of the saints. Still, I might describe the Spouse, too, as perfect and blissful, although only in part. For in part she is yet as the “tents of Cedar.” Nevertheless, she is beautiful, both in that part of her which already reigns in bliss, and also in the illustrious men by whose virtues and wisdom she is adorned on earth, as the firmament with its stars. Hence the Prophet Daniel says, “But they that are learned shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that instruct many to justice, as stars for all eternity.”

O humility! O sublimity! A “tent of Cedar,” and a sanctuary of God! An earthly habitation, and a heavenly mansion! A house of clay, and a royal palace! A “body of death” and a temple of light! The scorn of the proud and the Bride of Christ! She is “black but beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem.” For although the labour and the pain of a long exile have darkened her complexion, all the same, she is clothed with the beauty of heaven, and adorned with the “curtains of Solomon.” If you are displeased with her blackness, at least admire her loveliness. If you despise her humility, you must respect her sublimity. How prudently and wisely, how discreetly and befittingly has it been arranged that, in the Spouse, abjection and elevation should so counterbalance and compensate each other, “according to the time,” that, amidst the vicissitudes of this world, sublimity lifts her up when cast down by misfortune, lest she should faint in adversity, and humility depresses her elation, lest she should grow vain in prosperity! And thus, both the one and the other, opposed as they are in themselves, are wondrously made to co-operate into good for her, and to subserve her eternal salvation.

So much for the simile by which the Spouse seems to compare her beauty to the curtains of Solomon. It remains now to put before you that other interpretation of the same text, which I mentioned and promised at the beginning of this discourse, namely, to consider both comparisons, as well that of Solomon’s curtains as that of the tents of Cedar, as referring to the blackness of the Spouse. I certainly purpose to be faithful to my engagement. But this exposition requires a special sermon to itself, both because the present is already too long, and also in order to give you time for prayer, that you may, as usual, call down a blessing upon what I shall have to say unto the praise and glory of the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Who is God blessed for ever. Amen.