Homilies on the Song of Songs

Jerome to the most blessed Pope Damasus. Origen, while in his other books he surpassed everyone, in the Song of Songs surpassed himself. For in ten volumes, which come to almost twenty thousand lines, he discussed first the Seventy Translators, then Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion, and finally the fifth edition, which he writes that he found on the shore of Actium, so magnificently and clearly that in him seems to me fulfilled what is said: “The king has brought me into his chamber.” So, passing over that work, since it would require immense leisure, labor, and expense to translate such great matters fittingly into Latin, I have translated, faithfully rather than elegantly, these two discourses, which he composed in the manner of everyday speech for little ones still at the breast, offering you a taste of his thought, not a meal. You may judge how highly those great things should be valued, when the small things can please so much.

As we have learned through Moses that some things are not only holy but the Holy of holies, and others not only sabbaths but the Sabbath of sabbaths, so now we are taught, as Solomon writes, that there are some things not only songs but the Song of Songs. Blessed indeed is he who enters the holy place, but more blessed he who enters the Holy of holies. Blessed is he who keeps the sabbaths, but more blessed he who keeps the Sabbaths of sabbaths. Blessed likewise is he who understands songs and sings them (for no one sings except at festivals), but much more blessed he who sings the Song of Songs. And just as he who enters the holy place still needs much in order to be able to go into the Holy of holies, and he who celebrates the Sabbath which the Lord appointed for the people still needs many things in order to keep the Sabbaths of sabbaths, so it is hard to find one who, passing through all the songs contained in the Scriptures, can ascend to the Song of Songs. You must go out of Egypt, and, having gone out of the land of Egypt, cross the Red Sea, so that you may sing the first song, saying: “Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously magnified.” But though you have sung the first song, you are still far from the Song of Songs. Walk spiritually through the land of the wilderness until you come to the well which the kings dug, so that there you may sing the second song. After this come to the neighborhood of the holy land, so that, standing on the bank of the Jordan, you may sing the song of Moses, saying: “Attend, O heaven, and I will speak; and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.” Again you need to fight and possess the holy land as an inheritance, and to have a bee prophesy to you and a bee judge you (for Deborah means “bee”), so that you may also utter that song which is contained in the book of Judges. Then, going up to the book of Kingdoms, come to the song when David fled from the hands of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul, and said: “The Lord is my support and my strength and my refuge and my deliverer.” You must come to Isaiah, so that you may say with him: “I will sing a song to my beloved, of my vineyard.” And when you have passed through all, climb to higher things, so that, as a beautiful soul with the Bridegroom, you may sing this Song of Songs too. But how many persons it consists of, I am uncertain. Yet, through your prayers and the Lord's revelation, I seem to myself to have found four persons in it: the husband and the bride; with the bride, young maidens; with the bridegroom, bands of companions. Some things are said by the bride, others by the bridegroom, some by the maidens, some by the companions of the bridegroom. For it is fitting that at a wedding there should be a multitude of maidens with the bride and a crowd of young men with the bridegroom. Do not look for all these outside; do not look for them outside those who have been saved by the preaching of the gospel. Understand Christ as the bridegroom, the church as the bride without spot or wrinkle, of whom it is written: “that he might present to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it might be holy and without blemish.” Those who, though they are believers, are not such as the word just described, but seem to have obtained salvation in some measure, consider to be the souls of believers, and the maidens with the bride. Understand the angels, and those who have come to the perfect man, as the men with the bridegroom. So there seem to me to be four orders: the one man and the one woman, and two choirs singing to each other, the bride singing with the maidens, the bridegroom singing with his companions. And when you have understood this, hear the Song of Songs, and hasten to understand it and to say with the bride what the bride says, so that you may hear what the bride heard. But if you cannot say with the bride what she said, so as to hear what was said to the bride, hasten at least to be with the bridegroom's companions. And if you are inferior even to them, be with the maidens, who dwell among the bride's delights. For these are the persons in this book, at once a drama and a wedding song; whence the pagans too claimed the wedding song for themselves, and this kind of poem was taken up from it. For the Song of Songs is a wedding song. First the bride prays, and at once, in the midst of her prayers, she is heard. She sees the bridegroom present; she sees the maidens joined to her retinue. Then the bridegroom answers her; and after the bridegroom's words, while he suffers for her salvation, the companions answer that, until the bridegroom is at rest and rises from his passion, they will make certain ornaments for the bride. 2. But now the very words must be set out, in which first the voice of the bride praying is heard: “Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.” This is their sense: How long will my bridegroom send kisses through Moses, send kisses through the prophets? Now I long to touch his own mouth; let him come himself, let him come down himself. So she prays to the bridegroom's Father and says to him: “Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.” And because she is such that the prophetic word is fulfilled in her, in which it is said, “While you are still speaking I will say, Here I am,” the bridegroom's Father hears the bride and sends his Son. Seeing him whose coming she prayed for, she stops praying and speaks to him face to face: “For your breasts are better than wine, and the fragrance of your ointments is above all spices.” The bridegroom, then, Christ, sent by the Father, comes anointed to the bride, and it is said to him: “You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions.” If the bridegroom touches me, I too shall be of good fragrance, I too shall be anointed with ointments, and his ointments will reach even to me, so that I can say with the Apostle: “We are the good fragrance of Christ in every place.” But we, when we hear these things, still stink with sins and vices, of which the prophet speaks in repentance: “My wounds have grown foul and festered because of my foolishness.” Sin has a putrid smell; virtue breathes ointments, whose types you will find in Exodus. You will find there also stacte, onycha, galbanum, and the rest. These indeed are for incense; then for the perfumer's work various ointments are taken, among which are nard and stacte. And God who made heaven and earth speaks to Moses, saying: “I have filled them with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, that they may do the works of the perfumer's art”: and God teaches perfumers! Unless these things are understood spiritually, are they not fables? Unless they contain some secret, are they not unworthy of God? It is necessary, then, that whoever knows how to hear the Scriptures spiritually, or certainly whoever does not know but desires to know, should strive with all labor not to live according to flesh and blood, so that he may become worthy of spiritual secrets, and, to say something bolder, may be kindled with spiritual desire or love; for there is also a spiritual love. And as there is a certain fleshly food and another spiritual, and one drink of the flesh and another of the spirit, so there is a certain love of the flesh coming from Satan, and another love of the spirit having its beginning from God; and no one can be possessed by two loves. If you are a lover of the flesh, you do not grasp the love of the spirit. If you have despised all bodily things, I do not say flesh or blood, but silver and possessions, and the earth itself and the heaven itself, for these will pass away; if you have despised all these, and your soul is bound to none of them, nor are you held by love of any vice, you can grasp spiritual love. We have spoken thus because the occasion arose to say something about spiritual love. But it profits us to keep the precept of Solomon, or rather of him who spoke through Solomon, saying thus of wisdom: “Love her, and she will keep you; surround her, and she will exalt you; honor her, that she may embrace you.” There is a certain spiritual embrace; and would that it may happen that the bridegroom's embrace may enclose my bride more closely, so that I too may say what is written in the same book: “His left hand is under my head, and his right hand will embrace me.” 3. “Let him kiss me,” then, “with the kiss of his mouth.” It is the custom of the Scriptures to put the imperative mood for the optative, as there: “Our Father who are in heaven, hallowed be your name,” for “May it be hallowed”; and now in the present passage, “Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth,” for “May he kiss me.” Then she beholds the bridegroom. He comes anointed with ointments; nor could he come to the bride otherwise, nor was it fitting for the Father to send his Son to the wedding otherwise. He anointed him with various ointments; he made him Christ. He comes breathing various fragrances, and hears: “For your breasts are better than wine.” Fittingly the divine word names one and the same thing with different words according to the nature of the passages. When a victim is offered in the Law, and it wishes to show understanding, it speaks of the little breast of separation. But when someone reclines with Jesus and enjoys communion with his mind, it speaks not of the little breast, as above, but of the breast. And when the bride speaks to the bridegroom, since a wedding song is introduced, it names neither the little breast, as in the sacrifice, nor the breast, as with John the disciple, but the breasts, saying: “For your breasts are better than wine.” Commune like the bride with the bridegroom's mind, and know that thoughts of this kind intoxicate and gladden. And as the Lord's cup that intoxicates is most excellent, so the bridegroom's breasts are better than all wine. “For your breasts are better than wine.” In the midst of her prayers she turns her words to the bridegroom: “And the fragrance of your ointments is above all spices.” The bridegroom comes anointed not with one but with all ointments. But if the bridegroom deigns to come to my soul too, made his bride, how beautiful must she be, to draw him to herself from heaven, to make him come down to earth, that he may come to his beloved? With what beauty must she be adorned? With what love must she burn, that he may say to her what he said to the perfect bride: your neck, your eyes, your cheeks, your hands, your belly, your shoulders, your feet? Of these, if the Lord grants, we will discuss how the bride's members vary and how different praise is spoken of each part, so that after the discussion we may labor that the like may be said of our soul too. “For your breasts are better than wine, and the fragrance of your ointments is above all spices.” If you see the bridegroom, then you will understand that what is said is true: “For your breasts are better than wine, and the fragrance of your ointments is above all spices.” Many have had spices. The queen of the South brought spices to Solomon, and many others possessed spices; but however much anyone has had, they cannot be compared with the fragrances of Christ, of which the bride now says: “The fragrance of your ointments is above all spices.” I think that Moses too had spices, and Aaron, and each of the prophets; but if I see Christ and perceive the sweetness and fragrance of his ointments, I at once pronounce my judgment, saying: “The fragrance of your ointments is above all spices.” 4. “Your name is ointment poured out.” It is a prophetic mystery. As soon as the name of Jesus came into the world, it is proclaimed as ointment poured out. In the Gospel too a woman, taking an alabaster jar of ointment of precious pure nard, poured it over the head and feet of Jesus. Observe carefully which of the two poured it on the Savior's head: for the sinful woman is shown to have poured it on his feet, and she who is said not to have been a sinner, on his head. Observe, I say, and you will find that in the reading of the Gospel it is not fables and stories that have been written by the evangelists, but mysteries. The house was certainly filled with the fragrance of the ointment. Whatever the sinful woman had is to be referred to the feet, and whatever the woman who was not a sinner had, to the head. Nor is it surprising that the house was filled with fragrance, since in this way the world has been filled. It is written in the same place of Simon the leper and his house. I think that the leper is the ruler of this world, and that this leper is called Simon, whose house at Christ's coming was filled with a sweet fragrance, as the sinful woman repented and the holy woman poured the fragrance of ointment on Jesus' head. “Your name is ointment poured out.” As ointment by its pouring out spreads its fragrance far and wide, so the name of Christ has been poured out. In all the earth Christ is named; in all the world the Lord is preached. For “his name is ointment poured out.” Now the name of Moses is heard, which before was enclosed within the narrow bounds of Judea alone; for none of the Greeks remembered him, nor do we find anything written of him, as of others, in any history of pagan literature. As soon as Jesus shone forth in the world, he brought out with him the Law and the prophets, and truly it was fulfilled: “Your name is ointment poured out.” 5. “Therefore the maidens have loved you.” Because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, the word of pouring out is fittingly introduced: “Your name is ointment poured out.” Saying this, the bride sees the maidens. When she was asking the bridegroom's Father, and speaking face to face with the bridegroom himself, the maidens were not yet present; but in the midst of her prayers the choir of maidens enters and is praised by the bride's words: “Therefore the maidens have loved you, and drawn you.” And the maidens answer: “After you, in the fragrance of your ointments, we will run.” How beautifully the bride's attendants do not yet have the bride's confidence! The bride does not follow behind, but walks joined at his side and takes the bridegroom's right hand, and her hand is held by the bridegroom's right. But the handmaids walk behind her. “There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and maidens without number. One is my dove, my perfect one; she is the only one of her mother, the chosen one of her who bore her.” “After you,” then, “in the fragrance of your ointments we will run.” It was said to those who walk with all honor: “After you, in the fragrance of your ointments, we will run,” according to that saying, “I have finished the course,” and that, “Those who run in the stadium all run, but one receives the prize.” The prize is Christ. And these indeed are the maidens, who, we know, stand outside because of the beginning of their love, according to that example: “The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.” The maidens experience something of this kind: when the bridegroom goes in, they remain outside; but the bridegroom's beautiful one, perfect, without spot, without wrinkle, having entered the bridegroom's chamber, the royal inner room, returns to the maidens and tells them what she alone has seen, and says: “The king has brought me into his chamber.” She does not say, “He has brought us, many, into his chamber”; many remain outside; the bride alone enters the chamber, to see the hidden and secret treasures, and report to the maidens: “The king has brought me into his chamber.” Again the maidens, that is, the great crowd of beginning brides, when the bride has entered the bridegroom's chamber and sees her husband's riches, while they await her coming, sing joyfully: “We will exult and rejoice in you.” They rejoice at the bride's perfection. There is no rivalry in virtues; this love is pure, this love is without fault. “We will exult and rejoice in you. We will love your breasts.” She who is greater already enjoys the milk of your breasts and speaks exultantly: “Your breasts are better than wine.” But these, who bring exultation and joy, since they are maidens, bring love and say: “We will exult and rejoice in you; we will love your breasts more than wine.” “We will love,” they say, not “we love.” Then they speak to the bride: “Uprightness has loved you.” They praise the bride, giving her the name of uprightness from her own virtues. “Uprightness has loved you.” 6. Again the bride answers the maidens: “I am black and beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the skins of Solomon. Do not look at me, because I have been blackened, because the sun has looked down on me.” She is indeed beautiful, and we can find how the bride is beautiful; but we ask how, black and without whiteness, she is lovely. She has repented of her sins; conversion has given her beauty, and therefore she is sung as beautiful. But because she has not yet been cleansed of the filth of all her sins, not yet washed unto salvation, she is called black; but she does not remain in the dark color. So she is white when she rises to greater things, and when, beginning from lowly things, she climbs to the heights, and it is said of her: “Who is this who comes up made white?” And so that this mystery may be described more clearly, it does not say, as is read in most copies, “leaning on her kinsman” (in Greek, epistērizomenē epi ton adelphidon autēs), but epistērizomenē epi to stēthos autou, that is, “reclining on his breast”; and significantly it is said of the soul, the bride, and of the Word, “reclining on his breast,” because there is the ruling part of our heart. Hence, withdrawing from fleshly things, we should think spiritual things, and understand that it is much better to love in this way than to cease loving. She comes up, then, reclining on the breast of her kinsman; and she who now, at the beginning of the Song, is set down as black, at the end of the wedding song is sung: “Who is this who comes up made white?” We have understood how the bride is both black and beautiful. But if you too do not repent, beware lest your soul be called black and ugly, and you be disfigured by a double foulness: black because of past sins, ugly because you persist in the same vices. But if you repent, your soul will be black because of old sins, but because of repentance it will have something, so to speak, of Ethiopian beauty. And since I have once named the Ethiopian, I wish to call Scripture as witness on this point. Aaron and Miriam murmur because Moses has an Ethiopian wife. And now Moses marries an Ethiopian woman, since his Law has passed over to this Ethiopian woman of ours. Let Aaron murmur, the priesthood of the Jews; let Miriam murmur too, their synagogue; Moses does not care about the murmuring; he loves his Ethiopian woman, of whom it is said elsewhere too through the prophet: “From the ends of the rivers they will bring offerings.” And again: “Ethiopia will stretch out her hand to God first.” Beautifully, “first”; for as in the Gospel the woman who had a flow of blood was healed before the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, so Ethiopia was healed while Israel was sick. “By their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.” “I am black and beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem.” You too, soul of the church, turn your words to the daughters of Jerusalem and say: “The bridegroom loves me more, he cherishes me more than you, who are many daughters of Jerusalem. You stand outside and see the bride entering the chamber.” Let no one doubt that the black woman is called beautiful. Who are we, that we should know God, that we should proclaim the Song of Songs, that we should have come from the ends of Ethiopia, from the end of the earth, to hear the wisdom of the true Solomon? And when the voice of the Savior is heard thundering, “The queen of the South will rise up in judgment and condemn the men of this generation, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here,” hear the mystical things that are said. The queen of the South, the church, comes from the ends of the earth and condemns the men of this generation, that is, the Jews given over to flesh and blood. She comes from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, not of him who is proclaimed in the Old Testament, but of this one who in the Gospel is greater than Solomon. “I am black and beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem,” black like the tents of Kedar, beautiful like the skins of Solomon. The names themselves also suit the bride's beauty. The Hebrews say that Kedar means “darkness.” “I am black,” then, “like the tents of Kedar,” like the Ethiopians; beautiful like the skins of Solomon, which he made at that time for the adornment of the tabernacle, when he built the temple with the greatest zeal and labor. For Solomon was rich, and in all his wisdom no one surpassed him. “I am black and beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the skins of Solomon. Do not look at me, because I have been blackened.” She has given an account of her blackness, and, turned to better things through repentance, she announces to the daughters of Israel that she is black but beautiful, as we explained above, and says: “Do not look at me, because I have been blackened.” “Do not wonder,” she says, “that I am of a dark color; the sun has looked down on me.” For the brightness of its light shone on me with full ray, so that I was darkened by its heat. For I did not receive its light in me as was fitting, as the dignity of the sun required: “By their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles”; and again: “By the unbelief of the Gentiles, the knowledge of Israel.” You have both in the Apostle. 7. “The sons of my mother have fought against me.” We must consider how the bride says, “The sons of my mother have fought against me,” and when the battle of her brothers rose against her. Look a little at Paul, the persecutor of the church, and you will understand how a son of her mother fought against her. The persecutors of the church repented, and her adversaries, turning again to their sister's banners, preached the faith which they formerly destroyed. Singing this now with the prophetic Spirit, the bride says: “They fought against me; they made me keeper in the vineyards. My own vineyard I have not kept.” I, the church, I, the bride, I, without spot, have been set as keeper of many vineyards by the sons of my mother, who once fought against me. Distracted by this anxiety and care, while I keep many vineyards, I have not kept my own vineyard. Understand this of Paul, and of any other of the saints who is anxious for the salvation of all; and you will see how, not keeping his own vineyard, he keeps the vineyards of others; how even, to gain others, he himself suffers losses in some things; for though he was free from all, he made himself the servant of all, that he might gain all. “I became,” he says, “weak to the weak, a Jew to the Jews, to those under the Law as under the Law,” and the rest; and he says: “My own vineyard I have not kept.” Then she beholds the bridegroom, who, once seen, departs. And he often does this throughout the whole Song, which no one can understand unless he experiences it himself. Often, God is my witness, I have seen the bridegroom approaching me and being with me very much; and when he suddenly withdrew, I could not find what I was seeking. So again I long for his coming, and sometimes he comes again; and when he has appeared and been seized by my hands, he slips away again; and when he has slipped away, he is sought by me again; and he does this often, until I truly hold him and come up leaning on my kinsman. 8. “Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you pasture, where you lie down at noon.” I do not ask about other times, when you pasture in the evening, when at dawn, when at sunset; I ask about that time when, in the flower of the day, in full light, you are in the splendor of your majesty. “Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you pasture, where you lie down at noon.” Observe carefully where you read of noon. With Joseph, the brothers hold a meal at noon. The angels are received by Abraham in hospitality at noon, and other things of this kind. Seek, and you will find that divine Scripture does not use any word in vain or by chance. Who of us, do you think, is worthy to reach noon and see where the bridegroom pastures, where he lies down? “Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you pasture, where you lie down at noon.” For unless you tell me, I begin to be tossed about wandering, and, while I seek you, I run into others' flocks. And because I blush at others' looks, I begin at once to cover my face and mouth. For I am a beautiful bride, and I do not show my bare face to others, but only to you, whom I have long since kissed. “Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you pasture, where you lie down at noon, lest I become like one veiled over the flocks of your companions.” So that I may not suffer this, that I may not become veiled, that I may not cover my face, and, coming even to others, perhaps begin to love those whom I do not know: therefore tell me where I may seek and find you at noon, lest perhaps I become like one veiled over the flocks of your companions. 9. After these words the bridegroom communes with her and says: Either know yourself, that you are the bride of a king, and beautiful, and made beautiful by me, since “I have presented to myself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle”; or know that, if you do not know yourself and know your dignity, you will suffer the things that follow. What are they? “If you do not know yourself, O beautiful among women, go out in the tracks of the flocks, and pasture” not flocks of sheep, not of lambs, but “your kids.” For he will set the sheep on the right and the kids on the left. “If you do not know yourself, O beautiful among women, go out in the tracks of the flocks, and pasture your kids by the tents of the shepherds.” In the tracks of the shepherds, he says, you will become last, not among the sheep but among your kids, living with whom you will not be able to be with me, that is, with the good shepherd. 10. “To my cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh I have likened you, my beloved.” If you wish to understand, O bride, how you ought to know yourself, recognize to whom I have compared you, and then you will see that you are such that you ought not to be troubled, when you have recognized your beauty. What, then, is “To my cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh I have likened you”? I know the bridegroom as a horseman, as the prophet says: “And his riding is salvation.” You have been likened, then, to my cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh. As much as my cavalry differs (for I am the Lord, and I sink Pharaoh in the waves, and his crested officers or charioteers and his riders and horses and chariots), as much, I say, as my cavalry differs from the horses of Pharaoh, so much better are you, bride, than all the daughters, you, soul of the church, than all souls that are not of the church. So, if you are a soul of the church, you are better than all souls; if you are not better, you are not of the church. “To my cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh I have likened you, my near one.” Then he describes the bride's beauty with spiritual love: “Your cheeks are like a turtledove's.” He praises her face and is kindled by the blush of her cheeks. For the beauty of women is said to lie chiefly in the cheeks. So let us too understand the beauty of the soul in the cheeks. Her lips and tongue let us declare to be understanding. “Your neck is like a necklace.” Like the ornament that usually hangs on the neck of virgins and is called hormiskos, so, without this adornment, your neck itself is an ornament. After this the bridegroom lies down. “He lay down like a lion, he slept like a lion's whelp,” so that thereafter he may hear: “Who will rouse him?” While he sleeps in the meantime, the bridegroom's companions, the angels, appear to the bride and console her with these words: “We cannot make golden ornaments for you; for we are not as rich as your bridegroom, who may give you a golden necklace. We will make likenesses of gold; we do not have gold.” And in this too there is reason to rejoice, if we make likenesses of gold, if we make studs of silver. “We will make you likenesses of gold with studs of silver,” but not for all time, only until your bridegroom rises from his couch. For when he has risen, he himself will make you gold, he himself silver; he himself will adorn your mind and understanding, and you will be truly rich in the bridegroom's house, a beautiful bride, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

From the place where it is written, “My nard gave forth its fragrance,” up to the place where it says, “For your voice is sweet, and your form is lovely,” and so on. God, the creator of the universe, created all the motions of the soul for good; but through our use it often happens that things which are good by nature lead us into sins when we misuse them. One of the motions of the soul is love, which we use well for loving if we love wisdom and truth. But when our love has fallen into worse things, we love flesh and blood. You, then, as a spiritual person, hear spiritually the words of love that are sung, and learn to transfer the motion of your soul and the fire of natural love to better things, according to that saying: “Love her, and she will keep you; surround her, and she will exalt you.” “Husbands, love your wives,” says the Apostle; but he did not stop at what he had said, “Husbands, love your wives”; knowing that there is a love of husbands even for their own wives that is dishonorable, and knowing that there is one pleasing to God, he taught how husbands ought to love their wives, adding: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church.” This we have said as a preface to what is to be discussed afterward. 2. Since the friends of the bridegroom, while the king is on his couch (for, resting, he slept like a lion and like a lion's whelp), had promised the bride that until he rose they would make likenesses of gold and silver, not having gold as the bridegroom has, and in other words, in a way, the bridegroom's passion has been proclaimed, not unreasonably the bride answers this, and, herself understanding a certain economy of the passion, says to what she had heard, “We will make you likenesses of gold with studs of silver, while the king is on his couch”: “My nard gave forth its fragrance. My kinsman is to me a bundle of drops; he will dwell between my breasts.” How, then, shall we fit to what preceded, “while the king is on his couch,” what follows, “My nard gave forth its fragrance”? The Gospel says that a woman came having an alabaster jar of ointment of precious pure nard, not that sinful woman, but a holy one, of whom I am now speaking. For I know that Luke spoke of the sinful woman, but Matthew and John and Mark not of that sinful woman. So there came not a sinful woman but a holy one, whose name John also inserted. For it was Mary, having an alabaster jar of ointment of precious pure nard, and she poured it over Jesus' head. Then, when not all the disciples were indignant at this, but Judas alone said, “This could have been sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor,” the Teacher and Savior answered: “You will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. For she has done this beforehand for the day of my burial. Therefore wherever this gospel is preached, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.” In the figure of this woman, then, who now says, “My nard gave forth its fragrance,” that woman poured ointment on the Lord's head; and you too take nard, so that, after you have poured sweet fragrance over Jesus' head, you may boldly say, “My nard gave forth its fragrance,” and hear from Jesus the word in return, that wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her. You too do it, as it is preached among all nations. And when will you do this? If you become like the Apostle and say, “We are the good fragrance of Christ in every place, among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing”: your good works are nard. But if you sin, your sins will smell with a foul odor; for the penitent says: “My wounds have grown foul and festered because of my foolishness.” The Holy Spirit's purpose now is not to speak of nard, nor does the evangelist write of the ointment we see with our eyes, but of spiritual nard, of the nard that gave forth its fragrance. 3. “My kinsman is to me a bundle of stacte,” that is, of drops or drippings. We read in Exodus of the drop of ointment, cassia, and galbanum made by the Lord's command for incense, that is, for the priestly chrism. If, then, you see my Savior coming down to earthly and lowly things, you will see how from great power and divine majesty a certain small drop has flowed down to us. Of this drop the prophet too sang, saying: “And from a drop of his people Jacob will be gathered, gathered together.” And just as, according to another sense, the coming of our Savior in the flesh was a stone cut from the mountain without hands (for it was not the whole mountain that came down to earth, nor could human frailty contain the greatness of the whole mountain, but a stone from the mountain, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, came down into the world), so according to another understanding he is called a drop. For since all nations have been reckoned as a drop from a bucket, it was necessary that he who for the salvation of all became all things should also become a drop in order to set them free. For what did he not become for our salvation? We were empty, and he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. We were a foolish people and not wise, and he became the foolishness of preaching, so that the foolishness of God might become wiser than men. We were weak; the weakness of God became stronger than men. Since, then, all nations have been reckoned as a drop from a bucket and as a grain on the scales, he therefore became a drop, so that through him the fragrance of the drop might come from our garments, according to that saying: “Myrrh and drops and cassia from your garments, from ivory palaces, with which the daughters of kings have gladdened you in your honor,” which is said to the bride in Psalm 44. “My kinsman is to me a bundle of drops.” Let us consider what the church, who speaks here of her kinsman, means by the name “kinsman.” We are gathered from the nations; our Savior is the son of her sister, that is, of the synagogue; for there are two sisters, the church and the synagogue. The Savior, then, as we said, son of the sister synagogue, husband of the church, bridegroom of the church, is the kinsman of his bride. “My kinsman is to me a bundle of drops; he will dwell between my breasts.” Who is so blessed as to have as a guest in the ruling part of the heart, between the breasts, in his breast, the word of God? For such is what is sung: “He will dwell between my breasts.” If your breasts have not been broken, the divine Word will dwell between them. In a wedding song it was fitting to speak of breasts rather than chest. And it is clear why, for the exposition of the one who says, “He will dwell between my breasts,” the phrase “if your breasts have not been broken” has been taken from Ezekiel. For in the place where Jerusalem is rebuked by the Lord's voice, among other things it is said to her: “In Egypt your breasts were broken.” The breasts of the chaste are not broken, but the breasts of harlots hang with loose skin. The breasts of the modest are upright and swelling with virginal firmness. They receive the bridegroom's word and say: “He will dwell between my breasts.” “My kinsman is to me a cluster of cyprus.” The beginning of the word is in the bud, and the beginning of cyprus, that is, of flowering, is in the Word; hence it says, “a cluster of cyprus,” that is, of flowering, “my kinsman is to me.” He is not a cluster of cyprus to all, but to those who are worthy of his flower. To others the grape is varied; to her alone, who is black and beautiful, he offers himself in the beauty of the flower. “My kinsman is to me a cluster of cyprus.” He does not say simply, “My kinsman is a cluster of cyprus,” but with the addition, “to me,” to teach that he is not a cluster of cyprus to all. And let us see in what regions this cluster belongs to the bride: “In the vineyards of Engedi,” which is interpreted “eye of temptation.” In the vineyards of the eye of temptation, then, “my kinsman is to me a cluster of cyprus.” The eye of temptation is in the present; for we dwell in temptation in this world, and human life on earth is a temptation. While we live in this light, we are in the vineyards of Engedi. But if afterward we deserve to be transplanted, we shall be transferred by our farmer. And do not doubt that you can be transferred from the vineyards of Engedi to better places. Our farmer is already skilled by frequent practice in transferring a vineyard: “You transferred a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. Its shade covered the mountains, and its branches the cedars of Lebanon.” And let what we have expounded be spoken by the bride about the bridegroom, signifying her love and the hospitality given to the bridegroom when he comes: how the bridegroom, when he comes, dwells between her breasts and in the secret of her heart. 4. Again the bridegroom's word is addressed to her, and he says: “Behold, you are beautiful, my near one; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves.” She says to the bridegroom thus, “Behold, you are beautiful, my kinsman,” and does not add, “and my near one.” But he, when he speaks to her, “Behold, you are beautiful,” adds “my near one.” Why does she not say, “Behold, you are beautiful, near to me,” but only, “Behold, you are beautiful”? Why does he not only say, “You are beautiful,” but, “You are beautiful, my near one”? If the bride is far from the bridegroom, she is not beautiful; she becomes lovely when she is joined to the Word of God. And rightly she is now taught by the bridegroom to be near, and not to leave his side. “Behold, you are beautiful, my near one; behold, you are beautiful.” You begin to be beautiful because you are near to me; but after you have begun to be beautiful, even without the addition of “near,” you are simply beautiful. “Behold, you are beautiful, my near one; behold, you are beautiful.” Let us see another praise of the beautiful one too, so that we may strive to become beautiful. “Your eyes are doves.” Whoever looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. He does not have the eyes of a dove. And if anyone does not have the eyes of a dove, he enters his brother's house unhappy, not keeping what is commanded in Proverbs: “Do not enter your brother's house unhappy.” Where the Seventy translated “unhappy,” Aquila, expressing the Hebrew truth, put agroikos, “boorish.” But whoever has the eyes of a dove sees rightly and earns mercy; for one who sees rightly will obtain mercy. And who sees rightly except one who looks with a chaste gaze and pure eyes? So do not understand what has been said only of these eyes of the flesh, though it is not useless to understand it of them too; but, entering into the inner parts of your heart and searching with your mind for other eyes, which are enlightened by God's commandment, for the commandment of God enlightens the eyes, strive for this, labor, struggle, to understand all that has been said in a holy way, and, like the Spirit who came down in the form of a dove, to hear, “Your eyes are doves.” If you understand the Law spiritually, your eyes are doves. If you understand the gospel as the gospel itself wishes to be understood and preached, you see that Jesus healed every disease and infirmity not only at that time when these things were done in the flesh, but heals them today too, and that he not only came down to human beings then but comes down today and is present. “For behold,” he says, “I am with you all days, until the consummation of the age.” “Your eyes are doves.” “Behold, you are beautiful, my near one; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves.” Hearing these praises of herself, the bride gives the bridegroom praise in return, not that she bestows on him by her praise what he does not have, but, understanding and beholding his beauty, she says: “Behold, my bridegroom and kinsman, you are indeed fair; our bed is shady.” I seek the bed on which the bridegroom rests with the bride; and, unless I am mistaken, it is the human body. For the paralytic in the Gospel who lay on a bed, and was ordered by the Savior's voice to take up his pallet and go to his house, lay, before he was healed, on the weak body of his limbs, which afterward was made firm by the power of God. So I understand: “Take up your pallet and go to your house.” For the Son of God had not come down from heaven to earth to give orders about beds, and not allow one rising from his sickness to go up without his bed, saying: “Take up your pallet and go to your house.” You too, then, healed by the Savior, take up your pallet and go to your house, so that, when the bridegroom comes to you as to his bride and reclines on that bed, you may say: “Behold, my bridegroom and kinsman, you are indeed fair; our couch is shady.” “Behold, my kinsman, you are beautiful”; he is both beautiful and shady. For “the sun shall not burn you by day, nor the moon by night.” 5. “The beams of our houses are cedars”: these are the words of a multitude. They seem to me to be said by the men who are with the bridegroom, of whom the discourse spoke above. The houses are framed with cedar beams and ceiled with cypress. For instead of the thorn the cypress comes up, and instead of the flea-bane the myrtle comes up. Seeking, then, of what nature these woods are, and finding cedar incorruptible and cypress of the best fragrance, labor so to ceil your own house that it may be said of you too: “The beams of our houses are cedars, and our ceilings are cypress.” 6. After this the bridegroom speaks: “I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys.” For my sake, who was in the valley, he came down into the valley, and coming into the valley he became a lily; in place of the tree of life which was planted in the paradise of God, he became the flower of the whole field, that is, of the whole world and of all the earth. For what can be so much the flower of the world as the name of Christ? “His name is ointment poured out.” The same thing is said in another way: “I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys.” And this he says of himself. Then, praising the bride, he says: “As a lily among thorns, so is my near one among the daughters.” As a lily cannot be compared with the thorns among which it always springs up, so my near one is above all the daughters, a lily among thorns. Hearing this, the bride returns it to the bridegroom, and, perceiving his sweetness too, breaks out into the voice of praise. For though the fragrance of ointments breathes sweetly and soothes the sense with its scent, it is not of such a kind as to be sweet to eat. But there is something else that is of the best taste and fragrance, that is, which delights the palate with sweetness and soothes the breath with its scent: such is the apple, and it is of such a nature that it has both in itself. Therefore the bride, wishing to praise not only the kindness of the Word but also its sweetness, says: “As the apple among the trees of the wood, so is my kinsman among the sons.” All trees, all woods, compared with the word of God, are reckoned unfruitful forest; compared with Christ, whatever you name is woodland, and all things are fruitless. For what can be called fruitful compared with him? Even the trees that seemed bent with fruit were shown to be unfruitful in comparison with his coming. Therefore, “as the apple among the trees of the wood, so is my kinsman among the sons.” “In his shade I desired, and sat down.” How beautifully she does not say, “In his shade I desire,” but, “In his shade I desired”; and not, “I sit,” but, “I sat.” For in the beginning we cannot share our own conversation with him; but in the beginning, so to speak, we enjoy a certain shadow of his majesty; hence we also read in the prophets: “The breath of our face, Christ the Lord, to whom we said: In his shadow we shall live among the nations”; and we pass from shadow to another shadow. “For to those sitting in the region and shadow of death a light has dawned.” And let us pass from the shadow of death to the shadow of life. Progress is always of this kind: that at the beginning one desires at least to stand in the shadow of the virtues. I think that this is why the birth of Jesus too began from a shadow, and ended not in shadow but in truth: “The Holy Spirit,” it says, “will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” The birth of Christ took its beginning from a shadow; and not only in Mary did his birth begin from his shadow, but in you too, if you are worthy, the Word of God is born. Act, then, so that you can receive his shadow, and when you have become worthy of the shadow, his body, so to speak, from which the shadow is born, will come to you. For “whoever is faithful in a little will be faithful also in greater things.” “In his shade I desired, and sat down.” You see that she did not always stay in the shade, but passed from there to better things, saying: “And his fruit is sweet to my throat.” I desired, she says, to rest in his shade; but after he protected me with his shade, I was filled with his fruit too, “and his fruit is sweet to my throat.” 7. “Bring me into the house of wine.” The bridegroom stood outside and was received by the bride; for he rested between her breasts. The near maidens are not of such a kind as to deserve to have the bridegroom as a guest. To the multitude outside he speaks in parables. How I fear that perhaps we are the many maidens! “Bring me into the house of wine.” Why do I stay outside so long? “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone opens to me, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me.” “Bring me in.” And now the divine Word says the same; see, Christ speaks: “Bring me in.” To you catechumens too he says: “Bring me in.” Bring me in, not simply into a house, but into the house of wine; let your soul be filled with the wine of gladness, with the wine of the Holy Spirit, and so bring into your house the bridegroom, the Word, Wisdom, Truth. It can also be said to those who are not yet perfect: “Bring me into the house of wine.” 8. “Set love in order in me.” He spoke elegantly, “set in order”; for the love of many is disordered, when what they ought to love in the first place they love in the second, what in the second they love in the first, and what ought to be loved in the fourth they love in the third, and again the third in the fourth; and in most people the order of love is perverted. But the love of the saints is ordered. To understand the saying, “Set love in order in me,” I wish to unfold some examples. The divine word wants you to love father, son, daughter; the divine word wants you to love Christ; and it does not tell you not to love your children, not to be joined to your parents in love. But what does it tell you? Not to have a disordered love; not to love father or mother first and me afterward; not to be held by love of son and daughter more than of me. “Whoever loves father or mother above me is not worthy of me. Whoever loves son or daughter above me is not worthy of me.” Recall your conscience about your affection for father or mother, and consider what kind of love you have for the Word of God and for Jesus, and at once you will find that you love your son or daughter more than the Word, that you love your parents more than Christ. Who of us, do you think, makes such progress as to have the chief and first love of all for the Word of God, and to put his children in the second place? In this way love your wife. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but loves it as flesh: “And they will be,” it says, “two in one flesh,” and not in one spirit. Love God too, but love him not as flesh and blood but as spirit; for “whoever is joined to God is one spirit.” Love, then, is ordered in the perfect. And so that, after God, an order may be set among ourselves too, the first commandment is to love parents, the second children, the third the members of our household. But if a son is wicked and a servant good, let the servant be placed in the love due to a son. And so it will come about that the love of the saints is ordered. Our Teacher and Lord too, laying down in the Gospel the precepts of love, added something proper to the love of each, and gave understanding of order to those who can hear the Scripture that says, “Set love in order in me”: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your mind, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Not your neighbor with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. Again he says: “Love your enemies,” and he did not add, “with all your heart.” The divine word is not disordered, nor does it command impossible things; nor does it say, “Love your enemies as yourselves,” but only, “Love your enemies”: it is enough that we love them and do not hate them. But your neighbor as yourself; and God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. If you have understood these things, and, having understood them, fulfilled them, you have done what is commanded by the bridegroom's word: “Bring me into the house of wine; set love in order in me.” Who of us, do you think, has an ordered love? “Strengthen me with ointments”: one of the translators put oinanthinōn, “with vine blossoms.” And the bride says this: “Pack me round with apples.” With what apples? “As the apple among the trees of the wood, so is my kinsman among the sons.” Therefore pack me round with his apples, “for I am wounded by love.” How beautiful, how fitting it is to receive a wound from love! One has received the dart of fleshly love, another has been wounded by earthly desire; you, bare your limbs and offer yourself to the beautiful dart, since God is the archer. Hear Scripture speaking of this same dart; indeed, so that you may wonder the more, hear what the dart itself says: “He has made me a chosen arrow, and in his quiver he has kept me, and he said to me: It is a great thing for you to be called my servant.” Understand what the arrow says, and how it has been chosen by God. How blessed it is to be wounded by this dart! Those were wounded by this arrow who said to one another: “Was not our heart burning on the road, while he opened the Scriptures to us?” If anyone is wounded by our word, if anyone by the teaching of divine Scripture, and can say, “I am wounded by love,” perhaps this too follows for him; why do I say “perhaps”? I bring out a plain statement. 9. “His left hand is under my head, and his right hand will embrace me.” The Word of God has wisdom both in the left hand and in the right; and though it is manifold according to the variety of understanding, in substance it is one. Solomon himself taught of the left and right hand of wisdom, saying: “For length and years of life are in her right hand, and in her left are riches and glory.” So his left hand is under my head, to make me rest, and the bridegroom's arm becomes my pillow, and the ruling part of the soul reclines on the Word of God. “His left hand is under my head.” It does not profit you to have pillows which lamentation follows. In Ezekiel it is written: “Woe to those who sew pillows under every elbow of the hand.” Do not sew pillows; do not seek rest for your head elsewhere; have the bridegroom's left hand under your head and say, “His left hand is under my head”; when you have it, all things that are in the left hand are given you. For you say: “In his left hand are riches and glory, and his right hand will embrace me.” Let the bridegroom's right hand embrace you wholly. “For length and years of life are in his right hand,” and therefore you will be of long life and many days on the good land which the Lord your God gives you. “I have adjured you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and by the strengths of the field.” What does the bride adjure the daughters of Jerusalem? “If you lift up and rouse love.” How long does love sleep in you, O daughters of Jerusalem, O maidens, while in me it does not sleep, because I am wounded by love? But in you, who are many, both maidens and daughters of Jerusalem, the bridegroom's love sleeps. “I have adjured you, then, daughters of Jerusalem, if you lift up,” and not only lift up but also rouse, the love that is in you. The creator of the universe, when he made you, planted the seeds of love in your hearts. But now, as it is said elsewhere, “Righteousness slept in her,” so love slumbers in you; according to what is said elsewhere too: “The bridegroom rested like a lion and like a lion's whelp.” The divine Word still slumbers in unbelievers and in those who are of doubtful heart; it keeps watch in the saints. It slumbers in those tossed by storms, but is roused by the voices of those who desire to be saved by the bridegroom keeping watch. At once, when he is awake, there is calm; at once the mass of waves subsides, the opposing winds are rebuked, the rage of the billows is silent; when he sleeps, there is storm, death, and despair. “I adjure you, then, daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and by the strengths of the field.” Of what field? Surely of that full field which the Lord has blessed. 10. “If you lift up and rouse love, until the voice of my kinsman wills. Behold, he comes leaping upon the mountains.” The church is still saying this, exhorting the maidens to prepare for the bridegroom's coming, if indeed he will come and grant them his conversation. So, while she is still speaking, the bridegroom comes, whom she points out with her finger and says: “Behold, he comes leaping upon the mountains.” Understand the bride as the blessed and perfect soul, which sees more quickly and more quickly beholds the coming of the Word, which perceives that wisdom and love have come to her, and says to those who do not see, “Behold, he comes.” Pray that I too may be able to say, “Behold, he comes.” For if I can expound the words of God, in a way I too shall say, “Behold, he comes.” Where? Certainly not where there is a valley, not where there are lowly places. Where does he come? “Leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills.” If you are a mountain, the Word of God leaps upon you. If you cannot be a mountain but are a hill, second to a mountain, he will skip over you. How beautiful and fitting to the things are the words! He leaps upon the mountains, because they are greater; he skips over the hills, because they are smaller. He does not skip over the mountains, he does not leap upon the hills. “Behold, he comes leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills.” 11. “My kinsman is like a roe or a young hart on the mountains of Bethel.” These two animals are named quite often in the Scriptures; and, so that you may wonder the more, they are often set together. “And these are what you shall eat,” it says, adding a little later the roe and the hart. In the present book too the hart and the roe are named together. For these animals are in a way related and close to each other. The roe, that is, the dorcas, sees most sharply. The hart is a killer of serpents. Who of us, do you think, is worthy to unfold the full reason according to the dignity of the passage and the mystery? Let us pray the Lord to grant us understanding to open the Scriptures, so that we can say, “As Jesus opened the Scriptures to us.” What, then? We say that the dorcas, that is, the roe, according to the natural science of those who discuss the natures of all animals, received its name from the power implanted in it. For from its seeing more sharply, that is, from derkein, “to see,” it is called dorcas. The hart is the enemy and conqueror of serpents, so that with the breath of its nostrils it draws them out of their holes, and, overcoming the deadliness of their venom, delights in them as food. Perhaps my Savior is a roe in contemplation, a hart in works. What are these works? He himself kills serpents, he strangles the opposing powers; therefore I will say to him: “You crushed the heads of the dragons upon the waters; you crushed the head of the dragon.” 12. “My kinsman is like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of the house of God”: for Bethel is interpreted “house of God.” Not all mountains are of the house of God, but those which are mountains of the church. For other mountains too are found, lifted up and rising against the knowledge of God, mountains of the Egyptians and of the foreigners. Do you wish to know that my kinsman is like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bethel? Be a mountain of the church, a mountain of the house of God, and the bridegroom will come to you like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bethel. She sees that the bridegroom has come nearer, who before was moving on the mountains and hills; she likens him to one skipping and leaping. And after this, recognizing that he has come to her and to the other maidens, she says: “Behold, he is behind our wall.” If you build a wall and make God's building, he will come behind your wall. “Looking through the windows.” One window is one sense; through it the bridegroom looks; another window is another sense, and through it too the bridegroom gazes carefully. Through what senses does the Word of God not look? What it is to look through the windows, and how the bridegroom looks through them, the following example will teach. Where the bridegroom does not look, there death is found coming up, as we read in Jeremiah: “Behold, death has come up through our windows.” When you look at a woman to lust after her, death has already come up through your windows. “Peering through the nets.” Understand that you walk in the midst of snares and pass beneath threatening devices. All things are full of nets; the devil has filled everything with snares. But if the Word of God comes to you and begins to peer through the nets, you will say: “Our soul has been rescued from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we are delivered. Blessed are you by the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” The bridegroom, then, peers through the nets, making a way for you. Jesus came down to earth; he subjected himself to the nets of the world; seeing a great flock of human beings entangled in the nets, and that they could be cut by no one but himself, he came to the nets, taking a human body, which was held by the snares of the hostile powers; he broke them for you, and you say: “Behold, he is behind our wall, looking through the windows, peering through the nets.” When he has peered through, he says to you: “My kinsman answers and says to me: Arise, come, my near one”; I have made a way for you, I have cut the nets; so come to me, my near one. “Arise, come, my near one, my beautiful one, my dove.” Why does he say, “Arise”? Why, “Hasten”? I have endured for you the rage of the storms; I have taken the waves that were due to you. My soul became sorrowful for you even to death. I rose from the dead, the gates of death broken and the bonds of hell loosed. Therefore I say to you: “Arise, come, my near one, my beautiful one, my dove; for the winter is past, the rain is gone; the flowers have appeared on the earth.” Rising from the dead, I calmed the storm and restored tranquillity. And because, according to the economy of the flesh from the Virgin and the will of the Father, I grew and advanced in wisdom and age, “the flowers have appeared on the earth; the time of pruning has come.” Pruning is the forgiveness of sins. For, he says, “every branch that abides in me and bears fruit my Father cleanses, that it may bear more fruit.” Have fruits, and the former unfruitful things in you are taken away. For “the time of pruning has come; the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land.” Not without cause is a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons taken in the sacrifice. For they are of the same value, and it is never said separately “a pair of pigeons” only, but “a pair of turtledoves and two young pigeons.” The dove is the Holy Spirit. But when the Holy Spirit speaks of great and more hidden mysteries, which many cannot grasp, it is signified by the name of the turtledove, that is, of that bird which always dwells on the ridges of mountains and the tops of trees. But in the valleys, and in things that reach even to human beings, the dove is taken. Indeed, because the Savior deigned to take on a human being and came to earth, and many sinners were then around the Jordan, the Holy Spirit is not changed into a turtledove but becomes a dove: a gentler bird lives among us because of the multitude of human beings. But the turtledove is seen, for example, by Moses and by any one of the prophets who withdraw to the mountains and deserts and there receive the words of God. “The voice of the turtledove,” then, “has been heard in our land. The fig tree has put forth its green figs.” “From the fig tree learn the parable: when its branch has become tender and puts forth leaves, know that summer is near.” The word of God wishes to announce to us that after winter, after the storms of souls, the harvest has come near, and it says: “The fig tree has put forth its green figs; the vines are in flower, they have given forth fragrance”; if they are already bursting into flower, the time will come, and there will be grapes. 13. “Arise, come, my near one, my beautiful one, my dove.” What we expounded above the bridegroom speaks with the maidens not hearing, with only the bride hearing. But we wish now to hear his own word as he speaks to the bride: “Arise, come, my near one, my beautiful one, my dove; and come, my dove, under the shelter of the rock.” Moses too is placed under the shelter of the rock, to see the back of God. “Under the shelter of the outer wall.” First come to what is before the wall, and afterward you will be able to enter where the wall of the rock is. “Show me your face.” Up to the present day similar things are said to the bride; for she did not yet have the confidence to behold the glory of the Lord with unveiled face. But because she is now adorned and composed, it is said to her: “Show me your face.” For her voice was not yet so sweet as to deserve to be told, “Let me hear your voice.” When, then, did she learn to speak? “Be silent,” it says, “and hear, O Israel, and know what I speak”; and her voice became sweet to the bridegroom, according to the prophetic word, “Let my petition be sweet to him”; then the bridegroom speaks to her: “And let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet.” If you open your mouth to the Word of God, the bridegroom will say to you: “Your voice is sweet, and your appearance is beautiful.” Therefore let us rise and pray to the Lord that we may become worthy of the bridegroom, the Word, Wisdom, Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.