Song of Songs, page 397

THE SONG OF SONGS.

Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth ¹.

1. Here the Lady of Angels is commended by Solomon from the reconciliation of God and sinners. Hence she is deservedly called the temple of peace, in which divinity kissed humanity. In that temple mercy and truth met each other, justice and peace kissed ². Song of Songs I, 1: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. The Gloss: By the incarnation of the Son, which is the foretaste of the communication between us and God. Hence Bernard: "Let the kissing mouth be the Word assuming; the kissed mouth, the flesh that is assumed; but the kiss, which is produced equally by the one kissing and the one kissed, is the very person compacted from both, the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus ³. Therefore he will be in no way suspect to me. For he is my brother and my flesh ⁴. For I think Christ will not be able to despise bone from his bones and flesh from his flesh ⁵."

2. Likewise, she is commended from the beauty by which she excelled inwardly and outwardly. Song of Songs I, 14: Behold, you are beautiful, my friend, by simplicity of heart and cleanness of works. Your eyes are of doves. The Gloss: "With these you look upon God simply, and seek nothing other than him." Concerning the beauty of our Virgin it must be known that just as the Son is most beautiful in form before the sons of men ⁶, so she is most beautiful among the daughters and sons of men. For she had the beauty that could exist in a mortal body. But that the Gospel writes nothing concerning her beauty can have one cause: since Our Lady has been set for us as an example and as a mirror of making people saved, it does not wish her to be praised by such things whose disordered appetite or use was for many, and today is, a cause of perishing. Another cause is this: just as the supreme Angels are praised and named from the nobler gifts and not from the lower ones, which nevertheless are not doubted to be in them, so also the most blessed Virgin, most full of spiritual gifts and most noble in gratuitous gifts, so occupies the minds of those praising her that they forget bodily goods. Nevertheless we who love her ought to hold as an infallible rule that whatever of goodness or beauty ever existed in any of the saints grew out in her by excellence and through her into them.

3. Likewise, she is the lily of all chastity and fragrance. Song of Songs II, 2: As a lily among thorns, etc. The Gloss: "Which is pierced by thorns, yet retains whiteness, and then pours out a greater fragrance." Was not our lily among the thorns of those speaking against her and her Son?

Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary ⁷? etc.; and especially when she stood among the crucifiers beside the cross near her Son ⁸.

4. Likewise, she is the wine-cellar of the whole Trinity, who gives and pours out from the wine of the Holy Spirit to whom she wishes and as much as she wishes. Hence, congratulating, she also says, Song of Songs II, 4: The king brought me into the wine-cellar. The Gloss: "That is, into the Church, in whose unity the Holy Spirit is accustomed to be given and received." Or the wine-cellar is the empyrean heaven, where all will be inebriated from the richness of the house of God ⁹, into which she was brought by the King on the day of the assumption.

5. Song of Songs II, 4: He ordered charity in me, which he gave to me most excellently above all. This is proved thus through Luke VII, 41 and following, where the Lord asks concerning two debtors, of whom one owed five hundred denarii and the other fifty. Since they did not have from which they might repay, he forgave both. Which therefore loves him more? Simon answered and said: I suppose the one to whom he forgave more. But more was given to the most blessed Virgin above all creatures. Therefore she loves more than all creatures. Likewise, God gives abundantly to all ¹⁰, etc., enlightening every man coming into this world ¹¹. Nevertheless not all receive equally. Of this diversity there is a twofold cause. One is on the part of the receiver, because one is more capable than another, according to that word of Matthew XXV, 14 and 15: He handed over to them his goods, ... to each according to his proper power. The Gloss: that is, capacity. But true humility works this capacity, according to that word of James IV, 6: He gives grace to the humble. Therefore where greater humility is, there is greater capacity. But she was most humble above all. Therefore she was most capable. Therefore she was able to receive the greatest grace, namely as much as she could receive, so much she received. Likewise, on the part of the giver there is diversity of the gift, because when a giver gives according to reason, and reason looks to the end, he gives a greater gift when he gives for a greater end, as an Emperor gives a greater gift for being a senator than to one to whom he gives for being a simple servant. But grace was given to Mary for being the Mother of God, and to all others it is given for being servants and handmaids of God. Therefore just as it is immeasurably greater to be the Mother of God than a servant of God, so the gift for being Mother of God will be immeasurably greater than for being a servant of God. But the gift in which all things are given is the charity of the most blessed Virgin; therefore it will be immeasurably greater than the charity of every creature. The blessed Virgin also had the highest charity toward neighbor, because she set the soul of her Son and the Son himself for neighbor, whom she loved more than her own soul, and moreover offered him. And thus it is what is said: And a sword will pierce your own soul ¹².

6. Likewise, she is the mirror of all beauty after God. Song of Songs II, 14: Show me your face, namely the face of humility, which you showed in the incarnation, saying: Behold the handmaid of the Lord ¹³; the face of pallor, which you showed in my passion; the face of the highest beauty, which you showed in your assumption.

7. Song of Songs II, 14: Let your voice sound in my ears: the voice of piety, when you said, John II, 3: They have no wine; the voice of fidelity, when you counseled, in the same place, verse 5: Whatever he shall say to you, do; the voice of sorrow when you said, Luke II, 48: Son, why have you done this to us?; the voice of invitation, for inviting hungry sinners,

Proverbs IX, 5: Come, eat my bread, etc. Ecclesiasticus XXIV, 26: Come over to me, all you who desire me, etc. These voices sound sweetly in my ears. For your voice is sweet, and your speech is comely ¹⁴.

8. Likewise, she is Solomon's little bed ¹⁵, in which the Son of God rested for nine months. Hence she herself says, Ecclesiasticus XXIV, 12: He who created me rested in my tabernacle.

9. Likewise, she is the most fortified tower, in herself and in others. Song of Songs IV, 4: Your neck is like the tower of David, which was built with bulwarks; a thousand shields hang from it. There each one will find defense against his own evil. There hangs the shield of chastity against luxury, of humility against pride, of charity against envy, of generosity against avarice. All the armor of the strong is in her.

10. Likewise, she is the one whom the whole Trinity invited to come to itself under manifold names. Song of Songs IV, 7 and 8: You are wholly beautiful, my friend. The Gloss: Immune even from venial sin; and therefore there is no stain in you. Come from Lebanon, my spouse, etc. He says Come three times, because of faith in the Trinity. Note that one much loved by the king is accustomed to be called by the lover with many names. So the most blessed Virgin is called by God friend, dove, beloved, beautiful, fair, sister, immaculate, perfect, chosen, Shulamite, daughter. Note the diversity of these names, and adapt them to the glorious Virgin.

11. Likewise, she is the one whom Solomon compares to dawn in her nativity, to the full moon in the ineffable conception of the Son of God, to the sun in her assumption, to the terrible battle-line of camps in the putting to flight of demons. Song of Songs VI, 9: Who is she who goes forth like the dawn, etc.

12. Likewise, she is the one to whom every pilgrimage cries. Song of Songs VI, 12: Return, return, O Shulamite! return, etc. Peter Damian explains thus: "Return first by nature. Surely because you have been so deified, have you therefore forgotten our humanity? By no means, Lady. You know in what danger you left us, where your servants lie, how greatly they sin. For it does not befit such great mercy to forget such great misery, because even if glory draws you away, nature recalls you. For you do not remember only the justice of God in such a way that you do not have mercy, nor are you impassible in such a way that you are without compassion. You have our nature, not another, and it is just that we be more abundantly infused with the dew of such great piety. Return second by power. He who is mighty has done great things in you ¹⁶, and all power in heaven and on earth has been given to you ¹⁷. What will be denied to you, to whom it was not denied to call Theophilus back from the very jaws of perdition? You lifted up from the mud of filth and misery the unhappy little soul denying by his own signature all that was done in you. Nothing is impossible to you, to whom it is possible to raise the desperate into the hope of beatitude. For how will that power be able to oppose your power, which received the origin of flesh from your flesh? For you approach before that golden altar of human reconciliation, not only asking but commanding, Lady, not handmaid. Let nature move you; let power move you, because the more powerful you are, the more merciful you ought to be. Return third by love. I know, Lady, that you are most kind and love us with invincible love, whom in you and through

you your Son and your God loved with the highest love. Who knows how often you cool the wrath of the judge, when the power of justice goes forth from the presence of deity? Return fourth by generosity. In your hands are the treasures of the Lord's mercies, and you alone have been chosen, to whom such great grace is granted. Far be it that your hand should cease, since you seek occasion of saving the miserable and pouring out mercy; for your glory is not diminished but increased, when penitents are assumed to pardon and the justified to glory. Return therefore, O Shulamite, that is, despised one, whose soul a sword pierced, who were called the wife of the craftsman. For what purpose? That we may look upon you. It is the highest glory, after God, to see you, to cling to you, and to abide in the fortification of your protection. Therefore help your brothers crying continually to you, Lady. This is the threefold cord that draws the mother of mercy to visit and console us, namely the cord of nature, the cord of love, the cord of generosity" ¹⁸.

13. Our Queen is also commended from the highest nobility after the Lord. Song of Songs VII, 1: How beautiful are your steps in shoes, daughter of the prince! from whom Christ himself also descended by true generation ¹⁹. Moreover, this nobility is considered in substance, if she possesses noble substance and property in herself. But in substance she had perfection of nature, and in soul fullness of grace. Likewise, it is considered in efficacy, if she produces noble effects from herself, and she generated from herself the Lord himself, the Son of God. Hence the most blessed Virgin is found to be noble in the highest degree in all things in which nobility is considered. For she drew her origin from kings, priests, and prophets. Hence she is also queen of mercy, priestess of justice, who did not spare her own Son ²⁰, but stood beside the cross, as John says, XIX, 25, so that she might consider not only the Son of God, but also await the salvation of the human race. She is prophetess of wisdom, according to that word of Isaiah VIII, 3: I approached the prophetess, that is, Mary. And although she was lifted upward by the highest nobility, nevertheless through humility she depressed herself below all downward. Hence Augustine says that she would by no means have been exalted above all the choirs of Angels, unless she had been humbled below all men ²¹. And it must be known that where nobility of flesh is adorned by nobility of merits, each supplies to the other an increase of praise; but if they are separated, then nobility of flesh is not only not praised, but blamed, because the quality of an evil work acts contrary to the nobility of the origin of flesh. And the deformity of operation is so much more detestable as it is more against the natural inclination of origin and nobility. But nobility of mind without nobility of flesh is praised so much more as, even by conquering its own nature, it operates more laudably.

14. She is also commended from abundance of delights. Song of Songs VII, 6: How beautiful you are and how comely, dearest, in delights, namely of grace and glory. Solomon admires these delights when he says, Song of Songs VIII, 5: Who is she who ascends from the desert, flowing with delights, etc.? Concerning this glorious ascent, or assumption, of the Virgin Mother, Bernard speaks thus ²²: "It is time for all flesh to speak, when the Mother of the incarnate Word is assumed into heaven; nor ought human mortality to cease from praises, when in human nature alone it is exalted above the immortal spirits in

the Virgin. But concerning her glory, devotion does not permit silence, nor can a barren thought conceive anything worthy, or an unlearned speech bring it forth. Hence it is that the princes themselves of the heavenly court, in consideration of so great a novelty, cry out, not without wonder: Who is this who ascends from the desert, flowing with delights, etc.? As if they were saying: How great is this one, and whence comes such an abundance of delights to her, surely ascending from the desert? For equal delights are not found, etc. Who is this, who from under the sun, where there is nothing except labor and sorrow and affliction of spirit, ascends, flowing with spiritual delights? Why should I not call delights the beauty of virginity with the gift of fruitfulness, the mark of humility, the dripping honeycomb of charity, the inward parts of mercy, the fullness of grace, the prerogative of singular glory? Why do the Angels marvel that Mary ascends from the desert earth flowing with delights? Let them marvel rather that poor Christ descends from the fullness of the heavenly kingdom. For it seems worthy of a much greater miracle that the Son of God should be made a little less than the Angels, than that the Mother of God should be exalted above the Angels. Indeed, his emptying was made our filling; his miseries are the delights of the world. Who is this? I confess my lack of skill; I do not hide my own smallness of soul. Indeed there is not anything that delights me more, but neither is there anything that terrifies me more, than to have discourse concerning the glory of the Virgin Mary. Who then is this? All embrace, honor, and receive her with so great an affection of devotion, as is worthy, that although all are eager to speak of her, nevertheless whatever is said concerning the unspeakable, by this very fact that it could be said, is less pleasing, pleases less, is accepted less. Who then is this? This is she of whom, as Sedulius used to say:

She was seen to have no first one like her, nor a following one: Having the joys of a mother with the honor of virginity.

Mary, he says, chose the best part ²³, etc. Plainly the best, because blessed fruitfulness was virginal, and virginity was fruitful. It is Mary's privilege; it will not be given to another, because it will not be taken away from her ²⁴. You will find in Mary absolutely all singular virtues, which seemed to be common.

Who is this? This is she most pure above all Angels. For what Angelic purity would dare to be compared to that virginity, etc.?

Who is this? This is she most humble, precious above all. In her there is the virtue of humility, with such great innocence, with a conscience altogether without fault, indeed with such fullness of grace, etc.

Who is this? This is she most merciful. Let your mercy be silent, blessed Virgin, if there is anyone who remembers that you, when invoked, failed him in his necessities. We, your little servants, rejoice with you in the other virtues, but in this virtue rather we rejoice for ourselves. We praise virginity, we marvel at humility, but mercy tastes sweeter to the miserable; we embrace mercy more dearly, we remember it more often, we invoke it more frequently.

Who is this? This is she, the repairer of the whole world; for this is she who obtained the reparation of the whole world and procured the salvation of all. For it is clear that she was solicitous for the whole human race, to whom it was said, Luke I, 30: Do not fear, Mary, you have found grace with God: grace indeed, which you were seeking.

Who is this? This is that sublime one, whose length of goodness, breadth of mercy, height of charity, and depth of humility no one can measure. Who then can investigate the length and breadth, the sublimity and depth of your mercy, O blessed one? For its length comes to the aid of all invoking her even to the last day. Its breadth fills the whole earth, so that your mercy also fills all the earth. Thus also its sublimity