Song of Solomon, The Church, and The Eucharist

Song of Solomon, The Church, and The Eucharist Contents Chapter 5... 1 v 5:1 Eating and Drinking in the Garden... 1 v 5:2-5 The Heart Awake in Sleep... 2 5:6 He Had Gone... 4 v. 5:10 Radiant and Ruddy... 5 v. 5:15 Alabaster Columns and Bases of Gold... 6 5:16 My Beloved and My Friend... 7 Chapter 5 v 5:1 Eating and Drinking in the Garden I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. Christ calls us as his sister and his spouse, an evidence that the book of Song of Solomon is not about carnal love, but rather about the spiritual one. The Garden is the Church and the eating and drinking are the Communion and the fruit of the Holy Spirit that lives in us, making our bodies be the Temple of the Holy Spirit, and moreover gives nutrition to all our spiritual senses. JEROME: "O my sister, my bride, come." Lest you associate anything base with the concept of bride, the word sister is adjoined to preclude any dishonorable love. Come, my sister: love is something sacred and for that reason I call you sister. My bride: I call you my bride that I may have a wife, and from you, my wife, beget sons in number, sons as many as clusters of grapes on the vine. HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 42 (PSALM 127). Christ feasts by being in us, the feast has delicacies: some for food and some for fragrance. The ones for food are honeycomb, honey, wine, and milk. These show the sweetness of life and feasting with God. The wine and milk is the 1

Communion and the continuous supply of the virtues that give us the spiritual growth (the milk) which is essential for our life in Christ. The fragrance items are the myrrh and spice, which is the aroma of Christ, his death for us, which is referred to by the myrrh and aloes. carrying in our flesh the death of Christ AMBROSE: The bridegroom comes down and takes delight in the diversity of her [the bride s] fruit; he rejoices because he has found a stronger food and one that is sweeter, too.60 For there is a kind of bread of the word, and a honey, one speech more ardent, another more persuasive. There is also one faith that is more hot like wine, another that is more clear like the taste of milk. Christ dines on such food in us. He drinks such drink in us; with the intoxication of this drink, he challenges us to make a departure from worse things to those that are better and best. ISAAC, OR THE SOUL v 5:2-5 The Heart Awake in Sleep 2 I sleep, but my heart wakes: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. 3 I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? 4 My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him. 5 I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock. This holy passage can be looked at as the delay in my awakening to respond to God s voice, or as Christ speaking according to His Humanity and referring to His death in the flesh but He is never perishing for He is God. Our faith: God in the flesh, the Incarnate Logos died on the Cross and resurrected by His own power on the third day. St. Cyril is giving us the second meaning while St. Ambrose the first. AMBROSE: She is now awakened from sleep by him, although she was keeping watch with her heart so that she might hear his voice at once when he knocked. But while she was rising, she experienced a delay, because she could not match the swiftness of the Word. While she was opening the door, the Word passed by (Song 5:5-6). She went out at his word, sought for him through wounds, but wounds of love, and, finally and with difficulty, found him and embraced him, so that she might not lose him 2

Even though you are asleep, if only Christ has come to know the devotion of your soul, he comes and knocks at her door and says, "Open to me, my sister." "Sister" is well put, because the marriage of the Word and the soul is spiritual. For souls do not know covenants of wedlock or the ways of bodily union, but they are like the angels in heaven.3 The soul, hearing "Open to me," and "My head is wet with dew," that is, the soul that was suddenly disturbed by the temptations of the world and was bidden to rise, and indeed is on the point of rising, as it were, speaks: fragrant with aloe and myrrh, signs of burial (John 19:39). CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: I sleep, he says, on the cross, insofar as he suffers death on behalf of humanity. But his heart remains awake because, as God, he plunders hades. FRAGMENTS IN THE COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 5.2. The soul that is with Christ, may be is overcome by the natural sleep, but the heart is always awake. This is our longing to Communion although we need to go home to rest yet, we are looking forward to the following day where the Eucharist is administered to us. CHRYSOSTOM: Both when I stayed at home and when I departed, when I walked and rested, and wherever I went, I continuously turned your love over in my mind and dreamt about it. I found pleasure in these dreams not only during the day but also at night. The very statement made by Solomon, "I sleep but my heart is awake," was then happening to me. The necessity for sleep weighed down my eyelids, but the great power of your love chased away the sleep from the eyes of my soul; and constantly I thought that I was speaking with you in my sleep. At night, it is natural for the soul to see in her dreams all the things that she thinks about in the day, something that I was then experiencing. Although I did not see you with the eyes of my body, I saw you with the eyes of love. In spite of my physical absence, I was close to you in disposition, and my ears always heard your vivacious voice. HOMILIES ON REPENTANCE AND ALMSGIVING 1.3-4 Let us put all our lusts to sleep so that our spirit may win, for, as the Spirit teaches us through the teacher St. Paul that the body desires against the spirit and the spirit against the body, and they will war against one another. So we must make our spirit win, using our mind to make the decisions that are spiritual captivating every thought to the knowledge of Christ (1 Cor ) GREGORY OF NYSSA: Once all the senses have been put to sleep and are gripped by inaction, the heart's action is pure; reason looks above while it remains undisturbed and free from the senses' movement... If a person pays attention to the senses and is drawn by pleasure in the body, he will live his life without tasting the divine joy, since the good can be overshadowed by what is inferior. For those who desire God, a good not shadowed over by anything awaits them; they realize that what enters the senses must be avoided. Therefore, when the soul enjoys only the contemplation of being, it will not arise for those things char effect sensual pleasure. It puts to rest all bodily movement, and by naked, pure insight, the soul will see God in a divine watchfulness. May we 3

be made worthy through this sleep, of which the Song has spoken, to keep our soul vigilant. HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 10.11 In order for us to have the Eucharist, the Lord Jesus Christ died for us on the Cross, and resurrected from the dead, hence is giving us his life-giving flesh. The myrrh indicates the mortification of Christ, but it is a mortification that has a sweet smell; a death that is desirable, for it leads to my death to the world; only then I will have myrrh dripping from my hands. AMBROSE: In this night of the world the garment of corporeal life is first to be taken off as the Lord divested himself in his flesh that for you he might triumph over the dominions and powers of this world. ON VIRGINITY GREGORY THE GREAT: Myrrh indicates the death of our flesh, and so the church says of its members who are striving even to death on behalf of God: "My hands dripped with myrrh." FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 8 (10).16 GREGORY OF NYSSA Rather her hands (the operative faculties of the soul) drop myrrh, meaning a voluntary mortification of her bodily passions. BEDE: "I sleep" because I enjoy by grace a little tranquility in this life through worshiping him. Nor clearly do I bear as much of the labor of p reaching as was delivered to the primitive - church. Nor am I as tossed about by conflicts of the faithless as were the innumerable crowds of the nascent church at the beginning. "My heart remains awake" because the more freedom I acquire from external incursions, the more deeply within I see that he is the Lord. COMMENTARY ON THE SONGS OF SONGS 3.5.2.18 5:6 He Had Gone 6 I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer. 7 The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. 8 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love. 9 What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us? GREGORY OF NYSSA: 4

The bride says, "I sought him, but found him not." How can the bridegroom be found when he does not reveal anything of himself? He has no color, form, quality, quantity, place, appearance, evidence, comparison, or resemblance. Rather, everything we can discover always transcends our comprehension and completely escapes our search. Therefore the bride says, "I have sought him by my soul's capacities of reflection and understanding. He completely transcended them, and he escaped my mind when it drew near to him." v. 5:10 Radiant and Ruddy 10 My beloved is white and ruddy, the chief among ten thousand. 11 His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven. 12 His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set. 13 His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh. 14 His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. ANALOGY FROM THE VISIBLE TO THE INVISIBLE. GREGORY OF NYSSA: All these elements constituting the bridegroom's beauty are made known for our benefit but do not show his invisible, incomprehensible beauty.... Therefore, whoever looks at the visible world and understands the wisdom that has been mad manifest by the beauty of creatures can make an analogy from the visible to invisible beauty, the fountain of beauty whose emanation established all living beings in existence. Similarly, whoever views the world of this new creation in the church sees in it him who is all in all. This person is then led by faith through what is finite and comprehensible to knowledge of the infinite. HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 13.23 JEROME: "My beloved is white and ruddy": white in virginity, ruddy in martyrdom. And because he is white and ruddy, therefore it is immediately added, "His mouth is most sweet, yea, he is altogether lovely. (Song 5:16) BEDE: The beloved is white because, when he appeared in the flesh, "he committed no sin, nor was a lie found in his mouth."30 " And he is red because "he washed away our sins with his blood."31 He is rightly called white first, then red, because the holy one first came into the world from blood and later departed from the world through his bloody passion. COMMENTARY ON THE SONGS OF SONGS 3.5.10.32 APONIUS: He is white because he is the light of the world, the Sun of righteousness which enlightens everyone entering the world according to John the Evangelist and the preaching of the 5

prophets. He is red because he would walk on earth in the fleshly clothing derived from the Virgin Mary, a miracle to be offered through angels by rising to heaven, as was said through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah to those who asked him, "Why is your apparel red? EXPOSITION OF SONG OF SONGS 8.34.35 THEODORET OF CYR: "His eyes like doves on pools of water": his eyes are constantly upon the source of baptism, awaiting those being saved and on ging for the salvation of everyone. v. 5:15 Alabaster Columns and Bases of Gold 15 His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. CHRIST CLAIMS THE CHURCH AS BRIDE. AMBROSE: Who indeed but Christ could dare to claim the church as his bride, whom he alone, and none other, has called from Libanus, saying, "Come here from Lebanon, my bride; come here From Lebanon (Song 4:8) Or whom else could the church have said, "His throat is sweetness, and he is altogether desirable (Song 5:16) And seeing that we entered upon this discussion from speaking of the shoes of his feet, to whom else but the Word of God incarnate can those words apply? "His legs are pillars of marble, set upon bases of gold." For Christ alone walks in the souls and makes his path in the minds of his saints, in which, as upon bases of gold and foundations of precious stone the heavenly Word has left his footprints ineffaceably impressed. ON THE CHRISTIAN FAITH GREGORY OF NYSSA: A pillar must rest on the foundation of truth. Truth is golden, and its bases are the bridegroom's legs adorning his hands and head. The foundation may be interpreted as marble. We understand by the Song's words that the body's legs are marble pillars, that is, those persons who support and bear the body of the church by exemplary lives and sound words. Through them the base of our faith is firm, the course of virtue is completed, and the entire body is raised on high by our longing for God's promise. Truth and stability guide the church's body. Gold represents truth, which, according to Paul, is called the foundation of the divine edifice (1 Cor 3:11)... Christ is the truth upon whom are founded the legs, or pillars of the church. HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 14.48 CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: "His legs are pillars of marble." These are clearly foundations, for whoever builds does so upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. He aptly praises the legs after the belly, who says that marble is set upon bases of gold. Peter and John are pillars of the church, for example, who had Christ, called by a golden name, as their foundation (Eph 2:20). And they are marble, for Paul also calls them a pillar (1 Tim 3:15), surely on account of their stability and consistency, sustaining and supporting the common body of the church, moreover, with their enlightened lives and their saving doctrine. 6

THEODORET OF CYR: "His form is like choice incense, like cedars.'' Here again she makes reference to the fact of two natures, calling the divine nature "incense" since by the law incense was offered to God, 52 and by "cedar" referring to the human nature in its not being affected by the rottenness of sin, the cedar of trees not going rotten. COMMENTARY ON THE' SONG OF SONGS 5. 53 5:16 My Beloved and My Friend 16 His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. GOD IS THE AUTHOR OF THE PURE SOUL. AMBROSE: Such is the concern of the soul that pure, such is what it perceives within; it discerns God and abounds in all good things. On this account, "his mouth is sweetness, and he is all delight." For God is the author of all good things and all things which are, are his. APPLIED TO THE CHURCH. LEANDER OF SEVILLE: So long as Christ wishes there to be one church of all nations, whoever is a stranger to the church is not considered a part of the body of Christ, even though he uses the name of Christian. LEANDER OF SEVILLE: He is, indeed, your true bridegroom. He is also your brother. He is likewise your friend. He is your inheritance. He is your reward. He is God and the Lord. You have in him a bridegroom to love: For he is fair in beauty above the sons of men (Ps 45:2; 44:3 LXX) 7