John, Spiritual Canticle 19
THE BRIDEGROOM
Light-winged birds,
Lions, fawns, bounding does,
Mountains, valleys, strands,
Waters, winds, heat,
And the terrors that keep watch by night;
By the soft lyres
And the siren strains, I adjure you,
Let your fury cease,
And touch not the wall,
That the bride may sleep in greater security.
1 HERE the Son of God, the Bridegroom, leads the bride into theenjoyment of peace and tranquillity in the conformity of her lowerto her higher nature, purging away all her imperfections,subjecting the natural powers of the soul to reason, andmortifying all her desires, as it is expressed in these twostanzas, the meaning of which is as follows. In the first placethe Bridegroom adjures and commands all vain distractions of thefancy and imagination from henceforth to cease, and controls theirascible and concupiscible faculties which were hitherto thesources of so much affliction. He brings, so far as it is possiblein this life, the three powers of memory, understanding, and willto the perfection of their objects, and then adjures and commandsthe four passions of the soul, joy, hope, grief, and fear, to bestill, and bids them from henceforth be moderate and calm.
2. All these passions and faculties are comprehended under theexpressions employed in the first stanza, the operations of which,full of trouble, the Bridegroom subdues by that great sweetness,joy, and courage which the bride enjoys in the spiritual surrenderof Himself to her which God makes at this time; under theinfluence of which, because God transforms the soul effectually inHimself, all the faculties, desires, and movements of the soullose their natural imperfection and become divine.
'Light-winged birds.'
3. These are the distractions of the imagination, light and rapidin their flight from one subject to another. When the will istranquilly enjoying the sweet converse of the Beloved, thesedistractions produce weariness, and in their swift flight quenchits joy. The Bridegroom adjures them by the soft lyres. That is,now that the sweetness of the soul is so abundant and socontinuous that they cannot interfere with it, as they did beforewhen it had not reached this state, He adjures them, and bids themcease from their disquieting violence. The same explanation is tobe given of the rest of the stanza.
'Lions, fawns, bounding does.'
4. By the lions is meant the raging violence of the irasciblefaculty, which in its acts is bold and daring as a lion. The'fawns and bounding does' are the concupiscible faculty--that is,the power of desire, the qualities of which are two, timidity andrashness. Timidity betrays itself when things do not turn outaccording to our wishes, for then the mind retires within itselfdiscouraged, and in this respect the soul resembles the fawns. Foras fawns have the concupiscible faculty stronger than many otheranimals, so are they more retiring and more timid. Rashnessbetrays itself when we have our own way, for the mind is thenneither retiring nor timid, but desires boldly, and gratifies allits inclinations. This quality of rashness is compared to thedoes, who so eagerly seek what they desire that they not only run,but even leap after it; hence they are described as bounding does.
5. Thus the Bridegroom, in adjuring the lions, restrains theviolence and controls the fury of rage; in adjuring the fawns, Hestrengthens the concupiscible faculty against timidity andirresolution; and in adjuring the does He satisfies and subduesthe desires which were restless before, leaping, like deer, fromone object to another, to satisfy that concupiscence which is nowsatisfied by the soft lyres, the sweetness of which it enjoys, andby the siren strains, in the delight of which it revels.
6. But the Bridegroom does not adjure anger and concupiscencethemselves, because these passions never cease from the soul--buttheir vexations and disorderly acts, signified by the 'lions,fawns, and bounding does,' for it is necessary that thesedisorderly acts should cease in this state.
'Mountains, valleys, strands.'
7. These are the vicious and disorderly actions of the threefaculties of the soul--memory, understanding, and will. Theseactions are disorderly and vicious when they are in extremes, or,if not in extreme, tending to one extreme or other. Thus themountains signify those actions which are vicious in excess,mountains being high; the valleys, being low, signify those whichare vicious in the extreme of defect. Strands, which are neitherhigh nor low, but, inasmuch as they are not perfectly level, tendto one extreme or other, signify those acts of the three powers ofthe soul which depart slightly in either direction from the truemean and equality of justice. These actions, though not disorderlyin the extreme, as they would be if they amounted to mortal sin,are nevertheless disorderly in part, tending towards venial sin orimperfection, however slight that tendency may be, in theunderstanding, memory, and will. He adjures also all these actionswhich depart from the true mean, and bids them cease before thesoft lyres and the siren strains, which so effectually charm thepowers of the soul as to occupy them completely in their true andproper functions, so that they avoid not only all extremes, butalso the slightest tendency to them.
'Waters, winds, heat, and the terrors
that keep watch by night.'
8. These are the affections of the four passions, grief, hope,joy, and fear. The waters are the affections of grief whichafflict the soul, for they rush into it like water. 'Save me, OGod,' saith the Psalmist, 'for the waters are come in even unto mysoul.' (176) The winds are the affections of hope, for they rushforth like wind, desiring what which is not present but hoped for,as the Psalmist saith: 'I opened my mouth and drew breath: becauseI longed for Thy commandments.' (177) That is, 'I opened the mouthof my hope, and drew in the wind of desire, because I hoped andlonged for Thy commandments.' Heat is the affections of joy which,like fire, inflame the heart, as it is written: 'My heart waxedhot within me; and in my meditation a fire shall burn'; (178) thatis, 'while I meditate I shall have joy.'
9. The 'terrors that keep watch by night' are the affections offear, which in spiritual persons who have not attained to thestate of spiritual marriage are usually exceedingly strong. Theycome sometimes from God when He is going to bestow certain greatgraces upon souls, as I said before; (179) He is wont then to fillthe mind with dread, to make the flesh tremble and the sensesnumb, because nature is not made strong and perfect and preparedfor these graces. They come also at times from the evil spirit,who, out of envy and malignity, when he sees a soul sweetlyrecollected in God, labours to disturb its tranquillity byexciting horror and dread, in order to destroy so great ablessing, and sometimes utters his threats, as it were in theinterior of the soul. But when he finds that he cannot penetratewithin the soul, because it is so recollected, and so united withGod, he strives at least in the province of sense to produceexterior distractions and inconstancy, sensible pains and horrors,if perchance he may in this way disturb the soul in the bridalchamber.
10. These are called terrors of the night, because they are thework of evil spirits, and because Satan labours, by the helpthereof, to involve the soul in darkness, and to obscure thedivine light wherein it rejoiceth. These terrors are calledwatchers, because they awaken the soul and rouse it from its sweetinterior slumber, and also because Satan, their author, is ever onthe watch to produce them. These terrors strike the soul ofpersons who are already spiritual, passively, and come either fromGod or the evil spirit. I do not refer to temporal or naturalterrors, because spiritual men are not subject to these, as theyare to those of which I am speaking.
11. The Beloved adjures the affections of these four passions,compels them to cease and to be at rest, because He supplies thebride now with force, and courage, and satisfaction, by the softlyres of His sweetness and the siren strains of His delight, sothat not only they shall not domineer over the soul, but shall notoccasion it any distaste whatever. Such is the grandeur andstability of the soul in this state, that, although formerly thewaters of grief overwhelmed it, because of its own or other men'ssins--which is what spiritual persons most feel--the considerationof them now excites neither pain nor annoyance; even the sensiblefeeling of compassion exists not now, though the effects of itcontinue in perfection. The weaknesses of its virtues are nolonger in the soul, for they are now constant, strong, andperfect. As the angels perfectly appreciate all sorrowful thingswithout the sense of pain, and perform acts of mercy without thesentiment of pity, so the soul in this transformation of love.God, however, dispenses sometimes, on certain occasions, with thesoul in this matter, allowing it to feel and suffer, that it maybecome more fervent in love, and grow in merit, or for some otherreasons, as He dispensed with His Virgin Mother, St. Paul, andothers. This, however, is not the ordinary condition of thisstate.
12. Neither do the desires of hope afflict the soul now, because,satisfied in its union with God, so far as it is possible in thislife, it has nothing of this world to hope for, and nothingspiritual to desire, seeing that it feels itself to be full of theriches of God, though it may grow in charity, and thus, whetherliving or dying, it is conformed to the will of God, saying withthe sense and spirit, 'Thy will be done,' free from the violenceof inclination and desires; and accordingly even its longing forthe beatific vision is without pain.
13. The affections of joy, also, which were wont to move the soulwith more or less vehemence, are not sensibly diminished; neitherdoes their abundance occasion any surprise. The joy of the soul isnow so abundant that it is like the sea, which is not diminishedby the rivers that flow out of it, nor increased by those thatempty themselves into it; for the soul is now that fountain ofwhich our Lord said that it is 'springing up into lifeeverlasting.' (180)
14. I have said that the soul receives nothing new or unusual inthis state of transformation; it seems to lose all accidental joy,which is not withheld even from the glorified. That is, accidentaljoys and sweetness are indeed no strangers to this soul; yea,rather, those which it ordinarily has cannot be numbered; yet, forall this, as to the substantial communication of the spirit, thereis no increase of joy, for that which may occur anew the soulpossesses already, and thus what the soul has already withinitself is greater than anything that comes anew. Hence, then,whenever any subject of joy and gladness, whether exterior orspiritually interior, presents itself to the soul, the soulbetakes itself forthwith to rejoicing in the riches it possessesalready within itself, and the joy it has in them is far greaterthan any which these new accessions minister, because, in acertain sense, God is become its possession, Who, though Hedelights in all things, yet in nothing so much as in Himself,seeing that He has all good eminently in Himself. Thus allaccessions of joy serve to remind the soul that its real joy is inits interior possessions, rather than in these accidental causes,because, as I have said, the former are greater than the latter.
15. It is very natural for the soul, even when a particular mattergives it pleasure, that, possessing another of greater worth andgladness, it should remember it at once and take its pleasure init. The accidental character of these spiritual accessions, andthe new impressions they make on the soul, may be said to be asnothing in comparison with that substantial source which it haswithin itself: for the soul which has attained to the perfecttransformation, and is full-grown, grows no more in this state bymeans of these spiritual accessions, as those souls do who havenot yet advanced so far. It is a marvellous thing that the soul,while it receives no accessions of delight, should still seem todo so and also to have been in possession of them. The reason isthat it is always tasting them anew, because they are everrenewed; and thus it seems to be continually the recipient of newaccessions, while it has no need of them whatever.
16. But if we speak of that light of glory which in this, thesoul's embrace, God sometimes produces within it, and which is acertain spiritual communion wherein He causes it to behold andenjoy at the same time the abyss of delight and riches which Hehas laid up within it, there is no language to express any degreeof it. As the sun when it shines upon the sea illumines its greatdepths, and reveals the pearls, and gold, and precious stonestherein, so the divine sun of the Bridegroom, turning towards thebride, reveals in a way the riches of her soul, so that even theangels behold her with amazement and say: 'Who is she that comethforth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun,terrible as the army of a camp set in array.' (181) Thisillumination adds nothing to the grandeur of the soul,notwithstanding its greatness, because it merely reveals thatwhich the soul already possessed in order that it might rejoice init.
17. Finally, the terrors that keep watch by night do not come nighunto her, because of her pureness, courage, and confident trust inGod; the evil spirits cannot shroud her in darkness, nor alarm herwith terrors, nor disturb her with their violent assaults. Thusnothing can approach her, nothing can molest her, for she hasescaped from all created things and entered in to God, to thefruition of perfect peace, sweetness, and delight, so far as thatis possible in this life. It is to this state that the words ofSolomon are applicable: 'A secure mind is as it were a continualfeast.' (182) As in a feast we have the savour of all meat, andthe sweetness of all music, so in this feast, which the bridekeeps in the bosom of her Beloved, the soul rejoices in alldelight, and has the taste of all sweetness. All that I have said,and all that may be said, on this subject, will always fall shortof that which passeth in the soul which has attained to thisblessed state. For when it shall have attained to the peace ofGod, 'which,' in the words of the Apostle, 'surpasseth allunderstanding,' (183) no description of its state is possible.
'By the soft lyres and the siren strains I adjure you.'
18. The soft lyres are the sweetness which the Bridegroomcommunicates to the soul in this state, and by which He makes allits troubles to cease. As the music of lyres fills the soul withsweetness and delight, carries it rapturously out of itself, sothat it forgets all its weariness and grief, so in like mannerthis sweetness so absorbs the soul that nothing painful can reachit. The Bridegroom says, in substance: 'By that sweetness which Igive thee, let all thy bitterness cease.' The siren strains arethe ordinary joys of the soul. These are called siren strainsbecause, as it is said, the music of the sirens is so sweet anddelicious that he who hears it is so rapt and so carried out ofhimself that he forgets everything. In the same way the soul is soabsorbed in, and refreshed by, the delight of this union that itbecomes, as it were, charmed against all the vexations andtroubles that may assail it; it is to these the next words of thestanza refer:
'Let your fury cease.'
19. This is the troubles and anxieties which flow from unruly actsand affections. As anger is a certain violence which disturbspeace, overlapping its bounds, so also all these affections intheir motions transgress the bounds of the peace and tranquillityof the soul, disturbing it whenever they touch it. Hence theBridegroom says:
'And touch not the wall.'
20. The wall is the territory of peace and the fortress of virtueand perfections, which are the defences and protection of thesoul. The soul is the garden wherein the Beloved feeds among theflowers, defended and guarded for Him alone. Hence it is called inthe Canticle 'a garden enclosed.' (184) The Bridegroom bids alldisorderly emotions not to touch the territory and wall of Hisgarden.
21. 'That the bride may sleep in greater security.' That is, thatshe is delighting herself with more sweetness in the tranquillityand sweetness she has in the Beloved. That is to say, that now nodoor is shut against the soul, and that it is in its power toabandon itself whenever it wills to this sweet sleep of love,according to the words of the Bridegroom in the Canticle, 'Iadjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the harts ofthe fields, that you raise not up nor make the beloved to awaketill herself will.' (185)
NOTE
THE Bridegroom was so anxious to rescue His bride from the powerof the flesh and the devil and to set her free, that, having doneso, He rejoices over her like the good shepherd who, having foundthe sheep that was lost, laid it upon his shoulders rejoicing;like the woman who, having found the money she had lost, afterlighting a candle and sweeping the house, called 'together herfriends and neighbours, saying, Rejoice with me.' (186) So thisloving Shepherd and Bridegroom of souls shows a marvellous joy anddelight when He beholds a soul gained to perfection lying on Hisshoulders, and by His hands held fast in the longed-for embraceand union. He is not alone in His joy, for He makes the angels andthe souls of the blessed partakers of His glory, saying, as in theCanticle, 'Go forth, ye daughters of Sion, and see king Solomon inthe diadem wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of hisbetrothal, and in the day of the joy of his heart.' (187) He callsthe soul His crown, His bride, and the joy of His heart: Hecarries it in His arms, and as a bridegroom leads it into Hisbridal chamber, as we shall see in the following stanza:
The bride has entered
The pleasant and desirable garden,
And there reposes to her heart's content;
Her neck reclining
On the sweet arms of the Beloved.
1 THE bride having done what she could in order that the foxes maybe caught, the north wind cease, the nymphs, hindrances to thedesired joy of the state of spiritual marriage, forgo theirtroublesome importunities, and having also invoked and obtainedthe favourable wind of the Holy Ghost, which is the rightdisposition and means for the perfection of this state, it remainsfor me now to speak of it in the stanza in which the Bridegroomcalls the soul His bride, and speaks of two things: (1) He saysthat the soul, having gone forth victoriously, has entered thedelectable state of spiritual marriage, which they had both soearnestly desired. (2) He enumerates the properties of that state,into the fruition of which the soul has entered, namely, perfectrepose, and the resting of the neck on the arms of the Beloved.
'The bride has entered.'
2. For the better understanding of the arrangement of thesestanzas, and of the way by which the soul advances till it reachesthe state of spiritual marriage, which is the very highest, and ofwhich, by the grace of God, I am now about to treat, we must keepin mind that the soul, before it enters it, must be tried intribulations, in sharp mortifications, and in meditation onspiritual things. This is the subject of this canticle till wecome to the fifth stanza, beginning with the words, 'A thousandgraces diffusing.' Then the soul enters on the contemplative life,passing through those ways and straits of love which are describedin the course of the canticle, till we come to the thirteenth,beginning with 'Turn them away, O my Beloved!' This is the momentof the spiritual betrothal; and then the soul advances by theunitive way, the recipient of many and very great communications,jewels and gifts from the Bridegroom as to one betrothed, andgrows into perfect love, as appears from the stanzas which followthat beginning with 'Turn them away, O my Beloved!' (the moment ofbetrothal), to the present, beginning with the words:
'The bride has entered.'
3. The spiritual marriage of the soul and the Son of God nowremains to be accomplished. This is, beyond all comparison, a farhigher state than that of betrothal, because it is a completetransformation into the Beloved; whereby they surrender each tothe other the entire possession of themselves in the perfect unionof love, wherein the soul becomes divine, and, by participation,God, so far as it is in this life. I believe that no soul everattains to this state without being confirmed in grace, for thefaithfulness of both is confirmed; that of God being confirmed inthe soul. Hence it follows, that this is the very highest statepossible in this life. As by natural marriage there are 'two inone flesh,' (188) so also in the spiritual marriage between Godand the soul there are two natures in one spirit and love, as welearn from St. Paul, who made use of the same metaphor, saying,'He that cleaveth to the Lord is one spirit.' (189) So, when thelight of a star, or of a candle, is united to that of the sun, thelight is not that of the star, nor of the candle, but of the sunitself, which absorbs all other light in its own.
4. It is of this state that the Bridegroom is now speaking,saying, 'The bride has entered'; that is, out of all temporal andnatural things, out of all spiritual affections, ways, andmethods, having left on one side, and forgotten, all temptations,trials, sorrows, anxieties and cares, transformed in this embrace.
'The pleasant and desirable garden.'
5. That is, the soul is transformed in God, Who is here called thepleasant garden because of the delicious and sweet repose whichthe soul finds in Him. But the soul does not enter the garden ofperfect transformation, the glory and the joy of the spiritualmarriage, without passing first through the spiritual betrothal,the mutual faithful love of the betrothed. When the soul has livedfor some time as the bride of the Son, in perfect and sweet love,God calls it and leads it into His flourishing garden for thecelebration of the spiritual marriage. Then the two natures are sounited, what is divine is so communicated to what is human, that,without undergoing any essential change, each seems to be God--yetnot perfectly so in this life, though still in a manner which canneither be described nor conceived.
6. We learn this truth very clearly from the Bridegroom Himself inthe Canticle, where He invites the soul, now His bride, to enterthis state, saying: 'I am come into my garden, O My sister, Mybride: I have gathered My myrrh with My aromatical spices.' (190)He calls the soul His sister, His bride, for it is such in love bythat surrender which it has made of itself before He had called itto the state of spiritual marriage, when, as He says, He gatheredHis myrrh with His aromatical spices; that is, the fruits offlowers now ripe and made ready for the soul, which are thedelights and grandeurs communicated to it by Himself in thisstate, that is Himself, and for which He is the pleasant anddesirable garden.
7. The whole aim and desire of the soul and of God, in all this,is the accomplishment and perfection of this state, and the soulis therefore never weary till it reaches it; because it findsthere a much greater abundance and fulness in God, a more secureand lasting peace, and a sweetness incomparably more perfect thanin the spiritual betrothal, seeing that it reposes between thearms of such a Bridegroom, Whose spiritual embraces are so realthat it, through them, lives the life of God. Now is fulfilledwhat St. Paul referred to when he said: 'I live; now not I, butChrist liveth in me.' (191) And now that the soul lives a life sohappy and so glorious as this life of God, consider what a sweetlife it must be--a life where God sees nothing displeasing, andwhere the soul finds nothing irksome, but rather the glory anddelight of God in the very substance of itself, now transformed inHim.
'And there reposes to her heart's content;
her neck reclining on the sweet arms of the Beloved.'
8. The neck is the soul's strength, by means of which its unionwith the Beloved is wrought; for the soul could not endure soclose an embrace if it had not been very strong. And as the soulhas laboured in this strength, practised virtue, overcome vice, itis fitting that it should rest there from its labours, 'her neckreclining on the sweet arms of the Beloved.'
9. This reclining of the neck on the arms of God is the union ofthe soul's strength, or, rather, of the soul's weakness, with thestrength of God, in Whom our weakness, resting and transformed,puts on the strength of God Himself. The state of spiritualmatrimony is therefore most fitly designated by the reclining ofthe neck on the sweet arms of the Beloved; seeing that God is thestrength and sweetness of the soul, Who guards and defends it fromall evil and gives it to taste of all good.
10. Hence the bride in the Canticle, longing for this state, saithto the Bridegroom: 'Who shall give to me Thee my brother, suckingthe breast of my mother, that I may find Thee without, and kissThee, and now no man may despise me.' (192) By addressing Him asher Brother she shows the equality between them in the betrothalof love, before she entered the state of spiritual marriage.'Sucking the breast of my mother' signifies the drying up of thepassions and desires, which are the breasts and milk of our motherEve in our flesh, which are a bar to this state. The 'finding Himwithout' is to find Him in detachment from all things and fromself when the bride is in solitude, spiritually detached, whichtakes place when all the desires are quenched. 'And kiss Thee'--that is, be united with the Bridegroom, alone with Him alone.
11. This is the union of the nature of the soul, in solitude,cleansed from all impurity, natural, temporal, and spiritual, withthe Bridegroom alone, with His nature, by love only--that of lovewhich is the only love of the spiritual marriage, wherein thesoul, as it were, kisses God when none despises it nor makes itafraid. For in this state the soul is no longer molested, eitherby the devil, or the flesh, or the world, or the desires, seeingthat here is fulfilled what is written in the Canticle: 'Winter isnow past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers have appeared inour land.' (193)
NOTE
WHEN the soul has been raised to the high state of spiritualmarriage, the Bridegroom reveals to it, as His faithful consort,His own marvellous secrets most readily and most frequently, forhe who truly and sincerely loves hides nothing from the object ofhis affections. The chief matter of His communications are thesweet mysteries of His incarnation, the ways and means ofredemption, which is one of the highest works of God, and so is tothe soul one of the sweetest. Though He communicates many othermysteries, He speaks in the following stanza of His incarnationonly, as being the chief; and thus addresses the soul in the wordsthat follow:
Beneath the apple-tree
There wert thou betrothed;
There I gave thee My hand,
And thou wert redeemed
Where thy mother was corrupted.
1 THE Bridegroom tells the soul of the wondrous way of itsredemption and betrothal to Himself, by referring to the way inwhich the human race was lost. As it was by the forbidden tree ofparadise that our nature was corrupted in Adam and lost, so it wasby the tree of the Cross that it was redeemed and restored. TheBridegroom there stretched forth the hand of His grace and mercy,in His death and passion, 'making void the law of commandments'(194) which original sin had placed between us and God.
'Beneath the apple-tree,'
2. That is the wood of the Cross, where the Son of God wasconqueror, and where He betrothed our human nature to Himself,and, by consequence, every soul of man. There, on the Cross, Hegave us grace and pledges of His love.
'There wert thou betrothed,
there I gave thee My hand.'
3. 'Help and grace, lifting thee up out of thy base and miserablecondition to be My companion and My bride.'
'And thou wert redeemed
where thy mother was corrupted.'
4. 'Thy mother, human nature, was corrupted in her first parentsbeneath the forbidden tree, and thou wert redeemed beneath thetree of the Cross. If thy mother at that tree sentenced thee todie, I from the Cross have given thee life.' It is thus that Godreveals the order and dispositions of His wisdom: eliciting goodfrom evil, and turning that which has its origin in evil to be aninstrument of greater good. This stanza is nearly word for wordwhat the Bridegroom in the Canticle saith to the bride: 'Under theapple-tree I raised thee up: there thy mother was corrupted; thereshe was defloured that bare thee.' (195)
5. It is not the betrothal of the Cross that I am speaking of now--that takes place, once for all, when God gives the first grace tothe soul in baptism. I am speaking of the betrothal in the way ofperfection, which is a progressive work. And though both are butone, yet there is a difference between them. The latter iseffected in the way of the soul, and therefore slowly: the formerin the way of God, and therefore at once.
6. The betrothal of which I am speaking is that of which Godspeaks Himself by the mouth of the prophet Ezechiel, saying: 'Thouwert cast out upon the face of the earth in the abjection of thysoul, in the day that thou wert born. And passing by thee, I sawthat thou wert trodden under foot in thy blood; and I said to theewhen thou wert in thy blood: Live: I said to thee, I say; in thyblood live. Multiplied as the spring of the field have I madethee; and thou wert multiplied and made great, and thou wentestin, and camest to the ornaments of woman; thy breasts swelled andthy hair budded: and thou wert naked and full of confusion. And Ipassed by thee and saw thee, and behold, thy time, the time oflovers; and I spread My garment over thee and covered thyignominy. And I swore to thee; and I entered a covenant with thee,saith the Lord God; and thou wert made Mine. And I washed theewith water, and made clean thy blood from off thee: and I anointedthee with oil. And I clothed thee with divers colours, and shodthee with hyacinth, and I girded thee with silk and clothed theewith fine garments. And I adorned thee with ornaments, and putbracelets on thy hands, and a chain about thy neck. And I put ajewel upon thy forehead and rings in thy ears, and a crown ofbeauty on thy head. And thou wert adorned with gold and silver,and wert clothed with silk, and embroidered work, and manycolours: thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil, and wertmade beautiful exceedingly, and advanced to be a queen. And thyname went forth among the nations because of thy beauty.' (196)These are the words of Ezechiel, and this is the state of thatsoul of which I am now speaking.
NOTE
AFTER the mutual surrender to each other of the bride and theBeloved, comes their bed. Thereon the bride enters into the joy ofChrist. Thus the present stanza refers to the bed, which is pureand chaste, and divine, and in which the bride is pure, divine,and chaste. The bed is nothing else but the Bridegroom Himself,the Word, the Son of God, in Whom, through the union of love, thebride reposes. This bed is said to be of flowers, for theBridegroom is not only that, but, as He says Himself of Himself,'I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys.' (197)The soul reposes not only on the bed of flowers, but on that veryflower which is the Son of God, and which contains in itself thedivine odour, fragrance, grace, and beauty, as He saith by themouth of David, 'With me is the beauty of the field.' (198) Thesoul, therefore, in the stanza that follows, celebrates theproperties and beauties of its bed, saying:
John, Spiritual Canticle 19