John, Spiritual Canticle 2
O shepherds, you who go
Through the sheepcots up the hill,
If you shall see
Him Whom I love,
Tell Him I languish, suffer, and die.
1 THE soul would now employ intercessors and mediators betweenitself and the Beloved, praying them to make its sufferings andafflictions known. One in love, when he cannot converse personallywith the object of his love, will do so in the best way he can.Thus the soul employs its affections, desires, and groanings asmessengers well able to manifest the secret of its heart to theBeloved. Accordingly, it calls upon them to do this, saying:
'O shepherds, you who go.'
2. The shepherds are the affections, and desires, and groanings ofthe soul, for they feed it with spiritual good things. A shepherdis one who feeds: and by means of such God communicates Himself tothe soul and feeds it in the divine pastures; for without thesegroans and desires He communicates but slightly with it.
'You who go.'
You who go forth in pure love; for all desires and affections donot reach God, but only those which proceed from sincere love.
'Through the sheepcots up the hill.'
3. The sheepcots are the heavenly hierarchies, the angelic choirs,by whose ministry, from choir to choir, our prayers and sighsascend to God; that is, to the hill, 'for He is the highesteminence, and because in Him, as on a hill, we observe and beholdall things, the higher and the lower sheepcots.Õ To Him our prayersascend, offered by angels, as I have said; so the angel said toTobias 'When thou didst pray with tears, and didst bury the dead .. . I offered thy prayer to the Lord.' (45)
4. The shepherds also are the angels themselves, who not onlycarry our petitions to God, but also bring down the graces of Godto our souls, feeding them like good shepherds, with the sweetcommunications and inspirations of God, Who employs them in thatministry. They also protect us and defend us against the wolves,which are the evil spirits. And thus, whether we understand theaffections or the angels by the shepherds, the soul calls uponboth to be its messengers to the Beloved, and thus addresses themall:
'If you shall see Him,'
That is to say:
5. If, to my great happiness you shall come into His presence, sothat He shall see you and hear your words. God, indeed, knowethall things, even the very thoughts of the soul, as He said untoMoses, (46) but it is then He beholds our necessities when Herelieves them, and hears our prayers when he grants them. God doesnot see all necessities and hear all petitions until the timeappointed shall have come; it is then that He is said to hear andsee, as we learn in the book of Exodus. When the children ofIsrael had been afflicted for four hundred years as serfs in Egypt,God said unto Moses, 'I have seen the affliction of my people inEgypt, and I have heard their cry, and . . . I am come down todeliver them.' (47) And yet He had seen it always. So also St.Gabriel bade Zacharias not to fear, because God had heard hisprayer, and would grant him the son, for whom he had been prayingfor many years; (48) yet God had always heard him. Every soulought to consider that God, though He does not at once help usand grant our petitions, will still succour us in His own time,for He is, as David saith, 'a helper in due time in tribulation,'(49) if we do not become faint-hearted and cease to pray. This iswhat the soul means by saying, 'If you shall see Him'; that is tosay, if the time is come when it shall be His good pleasure togrant my petitions.
6. 'Whom I love the most': that is, whom I love more than allcreatures. This is true of the soul when nothing can make itafraid to do and suffer all things in His service. And when thesoul can also truly say that which follows, it is a sign that itloves Him above all things:
'Tell Him I languish, suffer, and die.'
7. Here the soul speaks of three things that distress it: namely,languor, suffering, and death; for the soul that truly loves Godwith a love in some degree perfect, suffers in three ways in Hisabsence, in its three powers ordinarily--the understanding, thewill, and the memory. In the understanding it languishes becauseit does not see God, Who is the salvation of it, as the Psalmistsaith: 'I am thy salvation.' (50) In the will it suffers, becauseit possesses not God, Who is its comfort and delight, as Davidalso saith: 'Thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of Thypleasure.' (51) In the memory it dies, because it remembers itsprivation of all the blessings of the understanding, which are thevision of God, and of the delights of the will, which are thefruition of Him, and that it is very possible also that it maylose Him for ever, because of the dangers and chances of thislife. In the memory, therefore, the soul labours under a sensationlike that of death, because it sees itself without the certain andperfect fruition of God, Who is the life of the soul, as Mosessaith: 'He is thy life.' (52)
8. Jeremias also, in the Lamentations, speaks of these threethings, praying unto God, and saying: 'Remember my poverty . . .the wormwood and the gall.' (53) Poverty relates to theunderstanding, to which appertain the riches of the knowledge ofthe Son of God, 'in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledgeare hid.' (54) The wormwood, which is a most bitter herb, relatesto the will, to which appertains the sweetness of the fruition ofGod, deprived of which it abides in bitterness. We learn in theApocalypse that bitterness appertains spiritually to the will, forthe angel said to St. John: 'Take the book and eat it up; and itshall make thy belly bitter.' (55) Here the belly signifies thewill. The gall relates not only to the memory, but also to allthe powers and faculties of the soul, for it signifies the deaththereof, as we learn from Moses speaking of the damned: 'Theirwine is the gall of dragons, and the venom of asps, which isincurable.' (56) This signifies the loss of God, which is thedeath of the soul.
9. These three things which distress the soul are grounded on thethree theological virtues--faith, charity, and hope, which relate,in the order here assigned them, to the three faculties of thesoul--understanding, will, and memory. Observe here that the souldoes no more than represent its miseries and pain to the Beloved:for he who loves wisely does not care to ask for that which hewants and desires, being satisfied with hinting at hisnecessities, so that the beloved one may do what shall to him seemgood. Thus the Blessed Virgin at the marriage feast of Cana askednot directly for wine, but only said to her Beloved Son, 'Theyhave no wine.' (57) The sisters of Lazarus sent to Him, not to askHim to heal their brother, but only to say that he whom He lovedwas sick: 'Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick.' (58)
10. There are three reasons for this. Our Lord knows what isexpedient for us better than we do ourselves. Secondly, theBeloved is more compassionate towards us when He sees ournecessities and our resignation. Thirdly, we are more securedagainst self-love and selfseeking when we represent our necessity,than when we ask for that which we think we need. It is in thisway that the soul represents its three necessities; as if it said:'Tell my Beloved, that as I languish, and as He only is mysalvation, to save me; that as I am suffering, and as He only ismy joy, to give me joy; that as I am dying, and as He only is mylife, to give me life.'
In search of my Love
I will go over mountains and strands;
I will gather no flowers,
I will fear no wild beasts;
And pass by the mighty and the frontiers.
1 THE soul, observing that its sighs and prayers suffice not to findthe Beloved, and that it has not been helped by the messengers itinvoked in the first and second stanzas, will not, because itssearching is real and its love great, leave undone anything itselfcan do. The soul that really loves God is not dilatory in itsefforts to find the Son of God, its Beloved; and, even when it hasdone all it could it is still not satisfied, thinking it has donenothing. Accordingly, the soul is now, in this third stanza,actively seeking the Beloved, and saying how He is to be found;namely, in the practice of all virtue and in the spiritualexercises of the active and contemplative life; for this end itrejects all delights and all comforts; and all the power and wilesof its three enemies, the world, the devil, and the flesh, areunable to delay it or hinder it on the road.
'In search of my Love.'
2. Here the soul makes it known that to find God it is not enoughto pray with the heart and the tongue, or to have recourse to thehelp of others; we must also work ourselves, according to ourpower. God values one effort of our own more than many of otherson our behalf; the soul, therefore, remembering the saying of theBeloved, 'Seek and you shall find,' (59) is resolved on goingforth, as I said just now, to seek Him actively, and not resttill it finds Him, as many do who will not that God should costthem anything but words, and even those carelessly uttered, andfor His sake will do nothing that will cost them anything. Some,too, will not leave for His sake a place which is to their tasteand liking, expecting to receive all the sweetness of God intheir mouth and in their heart without moving a step, withoutmortifying themselves by the abandonment of a single pleasure oruseless comfort.
3. But until they go forth out of themselves to seek Him, howeverloudly they may cry they will not find Him; for the bride in theCanticle sought Him in this way, but she found Him not until shewent out to seek Him: 'In my little bed in the nights I havesought Him Whom my soul loveth: I have sought Him and have notfound Him. I will rise and will go about the city: by the streetsand highways I will seek Him Whom my soul loveth.' (60) Sheafterwards adds that when she had endured Certain trials she'found Him.' (61)
4. He, therefore, who seeks God, consulting his own ease andcomfort, seeks Him by night, and therefore finds Him not. But hewho seeks Him in the practice of virtue and of good works, castingaside the comforts of his own bed, seeks Him by day; such an oneshall find Him, for that which is not seen by night is visible byday. The Bridegroom Himself teaches us this, Saying, 'Wisdom isclear and never fadeth away, and is easily seen of them that loveher, and is found of them that seek her. She preventeth them thatcovet her, that she first may show herself unto them. He thatawaketh early to seek her shall not labour; for he shall find hersitting at his doors.' (62) The soul that will go out of the houseof its own will, and abandon the bed of its own satisfaction,will find the divine Wisdom, the Son of God, the Bridegroomwaiting at the door without, and so the soul says:
'I will go over mountains and strands.'
5. Mountains, which are lofty, signify virtues, partly on accountof their height and partly on account of the toil and labour ofascending them; the soul says it will ascend to them in thepractice of the contemplative life. Strands, which are low,signify mortifications, penances, and the spiritual exercises, andthe soul will add to the active life that of contemplation; forboth are necessary in seeking after God and in acquiring Virtue.The soul says, in effect, 'In searching after my Beloved I willpractise great virtue, and abase myself by lowly mortificationsand acts of humility, for the way to seek God is to do good worksin Him, and to mortify the evil in ourselves, as it is said in thewords that follow:
'I will gather no flowers.'
6. He that will seek after God must have his heart detached,resolute, and free from all evils, and from all goods which arenot simply God; that is the meaning of these words. The wordsthat follow describe the liberty and courage which the soul mustpossess in searching after God. Here it declares that it willgather no flowers by the way--the flowers are all the delights,satisfactions, and pleasures which this life offers, and which,if the soul sought or accepted, would hinder it on the road.
7. These flowers are of three kinds--temporal, sensual, andspiritual. All of them occupy the heart, and stand in the way ofthe spiritual detachment required in the way of Christ, if weregard them or rest in them. The soul, therefore, says, that itwill not stop to gather any of them, that it may seek after God.It seems to say, I will not set my heart upon riches or the goodsof this world; I will not indulge in the satisfactions and ease ofthe flesh, neither will I consult the taste and comforts of myspirit, in order that nothing may detain me in my search after myLove on the toilsome mountains of virtue. This means that itaccepts the counsel of the prophet David to those who travel onthis road: 'If riches abound, set not your heart upon them,' (63)This is applicable to sensual satisfactions, as well as totemporal goods and spiritual consolations.
8. From this we learn that not only temporal goods and bodilypleasures hinder us on the road to God, but spiritual delight andconsolations also, if we attach ourselves to them or seek them;for these things are hindrances on the way of the cross of Christ,the Bridegroom. He, therefore, that will go onwards must not onlynot stop to gather flowers, but must also have the courage andresolution to say as follows:
'I will fear no wild beasts and I will go over
the mighty and the frontiers.'
Here we have the three enemies of the soul which make war againstit, and make its way full of difficulties. The wild beasts are theworld; the mighty, the devil; and the frontiers are the flesh.
9. The world is the wild beasts, because in the beginning of theheavenly journey the imagination pictures the world to the soul aswild beasts, threatening and fierce, principally in three ways.The first is, we must forfeit the world's favour, lose friends,credit, reputation, and property; the second is not less cruel: wemust suffer the perpetual deprivation of all the comforts andpleasures of the world; and the third is still worse: evil tongueswill rise against us, mock us, and speak of us with contempt. Thisstrikes some persons so vividly that it becomes most difficult forthem, I do not say to persevere, but even to enter on this road atall.
10. But there are generous souls who have to encounter wild beastsof a more interior and spiritual nature--trials, temptations,tribulations, and afflictions of divers kinds, through which theymust pass. This is what God sends to those whom He is raisingupwards to high perfection, proving them and trying them as goldin the fire; as David saith: 'Many are the tribulations of thejust; and out of all these our Lord will deliver them.' (64) Butthe truly enamoured soul, preferring the Beloved above all things,and relying on His love and favour, finds no difficulty in saying:
'I will fear no wild beats'
'and pass over the mighty and the frontiers.'
11. Evil spirits, the second enemy of the soul, are called themighty, because they strive with all their might to seize on thepasses of the spiritual road; and because the temptations theysuggest are harder to overcome, and the craft they employ moredifficult to detect, than all the seductions of the world and theflesh; and because, also, they strengthen their own position bythe help of the world and the flesh in order to fight vigorouslyagainst the soul. Hence the Psalmist calls them mighty, saying:'The mighty have sought after my soul.' (65) The prophet Job alsospeaks of their might: 'There is no power upon the earth that maybe compared with him who was made to fear no man.' (66)
12. There is no human power that can be compared with the power ofthe devil, and therefore the divine power alone can overcome him,and the divine light alone can penetrate his devices. No soultherefore can overcome his might without prayer, or detect hisillusions without humility and mortification. Hence theexhortation of St. Paul to the faithful: 'Put you on the armour ofGod, that you may stand against the deceits of the devil: for ourwrestling is not against flesh and blood.' (67) Blood here is theworld, and the armour of God is prayer and the cross of Christ,wherein consist the humility and mortification of which I havespoken.
13. The soul says also that it will cross the frontiers: theseare the natural resistance and rebellion of the flesh against thespirit, for, as St. Paul saith, the 'flesh lusteth against thespirit,' (68) and sets itself as a frontier against the soul onits spiritual road. This frontier the soul must cross,surmounting difficulties, and trampling underfoot all sensualappetites and all natural affections with great courage andresolution of spirit: for while they remain in the soul, thespirit will be by them hindered from advancing to the true lifeand spiritual delight. This is set clearly before us by St. Paul,saying: 'If by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, youshall live.' (69) This, then, is the process which the soul inthis stanza says it becomes it to observe on the way to seek theBeloved: which briefly is a firm resolution not to stoop togather flowers by the way; courage not to fear the wild beasts,and strength to pass by the mighty and the frontiers; intentsolely on going over the mountains and the strands of thevirtues, in the way just explained.
O groves and thickets
Planted by the hand of the Beloved;
O verdant meads
Enamelled with flowers,
Tell me, has He passed by you?
1 THE disposition requisite for entering on the spiritual journey,abstinence from joys and pleasure, being now described; and thecourage also with which to overcome temptations and trials,wherein consists the practice of self-knowledge, which is thefirst step of the soul to the knowledge of God. Now, in thisstanza the soul begins to advance through consideration andknowledge of creatures to the knowledge of the Beloved theirCreator. For the consideration of the creature, after the practiceof self-knowledge, is the first in order on the spiritual road tothe knowledge of God, Whose grandeur and magnificence theydeclare, as the Apostle saith: 'For His invisible things from thecreation of the world are seen, being understood by these thingsthat are made.' (70) It is as if he said, 'The invisible things ofGod are made known to the soul by created things, visible andinvisible.'
2. The soul, then, in this stanza addresses itself to creaturesinquiring after the Beloved. And we observe, as St. Augustine (71)says, that the inquiry made of creatures is a meditation on theCreator, for which they furnish the matter. Thus, in this stanzathe soul meditates on the elements and the rest of the lowercreation; on the heavens, and on the rest of created and materialthings which God has made therein; also on the heavenly Spirits,saying:
'O groves and thickets.'
3. The groves are the elements, earth, water, air, and fire. Asthe most pleasant groves are studded with plants and shrubs, sothe elements are thick with creatures, and here are calledthickets because of the number and variety of creatures in each.The earth contains innumerable varieties of animals and plants,the water of fish, the air of birds, and fire concurs with all inanimating and sustaining them. Each kind of animal lives in itsproper element, placed and planted there, as in its own grove andsoil where it is born and nourished; and, in truth, God so orderedit when He made them; He commanded the earth to bring forth herbsand animals; the waters and the sea, fish; and the air He gave asan habitation to birds. The soul, therefore, considering thatthis is the effect of His commandment, cries out,
'Planted by the hand of the Beloved.'
4. That which the soul considers now is this: the hand of God theBeloved only could have created and nurtured all these varietiesand wonderful things. The soul says deliberately, 'by the hand ofthe Beloved,' because God doeth many things by the hands ofothers, as of angels and men; but the work of creation has neverbeen, and never is, the work of any other hand than His own. Thusthe soul, considering the creation, is profoundly stirred up tolove God the Beloved for it beholds all things to be the work ofHis hands, and goes on to say:
'O verdant meads.'
5. These are the heavens; for the things which He hath created inthe heavens are of incorruptible freshness, which neither perishnor wither with time, where the just are refreshed as in the greenpastures. The present consideration includes all the varieties ofthe stars in their beauty, and the other works in the heavens.
6. The Church also applies the term 'verdure' to heavenly things;for while praying to God for the departing soul, it addresses itas follows: 'May Christ, the Son of the living God, give thee aplace in the everpleasant verdure of His paradise.' (72) The soulalso says that this verdant mead is
'Enamelled with flowers.'
7. The flowers are the angels and the holy souls who adorn andbeautify that place, as costly and fine enamel on a vase of puregold.
'Tell me, has He passed by you?'
8. This inquiry is the consideration of the creature just spokenof, and is in effect: Tell me, what perfections has He created inyou?
ANSWER OF THE CREATURES
A thousand graces diffusing
He passed through the groves in haste,
And merely regarding them
As He passed,
Clothed them with His beauty.
1 THIS is the answer of the creatures to the soul which, accordingto St. Augustine, in the same place, is the testimony which theyfurnish to the majesty and perfections of God, for which it askedin its meditation on created things. The meaning of this stanzais, in substance, as follows: God created all things with greatease and rapidity, and left in them some tokens of Himself, notonly by creating them out of nothing, but also by endowing themwith innumerable graces and qualities, making them beautiful inadmirable order and unceasing mutual dependence. All this Hewrought in wisdom, by which He created them, which is the Word,His only begotten Son. Then the soul says;
'A thousand graces diffusing.'
2. These graces are the innumerable multitude of His creatures.The term 'thousand,' which the soul makes use of, denotes nottheir number, but the impossibility of numbering them. They arecalled grace because of the qualities with which He has endowedthem. He is said to diffuse them because He fills the whole worldwith them.
'He passed through the groves in haste.'
3. To pass through the groves is to create the elements; herecalled groves, through which He is said to pass, diffusing athousand graces, because He adorned them with creatures which areall beautiful. Moreover, He diffused among them a thousand graces,giving the power of generation and self-conservation. He is saidto pass through, because the creatures are, as it were, traces ofthe passage of God, revealing His majesty, power, and wisdom, andHis other divine attributes. He is said to pass in haste, becausethe creatures are the least of the works of God: He made them, asit were, in passing. His greatest works, wherein He is mostvisible and at rest, are the incarnation of the Word and themysteries of the Christian faith, in comparison with which all Hisother works were works wrought in passing and in haste.
'And thereby regarding them As He passed,
Clothed them with His beauty.'
4. The son of God is, in the words of St. Paul, the brightness ofHis glory and the figure of His substance.' (73) God saw allthings only in the face of His Son. This was to give them theirnatural being, bestowing upon them many graces and natural gifts,making them perfect, as it is written in the book of Genesis:'God saw all the things that He had made: and they were verygood.' (74) To see all things very good was to make them verygood in the Word, His Son. He not only gave them their being andtheir natural graces when He beheld them, but He also clothedthem with beauty in the face of His Son, communicating to them asupernatural being when He made man, and exalted him to thebeauty of God, and, by consequence, all creatures in him, becauseHe united Himself to the nature of them all in man. For thiscause the Son of God Himself said, 'And I, if I be lifted up fromthe earth will draw all things to Myself.' (75) And thus in thisexaltation of the incarnation of His Son, and the glory of Hisresurrection according to the flesh, the Father not only made allthings beautiful in part, but also, we may well say, clothed themwholly with beauty and dignity.
NOTE
BUT beyond all this--speaking now of contemplation as it affectsthe soul and makes an impression on it--in the vivid contemplationand knowledge of created things the soul beholds such amultiplicity of graces, powers, and beauty wherewith God hasendowed them, that they seem to it to be clothed with admirablebeauty and supernatural virtue derived from the infinitesupernatural beauty of the face of God, whose beholding of themclothed the heavens and the earth with beauty and joy; as it iswritten: 'Thou openest Thy hand and fillest with blessing everyliving creature.' (76) Hence the soul wounded with love of thatbeauty of the Beloved which it traces in created things, andanxious to behold that beauty which is the source of this visiblebeauty, sings as in the following stanza:
THE BRIDE
Oh! who can heal me?
Give me perfectly Thyself,
Send me no more
A messenger
Who cannot tell me what I wish.
1 AS created things furnish to the soul traces of the Beloved, andexhibit the impress of His beauty and magnificence, the love ofthe soul increases, and consequently the pain of His absence: forthe greater the soul's knowledge of God the greater its desire tosee Him, and its pain when it cannot; and as it sees there is noremedy for this pain except in the presence and vision of theBeloved, distrustful of every other remedy, it prays in thisstanza for the fruition of His presence, saying: 'Entertain me nomore with any knowledge or communications or impressions of Thygrandeur, for these do but increase my longing and the pain of Thyabsence; Thy presence alone can satisfy my will and desire.' Thewill cannot be satisfied with anything less than the vision ofGod, and therefore the soul prays that He may be pleased to giveHimself to it in truth, in perfect love.
'O! who can heal me?'
2. That is, there is nothing in all the delights of the world,nothing in the satisfaction of the senses, nothing in the sweettaste of the spirit that can heal or content me, and therefore itadds:
'Give me at once Thyself.'
3. No soul that really loves can be satisfied or content short ofthe fruition of God. For everything else, as I have just said, notonly does not satisfy the soul, but rather increases the hungerand thirst of seeing Him as He us. Thus every glimpse of theBeloved, every knowledge and impression or communication from Him--these are the messengers suggestive of Him--increase and quickenthe soul's desire after Him, as crumbs of food in hunger stimulatethe appetite. The soul, therefore, mourning over the misery ofbeing entertained by matters of so little moment, cries out:
'Give me perfectly Thyself.'
4. Now all our knowledge of God in this life, how great soever itmay be, is not a perfectly true knowledge of Him, because it ispartial and incomplete; but to know Him essentially is trueknowledge, and that is it which the soul prays for here, notsatisfied with any other kind. Hence it says:
'Send me no more a messenger.'
5. That is, grant that I may no longer know Thee in this imperfectway by the messengers of knowledge and impressions, which are sodistant from that which my soul desires; for these messengers, asThou well knowest, O my Bridegroom, do but increase the pain ofThy absence. They renew the wound which Thou hast inflicted by theknowledge of Thee which they convey, and they seem to delay Thycoming. Henceforth do Thou send me no more of these inadequatecommunications, for if I have been hitherto satisfied with them,it was owing to the slightness of my knowledge and of my love: nowthat my love has become great, I cannot satisfy myself with them;do Thou, therefore, give me at once Thyself.
6. This, more clearly expressed, is as follows: 'O Lord myBridegroom, Who didst give me Thyself partially before, give meThyself wholly now. Thou who didst show glimpses of Thyselfbefore, show Thyself clearly now. Thou who didst communicateThyself hitherto by the instrumentality of messengers--it was asif Thou didst mock me--give Thyself by Thyself now. Sometimeswhen Thou didst visit me Thou didst give me the pearl of Thypossession, and, when I began to examine it, lo, it was gone, forThou hadst hidden it Thyself: it was like a mockery. Give me thenThyself in truth, Thy whole self, that I may have Thee wholly tomyself wholly, and send me no messengers again.'
'Who cannot tell me what I wish.'
7. 'I wish for Thee wholly, and Thy messengers neither know Theewholly, nor can they speak of Thee wholly, for there is nothing inearth or heaven that can furnish that knowledge to the soul whichit longs for. They cannot tell me, therefore, what I wish.Instead, then, of these messengers, be Thou the messenger and themessage.'
All they who serve are telling me
Of Thy unnumbered graces;
And all wound me more and more,
And something leaves me dying,
I know not what, of which they are darkly speaking.
1 THE soul describes itself in the foregoing stanza as wounded, orsick with love of the Bridegroom, because of the knowledge of Himwhich the irrational creation supplies, and in the present, aswounded with love because of the other and higher knowledge whichit derives from the rational creation, nobler than the former;that is, angels and men. This is not all, for the soul says alsothat it is dying of love, because of that marvellous immensity notwholly but partially revealed to it through the rational creation.This it calls 'I know not what,' because it cannot be described,and because it is such that the soul dies of it.
2. It seems, from this, that there are three kinds of pain in thesoul's love of the Beloved, corresponding to the three kinds ofknowledge that can be had of Him. The first is called a wound; notdeep, but slight, like a wound which heals quickly, because itcomes from its knowledge of the creatures, which are the lowestworks of God. This wounding of the soul, called also sickness, isthus spoken of by the bride in the Canticle: 'I adjure you, Odaughters of Jerusalem, if you find my Beloved, that you tell Himthat I languish with love.' (77) The daughters of Jerusalem arethe creatures.
3. The second is called a sore which enters deeper than a woundinto the soul, and is, therefore, of longer continuance, becauseit is as a wound festering, on account of which the soul feelsthat it is really dying of love. This sore is the effect of theknowledge of the works of God, the incarnation of the Word, andthe mysteries of the faith. These being the greatest works of God,and involving a greater love than those of creation, produce agreater effect of love in the soul. If the first kind of pain beas a wound, this must be like a festering, continuous sore. Ofthis speaks the Bridegroom, addressing Himself to the bride,saying: 'Thou hast wounded My heart, My sister, My bride; thouhast wounded My heart with one of thy eyes, and with one hair ofthy neck.' (78) The eye signifies faith in the incarnation of theBridegroom, and the one hair is the love of the same.
4. The third kind of pain is like dying; it is as if the wholesoul were festering because of its wound. It is dying a livingdeath until love, having slain it, shall make it live the life oflove, transforming it in love. This dying of love is affected by asingle touch of the knowledge of the Divinity; it is the 'I knownot what,' of which the creatures, as in the stanza is said, arespeaking indistinctly. This touch is not continuous nor great,--for then soul and body would part--but soon over, and thus thesoul is dying of love, and dying the more when it sees that itcannot die of love. (79) This is called impatient love, which isspoken of in the book of Genesis, where the Scripture saith thatRachel's love of children was so great that she said to Jacob herhusband, 'Give me children, otherwise I shall die.' (80) And theprophet Job said, 'Who will grant that . . . He that hath begunthe same would cut me off.' (81)
5. These two-fold pains of love--that is, the wound and the dying--are in the stanza said to be merely the rational creation. Thewound, when it speaks of the unnumbered graces of the Beloved inthe mysteries and wisdom of God taught by the faith. The dying,when it is said that the rational creation speaks indistinctly.This is a sense and knowledge of the Divinity sometimes revealedwhen the soul hears God spoken of. Therefore it says:
'All they who serve.'
6. That is, the rational creation, angels and men; for these aloneare they who serve God, understanding by that word intelligentservice; that is to say, all they who serve God. Some serve Him bycontemplation and fruition in heaven--these are the angels; othersby loving and longing for Him on earth--these are men. And becausethe soul learns to know God more distinctly through the rationalcreation, whether by considering its superiority over the rest ofcreation, or by what it teaches us of God--the angels interiorlyby secret inspirations, and men exteriorly by the truths ofScripture--it says:
'Telling me of Thy unnumbered graces.'
7. That is, they speak of the wonders of Thy grace and mercy inthe Incarnation, and in the truths of the faith which they showforth and are ever telling more distinctly; for the more they say,the more do they reveal Thy graces.
'And all wound me more and more.'
8. The more the angels inspire me, the more men teach me, the moredo I love Thee; and thus all wound me more and more with love.
'And something leaves me dying,
I know not what, of which they are darkly speaking.'
9. It is as if it said: 'But beside the wound which the creaturesinflict when they tell me of Thy unnumbered graces, there is yetsomething which remains to be told, one thing unknown to beuttered, a most clear trace of the footsteps of God revealed tothe soul, which it should follow, a most profound knowledge ofGod, which is ineffable, and therefore spoken of as 'I know notwhat.' If that which I comprehend inflicts the wound and festeringsore of love, that which I cannot comprehend but yet feelprofoundly, kills me.
10. This happens occasionally to souls advanced, whom God favoursin what they hear, or see, or understand--and sometimes withoutthese or other means--with a certain profound knowledge, in whichthey feel or apprehend the greatness and majesty of God. In thisstate they think so highly of God as to see clearly that they knowHim not, and in their perception of His greatness they recognisethat not to comprehend Him is the highest comprehension. And thus,one of the greatest favours of God, bestowed transiently on thesoul in this life, is to enable it to see so distinctly, and tofeel so profoundly, that it clearly understands it cannotcomprehend Him at all. These souls are herein, in some degree,like the saints in heaven, where they who know Him most perfectlyperceive most clearly that He is infinitely incomprehensible,for those who have the less clear vision, do not perceive sodistinctly as the others, how greatly He transends their vision.This is clear to none who have not had experience of it. But theexperienced soul, comprehending that there is something further ofwhich it is profoundly sensible, calls it, 'I know not what.' Asthat cannot be understood, so neither can it be described, thoughit be felt, as I have said. Hence the soul says that the creaturesspeak indistinctly, because they cannot distinctly utter thatwhich they would say: it is the speech of infants, who cannotexplain distinctly or speak intelligibly that which they wouldconvey to others.
11. The other creatures, also, are in some measure a revelation tothe soul in this way, but not of an order so high, whenever it isthe good pleasure of God to manifest to it their spiritual senseand significance; they are seemingly on the point of making usunderstand the perfections of God, and cannot compass it; it is asif one were about to explain a matter and the explanation is notgiven; and thus they stammer 'I know not what.' The soul continuesto complain, and addresses its own life, saying, in the stanzathat follows:
John, Spiritual Canticle 2