John, Spiritual Canticle 31
When Thou didst regard me,
Thine eyes imprinted in me Thy grace:
For this didst Thou love me again,
And thereby mine eyes did merit
To adore what in Thee they saw.
1 IT is the nature of perfect love to seek or accept nothing foritself, to attribute nothing to itself, but to refer all to theBeloved. If this be true of earthly love, how much more so of thelove of God, the reason of which is so constraining. In the twoforegoing stanzas the bride seemed to attribute something toherself; for she said that she would make garlands with herBeloved, and bind them with a hair of her head; that is a greatwork, and of no slight importance and worth: afterwards she saidthat she exulted in having captivated Him by a hair, and woundedHim with one of her eyes. All this seems as if she attributedgreat merits to herself. Now, however, she explains her meaning,and removes the wrong impression with great care and fear, lestany merit should be attributed to herself, and therefore less toGod than His due, and less also than she desired. She now refersall to Him, and at the same time gives Him thanks, saying that thecause of His being the captive of the hair of her love, and of Hisbeing wounded by the eye of her faith, was His mercy in lookinglovingly upon her, thereby rendering her lovely and pleasing inHis sight; and that the loveliness and worth she received from Himmerited His love, and made her worthy to adore her Beloved, and tobring forth good works worthy of His love and favour.
'When Thou didst regard me.'
2. That is, with loving affection, for I have already said, thatwhere God regards there He loves.
'Thine eyes imprinted in me Thy grace.'
3. The eyes of the Bridegroom signify here His merciful divinity,which, mercifuly inclined to the soul, imprints or infuses in itthe love and grace by which He makes it beautiful, and so elevatesit that He makes it the partaker of His divinity. When the soulsees to what height of dignity God has raised it, it says:
'For this didst Thou love me again.'
4. To love again is to love much; it is more than simple love, itis a twofold love, and for two reasons. Here the soul explains thetwo motives of the Bridegroom's love; He not only loved it becausecaptivated by the hair, but He loved it again, because He waswounded with one of its eyes. The reason why He loved it so deeplyis that He would, when He looked upon it, give it the grace toplease Him, endowing it with the hair of love, and animating withHis charity the faith of the eye. And therefore the soul saith:
'For this didst Thou love me again.'
5. To say that God shows favour to the soul is to say that Herenders it worthy and capable of His love. It is therefore as ifthe soul said, 'Having shown Thy favour to me, worthy pledges ofThy love, Thou hast therefore loved me again'; that is, 'Thou hastgiven me grace upon grace'; or, in the words of St. John, 'gracefor grace'; (258) grace for the grace He has given, that is moregrace, for without grace we cannot merit His grace.
6. If we could clearly understand this truth, we must keep in mindthat, as God loves nothing beside Himself, so loves He nothingmore than Himself, because He loves all things with reference toHimself. Thus love is the final cause, and God loves nothing forwhat it is in itself. Consequently, when we say that God lovessuch a soul, we say, in effect, that He brings it in a manner toHimself, making it His equal, and thus it is He loves that soul inHimself with that very love with which He loves Himself. Everygood work, therefore, of the soul in God is meritorious of God'slove, because the soul in His favour, thus exalted, merits GodHimself in every act.
'And thereby mine eyes did merit.'
7. That is, 'By the grace and favour which the eyes of Thycompassion have wrought, when Thou didst look upon me, renderingme pleasing in Thy sight and worthy of Thy regard.'
'To adore what in Thee they saw.'
8. That is: 'The powers of my soul, O my Bridegroom, the eyes bywhich I can see Thee, although once fallen and miserable in thevileness of their mean occupations, have merited to look uponThee.' To look upon God is to do good works in His grace. Thusthe powers of the soul merit in adoring because they adore in thegrace of God, in which every act is meritorious. Enlightened andexalted by grace, they adored what in Him they saw, and what theysaw not before, because of their blindness and meanness. What,then, have they now seen? The greatness of His power, Hisoverflowing sweetness, infinite goodness, love, and compassion,innumerable benefits received at His hands, as well now when sonear Him as before when far away. The eyes of the soul now meritto adore, and by adoring merit, for they are beautiful andpleasing to the Bridegroom. Before they were unworthy, not only toadore or behold Him, but even to look upon Him at all: greatindeed is the stupidity and blindness of a soul without the graceof God.
9. It is a melancholy thing to see how far a soul departs from itsduty when it is not enlightened by the love of God. For beingbound to acknowledge these and other innumerable favours which ithas every moment received at His hands, temporal as well asspiritual, and to worship and serve Him unceasingly with all itsfaculties, it not only does not do so, but is unworthy even tothink of Him; nor does it make any account of Him whatever. Suchis the misery of those who are living, or rather who are dead, insin.
NOTE
FOR the better understanding of this and of what follows, we mustkeep in mind that the regard of God benefits the soul in fourways: it cleanses, adorns, enriches, and enlightens it, as thesun, when it shines, dries, warms, beautifies, and brightens theearth. When God has visited the soul in the three latter ways,whereby He renders it pleasing to Himself, He remembers its formeruncleanness and sin no more: as it is written, 'All the iniquitiesthat he hath wrought, I will not remember.' (259)
God having once done away with our sin and uncleanness, He willlook upon them no more; nor will He withhold His mercy because ofthem, for He never punishes twice for the same sin, according tothe words of the prophet: 'There shall not rise a doubleaffliction.' (260)
Still, though God forgets the sin He has once forgiven, we are notfor that reason to forget it ourselves; for the Wise Man saith,'Be not without fear about sin forgiven.' (261) There are threereasons for this. We should always remember our sin, that we maynot presume, that we may have a subject of perpetual thanksgiving,and because it serves to give us more confidence that we shallreceive greater favours; for if, when we were in sin, God showedHimself unto us so merciful and forgiving, how much greatermercies may we not hope for when we are clean from sin, and in Hislove?
The soul, therefore, calling to mind all the mercies it hasreceived, and seeing itself united to the Bridegroom in suchdignity, rejoices greatly with joy, thanksgiving, and love. Inthis it is helped exceedingly by the recollection of its formercondition, which was so mean and filthy that it not only did notdeserve that God should look upon it, but was unworthy that Heshould even utter its name, as He saith by the mouth of theprophet David: 'Nor will I be mindful of their names by Mylips.' (262) Thus the soul, seeing that there was, and that therecan be, nothing in itself to attract the eyes of God, but that allcomes from Him of pure grace and goodwill, attributes its miseryto itself, and all the blessings it enjoys to the Beloved; andseeing further that because of these blessings it can merit nowwhat it could not merit before, it becomes bold with God, andprays for the divine spiritual union, wherein its mercies aremultiplied. This is the subject of the following stanza:
Despise me not,
For if I was swarthy once,
Thou canst regard me now;
Since Thou hast regarded me,
Grace and beauty hast Thou given me.
1 THE soul now is becoming bold, and respects itself, because of thegifts and endowments which the Beloved has bestowed upon it. Itrecognises that these things, while itself is worthless andunderserving, are at least means of merit, and consequently itventures to say to the Beloved, 'Do not disregard me now, ordespise me'; for if before it deserved contempt because of thefilthiness of its sin, and the meanness of its nature, now that Hehas once looked upon it, and thereby adorned it with grace andbeauty, He may well look upon it a second time and increase itsgrace and beauty. That He has once done so, when the soul deservedit not, and had no attractions for Him, is reason enough why Heshould do so again and again.
'Despise me not.'
2. The soul does not say this because it desires in any way to beesteemed--for contempt and insult are of great price, andoccasions of joy to the soul that truly loves God--but because itacknowledges that in itself it merits nothing else, were it notfor the gifts and graces it has received from God, as it appearsfrom the words that follow.
'For if I was swarthy once.'
3. ÔIf, before Thou didst graciously look upon me Thou didst findme in my filthiness, black with imperfections and sins, andnaturally mean and vile,'
'Thou canst regard me now; since Thou hast regarded me.Õ
4. After once looking upon me, and taking away my swarthycomplexion, defiled by sin and disagreeable to look upon, whenThou didst render me lovely for the first time, Thou mayest welllook upon me now--that is, now I may be looked on and deserve tobe regarded, and thereby to receive further favours at Thy hands.For Thine eyes, when they first looked upon me, did not only takeaway my swarthy complexion, but rendered me also worthy of Thyregard; for in Thy look of love,--
'Grace and beauty hast Thou given me.'
5. The two preceding lines are a commentary on the words of St.John, 'grace for grace,' (263) for when God beholds a soul that islovely in His eyes He is moved to bestow more grace upon itbecause He dwells well-pleased within it. Moses knew this, andprayed for further grace: he would, as it were, constrain God togrant it because he had already received so much 'Thou hast said:I know thee by name, and thou hast found favour in My sight: iftherefore I have found favour in Thy sight, show me Thy face, thatI may know Thee, and may find grace before Thine eyes.' (264)
6. Now a soul which in the eyes of God is thus exalted in grace,honourable and lovely, is for that reason an object of Hisunutterable love. If He loved that soul before it was in a stateof grace, for His own sake, He loves it now, when in a state ofgrace, not only for His own sake, but also for itself. Thusenamoured of its beauty, through its affections and good works,now that it is never without them, He bestows upon it continuallyfurther grace and love, and the more honourable and exalted Herenders that soul, the more is He captivated by it, and thegreater His love for it.
7. God Himself sets this truth before us, saying to His people, bythe mouth of the prophet, 'since thou becamest honourable in Myeyes, and glorious, I have loved thee.' (265) That is, 'Since Ihave cast Mine eyes upon thee, and thereby showed thee favour, andmade thee glorious and honourable in My sight, thou hast meritedother and further favours'; for to say that God loves, is to saythat He multiplies His grace. The bride in the Canticle speaks tothe same effect, saying, 'I am black, but beautiful, O yedaughters of Jerusalem.' (266) and the Church adds, (267) saying,'Therefore hath the King loved me, and brought me into His secretchamber.' This is as much as saying: 'O ye souls who have noknowledge nor understanding of these favours, marvel not that theheavenly King has shown such mercy unto me as to plunge me in thedepths of His love, for, though I am swarthy, He has so regardedme, after once looking upon me, that He could not be satisfiedwithout betrothing me to Himself, and calling me into the innerchamber of His love.'
8. Who can measure the greatness of the soul's exaltation when Godis pleased with it? No language, no imagination is sufficient forthis; for in truth God doeth this as God, to show that it is Hewho does it. The dealings of God with such a soul may in somedegree be understood; but only in this way, namely, that He givesmore to him who has more, and that His gifts are multiplied inproportion to the previous endowments of the soul. This is whatHe teaches us Himself in the Gospel, saying; 'He that hath to himshall be given, and he shall abound: but he that hath not, fromhim shall be taken away even that which he hath.' (268)
9. Thus the talent of that servant, not then in favour with hislord, was taken from him and given to another who had gainedothers, so that the latter might have all, together with thefavour of his lord. (269) God heaps the noblest and the greatestfavours of His house, which is the Church militant as well as theChurch triumphant, upon him who is most His friend, ordaining itthus for His greater honour and glory, as a great light absorbsmany little lights. This is the spiritual sense of those words,already cited, (270) the prophet Isaias addressed to the people ofIsrael: 'I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thySaviour: I have given Egypt for thy atonement and Saba for thee.I will give men for thee, and people for thy life.' (271)
10. Well mayest Thou then, O God, gaze upon and prize that soulwhich Thou regardest, for Thou hast made it precious by lookingupon it, and given it graces which in Thy sight are precious, andby which Thou art captivated. That soul, therefore, deserves thatThou shouldest regard it not only once, but often, seeing thatThou hast once looked upon it; for so is it written in the book ofEsther by the Holy Ghost: 'This honour is he worthy of, whom theking hath a mind to honour.' (272)
NOTE
THE gifts of love which the Bridegroom bestows on the soul in thisstate are inestimable; the praises and endearing expressions ofdivine love which pass so frequently between them are beyond allutterance. The soul is occupied in praising Him, and in giving Himthanks; and He in exalting, praising, and thanking the soul, as wesee in the Canticle, where He thus speaks to the bride: 'Behold,thou art fair, O My love, behold, thou art fair; thy eyes are asthose of doves.' The bride replies: 'Behold, thou art fair, myBeloved, and comely.' (273) These, and other like expressions,are addressed by them each to the other.
2. In the previous stanza the soul despised itself, and said itwas swarthy and unclean, praising Him for His beauty and grace,Who, by looking upon the soul, rendered it gracious and beautiful.He, Whose way it is to exalt the humble, fixing His eyes upon thesoul, as He was entreated to do, praises it in the followingstanza. He does not call it swarthy, as the soul calls itself,but He addresses it as His white dove, praising it for its gooddispositions, those of a dove and a turtle-dove.
THE BRIDEGROOM
The little white dove
Has returned to the ark with the bough;
And now the turtle-dove
Its desired mate
On the green banks has found.
1 IT is the Bridegroom Himself who now speaks. He celebrates thepurity of the soul in its present state, the rich rewards it hasgained, in having prepared itself, and laboured to come to Him. Healso speaks of its blessedness in having found the Bridegroom inthis union, and of the fulfilment of all its desires, the delightand joy it has in Him now that all the trials of life and time areover.
'The little white dove.'
2. He calls the soul, on account of its whiteness and purity--effects of the grace it has received at the hands of God--a dove,'the little white dove,' for this is the term He applies to it inthe Canticle, to mark its simplicity, its natural gentleness, andits loving contemplation. The dove is not only simple, and gentlewithout gall, but its eyes are also clear, full of love. TheBridegroom, therefore, to point out in it this character or lovingcontemplation, wherein it looks upon God, says of it that its eyesare those of a dove: 'Thy eyes are dove's eyes.' (274)
'Has returned to the ark with the bough.'
3. Here the Bridegroom compares the soul to the dove of Noe's ark,the going and returning of which is a figure of what befalls thesoul. For as the dove went forth from the ark, and returnedbecause it found no rest for its feet on account of the waters ofthe deluge, until the time when it returned with the olive branchin its mouth--a sign of the mercy of God in drying the waterswhich had covered the earth--so the soul went forth at itscreation out of the ark of God's omnipotence, and having traversedthe deluge of its sins and imperfections, and finding no rest forits desires, flew and returned on the air of the longings of itslove to the ark of its Creator's bosom; but it only effected anentrance when God had dried the waters of its imperfections. Thenit returned with the olive branch, that is, the victory over allthings by His merciful compassion, to this blessed and perfectrecollection in the bosom of the Beloved, not only triumphant overall its enemies, but also rewarded for its merits; for both theone and the other are symbolised by the olive bough. Thus thedove-soul returns to the ark of God not only white and pure as itwent forth when He created it, but with the olive branch of rewardand peace obtained by the conquest of itself.
'And now the turtle dove its desired mate
on the green banks has found.'
4. The Bridegroom calls the soul the turtle-dove, because when itis seeking after the Beloved it is like the turtle-dove when itcannot find its desired mate. It is said of the turtle-dove, whenit cannot find its mate, that it sitteth not on the green boughs,nor drinketh of the cool refreshing waters, nor retireth to theshade, nor mingleth with companions; but when it finds its matethen it doeth all this.
5. Such, too, is the condition of the soul, and necessarily, if itis to attain to union with the Bridegroom. The soul's love andanxiety must be such that it cannot rest on the green boughs ofany joy, nor drink of the waters of this world's honour and glory,nor recreate itself with any temporal consolation, nor shelteritself in the shade of created help and protection: it must reposenowhere, it must avoid the society of all its inclinations, mournin its loneliness, until it shall find the Bridegroom to itsperfect contentment.
6. And because the soul, before it attained to this estate, soughtthe Beloved in great love, and was satisfied with nothing short ofHim, the Bridegroom here speaks of the end of its labours, and thefulfilment of its desires, saying: 'Now the turtle-dove itsdesired mate on the green banks has found.' That is: Now thebride-soul sits on the green bough, rejoicing in her Beloved,drinks of the clear waters of the highest contemplation and of thewisdom of God; is refreshed by the consolations it finds in Him,and is also sheltered under the shadow of His favour andprotection, which she had so earnestly desired. There is shedeliciously and divinely comforted, refreshed and nourished, asshe saith in the, Canticle: 'I sat down under His shadow Whom Idesired, and His fruit was sweet to my palate.' (275)
NOTE
THE Bridegroom proceeds to speak of the satisfaction which Hederives from the happiness which the bride has found in thatsolitude wherein she desired to live--a stable peace andunchangeable good. For when the bride is confirmed in thetranquillity of her soul and solitary love of the Bridegroom, shereposes so sweetly in the love of God, and God also in her, thatshe requires no other means or masters to guide her in the way ofGod; for God Himself is now her light and guide, fulfilling in herwhat He promised by the mouth of Oseas, saying: 'I will lead herinto the wilderness, and I will speak to her heart.' (276) Thatis, it is in solitude that He communicates Himself, and unitesHimself, to the soul, for to speak to the heart is to satisfy theheart, and no heart can be satisfied with less than God. And sothe Bridegroom Says:
In solitude she lived,
And in solitude built her nest;
And in solitude, alone
Hath the Beloved guided her,
In solitude also wounded with love.
1 IN this stanza the Bridegroom is doing two things: one is, He ispraising the solitude in which the soul once lived, for it was themeans whereby it found the Beloved, and rejoiced in Him, away fromall its former anxieties and troubles. For, as the soul abode insolitude, abandoning all created help and consolation, in order toobtain the fellowship and union of the Beloved, it deservedthereby possession of the peace of solitude in the Beloved, inWhom it reposes alone, undisturbed by any anxieties.
2. The second is this: the Bridegroom is saying that, inasmuch asthe soul has desired to be alone, far away, for His sake, from allcreated things, He has been enamoured of it because of itsloneliness, has taken care of it, held it in His arms, fed it withall good things, and guided it to the deep things of God. He doesnot merely say that He is now the soul's guide, but that He is itsonly guide, without any intermediate help, either of angels or ofmen, either of forms or of figures; for the soul in this solitudehas attained to true liberty of spirit, and is wholly detachedfrom all subordinate means.
'In solitude she lived.'
3. The turtle-dove, that is, the soul, lived in solitude beforeshe found the Beloved in this state of union; for the soul thatlongs after God derives no consolation from any othercompanionship,--yea, until it finds Him everything does butincrease its solitude.
'And in solitude built her nest.'
4. The previous solitude of the soul was its voluntary privationof all the comforts of this world, for the sake of the Bridegroom--as in the instance of the turtledove--its striving afterperfection, and acquiring that perfect solitude wherein it attainsto union with the Word, and in consequence to complete refreshmentand repose. This is what is meant by 'nest'; and the words of thestanza may be thus explained: 'In that solitude, wherein the brideformerly lived, tried by afflictions and troubles, because she wasnot perfect, there, in that solitude, hath she found refreshmentand rest, because she has found perfect rest in God.' This, too,is the spiritual sense of these words of the Psalmist: 'Thesparrow hath found herself a house, and the turtle a nest forherself, where she may lay her young ones; (277) that is, a surestay in God, in Whom all the desires and powers of the soul aresatisfied.'
'And in solitude.'
5. In the solitude of perfect detachment from all things, whereinit lives alone with God--there He guides it, moves it, andelevates it to divine things. He guides the understanding in theperception of divine things, because it is now detached from allstrange and contrary knowledge, and is alone. He moves the willfreely to love Himself, because it is now alone, disencumberedfrom all other affections. He fills the memory with divineknowledge, because that also is now alone, emptied of allimaginations and fancies. For the instant the soul clears andempties its faculties of all earthly objects, and from attachmentsto higher things, keeping them in solitude, God immediately fillsthem with the invisible and divine; it being God Himself Whoguides it in this solitude. St. Paul says of the perfect, thatthey 'are led by the Spirit of God,' (278) and that is the same assaying 'In solitude hath He guided her.'
'Alone hath the Beloved guided her.'
6. That is, the Beloved not only guides the soul in its solitude,but it is He alone Who works in it directly and immediately. Itis of the nature of the soul's union with God in the spiritualmarriage that God works directly, and communicates Himselfimmediately, not by the ministry of angels or by the help ofnatural capacities. For the exterior and interior senses, allcreated things, and even the soul itself, contribute very littletowards the reception of those great supernatural favours whichGod bestows in this state; yea, rather, inasmuch as they do notfall within the cognizance of natural efforts, ability andapplication, God effects them alone.
7. The reason is, that He finds the soul alone in its solitude,and therefore will not give it another companion, nor will Heentrust His work to any other thanHimself.
8. There is a certain fitness in this; for the soul havingabandoned all things, and passed through all the ordinary means,rising above them unto God, God Himself becomes the guide, and theway to Himself. The soul in solitude, detached from all things,having now ascended above all things, nothing now can profit orhelp it to ascend higher except the Bridegroom Word Himself, Who,because enamoured of the bride, will Himself alone bestow thesegraces on the soul. And so He says:
'In solitude also wounded with love.'
9. That is, the love of the bride; for the Bridegroom not onlyloves greatly the solitude of the soul, but is also wounded withlove of her, because the soul would abide in solitude anddetachment, on account of its being itself wounded with love ofHim. He will not, therefore, leave it alone; for being woundedwith love because of the soul's solitude on His account, andseeing that nothing else can satisfy it, He comes Himself to bealone its guide, drawing it to, and absorbing it in, Himself. ButHe would not have done so if He had not found it in this spiritualsolitude.
NOTE
IT is a strange characteristic of persons in love that they take amuch greater pleasure in their loneliness than in the company ofothers. For if they meet together in the presence of others withwhom they need have no intercourse, and from whom they havenothing to conceal, and if those others neither address them norinterfere with them, yet the very fact of their presence issufficient to rob the lovers of all pleasure in their meeting.The cause of this lies in the fact that love is the union of twopersons, who will not communicate with each other if they are notalone. And now the soul, having reached the summit of perfection,and liberty of spirit in God, all the resistance andcontradictions of the flesh being subdued, has no other occupationor employment than indulgence in the joys of its intimate love ofthe Bridegroom. It is written of holy Tobias, after the trials ofhis life were over, that God restored his sight, and that 'therest of his life was in joy.' (279) So is it with the perfectsoul, it rejoices in the blessings that surround it.
2. The prophet Isaias says of the soul which, having been tried inthe works of perfection has arrived at the goal desired: 'Thylight shall arise up in darkness, and thy darkness shall be as thenoonday. And the Lord will give thee rest always, and will fillthy soul with brightness, and deliver thy bones, and thou shalt beas a watered garden and as a fountain of water whose waters shallnot fail. And the deserts of the world shall be builded in thee:thou shalt raise up the foundations of generation and generation;and thou shalt be called the builder of the hedges, turning thepaths into rest. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, fromdoing thy will in My holy day, and call the Sabbath delicate, andthe Holy of our Lord glorious, and glorify Him while thou doestnot thine own ways, and thy will be not found, to speak a word:then shalt thou be delighted in the Lord, and I will lift thee upabove the heights of the earth, and will feed thee with theinheritance of Jacob thy father,' (280) Who is God Himself. Thesoul, therefore, has nothing else to do now but to rejoice in thedelights of this pasture, and one thing only to desire--theperfect fruition of it in everlasting life. Thus, in the next andthe following stanzas it implores the Beloved to admit it intothis beatific pasture in the clear vision of God, and says:
THE BRIDE
Let us rejoice, O my Beloved,
Let us go forth to see ourselves in Thy beauty,
To the mountain and the hill,
Where the pure water flows:
Let us enter into the heart of the thicket.
1 THE perfect union of love between itself and God being noweffected, the soul longs to occupy itself with those things thatbelong to love. It is the soul which is now speaking, making threepetitions to the Beloved. In the first place, it asks for the joyand sweetness of love, saying, 'Let us rejoice.' In the secondplace, it prays to be made like Him, saying, 'Let us go forth tosee ourselves in Thy beauty.' In the third place, it begs to beadmitted to the knowledge of His secrets, saying, 'Let us enterinto the heart of the thicket.'
'Let us rejoice, O my Beloved.'
2. That is, in the sweetness of our love; not only in thatsweetness of ordinary union, but also in that which flows fromactive and affective love, whether in the will by an act ofaffection, or outwardly in good works which tend to the service ofthe Beloved. For love, as I have said, where it is firmly rooted,ever runs after those joys and delights which are the acts ofexterior and interior love. All this the soul does that it may bemade like to the Beloved.
'Let us go forth to see ourselves in Thy beauty.'
3. 'Let us so act, that, by the practice of this love, we may cometo see ourselves in Thy beauty in everlasting life.' That is: 'Letme be so transformed in Thy beauty, that, being alike in beauty,we may see ourselves both in Thy beauty; having Thy beauty, sothat, one beholding the other, each may see his own beauty in theother, the beauty of both being Thine only, and mine absorbed init. And thus I shall see Thee in Thy beauty, and myself in Thybeauty, and Thou shalt see me in Thy beauty; and I shall seemyself in Thee in Thy beauty, and Thou Thyself in me in Thybeauty; so shall I seem to be Thyself in Thy beauty, and Thoumyself in Thy beauty; my beauty shall be Thine, Thine shall bemine, and I shall be Thou in it, and Thou myself in Thine ownbeauty; for Thy beauty will be my beauty, and so we shall see,each the other, in Thy beauty.'
4. This is the adoption of the sons of God, who may truly say whatthe Son Himself says to the Eternal Father: 'All My things areThine, and Thine are Mine,' (281) He by essence, being the Son ofGod by nature, we by participation, being sons by adoption. ThisHe says not for Himself only, Who is the Head, but for the wholemystical body, which is the Church. For the Church will share inthe very beauty of the Bridegroom in the day of her triumph, whenshe shall see God face to face. And this is the vision which thesoul prays that the Bridegroom and itself may go in His beauty tosee.
'To the mountain and the hill.'
5. That is, to the morning and essential knowledge of God, (282)which is knowledge in the Divine Word, Who, because He is so high,is here signified by 'the mountain.' Thus Isaias saith, callingupon men to know the Son of God: 'Come, and let us go up to themountain of our Lord'; (283) and before: 'In the last days themountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared.' (284)
'And to the hill.'
6. That is, to the evening knowledge of God, to the knowledge ofHim in His creatures, in His works, and in His marvellous laws.This is signified by the expression 'hill,' because it is a kindof knowledge lower than the other. The soul prays for both when itsays 'to the mountain and the hill.'
7. When the soul says, 'Let us go forth to see ourselves in Thybeauty to the mountain,' its meaning is, 'Transform me, and makeme like the beauty of the Divine Wisdom, the Word, the Son ofGod.' When it says 'to the hill,' the meaning is, 'Do Thouinstruct me in the beauty of this lower knowledge, which ismanifest in Thy creatures and mysterious works.' This also is thebeauty of the Son of God, wherewith the soul desires to shine.
8. But the soul cannot see itself in the beauty of God if it benot transformed in His wisdom, wherein all things are seen andpossessed, whether in heaven or in earth. It was to this mountainand to this hill the bride longed to come when she said, 'I willgo to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.'(285) The mountain of myrrh is the clear vision of God, and thehill of frankincense the knowledge of Him in His works, for themyrrh on the mountain is of a higher order than the incense on thehill.
'Where the pure water flows.'
9. This is the wisdom and knowledge of God, which cleanse theunderstanding, and detach it from all accidents and fancies, andwhich clear it of the mist of ignorance. The soul is everinfluenced by this desire of perfectly and clearly understandingthe divine verities, and the more it loves the more it desires topenetrate them, and hence the third petition which it makes:
'Let us enter into the heart of the thicket;'
10. Into the depths of God's marvellous works and profoundjudgments. Such is their multitude and variety, that they may becalled a thicket. They are so full of wisdom and mystery, that wemay not only call them a thicket, but we may even apply to themthe words of David: 'The mountain of God is a rich mountain, amountain curdled as cheese, a rich mountain.' (286) The thicketof the wisdom and knowledge of God is so deep, and so immense,that the soul, how much soever it knows of it, can alwayspenetrate further within it, because it is so immense and soincomprehensible. 'O the depth,' cries out the Apostle, 'ofthe riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! Howincomprehensible are His judgments, and how unsearchable Hisways!' (287)
11. But the soul longs to enter this thicket andincomprehensibility of His judgments, for it is moved by thatlonging for a deeper knowledge of them. That knowledge is aninestimable delight, transcending all understanding. David,speaking of the sweetness of them, saith: 'The judgments of ourLord are true, justified in themselves, to be desired above goldand many precious stones, and sweeter than honey and the honey-comb. For Thy servant keepeth them.' (288) The soul thereforeearnestly longs to be engulfed in His judgments, and to have adeeper knowledge of them, and for that end would esteem it a joyand great consolation to endure all sufferings and afflictions inthe world, and whatever else might help it to that end, howeverhard and painful it might be; it would gladly pass through theagonies of death to enter deeper into God.
12. Hence, also, the thicket, which the soul desires to enter, maybe fittingly understood as signifying the great and many trialsand tribulations which the soul longs for, because suffering ismost sweet and most profitable to it, inasmuch as it is the way bywhich it enters more and more into the thicket of the deliciouswisdom of God. The most pure suffering leads to the most pure andthe deepest knowledge, and consequently to the purest and highestjoy, for that is the issue of the deepest knowledge. Thus, thesoul, not satisfied with ordinary suffering, says, 'Let us enterinto the heart of the thicket,' even the anguish of death, that Imay see God.
13. Job, desiring to suffer that he might see God, thus speaks'Who will grant that my request may come, and that God may give mewhat I look for? And that He that hath begun may destroy me, thatHe may let loose His hand and cut me off? And that this may be mycomfort, that afflicting me with sorrow, He spare not.' (289) Othat men would understand how impossible it is to enter thethicket, the manifold riches of the wisdom of God, withoutentering into the thicket of manifold suffering making it thedesire and consolation of the soul; and how that the soul whichreally longs for the divine wisdom longs first of all for thesufferings of the Cross, that it may enter in.
14. For this cause it was that St. Paul admonished the Ephesiansnot to faint in their tribulations, but to take courage: 'Thatbeing rooted and founded in charity, you may be able to comprehendwith all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and height,and depth; to know also the charity of Christ, which surpassethall knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fulness ofGod.' (290) The gate by which we enter into the riches of theknowledge of God is the Cross; and that gate is narrow. They whodesire to enter in that way are few, while those who desire thejoys that come by it are many.
NOTE
ONE of the principal reasons why the soul desires to be releasedand to be with Christ, is, that it may see Him face to face, andpenetrate to the depths of His waysand the eternal mysteries ofHis incarnation, which is not the least part of its blessedness;for in the Gospel of St. John He, addressing the Father, said:'Now this is eternal life: that they may know Thee, the only trueGod, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent.' (291) As the first actof a person who has taken a long journey is to see and conversewith him whom he was in search of, so the first thing which thesoul desires, when it has attained to the beatific vision, is toknow and enjoy the deep secrets and mysteries of the incarnationand the ancient ways of God depending on them. Thus the soul,having said that it longed to see itself in the beauty of God,sings as in the following stanza:
John, Spiritual Canticle 31