This book seems to me to be an epithalamium, that is, a marriage song, written by Solomon in the style of a drama, which he sang like a bride who is get-ting married and burning with a heavenly love toward her husband, which is the Word of God. . . .

Let us come to the things that must be discussed: first, to examine a few things about love itself, which is the main reason for this writing, and next about the order of the books of Solo-mon, in which this book seems to have been placed in the third place. Then we will examine the title of the book itself, why it is given the superscription Song of Songs.

Another Solomon is signified here: one who is also descended from the seed of David according to the flesh, one whose name means peace, the true king of Israel and builder of God’s temple. This other Solomon comprehends the knowledge of all things. His wisdom is infinite and his very essence is wisdom, truth, as well as every exalted, divine name and thought. [Christ] used Solomon as an instrument and speaks to us through his voice first in Proverbs and then in Ecclesiastes. After these two books he speaks in the philosophy set forth in the Song of Songs and shows us the ascent to perfection in an orderly fashion. . . .

It is not accidental, I think, that the book is ascribed to Solomon. This serves as an indication to readers to expect something great and divine. . . . Proverbs teaches in one way and Ecclesiastes in another; the philosophy of the Song of Songs transcends both by its loftier teaching.

And let us first attempt to investigate concerning the reason why it is that, although the churches of God have received three volumes written by Solomon, the book of Proverbs was put first among them, then second the book which is called Ecclesiastes, and the volume of the Song of Songs is reckoned in the third place. . . . We can call these moral, natural, and contemplative. . . . Now the moral discipline is called that through which the honest morals of living are applied and practices that tend toward virtue are prepared. It is called the natural discipline where the nature of each and every object is discussed so that nothing is done contrary to nature in life, but each thing is considered in its uses for which it was made by its Creator. It is called the contemplative discipline by which we pass over visible things and contemplate something about the divine and heavenly matters and view them with that mind alone, because we are passing over their bodily appearance.

Some wise men of the Greeks taught things that they had taken from Solomon, on the grounds that he had taught them through the Spirit of God in a time and age long before them. . . . Solomon found these things before them and taught them through the wisdom that he received from God, as it is written, And God gave Solomon understanding and very much wisdom and a breadth of heart like the sand on the shore of the sea. And wisdom multiplied in him above all the ancient sons of men and above all the wise men of Egypt.^[1] Therefore, since Solomon wished to distinguish and separate those three disciplines (i.e., the moral, the natural and the contemplative), which earlier we said were the general disciplines, he published them in three books, with the individual books connected to the one following, each one in its own order.

Therefore, first in Proverbs he taught the moral topic by writing down the practices of life in succinct and brief adages. But he covered the second topic, which is called natural, in Ecclesiastes, in which he discusses many things about the world, separates the empty and vain items from the useful and necessary, and admonishes us to leave vanity and pursue the useful and proper things. He handles the contemplative topic in this book, which is now held in our hands, that is, in the Song of Songs, in which he instills into the soul the love of heavenly affairs and the desire for divine matters, all under the guise of a bride and groom, thereby teaching how to arrive at fellowship with God through the paths of charity and love.

This book is located last so that someone would come to it when he has been cleansed in his morals and has learned the knowledge of and distinction between corruptible and incorruptible things. This is so that he may not be offended in any of those figures by which the love of the bride for her heavenly bridegroom (which is really the love of the perfect soul for the Word of God) is described and formulated. For once those things have been dealt with, by which the soul is purified through its acts and morals and is led to the distinguishing of natural matters, one comes competently to dogmatics and to mystical matters and ascends to a contemplation of the Godhead with a sincere and spiritual love.

Let us, therefore, understand the church as the bride, and Christ as the bridegroom, and as the young girls attending the bride souls that are pious and youthful, who have not yet attained the virtue of the bride and been accorded perfection—hence their attending on the bride but not being called brides.

It is also necessary to say by way of introduction that three works belong to Solomon: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs. Proverbs offers those interested moral benefit, while Ecclesiastes comments on the nature of visible realities and thoroughly explains the futility of the present life so that we may learn its transitory character, despise passing realities and long for the future as something lasting. The Song of Songs . . . brings out the mystical intercourse between the bride and the bridegroom, the result being that the whole of Solomon’s work constitutes a kind of ladder with three steps—moral, physical and mystical. That is to say, the person approaching a religious way of life must first purify the mind with good behavior, then strive to discern the futility of impermanent things and the transitory character of what seems pleasant, and then finally take wings and long for the bridegroom, who promises eternal goods. Hence this book is placed third, so the person treading this path comes to perfection.

Let us set about the commentary by making this considerable recommendation to those reading it, not to charge us with plagiarism if they find in our commentary something said by the fathers. We admit, in fact, that we have found in them the basis for clear exposition; far from being plagiarism, however, such material is an inheritance from our forebears. Some things that we include we have taken from them, other things we came up with ourselves and added; some things expressed at length by certain commentators we abbreviated, other things requiring further work we developed.

Let us consider why on earth Solomon the sage called it not Song but Song of Songs; after all, the fact that nothing that is the result of the divine Spirit’s action is said idly and to no purpose is clear to people of a sober and pious mind. This being the case, the question needs to be asked why the work is called Song of Songs and not Song. In fact, we find many songs, psalms, hymns and odes, oral and written, both in blessed David and in the biblical authors before him and after him. . . .

Solomon the sage . . . composed a song that was not for triumph in battle or for morning prayer but for a wedding. . . .

The Song of Songs . . . outlines his wedding and depicts his love for the bride. Bride is the term he uses of the people who in the above songs have been freed from captivity, have attained their freedom and associated themselves to the king, retaining an indelible memory of his favors, giving evidence of great benevolence and affection for him and constantly attending on him. Then, when the powers on high enquire, Who is the king of glory?^[1] they long to be with him, unable to bear being separated even for a short space of time from their savior. This is the reason this book is called the Song of Songs, the phrase suggesting that those other songs were composed with a view to this song, and the others lead to this one. . . .

This is the reason, therefore, that the book is called the Song of Songs, in that it teaches us the major forms of God’s goodness and reveals to us the innermost recesses and the holiest of holy mysteries of divine loving-kindness.

Therefore, in this book, which had to be written about the love of the groom and the bride, it is well written so that neither son of David nor king nor any of those things is used as the groom’s name, because it could be understood to pertain to the corporeal realm. Thus, rightly let the bride now made perfect say about him, Although we knew Christ at some time according to the flesh, now we however no longer know him in this way,^[1] lest someone think that she loved something corporeal or enfleshed and lest some fault be believed to be brought into her love. Therefore, it is only the Song of Songs of Solomon and not of the Son of David or the king of Israel and no other understanding at all of a fleshly name is mixed among them.

But even here it does not escape notice that some wirte the title of this book as Songs of Songs, which is not written correctly, for it is not a plural but a singular Song that is written here: Song of Songs.

They take it to mean that this Song is of the Songs of Solomon, as if he designated this one alone from his rather many songs. But how will we accept an interpretation of this kind, when the church of God has not accepted any songs of Solomon outside the canon that must be read and, when among the Hebrews, from whom the eloquence of God seems to have been brought to us, no other song is held canonical other than these three books of Solomon that are canonical among us?

For thus is it called the Canticle of Canticles, inasmuch as it is above every canticle that Moses and Mary in Exodus and Isaiah and Habakkuk and others sang. These are better canticles because they give praise to the Lord with joyful mind and soul for the liberation of the people, or for their conversion, or in gratitude for the divine works. Here they are superior also because the voice of the singing church and of God is heard. Because the divine and human are united with one another, therefore, it is called the Canticle of Canticles, that is, the best of the best.

Some commentators misrepresent the Song of Songs, believe it to be not a spiritual book [and] come up instead with some fanciful stories inferior even to babbling old wives’ tales and dare to claim that Solomon the sage wrote it as a factual account of himself and the Pharaoh’s daughter. . . . Those of a more serious frame of mind, on the contrary, gave the name royal to the material, and saw the people referred to as the bride and the groom. . . .

My view is that when they read this composition and noticed in it unguents, kisses, thighs, belly, navel, cheeks, eyes, lilies, apples, nard, ointment, myrrh and the like, in their ignorance of the characteristics of the divine Scripture they were unwilling to get beyond the surface, penetrate the veil of the expression, gain entrance in spirit and behold the glory of the Lord with face unveiled. Rather, they gave the text a corporeal interpretation and were drawn into that awful blasphemy.

Solomon, a lover of peace and of the Lord, corrects morals, teaches nature, unites Christ and the church, and sings a sweet marriage song to celebrate that holy bridal.

But now let us consider first, what are the songs, of which Songs this is said to be a Song. Therefore, I think that they are those songs, which formerly were being sung through the prophets or through the angels. Indeed, the law is said to have been delivered through angels by the hand of an intermediary.^[1] Therefore all those things which were announced to them were the excellent songs of the groom given through friends; that one song is what now the groom himself had to sing as a marriage song when he was about to receive his bride. In this song the bride does not wish to be sung to through the friends of the groom, but she desires to hear the words of the groom himself when he is then present. Thus she says, Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. Thus, it is rightly honored above all songs, for the other songs, which the Law and the Prophets sang, seem to be sung to the bride when she was still a child and had not yet entered the passageway of adulthood, but this song seems to be sung to a woman who is now grown and very strong and who is now capable of manly strength and the perfect mystery.

One must remember what we admonished beforehand in the preface, that this book has the appearance of a marriage song and is composed in the style of a drama. But we have said that a drama is where certain characters are introduced who speak—where some arrive suddenly, others withdraw or come near—and thus everything takes place in the interchanges of the characters. Therefore, this will be the appearance of the entire book; in accordance with this, an historical exposition will be applied by us with all our might. But nonetheless, according to what we have indicated in the preface, a spiritual understanding is established underneath the guise of bride and groom; it is either about the church speaking to Christ or about the soul being joined to the Word of God.

Therefore, now let a certain bride be introduced in the guise of an historical account. She will have received from her most noble groom some engagement and dorwry gifts most befitting her title. But as her groom makes a delay for a long time, she worries out of a desire for his love and grows weary as she lies at home and does everything, as much as possible, to see her groom sometime and to enjoy his kisses. Because she sees that her love is kept waiting and cannot acquire what it longs for, she turns to prayer and begs God, since she knows that he is the Father of her groom. . . .

These are those matters, composed in the style of a drama, that an historical explanation covers. But let us see if an inner understanding can aptly be applied in this manner. Let it be the church desiring Christ, her husband . . . and thus let this church be as one person who speaks for all.

But why do we doubt? The church has believed in his goodness all these ages and has confessed its faith in the saying, Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; for your breasts are better than wine, and again, And your throat is like the goodliest wine. Of his goodness, therefore, he nourishes us with the breasts of the law and grace, soothing our sorrows by telling of heavenly things. And do we then deny his goodness, when he is the manifestation of goodness, expressing in his person the likeness of the eternal bounty, even as we showed above that it was written, that he is the spotless reflection and counterpart of that bounty?^[1]

Your breasts are better than wine, signifying by the breasts the heart. Nobody will err if he understands by the heart the hidden, secret power of God. One would rightly suppose that the breasts are the activities of God’s power for us by which he nourishes each one’s life and bestows appropriate nourishment.

When it says your breasts are better than wine, it signifies that the commandments of Christ delight the heart like wine. For, as infants suck upon breasts in order to extract some milk, so also all who suck on the law and the gospel obtain the commandments as eternal food.

But if the breasts of Christ, that is, the source of the Lord’s revelation, are better than the wine of the law, how much more will the wine of Christ, that is, the perfection of evangelical doctrine, surpass all the ceremonies of the law? If the sacraments of his incarnation vivify, how much more will the knowledge and vision of his divinity glorify?

You gave me no kiss, but she, from the moment she entered, has not ceased to kiss my feet.^[1] A kiss is a mark of love. How, then, can a Jew have a kiss, who has not known peace, who has not received peace from Christ when he said, My peace I give you, my peace I leave unto you?^[2] The synagogue has no kiss, but the church has, for she waited and loved and said, Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. She wished with his kiss to quench gradually the burning of the long desire that had grown with longing for the Lord’s coming; she wished to satisfy her thirst with this boon.

I see two attributes that, by coming together, are made one. Justice and peace have kissed. All this becomes one in the mystery of the Lord Savior, the Son of man and of God who is our truth, kindness, peace, justice, in whom the justice of the first people and the mercy of the second people are joined together into one peace. The apostle says, in fact, He himself is our peace, he it is who has made both one.^[1] This is the mystery for which the church longs and cries out in the Song of Solomon: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. This is the kiss of which Paul the apostle says, Greet one another with a holy kiss.^[2]

Let no earthbound and materially minded person, however, be abashed at the mention of kisses. Let them, on the contrary, consider that also at the moment of holy communion we receive the bridegroom’s limbs, caress and embrace them, press them to our heart with our eyes, imagine a kind of embrace, believe ourselves to be with him, embrace him, caress him, love driving out fear, in the words of the divine Scripture. . . .

The Song of Songs introduces the bride saying, Let him kiss me with kisses of his mouth. Now, by kiss we understand not the joining of mouths but the communion of pious soul and divine Word. It is like the bride saying something of this kind, I experienced your words in writing, but I long to hear your very voice as well, I wish to receive the sacred teaching directly from your mouth and to caress it with the lips of my mind.

But the church does not cease to kiss Christ’s feet, and she demands not one but many kisses in the Song of Solomon, since like blessed Mary she listens to his every saying, she receives his every word, when the gospel or prophets are read, and she keeps all these words in her heart.^[1]

Holy church, sighing for the coming of the mediator between God and humanity, for the coming of her Redeemer, prays to the Father that he would send the Son and illuminate him with his presence, that he would speak to the church no longer through the mouths of prophets but by his own mouth.

You deserve, in fact, to kiss Christ and to maintain forever that beauty which is your virginity, for these words are spoken to you: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth, for your breasts are better than wine, fragrant with the best ointments and the other passages which that divine book includes in its mystical proclamation.

The Gentiles who were called did not cease kissing their Redeemer’s feet, because they longed for him with uninterrupted love. Hence the bride in the Song of Songs said of this same Redeemer: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. It is fitting that she desires her Creator’s kiss, as she makes herself ready through her love to obey him.

Therefore such a soul also desires many kisses of the Word, so that she may be enlightened with the light of the knowledge of God. For this is the kiss of the Word, I mean the light of holy knowledge. God the Word kisses us, when he enlightens our heart and governing faculty with the spirit of the knowledge of God. The soul that has received this gift exults and rejoices in the pledge of wedded love and says, I opened my mouth and panted.^[1] For it is with the kiss that lovers cleave to each other and gain possession of the sweetness of grace that is within, so to speak. Through such a kiss the soul cleaves to God the Word, and through the kiss the spirit of him who kisses is poured into the soul, just as those who kiss are not satisfied to touch lightly with their lips but appear to be pouring their spirit into each other. Showing that she loves not only the appearance of the Word and his face, as it were, but all his inner parts, she adds to the favor of the kisses: Your breasts are better than wine, and the fragrance of your ointments is above all perfumes. She sought the kiss, God the Word poured himself into her wholly and laid bare his breasts to her, that is, his teachings and the laws of the wisdom that is within, and was fragrant with the sweet fragrance of his ointments. Captive to these, the soul is saying that the enjoyment of the knowledge of God is richer than the joy of any bodily pleasure.

Having embraced the Word of God, [the soul] desires him above every beauty; she loves him above every joy; she is delighted with him above every perfume; she wishes often to see, often to gaze, often to be drawn to him that she may follow. Your name, she says, is as oil poured out, and that is why we maidens love you and vie with one another but cannot attain to you. Draw us that we may run after you, that from the odor of ointments we may receive the power to follow you.

And in the Songs there are those passionate longings fit only for prostitutes. There are too those other sacred pictures boldly used to represent God, so that what is hidden may be brought out into the open and multiplied, what is unique and undivided may be divided up, and multiple shapes and forms be given to what has neither shape nor form. All this is to enable the one capable of seeing the beauty hidden within these images to find that they are truly mysterious, appropriate to God, and filled with a great theological light.

After this, you went up to the priest. Consider what followed. Was it not that of which David speaks: Like the ointment upon the head, which went down to the beard, even Aaron’s beard?^[1] This is the ointment of which Solomon, too, says, Your name is ointment poured out, therefore have the maidens loved you and drawn you. How many souls regenerated this day have loved you, Lord Jesus, and have said, Draw us after you, we are running after the odor of your garments, that they might drink in the odor of your resurrection.

Consider now why this is done, for the eyes of a wise man are in his head.^[2] Therefore the ointment flows down to the beard, that is to say, to the beauty of youth; and therefore, Aaron’s beard, that we, too, may become a chosen race, priestly and precious, for we are all anointed with spiritual grace for a share in the kingdom of God and in the priesthood.

And as we are examining his name, the seal of all we have said may be found in the oracle of Solomon the wisest of the wise, where he says in the Song of Songs: Your name is as ointment poured forth. Solomon, being supplied with divine wisdom, and thought worthy of more mystical revelations about Christ and his church, and speaking of him as heavenly bridegroom and her as bride, speaks as if to [Christ] and says, Your name, O Bridegroom, is ointment, and not simply ointment, but ointment poured forth. And what name could be more suggestive of ointment poured forth than the name of Christ? For there could be no Christ, and no name of Christ, unless ointment had been poured forth. And in what has gone before I have shown of what nature the ointment was with which Christ was anointed.

It is as when the precious ointment upon the head runs down over the beard, the beard of Aaron.^[1] Oh, if only there were time to explore together each verse; even a day would not suffice! We have read in Exodus^[2] the account of how oil is prepared for the anointing of the priest; we have read, too, of the different kind of balm used to anoint kings. There was still another unguent for prophets. What more is there to say? All these oils of unction were different, each with its own spiritual symbolism. . . . Nothing is ever made sacred except by anointing. It is with this in view that young maidens say in the Song of Solomon, Your name is a spreading perfume: we will run after you in the odor of your ointments.

[Jesus] was anointed with this oil^[1] when he became incarnate. For it was not that the man existed first, then received the Holy Spirit afterwards. Rather, because he became incarnate by the mediation of the Holy Spirit, the man was anointed with this oil at the moment of his creation.

Let it not escape our notice that in some manuscripts we find written because your discourses are better than wine instead of what we read: because your breasts are better than wine. Although it evidently seems to have meant those things which we have discussed in our spiritual interpretation, nonetheless we preserve in all matters the things written by the seventy translators, because we are certain that the Holy Spirit wanted the outlines of the mysteries to be concealed in the divine Scriptures and not to be revealed and out in the open.

The Canticle of Canticles sings a sort of spiritual rapture experienced by holy souls contemplating the nuptial relationship between Christ the King and his queen-city, the church. But it is a rapture veiled in allegory to make us yearn for it more ardently and rejoice in the unveiling as the bridegroom comes into view—the bridegroom to whom the canticle sings, The righteous love you, and the hearkening bride replies, There is love in your delights.^[1]

You see how Truth, having made himself known in the flesh, gave some leaps for us to make us run after him. He exulted like a giant to run his course,^[1] so that we might tell to him from our hearts, Draw me after you; let us run in the fragrance of your ointments.

The one who says draw me has something in mind that he wants but does not have the ability to obtain it. Human nature wants to follow God, but, overcome by habitual infirmity, as it deserves, it cannot follow. He sees therefore that there is something in himself whereby he yearns, but something else whereby he fails to attain. Rightly, then, does he say draw me.

Some great thing it is we are to see, since all our reward is seeing; and our Lord Jesus Christ is that very great sight. He who appeared humble, will himself appear great and will rejoice us, as he is even now seen of his angels. . . . Let us love and imitate him; let us run after his ointments, as is said in the Song of Solomon: Because of the sweet smell of your good ointments, we will run after you. For he came and gave forth a sweet smell that filled the world. Whence was that fragrance? From heaven. Follow then toward heaven, if you do not answer falsely when it is said, Lift up your hearts. Lift up your thoughts, your love, your hope, that it may not rot upon the earth. . . . For wherever your treasure is, there will be your heart also.^[1]

There also—the Lord himself is my witness—when I had shed copious tears and had strained my eyes toward heaven, I sometimes felt myself among angelic hosts and for joy and gladness sang, Because of the sweet smell of your good ointments, we will run after you.

But because this item is referring either to the church coming to Christ or the soul clinging to the Word of God, what else must we believe the bedroom of Christ and storehouse of the Word of God to be, in which he leads either his church or the soul clinging to him, except the hidden and concealed mind of Christ itself?

She is admitted to the inner chamber, the quarters and rooms of the bridegroom, and boastfully says to her own retinue, The king introduced me into his chamber, that is, he revealed to me his hidden purposes, the plan concealed from ages and generations he made known to me,^[1] the treasuries obscure, hidden, and unseen he opened to me, in keeping with the prophecy of Isaiah.^[2]

The church of God is like the house of a certain king. It has a gate, it has a staircase, it has a dining room, and it has a bedroom. Everyone within the church has faith and has already entered the gate to the house, for, just as the gate opens the way to the rest of the house, so does faith provide entrance to the rest of the virtues.

The king introduced me to his treasures. Who is this king, if not Christ himself? And what are these treasures, if not his chambers? This is the people who say, We will rejoice and delight in you, for he calls everyone. First, it tells us about the past, then it reveals a time of penance in the future: We will rejoice and delight in you. I loved your breasts more than wine, not the wine that was mixed by Christ, surely, but the wine whereby Noah previously languished in drunkenness, the wine that deceived Lot. We loved your fonts of milk more than this wine because breasts were the commandments given by Christ; they delight but certainly do not inebriate. For this reason, indeed, the apostle said, Do not drink so much wine that you become drunk.^[1] Therefore the beloved now says, I loved your breasts more than wine; righteousness loves you, because those who follow the way of righteousness are those who love you, whereas unbelievers hate you and deserve retribution from the judge.

The king introduced me to his chambers. This is the church speaking, who confesses Christ the Son of God to be King. But what is the chamber to which Christ the King introduced his queen, the church, if not the mystery of the heavenly kingdom? For who does not know that Christ introduced his church, that is, his own flesh, to that place from which he had descended without flesh, that is, the gates of heaven? We learn that the church is the flesh of Christ from the authority of the apostle, who said the flesh of Christ, which is the church.^[1]

The chambers of the eternal King are the interior joys of the heavenly homeland to which the holy church is now introduced by faith, as it awaits a fuller, future introduction to the reality itself. The young maidens of which it speaks are the faithful souls of the church of Christ who were only recently reborn as members of Christ.

I am dark and lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the coverings of Solomon. In other manuscripts we read, I am black and lovely. Again in this passage the character of the bride is introduced as the one speaking, but she is not speaking to those young women who are accustomed to run with her, but to the daughters of Jerusalem. Although they have derided her for her hideousness, she seems to answer them and say I am indeed dark or black as far as the color is concerned, O daughters of Jerusalem, but I am beautiful, if someone should examine the internal liniments of the limbs. For he also says tents of Kedar, which is a great nation. They are black and the very name of the people Kedar means blackness or darkness. But also the coverings of Solomon are black and nonetheless the blackness of the coverings did not seem unsightly to the king in all his glory.^[1] . . .

This covers the historical drama and the quasi-story that has been set forth. But let us return to the mystical interpretation. This bride who speaks represents the church gathered from the Gentiles; but the daughters of Jerusalem, with whom she hold this discourse . . . are the daughters of this earthly Jerusalem, who see the church from the Gentiles, although they see her as lowborn because she cannot ascribe to herself the noble quality of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. . . .

Responding to these things, she says, Indeed I am black, O daughters of Jerusalem, inasmuch as I am not a descendant from the stock of famous men and I did not receive the illumination of the law of Moses, but I have my beauty with me. For also in me there is that first quality, namely that I was created in the image of God;^[2] and now that I have drawn near to the Word of God, I have received my beauty.

. . . I am indeed black because of the baseness of my ancestry, but I am beautiful because of my repentance and faith. For I received the Son of God in me, I received the Word made flesh. I drew near to him, who is the image of God, the firstborn of all creation^[3] and who is the splendor of the glory and the image of the substance of God,^[4] and I was made beautiful. . . .

But this can be said about each and every soul that is converted to repentance after very many sins: it was black owing to its sins, but beautiful because of its repentance and the fruits of repentance.

Thus some such process also happens to us who are in generation. We are dark at the beginning in believing—hence in the beginning of the Canticle of Canticles it is said, I am very dark and beautiful, and we look like the soul of an Ethiopian at the beginning—then we are cleansed so that we may be more bright according to the passage, Who is she who comes up whitened?^[1]

It is written, Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto God.^[1] In this is signified the appearance of holy church, who says in the Song of Solomon, I am black and comely, O daughters of Jerusalem: black through sin, comely through grace; black by natural condition, comely through redemption, or certainly, black with the dust of her labors. So it is black while fighting but comely when it is crowned with the ornaments of victory.

Born, in the first instance, of such parentage we are naturally black. Even when we have repented, so long as we have not scaled the heights of virtue, we may still say, I am black but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem. . . . For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be not as is there said, of one flesh^[1] but of one spirit. Your bridegroom is not haughty or disdainful; he has married an Ethiopian woman.^[2] When once you desire the wisdom of the true Solomon and come to him, he will avow all his knowledge to you; he will lead you into his chamber with his royal hand.^[3] He will miraculously change your complexion so that it shall be said of you, Who is this that goes up and has been made white?^[4]

The church, having put on these garments through the laver of regeneration,^[1] says in the Song of Songs, I am black and comely, O daughters of Jerusalem. Black through the frailty of its human condition, comely through the sacrament of faith. And the daughters of Jerusalem beholding these garments say in amazement, Who is this that comes up made white?^[2] She was black; how is she now suddenly made white?

Concerning the church which bears the image of the Lord Savior, one reads the following passages in Song of Songs: I am black and beautiful, that is, black with regard to the physical body, but beautiful because of heavenly merits. Then he shows why he used the term beautiful: as Christ says, the world was reconciled to God by grace.^[1]

It is said concerning the church of the Gentiles, I am dark and beautiful, O daughter of Jerusalem. Why is the church dark and beautiful? She is dark by nature, beautiful by grace. Why dark? Indeed, in guilt was I born, and in sin my mother conceived me.^[1] Why beautiful? Cleanse me of sin with hyssop, that I may be purified; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.^[2]

It adds, I was dark and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem. I have to confess that I am astonished at how the church is here called dark and beautiful, since it is not possible for what is dark to be beautiful. How can something dark be so beautiful, or something beautiful be so dark? But pay attention to the mystery of the Word and see how elevated is the sense with which the Holy Spirit speaks. The church called herself dark on account of those from the Gentiles who would become believers, all of whom were seen to be blackened with the filthy smoke of idolatry and sepulcher of sacrifices. But they were made beautiful through faith in Christ and the holiness of the Spirit, whom they received. Hence she said, I was dark because she had not yet seen herself as the sun.

The bride further speaks to her pupils of an amazing fact about herself in order that we might learn of the bridegroom’s immense love for humankind who added beauty to the beloved [bride] through such love. Do not marvel, she says, that righteousness has loved me. Although I have become dark through sin and have dwelt in gloom by my deeds, the bridegroom made me beautiful through his love, having exchanged his very own beauty for my disgrace. After taking the filth of my sins upon himself, he allowed me to share his own purity, and filled me with his beauty. He who first made me lovely from my own repulsiveness has showed his love for me. . . .

The bride says, although the beauty given to me by being loved by righteousness now shines forth, I still realize that in the beginning I was not radiant but black. My former life has created this dark, shadowy appearance. Although I am black, I am now this beautiful form, for the image of darkness has been transformed into beauty. . . .

Then the text adds further words for strengthening the minds of its pupils. The cause of darkness is not ascribed to the Creator, but its origin is attributed to the free will of each person.

The bride is saying this no longer to the young girls but to those taking pride in the law, glorying and boasting, and reproaching her not only for her foreign origins but also for her former superstition and the black color coming from it. Hence she says to them, I am not only black but also beautiful: though once blind, I gained my sight, and though once clad in rags, I am now clothed in a vesture of gold, of a rich variety, enjoying the king’s regard. I attend on the king, displacing you for raging against the king, delivering him to death, and defiling the bridal chamber with a series of adulteries. So do not reproach me for my black color, nor bring my former vices to the fore: I am black, I admit, but beautiful and pleasing to the bridegroom. . . . I too am Ethiopian, then, but the bride of the great lawgiver, daughter of a Midianite priest, an idolatrous man. I forgot my people and my father’s house—hence the king desired my beauty.

So do not gaze on me for my being black, because the sun looked at me; you will see me, black though I now am, made white, and you will cry out, ‘Who is this who emerges in her whiteness?’ I shall tell you also the reason for this blackness: I became black through worshiping creation instead of the Creator, and adoring this visible sun instead of the sun of righteousness. But I saw the difference between the one and the other, and forsook the creature to worship the Creator. So do not gaze on me for being blackened because the sun looked at me—or, as Symmachus says, fastened upon me.^[1] In fact, ‘I am black and beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem’: black as a result of the former impiety, beautiful as a result of repentance; black as a result of un-belief, beautiful as a result of belief. I was as black ‘as the tents of Kedar,’ which means darkness; I became beautiful ‘like Solomon’s curtains.’

In the Song of Songs the bride cries aloud, I am black and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem—black in the sense of deceived, besmirched by the stench of wild beasts, and beautiful in the sense of awaiting for your arrival from heaven as Lord for the sake of my salvation. He suggested at the same time both the gloom of impiety and the charm given by divine grace.

I am black and beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem. I am a sinner, but even more, I am beautiful, because Christ loved me. I am black and beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem. All nations, come and gather and look at me, the beloved. Do not marvel at my countenance because I am darkened or because the sun’s glance has made me swarthy.. . . Nor is it because Christ has despised me, since [Scripture] calls him the true sun, for it says, And the sun of righteousness will appear to you who fear my name.^[1]

For we know that in the first days of the church, when the grace of our Redeemer had been preached, some of the Jews believed and others did not. Those who believed were despised by the unbelievers and suffered persecution as though they had been found guilty of taking the way of the Gentiles. Hence the church in their name cries out against those who had not converted: I am black but beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem.

Black, of course, with the adversity of hardships but beautiful with the adornment of virtue, indeed as much more beautiful in the sight of interior judgment as the vexations of the foolish are greater. It is as though she were befouled with afflictions. The daughters of Jerusalem to whom this speaks are souls imbued with celestial sacraments, yearning for the dwelling of their heavenly homeland. For, consoling them in their tribulations, holy mother said, I am black but beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem, as if she had said more clearly: I appear most vile indeed to the eyes of my persecutors, but I shine with the glorious profession of truth before God. Hence you who recognize that you are citizens of a homeland above must at least be sorrowful in the labors of this exile while you hasten through adversities to the vision of everlasting peace.

[Solomon] took Pharaoh’s daughter as his wife. But . . . she was dark, as all the Egyptian and Ethiopian women are. . . . The Hebrews and their beautiful wives, and the other princesses as well, ridiculed her on account of her unseemliness, her small height and her dark complexion. To avoid any irritation on her part and so that no hostility would result between him and the Pharaoh, Solomon exclusively built for her a house of valuable stones [and decorated it] with gold and silver. During the meals he chanted [the Song of Songs] in her presence in order to honor her, and he made known with it that she was dark yet beautiful and loved by him.

Do not look at me because I have become dark, because the sun looked down upon me. . . .

And so people have existed in this way in all that nation of the Ethiopians, to whom a certain natural blackness resides owing to the succession of fleshly seed, because in those places the sun burns with harsher rays and, once the bodies have been burned and blackened, they remain so as the innate flaw is passed down, generation to generation. But the blackness of the soul belongs to a contrary arrangement; for the soul is burned not by the sun looking at it but by the sun’s looking down upon it; it is obtained not by birth but by neglect; and thus, just as it is acquired by ignorance, so it is driven out and repulsed by diligence.

Therefore, that visible sun does indeed blacken and burn those bodies upon which it settles at noon, but it preserves in its brightness those bodies that are placed far off and far away from its overhead position. It does not at all burn them, but gives light to them. But, in contrast, the true spiritual sun, which is the sun of righteousness in whose wings healing is said to be,^[1] illumines them and surrounds them with every brightness because he has found them of an upright heart and at the zenith of his radiance, but he does not look askance as much as look down upon those who approach him askance, since their own fickleness and instability causes this trouble for them.

For the world was made not through that visible light, because it too is part of this world, but through that true light, by which light we are said to be despised, if we approach it in a crooked way.

Do not look at me, it says, because the sun has not regarded me. The prophet Ezekiel proved that the sun is Christ when he said, upon you who fear the Lord, the sun of righteousness will rise,^[1] who is Christ. For, as I have often said, before the advent of the Son of God, the church of the Gentiles was dark because it had not yet believed in him. But when it was illuminated by Christ the true sun, it was made extremely lovely and decorous, such that the Holy Spirit would say to it through David: the king desired your beauty.^[2]

We understand how the bride is both black and beautiful. But if you too do not repent, beware lest your soul be called black and foul and you be made foul by a double ugliness: black because of your past sins and ugly because you persevere in your vices.

The church says of its weak members, They have put me as a guard in the vineyards; my own vineyard I have not guarded. Our vineyards are our deeds, and we cultivate them by our daily labor. We are put as guards in the vineyards, but we do not cultivate our own. When we are involved with external affairs, we neglect to watch over our own activities.

Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where do you feed your flock, where you lie down? Neither we nor they have any doubt that the bride is speaking to the bridegroom, the church to Christ. But listen to all the words of the bride. Why do you want to attribute to the bridegroom a word that is still in the bride’s part? Let the bride say everything she says, and then the bridegroom will reply. . . .

Midday is coming, you see, when the shepherds take refuge in the shade; and perhaps where you are feeding your flock and lying down will escape me; and I want you to tell me, lest perchance I go as one veiled, that is, as one concealed and not recognized. I am in fact plain to see, but lest as one veiled, as one hidden, I stumble on the flocks of your companions.

Why do I want you to tell me where you graze, where you lie down in the noonday? Lest I should happen, like a veiled woman, on the flocks of your companions. That is the reason, she says, why I want you to tell me where you graze your flock, where you lie down in the noonday. When I come to you I won’t lose my way, lest like a veiled woman I should come upon the flocks of your companions, that is to say, I should stumble on flocks that are not yours but belong to your companions.

With good reason then to this shepherd of shepherds, does his beloved, his spouse, his fair one, but by him made fair, before by sin deformed, beautiful afterward through pardon and grace, speak in her love and ardor after him, and say to him, Where do you feed? And observe how, by what transport this spiritual love is here animated. And far better are they by this transport delighted who have tasted of the sweetness of this love. They bear this properly who love Christ. For in them, and of them, does the church sing this in the Song of Songs.

I linger long in the land of the midday sun, for it was there and then that the spouse found her bridegroom at rest.

You see that it is not in the third hour that the spouse dines or reclines but at midday. Where do you dine, where do you rest, where shall I find you, where do you enjoy delights, where can I find you, O my spouse? Do you want to find me? At noon, in perfect knowledge, in good works, in the bright light. Because we have the noonday, that is why the devil disguises himself as an angel of light^[1] and pretends that he has the light, that he has the noonday. When heretics promise any pseudo-mysteries, when they promise the kingdom of heaven, when they promise continence, fasts, sanctity, the renunciation of the world, they promise the noonday. But since their midday is not the light of Christ, it is not the noonday but the noonday demon.

That which we said about heretical teachers we can also say about catholics who do not behave properly. For many of the faithful poor within the church seek to live rightly, desire to maintain a just life, and consider the example of the priests who were set over them. Thus, as long as the priests themselves do not live righteous lives, as long as they who preside do not act properly, they who follow also slip into error. This is why the church says, as though in the name of the poor and faithful, Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where do you pasture, where do you rest at noon?

It is logical for the bride to enquire at the time of midday where the bridegroom takes his rest because when the light of knowledge became stronger, heresies developed which, while bearing the name of Christians, were nevertheless devoid of truth. This is the reason she is exercised and anxious to learn the spot where the bridegroom rests the sheep, the risk of falling in with the flocks of so-called companions. It should be understood that just as there were the prophets and the false prophets opposed to them, and likewise apostles and false apostles of an opposite mind, so too false Christs are referred to in the divine Scripture. Hence the Lord also says, Many false prophets will rise up and will lead many people astray.^[1] And blessed Paul was in the habit of speaking not only of false brethren but also of false apostles—hence his remark, For such people are false apostles.^[2] The bride begs not to fall in with these people since they give the appearance of shepherds and likewise seem to have flocks and herds. Of such kind are the people who hold the views of Arius, Eunomius, Marcion, Valentinus, Mani and Montanus. While invested with a Christian appearance and name, building churches, reading divine Scriptures to sheep led astray, wrongly tending their followers and thought to be companions of the bridegroom, they are instead pernicious schemers, providing the sheep with poison instead of nourishing draughts.

If you do not know yourself, go out, you, in the tracks of the flocks, and graze your goats in the tents of the shepherds. Go out in the tracks, not of the flock but of the flocks, and graze, not like Peter my sheep but your goats; in the tabernacles, not of the shepherd but of the shepherds; not of unity but of division, not established in the place where there is one flock and one shepherd.

By this answer she has been stiffened, built up, made stronger as the beloved wife, ready to die for her husband and live with her husband.

Therefore, this is what the present passage teaches the soul under the guise of a woman, so that she may know herself. . . .

And for this reason, where she has neglected knowledge, it is is now necessary that she be borne about by every wind of doctrine to be deceived by errors,^[1] so that now she pitches her tent now by that shepherd, that is, a teacher of the word, and now by another shepherd. And in this way she is borne about as she shepherds not sheep, which is a simple animal, but goats, namely lascivious and restless feelings that lead to sin, while she has sought out various teachers and cultivated them for this very purpose. And this will be the punishment of the guilt of that soul, which was not eager to know itself and to follow that shepherd alone, who lay down his life for his sheep.^{[1] [2]}