He says himself, I am a flower of the field, a lily of the valleys, as a lily among brambles. Consider, then, another place in which the Lord likes to reside, and not only one place but many. He says, I am a flower of the field, because he often visits the open simplicity of a pure mind; and the lily of the valleys, for Christ is the bloom of lowliness, not of luxury, voluptuousness, of lasciviousness, but the flower of simplicity and lowliness. A lily among brambles as the flower of a good odor is sure to grow in the midst of hard labors and heartfelt sorrow (since God is pleased with a contrite heart).

The justified here begins to praise herself and says, I am the flower of the field because she was not spread abroad throughout the earth. For, behold, I am a flower to all men through faith in you.

He himself said, I am the flower of the plain, a lily of the valley. The flower, when cut, keeps its odor, and when bruised increases it, nor if torn off does it lose it. So, too, the Lord Jesus, on the gibbet of the cross, neither failed when bruised nor fainted when torn. And when he was cut by that piercing of the spear, being made more beautiful by the color of the outpoured blood, he, as it were, grew comely again, not able in himself to die, and breathing forth upon the dead the gift of eternal life.

It is necessary to understand that the valleys where the bride is a lily, as she is called, are comparable to these ravines. For in distinguishing herself in the midst of that which is called hollow by reason of actions or thoughts that are base, she who is adorned magnificently stands resplendent among them as a lily. It is also because at the age to come she is going to pass judgment on such souls by comparison with the perfection of her own deeds even though by nature she holds no advantage over them, just as the inhabitants of Nineveh and the Queen of the South pass judgment upon a generation that is faithless.^[1] Besides the fact that she became as a lily in the valleys where nothing was possible before, these valleys may have begun to bear fruit out of envy for the beauty of her flower, receiving seeds from the sower who went out to sow,^[2] . . . like a land rich and good that causes the seed to multiply.^[3] . . .

If the valleys, because they are low, fallow and many in number, designate the Gentiles who have come to knowledge^[4] after being in the depths of impiety, then the field may designate Israel made level^[5] by the teachings of the prophets and the law in order to be ready for cultivation. . . . For the plow of the cross has not yet opened up the earth: that plow to which the Savior has yoked the apostles like oxen in sending them out to cultivate^[6] two-by-two. Nor has the land yet been moistened by the blood of the Savior, being sterile and infertile.

I was a flower of the countryside, that is, I assumed an earthly body and sprang from the earth, being eternal and exalted or, rather, immeasurable. I became a lily not of mountains or hills, or simply of the countryside, but of valleys: I brought not only the good news of salvation to the living but also resurrection to the dead, descending to the lower parts of the earth to fill everything.^[1] This is the reason he calls himself a flower of the countryside, a lily of the valleys, that is, the dead: to them he both promised and brought into effect a return to life.

This flower has become fruit that we might eat it, that we might consume its flesh. Would you like to know what this fruit is? A Virgin from a virgin, the Lord from the handmaid, God from man, Son from mother, fruit from earth. Listen to what the fruit itself says: Unless the grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it cannot bring forth much fruit.^[1]

[Christ] himself says in the Song of Songs, I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valley. Our rose is the destruction of death, and [that rose] died that death itself might die in his dying.

And when the Lord’s day came, at the third hour, just as the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles in a cloud, so Christ descended with a multitude of angels, and received the soul of his beloved mother. For there was such splendor and perfume of sweetness, and angels singing the songs of songs, where the Lord says, As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters, that all who were there present fell on their faces, as the apostles fell when Christ transfigured himself before them on Mount Tabor, and for a whole hour and a half no one was able to rise. But when the light went away, and at the same time with the light itself, the soul of the blessed virgin Mary was taken up into heaven with psalms, and hymns, and songs of songs. And as the cloud went up the whole earth shook, and in one moment all the inhabitants of Jerusalem openly saw the departure of St. Mary.

I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys, as a lily among thorns. This is a plain declaration that virtues are surrounded by the thorns of spiritual wickedness, so that no one can gather the fruit who does not approach with caution.

But would you like to know what is said to this lady somewhere else, in the Song of Songs? Like a lily in the midst of thorns, so is my darling in the midst of the daughters. An extraordinary saying—he called the same people both thorns and daughters. And do those thorns do mightily? They do indeed. Can’t you see how these heresies too pray, fast, give alms, praise Christ?

So also strange daughters: daughters, because of the form of godliness; strange, because of their loss of virtue. Be the lily there; let it receive the mercy of God: hold fast the root of a good flower, be not ungrateful for soft rain coming from heaven. Be thorns ungrateful, let them grow by the showers: for the fire they grow, not for the garner.

Solomon, in the voice of the bridegroom, said of the church, As a lily among briers, so is my love among the maidens.

It is written of the church: As a lily among thorns, so is my beloved among women.

To this verdure of grace ever-flourishing in Christ the church refers in saying, I sat down under his shadow whom I desired. The apostles received this privileged gift of verdure, whose leaves could never fall, so as to provide shade for the healing of the sick. Their fidelity of heart and the superabundance of their merits provided shade for bodily infirmities.

As an apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among young men. And seeing this, the church is glad and rejoices, saying with great delight, I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

Naturally the bride now demands entry into the house of wine. For she alone had believed beforehand in the grape cluster hanging upon the cross, the grape cluster that was counted for nothing by everyone because while still in flower it had not exhibited to everyone the properties of wine. At that time she alone had believed in advance in this grape cluster, although its identity would become clearly manifest only at a later time. She had established in advance an idea so high, even before the wine season itself, which permitted her to anticipate a mental notion of the wine even in the flowering vine. Besides this, it permitted her to bear witness to Deity from on high present within the one who hung upon the cross, and thus to conceive of impassibility within suffering, of resurrection within death. She alone had firmly grasped, as though it had already been spoken, the message of the vine upon the cross that would soon be pressed out. And thus she experienced before the outcome of events that which the majority experienced only after their outcome had been realized. Hence she requests, as an exceptional privilege of such discernment, entry into the house of wine.

He didn’t abolish love of parents, wife, children, but put them in their right order. He didn’t say, Whoever loves but whoever loves above me.^[1] That’s what the church is saying in the Song of Songs: He put charity in order for me. Love your father, but not above your Lord; love the one who begot you, but not above the one who created you.

This is true ordered love set in order, which, while it hates no one, still loves some more by reason of their deserving it. While it loves everyone in general, it singles out for itself some whom it may embrace with a special affection.

What is, Set in order love in me? Make the proper degrees, and render to each what is his due. Do not put what should come before, below that which should come after it. Love your parents but prefer God to them.

We ought to love God in the first place, enemies in the last; and the measure of love that ought to be weighed out to our neighbors will vary according to the diversity of their merits. We know that the patriarch Jacob, although he loved all his sons, nevertheless loved Joseph more than the rest because of his singular innocence, as Scripture bears witness.^[1] Hence the church says pleasingly of Christ in the Song of Songs: He brought me into the wine chamber, he set charity in order in me.

What reflection is sweeter than the thought of the magnificence of God? What desire of the soul is so poignant and so intolerably keen as that desire implanted by God in a soul purified from all vice and affirming with sincerity, I languish with love. Totally ineffable and indescribable are the lightning flashes of divine Beauty.

In the Song of Songs it is said, I am wounded with love; that is, of being in love, of being inflamed with passion, of sighing for the bridegroom, from whom she received the arrow of the Word.

The Word of God inflicts a wound, but it does not produce a sore. There is a wound of righteous love, there are wounds of charity, as she has said, I am wounded with love. The one who is perfect is wounded with love. Therefore the wounds of the Word are good, and good are the wounds of the lover.

The wound of love is health-giving. The bride of Christ sings in the Song of Songs, I am wounded with charity. When is this wound healed? When our desire is sated with good things. It’s called a wound as long as we desire and don’t yet have. Love, you see, in that case, is the same as if it were a pain. When we get there, when we have what we desire, the pain disappears, the love doesn’t cease.

The love of eternal life sprouts from the love of knowledge, as does the ability to endure persecution from the love of eternal life, and the virtue of fortitude from persecution, and the perfected glory of martyrdom from fortitude.

The church proclaims in the Song of Songs, I am wounded by love. So the holy people pray to be pierced by the fear of the Lord, so that by dying they may live, whereas earlier by living they were dying.

What do we understand by arrows but the words of preachers? For when they are drawn forth by the voice of those leading holy lives, they transfix the hearts of the hearers. With these arrows holy church had been struck, saying I am wounded with love.

But turn yourself quickly toward the life-giving Spirit and, while avoiding physical terms, look keenly at what is the left hand of the Word of God and what is the right hand and also what is the head of his bride, namely of the perfect soul or of the church, and let not the carnal and changeable sense of the word take hold of you.

For this here is the right hand and left hand of the groom, that is said concerning Wisdom in Proverbs, where she says, Long life is in her right hand, but in her left hand are riches and glory.^[1]

As for the right hand of the Father, it isn’t meant in the manner of the structure of the human body, as though he is on the Son’s left, if the Son in terms of bodily positions and relationships is placed on his right. But the right hand of God means the inexpressible peak of honor and good fortune, as we read it said about wisdom: His left hand under my head, and his right hand embraces me. If earthly convenience has been lying underneath, then eternal felicity is embracing from above.

These two hands are the two covenants of the old law and the gospel. When it refers to his left hand, it indicates the old covenant, but the right hand is the preaching of the gospel. The old covenant is inferior because it is placed beneath the head of the church, who is Christ, whereas the right hand embraced the church, meaning that old sins were covered by the sacraments of the gospel. Whoever goes forth in faith, therefore, and serves Christ with devotion, leaves the old person beneath himself and embraces anew the body of Christ, which is the church.

The law is said to be in his left hand, the gospel in his right. Or, the left hand is to be understood as the present life and the right hand as the future life, which will indeed embrace me after it is said to those on the right: Come, blessed of my Father.^[1] We also read elsewhere: A long life is in wisdom’s right hand and riches and glory in its left hand.^[2] Thus, his right hand is the knowl-edge^[3] of divine realities, from which comes eternal life, but his left hand is the knowledge^[4] of human realities, from which come riches and glory. He is saying, therefore, My mind exceeds human realities and divine knowledge covers me. For, it is said again: Honor her that she will embrace you.^[5] . . . Rightly, then, is it said that the right hand embraces and the left hand offers support to the head, for the goods of the present life, however much they are thought to be visible, must be subject to the head of the perfect soul and used only out of necessity, as though they were a pillow for the head. But the goods of the future age, because they exceed human nature, being divine, signify the supernatural through this embrace. Perhaps also, since the hands are symbols of acts, the left hand indicates corporeal deeds, whereas the right hand signifies spiritual work. Because the right hand is more powerful, then, it embraces corporeal necessities.

Solomon speaks in the person of the bride of this right and left hand in the Song of Songs: His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me. And while this passage shows that both are useful, yet it puts the left hand under the head, because misfortunes ought to be subject to the control of the heart. Misfortunes are only useful for this—namely, to train us for a time and discipline us for our salvation and make us perfect in the matter of patience. But the right hand she hopes will always cling to her to cherish her and hold her fast in the blessed embrace of the Bridegroom, uniting her to him indissolubly.

The hands are here a figure of wedlock.

What indeed does the left side mean except this present life, and what does the right side mean except eternal life?

He who has joined you to his company will not sadden you. With his left hand, in which is honor and glory, under your head, with his right arm, in which is length of life, he will embrace you.

Surely the left hand of the bridegroom is placed under the head of the bride because the Lord raises up the minds of the faithful with temporal benefits, separating them from earthly pleasures and longings so that they may desire and hope for eternal blessings. And he shall embrace her with his right hand because by revealing the vision of his majesty he glorifies her without end.

His left hand under my head, and his right hand will embrace me. Let us be careful once more, however, not to get involved in corporeal ideas on hearing left hand and right hand. Solomon, in fact, speaks of wisdom, which is a habit and not substance: Length of life and years of existence are in her right hand, and in her left wealth and glory. Likewise regarding the embrace you can find in the Proverbs the saying, Love her, and she will keep you safe; ring her about with a rampart, and she will exalt you; honor her, and she will embrace you.^[1] Let us take occasion from this, then, to understand the references spiritually, believing the so-called embrace to be a communion between the divine Word and the pious soul, and the right and left hands should be understood in the way taken by us. So as not to leave its deeper meaning undiscerned, however, let us interpret it this way: God is in the habit of bestowing both beneficence and punishment, distributing both to those who deserve them. Let us accordingly understand beneficent grace in the case of the right hand, and punishment in the case of the left, and thus listen to the bride saying, His left hand under my head, that is, I am beyond punishments, I am not subject to them, on account of my closeness to the bridegroom and my attention to his service; and His right hand will embrace me, that is, He will regale me with his beneficence and fill me with it as though enfolding and embracing me, and satisfying my desire.

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and the forces of the field, that you arouse and waken love as far as it pleases. This verse is of great difficulty. However, it is often necessary to let the understanding run towards the point of the text, in imitation of those who in the practice of archery release many arrows at the target but can hardly reach it even one time. Indeed, there is a resemblance to archers on the part of those who apply their craft to the divine Scripture as if aiming an arrow directly at the point of a passage. It is not easy to say to which of the characters should be applied the expression to awaken love. To express this in a better way, the act of wakening love is clearly assigned to the daughters of Jerusalem, but in whom is love to be awakened? In themselves, in the bridegroom, or in the one who is speaking? This is uncertain. For this reason it is necessary to try to fit the meaning of the passage to each example and whatever one finds in the way of a target that has been hit, whether close to love or to truth, that must be accepted as a successful explanation.

An oath works in two ways. In the present text, the soul is progressing toward great heights, as we have seen. At the same time she is instructing less advanced souls in the way of perfection. She uses the oath not to assure them of the progress she herself has made but to lead them through their oath to a life of virtue. She adjures them to keep their love alert and watchful until his good will come to fulfillment, that is, until all are saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.^[1]

I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and forces of the field to stir up and awaken love for as long as he wishes, that is, Do not allow love for God in us to slumber: stir it up and inflame it, and pour the memory of kindnesses like oil on it lest it be said of us also, ‘They fell into a deep sleep, and found nothing.’ ^[1] In other words, if you do not proclaim day in day out his salvation and recall the marvels he worked, and instead you forget his kindnesses, love will be extinguished and die, as it were. We must, on the contrary, continually rekindle it, stir it up and lift the flame itself on high.

Behold, he comes leaping upon the mountains and jumping across the hills.. . . Some things imply that the bridegroom is already present, whereas other things suggest that the bridegroom is being sought by the bride. For we too investigate some problems for which we do not know the solution and some problems, when the bridegroom and Word enlightens our hearts, which we find already solved. Then, in other matters, we doubt again and it is revealed to us anew. This will happen often until we possess the bridegroom fully, when he not only comes to us but also remains within us. . . . He comes leaping upon the mountains. He also comes trampling upon the nets cast by the evil demon, breaking them that we too might trample on them contemptuously.

As they were speaking with one another, she rested in his shadow,^[1] and suddenly the Word departed from her in the middle of their conversation. Yet he was not absent for long, for as she sought him, he came leaping over the mountains and bounding over the hills. Soon after, like a gazelle or hart, while he was speaking to his beloved, he leapt up and left her.

Let us follow Christ in the mountains since our brother like a gazelle or a young stag came leaping over the hills, springing across the mountains. In truth, Christ after the resurrection did not ascend into heaven from the valley but from the mountain. Unless we are mountains of virtue, we cannot ascend into heaven.

The mountains are patriarchs, vast with holiness, robust in faith, founded upon a mass of charity, but the hills are prophets, established for seeing. He is said therefore to be raised higher than every mountain, or patriarch, and to leap over every hill, or prophet, because he is Lord over all, with all things being put under his feet.

The voice of the bridegroom was heard when God spoke through the prophets. After the voice the Word came leaping over the mountains that stood in his way, and by bounding over the hills, he made every rebellious power subject to himself, both the inferior powers and those that are greater. The distinction between mountains and hills signifies that both the superior adversary and the inferior one are trampled and destroyed by the same power and authority. The lion and the dragon, superior beasts, are trampled; so too are the serpent and the scorpion, which are inferior.

The church speaks through Solomon: See how he comes leaping on the mountains, bounding over the hills!. . . If I can put it this way, by coming for our redemption the Lord leaped! My friends, do you want to become acquainted with these leaps of his? From heaven he came to the womb, from the womb to the manger, from the manger to the cross, from the cross to the sepulcher, and from the sepulcher he returned to heaven. You see how Truth, having made himself known in the flesh, leaped for us to make us run after him.

But first understand that before he appeared to the eyes of the bride, the groom had been recognized by her by his voice alone, but afterwards he appeared to her sight, leaping on top of certain mountains near that place in which the bride tarried, and passing over the hills and mountains not so much in steps as much as in some big leaps like a stag or a roe and coming with all haste to his bride.

But when he came to the house where his bride stayed, note that he stood behind the house for a little while so that he would indeed be perceived to be present but nonetheless not yet willing to enter the house openly and plainly, but first wished to look at the bride through the windows in the guise of love, as it were.

But note that certain nets and traps had been placed near the bride’s home so as to capture her or another of her companions from the daughters of Jerusalem, if by chance they should have ever left. The groom came to those nets, confident that he would not be captured by them, but having been made stronger than them, he tore those nets asunder, and once he had torn them, he walked on top of them and even looked through them; and after he had done this task, he said to the bride, Arise, come, my neighbor, my bride, my dove.

But he says this to show to her by that very act how she, with faith in him, ought to despise now the nets that her enemy had stretched out against her, and not to fear the snare, that she now sees have been torn asunder by her groom. Furthermore, in order that he may call the bride forth to hasten to him, he says to her that now all the time that seemed dire has passed away and the winter, which seemed to have arisen as her excuse, has departed and the useless rains have gone away and now the time of flowers has come. . . .

Therefore, if we also wish to see the Word of God and the groom of the soul as he leaps over mountains and jumps over hills, let us first hear his voice and, when we have heard him in all matters, then we will be able to see him according to thoese things which the bride is said to have seen in this present passage. For although she herself also saw him earlier, she nonetheless did not see him as now, leaping over the mountains and jumping over the hills, nor even leaning through her windows or looking through the nets, but rather it seems that she had seen him earlier in the time of winter. . . .

For if you were to consider how in a the space of a brief amount of time the Word of God has run throughout the world that had been seized by false superstitions and called the world back to knowledge of the true faith, you will understand how he leaps over the mountains—namely, he overpowered all the great kingdoms by his leaps and he inclined them to accept knowledge of divine religion—and how he jumps over the hills—since he quickly subdues lesser kingdoms and leads them to the piety of true worship.

Be a follower of him who comes leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills, looking through the windows, beyond the reach of snares. The bonds of pleasure, which give delight to the eye, charm to the ear, but pollution to the mind, are evil. What pleasure offers is often spurious.

Because we ought always to be anxious, always attentive, and because the Word of God leaps forth like the gazelle or the hart, let the soul who searches after him and longs to possess him always be on watch and maintain her defenses.

Holy church says to the one she is seeking under the figure of a young stag, Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture, where you lie down at noon.^[1] The Lord is referred to as a young stag, an offspring of deer, because of the flesh he assumed as a son of the ancient fathers. Heat increases at noon, and the young stag seeks a shady place not affected by the heat. The Lord rests in hearts not on fire with love of the present age, which are not burnt up by unspiritual desires, and which, if they are on fire, are not dried up by their anxious desires in this world.

He came then, and at first he is behind the wall, so that he may destroy the enmity between soul and body by removing the wall, which seemed to offer an obstacle to harmony. Then he looks through the windows. Hear the prophet as he tells what the windows are: The windows are opened from heaven.^[1] Thus he means the prophets, through whom the Lord had regard for the race of humankind, before he should come down on earth himself. Today also, if any soul seeks after him much, it will merit much mercy, because very much is owed to the person who seeks much. Therefore if any soul searches for him with greater zeal, it hears his voice from afar and, although it inquires of others, it hears his voice before those from whom it is asking. It sees that he is running, bounding, that is, hastening and running and leaping over those who cannot receive his strength from weakness of heart. Then, by reading the prophets and remembering their words, the soul sees him looking through their riddles,^[2] looking, but as if through a window, not yet as if present.

Good is the stag whose mountain is the house of God. He ran to it with such speed that he anticipated the wishes and longings of the bride. Indeed, where she had seen him coming from afar, she suddenly recognized that he was in her presence, and in consequence she also says, Behold, he is behind our wall, gazing through the windows, standing out through the netting. My cousin answered and said to me, ‘Arise, come, my near one, my beautiful one, my dove, for behold! The winter is past, the rain is over, is gone; the flowers have appeared on the earth.’ The winter is the synagogue; the rain, the people of the Jews, which could not look upon the sun; the flowers are the apostles.

It makes sense, therefore, for the bridegroom to call the bride, mature in virtue as she is, dove, that is, spiritual and filled with the Holy Spirit. . . .

The bridegroom encourages and consoles his church in its struggle with trials, peeps through the windows and looks in through the netting, and urges her to stand fast and to fly to him. . . .

He is saying, if you rest in the middle of the two Testaments and draw benefit from both, you will find there the manifold gifts of the Spirit. The bride, accordingly, by accepting the spiritual exhortation and lying between the lots, found the wings coated in silver through which she was bidden fly up to the bridegroom.

Each one of the blessed will first be obliged to travel the narrow and hard way in winter^[1] to show what knowledge he has acquired for guiding his life, so that afterwards there may take place what is said in the Song of Songs to the bride when she has safely passed through the winter. For she says, My beloved answers and says to me, ‘Arise and come away, my love, my fair one, my dove; for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.’ And you must keep in mind that you cannot hear the winter is past any other way than by entering the contest of this present winter with all your strength and might and main. And after the winter is past and the rain is over and gone, the flowers will appear that are planted in the house of the Lord and flourish in the courts of our God.^[2]

Arise, come, my dearest one, that is, arise from the pleasures of the world, arise from earthly things and come to me, you who still labor and are burdened,^[1] because you are anxious about worldly things. Come over the world, come to me, because I have overcome the world. Come near, for now you are fair with the beauty of everlasting life, now you are a dove, that is, you are gentle and mild, now you are filled entirely with spiritual grace. . . .

Winter is now past; that is, the Pasch has come, pardon has come, the forgiveness of sins has arrived, temptation has ceased, the rain is gone, the storm is gone, and the affliction. Before the coming of Christ it is winter. After his coming there are flowers. On this account he says, The flowers appear on the earth. Where before there were thorns, now flowers are there. The time of pruning has come. Where before there was desert, the harvest is there. The voice of the dove is heard in our land.

There is thus no doubt that winter has a double meaning, either that harshness and severity belong to it, or that it is a time for sowing with the coming of the rain. When it says winter, therefore, it refers to the present world, where the Word of God is sowed in this age like a seed of righteousness by prophets and apostles, or priests, and is fertilized by assiduous preaching, as though by rains from heaven. . . .

But with the passing of winter, that is, the tribulations of this world, and the cessation of the rains, that is, the preaching of the Word of God, and the subsequent arrival of the joy of Spring (which designates the coming of Christ’s vernal kingdom in great peace), then the bodies of the saints everywhere will emerge from the graves of the earth like flowers—lilies or roses—pure white with holiness and red with passion.

Then the bridegroom makes answer to the bride and teaches her that the shadow of the old law has passed away and the truth of the gospel has come. Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away, for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.. . . The voice of the turtle [dove] is heard in our land. The turtle [dove], the most chaste of birds, always dwelling in lofty places, is a type of the Savior.

Such did the Savior of all become toward us, showing the most perfect gentleness, and like a turtle [dove], moreover, soothing the world and filling his own vineyard, even us who believe in him, with the sweet sound of his voice. For it is written in the Song of Songs, The voice of the turtle[dove] has been heard in our land. For Christ has spoken to us the divine message of the gospel, which is for the salvation of the whole world.

Also in the Song of Songs we find Christ calling to the bride there described, and who represents the person of the church, in these words: Arise, come, my neighbor, my beautiful dove. For lo! the winter is past, and the rain is gone; it has passed away. The flowers appear on the ground. The time of the pruning is come.. . . A certain spring-like calm was about to arise for those who believe in him.

The rock is Christ. He is a wall and a shelter to us who believe and a perfect guardian, which is denoted by the wall. When you arrive, he says, you will be protected with every defense.

Immediately the turtle says to its fellow, The fig tree has put forth its green figs, that is, the commandments of the old law have fallen, and the blossoming vines of the gospel give forth their fragrance. . . . While you covered your countenance like Moses and the veil of the law remained, I neither saw your face, nor did I condescend to hear your voice. I said, Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear.^[1] But now, with unveiled face behold my glory, and shelter yourself in the cleft and steep places of the solid rock.

Because your voice is sweet. And who would not profess that voice of the catholic church confessing the true faith is sweet, but the voice of the heretics is rough and unpleasant, which does not speak the teachings of truth but blasphemies against God and iniquity against the Most High? Thus also the appearance of the church is comely, but that of the heretics is ugly and foul—that is, if there is someone who knows how to test the beauty of the face, that is, if there is some spiritual person who knows how to examine all things. For among the unskilled and unregenerate people the sophistries of the lie seem more beautiful than the teachings of the truth.^[1]

[Those] who spoil the church of God, as the little foxes do the vineyard, we exhort you to avoid, lest you lay traps for your own souls. For he that walks with wise men shall be wise, but he that walks with the foolish shall be known.^[1]

This animal, which is very shrewd with respect to deceit and craftiness, represents the Jews, Gentiles and heretics, who are always plotting against the church of God, and, as it were, continuously making a racket with their babbling voices. Concerning them the command is given to the guardians of the church: Catch for us the tiny foxes which are wrecking the vineyards.

Catch us little foxes that demolish vineyards. Some commentators actually applied little to the vineyards; but the sense is no different in either case. By foxes he refers to those with a deceitful attitude who harm the Lord’s churches that are just beginning to flourish—hence his saying our vines blossom. By foxes he is hinting at the heretics warring against people in the church and endeavoring furtively and deceitfully to steal away those not yet made firm in the faith. By persuasiveness in word and by the snares and intricacies of argumentation they lead astray those of simpler disposition and damage the vines. For this reason he bids those exercising the teaching role to hunt them down and ensnare them with the arguments of the truth and rid the blossoming vines of this damage.

The foxes who destroy the vineyards are heretics and schismatics who devour with their crooked teeth the blossoming vineyard of the doctrine of Christ, that is, the green minds of the faithful. Would that we not know [such destruction]!

It calls these foxes little because there are also greater ones. Indeed, the ruling powers of the world are greater at raging than the fallacies of the heretics are at seducing. They are both equally evil, but their respective powers to punish are unequal, for the heretic coaxes to destroy, but the Gentile rages to conquer, the former being peacefully deceptive and the latter being cruel in persecution. But the Lord commands that both receive appropriate dispositions from the keepers of the vineyards, that is, from the leaders of the churches.

What does catch mean? [This means to] come to grips with them, convince, refute them, so that the vineyards of the church may not be spoiled. What else is catching foxes, but overcoming heretics with the authority of the divine law, and so to say binding and tying them up with the cords provided by the testimonies of the Holy Scriptures? [Samson] catches foxes, ties their tails together and attaches firebrands.^[1] What’s the meaning of the foxes’ tails tied together? What can the foxes’ tails be but the backsides of the heretics, whose fronts are smooth and deceptive, their backsides bound, that is condemned, and dragging fire behind them, to consume the crops and works of those who yield to their seductions?

Joining the daughters of the heavenly city, she seeks after the Word; by her search she arouses his love for her, and she knows where to search for him. For she has come to know that he delays among the prayers of his saints and remains close to them, and she understands that he feeds the church and the souls of his just ones among the lilies.

They who are blessed by the boons of God and have learned to know these passages and others like them, kindled with warm love for their bountiful Master, constantly carry on their lips this his dearest name and cry in the words of the Song of Songs, My beloved is mine, and I am his.

In the first stage, that of formation, the soul still sees shadows not yet parted by the revelation of the Word’s approach, and therefore hitherto the daylight of the gospel did not shine upon it. In the second, it enjoys sweet fragrances without the confusion of the shadows.^[1]

In this verse, the Lord’s resurrection is taught and foretold. Just as the apostles were afraid without him, terrorized by the treachery of the Jews, so also is the soul, which, in a certain sense, is naked and unarmed without the assistance of the Holy Spirit, terrorized by the treachery of demons.

Since, then, there are in the Old Testament precepts that we who belong to the New Testament are not compelled to observe, why do not the Jews realize that they have remained stationary in useless antiquity rather than hurl charges against us who hold fast to the new promises, because we do not observe the old? Just as it is written in the Canticle of Canticles: The day has broken, let the shadows retire, the spiritual meaning has already dawned, the natural action has already ceased. The God of Gods, the Lord has spoken: and he has called the earth from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof.^[1]

With the barren synagogue abandoned, she asks the bridegroom to come to those downtrodden and humiliated and formerly idolatrous souls who will be raised with him to heavenly heights.

He pastures his flocks among the lilies, therefore, although he does so only until the coming day emerges and the shadows begin to move on. Since the majority of people think that the events which are passing and not stable are fixed and will remain, because their faculty of discernment is obscured by the darkness of ignorance, they have need of the daylight in order to see that the shadows of the things of this world dissipate and have no permanence. For all present realities are shadows,^[1] drawing their origin from the good things of the heavens yet subsisting like shadows, only resembling the truth of the things there above. But once the night has passed and the dawn has arisen, the nature of things from on high is clearly seen, as if in sunlight. Then people realize: Our life on the earth is a shadow.^[2] Then they say, My days, as the shadow, are in decline,^[3] indicating how feeble and quick to vanish is temporal success. The one who says, If there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is only one God the Father, from whom all things come and for whom we exist, and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom all things come and through whom we exist,^[4] can also say, My beloved is mine, and I am his, for the meaning is identical in each text. For anyone who renounces both gods and lords lays claim to the one God and Lord, from whom he exists and to whom he returns. For, it says, for us there is one God from whom all things come and for whom we exist, thus declaring clearly that he is mine, and I am his.. . .

Regarding the expression the shadows move on, it is necessary to consider . . . that it refers to the abrogation of the works of the law. That is the shadow frequently cited by Paul as the law having the shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the realities,^[5] and again These are only a shadow of the things to come, but the substance is of Christ,^[6] and again, They provide a copy and a shadow of the heavenly realities,^[7] meaning the priests that functioned according to the law. Thus it is indicated for certain that, the shadow of the law having moved on, the truth of grace now governs, established upon the rock against which the gates of hell shall never prevail.^[8]. . .

It should also be remarked that it is everywhere necessary for the Word to rest upon the mountains, or at least upon the hills. And if the Word is ever found in the valleys or chasms, he is found there by reason of his great condescension and with the intention to restore those who are down there to the higher realities, on account of his love for humankind.

Until the day breathes and the shadows lengthen, that is, until the eternal light of the coming age appears and the shadows of the present life, that is, the ignorance or error whereby even many of us faithful who have the use of the lamp of God’s word are temporarily darkened, lengthen and disappear.