I sleep, he says, on the cross, insofar as he suffers death on behalf of humanity. But his heart remains awake because, as God, he plunders hades.

She is now awakened from sleep by him, although she was keeping watch with her heart so that she might hear his voice at once when he knocked. But while she was rising, she experienced a delay, because she could not match the swiftness of the Word. While she was opening the door, the Word passed by.^[1] She went out at his word, sought for him through wounds, but wounds of love, and, finally and with difficulty, found him and embraced him, so that she might not lose him. . . .

Even though you are asleep, if only Christ has come to know the devotion of your soul, he comes and knocks at her door and says, Open to me, my sister. Sister is well put, because the marriage of the Word and the soul is spiritual. For souls do not know covenants of wedlock or the ways of bodily union, but they are like the angels in heaven.^[2] Open to me, but close to strangers. Close to the times, close to the world, do not go out of doors to material things, do not abandon your own light and search for another’s, because material light pours out a dark mist, so that the light of true glory is not seen. Open, therefore, to me; do not open to the adversary or give place to the devil. Open yourself to me, do not be confined, but expand, and I will fill you. And because, in my passage through the world, I have found very much trouble and vexation and have not readily had a place to rest, do you then open, that the Son of man may rest his head on you, for he has no rest^[3] save on one who is humble and quiet.

The soul, hearing Open to me, and My head is wet with dew, that is, the soul that was suddenly disturbed by the temptations of the world and was bidden to rise, and indeed is on the point of rising, as it were, speaks: fragrant with aloe and myrrh, signs of burial.^[4]

I sleep and my heart remains awake. The divine Word, who is to be understood here under the title of the heart, never sleeps or falls asleep while hidden within the veil of the flesh, but he carries the sleeper. He explains this in a deeply mysterious way to the friends and beloveds who believe in him and whom he invites to partake of the joy of human salvation. [He does this] lest, while they see him detained in the sleep of death according to his humanity, they are deprived of the faith through which they see in him a majesty that is full and ever watchful. I am asleep to you through bodily absence, he says, but I am awake in heart by never withdrawing the presence of my deity from you.

Both when I stayed at home and when I departed, when I walked and rested, and wherever I went, I continuously turned your love over in my mind and dreamt about it. I found pleasure in these dreams not only during the day but also at night. The very statement made by Solomon, I sleep but my heart is awake, was then happening to me. The necessity for sleep weighed down my eyelids, but the great power of your love chased away the sleep from the eyes of my soul; and constantly I thought that I was speaking with you in my sleep.

At night, it is natural for the soul to see in her dreams all the things that she thinks about in the day, something that I was then experiencing. Although I did not see you with the eyes of my body, I saw you with the eyes of love. In spite of my physical absence, I was close to you in disposition, and my ears always heard your vivacious voice.

I sleep, but my heart is awake. Let us learn what food and produce God feasts upon and in which ones he takes pleasure. He takes pleasure in this, if anyone dies to his sin, blots out his guilt, and destroys and buries his iniquities. The myrrh represents the burial of the dead, but sins are dead, for they cannot possess the sweetness of life. Moreover, some wounds of sinners are moistened with the ointments of Scripture and the stronger food of the word as with bread,^[1] and are treated with the sweeter word like honey.

Once all the senses have been put to sleep and are gripped by inaction, the heart’s action is pure; reason looks above while it remains undisturbed and free from the senses’ movement. . . .

If a person pays attention to the senses and is drawn by pleasure in the body, he will live his life without tasting the divine joy, since the good can be overshadowed by what is inferior. For those who desire God, a good not shadowed over by anything awaits them; they realize that what enters the senses must be avoided. Therefore, when the soul enjoys only the contemplation of being, it will not arise for those things that effect sensual pleasure. It puts to rest all bodily movement, and by naked, pure insight, the soul will see God in a divine watchfulness. May we be made worthy through this sleep, of which the Song has spoken, to keep our soul vigilant.

As the dew from the heavens removes the dryness of the night, so the dew of our Lord Jesus Christ descends as the moisture of eternal life into the nocturnal shadows of the world. This is the head that knows nothing of the dryness caused by the heat of this world.

According to the counsel of the apostle, the zealous person can do all things for the glory of God, so that every act and every word and every work has in it power of praise. Whether the just person eats or drinks, he does all for the glory of God.^[1] The heart of such a one watches when he is sleeping, according to him who said in the Song of Solomon: I sleep, and my heart watches. For on many occasions the visions seen during sleep are images of our thoughts by day.

In this night of the world the garment of corporeal life is first to be taken off as the Lord divested himself in his flesh that for you he might triumph over the dominions and powers of this world.

Myrrh indicates the death of our flesh, and so the church says of its members who are striving even to death on behalf of God: My hands dripped with myrrh.

Resurrection is not effected in us unless a voluntary death precedes it. Such a voluntary death is indicated by the drops of myrrh dripping from the bride’s hands, for her fingers are filled with this spice. She says that myrrh did not come into her hands from any other source—if this were so, myrrh would mean something accidental and involuntary. Rather her hands (the operative faculties of the soul) drop myrrh, meaning a voluntary mortification of her bodily passions.

I sleep because I enjoy by grace a little tranquility in this life through worshiping him. Nor clearly do I bear as much of the labor of preaching as was delivered to the primitive church. Nor am I as tossed about by conflicts of the faithless as were the innumerable crowds of the nascent church at the beginning. My heart remains awake because the more freedom I acquire from external incursions, the more deeply within I see that he is the Lord.

I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had gone. What is this going? Simply that he has penetrated into the center of the mind as it was said to Mary, And his sword will pierce your soul.^[1] For the living Word of God, as piercing as a sharp sword, comprehends both the limits of bodily thoughts and the secret places of the heart.

The Lord seeks us, when he says: I sought and there was no one. I called, and there was no one to answer. And he himself is sought by his bride who mourns with tears: On my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loved. I sought him and did not find him. I called him, and he gave me no answer.

The bride says, I sought him, but found him not. How can the bridegroom be found when he does not reveal anything of himself? He has no color, form, quality, quantity, place, appearance, evidence, comparison or resemblance. Rather, everything we can discover always transcends our comprehension and completely escapes our search. Therefore the bride says, I have sought him by my soul’s capacities of reflection and understanding. He completely transcended them, and he escaped my mind when it drew near to him.

How can that which is always beyond everything we know be designated by a name? For this reason the bride understands every function of a name as a sign of the ineffable good. The significance of each word falls short and shows something inferior to the truth. . . .

The soul thus calls the Word as best it can. It cannot do so as it wishes, for the soul desires more than it is capable of. The soul does not wish what it is incapable of receiving, such as God himself, but its choice is in accord with its wish. Since the one called is unattainable, the bride says, I called him, but he did not answer.

All these elements constituting the bridegroom’s beauty are made known for our benefit but do not show his invisible, incomprehensible beauty. . . .

Therefore, whoever looks at the visible world and understands the wisdom that has been made manifest by the beauty of creatures can make an analogy from the visible to invisible beauty, the fountain of beauty whose emanation established all living beings in existence. Similarly, whoever views the world of this new creation in the church sees in it him who is all in all. This person is then led by faith through what is finite and comprehensible to knowledge of the infinite.

My beloved is white and ruddy: white in virginity, ruddy in martyrdom. And because he is white and ruddy, therefore it is immediately added, His mouth is most sweet, yea, he is altogether lovely.^[1]

The bride instructs the young women who had enquired as to the features of the bridegroom, saying, My nephew is white and ruddy, mentioning white first and ruddy second. He was always God, but he became man as well, not by abandoning what he was or being turned into a man but by putting on a human nature. So he is white as God: what could be whiter than light? Now, he is the true light, according to the Gospel saying, He was the true light, which enlightens every person coming into the world.^[1]

He is not only white, however, but also ruddy. After all, he is not only God but also man. Now, the term ruddy suggests earthly; hence also in Isaiah the divine powers, on seeing him ascending from earth to heaven, pose the question, Who is this coming from Edom, the red of his garments from Bozrah? He is charming in his vesture, overpowering in his strength.^[2]

My beloved is white and ruddy. It is fitting, O virgin, that you should fully know him whom you love, and should recognize in him all the mystery of his divine nature and the body which he has assumed. He is white fittingly, for he is the brightness of the Father; and ruddy, for he was born of a Virgin. The color of each nature shines and glows in him.

The beloved is white because, when he appeared in the flesh, he committed no sin, nor was a lie found in his mouth.^[1] And he is red because he washed away our sins with his blood.^[2] He is rightly called white first, then red, because the holy one first came into the world from blood and later departed from the world through his bloody passion.

He is white because he is the light of the world, the Sun of righteousness who enlightens everyone entering the world,^[1] according to John the Evangelist and the preaching of the prophets. He is red because he would walk on earth in the fleshly clothing derived from the Virgin Mary, a miracle to be offered through angels by rising to heaven, as was said through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah to those who asked him, Why is your apparel red?^[2]

All flesh implies birth, with marriage as the means for bringing it about. The person, however, who is not subject to a birth of flesh with respect to the mystery of religion does not submit to the actions effected by human nature or to the passions arising from the mind. He understands that the generation of the flesh belongs to all humankind. The bride says that he who partakes of flesh and blood is white and ruddy. However, by indicating the body’s nature by these two colors, she does not say that Christ partakes of that birth common to humankind. Rather, God assumed our human nature from the multitude of people he had begotten. From the passage of succeeding generations, Christ alone entered this life by a new form of birth. Nature did not cooperate in this birth but served it. Therefore, the bride says that her spouse is white and ruddy. That is, he dwells in this present life through flesh and blood while having been begotten from virginal purity. His conception is virginal. His birth is undefiled and without pangs. His bridal chamber is the power of the Most High overshadowing the virgin like a cloud. He is a nuptial torch of the Holy Spirit’s splendor. His bed is free from passion, and his marriage is incorruptibility.

The bridegroom born under such circumstances as these is rightly called chosen from myriads. He was free from birth resulting from marriage, for his existence does not come from marriage. No terminology pertaining to human birth can rightly pertain to Christ’s incorruptible, painless birth because virginity and childbirth cannot apply to the bridegroom at the same time. As the Son is given to us without a father, the child is thus begotten without birth.

Hair is also represented by another comparison, wherein the shape of its locks seems to mimic the brilliance of gold. His hair is like waves of palms, so that they would surely seem to be curly and golden.

His eyes like doves on pools of water, once again here by mention of the eyes admiring his keen sight. Hence her saying they are like doves on pools of water reminds us of the dove coming down on him in the Jordan.^[1] . . . Hence the bride says, His eyes like doves on pools of water: his eyes are constantly upon the source of baptism, awaiting those being saved and longing for the salvation of everyone.

In doves, the eyes are signified. For when it says, doves over the abundance of the waters, it means this kind of bird when it comes to the waters. There it is accustomed to suffer the attacks of the hawk and to detect its hostile arrival in flight when it sees the shadow of its wings in the waters. And so it escapes the deceit of imminent peril by the keen vision of its eyes. For if you could thus look out for the snares of the devil and avoid them, you would offer doves as a sacrifice to God.

Perhaps, as some say, it was to reveal an image that he came down in the likeness of a pure, innocent, simple dove, working with prayers for the sons he begot and for the forgiveness of sins; just as in a veiled manner it was foretold that the beauty of Christ’s eyes would be manifested in this way.

The eyes upon the fullness of waters are compared with doves because of their simplicity and innocence, and the Word says they have been washed in milk. A quality of milk is that it does not reflect any image. Every other liquid is like a mirror whose smooth surface serves to reflect the image of those gazing in it. However, milk lacks such reflective capacity. This is, then, the best praise for the church’s eyes. They do not reflect deceptive, shadowy pictures of nonexistent things that are erroneous, vain or contrary to the true nature of reality. They look, rather, at being itself, and do not reflect the false visions and fantasies of life. Thus the perfect soul bathes its eyes in milk to keep them pure.

[A dove] is inclined to sit above water so that it may avoid being seized by a hawk coming, since it has seen its shadow beforehand in the water. Let us also be clean, and take care to sit attentively at the cleansing streams of the Scriptures, and, thoroughly instructed by [their] mirrors, may we be capable of distinguishing and guarding ourselves against the snares of the ancient enemy.

Who indeed but Christ could dare to claim the church as his bride, whom he alone, and none other, has called from Libanus, saying, Come here from Lebanon, my bride; come here from Lebanon?^[1] Or of whom else could the church have said, His throat is sweetness, and he is altogether desirable?^[2] And seeing that we entered upon this discussion from speaking of the shoes of his feet, to whom else but the Word of God incarnate can those words apply? His legs are pillars of marble, set upon bases of gold. For Christ alone walks in the souls and makes his path in the minds of his saints, in which, as upon bases of gold and foundations of precious stone the heavenly Word has left his footprints ineffaceably impressed.

A pillar must rest on the foundation of truth. Truth is golden, and its bases are the bridegroom’s legs adorning his hands and head. The foundation may be interpreted as marble. We understand by the Song’s words that the body’s legs are marble pillars, that is, those persons who support and bear the body of the church by exemplary lives and sound words. Through them the base of our faith is firm, the course of virtue is completed, and the entire body is raised on high by our longing for God’s promise. Truth and stability guide the church’s body. Gold represents truth, which, according to Paul, is called the foundation of the divine edifice.^[1] . . . Christ is the truth upon whom are founded the legs, or pillars of the church.

His legs are pillars of marble. These are clearly foundations, for whoever builds does so upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. He aptly praises the legs after the belly, who says that marble is set upon bases of gold. Peter and John are pillars of the church, for example, who had Christ, called by a golden name, as their foundation.^[1] And they are marble, for Paul also calls them a pillar,^[2] surely on account of their stability and consistency, sustaining and supporting the common body of the church, moreover, with their enlightened lives and their saving doctrine. But the charity with which we love God with our whole heart and our neighbor as ourselves also supports the common body of the church, as though on pillars of marble. For whoever is perfected in these two commandments becomes a pillar and support of the church, such that the whole body of the church rests upon this double virtue, as though on legs. The golden foundation contains the unwavering and unchanged base of faith and in all things holds fast reasonably to the good.

His form is like choice incense, like cedars. Here again she makes reference to the fact of two natures, calling the divine nature incense since by the law incense was offered to God,^[1] and by cedar referring to the human nature in its not being affected by the rottenness of sin, the cedar of all trees not going rotten.

Such is the concern of the soul that is pure, such is what it perceives within; it discerns God and abounds in all good things. On this account, his mouth is sweetness, and he is all delight. For God is the author of all good things and all things which are, are his.

A person of God should so appear and conduct himself that there would be no one who would not desire to see him, no one who would not wish to hear him, no one who, having seen him, would not believe that he was a son of God. In his case the prophetic words would be fulfilled: His throat is most sweet, and he is all lovely.

So long as Christ wishes there to be one church of all nations, whoever is a stranger to the church is not considered a part of the body of Christ, even though he uses the name of Christian. That heresy which rejects the unity of the Catholic church is to him a concubine and not a wife, in that it loves Christ with an adulterous love, since Scripture says that there are actually two in one flesh, that is, Christ and the church, in which there is no third place for a harlot. One is my friend, one is my bride, only daughter of her mother.^[1] Of whom, likewise, the same church speaks, saying, My lover belongs to me, and I to him.

He is, indeed, your true bridegroom. He is also your brother. He is likewise your friend. He is your inheritance. He is your reward. He is God and the Lord. You have in him a bridegroom to love: For he is fair in beauty above the sons of men.^[1] . . . He is a friend of whom you need not doubt, for he himself says, You are my only lover. You have in him the inheritance that you may embrace, for he is himself the portion of your inheritance. You have in him the reward that you may recognize, for his blood is your redemption. You have in him God by whom you may be ruled, the Lord to fear and honor.