The church answers unto [God the Word], Who will give you to me, my brother, you who did suck the breasts of my mother? If I find you outside I will kiss you, and indeed they will not despise me. I will take you, and bring you into the house of my mother; and into the secret chamber of her who conceived me. You shall teach me. You see how, delighted with the gifts of grace, she longs to attain to the innermost mysteries and to consecrate all her affections to Christ. She still seeks, she still stirs up his love, and asks of the daughters of Jerusalem to stir it up for her, and desires that by their beauty, which is that of faithful souls, her spouse may be incited to ever richer love for her.

What are the breasts of the church except the sacrament of baptism? And well does he say sucking, as if the baptized were seeking him as a draught of snowy milk. Finding you without, he says, I shall kiss you, that is, finding you outside the body, I embrace you with the kiss of mystical peace. No one shall despise you; no one shall shut you out. I will introduce you into the inner sanctuary and hidden places of Mother Church, and into all the secrets of mystery, so that you may drink the cup of spiritual grace.

Therefore she interceded so that he would go forth from the bosom of the Father, go out of doors like the bridegroom coming out from his chamber, and run his course.^[1] She interceded, too, that he would win those who were weak, would not linger on the distant throne of the Father and in that light, for those without strength cannot follow there. Instead he would be taken up and led into the dwelling of the bride and her chamber, that he would be out of doors for her but within for us, would be in our midst, even though unseen by us.^[2]

I will take you up and lead you in. It is right to take up the Word of God and lead him in, because he knocks at the soul, that the door may be opened to him, and, unless he finds the door opened to him, he does not enter. But if anyone opens the door, he enters and dines.^[1] The bride takes up the Word in such a way that she is taught in the taking up.

Neither hold back the maidens of whom it is written, Thus have the maidens loved you, and they have brought you into the house of their mother. You may not, then, separate the little ones from the love of Christ whom they proclaimed with prophetic exaltation even from their mother’s womb.

Here are shown many infancies in her, from which we ought to learn. First, it was the Creator of everything that is born from the union of masculine and feminine who fabricated a body from a virgin without the assistance of a man. Next, no sin is congenital to humankind, since it comes forth surrounded by the truth of the flesh and free from stain. Finally, it is impious to ascribe our origin to the works of the devil, since it rejoices that the true God is not only its founder but also its inhabitant.

I shall lead you into my mother’s house and into the chamber of the one who conceived me. Now, what is the house of the all-holy Spirit (of whom the bride was born, after all) if not the divine temple, which resembles the Jerusalem on high, where they enter to speak with the bridegroom, having received the status of bride? And there, she says, I shall give you some spiced wine to drink and some juice from my pomegranates, by spiced wine referring to the teaching redolent of divine grace, as it were spiced and proving to be fragrant. By juice of pomegranates she refers to the benefit deriving from the fruits of love.

Again, referring to the wine mingled with myrrh, the Canticle says, I will give you a cup of spiced wine.

Thus the God of all, after the manner of wise Solomon,^[1] distributes everything in time and season, to the end that, at the right time, the salvation of humankind should be everywhere spread abroad. In this way, the Wisdom of God,^[2] our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ . . . passed into holy souls, making them friends of God, and prophets.^[3] Although very many were praying for his coming and saying, O that the salvation of God would come out of Sion,^[4] the spouse also, as it is written in the Song of Songs, was praying and saying, O that you were like a brother to me, that nursed at my mother’s breasts. And the meaning of that prayer is, O that you were like humanity and would take on human nature for our sake. After all, it was God who set up times and seasons, and he knows our needs better than we do. Because he loves us, he exhorts us to do right things at right times so that we may be healed. Thus, when the appropriate time had come, the Father sent the Son, just as he had promised.

She ascends leaning on the Word of God. For those who are more perfect recline upon Christ, just as John also was reclining at Jesus’ bosom.^[1] So then she either rested in Christ or reclined upon him or even—since I am speaking of a marriage—as if already given into the power of Christ, she was led to the bridal couch by the bridegroom.

Therefore Christ has given a new commandment to us: that we love one another as he also has loved us. This love renews us that we may be new, heirs of the New Testament, singers of a new song. This love renewed even then those just persons of ancient times, then the patriarchs and the prophets, as it did the blessed apostles later. Even now it also renews the nations, and from the whole human race, which is scattered over the whole world, it makes and gathers a new people, the body of the new spouse, the bride of the Son of God, the Only Begotten about whom it is said in the Song of Songs, Who is this who comes up in white?^[1] In white, of course, because renewed. By what, except by the new commandment?

Who is this coming up all covered in white, leaning on her nephew? They do not say white but all covered in white, being black, remember. While the bride said of the bridegroom, My nephew is white,^[1] and did not say covered in white, being such by nature, she on the contrary was covered in black (the sun looked on her, remember)^[2] and is now covered in white and shares the bridegroom’s whiteness. And just as being the light he both made her light and called her so, and being holy he made her holy,^[3] and becoming resurrection he accorded her resurrection, so he also gave her a share in his own peculiar whiteness. Hence on seeing her, the young women say, Who is this coming up all covered in white, leaning on her nephew? Guided by him and as it were led hand in hand, she makes her ascent into heaven and her departure to her beloved through her firm belief in him.

She is radiant . . . because she is resplendent in faith and in works.

Oh, bride of Christ, beautiful among women! Oh, you in white, coming up and leaning upon your beloved! For by his light you are illuminated that you may shine; by his help you are supported that you may not fall! Oh, how well it is sung to you in that Song of Songs, your wedding song, as it were, that there is love in your delights!^[1]

O mortal, you have now been cleansed in baptism, and it is said of you, Who is she that comes up, cleansed and leaning upon her beloved? so that she, indeed, is cleansed, but she is not able to guard her purity, unless she is sustained by the Lord God. You, who but a moment ago were freed from your sins, how is it that you desire to be delivered by the mercy of God, if not in the way I stated, that, when we have done everything, we confess that we of ourselves are insufficient?

The Lord Jesus himself, invited by such eager love and by the beauty of comeliness and grace, since now no offences pollute the baptized, says to the church, Place me as a seal upon your heart, as a signet upon your arm; that is, you are comely, my beloved, you are all fair, nothing is lacking in you. Place me as a seal upon your heart, so that your faith may shine forth in the fullness of the sacrament. Let your works also shine and set forth the image of God in whose image you were made. Let no persecution lessen your love, which cannot be quenched by many waters nor drowned by many rivers.

And since you are worthy to be compared not now with humans but with heavenly beings, whose life you are living on earth, receive from the Lord the precepts you are to observe: Set me as a signet upon your heart, and as a seal upon your arm. [Thus] clearer proofs of your prudence and actions may be set forth, in which Christ the figure of God may shine, who, equaling fully the nature of the Father, has expressed the whole which he took of the Father’s Godhead. Whence also the apostle Paul says that we are sealed in the Spirit;^[1] since we have in the Son the image of the Father, and in the Spirit the seal of the Son. Let us then, sealed by this Trinity, take more diligent heed, lest either levity of character or the deceit of any unfaithfulness unseal the pledge which we have received in our hearts.

That we may fully know that this is true you have in the Canticles to the soul, now fully perfect, what I wish the Lord Jesus may say to you, Put me as a seal upon your arm. May peace glow in your heart, Christ in your works, and may there be formed in you wisdom and justice and redemption.

Christ is the seal on the forehead, the seal in the heart—on the forehead that we may always confess him, in the heart that we may always love him, and a sign on the arm that we may always do his work. Therefore let his image shine forth in our profession of faith, let it shine forth in our love, let it shine forth in our works and deeds so that, if it is possible, all his beauty may be represented in us. Let him be our head, because the head of man is Christ;^[1] let him be our eye, that through him we may see the Father; let him be our voice, that through him we may speak to the Father; let him be our right hand, that through him we may bring our sacrifice to God the Father. He is also our seal, which is the mark of perfection and of love, because the Father, loving the Son, set his seal on him, just as we read, Upon him the Father, God himself, has set his seal.^[2] And so Christ is our love. Good is love, since it has offered itself to death for transgressions; good is love, which has forgiven sins. And so let our soul clothe itself with love,^[1] and love of a kind that is strong as death. For just as death is the end of sins, so also is love, because one who loves the Lord ceases to commit sin. For charity thinks no evil and does not rejoice over wickedness, but endures all things.^[2] For if one does not seek his own goods, how will he seek the goods of another? Strong, too, is that death through the bath^[3] through which every sin is buried and every fault forgiven. ^[4]

Possess ardor as well: if you were to acquire it, you would allow no one else to have more importance in your eyes, or yourself to be apathetic, but only her to enjoy your intimacy. Ardor is harsh, note, and difficult to overcome, like hades (drawing the name hades from common usage, and applying it also to death). But love is so strong because first of all it has wings, and around its wings it has a fiery flame and emits sparks. What could be more powerful than this when enkindled, especially since its fire is of the kind that is unquenchable?

Stern as death is love. Love is compared with the sternness of death, for, doubtless, once it comes, it summons the mind completely away from the love of the world. Accordingly, abbots must be such that they may perfectly love God and their neighbor; they must have their eyes removed from the evil desires of this world, as Adam did in paradise before the fall.

Just as death destroys the body, so ardent desire for eternal life cuts off the love of material things. It renders one whom it has perfectly taken hold of insensible to earthly desires which come from without.

When death comes, it cannot be resisted. By whatever arts, whatever medicines, you meet it; the violence of death can none avoid who is born mortal; so against the violence of love can the world do nothing. For from the contrary the similitude is made of death; for as death is most violent to take away, so love is most violent to save. Through love many have died to the world, to live to God.

Let the love of God be stronger than death in you. If death releases you from the desire for everything, how much more appropriate is it that the love of God should release you from the desire for everything.

Rightly is [love] said to be strong as death, either because no one overcomes it as no one overcomes death, or because in this life the measure of charity is unto death, as the Lord said: Greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends.^[1] Or, rather, because as death tears the soul away from the senses of the flesh, so charity tears it away from carnal passions.

Love ought to exist in us in such a fashion that we are not called away from Christ by any dangers. For it is written, Much water cannot shut out love, and floods will not confine it, because the soul of the lover passes through the torrent.^[1] No storm, no profound danger, no fear of death or of punishment diminishes the strength of love; in such happenings as we are tested, in them lies the happy life, even though it is deluged by many dangers. For the wise person is not broken by bodily ills nor is he disturbed by misfortunes, but he remains happy even amid troubles. Bodily adversities do not diminish the gift of the happy life or take away anything from its sweetness. For the happiness of life does not lie in bodily pleasure, but in a conscience pure of every stain of sin, and in the mind of the one who knows that the good is also the pleasurable, even though it is harsh, and that what is shameful does not give delight, even though it is sweet.

If a man gives his whole life for love, they will utterly despise him. Those bereft and devoid of love will despise the one giving his life for love; hence blessed Paul also said, When reviled we bless, when persecuted we put up with it, when blasphemed we are encouraging, we have become the world’s refuse, as it were, everyone’s off-scouring to this day.^[1] This happens, in fact, to people who are dizzy: though they cannot stand up straight, they think everything else is spinning around; similarly also people bereft of love blaspheme the devotees of love as stupid and foolish. Far from undermining love, however, this even rendered it more ardent. When reviled the apostles gave blessings, when blasphemed they were encouraging, and on becoming the world’s refuse, as it were, they claimed to be everyone’s off-scouring to this day.

Though weak in body the women^[1] were courageous in spirit. Many waters cannot quench charity, neither can floods drown it. He whom they sought was dead, but their hope of the resurrection was not quenched.

This sister is undoubtedly understood to be the Jewish people (a people that we said was converted to the God of heaven in the final days), who are led out of the prophesied desert before the end of the world. [They are] ascending from the desert^[1] of unbelief, where God is not worshiped, leaning upon the Word of God, flowing with delights, known by faith in the indivisible Trinity, without which not only are there no delights, but the soul incurs danger of starvation. She is a sister because she descended from the seed of Abraham, from whom came Christ according to the flesh and the church according to faith, inasmuch as Abraham would be established by God as a father to the nations.^[2] And from these nations comes the church, which is made one body through faith in Christ, just as the soul of Christ is proven to be made one person with the Word, to whom the Word of God the Father united himself. It is the soul of our Lord Jesus Christ which is now understood to say, with pious affection for this very people, Our sister is little and has no breasts.

It is the holy authors who were celebrated in the Old Testament who see the bride’s spiritual youth and the immaturity and inconspicuous condition of her breasts. In their capacity as go-betweens and marriage brokers [they] say among themselves, The king is now on the point of taking our sister as his bride, but she is small and without breasts. She is not yet fertile, nor can she provide the milk of instruction or offer developed nourishment to the needy. So we must give thought to what is to be done. Since she is about to be related to the great king and be like a wall of his house, watching and guarding what is within, and being like a door that protects the contents, let us build as if on a wall ‘silver parapets.’ That is,[the parapets are] arguments splendid for their reasoning, the Lord’s sayings, after all, being pure sayings, silver tried in the fire, tested in the earth.^[1] So . . . from her position on them she may fire at the enemy and hunt down the schemers. Let us place on her as on a door tablets made of cedar that incur no decay from sin, cedar being incorruptible.

She is the sister of the Lord our Savior and of all his church gathered from both peoples and of every saint. [This is] not only due to the assumption of her nature, whereby he was made man, but also due to the bestowal of grace whereby he gives those who believe in him the power to become children of God, so that he who was the only Son of God by nature might become the firstborn among many brethren through grace.^[1]

The wall is the church and the towers are her priests, who have full power to teach both the natural and the moral sciences.

The vineyard which, it says, was given to the spiritual Solomon is surely the church. And we have already said that Baal-hamon means in believers. For who believed, apart from those who accepted his commandments?

It urges that the bridegroom flee, because already, although it is of earth, it can follow him in his flight. It says this so that it may be like the young deer that escapes the nets; for it desires also to flee and to fly away above the world.

By saying Flee, my beloved, Christ makes heard the voice that he desires to hear. Through this, it is confessed that he alone on the earth, alone among all humankind (true man, but born in an ineffable manner), alone found to be a foreigner and pilgrim,^[1] alone fleeing the sordid lifestyle of humanity, alone ascending upon the prophesied mountains of spices, he alone in every way is made Lord of heaven and earth. It shows that he alone fled both interior and exterior sin. He alone, who would bind the devil, fugitive of heaven, is himself a fugitive of the earth in the midst of a perverse and depraved nation.

Christ, detested by coiling snakes and beset by reptiles crawling on the earth, flees from the barren plain; he knows no dwelling except the heights of virtue; he knows no home except among those daughters of the church who can say, We are a sweet fragrance of Christ to God. For some indeed, it is an odor of death, leading to death, for those who perish; but to others, it is an odor of life, leading to life—in those namely, who with living faith, breathe the fragrance of the Lord’s resurrection.

Flee, my beloved, and be like a goat or a mule upon the mountains of spices. This can be accepted as referring both to the triumph of the Lord’s ascension and to those good deeds that are accomplished daily within his holy church. For, the beloved fled after he addressed his bride and sister, when he returned to heaven with the dispensation of our redemption complete. But he is likened to a goat or a mule upon the mountains of spice because he appears frequently through the grace of compunction to the hearts of his faithful, who are the mountains of spice. For they are preserved from the lowest, most contemptible desires by their love of heaven and, having been purged of the fetid stench of vices, they are filled with the fragrance of spiritual virtues, saying with the apostle, Our citizenship is in heaven.^[1]