Salesian Literature

Part II:  Salesian Commentary

A. Version and Commentary of St. Francis de Sales

::   Prologue   ::   First Poem   ::   Second Poem   ::   Third Poem   ::   Fourth Poem   ::   Fifth Poem   ::   The Denouement   ::   Appendices

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Fourth Poem (5:2-6:3)

 

The language of lovers is so particular that no one other than they hear it:

 

5:2 I sleep, the sacred lover used to say,

      yet my heart keeps watch,

      and behold, that my beloved speaks to me.

 

Who might have been able to guess that this Spouse, being asleep, had nevertheless chatted with her Bridegroom?  But where love reigns, one does not have need of the clamour of exterior words nor of the use of the senses in order to converse and to reveal oneself to the other.[1]

Hence, without awaking, she watches with him, meaning she watches and speaks to her Beloved heart to heart, with such sweet tranquillity and gracious repose, as if she were sleeping gently.[2]

 

I used to sleep, says this devout Spouse

and my Bridegroom, who is my heart,

used to keep watch;

ah, behold that he awakens me,

calling me by the name of our loves,

and I know well that it is he by his voice.[3]

Open to me, my spouse, my sister.

 

He calls her “my spouse” on account of the grandeur of his love and “my sister” in order to testify to the purity of his affection.

 

Open to me, he says, but open to me quickly,

because I have my hair all full of dew

and the tufts of my (head of) hair

full of the drops of the night.

 

Now the dew and the drops of the night are only one same thing.

 

What do you think this Beloved of our souls might wish to signify, if not that he desires ardently that his Spouse open promptly to him the door of her heart so that he might pour forth the gifts and grace which he had so abundantly received from his Father as a dew and most precious liqueur.[4]

 

We call inspirations all the attractions, movements, interior reproaches and remorses, lights and understandings that God works in us, predisposing our heart by his blessings, by his care, and (by his) paternal love, so as to awaken, excite, urge and attract us to the holy virtues, to heavenly love, to good resolutions, in short, to all that sends us on to our eternal welfare.

 

It is this which the Bridegroom calls to rap or knock on the door and to speak to the heart of his Spouse, to awaken her when she is sleeping to cry out and reclaim her when she is absent, to invite her to his honey and to gather the apples and fruits in his garden, and to chant and make her sweet voice resonate in his ears.[5]

 

It cannot be said how much the Saviour desires to enter into our souls by this love of dolorous complacence:

 

Alas, he says, open to me, my dear sister,

my love, my dove, my all pure (one),

because my head is full of dew

and my hair of the drops of the night.

 

What is this dew and what are the drops of the night, if not the afflictions and pains of his Passion?

 

Ah, the divine lover of our souls wishes to say,

I am burdened by the pains and sweat of my passion,

which was passed almost entirely

either in the darkness of the night,

or in the night of the darkness,

which the sun, being obscured,

made in the (brightness) of midday;

therefore, open your heart towards me,…

and I will pour forth on you the dew of my passion

which will be converted to pearls of consolation.[6]

 

Let us represent the sweet Jesus at Pilate’s (place), where, for love of us, the ministers of death stripped him of all his clothes, one after the other, and, not content by that, deprived him even (of) his skin, tearing it to pieces by (the) blows of whips and rods; wherefore, his soul was stripped from his body and the body from his life, by the death which he suffered on the cross.  But three days later, by his most holy Resurrection, the soul clothed itself in his glorious body and the body, in his immortal skin, dressed itself with different garments, either of (the) pilgrim or of (the) gardener or another sort, according as the salvation of men and the glory of his Father required it…

 

In that case, the soul is right in exclaiming:

 

5:3 I have taken off my clothes;

      how will I clothe myself?

      I have washed my feet; …

      how will I dirty them anew?

 

5:4 My Beloved has put his hand through the keyhole…

 

He puts his hand into the lock in order to see if he could open (it)[7].  In this great vocation, the soul is stirred up:

      My stomach has trembled by his single touch…

and resolves that she must open to her Bridegroom…

 

5:5 I have gotten up in order to open to my beloved.

 

But on the other hand, she senses so great (a) sorrow fro not having opened at the first knock that she overturns the vase of myrrh… bathing the door (with tears) down the bolt…

 

      My hands have dropped the myrrh,

and my fingers are full of true myrrh

and the best (myrrh).

 

5:6 I have opened the bold of my door to my Beloved

      but he had turned away and had already left.

 

For which, remembering to have been so called and (yet) so lazy, she is grieved and consumed by sorrow:

 

      My soul completely dissolved

as soon as my beloved spoke.[8]

 

This was what happened to the Spouse, for although the sweet voice of her Beloved had touched her heart with a holy comfort, so it is, nevertheless, that she did not open her door to him but excused herself with a frivolous excuse; whereupon the Bridegroom, justly indignant, passed by and left her.

 

Likewise, the gentleman who, after having searched for a single woman for a long time and having rendered to her his agreeable service, finally will be rejected and scorned will have many more causes of discontentment (than) if the search had not been accepted or favoured.[9]

 

      I have looked for him, and I have not found him;

      I have called him and have not been answered.[10]

 

5:7             The guards who surround the city have found me;

      they have beaten and wounded me;

      the guards of the walls have taken my cloak from me.

 

The Spouse in the Canticle of Canticles says that her Beloved, having knocked at her door, passed by.  And she, having opened and not finding him, goes after him in order to look for him.  Then, meeting the guards of the village, she asks the if they (the guards) have not seen her Beloved:

 

      Ah, by grace, if you meet him

announce to him that I languish of love.

 

And afterwards she adds that the guards of the village have completely wounded her.[11]

 

The divine Spouse proceeds completely in tears and languished by love because she does not quickly find the Beloved whom she looks for.  The love of the Beloved had created in her Desire, the desire had brought forth Ardour for the pursuit, and this ardour caused her Languor, which might have annihilated and consumed her poor heart if she did not have any hope of meeting, at last, the one whom she was pursuing.[12]

 

Thus, the sacred Sulamite, completely dissolved in her dolorous loves, speaking to the Daughters of Jerusalem, (says):

 

5:8 Alas,… I implore you,

      if you meet my Friend, announce to him my pain,

      because I languish entirely wounded by his love.[13]

 

The companions of the sacred Spouse had asked her what sort (of man) was her Beloved:

 

5:9 Of what sort (of man) is your Beloved,

      O beautiful (one) among women,

that for him you have adjured us so strongly?

 

And she responds to them by admirably describing all the parts of his perfect beauty:

 

5:10 My beloved is beautiful to behold;

      all sorts of perfections are in him.[14]

      I have chosen him (from) among thousands.

      His tint is white and ruddy.

 

5:11 his heart of gold,

      his hairs as a branch of flowers of palm (trees)

      not yet in full bloom.

 

The spouse calls her Bridegroom “white and ruddy,” but at once she says that he has black hair.[15]

 

      His head of hair is like braches of palms,

lofty and leafy, black as a raven.

 

5:12 His eyes are like doves on the shores,

      of the waters

      which one has washed with milk

      and (which) reside in full streams of waters.

 

5;13 His cheeks are like (a) bed of fragrant flowers

      which the perfumers have planted.

      His lips are of lilies

which distil the most precious myrrh.

 

5:14 His hands are rings of gold full of hyacinths.

      His stomach is of ivory set with sapphires outside.

 

5:15 His thighs are of columns of marble

      established on bases of gold.

      His beauty is like that of Lebanon,

his bearing like (that) of a cedar.[16]

 

Thus does she proceed, meditating (on) this sovereign beauty in detail until finally she concludes by manner of contemplation, putting all the beauties into one:

 

5:17 His throat, she says, is very sweet,

      and him, he is completely desirable;

      such is my beloved and he is my dear Friend.[17]

      O how beautiful is my Beloved;

how I love him; he is my most dear (one).[18]

 

See in the Canticle of Canticles this mystical bee, the royal soul of this divine lover, fluttering now on her eyes, now on her lips, now on her cheeks, now on the head of hair of her Beloved, in order to draw from all that she finds there tastes, gentlenesses, contentments and loving passions, noticing all things in particular in order to provoke herself to love him.

 

Now, in this section she speaks to God, she interrogates him, she aspires, she recognizes the grandeur of God and his own misery, (and) she admires him.  And God inspires her, touches her heart, pours forth splendours and lights without end… Love urges the yes always to look more attentively and urges the heart always to love more ardently.[19]

 

And if the persons whom she is with want to persist and say to her:

 

6:1 Where has your Bridegroom gone, O most beautiful among women?

      Where has turned away?  And will we look for him with you?

 

she no longer wishes to entertain (i.e., listen to) them.  But, recognizing further that her toils have made (it) seem to her that her Bridegroom had withdrawn far away, nevertheless he, himself, had not gone.  On the contrary, he had always resided with her as in his garden or as in a cabinet of perfumes.  And drawing from this (the) greatest occasion of merit, she can say that he has culled some very sweet-smelling lilies:

 

6:2 My Beloved has come into his garden,

      to the bed of fragrant flowers,

      in order to feed in the garden

      and there to gather the lilies.

 

And for this (reason), since she knows that he has always been with her and is still present, she says:

 

6:3 I am to my Beloved,

      and my Beloved is to me,

      who feeds among the lilies…

 

she no longer has need of anything else than of entertaining herself with him, saying:

 

O Lord, when will I be able to please you

by my beauty, sweetness, good grace, strength,

innocence, devotion, and discretion?[20]

 

The Blessed… not only may they see God, who is what felicity consists of, but further they may hear him speak and may speak with him, and here is one of the principal points their felicity.

 

But what language is it that they possess, and what speech do they use?  Their speech and their language is nothing other than that of a father with his children; it is completely filial and full of love, for as this place is the lodging of the children of God, likewise their language is completely filial and full of dilection, since Heaven is the place of love and only those who possess charity and who love God enter there.

 

And what words of love do they say?

Something like these:

 

You will always be with me;

and I will always be with you.

I will never withdraw myself

for (however) little this may be.

Henceforth, you will be everything to me,

and I will likewise be everything to you;

you are completely mine,

and I will be completely yours.

 

What are these words about?

Nothing else than of God, himself, who will say them to the heart of the faithful and blessed soul which, by a reciprocal love, will respond (with) these sweet and gracious words of the Spouse:

 

My friend is everything to me,

and I am everything to him;

at this time he is completely mine,

and, henceforth, I will be completely his.

 

And if, being still in this valley of misery, the Spouse pronounced these words of love with such gentleness, O God, what joy and what jubilation do we think there will be for the Blessed in this dialogue which they will make in that felicity.

 

There Our Lord will disclose to them some great secrets.  He will speak to them about that which He has suffered, about that which He has done for them.  He will say to them: Once I suffered such things for you.  He will converse (with) them about the mystery of the Incarnation, about salvation and Redemption, saying to them: I have done such things in order to save you and draw you to me.  I have waited for you so long, going after you when you would do cantankerous (things), compelling you by a sweet violence to receive my grace.  I once used to give you that movement and such inspiration.  I serve you in such a way in order to attract you to me.

 

In sum, he will disclose to them his secret judgements and the inscrutable way (cf. Rom. 11:33) that he used in order to take them away from evil and dispose them to grace.[21]

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[1] Oeuvres de St. Francois de Sales. Annecy: Religieuses de la Visitation, 1893-1993), Tome 4, p. 304. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 6, Chapter 1.

[2] oeuvres, Tome 4, p. 340. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 6, Chapter 11.

[3] oeuvres, Tome 4, p. 274. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 2, Chapter 9.

[4] oeuvres, Tome 9, p. 316.

[5] oeuvres, Tome 3, p. 109. Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 2, Chapter 18.

[6] oeuvres, Tome 4, p. 274. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 5, Chapter 5.

[7] oeuvres, Tome 4, p. 114. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 2, Chapter 8.

[8] oeuvres, Tome 26, p. 29. The Mystical Exposition of the Canticle of Canticles, trans. Henry Benedict, Canon Mackey, D.D., O.S.B. (publication information unknown), Discourse IV, pp. 23-24.

[9] Oeuvres de St. Francois de Sales. Annecy: Religieuses de la Visitation, 1893-1993), Tome 3, p. 110. Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 2, Chapter 18.

[10] oeuvres, Tome 26, p. 30.  The Mystical Exposition of the Canticle of Canticles, trans. Henry Benedict, Canon Mackey, D.D., O.S.B. (publication information unknown), Discourse IV, p. 24.

[11] oeuvres, Tome 9, p. 172.

[12] oeuvres, Tome 4, p. 136. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 2, Chapter 16.

[13] oeuvres, Tome 4, p. 349. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 6, Chapter 13.

[14] oeuvres, Tome 9, p. 193.

[15] oeuvres, Tome 1, p. 156.

[16] oeuvres, Tome 26, p. 31.  The Mystical Exposition of the Canticle of Canticles, Discourse IV, pp. 27-28.

[17] oeuvres, Tome 4, p. 319. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 6, Chapter 5.

[18] oeuvres, Tome 9, p. 69. Sermons, 25.

[19] oeuvres, Tome 5, p. 383. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 6, Chapter 2.

[20] oeuvres, Tome 26, p. 32.  The Mystical Exposition of the Canticle of Canticles, Discourse IV, p. 29.

[21] oeuvres, Tome 9, p. 117.

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