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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The Denouement (8:5,6)

 

At last, the soul has attained so great (a) perfection of devotion that no pleasure of the world excites it, no empty appearance diverts it, no praise weakens it, no labour makes it fear, (and) no human respect restrains it; but in the sight of all the world, she freely caresses her Bridegroom and dances before the Ark, not concerned that the wisdom of the world, after having said to her: “who is this who ascends from the desert affluent in delights,” follows her still in order to reprove her for that (to) which she adheres “supported by her Beloved.”

On the contrary, she always speaks with her Bridegroom of the great Sign of Love that He gave there where He had been the most offended and (where) He resolved to die for us after Adam and Eve had disobeyed him.

 

8:5 I have roused you under on apple tree;

      there your mother has been corrupted;

      there she who has engendered you has been violated.

 

The soul will no longer find any difficulty in labours, for nothing is difficult in love, which it has engraved on its heart, (not) even exterior actions:

 

8:6 Place me as a stamp on your heart

      and as a seal on your arms.

 

so well that love combats death:

 

      Love is strong as death.

 

Hell cannot terrify it:

 

      Jealousy is unyielding as hell.

 

Flames and fires are frozen in comparison with her love:

 

      Its lamps are lamps of flames and of fires.

 

The sea could not know to extinguish them:

 

all the waters could not know

to extinguish charity,

nor (could) all the rivers drown it.

 

Nothing is comparable to it:

 

      If a man would like to give

all the subsistence of his house for dilection,

he would value it no more than (as) nothing.[1]

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To this union, the divine Shepherd provoked his Sulamite: “Place me,” he said, “as a seal on your heart, as stamp on your arm.”

 

(Now) in order to imprint a stamp properly on wax, one not only joins it, but presses it very close; thus, he wishes that we unite ourselves to Him by a union so strong and pressed close that we live marked by his traits.  “The holy love of the Saviour presses (impels) us” (2 Cor. 5:14); O God, what (an) example of excellent union (that is).

 

He was joined to our human nature as a vine to its young elm in order to render it, by such fashion, (as) participating in his fruit.  But seeing that this union was, in such fashion, undone by the sin of Adam, he made a closer and more pressing union in the Incarnation, by which our human nature dwells forever joined by (being) united to (the) Person in the Divinity.  And so that not only human nature, but all men could unite themselves intimately to his Goodness, he instituted the Sacrament of the most holy Eucharist, in which each one can participate in order to unite his Saviour to himself, really and by manner of food.  Theotimus, this sacramental union solicits us and aides us in the spiritual (union) of which we speak.[2]

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Place me, says the divine Shepherd to the Sulamite,

place me as a stamp on your heart,

as a stamp on your arm.

 

Certainly, (the) Sulamite had her heart completely full of heavenly love for her dear Lover, who, although he may have everything, is not satisfied.  But by a sacred defiance of jealousy, (He) wishes further to be on the heart which he possesses and to stamp it with himself, so that nothing of the love which is for him may escape and (so) that nothing which might make a mixture may enter there.  Because he is not satiated with the affection with which the soul of the Sulamite is filled up, so she is invariable, completely pure, completely unique for him.

 

And in order to enjoy not only the affections of our heart, but also the effects and operations of our hands, he wishes further to be “as a stamp” on our right arm, so that it may extend itself and be employed only for the works of his service.

 

And the reason for this demand of the divine Lover is that (just) as death is so strong that it separates the soul from all things and from the body itself, likewise sacred love, (which has) attained the degree of zeal, divides and removes the soul from all other affections and purifies it from all mixture, seeing that it is not only “likewise strong as death,” but is austere, inexorable, hard and without pity in chastising the injustice which is done to it when one receives some rivals to it, “as hell” is violent to punish the damned.  And entirely in the same way (as) hell, full of horror, rage and treason, does not receive any mixture of love, likewise jealous love does not receive any mixture of other affection, wishing that all be for the Beloved.[3]

 

Love is strong as death in order to make us leave all.  it is magnificent as the Resurrection in order to adorn us with Glory and Honour.[4]

 

Love is strong as death, and the joys of love surmount the sorrows of death, because death cannot make them die, but revives them.  Hence, as there is a fire which marvellously nourishes itself in a fountain near Grenoble, in a way we know very assuredly and which even the great St. Augustine likewise attests, (so) holy charity is so strong that it nourishes its flames and its consolations amid the most sorrowful anguishes of death, and the waters of tribulations cannot extinguish its fire.[5]

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Perfect love, love which has attained zeal, can suffer neither intervention, interposition nor the mixture of any other affection in the heart which it possesses, not even of the gifts of God, because it does not even wish that one be fond of Paradise except in order there to love God more.

 

Its lamps do not even have oil or wax; they are all fire and ardent flames which the water of all the world could not know to extinguish.

 

Therefore, the soul which has loving zeal cannot suffer in itself any imperfection which it believes to be disagreeable to its Beloved.

 

The adulterer fears her husband and so, likewise, does the chaste spouse, but differently, because, as the great St. Augustine says, the adulterer fears his presence, (while) the chaste spouse fears his absence.  The one fears that he may come; the other fears that he may go.  The one fears being chastised; the other fears not being loved.  But the latter does not fear so much not being loved as she fears not loving enough…

 

The former is not at all jealous, because she is not at all loving; the latter is (so) very loving that she is completely jealous.  But she is not jealous of her own jealousy; she is jealous of the jealousy of her bridegroom.  She does not fear not being loved, as do other jealousies, which is the jealousy which looks out for its (own) interest; but she fears not loving enough, which is the jealousy which looks to the interest of her bridegroom.

 

Thus, the Apostle, jealous of the souls of the Corinthians (2 Cor. 2:2), protests that it is not for him that he is jealous, but for his Master: “I am jealous of you, or if it is necessary thus to say, I envy you by the jealousy of God, because I have promised to present you to Him (as) a chaste virgin.”

 

That is why this jealousy is one of the properties of the perfect and most pure love towards Our Lord, which extends itself to the neighbour, towards whom we have some zeal and some jealousy as we have love, so that he be perfectly faithful to our common Saviour, (and thus we are) ready to die in order to prevent him from perishing.[6]

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[1] Oeuvres de St. Francois de Sales. Annecy: Religieuses de la Visitation, 1893-1993), Tome 26, p. 37.  The Mystical Exposition of the Canticle of Canticles, trans. Henry Benedict, Canon Mackey, D.D., O.S.B. (publication information unknown), Discourse VI, p. 36-38.

[2] oeuvres, Tome 5, P. 14. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 7, Chapter 2.

[3] oeuvres, Tome 5, P. 211. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 10, Chapter 13.

[4] oeuvres, Tome 5, P. 163. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 9, Chapter 16.

[5] oeuvres, Tome 4, P. 271. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 5, Chapter 4.

[6] oeuvres, Tome 5, P. 433 (213).  Treatise on the Love of God, Book 10, Chapter 13 and Treatise on the Love of God, Book 10, Chapter 14.

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