Salesian Literature

Part III: The Mystical Exposition of the Canticle of Canticles

::   Foreword   ::   Preface   ::   Discourse 1   ::   Discourse 2   ::   Discourse 3   ::   Discourse 4   ::   Discourse 5   ::   Discourse 6

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Discourse 5

        

Fifth Obstacle: Human respects

When someone achieves some rare and unusual manner of living, not only do individuals praise him, but it seems that each desires to see him, and they cry after the soul: Come back, come back, O Sulamite, come back; come back, so that we may see you (6:12).

        

And it is not enough that the spiritual person should extenuate that which is in herself: What do you see in this Sulamite, except troops of arms?  For notwithstanding this, those who see her praise her for her feet and manner of walking, meaning for the obedience with which they see that this soul keeps the commandments of God: How beautiful are your feet in their sandals, O daughter of the prince!  They praise her for her spiritual chastity, which makes one recognize that God cooperates there: the joints of your thighs are like jewels arranged by the hand of a good jeweller.  They praise her for a rich poverty, which never has need of anything: Your navel is like a round goblet, which never needs any beverages.  They praise her for the fasts which, by replenishing the stomach with bread alone, crown the soul with beautiful and rich lilies: Your stomach is like a heap of wheat surrounded by lilies.  They praise her for the study of the two testaments: Your two breasts are like two twin fawns of a goat; for her strength: Your neck is like a tower of ivory; for her prudence: Your eyes are like the baths of Hesebon which are at the door of the daughter of the multitude; for an exact justice: Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon which looks towards Damascus.  They praise her for her mastery of her affections and conformity to the will of God, known by the channels of revelation: Your head is like Mount Carmel, and your braids like royal purple which is not yet drawn from the dye (7:1-5).

        

In brief, this soul is the object of the tongues which say to her in praising her: How beautiful you are, how graceful you are, my dearest one, in delights. But she, believing always in charity and bearing fruits amid her neighbours, she is like the palm and the vine: Your stature and your bearing are like that of a palm, and your breasts are full like clusters of grapes.  Those in need, either of spirit or of body, say: I will mount your palm tree and will take from its fruits, and your breasts will be like clusters of grapes.  And for her good examples, one says to her: The fragrance of your mouth is like that of apples.  For her good words: Alas! One says, your throat is like a wine best to drink, worthy of my Bridegroom, and of beings savoured by his lips and by his teeth (7:6-9).  In brief, behold a great uneasiness in the devout soul.

        

Remedy: Solitude

O how good it is, therefore, to withdraw oneself into solitude where the soul can say: I (am) to my beloved, and his look is toward me; come, my Beloved, let us exit to the fields, let us dwell in the village (7:10,11).  Now the fruits of solitude are four.

        

Firstly, one awakens better to the examination of conscience: Let us arise in the morning to go to the vines; let us see if the vineyard is flowering, if the flowers bear fruit, if the pomegranates are flowering. Secondly, in solitude one makes complete resignation of the concupiscent faculty and of its desires: there, I will give you my breasts.  Thirdly, devotion increases: The mandarins had given off their fragrance.  Fourthly, in solitude one presents more humbly to God our small merits, past and present: I have locked up for you, O my Beloved, behind our doors, all sorts of fruits, old and new (7:12,13).

        

Fifth Degree: the consideration of God in himself, but as God

But among the fruits of solitude, that which is eminent is that one can there consider more easily God as God.  This is what causes the Bride to make use of these two words, alone and without (meaning without any creature): Who will give you to me, my brother, sucking the breasts of my mother, and that I find you without, all alone?  This consideration, which holily infatuates men, makes them dance before the Ark.[1]  From this it happens that until the soul has arrived at the affection of the contempt of even herself, she always has some shame.  This is why she desires solitude, so says, that I may kiss him without anyone being able to see us (8:1).

        

This consideration is a pledge of the joyousness of Heaven, for which it seems to the soul that she be there already, saying: I will take you (8:2), I will see your face to face.[2]  O God, when will we be in the true house and in the true chamber of human nature, which is in Heaven, when I will lead you into the house of my mother and into the chamber of her who engendered me (3:4, 7:2)?  There I will see all that belongs to my goodness as in a mirror.[3]  There you will teach me, and when you will have drawn from me, for my felicity, the wine of the vine and the must[4] of the pomegranates, the essential and accidental glory[5], (and I will give you some beverage of spiced wine, and the must of my pomegranates) – behold the delights which will come, behold the ecstasies, behold the sleeps of the powers.  In this manner the sacred Bride asks for pillows in order to sleep: let him place his left hand under my head, and let him embrace me with his right hand.  For his part, the Bridegroom also strives to make sure that she not be awakened: I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, that you not awaken nor cause to awaken my beloved until she would will it (8:2-4).

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[1] Cf. 2 Kgs. 6:14-16

[2] 1 Cor. 13:12

[3] 1 Cor. 13:12

[4] i.e., wine not fermented.

[5] In his Sermons (Oeuvres IX, 114), Francis describes the “essential” glory as the vision of God and the “accidental” glory as the effects of this vision received by the blessed in heaven.

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