Monday in the Fourth Week of Advent, December 22, 2020

Songs 2:8-14

Hark! my lover–here he comes springing across the mountains, leaping across the hills. My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag. Here he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattices. My lover speaks; he says to me, “Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come! For see, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of pruning the vines has come, and the song of the dove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance. Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come! O my dove in the clefts of the rock, in the secret recesses of the cliff, let me see you, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and you are lovely.” 

The Jews considered the Song of Songs as a song between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba when she came to visit him in Jerusalem (cf. 1 Kings 10, 2).  This is due to the legend handed down that Solomon and the Queen became lovers for a time.  The Fathers saw the Song of Songs as a duet sung between Christ and his Bride, the Church. Beginning with St. Ambrose, the verses pertaining to the Bride in the book were seen to apply to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The book is also to be interpreted as a dialogue between God and the human soul.

“Hark! my lover–here he comes springing across the mountains, leaping across the hills.”  The Bride is singing here.  The “lover” is the Son of God, coming down from heaven, who “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2, 7).  We can understand this welcoming shout as coming from the Church, who receives her Divine Lover in the Blessed Sacrament; or as from the Virgin Mary in her joy at conceiving the Son of God; or as the human soul enjoying the company of Christ in her prayer.

“My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag.”  The Bride describes her Lord as powerful and able to go freely wherever he desires, whether to the Church hidden during persecution, to the Blessed Virgin in tiny, out-of-the-way Nazareth, or to the religious sister in her cloister.  “Here he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattices.”  The Lord comes to his Beloved and presents himself to her, but he does not force himself on her attentions.  It is up to the Bride to receive him or not.  Standing outside, the Holy Groom coaxes her with an ecstatic cry: “Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come!  For see, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone.”  The “winter” of waiting for the redemption of the human race is over. The Virgin Mary sings of this in her canticle: “He has come to the help of his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he promised to our fathers, to Abraham and to his posterity for ever” (Luke 54-55).  Or, the “winter” endured in preparing for contemplation has departed.  “The rains are over and gone”.  That is, the time of tears is ended.  “The flowers appear on the earth, the time of pruning the vines has come.”  The soil of our souls, watered by our tears of compunction, is now prepared for the season of grace.  Otherwise, the long years of the persecution of the Church have given way to her prosperity and growth, or the time of the Virgin Mary’s quiet childhood has passed and she is made fruitful in the conception of her Son.  “The song of the dove is heard in our land”: the Holy Spirit brings peace to the Church and to the soul.  “The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.”  All things happen at their allotted time, signifying that the old prophecies are being fulfilled.

“Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come!”  Again, this is the Groom’s voice, urging his Bride to leave all behind to come to him.  We can think of these words as called to the Blessed Virgin in the instant before her Assumption.  They are also the words of the Lord to his Holy Church on the day of judgment: “Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25, 34).  They are also the words of God to the soul who desires to pray to him.

“O my dove in the clefts of the rock, in the secret recesses of the cliff.”  The Lord’s Beloved still dwells on this earth, but he sees her and watches over her.  “Let me see you, let me hear your voice.”  The Lord desires his Church, the Blessed Virgin, and the human soul more than any of us can fathom, and more than any of us can desire him.  He represents himself as desperate to see us before the tabernacle where he awaits us, and to hear us in our prayers to him.  “For your voice is sweet, and you are lovely.”  Our voices and appearances may not seem so sweet and lovely to ourselves, but they are to the Lord, so in love with us is he.  His love puts him beside himself.  It makes him lay in a manger in the dirty straw and look up at us.