Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Advent, December 21, 2021

Song of 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 Song of Songs, from which the first reading of today’s Mass is taken, celebrates the love of husband and wife, on one level, and the love of Christ and his Church, on another.  It can also be understood as the love between Christ and the soul.  Although a brief book, its beauty inspired many commentaries from the Fathers through the medieval writers.  St. Bernard’s  commentary on the book comes readily to mind.  The book itself is a collection of love poems the lines of which are assigned at times to the Bride, the Groom, and a Chorus.  The verses used for today’s first reading are spoken by the Bride and are about her Groom.

“Hark! my lover–here he comes springing across the mountains, leaping across the hills.”  The Groom here is the Son of God who joins himself to a human nature in the incarnation.  An enormous gulf separates God and man, signified here by the valleys between the mountains and hills which the Groom springs across.  He comes “springing”, exultantly, rejoicing to come down from heaven to save his people.  In more personal terms, it is the coming of God to meet a loving, faithful soul in prayer.  He envelopes that soul in grace and speaks to her in her most inmost recesses.  His voice is a whisper but his word is fire.

“My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag.”  Her Groom is strong and sure-footed; fearless and eager to bound about.  Simply to gaze upon him fills the beholder with these characteristics too.  The Lord who comes to earth fears no one and is fully capable for the salvation of his Bride.  This image also signifies the directness of the Lord’s coming to the faithful soul in prayer.

“Here he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattices.” We see how considerate the Lord is, not overwhelming his people by coming before their Prophets have completed their work and they themselves have grown in their expectation.  We also see how the Groom waits for his Bride, the faithful soul. to be prepared for him.  She adorns herself with her virtues and good works so as to be most pleasing to her Groom.  

“Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come!”  The Lord speaks to his Church and urges her to join him.  We hear of the Bride’s beauty in his own words: she is his “dove” and his “beautiful one”.  She is as a dove because her members have washed their robes white in his Blood and, lightened by her innocence, she can fly up to meet her Groom in the heavens.  “My dove” and “my beautiful one” also signify the faithful soul who is wrapped in her baptismal garment, which is also her wedding dress.  At the coming of the Lord to her in prayer she is joined to him in rapture. 

“For see, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone.”  The long ages of waiting for redemption are over.  The world has yearned for its Savior since Adam and Eve fatefully ate the fruit forbidden to them.  Now the darkness of the reign of death has cleared.  The Daystar, Jesus Christ, has shines upon the earth.  For the faithful soul, these words are a signal that her perseverance in the world is rewarded by her divine Visitor.  She has endured the pains and labors necessary to live and to make a living.  She has endured the rude behavior of those around her and striven to be kind and charitable to all.  Now, in her time of prayer, she forgets all in the sweet embrace of her Beloved.

“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 presence of the Son of God on the earth has enlivened his people.  They flower with faith and good works.  The vines must also be pruned, that is, it is a time of discipline and of doing penance so that his people may grow yet stronger in their faith so as to endure and triumph through persecution.  For the faithful soul, the “flowers” signify graces received from God in prayer, while the “pruning” signifies the poverty, chastity and obedience which she embraces so that she might belong to God alone.  The “song of the dove” is both the hymn of praise arising from the Church and from the heart of the faithful Christian.  

“The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.”  Nourished by the rays of the Lord’s glory, his teaching, and his example, and watered with his Blood, the saints on earth put forth their “figs”, their own good works as well as the converts they have made.  The “fragrance” of the vine comes from the rich grape leaves.  As the dove sings its song, so the vine puts forth its fragrance, showing that each saint gives glory to God in his or her way.  We also see the vibrant life of God filling the faithful soul and causing her to rejoice in intimacy with him.

“Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come!”  The Groom calls again, just as he called on the people in Galilee and Judea: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is approaching!”  The faithful soul hears and treasures this call of the Lord throughout life.  It is a call to prayer, to Mass, to virtue, and to eternal life with the Groom in heaven.  “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.”  Even the soul who thirsts most avidly for God cannot know the yearning of God for that soul.  So greatly does the Groom desire his Church to be with him in heaven that he gladly dies for her.  His giving up his life was not an impulsive act but one willed from before creation.  For the soul, the Lord of all expresses his eagerness to hear what she has to say to him, even though he knows better than she does what she is going to say.  He treasures her words, the movement of her lips as she forms them, and the breath that brings them forth.  Each of her words is precious to him and speaks of her love for him.  “Your voice is sweet, and you are lovely.”  The voice of the Church is sweet and lovely with its harmonies in which the individual tones of the saints come together.  No dissonance disturbs it.  The loveliness of the Bride is enhanced by the reflection of the Groom’s own holiness, which he loans to those who love him.  The Bride, the Church, rejoices in his love and looks forward to the day when she will know it’s fullness in heaven.  The faithful soul knows herself to be loved by Almighty God and can hardly speak in her ecstasy, but she knows that in his love for her, he knows her love for him.