Joining the daughters of the heavenly city, she seeks after the Word; by her search she arouses his love for her, and she knows where to search for him. For she has come to know that he delays among the prayers of his saints and remains close to them, and she understands that he feeds the church and the souls of his just ones among the lilies.
They who are blessed by the boons of God and have learned to know these passages and others like them, kindled with warm love for their bountiful Master, constantly carry on their lips this his dearest name and cry in the words of the Song of Songs, “My beloved is mine, and I am his.”
My beloved is mine, and I am his, etc. The meaning of this response is as broad as it seems to be briefly concluded. For it may rightly be understood in this way: My beloved is mine, and I am his, we are united by true and sincere love. It may also be understood in this way: My beloved has promised me such words of His divine exhortation, consolation, and promise, and I will always offer Him a clear face of my conduct and a pure voice of my speech and grace. But it can also be very decently accepted that, since pronouns usually have great force, the Church, that is, the multitude of all the elect, says, My beloved is mine, and no other; and again, My beloved is mine, not to anyone else, implying that He grants eternal favor of His love and repays fruitfully; and I am His, not to anyone else; I am His, not any other crowd of people, implying that I am always united with Him in full devotion of humility and obedience. To all these meanings aptly fits what follows:
Who feeds among the lilies. That is, who is accustomed to rejoice in the most radiant and sweetest fragrance of my virtues, who delights in the most pleasing fruit of the glittering churches throughout the world. Thus indeed the holy universal Church is sometimes described in the plural as lilies, sometimes in the singular as a lily. For as it says, As a lily among thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters. Similarly, it refers to vineyards in the plural, where it says: Blooming vineyards; and again in the singular as a vineyard, where it adds, For our vineyard has blossomed, it represents the one Church. It is named in the singular because there is one heart and one soul of the multitude of believers (Acts IV); and it is also very aptly named in the plural because that unity of faithful heart and soul is no longer contained in a few, but in a multitude of believers. Noteworthy is also that lilies, even in that they are accustomed to heal limbs burned by fire, correspond to the acts of the saints. If they chance to detect hearts being burned by the flames of vices, they immediately extend the help of brotherly love to heal them, and lest the heat of desire or luxury, arrogance or anger, or other crimes overwhelm them, they provide them with the refreshment of their consolation and exhortation with diligent care. Some interpret the Lord feeding among the lilies as among the purest choirs of virgins, and rightly so, because both their chastity of the flesh shines outwardly and the brilliance of their inviolate hearts shines inwardly. Again, the Lord feeds among the lilies, that is, among the most pleasing virtues or bands of saints, in the very reason that He is born among them; for since He Himself, the Mediator of God and men, willed to be of one nature with His Church, hence the same Church is often called His body and He the head of the body of the Church. He feeds among the lilies when the number of the faithful within the Church is increased through the fountain of regeneration. He feeds among the lilies when the faithful, who are certainly members of Him, advance in the love of the highest by the illustrious examples of previous faithful. And it is noteworthy that here the beloved is said to feed, while above he is said to lead the pastures: the bride saying, Tell me, whom my soul loves, where you feed, where you rest at midday; for he is fed in us, because we are His body, and members from His member; He feeds us because He is our head, in whom we all rightly glory, each saying, But now has He exalted my head above my enemies, implying that He will also later exalt us, and gather us to the head; and since this pasturing of the Lord, which takes place in the progress of His saints, extends to the end of this age (for when they reach His vision, they will have nothing further to advance in), it is rightly added:
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Song of Solomon 2:16