Song of Solomon 2:9

That the roe and the stag are reckoned among the clean animals is plainly shown by what is written in Deuteronomy, for it is written in this manner: "For these are the animals which you shall eat: the calf, and the lamb from the flocks, and the he-goat from among the goats, the stag and the roe, and the buffalo and the tragelaph, and the ibex, the camel and the leopard." But that a holy person is also compared to a stag is found in many passages of divine Scripture, as in the Psalm, where it says: "As the stag longs for the fountains of waters, so my soul longs for you, O God." Yet in the words which we have taken from Deuteronomy, this too seems worthy of no careless consideration: what dignity of order he observed in enumerating the clean animals, that first he should write of the calf, second the lamb, third the he-goat. But among those which, according to the same Moses, are not offered at the altar, he names first the stag, second the roe; and so after these he describes the remaining animals in order. The reason for these things will become clear and evident to those to whom a more abundant spiritual grace has been granted in the gift of knowledge through the Holy Spirit. Meanwhile, since it now falls to us in the exposition of the present verse to speak of the stag and the roe, it seems fitting to gather together, so far as we are able, from the divine Scriptures the things that are related of these animals — of which the same Moses, when he was speaking of the flesh that might be eaten in every desire of the soul, not offered at the altar, said, "like the roe and the stag." And the twenty-eighth Psalm says something excellent, where, writing in order of the powers and efficacy of the voice of God, it says of the stag in this manner: "The voice of the Lord perfecting the stags," that is, making the stags perfect, "and he will reveal the thickets." For just as the voice of the Lord is said to cut through the flame of fire, and to shake the desert, so it is recorded to perfect the stags and to reveal the thickets. But in Job also we find it related thus of the stag, where the Lord, speaking to Job through the whirlwind and the cloud, says: "Or have you observed the bringing forth of the stags, or numbered their months full unto the birth, and loosed their pains, or nourished their young, or will you send forth their offspring without pains? Their young will break away, and be multiplied in birth; they will go out, and not return?" To these must also be joined those things which we read in the Proverbs in this manner: "The stag of friendships, and the foal of graces, speaks to you." These, for the present, are the things concerning the stag that could come to us as written. Which we have taken up for this purpose, that we may speak not in the teaching of human wisdom, but in the teaching of the Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. And therefore let us call upon God the Father of the Word, that he may manifest to us the mysteries of his Word, and remove our understanding from the teaching of human wisdom, and exalt and lift it up to the teaching of the Spirit, so that we may speak not those things which carnal hearing perceives, but those things which the will of the Holy Spirit contains. Paul the apostle teaches us that the invisible things of God are understood from the visible things, and that those things which are not seen are contemplated by reason and likeness from those things which are seen; showing by this that this visible world teaches concerning the invisible, and that this earthly arrangement contains certain patterns of the heavenly things; so that from these things which are below we may be able to ascend to those which are above, and from those things which we see on earth may perceive and understand those things which are held in the heavens. To some likeness of these, that through them the diversities might more easily be gathered and perceived, the Creator gave a likeness of the creatures which are on earth. And perhaps, just as God made man to his own image and likeness, so also he founded the other creatures by likeness to certain other heavenly images; and perhaps each single thing that is on earth has so much of an image and likeness in the heavenly things, that even the grain of mustard seed, which is least of all seeds, has something of an image and likeness in the heavens; and this — that such a certain alternation of nature is compounded for it, that though it be the least of all seeds, it becomes greater than all herbs, so that the birds of heaven can come and dwell in its branches — bears a likeness not only of some heavenly image, but of the very kingdom of heaven itself. So then it is possible that the other seeds too which are on earth may have something of likeness and reason in the heavenly things. But if the seeds, then without doubt the shrubs too; and if the shrubs, then without doubt the living creatures too, whether of the winged, or the creeping, or the four-footed. But this also can further be understood: that just as the grain of mustard seed holds not one single likeness of the kingdom of heaven and of the dwelling of the birds in its branches, but has also another likeness or image, namely of the perfection of faith — so that if anyone should have faith like a grain of mustard seed, he may say to the mountain, "Remove yourself," and it will remove — so it is possible that the others too may bear the appearance and image of the heavenly things not in some one respect, but in many. And whereas there are, for example, several powers in the grain of mustard seed which hold images of heavenly things, that is its last and furthest use which is held among men in bodily service. So also may it be understood in the rest, whether seeds, or shrubs, or roots of herbs, or even in living creatures; that they indeed provide bodily service and use to men, but have the forms and images of incorporeal things by which the soul may be taught, and instructed to contemplate those things also which are invisible and heavenly. And this, perhaps, is what that writer of divine wisdom says: "For he himself gave me the true knowledge of the things that are, so that I might know the substance of the world, and the powers of the elements, the beginning, and the end, and the middle of the times, the changes of the vicissitudes, and the conversions of the seasons, and the circles of the year, and the positions of the stars, the natures of animals, and the rages of beasts, the violences of the winds, and the thoughts of men, the differences of shrubs, and the powers of roots; and whatsoever things are hidden and manifest, I have known." See therefore whether from these words of Scripture we may be able to gather more lucidly and evidently the things which we have proposed to examine. For this writer of divine wisdom, when he had enumerated each single thing, said at the last that he had received the knowledge of the hidden and the manifest things: showing without doubt that each one of those things which are in the manifest is referred to some one of those things which are in the hidden; that is, that each single visible thing has something of likeness and reason to the invisible things. Since therefore it is impossible for a man living in the flesh to know anything of the hidden and invisible things, unless he has conceived some image and likeness from the visible things; for this reason I think that he who made all things in wisdom so created each single kind of visible things on earth, that in them he might place a certain teaching and knowledge of the invisible and heavenly things; whereby through these the human mind might ascend to spiritual understanding, and might seek the causes of things in the heavenly places, so that, taught through the wisdom of God, it might itself also be able to say: "The things that are in the hidden, and the things that are in the manifest, I have known." According to these things also it knows the substance of the world, not only this visible and corporeal one, which is open to view, but also that incorporeal and invisible one which is in the hidden. It knows also the elements of the world, not only the visible, but also the invisible, and the powers of both. But also the beginning which it speaks of, and the end, and the middle of the times: it speaks indeed of the beginning of the visible world, which Moses designates as no beginning before six full thousands of years; the middle also according to the reckoning of times, and that end which is hoped for when heaven and earth shall pass away. But according to the knowledge of the hidden things, it speaks of that beginning which he understands whom the wisdom of God shall teach, which no times, no ages, can comprehend. And the middle, those things which now are; but the end, those things which are to come, that is, the perfection and consummation of the universe, which nevertheless can be conjectured and understood from these visible things. But also the changes of the vicissitudes, and the conversions of the seasons, the circle of the year — from those things which are seen it refers to the invisible changes and vicissitudes of corporeal things. The circles too of the temporal and present years it refers to certain more ancient and everlasting years, according to him who said: "And I had the eternal years in mind." But also the positions of the stars he did not hesitate to refer from those things which are openly seen to those things which are in the hidden — of which hidden and manifest things he merited the knowledge; and he says that there is a certain race of holy ones which descends especially from the stock of Abraham, like the stars of heaven. But also he declared that the glory of the future resurrection is stars, according to the knowledge of the hidden things, following him who said: "One is the glory of the sun, and another of the stars. For star differs from star in glory; so also is the resurrection of the dead." Unless these things were understood according to this, that which he says — "The natures of animals, and the rages of beasts" — the Savior would never have said in the Gospels, "Tell that fox," nor would John have said of certain men, "Serpents, generation of vipers," nor again would the prophet say of some that they "became stallion horses," and likewise another: "Man, when he was in honor, did not understand; he was compared to the senseless beasts of burden, and was made like unto them." But he too diligently knew the rages of beasts who said: "Their fury is according to the likeness of a serpent, like the deaf asp, and stopping its ears." This will be the reasoning also concerning that which he says, "the violences of the winds": speaking visibly indeed of winds, and of the blasts of the air, but invisibly of the violences of unclean spirits, which Paul too named "winds of doctrine." After these it follows that he should know the thoughts of men: corporeally indeed those which proceed from the human heart, but invisibly he should understand those who cast into men evil and most wicked thoughts, as it is written in the Gospel: "When the devil had put into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray the Lord." And in the Proverbs it is said: "If the spirit of one having power should rise up against you, do not forsake your place, for soundness restrains great sins." But there is also some author of good thoughts: on account of which I think it is written in the Psalms too: "Blessed is the man whose help is from you, O Lord; he has disposed ascents in his heart." And again: "The thought of man shall confess to you, and the remnants of thought shall keep a feast day to you." Thus therefore all things, according to those things which we have said before, can be referred from the visible to the invisible, and from the corporeal to the incorporeal, and from the manifest to the hidden, so that the very creature of the world may be understood to have been founded by a certain dispensation through the divine wisdom, which by the very things and examples may teach us the invisible from the visible, and transfer us from the earthly to the heavenly. But these reckonings are not only held in all creatures, but the divine Scripture too has been written with a certain such art of wisdom. For on account of certain hidden and mystical things, the people is visibly led out of Egypt, and makes its way through the earthly deserts, where there was the biting serpent, and the scorpion, and where there were no waters, and the other things which are related to have been done in these places. All which things, as we have said, hold the forms and images of certain hidden things. And not only in the scriptures of the ancients, but also in the deeds of our Lord and Savior which are related in the Gospels, will you find this. Therefore, if all things which are in the manifest are, according to those things which we have approved above, referred to certain things which are in the hidden, it follows without doubt that this visible stag, or roe, which is written of in the Song of Songs, is, according to the reckoning of its nature which they bear corporeally, referred to certain causes of incorporeal things, so that to those hidden and invisible stags it may seem able to apply what was said: "The voice of the Lord perfecting the stags." For what perfection comes from the voice of the Lord to these visible stags? Or what teaching ever descended to them from the voice of the Lord? But if we seek spiritual stags, whose form and image that corporeal animal holds, you may find that they can be led to the height of perfection from the voice of the Lord. But also of what stags it was fitting that the Lord should guard the young, and that it was proper for him to stand by, as one providing the offices of healing, to the ones giving birth, until they should bring forth such offspring as would oppose and persecute the race of serpents — as is worthy already of the divine majesty, we ought to observe of what sort of stags it befits God to guard the young, lest they fall into miscarriage; but also to number their months full unto the birth, and to keep their labors and pains, so that their generations may not fall in vain, but that their birth may be perfect, and that they may travail so long until Christ be formed in them. The young of stags of this kind the Lord nourishes — of those, that is, who cast their thought upon the Lord, that he himself may nourish them, and he himself may guard the pains of their birth, when out of the fear of God they have conceived in the womb, and travailed, and brought forth the spirit of salvation. The pains of birth of this kind the Lord himself guards and cares for. But he also sends forth their pains, that going they may go, and weep bearing their seeds, and be in the pains of men and be scourged with men, lest perhaps pride hold them. These same stags also break away, as he says, their young. For those whom they have begotten through the Gospel, they break away from the bonds of sins, and from the snares of the devil, that they may no longer be held bound to their will. These too shall be multiplied, and, as he says, shall not return. For they will not imitate the wife of Lot, they will not go back behind. For they know that he who puts his hand to the plow, if he looks back, will not be fit for the kingdom of heaven; but they always forget the things that are behind, and reach forth to the things that are before them. For such stags the voice of the Lord makes to be perfect. Which voice of the Lord, but that which is held in the law and in the prophets, and reached even unto John, who was the voice of one crying in the desert? For the very voice of John, who said, "Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God," made stags perfect, that they might be perfect in the same understanding and in the same knowledge. For he who is such rightly says: "As the stag longs for the fountains of waters, so my soul longs for you, O God." And who else will the stag of friendships seem to be but he who slew that serpent which had seduced Eve, and, pouring into her the poisons of sin by the blasts of his speech, had infected all the offspring of posterity with the contagion of transgression: and had come to loose in his own flesh the enmities which the harmful mediator had wrought between God and man? But the foal of graces can be taken as the Holy Spirit, from whom those thirsting and desiring God obtain spiritual graces and heavenly gifts. But all these things have been said by us so that the cause might become more manifest by which the bride seems to compare her brother to the fawn of stags. But if this too must be inquired — why he is compared not, as elsewhere, to a stag, but to the fawn of stags — consider this: that though he was in the form of God, a son was given to us, and a child was born to us, whose power is upon his shoulder. Therefore, then, the fawn of stags, because a little child was born. And perhaps the stags can be taken as all the holy ones, such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and David, and Solomon, and all from whose seed Christ descended according to the flesh. Which stags the voice of the Lord makes perfect, and theirs is this fawn, who was born from them according to the flesh as a child. That also moves me which is written in the hundred and third Psalm, where it says: "The high mountains for the stags." And indeed of the stags we have already said above that all the holy ones are taken, who for this reason came into this world, that they might destroy the poisons of the serpent. But let us see what the high mountains may be, as being those which seem set apart for the stags alone, and to which none unless he be some stag can ascend. I think that he called the persons of the Trinity the high mountains, to whose capacity none ascends unless he be made a stag. But those same which here are called "high mountains" in the plural, are in other places called "a high mountain" in the singular; as Isaiah says: "Ascend upon a high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Zion. Lift up your voice in strength, you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem." For the same which there is a Trinity on account of the distinction of the persons, is here understood as one God on account of the unity of substance. Let these things suffice concerning the fawn of stags. Now let us see how the brother is also compared to the roe or the little doe. This animal, as far as the Greek words are concerned, has obtained its name from seeing and from looking forth more clearly. And who is there who so sees as Christ sees? For he alone is the one who sees, that is, who knows the Father. For even if those who are pure of heart are said to be about to see God, they will see him, without doubt, by his own revealing, since the roe too has in its nature that it not only itself sees and beholds most keenly, but also provides sight to others. For those who have skill in medicine assert that there is within the entrails of this animal a certain humor which drives away the dimness of the eyes, and sharpens the more dull sights. Rightly therefore is Christ compared to the roe or the little doe, because he not only himself sees the Father, but also makes him to be seen by others, whose sight he himself has cured. But observe, lest hearing that the Father is seen, you should perceive something corporeal, and think God visible. The sight by which God is seen is not of the body, but of the mind, and of the spirit. Which the Savior himself also, distinguishing it in the Gospel by its proper word, said: "No one sees the Father except the Son." Finally, to those also whom he makes to see God, he gives the spirit of knowledge, and the spirit of wisdom, that through that spirit they may see God. And therefore he said to the disciples that "he who sees me, sees the Father also." And surely we will not be so foolish as to think that whoever saw him according to the body also saw the Father: otherwise the Scribes too, and the Pharisees, and the hypocrites, and Pilate who struck him with scourges, and all the people who cried, "Crucify, crucify him," seeing Jesus according to the flesh, would also have seen God the Father. Which surely seems to be not only absurd, but also impious. For just as, when the crowds were pressing him as he went with the disciples, none of those who pressed and crushed him is said to have touched him, except that woman alone who came suffering a flow of blood and touched the fringe of his garment, and to her alone he bears testimony, saying, "Someone touched me, for I felt power go forth from me"; so also, when there were many who saw him, none is said to have seen him, except he who knew that he is the Word of God and the Son of God: in whom, surely, the Father is said at once to be known and to be seen. But let this also not escape us, that first he is compared to the roe, and now to the fawn of stags, though surely the stag seems a larger animal than the roe. But consider whether rather this reckoning is to be held in these things: that since the salvation of believers consists in two ways, through the knowledge of faith and the perfection of works, the reckoning of faith — which, as we have said, is compared to the roe on account of the gaze and inspection of contemplation — is held to be the first grade of salvation; but in the second place is recorded the perfection of works, which holds the form of the stag conquering and destroying the poisons of serpents, that is, the diabolical arts. If therefore the bride says that her brother is like a roe, or the fawn of stags, upon the mountains of Bethel — and Bethel is interpreted "house of God" — then the mountains which are in the house of God can be taken as the volumes of the law and the prophets, but also the evangelical and apostolic ones, in which both the faith of God is perfected and contemplated, and the perfection of works is spoken of and fulfilled.

When I consider the difficulties of investigating the meanings in these words that are set before us in the words of Scripture, I see that I suffer something like what happens to a man who advances to track down his prey with the sharp scent of a keen-nosed hound: where sometimes it is the custom that, when the hunter, intent upon the tracks, has thought himself to be near the quarry hidden in its lurking-places, suddenly he is disappointed of the indications of the tracks, and again, fixing the scent more firmly, he retraces backward the very paths he had opened up, until he finds the place at which the quarry, shaking itself loose more deeply, secretly betook itself to another path; and when the hunter has found this, he pursues it more eagerly, more certain in the hope of the prey, and more secure by the firmness of the track. So therefore we too, when the tracks of the explanation we have set before us have in a manner slipped away from us, retracing the little way we have measured out, and pursuing an order of exposition plainer than it seemed before, we hope that the Lord our God may deliver into our hands the prey which, when we have prepared it, and seasoned it according to the knowledge of our mother Rachel with the salt of the rational word, we may deserve to obtain the blessings from our spiritual father Jacob. On which account it seems necessary, as we have said, briefly to repeat what has been said, and to re-weave the earlier explanation, so that whatever meaning is clearer may be opened up. It seems to me, then, that from the beginning of the drama set before us the bride is to be understood as standing outside at a crossroads, and, on account of her love for the bridegroom, looking this way and that in case perhaps he should come to her, in case perhaps he should appear; and she is unwilling to set out on any road while she does not know from which direction he is more likely to come, and she stands not at home but outside, and is driven by longing for him, and says: "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth"; but when the bridegroom comes, she says: "Your breasts are better than wine," and the rest, up to the place where she says: "We will run after you." After these things, being beloved and receiving from the bridegroom himself a return of love, she is led into his chamber, and says: "The king has brought me into his chamber." But also the rest of the things that are afterward written, she speaks placed within to the bridegroom, in the presence and attendance of the maidens of the bride and the companions of the bridegroom. Yet the bridegroom is to be understood, inasmuch as he is a man, as not always in the house, nor always sitting beside the bride placed within the house: but he goes out frequently, and she, as if anxious with love for him, seeks him when absent; but at times too he returns to her. On which account, throughout the whole little book, the bridegroom is seen at one time to be sought as though absent, at another time to speak as though present with the bride. But the bride herself, when she had seen through many and magnificent things in the bridegroom's chamber, asks that she too be brought into the house of wine. And when, having entered there, she had perceived that the bridegroom, inasmuch as he is a man, had not remained in the house, she again, driven about by love for him, went outside, and going around she wanders about the house as she enters, and looks out on every side for when the bridegroom may return to her; and behold, suddenly she sees him coming down to the house in which the bride, anxious with love for him, is aflame, surpassing the ridges of the neighboring mountains with immense leaps. But when the bridegroom reaches the wall of the house, he stands for a little while behind it, considering, as usually happens, something, and turning it over in his mind. But now, he too feeling something of love toward the bride, and using his own height, which reaches up to the windows of the house — which windows have some part of the work that is, as they say, of lattice — and then he leans indeed through the windows, but being taller than the windows, he reaches up to the upper parts of them, which are marked out, as we have said, with lattice-work, and looking out from there he addresses the bride, and says to her:

My kinsman is like a roe, or a young hart, upon the mountains of Bethel. These two animals are named more frequently in the Scriptures, and — that you may marvel the more — they are often set down joined together. And these are they, he says, which you shall eat, adding a little after, the roe and the hart. In the present book too the hart and the roe are named together. For in a manner these animals are akin and near to one another. The roe, that is, the dorcas, sees most sharply. The hart is a slayer of serpents. Who, do you think, is worthy among us, who according to the dignity of the place and of the mystery could set forth the full account? Let us pray the Lord to bestow on us understanding for the opening of the Scriptures, and that we may be able to say, How Jesus opened to us the Scriptures. What, then, do we say? That the dorcas — that is, the roe — according to the natural science of those who discourse of the natures of all animals, received its name from a power implanted in it. For from the fact that it sees more sharply — that is, ὀξυδερκέστερον — it is called dorcas. But the hart is the enemy and vanquisher of serpents, so that with the breath of its nostrils it draws them out of their caverns, and, the destructive power of their venom being overcome, delights in feeding upon them. Perhaps my Savior becomes a roe according to contemplation (θεωρία), a hart according to works. And what are these works? He himself slays serpents, when he cuts the throats of the opposing powers. Therefore I will say to him: You have crushed the heads of the dragons upon the water. My kinsman is like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of the house of God. For Bethel is interpreted "house of God." Not all mountains are the house of God, but those which are the mountains of the Church. For there are found also other mountains, raised up and rising against the knowledge of God — the mountains of the Egyptians, and of the foreigners. Do you wish to know that my kinsman is like a roe, or a young hart, upon the mountains of Bethel? Be a mountain of the Church, a mountain of the house of God, and the bridegroom will come to you, like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bethel. She perceives that the bridegroom has drawn nearer, who before was moving about upon the mountains and hills; she likens him as bounding and leaping, and, recognizing that after these things he has come to her and to the other maidens, she says:

Behold, here he is, behind our wall. If you have built a wall, and have made the building of God, he will come behind your wall, looking through the windows. One window is one sense: through this the bridegroom looks. Another window is another sense: and through this too the bridegroom carefully gazes. For through what senses does the word of God not look? But what it is to look through the windows, and how the bridegroom gazes through them, the following example will teach. Where the bridegroom does not look, there death is found climbing up, as we read in Jeremiah: Behold, death has climbed up through your windows. When you have looked upon a woman to lust after her, already death has climbed up through your windows. Leaning out through the nets. Understand that you walk in the midst of snares, and pass beneath overhanging engines. All things are full of nets; the devil has filled everything with snares. But if the word of God has come to you, and has begun to lean out from the nets, saying: Our soul, like a sparrow, has been snatched from the snare of the hunters; the snare is broken, and we are set free. Blessed are we by the Lord, who made heaven and earth. The bridegroom, then, leans out through the nets, making a way for you. Jesus descended to earth, subjected himself to the nets of the world. Seeing a great flock of men entangled in the nets, and [seeing] that it could be cut apart by no other than himself, he came to the nets, taking on a human body, which was held by the snares of the hostile powers; he burst them apart for you, and you shall say: Behold, here he is, behind our wall, looking through the windows, leaning out through the nets. When he has leaned out, he says to you — my kinsman answers, and says: Rise up, come, my love; I have made you a way, I have cut apart the nets: so come to me, my love:

Be more like him who leaps over mountains and transcends hills, looking through windows, standing above nets. The chains of pleasure are evil. It delights the eyes, soothes the ears, but corrupts the mind: it tells many lies, adds falsehood, subtracts truth, promises money, offers gold; but takes away discipline.

But because we must always be anxious, always attentive; and because the Word of God leaps forth like a young goat, or like a fawn, the soul must always be vigilant and strive for what it seeks and desires to hold.

Therefore, he comes, and first after the wall is removed, which seemed to be an obstacle to harmony, in order to dissolve the enmities between soul and body. Then he looks through the windows. About what the windows are, hear the prophet saying: The windows are opened from heaven. Certainly, the prophet signifies those through whom the Lord looked upon the human race before he himself descended to the earth. And today, if any soul earnestly seeks him, it will receive much mercy; for the one who seeks much is owed the most. Therefore, if any soul seeks him diligently, it hears his voice from far away: and even though it may seek from others, it hears his voice before those from whom it seeks. It sees him coming towards it, that is, hastening and running, and surpassing those who are unable to grasp his power with a weak heart; finally, it sees him looking through the riddles of the prophets, reading them and understanding their words. It sees him looking, but as through a window, not yet as present.

Hence the holy Church says to Him in the Song of Songs, whom she seeks under the likeness of a young deer: "Show me, O you whom my soul loves, where you feed, where you rest at midday." For the Lord is called a young deer, according to His assumed flesh the son of the ancient fathers. Indeed, a more fervent heat burns at midday, and the young deer seeks a shady place where the fire of heat does not affect it. Therefore, the Lord rests in those hearts which the love of the present age does not inflame, which the desires of the flesh do not burn up, which, set ablaze by their anxieties, do not wither in the lusts of this world.

My beloved is like a roe or a young deer. And indeed, all who know well how to explore the natures of these animals discover many things in them that most fittingly apply to the beloved of the Church, that is, the Lord and Savior. But in this place, it is especially to be noted that they delight in dwelling in the heights of the mountains and in giving very swift leaps, because of which they are seen by us more rarely than oxen or donkeys or other such animals, which, being domesticated together, we use as often as we please. This is very suitably adapted to the height of supreme contemplation, which is not within the discretion of human speculations but in the grace of God, appearing when it wills. I believe Isaiah, who is indeed an exalted mountain, saw Him seated upon a high and elevated throne not when he chose, but when the Lord willed; he saw and the heavenly hosts singing due praises to Him. Paul, also a mountain, much despising earthly things and touching the stars with his summit, was caught up into paradise and into the third heaven, not when he disposed, but when it pleased God, and heard the secret words which it is not lawful for a man to speak. It certainly agrees with the humility and truth of the assumed humanity that the Lord is compared not to a stag but to a roe or a young deer—smaller animals, who among men appeared not only as a man but as a humble man. He became a young deer because He took true flesh from the fleshly material of His ancestors; for He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh (Rom. I). And David himself says, As the deer longs for the water brooks, so my soul longs for you, God (Psalm 42). And again: He has made my feet like hinds' feet (Psalm 18). But concerning the other deer, His companions in life, he says, The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth (Psalm 29); for He indeed prepares the deer when He bestows the gifts of virtues on the faithful; because that they may direct the course of their minds to higher things, ceaselessly thirst for the fountain of life, drive out and trample upon the serpents of heretical speech with their spiritual scent, ruminate on the word of life, and maintain the measure of salvific discretion in the straight steps of their actions is not in their power but in the divine granting. Therefore the voice of the Lord prepares the deer because His grace places the saints in the height of virtues. From such deer was born the fawn rightfully beloved of the bride, that is, of the Church or of every faithful soul, because Christ according to the flesh is from the fathers, who is over all, God blessed forever. And since the sublimity of the contemplative life is expressed in these verses, it remains, therefore, for the perfection of the active life, which is common to the whole Church, to be demonstrated. It follows:

Behold, he stands behind our wall, etc. For now the beloved remains in the vicinity of the bride, now leaping upon the hills on high, because the same Lord and Savior of ours, presents Himself to the more perfect at times, when He wills, even if through a glass and in enigma, and He always shows the invisible grace of His presence to all the elect. Concerning the manifestation of His presence, it is now rightly said, Behold, he stands behind our wall, for He indeed remains with us, nay He remains in us, so that He cannot be seen by us, as John attests, who says: No one has ever seen God (1 John 4). If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us (ibid.). But the wall which excludes us from His sight is the very condition of our mortality, which we have earned by sinning, we who were so conditioned in the first parent that if we had never consented to sin, all the elect would endlessly and without any labor see the light of divine contemplation, that now very few of the more perfect, with the greatest labor, reach by purifying their hearts through faith. But in this wall, divine mercy made windows and lattice-work from where He would look upon us, for He opened to our minds, however burdened by the blindness of this age, the grace of His knowledge, and frequently refreshes us with the light of His hidden inspiration. By this sight of His inspiration, because our gracious Creator chiefly acts to draw us from the love of temporal things to attain the joys of heavenly peace, it is aptly added:

He is rightly said to be like a roe, because he drew his flesh from the Synagogue, which is signified by the roe. And because he was begotten from the stock of the ancient saints, he is rightly declared to be as it were a young hart of the stags.

Christ incarnate stood, as it were, behind our wall, because in the humanity he assumed, his divinity lay hidden. And because if he were to reveal his immensity, human weakness could not endure it, he set before himself the barrier of flesh, and whatever great things he accomplished among men, he did as one hiding behind a wall. Now he who looks through windows and lattices is partly seen, but partly conceals himself. So also the Lord Jesus Christ, while he both performed miracles through the power of his divinity and endured lowly things through the weakness of his flesh, looked forth as it were through the window and lattices, because while hiding in one nature, in the other he revealed who he was. Therefore, incarnate, he speaks to his Church, or to each perfect soul, and exhorts her toward the eternal homeland.

"My beloved is like a gazelle and a young stag" (Song 2:9). This depends on the preceding verse. For him whom she had just described as leaping and hastening, she consequently compares to a gazelle and a young stag. Aptly indeed, because this kind of animal is swift in running and agile in leaping. Moreover the discourse is about the Bridegroom, and the Word is the Bridegroom. And the Prophet says of God that "his word runs swiftly" (Ps 147:15); surely fitting to this place, where the Bridegroom, who is the Word of God, is described as leaping and springing over, made like therefore to a gazelle and a young stag. And this is the reason for the likeness. Add, however, lest any portion of the likeness itself, however small, remain without a soul, that the gazelle indeed excels not only in swiftness of running, but also in sharpness of sight. Which indeed properly regards that part of the narrative in which the Bridegroom is reported to appear not only leaping, but also springing over; because unless with a keen and penetrating gaze he could not at all, especially while running, discern upon whom he should leap and whom he should spring over. Otherwise the comparison with the young stag alone could have sufficed to designate the swiftness of one hastening; for it is known to carry itself with a more rapid course. But now, because this Bridegroom, even if as one ardently loving he seems to rush headlong into the embraces of his beloved, nevertheless knows how to direct his steps, or rather his leaps, with prudent consideration, cautious as to where he ought to set his foot: it was assuredly necessary that the likeness be given not only of the young stag but also of the gazelle, so that through the former the desire of the one saving, and through the latter the judgment of the one choosing, might be expressed. For Christ is just and merciful, savior and judge: and because he loves, he wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4); and because he judges, he knows who are his (2 Tim 2:19), and he himself knows whom he has chosen from the beginning (Jn 13:18).

Therefore let us in the meantime perceive these two goods of the Bridegroom, namely mercy and judgment, as commended to us by the Holy Spirit in these two animals, so that in testimony of the integrity and perfection of our faith, we too, imitating the Prophet, may sing to the Lord of mercy and judgment (Ps 100:1). But I do not doubt that other things too can be shown from the nature of these animals by those who are curious about and knowledgeable of such matters, which could be usefully and fittingly applied to the Bridegroom: but these, as I think, can suffice to give the reason for the likeness introduced. Beautifully, however, the Holy Spirit gave the likeness not of a stag, but of a young stag, in which he both made mention of the Fathers, from whom Christ according to the flesh, and recalled the infancy of the Savior. For as a young stag there appeared "the little one who was born for us" (Is 9:6). But you who desire the coming of the Savior, fear the scrutiny of the Judge, fear the eyes of the gazelle, fear him who says through the prophet: "And it shall be in that day, I will search Jerusalem with lamps" (Zeph 1:12). He is of keen sight; his eye will leave nothing unsearched. "He will search the hearts and minds" (Ps 7:10), and the very thought of man will confess to him (Ps 75:11). What is safe in Babylon, if scrutiny awaits Jerusalem? For I think the prophet in this place designated by the name Jerusalem those who in this age lead a religious life, imitating the manners of that heavenly Jerusalem by an honest and ordered way of life, as far as their powers allow; and not like those who are of Babylon, ruining their life in the disturbance of vices and the confusion of crimes. Indeed the sins of those are manifest, going before them to judgment, and they need not scrutiny, but punishment. But my sins, who seem to be a monk and a Jerusalemite, are certainly hidden, shadowed by the name and habit of a monk: and therefore it will be necessary for them to be investigated by a subtle examination, and as if by lamps brought near, to be brought out of darkness into light.

We can bring forward something also from the psalm to confirm what is said about searching Jerusalem. For he says in the person of the Lord: "When I shall have received the time, I will judge justices" (Ps 74:3). The ways of the just, unless I am mistaken, and their acts he says he will examine and investigate. It is greatly to be feared, when it shall have come to this, lest under so subtle an examination many of our justices, as they are thought to be, may appear as sins. There is one thing, however: if we judge ourselves, we shall certainly not be judged (1 Cor 11:31). Good is the judgment that withdraws and hides me from that strict and divine judgment. Utterly do I dread to fall into the hands of the living God; I desire to be presented to the face of wrath as one already judged, not as one still to be judged. The spiritual man judges all things, and he himself is judged by no one (1 Cor 2:15). I will therefore judge my evil deeds, and I will judge also my good ones. The evil ones I will take care to correct by better acts, to wash away with tears, to punish with fasts and the other labors of holy discipline. In my good deeds I will think humbly of myself, and, according to the precept of the Lord, I will reckon myself an unprofitable servant, who has only done what I was obliged to do (Lk 17:10). I will take care neither to offer tares for grain, nor chaff with grain. I will search out my ways and my pursuits, so that he who is about to search Jerusalem with lamps may find nothing unsearched or unexamined in me. For he will not judge twice in the selfsame matter.

Who will grant me to pursue and track down all my offenses so thoroughly, that I need fear the eyes of the gazelle in nothing, that I need blush at the light of the lamps in nothing? And now I am seen, but I do not see: present is the eye to which all things lie open, even if that eye itself does not lie open. There will be a time when I shall know, even as I also am known: but now indeed I know in part, yet not in part am I known, but wholly. I fear the gaze of that searcher who stands behind the wall. For Scripture adds this about him whom it has likened to a gazelle on account of his sharpness of sight: "Behold, he himself stands," it says, "behind the wall, looking through the windows, peering through the lattices." Of which we shall see in its own place. This one therefore I fear, the hidden searcher of hidden things. The bride fears nothing, because she is conscious of nothing against herself. What indeed should she fear, friend, dove, beautiful one? For straightway you have: "Behold, my beloved," she says, "speaks to me." He leaves nothing unsaid; and therefore I dread his gaze, because I do not have testimony. What do you hear about yourself, O bride? What does your beloved say to you? "Arise, hasten, my friend, my dove, my beautiful one" (Song 2:9-10). But this too I will reserve for another beginning, and I will not compress into brevity those things that require diligence; lest perhaps I be found guilty even of this, if somehow you are found less built up in this regard unto the understanding and love of the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is over all things God blessed forever. Amen.

"Behold, he himself stands behind the wall, looking through the windows, gazing through the lattices" (Song 2:9). According to the letter indeed he seems to say that he who was seen approaching with leaps had drawn near even to the dwelling of the bride, and standing behind the wall was peering in more curiously through the windows and cracks, and bashfully did not presume to thrust himself in. According to the spirit, however, he is understood to have drawn near no less, but in another way, in such a manner assuredly as it was fitting both for the heavenly Bridegroom to act and for the Holy Spirit to speak. For the true and spiritual understanding will admit nothing that would be unbecoming either to the author or to the narrator. Therefore he drew near to the wall when he adhered to flesh. The flesh is the wall, and the drawing near of the Bridegroom is the incarnation of the Word. Furthermore, the lattices and windows through which he is said to look are, as I suppose, the senses of the flesh and human affections, through which he took up experience of all human necessities. For "he himself bore our weaknesses, and he himself carried our sorrows" (Is 53:4). Therefore he used human affections and bodily senses as openings and windows, so that, having been made man, he might know the miseries of men by experience, and might become merciful. He knew even before, but in another way. For the Lord of hosts himself knew the virtue of obeying, and yet, as the Apostle attests, "he learned obedience from the things which he suffered" (Heb 5:8). In this manner he also learned mercy, even though the mercy of the Lord is from eternity. The same teacher of the nations teaches this also, where he asserts that he was "tempted in all things according to likeness, without sin, that he might become merciful" (Heb 4:15). Do you see that he was made what he was, and learned what he knew, and sought for himself among us cracks and windows, through which he might explore our calamities more diligently? And he found as many openings in our ruinous wall full of cracks as he felt experiences of our weakness and corruption in his own body.

Thus therefore the Bridegroom was standing behind the wall and looking through windows and lattices. And rightly standing, because he alone truly stood in the flesh who did not experience the sin of the flesh. We can also faithfully hold this, that he stood by the power of divinity who fell by the weakness of the flesh, as he himself said: "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Mt 26:41). But I think that also that other passage lends support to this meaning, which holy David, as a prophet of the Lord and prophesying, spoke of the Lord in this mystery; and indeed speaking of Moses, but looking to the Lord. For he himself is the true Moses, who truly came through water, and not in water only, but in water and blood. And so the aforementioned prophet said: "He said that he would destroy them" (for he was speaking of the Father), "if Moses his chosen one had not stood in the breach in his sight, to turn away his wrath, lest he destroy them" (Ps 105:23). In what way, I ask, did Moses stand in the breach? How, I say, did he either stand, if he was broken; or if he stood, how was he broken? But I will show you, if you wish, who truly stood in the breach. I know no other who could do this, except my Lord Jesus, who certainly was living in death, who, broken in body on the cross, was standing by divinity with the Father; in the one supplicating with us, in the other propitiating with the Father. And he was standing behind the wall, since what lay prostrate in him was manifest in the flesh, and that by which he stood was hidden in him as if behind the flesh; one and the same indeed, man manifest and God hidden.

But also for each one of us who desire his coming, I think he stands no less behind the wall, while this body of ours, which is certainly of sin, hides from us in the meantime his face and shuts off his presence. For: "As long as we are in this body," he says, "we are pilgrims from the Lord" (2 Cor 5:6). Not because we are in a body, but because we are in this body, which assuredly is of sin and is not without sin. And that you may know that it is not bodies but sins that obstruct, hear the Scripture: "Our sins," it says, "separate between us and God" (Is 59:2). And would that only one wall of the body stood in my way, and I suffered only the obstacle of that which is the sin in the flesh, and that not many partition walls of vices stood between! For I fear that beyond that which is in nature, I have added very many from my own iniquity, by the interposition of which I have set the Bridegroom exceedingly far from me; so that, if I wished to speak the truth, I should confess that he stands behind walls rather than behind a wall for me.

But I say this more plainly. The Bridegroom indeed is equally and indifferently present everywhere, by the presence assuredly of the divine majesty, and by the greatness of his power. Yet by the exhibition or withholding of grace he is said to be far from some and near to others, that is, of angels and men, that is, of rational creatures. For "salvation is far from sinners" (Ps 118:155). And holy David likewise says: "Why, O Lord, have you withdrawn far off?" (Ps 9:1). But from the saints, by a pious dispensation, he makes himself far for a time and not entirely, but according to something, sometimes. But from sinners of whom it is said: "The pride of those who hate you ascends always" (Ps 73:23); and likewise: "Their ways are defiled at all times" (Ps 9:5); he is always and very far away, and this in wrath and not in mercy. Wherefore the saint prays to God and says: "Do not turn away in anger from your servant" (Ps 26:9); knowing that he could also turn away in mercy. The Lord is therefore near to his saints and his elect, even when he seems to be far away; and not equally to all, but to some more, to others less, according to the diversity of merits. For even if the Lord is near to all who call upon him in truth, and is close to those who are of a troubled heart; yet not to all perhaps, so that they may be able to say that he himself stands behind the wall. But how near he is to the bride, who is separated by only one wall! For this reason she desires to be dissolved, and with the middle wall broken through, to be with him whom she trusts to be behind the wall.

But I, since I am a sinner, do not desire to be dissolved but dread it, knowing that "the death of sinners is most wretched" (Ps 33:22). How is death not most wretched where Life does not come to aid? I dread going out, and I tremble at the very entrance of the harbor, since I do not trust that he who would receive me as I go out stands near. For what? Do I go out securely, if the Lord does not guard my going out? Alas! I shall be a mockery of demons intercepting me: with none standing by to redeem, nor to save. Nothing such was to be feared by the soul of Paul, for whom only one wall stood in the way from the sight and embrace of the Beloved, namely the law of sin, which he found in his members. This is the concupiscence of the flesh, which he could not entirely lack as long as he was in the flesh. With this one wall surely interposed, he was not wandering far from the Lord; whence also he wished, crying out: "Who will deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom 7:24). Knowing that by the shortcut of death he would immediately arrive at life. By this one law therefore Paul confessed himself to be held, namely concupiscence, which, immovably implanted in his flesh, he endured unwillingly; for the rest: "I am conscious," he says, "of nothing against myself" (1 Cor 4:4).

But who is like Paul, who does not, namely, sometimes consent to this concupiscence so as to obey sin? Let him know therefore, he who has consented to sin, that he has set up another wall against himself, namely that very depraved and illicit consent: nor can he who is of this kind boast that the Bridegroom stands behind a wall for him, when already walls stand between, not a wall. Much less if the consent has proceeded to effect, since now a third wall also bars and impedes the access of the Bridegroom, namely the very act of sin. What if habit has perhaps led the sin into use, or use even into contempt? As it is written: "The impious one, when he has come into the depth of evils, shows contempt" (Prov 18:3). Will you not, if you go out in such a state, be devoured a thousand times by those roaring ones prepared for food, before you can reach the Bridegroom, who is now shut off from you not by one wall but by so great a number of walls? The first is concupiscence; the second, consent; the third, the act; the fourth, habit; the fifth, contempt. Take care therefore to resist the first concupiscence with all your strength, lest it drag you into consent; and every structure of malice thereafter vanishes: nor is there anything at all to prevent the Bridegroom from drawing near to you, except only the wall of the body, so that you may be able to boast, you too, saying of him: "Behold, he himself stands behind the wall."

But this too you must provide for with all vigilance, that he may always find open the windows and certain lattices of your confessions, through which he may kindly look upon you within, since his looking upon you is your progress. They say that lattices are narrower than windows, such as those assuredly who copy books are accustomed to fit for themselves to receive light upon the pages. Whence also I think those are called chancellors who are deputed by office to the writing of documents. Since therefore there are two kinds of compunction, one in sorrow for our transgressions, the other in exultation for divine gifts, as often surely as I make that confession of my sins which is by no means done without anguish of heart, I seem to myself to open a lattice, that is, a narrower window. Nor is there doubt that he who stands behind the wall, the pious searcher, willingly looks through this one, because "a contrite and humbled heart God will not despise" (Ps 50:19). For he also exhorts to this very thing: "Declare you," he says, "your iniquities first, that you may be justified" (Is 43:26). But if at times, with heart enlarged in charity, on account of the consideration of the divine condescension and compassion, it pleases to release the mind into a voice of praise and thanksgiving, I think I am opening no longer a narrow but a most ample window for the Bridegroom standing behind the wall, through which, unless I am mistaken, he looks all the more willingly, inasmuch as "the sacrifice of praise honors him" the more. It is ready at hand from the Scriptures to approve both of these confessions; but I speak these things to those who know, and you are not to be burdened with superfluous things, who scarcely suffice for investigating the necessary ones. For so great are the mysteries of this wedding song, and the proclamations of praise that are sung in it to the Church and to her Bridegroom Jesus Christ our Lord, who is over all things God blessed forever. Amen.