Song of Solomon 6:11

You wish to know the place? He says in the Canticles, “I came down to the nut garden”; for it was a garden where he was crucified.

By “nut plantation” they refer to the present life, which is harsh, troublesome and laborious but contains hidden in itself the fruit of virtue. The fruit of the nut has a bitter skin on the outside, the second one is tough and resistant, and the edible part is hidden as though deposited in a kind of inner chamber and is not extracted without effort. Such also is the present life, containing as it does harsh pain and grief, containing hardship and effort which, however, are not fruitless, not useless, holding the fruit hidden within them. Hence blessed Paul also says, “Our life is hidden with Christ in God; but when Christ our life is revealed, then we too shall live in him.”

Solomon bears witness that a nut is customarily employed as a figure of the present church when in the Song of Songs he speaks in the character of the faithful teachers.… For just as a nut has sweet fruit on the inside but does not show it on the outside unless its hard shell can be broken, so in the same way do the righteous maintain the sweetness of spiritual grace in their inmost heart while they are in this present life. Its magnitude cannot be perceived by their neighbors until the time when the bodily dwelling is dissolved and the souls freed from it can gaze upon one another in heavenly light, and they individually shine so much with the grace of the Holy Spirit, and they are loved so much by one another, that absolutely nothing remains hidden.

I descended into the garden of nuts, etc. For the garden of nuts is the present Church, where we are scarcely able to perceive each other's consciences. Indeed, nuts are all fruits which are covered with a harder shell; conversely, all soft things are generally called evil. Therefore, the life of the righteous is rightly compared to nuts, where they preserve the sweetness of spiritual fruit in their innermost heart in such a way that they cannot make it known to others, how great it is. Hence, it is necessary that Mother Church always keeps a cautiously ordered line of teachers, while she takes care to battle for them and to defend them from the enemy, whose senses and hearts she often does not know. It can also be understood this way: Just as the nut or almond has a very bitter shell and is surrounded by a very hard casing, and after the harsh and hard parts are removed, the sweetest fruit is found inside, so too every correction and labor of continence, which the holy Church is exercised in, seems bitter indeed at present, but produces in the future the sweetest fruit, according to the saying of the Apostle Paul: "For all discipline seems for the moment not to be joy, but grief; afterward, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Hebrews XII). However, the valley fruits say the fruit of humility, as it is in the Psalm: "And the valleys will abound with grain" (Psalm LXVI), because indeed the humble are exuberant with the refreshment of heavenly grace. The valley fruits say the good works of the faithful of the holy Church, exhibited in the depths of the earth, but bringing their workers to the merits of the heavenly kingdom. Of which also the Psalmist says, "He planned ascents in his heart in the valley of tears to the place you have set for them" (Psalm LXXXIII). And the bride descended into my garden, to see the fruits of the valley, when the teachers of the Church, from the height of their secret tranquility and divine contemplation, which they are often granted, turn the acumen of their mind to consider the state of the same Church, to diligently explore how much the faithful are progressing in good deeds, how much they still need the help of teachers, and to provide them with vital fruits for cultivation.

To see if the vine has blossomed, etc. He looks to see if the vine has flowered, when he carefully examines whether the hearts of those he instructs propose new endeavors of virtues to be undertaken spiritually, according to the saying of the Psalmist, "They will go from strength to strength" (Psalm LXXXIII). He looks to see if the pomegranates have budded, when he diligently observes if there are any who desire to be poured out in their own blood in imitation of the Lord's passion, following the admonition of the Apostle Peter, who says, "Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose" (1 Peter 4:1). Thus, the Church proclaims her evangelical labors to the astonished Synagogue. And she, being pierced with a healthy fullness, professes that she has long remained deprived of such great salvation due to profane blindness and ignorance, responding in this way:

What do we understand by nuts, if not all the perfect, who while they retain divine wisdom within their bodies, carry as it were a kernel in a fragile shell? For there are very many in the Church who attend constantly to divine Scripture, and tasting how sweet the Lord is, desire to taste yet more; they ruminate on holy joys in their heart, and ruminating they grow stronger more and more. And yet outwardly, to those who do not know them, they appear worthless, because it is unknown what sweet food they carry within their interior. What are these if not nuts, who carry the sweetness of the kernel within, but outwardly display the worthlessness of the flesh? Of their number was the Apostle, who said: "We have this treasure in earthen vessels" (2 Cor. 4:7). The garden of nuts, therefore, is the hearts of the saints, who while they love, carry heavenly sweetness in their inmost depths. Whence it is written in the Psalm: "How great is the multitude of your sweetness, O Lord, which you have hidden for those who fear you!" (Ps. 30:20). But what does it mean that the Bridegroom descends into the garden of nuts to see the fruits, when he ought rather to see the nuts? Nevertheless, it should be known that he frequently visits the hearts of the perfect and manifests to them the sweetness of his kindness, so that through them he may afterward come to the weaker ones, and through them may know how much they have advanced in the increase of righteousness. Whence it is written: "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there is any who understands or seeks God" (Ps. 13:2). For when divine goodness illumines the hearts of the perfect and urges them to the care of their neighbors through the solicitude of charity, what is this other than that, coming to the garden, he surveys the fruits of the valley through those over whom he presides? For the Lord is said to see or to know when he exhorts his saints whom he illumines to see. But what does it mean that he descends to see not the fruits of the mountain but the fruits of the valley, unless that he grants the regard of his mercy to those whom he knows to persist in humility? Of whom it is said through the Psalmist: "For the Lord is exalted, and he regards the lowly, and the lofty he knows from afar" (Ps. 137:6). And the Lord himself says through his own voice from the prophet: "Upon whom shall my spirit rest, if not upon the humble and quiet one, who trembles at my words?" (Isa. 66:2). The Bridegroom then continues and says: "And I would see whether the vineyards had flourished and the pomegranates had budded." The vineyards flourish when in the Church children are newly begotten in the faith and are prepared for holy conduct, as it were for the solidity of fruit. The pomegranates bud when all the perfect build up their neighbors by their examples and transform them into the newness of holy conduct through preaching and the display of good works. That pomegranate, namely the apostle Paul, had budded, who said: "My little children, whom I again bring forth in labor until Christ be formed in you" (Gal. 4:19). For thus it is done in the holy Church, that through the good the wicked are converted, through the perfect the imperfect are nourished, until they themselves also come to perfection and lead the weak, just as they themselves were led, to better things. This Christ the Bridegroom of the Church perceives by visiting, and by regarding joins together the holy body — he who is known to have assumed a body of weakness so that the whole Church together might be transformed into the body of his glory. Whence blessed Paul says: "Who will transform the body of our lowliness, made conformable to the body of his glory" (Phil. 3:21). All these things the Synagogue, at last awakened at the end of the world, will perceive, and will reproach itself for having been ignorant of these things for so long.