St. Bernard on the "Canticle of Canticles", PT I
"It [the bride] does not ask for liberty, nor reward, nor nor heritage nor even knowledge, but a kiss - clearly after the manner of the chaste spouse burning with a holy love and altogether powerless to conceal the flame that consumes her." (St. Bernard, On the Canticle of Canticles, Chapter 4)
Chaste love. What a beauty! The love that the bride shares for the Bridegroom in the Canticle of Canticles is simply amazing. It is nothing less than the epitome of love. This love comes from a desire for union with the beloved rather than from the selfish desire to be pleased herself.
St. Bernard further comments how the love between the bride and bridegroom is pure when it mirrors the love of the Trinity. This he explains:
"Certainly if the Father is rightly interpreted as giving the kiss and the Son as receiving it, it will not be very far from the fact to understand the kiss itself as the Holy Spirit who is the unalterable peace, the indissoluble bond, the indivisible love, the inviolable unity between the Father and the Son" (Chapter 5).
This love of the Trinity, the exchange of the kiss (which comes from Canticle of Canticles 1:1), is the summation of the eternal exchange of love that is the goal of the bride and the bridegroom. This peace, bond, love, and unity all wrapped up into one is what love is about. Far from the selfish desires that society tells us make up love, St. Bernard seems to hit love right on the head. Maybe that's why he's the Mellifluus Doctor, to which Pope Pius XII quotes him saying,
"O holy and chaste love! O sweet and soothing affection! . . . It is the more soothing and more sweet, the more the whole of that which is experienced is divine. To have such love, means being made like God." (Encyclical Letter, Mellifluus Doctor, 17)
Chaste love. What a beauty! The love that the bride shares for the Bridegroom in the Canticle of Canticles is simply amazing. It is nothing less than the epitome of love. This love comes from a desire for union with the beloved rather than from the selfish desire to be pleased herself.
St. Bernard further comments how the love between the bride and bridegroom is pure when it mirrors the love of the Trinity. This he explains:
"Certainly if the Father is rightly interpreted as giving the kiss and the Son as receiving it, it will not be very far from the fact to understand the kiss itself as the Holy Spirit who is the unalterable peace, the indissoluble bond, the indivisible love, the inviolable unity between the Father and the Son" (Chapter 5).
This love of the Trinity, the exchange of the kiss (which comes from Canticle of Canticles 1:1), is the summation of the eternal exchange of love that is the goal of the bride and the bridegroom. This peace, bond, love, and unity all wrapped up into one is what love is about. Far from the selfish desires that society tells us make up love, St. Bernard seems to hit love right on the head. Maybe that's why he's the Mellifluus Doctor, to which Pope Pius XII quotes him saying,
"O holy and chaste love! O sweet and soothing affection! . . . It is the more soothing and more sweet, the more the whole of that which is experienced is divine. To have such love, means being made like God." (Encyclical Letter, Mellifluus Doctor, 17)
Labels: Saints
posted by Matthaeus Evangelista at 11:29 AM
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