Stanza XXXIV
Note
THE gifts of love which the Bridegroom bestows on the soul in this state are inestimable; the praises and endearing expressions of divine love which pass so frequently between them are beyond all utterance. The soul is occupied in praising Him, and in giving Him thanks; and He in exalting, praising, and thanking the soul, as we see in the Canticle, where He thus speaks to the bride: ! Behold, thou art fair, O My love, behold, thou art fair; thy eyes are as those of doves/ The bride replies: ' Behold, thou art fair, my Beloved, and comely.'1 These, and other like expressions, are addressed by them each to the other.
- In the previous stanza the soul despised itself, and said it was swarthy and unclean, praising Him for His beauty and grace, Who, by looking upon the soul, ren dered it gracious and beautiful. He, Whose way it is to exalt the humble, fixing His eyes upon the soul, as He was entreated to do, praises it in the following stanza. He does not call it swarthy, as the soul calls itself, but He addresses it as His white dove, praising it for its good dispositions, those of a dove and a turtle-dove.
The Bridegroom
The little white dove
Has returned to the ark with the bough;
And now the turtle-dove
Its desired mate
On the green banks has found.
IT is the Bridegroom Himself who now speaks. He celebrates the purity of the soul in its present state, the rich rewards it has gained, in having prepared itself, and laboured to come to Him. He also speaks of its blessed ness in having found the Bridegroom in this union, and of the fulfilment of all its desires, the delight and joy it has in Him now that all the trials of life and time are over.
' The little white dove/
- He calls the soul, on account of its whiteness and purity — effects of the grace it has received at the hands of God — a dove, ' the little white dove/ for this is the term He applies to it in the Canticle, to mark its sim plicity, its natural gentleness, and its loving contempla tion. The dove is not only simple, and gentle without gall, but its eyes are also clear, full of love. The Bride groom, therefore, to point out in it this character or loving contemplation, wherein it looks upon God, says of it that its eyes are those of a dove: ' Thy eyes are dove's eyes/2
' Has returned to the ark with the bough/
- Here the Bridegroom compares the soul to the dove of Noe's ark, the going and returning of which is a figure of what befalls the soul. For as the dove went forth from the ark, and returned because it found no rest for its feet on account of the waters of the deluge, until the time when it returned with the olive branch in its mouth — a sign of the mercy of God in drying the waters which had covered the earth — so the soul went forth at its creation out of the ark of God's omnipotence, and having traversed the deluge of its sins and imperfec tions, and finding no rest for its desires, flew and returned on the air of the longings of its love to the ark of its Creator's bosom; but it only effected an entrance when God had dried the waters of its imperfections. Then it returned with the olive branch, that is, the victory over all things by His merciful compassion, to this blessed and perfect recollection in the bosom of the Beloved, not only triumphant over all its enemies, but also rewarded for its merits; for both the one and the other are sym bolised by the olive bough. Thus the dove-soul returns to the ark of God not only white and pure as it went forth when He created it, but with the olive branch of reward and peace obtained by the conquest of itself.
' And now the turtle-dove its desired mate
on the green banks has found.'
The Bridegroom calls the soul the turtle-dove, because when it is seeking after the Beloved it is like the turtle-dove when it cannot find its desired mate. It is said of the turtle-dove, when it cannot find its mate, that it sitteth not on the green boughs, nor drinketh of the cool refreshing waters, nor retireth to the shade, nor mingleth with companions; but when it finds its mate then it doeth all this.
Such, too, is the condition of the soul, and necessarily, if it is to attain to union with the Bride groom. The soul's love and anxiety must be such that it cannot rest on the green boughs of any joy, nor drink of the waters of this world's honour and glory, nor recreate itself with any temporal consolation, nor shelter itself in the shade of created help and protection: it must repose nowhere, it must avoid the society of all its in clinations, mourn in its loneliness, until it shall find the Bridegroom to its perfect contentment.
And because the soul, before it attained to this estate, sought the Beloved in great love, and was satisfied with nothing short of Him, the Bridegroom here speaks of the end of its labours, and the fulfilment of its desires, saying: ' Now the turtle-dove its desired mate on the green banks has found.' That is: Now the bride-soul sits on the green bough, rejoicing in her Beloved, drinks of the clear waters of the highest contemplation and of the wisdom of God; is refreshed by the consolations it finds in Him, and is also sheltered under the shadow of His favour and protection, which she had so earnestly desired. There is she deliciously and divinely com forted, refreshed and nourished, as she saith in the Canticle: ' I sat down under His shadow Whom I desired, and His fruit was sweet to my palate/3
Footnotes
Chapter 35 of 41