Discourse V: The Fifth Hindrance and Its Remedy

Fifth Hindrance: Human Respect

WHEN a person attains some rare and unusual manner of life, not only does every one praise

32 JHjJStical (Explanation of tlje (Eanticles him, but it seems that every one desires to see him, and cries after the soul:

Return, return, 0 Sulamitess: return, return that we may behold thee. And it is not enough that the spiritual person depreciates what is in herself:

What shalt thou see in the Sulamitess but the companies of camps? For in spite of this, those who see her praise her for her feet and way of walking, that is, for the obedience with which they see that this soul keeps the commandments of God:

How beautiful are thy steps in shoes,

0 prince's daughter!

For her spiritual chastity, which makes one acknowledge that God is co-operating with her:

The joints of thy thighs are like jewels that are made by the hand of a skilful workman.

For a rich poverty which never has need of anything:

Thy navel is like a round bowl never wanting cups.

For fastings, which, filling the belly with peace, only crown the soul with fair and rich lilies:

Thy belly is like a heap of wheat, set about with lilies. For the study of the two Testaments:

Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins. For fortitude:

Thy neck as a tower of ivory.

For prudence:

Thy eyes like the fish-ponds in Hesebon, which are in the gate of the daughter of the multitude. For precise justice:

Thy nose is as the tower of Libanus, that looketh towards Damascus.

For the mastering of the affections; and for conformity with the will of God which is known by the channels of revelation:

Thy head is like Carmel: and the hairs of thy head as royal purple not yet taken out of the dye.*

In short, this soul is the subject of all tongues, which say to her, praising:

How beautiful art thou, and how comely, my dearest, in delights!

And she, increasing evermore in charity, and bearing fruit amidst her neighbours, is like the palm and the vine:

Thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes. They who are in any necessity, whether of spirit or of body, say:

I said: I will go up into the palm tree, and will take hold of the fruit thereof: and thy breasts shall be as the clusters of the vine: And on account of her good example, they say to her:

And the odour of thy mouth like apples.

• Purpura regis vincto canalibus: our version has, the purple of the king bound in the channels.

34 JSgstical (Explanation of tfje Canticles

For her good words — Ah! they say:

Thy throat like the best wine, worthy for my beloved to drink, and for his lips and his teeth to ruminate.

In a word, all this causes great disquietude to the devout soul.

Remedy for the Fifth Hindrance: Solitude

Oh I how good it is to retire into solitude! Wherefore the soul can say:

I to my beloved, and his turning is towards me. Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us abide in the villages.

Now the fruits of solitude are four: first, we waken up better to the examination of our conscience:

Let us get up early to the vineyards, let us see if the vineyard flourish, if the flowers be ready to bring forth fruits, if the pomegranates flourish:

Secondly, we then make a more entire resignation of the concupiscible faculty and its desires:

There I will give thee my breasts. Thirdly, devotion grows:

The mandrakes give a smell. Fourthly, we then offer more humbly to God our little merits, past and present:

In our gates are all fruits: the new and the old, my beloved, I have kept for thee.

Fifth Degree: the Consideration of God in Himself and as God

But amongst the fruits of solitude, this is eminent, that one can therein more easily consider God as God; which makes the spouse use those two words, " alone," " without," that is, apart from all creatures:

Who shall give thee to me for my brother, sucking the breasts of my mother, that I may find thee without (quite alone), A consideration which makes men holily foolish, makes them dance before the Ark: whence it happens that until the soul has arrived at the affection of contempt of self, it ever has some shame; and this is why it desires solitude:

And kiss thee, and now no man may despise me?

A consideration which is a pledge of the enjoyment of heaven, whence the soul seems to itself to be there already:

I will take hold of thee,

I shall see Thee face to face, 0 God! when we shall be in the true house and in the true chamber of human nature, that is, in heaven:

And bring thee into my mother's house: Then I shall see all that belongs to my happiness, as in a mirror:

There thou shalt teach me,

36 JHggtical Explanation of tfje Canticles

And when Thou shalt have drawn from me, for my felicity, the wine of the grape and the must of pomegranates — glory essential and accidental:

And I will give thee a cup of spiced wine and new wine of my pomegranates. Then shall the sweetness come, then the ecstasies, then the sleep of the powers; so that the sacred Spouse begs for pillows to sleep upon;

His left hand under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me. The Beloved for His part tries to secure that she shall not be awakened:

I adjure you, 0 daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up, nor awake my love, till she please.