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Chapter 3SermC.1.3

Sermo 3

The Call to Inner Experience

The preacher invites the audience to examine their own experience of the Song's kiss, describing it as hidden manna and a sealed fountain that leaves the soul still hungering and thirsting.

Today we read in the book of experience. Turn back into yourselves, and let each of you attend to your own conscience about what is to be said. I would like to test whether any of you has ever been able to say this from genuine conviction: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.✦ For it's not something anyone can say from feeling alone; but if anyone has once received a spiritual kiss from the mouth of Christ, that personal experience surely stirs him up and brings him back to it with delight. I think no one can even know what it is unless he receives it: it is, indeed, hidden manna, and the one who eats it will still hunger. It is a sealed fountain, which no stranger shares in; but the one who drinks from it will still thirst. Listen to someone who has experienced it — how earnestly it is sought. Restore to me, he says, the joy of your salvation.✦

Unworthiness and the Place for Sinners

The preacher confesses his own unworthiness to claim the kiss and directs burdened souls to the humble place at Christ's feet, where the penitent woman was healed through tears and sighs.

A soul like mine certainly shouldn't claim that for itself — burdened with sins, still subject to the passions of its own flesh, which hasn't yet perceived the sweetness of the spirit, ignorant and utterly inexperienced in inner joys. I show her, then, who is of this kind, a place suited to her salvation. She shouldn't rashly rise to the mouth of the most serene Bridegroom, but lie trembling at the feet of the most severe Lord with me, and, like the tax collector, look trembling at the ground, not heaven, lest her face—confused by the luminaries of heaven and accustomed to darkness—be overwhelmed by the glory, and, struck back by the unfamiliar splendors of majesty, be enveloped once more in the thicker blindness of gloom.✦ To you, whatever soul you are that is such, that place shouldn't seem cheap or contemptible, where the holy sinner laid aside her sins and put on holiness.✦ There the Ethiopian woman changed her skin, and, restored to new brightness, even then she was confidently and truly answering those who reproached her with the word: I am dark, but beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem.✦✦ Do you wonder by what art she was able to do this, or by what merits she obtained it? Hear it in a few words. She wept bitterly, and from her inmost heart drew long sighs; shaken by saving sobs within herself, she vomited up her bilious humors. The heavenly physician comes to aid most swiftly, because his word runs fast.

The Searching Word and the Feet of Christ

God's word is described as a penetrating draught that searches hearts, leading the soul to prostrate at Christ's feet in penitence, bathing them with tears, and rising forgiven.

Isn't the word of God a draught to drink?1 It is indeed strong and forceful, searching hearts and reins. Finally, the word of God is living and effective, more piercing than any two-edged sword, reaching all the way to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and the discerner of thoughts.2 Following the example of this blessed penitent, you too, wretched soul, must prostrate yourself so that you stop being wretched; prostrate yourself on the ground, embrace his feet, appease him with kisses, bathe them with tears — yet with these you do not wash him, but yourself; you become one of the shorn flock rising from the font. So truly, with your face covered in shame and grief, you would not dare to lift it before you hear, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' and hear, 'Rise, rise, captive daughter of Zion; rise, shake off the dust.'3

The Kiss of the Hand: From Forgiveness to Perseverance

The soul must not stop at the kiss of forgiveness but must seek the second kiss of perseverance, since forgiveness without amendment is worthless and relapse is worse than the first fall.

So once you've begun by kissing his feet, don't think you can move straight to the kiss on the mouth; instead, there's a step up to another kiss, the second one, directed to the hand — and here's how to understand it. If Jesus says to me, 'Your sins are forgiven,' but I don't stop sinning, what good does it do me? I took off my tunic; if I put it back on, what have I gained? If I dirty again the feet I once washed, does the washing count for anything? Filthy with every kind of vice, I lay a long time in the muck; but falling again is, without doubt, worse than lying there. After all, the one who made me well — I remember him saying to me: 'See, you have been made well; go, and from now on sin no more, so that nothing worse happens to you.' But the one who gave the desire to repent must also add the strength to persevere — so that I don't repeat what I've repented of and make my last sins worse than my first. Alas for me — even as I repent — if he at once withdraws his hand, without which I can do nothing.

The Need for a Second Grace

Repetition in prayer is fruitless without true repentance, and the preacher confesses that the first grace of repentance is insufficient without a second grace that bears worthy fruit.

Nothing — because I neither repent nor restrain myself. I hear, then, what the Wise One counsels: don't repeat a word in your prayer, he says.4 And I fear that the judge threatens the tree that bears no good fruit.5 I confess that, for someone like me, the first grace — the one by which I now repent of my sins — isn't enough, unless I also receive a second grace, so that I may clearly bear worthy fruits of repentance and not afterward return to my vomit.67

Gradual Ascent: Not Rushing Beyond One's Measure

The soul must progress gradually and not presume to leap from the feet to the mouth of Christ, since the recently soiled should not rush into the presence of glory.

So this is what remains for me to seek and receive first, before I presume to reach for higher and more sacred things. I don't want to become great all at once; I want to make progress gradually. However offensive the sinner's shamelessness is to God, that pleasing is the penitent's modesty. You'll please him more quickly if you keep to your own measure and don't reach beyond yourself. It's a long and steep leap from foot to mouth, and there's no fitting approach. What do I mean? Still dusted with recent soil—would you touch what is holy? Dragged from the mud just yesterday, into the presence of glory today?

The Hand That Raises: Self-Control and Good Works

The soul is raised from the mud through the hand of Christ, which grants the beauty of self-control and the fruit of repentance, leading to hope and the glory given to God rather than self.

Let the passing through your hand be for you. Let her cleanse you first, let her lift you up. How can she lift you up? By giving you grounds for confidence. What is this? The beauty of self-control and the worthy fruit of repentance, which are the works of piety. These will lift you out of the muck and into a hope of daring greater things. Indeed, when you receive a gift, kiss the hand—that is, give the glory not to yourself, but to his name.

Growing Boldness and the Order of Ascent

Having received the twin graces of forgiveness and virtue, the soul grows in confidence and love, dares to approach the highest kiss, and follows the ordered path of contrition, strengthening, and intimate union.

Give once, and give again — now for the sins that have been forgiven, now for the virtues that have been bestowed. Or at least consider how you'll fortify your brow against those blows: what do you have that you haven't received?✦8 And if you received it, why do you boast as though you hadn't?✦9 Now at last, having in two kisses the twin proof of divine favor, perhaps you won't be ashamed to reach for what is holier. Indeed, the more you grow in grace, the more you're enlarged in confidence. From this it follows that you both love more ardently and, struck down, approach more confidently, because you recognize what you still lack. Furthermore, to the one who knocks it will be opened.✦ Now I believe that highest kiss, whatever it is, of supreme favor and wondrous sweetness, will not be refused to one so moved. This is the way, this is the order. First we fall at his feet and weep before the Lord who made us — for what we have done against us. Second, we reach for the hand of the one who lifts us up and strengthens weakened knees.

Made One Spirit: The Summit of the Holy Kiss

In the highest kiss the soul clings to Christ the Lord before its face and is made one spirit with him through his gracious condescension.

Finally, when through many prayers and tears we obtain these things, only then perhaps do we dare to lift our head to the very mouth of glory — fearful and trembling, I say, meant not only to look upon but also to be kissed — because Christ the Lord is the Spirit before our face, and clinging to him in the holy kiss, we are made one spirit by his gracious condescension.✦

A Prayer for the Fullness of Joy

The preacher prays to seek Christ's face, recalls mercy received at the feet and grace at the hand, longs for the kiss of the mouth, and then breaks off to serve arriving brothers in charity.

To you, Lord Jesus—to you my heart has spoken rightly: my face has sought you; your face, Lord, I will seek. Surely you caused me to hear your mercy in the morning, as I lay face down in the dust, kissing your reverent footprints; and you forgave the evil in which I had lived. Then, as the day went on, you gladdened your servant's soul, and afterward, in the kiss of the hand, you also granted the grace of living well. And now what remains, good Lord, except that, in the fullness of light and in the fervor of the Spirit, you would graciously admit me even to the kiss of your mouth, and fill me with the joy of your presence? Show me, O most gentle, O most serene—show me where you pasture, where you lie down at midday. Brothers, it's good for us to be here—but look, the wickedness of the day calls us away. These brothers, who have just arrived, are kind enough to interrupt our talk rather than let it reach a proper end. I'm going out to the guests, so that nothing fails in the duties of the love we've been speaking of—otherwise it may just happen that they hear the same about us: they talk, and they don't act.

Final Blessing

The preacher asks for prayer that his words may be well-pleasing to God for the audience's edification and God's glory.

In the meantime, pray that God would make the willing offerings of my mouth pleasing to him, for your building up and for the praise and glory of his name.10

Read the original Latin

Hodie legimus in libro experientiae. Convertimini ad vos ipsos, et attendat unusquisque conscientiam suam super his quae dicenda sunt. Explorare velim, si cui unquam vestrum ex sententia dicere datum sit: Osculetur me osculo oris sui. Non est enim cuiusvis hominum ex affectu hoc dicere; sed si quis ex ore Christi spirituale osculum vel semel accepit, hunc proprium experimentum profecto sollicitat, et repetit libens. Ego arbitror neminem vel scire posse quid sit, nisi qui accipit: est quippe manna absconditum; et solus qui edit, adhuc esuriet. Est fons signatus, cui non communicat alienus; sed solus qui bibit, adhuc sitiet. Audi expertum, quomodo requirit. Redde mihi, inquit, laetitiam salutaris tui.

Minime ergo id sibi arroget mei similis anima, onerata peccatis, suaeque adhuc carnis obnoxia passionibus, quae suavitatem spiritus necdum senserit, internorum ignara atque inexperta penitus gaudiorum.

Ostendo tamen ei quae huiusmodi est, locum in salutari sibi congruentem. Non temere assurgat ad os serenissimi sponsi, sed ad pedes severissimi Domini mecum pavida iaceat, et cum publicano terram tremens non coelum aspiciat, ne confusa in luminaribus coeli facies assueta tenebris opprimatur a gloria, atque insolitis reverberata splendoribus maiestatis, densioris rursum caecitate caliginis obvolvatur. Non tibi, o quaecunque es talis anima, non tibi ille locus vilis aut despicabilis videatur, ubi sancta peccatrix peccata deposuit, induit sanctitatem. Ibi Aethiopissa mutavit pellem, et in novum restituta candorem, iam tunc fiducialiter veraciterque respondebat exprobrantibus sibi verbum: Nigra sum, sed formosa, filiae Ierusalem. Miraris quanam id arte potuerit, vel quibus obtinuerit meritis? Paucis accipe. Flevit amare, et de intimis visceribus longa suspiria trahens, salutaribus intra se succussa singultibus, felleos humores evomuit. Coelestis medicus celerrime subvenit: quia velociter currit sermo eius.

Nunquid non potio est sermo Dei? Est utique, et fortis et vehemens, et scrutans corda et renes. Denique sermo Dei vivus et efficax, et penetrabilior omni gladio ancipiti, pertingens usque ad divisionem animae ac spiritus, compagum auoque ac medullarum, et discretor cogitationum. Huius ergo beatae poenitentis exemplo prosternere et tu, o misera, ut desinas esse misera; prosternere et tu in terram; amplectere pedes, placa osculis, riga lacrymis, quibus tamen non illum laves, sed te, ei fias una de grege tonsarum quae ascendunt de lavacro; ita sane tu suffusum pudore ac moerore vultum non ante sustollere audeas quam audias, et ipsa: Dimittuntur tibi peccata tua; quam audias: Consurge, consurge, captiva filia Sion; consurge, excutere de pulvere.

Sumpto itaque ad pedes primo osculo, nec sic quidem praesumes statim ad osculum oris assurgere, sed erit tibi gradus ad ipsum medium quoddam aliud osculum, quod secundo loco ad manum accipies: de quo et talem accipe rationem. Si dixerit mihi Iesus: Dimittuntur tibi peccata tua; nisi ego peccare desiero, quid proderit? Exui tunicam meam; si reinduero eam, quantum profeci? Si rursus pedes meos, quos laveram, inquinavero, nunquid aliquid lavisse valebit? Sordens omni genere vitiorum iacui diu in luto faecis; sed erit sine dubio recidenti, quam iacenti deterius. Denique qui me sanum fecit, ipsum mihi dixisse recordor: Ecce sanus factus es, vade, iam amplius noli peccare, ne deterius aliquid tibi contingat. Qui autem dedit voluntatem poenitendi, opus est ut addat et continendi virtutem; ne iterem poenitenda, faciamque novissima mea peiora prioribus. Vae enim mihi etiam poenitenti, si statim subtraxerit manum, sine quo nihil possum facere.

Nihil inquam, quia nec poenitere, nec continere. Audio proinde, quod consulit Sapiens: Verbum, inquit, in oratione ne iteres. Paveo et quod iudex intentat arbori non facienti fructum bonum. Fateor pro huiusmodi non sum omnino contentus priori gratia, qua iam malorum sum poenitens, nisi et secundam accepero, ut videlicet dignos faciam poenitentiae fructus; et deinceps non revertar ad vomitum.

Hoc ergo restat mihi prius petendum et accipiendum, quam praesumam altiora et sacratiora contingere. Nolo repente fieri summus; paulatim proficere volo. Quantum displicet Deo impudentia peccatoris, tantum poenitentis verecundia placet. Citius placas eum, si mensuram tuam servaveris, et altiora te non quaesieris. Longus saltus et arduus est de pede ad os, sed nec accessus conveniens. Quid enim? recenti adhuc respersus pulvere, ora sacra continges? heri de luto tractus, hodie vultui gloriae praesentaris?

Per manum tibi transitus sit. Illa prius te tergat, illa te erigat? Quomodo erigat? Dando unde praesumas. Quid istud? Decor continentiae, et digni poenitentiae fructus, quae sunt opera pietatis. Haec te de stercore erigent in spem audendi potiora. Sane accipiendo donum, osculare manum: hoc est, non tibi, sed nomini eius da gloriam.

Da semel, et da iterum, tum pro donatis criminibus, tum pro collatis virtutibus. Aut certe videto unde munias frontem contra ictus istos: Quid habes quod non accepisti? Si autem accepisti, quid gloriaris quasi non acceperis?

Iam tandem in osculis duobus geminum habens divinae dignationis experimentum, forsan non confunderis praesumere sanctiora. Quantum quippe crescis in gratiam, tantum et in fiduciam dilataris. Inde fit, ut et ames ardentius, et pulsos fidentius pro eo quod tibi deesse sentis. Porro pulsanti aperietur. Iam summum illud, quodcunque est summae dignationis et mirae suavitatis osculum, credo non negabitur sic affecto. Haec via, hic ordo. Primo ad pedes procidimus, et ploramus coram Domino qui fecit nos, ea quae fecimus nos. Secundo manum quaerimus sublevantis, et roborantis genua dissoluta.

Postremo cum ista multis precibus et lacrymis obtinemus, tum demum audemus forsitan ad ipsum os gloriae caput attollere, pavens et tremens dico, non solum speculandum, sed etiam osculandum; quia spiritus ante faciem nostram Christus Dominus, cui adhaerentes in osculo sancto, unus spiritus ipsius dignatione efficimur.

Tibi, Domine Iesu, tibi merito dixit cor meum: Exquisivit te facies mea; faciem tuam, Domine, requiram. Nempe auditam fecisti mihi mane misericordiam tuam, cum iacenti primum in pulvere, tuaque deosculanti reverenda vestigia, quod male vixeram remisisti. Porro in progressu diei laetificasti animam servi tui, cum deinde in osculo manus etiam bene vivendi gratiam indulsisti. Et nunc quid restat, o bone Domine, nisi ut iam in plenitudine lucis, in fervore spiritus ad oris quoque osculum dignanter admittens, adimpleas me laetitia cum vultu tuo? Indica mihi, o suavissime, o serenissime, indica mihi ubi pascis, ubi cubas in meridie. Fratres, bonum est nos hic esse; sed ecce avocat nos diei malitia. Hi siquidem, qui modo supervenisse nuntiantur, gratum cogunt rumpere magis quam finire sermonem. Ego exibo ad hospites, ne quid desit officiis eius, de qua loquimur, charitatis, ne forte et de nobis audire contingat: Dicunt enim, et non faciunt.

Vos orate interim, ut voluntaria oris mei beneplacita faciat Deus ad vestram ipsorum aedificationem, et laudem et gloriam nominis sui.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Song.1.2 — Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is better than wine.
  2. ↩Ps.51.14 — Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and with a willing spirit uphold me.
  3. ↩Luke.18.13 — But the tax collector, standing far off, was not even willing to lift his eyes to heaven, but kept beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner.'
  4. ↩Eph.4.22-Eph.4.24 — you were taught to put off your former way of life, the old self, which is being corrupted according to the desires of deceit; Eph.4.23 — and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, Eph.4.24 — and put on the new self, created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
  5. ↩Song.1.5 — I am dark and lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.
  6. ↩Jer.13.23 — Can the Cushite change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good, you who are accustomed to doing evil.
  7. ↩1Cor.4.7 — For who makes you different? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you had not received it?
  8. ↩1Cor.4.7 — For who makes you different? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you had not received it?
  9. ↩Matt.7.7;Luke.11.10 — Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Luke.11.10 — For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.
  10. ↩2Cor.3.17 — Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Latin potio is unusual here — likely 'drink/draught' rather than the expected potus; nunquid is a variant of numquid. The sense is rhetorical: the word of God is itself something to be consumed.
  2. 2 ↩The Latin compagum auoque is textually uncertain (auoque possibly = atque/ac); the rendering 'joints and marrow' follows the traditional sense of the Hebrews 4:12 echo. spiritus is case-ambiguous but paired with animae as genitive.
  3. 3 ↩The passage weaves together the penitent woman (Luke 7:36–50), the 'captive daughter of Zion' (cf. Isaiah 52:2 / Baruch 4:37), and the 'shorn flock' imagery. The imperative 'consurge' triple repetition echoes prophetic and psalmic calls.
  4. 4 ↩Latin verbum can mean 'word' or 'a word'; rendered 'a word' to fit the counsel against repetition in prayer, echoing Matt 6:7.
  5. 5 ↩Reading intentat (from intento) is uncertain; it could be a form of intendo. Rendered as 'threatens' following the likely sense of a menacing gesture toward the unfruitful tree, echoing Matt 7:19.
  6. 6 ↩Gratia is rendered 'grace' throughout; the 'first grace' / 'second grace' distinction is left open and could imply initial conversion and subsequent strengthening, or sacramental grace.
  7. 7 ↩Ad vomitum (to my vomit) is a metaphor for relapse, echoing Prov 26:11 and 2 Pet 2:22.
  8. 8 ↩The image of fortifying the brow (munias frontem) evokes spiritual armor against temptation; 'blows' (ictus) refers to assaults of the enemy or trials. The rhetorical question echoes 1 Cor 4:7.
  9. 9 ↩Continued echo of 1 Cor 4:7. The autem after si is adversative, sharpening the rebuke: granted that you received it, boasting is irrational.
  10. 10 ↩The clause introduced by ut is most likely purpose ('pray that...'), though a result reading remains possible; the translation adopts purpose as the more natural force in a petitionary context.

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