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Chapter 41SermC.1.41

Sermo 41

The Neck Like Jewels

The bride's natural beauty needs no borrowed ornament, and the soul's intellect is the true neck that shines by its own truth.

Your neck is like jewels. A neck is usually adorned with jewels, not compared to them. But let those women do this, who, because they lack beauty of their own, have to beg for it from elsewhere so they can pretend to be attractive. For the bride's neck is so beautiful in itself, and so gracefully shaped, as if formed by nature, that it doesn't need external adornment. For what need is there to apply foreign dyes to someone whose own beauty, as if innate, is enough, to such a degree that it can even match the brilliance of the very jewels sought for adornment? This is exactly what he meant who said that the neck itself is like jewels—certainly not that jewels hang from the neck as usual, but rather that the neck itself is like jewels. We must now invoke the Holy Spirit, so that just as he granted spiritual brides to find their cheeks by his gracious favor, he may also deign to reveal his spiritual neck. And to my own understanding (because it falls to me to speak what I perceive), nothing meanwhile appears more likely or more credible than that the intellect of the soul itself is designated by the name of the neck.

The Neck as Pure Intellect

The soul's pure intellect functions like a neck, dispensing spiritual life and adorning itself with truth rather than the false embellishments of philosophers and heretics.

You too, I think, will agree with this same point, if you consider the reason for the comparison. Doesn't it seem to you that the intellect functions in a certain way in place of the neck, through which your soul pours the vital nourishments of the spirit into itself, and transfuses them into the inward affections and dispositions of character?1 This, then, is the bride's neck — that is, a pure and simple intellect: let it shine brightly enough through bare and open truth, needing no ornament; rather, it itself, like a precious necklace, becomingly adorns the soul, and so it is described as being like the necklaces themselves.2 Truth is a good necklace, good purity or simplicity, plainly a good necklace is knowing for the sake of sobriety.3 The intellect of philosophers or heretics doesn't have this brightness of purity and truth within itself, and so they take great pains to color and embellish it with the trappings of words and the cleverness of syllogisms, so that if it appears bare, it won't also appear disgraceful in its falsehood.4

Golden Ears for the Bride

The bridegroom's companions promise golden ear ornaments, because in this life hearing must be adorned before sight can be granted.

Next: We will make you golden eels, inlaid with silver. If I should make them one by one, and not many at once, we would have made them, he had said — and to put it plainly and without hesitation, I would also have declared the bridegroom to be speaking of these things. But now see that we don't perhaps assign the bride more fittingly to his companions, as it were consoling her with such a promise, because until she arrives at the vision of the one whose desire burns so intensely for her, they would be making for her beautiful and precious eels, which are ornaments for the ears. And this, I think, is the reason: because faith comes through hearing, and as long as one walks by faith and not by sight, effort must be given more to instructing the ear than to presenting something to the eye. In vain is the eye strained that has not been cleansed by faith, since the opportunity to see is promised only to those who are pure in heart. For it is written: Cleansing their hearts by faith. Because faith, then, comes through hearing, and from that hearing comes the cleansing of sight, they rightly directed their effort toward adorning the ears, since hearing, as reason has taught, is the preparation for sight. You, they say, O bride, long to gaze on the brightness of the beloved; but that belongs to another time.

Hear First, Then See

The bride is urged to listen before she sees, receiving consoling ornaments for her ears while the fullness of vision is reserved for the Bridegroom alone.

But for now we give ornaments to your ears, which will meanwhile be a consolation to you, and a preparation for the very thing you long for — as though the prophets were saying to her: 'Listen, daughter, and see.' You long to see, but listen first. Hearing is the step that leads to sight. So listen, and bend your ear to the ornaments we offer you, so that through the obedience of hearing you may arrive at the glory of vision. We give joy and gladness to your hearing. For to sight it is not ours to give (in which the fullness of joy and the fulfillment of your desire is), but his whom your soul loves. He himself, so that your joy may be full, will show himself to you; he himself will fill you with gladness with his countenance.✦ Meanwhile, receive these lampreys from our hand for your consolation; as for the rest, the delights are in his right hand, to the very end.✦

Gold and Silver from Heaven

The gold signifies divine wisdom and the silver angelic mediation, through which spiritual likenesses are offered to the soul for contemplation in this life.

It's worth noting what kind of little eels they offer him: 'Golden,' he says, and studded with silver.'5 The gold of divinity is brightness; the gold is the wisdom that comes from above. With this gold, certain shining marks, as it were, of truth pledge that those heavenly goldsmiths, to whom this ministry belongs, will fashion them and insert them into the inner ears of the soul.6 I don't think this is anything other than weaving certain spiritual likenesses and bringing the purest thoughts of divine wisdom into the soul's contemplative gaze, so that it may see, at least through a mirror and in an enigma, what it cannot yet behold face to face at all.7 These things are divine, and unless one has experienced them, utterly unknown; namely how, in this mortal body, while faith still holds its state and the clear substance of light has not yet been laid bare, the contemplation of pure truth sometimes presumes to act within us, even if only in part, so that it's possible for one of us, to whom this has been given from above, to take up the words of the Apostle: 'Now I know in part; likewise we know in part, and we prophesy in part.'8 But when something more divine has shone swiftly upon the mind, as it were in the quick flashing of light, whether to temper an overwhelming splendor or to serve teaching, immediately—I don't know where from—certain imaginative likenesses of lower things present themselves, suitably fitted to the senses divinely infused, by which the purest and most splendid ray of truth is, in a way, shadowed, making it more bearable to the soul and more capable of being shared with whomever one wishes. I do think, however, that these likenesses are formed in us by the holy suggestions of angels, just as, on the contrary, there's no doubt that contrary and evil impulses are poured in through evil angels.9

Angelic Hands and Silvered Words

Angelic ministry forms the soul's contemplative images and adorns outward speech with pure, refined silver so that divine truth may be received more readily.

And perhaps this is that mirror and enigma I spoke of — the one through which the Apostle once saw — formed, as if by the hands of angels, from imaginations of this kind, pure and beautiful: so that we may both perceive that it belongs to God, which is perceived as pure and without any bodily phantasm of images, and also assign any elegant likeness, by which it has appeared clothed worthily, to angelic ministry.✦ Another interpretation seems to have marked this more expressly, saying: We will make for you likenesses of the craftsman's gold, with distinctions of silver (Cant.✦ Song of Songs I, 10, according to the Septuagint.✦ One reading has 'with distinctions of silver,' and 'vermiculated with silver.'✦ By this the text seems to me to signify not only that the likenesses are suggested inwardly through angels, but also that the brightness of speech is ministered through them from outside — so that, adorned by it fittingly and becomingly, they may be both more easily received by hearers and more delightfully. But if you should say: 'What [do you mean by] speech and silver!' the prophet says to you: 'The words of the Lord, chaste words, silver refined by fire.'✦ So therefore those heavenly administrative spirits make for the bride, as she pilgrimages on earth, golden little pendants, vermiculated with silver.✦

Contemplation Interrupted for Charity

The bride who longs for contemplative rest is instead given the labor of preaching and spiritual motherhood, as Jacob received Leah instead of Rachel.

But notice how she longs for one thing and receives another: the one straining toward the rest of contemplation is given the labor of preaching, and the one thirsting for the bridegroom's presence is charged with the care of bearing and nourishing the bridegroom's children. And this doesn't only happen to her now; but also on another occasion, as I recall, when she sighed for the bridegroom's embraces and kisses, the answer given to her was: 'How much better are your breasts than wine' — so that from this she might understand herself as a mother, and be moved to give milk to the little ones and nourish children.✦ Perhaps also in other places of this song you yourself, unless you're too lazy to look into it, will be able to notice the same thing through your own observation. Or wasn't this very thing once prefigured in the holy patriarch Jacob, when, disappointed by the desired and long-awaited embraces of Rachel, he received instead of the barren and beautiful woman a fertile and bleary-eyed one, unwilling and unknowing?✦ And so now the bride, desiring and inquiring to know where in the midday hours the beloved feeds and rests, brings back for him golden moray eels, crusted with silver — that is, wisdom with eloquence — undoubtedly for the work of preaching.✦

Humility in Service and Final Praise

Spiritual gifts must be used humbly for others, not for pride; the bride receives both reproof and promise with teachability, and the sermon closes in doxology.

From this we are taught that the sweet kisses must generally be interrupted for the sake of the nursing breasts — and that we are not to live for ourselves alone, but for all.10 Woe to those who have been given both to think and to speak well about God, if they treat piety as profit, if they turn to empty glory what they had received to dispense for the gains of God, if, being wise in lofty things, they do not yield to the humble.11 Let them tremble at what is read in the prophet, with the Lord saying: 'I gave them my gold and my silver, but they have worked with my silver and gold for Baal.'12 So then, hear what the bride, having received reproof on the one hand, but promise on the other, will have answered. For she is not elated over promises, nor angered by rejection, but, as it is written: 'Rebuke a wise person, and they will love you'; and likewise, as regards gifts and promises: 'The greater you are, humble yourself in all things' — both of which will be made clearer from her response.13 But if it pleases you, let the discussion itself be deferred to the beginning of another sermon, and let us glorify, for the things that have been said, the Bridegroom of the Church, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

Read the original Latin

Collum tuum sicut monilia. Solet ornari collum monilibus, non ipsis comparari. Sed hoc illae faciant, quibus quia de proprio non inest decor, aliunde necesse est ut mendicent, unde se speciosas mentiantur. Nam sponsae collum ita in se ipso formosum, et tam decenter quasi natura formatum est, ut extrinsecus non requirat ornatum. Quid enim opus est peregrinorum fucos adhibere colorum, cui propria, et tanquam innata sufficit pulchritudo, in tantum ut ipsorum quoque, quae ad ornandum quaeruntur monilium possit adaequare nitorem? Hoc nempe intelligi voluit, qui minime quidem a collo, ut assolet, pendere monilia, sed ipsum potius esse sicut monilia dixit. Non iam invocandus est nobis Spiritus sanctus, ut sicut spirituales sponsae genas sua dignatione tribuit invenire, ita etiam ipsius spirituale collum demonstrare dignetur. Et meo quidem intellectui (quia mihi incumbit loqui quae sentio) nihil interim verisimilius probabiliusve elucet, quam ipsum animae intellectum colli nomine designari.

Tu quoque idem, ut arbitror, approbabis, si advertas similitudinis rationem. Annon siquidem tibi videtur colli quodam modo vice fungi intellectus, per quem tua anima traiicit in se spiritus vitalia alimenta, atque in quaedam transfundit viscera morum, affectumque suorum? Hoc ergo sponsae collum, id est purus et simplex intellectus, eum nuda et aperta veritate satis per se ipsum reniteat, non indiget ornamento; sed ipsum magis, tanquam pretiosum monile, animam decenter exornat, ac proinde simile monilibus ipsis describitur. Bonum monile veritas, bonum puritas sive simplicitas, bonum plane monile sapere ad sobrietatem. Philosophorum vel haereticorum intellectus non habet hunc in se puritatis, veritatisque nitorem: et ideo multam curam gerunt ipsum colorare et fucare phaleris verborum, et versutiis syllogismorum, ne, si nudus appareat, falsi etiam appareat turpitudo.

Sequitur: Muraenulas aureas faciemus tibi, vermiculatas argento. Si, faciam, singulariter, et non pluraliter, faciemus, dixisset, absolute et indubitanter hoc etiam loqui sponsum pronuntiassem. Nunc autem vide ne forte magis sodalibus eius congruentiusque assignemus, sponsam quasi consolantibus tali promissione, quod donec perveniat ad visionem eius, cuius sic flagrat desiderio, facturi sint illi muraenulas pulchras et pretiosas, quae sunt aurium ornamenta. Atque hoc propterea, ut opinor, quia fides ex auditu; et quandiu per fidem ambulatur et non per speciem, danda opera potius instruendo auditui, quam visui exserendo. Frustra namque intenditur oculus qui non sit fide mundatus, cum solis qui mundo corde sunt, videndi copia promittatur. Scriptum vero est: Fide mundans corda eorum. Quia ergo fides ex auditu, et ex illa visus purgatio est, merito illi ornandis auribus intendebant, dum auditus, sicut ratio docuit, visus sit preparatio. Tu, inquiunt, o sponsa, intuendae dilecti inhias claritati; sed hoc alterius temporis est.

Damus autem in praesentiarum ornamenta auribus tuis, quod erit tibi interim consolatio, erit et praeparatio ad hoc ipsum quod postulas, ac si illud prophetae ei dicant: Audi, filia, et vide. Videre desideras, sed audi prius. Gradus est auditus ad visum. Proinde audi, et inclina aurem tuam ornamentis quae tibi facimus, ut per auditus obedientiam ad gloriam pervenias visionis. Nos auditui tuo damus gaudium et laetitiam. Nam visui non est nostrum dare (in quo gaudii plenitudo et tui desiderii adimpletio est), sed illius quem diligit anima tua. Ipse ut gaudium tuum plenum sit, ostendet se ipsum tibi; ipse adimplebit te laetitia cum vultu suo. Tu interim accipe ad consolationem muraenulas has de manu nostra; caeterum delectationes in dextera eius usque in finem.

Advertendum cuiusmodi ei muraenulas offerunt: Aureas, inquit, et vermiculatas argento. Aurum divinitatis est fulgor, aurum sapientia quae desursum est. Hoc auro fulgentia quaedam quasi veritatis signacula spondent se figuraturos hi, quibus id ministerii est, superni aurifices, atque internis animae auribus inserturos. Quod ego non puto esse aliud, quam texere spirituales quasdam similitudines, et in ipsis purissima divinae sapientiae sensa animae contemplantis conspectibus importare, ut videat, saltem per speculum et in aenigmate, quod nondum facie ad faciem valet ullatenus intueri. Divina sunt, et nisi expertis prorsus incognita quae effamur; quomodo videlicet in hoc mortali corpore, fide adhuc habente statum, et necdum propalata perspicui substantia luminis, iam tamen purae interdum contemplatio veritatis partes suas agere intra nos vel ex parte praesumit; ita ut liceat usurpare etiam alicui nostrum, cui hoc datum desuper fuerit, illud Apostoli: Nunc cognosco ex parte: item, Ex parte cognoscimus, et ex parte prophetamus. Cum autem divinius aliquid raptim et veluti in velocitate corusci luminis interluxerit menti spiritu excedenti, sive ad temperamentum nimii splendoris, sive ad doctrinae usum, continuo, nescio unde, adsunt imaginatoriae quaedam rerum inferiorum similitudines, infusis divinitus sensis convenienter accommodatae, quibus quodam modo adumbratus purissimus ille ac splendidissimus veritatis radius, et ipsi animae tolerabilior fiat, et quibus communicare illum voluerit, capabilior, Existimo tamen ipsas formari in nobis sanctorum suggestionibus angelorum, sicut econtrario contrarias et malas ingeri immissiones per angelos malos non dubium est.

Et fortassis hinc illud est speculum atque aenigma, ut dixi, per quod videbat Apostolus, ex istiusmodi puris pulchrisque imaginationibus angelorum quasi manibus fabricatum: quatenus et Dei esse, quod purum et absque omni phantasia corporearum imaginum cernitur, sentiamus; et elegantem quamlibet similitudinem, qua id digne vestitum apparuerit, ministerio deputemus angelico. Quod signasse expressius videtur alia interpretatio, dicens: Similitudines auri fabri faciemus tibi, cum distinctionibus argenti (Cant. I, 10, iuxta LXX. Unum est, cum distinctionibus argenti, et vermiculatas argento. In quo mihi significare videtur non modo similitudines intus per angelos suggeri, sed nitorem quoque eloquii per ipsos extrinsecus ministrari, quo congrue atque decenter ornatae, et facilius ab auditoribus capiantur, et delectabilius. Quod si dixeris: Quid eloquio et argento! dicit tibi propheta: Eloquia Domini, eloquia casta, argentum igne examinatum. Ita ergo illi coelestes administratorii spiritus peregrinanti in terris sponsae faciunt muraenulas aureas, vermiculatas argento.

Vide autem quomodo illa aliud cupit, et aliud accipit: et nitenti ad contemplationis quietem labor praedicationis imponitur; et sitienti sponsi praesentiam, filiorum sponsi pariendorum, alendorumque sollicitudo iniungitur. Neque nunc tantum accidit illi hoc; sed et alia vice, ut memini, cum sponsi amplexus et oscula suspiraret, responsum est ei: Qua meliora sunt ubera tua vino; ut ex hoc se intelligeret matrem, atque ad dandum lac parvulis, nutriendumque filios revocari. Fortassis et in aliis cantici huius locis hoc ipsum tu quoque, nisi piger sis ad inquirendum, per te ipsum advertere poteris. An non res ista quondam in sancto patriarcha Iacob praefigurabatur, cum frustratus optatis diuque exspectatis Rachelis amplexibus, pro sterili et decora fecundam et lippam invitus atque ignarus accepit? Ita ergo nunc sponsa scire cupiens et inquirens, ubi in meridianis horis dilectus pascat et cubet, muraenulas pro eo reportat aureas, vermiculatas argento; id est, sapientiam cum eloquentia; haud dubium quin ad praedicationis opus.

Docemur ex hoc sane, intermittenda plerumque dulcia oscula propter lactantia ubera; nec cuiquam sibi, sed omnibus esse vivendum. Vae qui bene de Deo et sentire, et eloqui acceperunt, si quaestum aestiment pietatem; si convertant ad inanem gloriam, quod ad lucra Dei acceperant erogandum; si alta sapientes, humilibus non consentiant. Paveant quod in propheta legitur, dicente Domino: Dedi eis aurum meum et argentum meum; ipsi autem de argento et auro meo operati sunt Baal. Tu ergo audi quid sponsa, accepta hinc quidem increpatione, inde vero promissione, responderit. Neque enim vel de promissis extollitur, vel pro repulsa irascitur; sed, sicut scriptum est: Corripe sapientem, et amabit te; et item quod ad donationes et promissiones spectat: Quanto maior es, humilia te in omnibus; quod ex eius responsione melius utrumque patebit. Sed ipsa, si placet, discussio in aliud sermonis principium differatur, et de iis quae dicta sunt, glorificemus Sponsum Ecclesiae Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum, qui est super omnia Deus benedictus in saecula. Amen.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩John.16.24 — Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, so that your joy may be full.
  2. ↩Ps.16.11 — You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
  3. ↩1Cor.13.12 — For now we see in a mirror, dimly; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
  4. ↩Song.1.11 — We will make you ornaments of gold with studs of silver.
  5. ↩Song.1.10 — Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of beads.
  6. ↩Song.1.10 — Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of beads.
  7. ↩Ps.11.7;Ps.13.6 — For the LORD is righteous; he loves righteous deeds. The upright will behold his face. Ps.13.6 — But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has dealt bountifully with me.
  8. ↩Song.1.11 — We will make you ornaments of gold with studs of silver.
  9. ↩Song.1.2 — Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is better than wine.
  10. ↩Gen.29.17 — Leah's eyes were tender, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance.
  11. ↩Song.5.14 — His hands are rods of gold set with beryl; his body is ivory work overlaid with sapphires.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩colli quodam modo vice fungi intellectus: the syntax is complex; 'vice fungi' rendered 'functions in the place of' to capture the neck-intellect analogy. 'viscera morum' rendered 'inward affections and dispositions of character' to capture both the affective and habitual sense.
  2. 2 ↩reniteat: subjunctive in a relative clause of purpose/result; rendered 'let it shine brightly' to capture the jussive-optative force. 'nuda et aperta veritate' ablative of means, rendered 'through bare and open truth'.
  3. 3 ↩sapere ad sobrietatem: infinitive phrase as appositive to 'bonum monile'; rendered 'knowing for the sake of sobriety' — the sense is that true wisdom is directed toward temperance and sober-mindedness rather than display.
  4. 4 ↩fucare: literally 'to dye/overlay'; rendered 'embellish' to capture the sense of artificial coloring. phaleris verborum rendered 'trappings of words' for rhetorical display. versutiis syllogismorum rendered 'cleverness of syllogisms' for sophistical reasoning.
  5. 5 ↩The image of golden eels studded with silver translates the Song of Songs tradition (Similitudines auri… cum distinctionibus argento) into concrete spiritual 'ornaments' for the soul's hearing; 'worm-eaten' (vermiculatas) is a rare form understood here as 'studded' or 'inlaid.'
  6. 6 ↩'Heavenly goldsmiths' (superni aurifices) are the angelic spirits who shape spiritual images; 'inner ears of the soul' (internis animae auribus) is the interior faculty of attentive reception.
  7. 7 ↩'Through a mirror and in an enigma' alludes to 1 Cor 13:12; the contrast with 'face to face' frames the present life as limited contemplation.
  8. 8 ↩The quotation adapts 1 Cor 13:9, 12 ('we know in part… we prophesy in part') to express the partial, experiential knowledge of divine things in this life.
  9. 9 ↩'Imaginative likenesses' (imaginatoriae similitudines) are sensory-like images that accompany divine illumination; the contrast between holy angelic suggestions and demonic immissions reflects traditional discernment of spirits.
  10. 10 ↩Gerundive force of intermittenda and vivendum: the kisses (contemplative intimacy) are to be set aside as a duty, and life is owed to others, not claimed for oneself.
  11. 11 ↩The three si-clauses are subjunctive conditions within a vae-prophetic warning; they describe the corrupt trajectories of those entrusted with spiritual gifts.
  12. 12 ↩Candidate allusion to Hosea 2:8 (Vulgate); final resolution deferred to tx-08 Moses verification.
  13. 13 ↩Candidate allusions: Proverbs 9:8 ('Rebuke a wise person...') and Sirach 3:18 or James 4:6 / 1 Peter 5:5 ('The greater you are, humble yourself'). Final resolution deferred to tx-08 Moses verification.

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