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Chapter 49SermC.1.49

Sermo 49

Drunk with Love

The Bride returns from intimate encounter with the Bridegroom intoxicated not with wine but with love, and explains why she calls him King when speaking to the young women.

The king has brought me into his wine cellar and set love in order within me.✦ As the wording of the proposed chapter heading seems to suggest, it was as though a most sweet and intimate conversation had taken the place of prayers; when the Bridegroom departed, the Bride returned to the young women, so refreshed and inflamed by his very look and speech that she appeared like someone drunk with wine. And as if in answer to those who were amazed at this strange sight and were looking for an explanation, she replied that it was hardly surprising if she was burning with wine — she who had entered the wine cellar. And so it is, taken at the literal level. According to the spiritual sense as well, she does not deny that the Bride was drunk — but with love, not with wine, except insofar as love itself is wine. The king has brought me into his wine cellar.✦ When the Bridegroom is present and the Bride speaks directly to him, he is called the Bridegroom, or the Beloved, or 'he whom my soul loves,' she says; but when she speaks about him to the young women, she calls him the King.✦ Why this difference?

The Language of Love and Majesty

The bride uses the intimate language of love, while the young disciples need the language of majesty and discipline.

For this reason I believe it's fitting for the bride, loving and beloved as she is, to use more familiarly — as far as it pertains to her — the language of love, while for the young disciples, as though they stand in need of discipline, there's a need for them to be pressed with the word of majesty.

Pentecost: The Wine Cellar Fulfilled

The wine chamber is fulfilled at Pentecost when the disciples, filled with the Holy Spirit and accused of drunkenness, are shown to have been truly brought into the cellar through the outpouring prophesied by Joel.

The king has brought me into his wine chamber.✦ What that wine chamber might be, I'll leave aside — I recall having spoken about it already. But if we apply the discussion to the Church, consider that when the disciples, filled with the Holy Spirit, were thought by the crowd to be drunk with new wine, Peter stood among them as a friend of the Bridegroom on behalf of the Bride and said, 'No — these aren't drunk, as you suppose.'✦✦1 Notice, in the meantime, that he denied they were entirely drunk — but denied they were drunk in the way those people supposed. They were drunk, in fact — but with the Holy Spirit, not with new wine. And as if to testify to the crowd that they had truly been brought into the wine chamber, Peter spoke again on behalf of all: 'But this,' he said, 'is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: And it will be in the last days, says the Lord; I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and daughters will prophesy; your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.'2 Doesn't that house seem to you to have been the wine chamber, in which the disciples were gathered together, when suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty wind rushing in, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting — and so fulfilled the prophecy of Joel?✦3 And didn't each of them, going out intoxicated from the abundance of that house and drinking from so great a torrent of delight, rightly have the power to say: 'The king has brought me into his wine chamber'?✦4

Prayer, Charisms, and the Wine Cellar

Through fervent prayer one may return burning with divine love and share the gift received, but not all spiritual charisms come from the wine cellar since the Bridegroom has many rooms.

But you too, if you gather your composure, clear and unburdened in mind, enter the place of prayer alone, and standing before God touch the door of heaven with a single one of your holy desires, and having been brought into the presence of the saints' choirs, with your devotion piercing through — since the prayer of the righteous penetrates the heavens — in their presence, move them to pity as you pour out the miseries and troubles you endure; with constant sighs and unutterable groans lay bare your need and plead for mercy; if, I say, you do this, I trust in the one who said, 'Ask, and you will receive,' because if you keep knocking, you will not leave empty.56 But when you have returned to us full of grace and love, you won't be able to hide the gift you've received while burning with spirit; you'll share it without envy, and in the grace given to you you'll be, not only grateful, but perhaps even admirable to all; and you yourself will be able to declare truthfully, 'The king has brought me into his wine cellar' — only be careful to boast not in yourself, but in the Lord.78 Not every gift, even if spiritual, would I say comes from the wine cellar, since there are also other rooms or storehouses with the Bridegroom, holding within them various gifts and charisms, according to the riches of his glory — rooms I remember discussing more fully elsewhere (above, sermon 23).9 23). Are not these things stored up, he says, and sealed in my treasures?10 So then, because of the variety of rooms, there are different distributions of gifts, and to each person the Spirit is made manifest for the common good.11 And although to one is given a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge, to another prophecy, to another gifts of healing, to another various tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues, and similar gifts to others, none of them, for all that, can claim on this basis to have been brought into the wine cellar.12 For these are taken from other rooms or storehouses.

The Double Ecstasy of Contemplation

There are two blessed excesses of contemplation—one of intellect and light, the other of affect and fervor—and the wine cellar is the source of the affective outpouring of holy devotion and zeal.

But if anyone, by praying, may obtain in mind to go out into that divine mystery, from which one soon returns burning most vehemently with divine love, and boiling with the zeal of justice, and not least burning exceedingly in all spiritual studies and duties, so as to be able to say: My heart has grown hot within me, and in my meditations the fire burns: that one clearly, when from the abundance of love one begins to belch forth the good and salutary drunkenness of wine's joy, will not undeservedly be said to have entered into the wine cellar.✦ For since there are two blessed excesses of contemplation, one in intellect and the other in affect; one in light and the other in fervor; one in knowledge and the other in devotion: truly the pious affect and the breast warm with love, and the outpouring of holy devotion, and even the vehement spirit filled with zeal, are clearly brought back from nowhere else than from the wine cellar: and to whomever it is granted to rise from prayer with an abundance of these, one can truly speak, because the king has introduced me into the wine cellar.✦

Ordered Love Requires Discernment

The Bride received not only love but its ordering, because zeal without knowledge is destructive and discernment is needed to restrain, temper, and direct the affections.

Next: He arranged love in me. Entirely necessary. Zeal without knowledge is indeed unbearable. Where there's intense zeal, there discernment is most necessary, since it's the ordering of love. Zeal without knowledge is always found less effective and less useful; but commonly it's also felt to be very destructive. The more fervent the zeal, the more vehement the spirit, and the more abundant the love, the more vigilantly knowledge is needed — knowledge that can restrain zeal, temper the spirit, and order love. Therefore, truly, the bride is rightly feared lest she seem excessive and unbearable because of the force of the spirit that she appears to have brought back from the wine cellar — especially by the young; and he adds that she has likewise received what belongs to discernment, that is, the order of love. Discernment, you see, places order in every virtue; order grants measure and beauty, and even permanence.

Discernment Governs the Body of Christ

Discernment governs and orders the virtues, and within the Church the diverse ministries given by Christ must be bound together by ordered love or else descend into chaos.

Finally, it says: By your ordering the day endures — calling the day 'virtue.' So then, discernment is not so much a virtue in itself as a kind of governor and driver of the virtues, ordering our affections and teaching us how to live. Remove this, and virtue will become vice; even our natural affection will be thrown into deeper turmoil, and it will mean the ruin of our nature. He has ordered love within me.✦ This came about when, within the Church, he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, others as evangelists, and others as pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints.✦ It is necessary, then, that love bind all of these together into one, and harmonize them into the unity of the body of Christ — something it will by no means be able to accomplish if love itself has not been properly ordered. For if everyone is carried along by their own impulse, according to the spiritual gift they received, and flies off indiscriminately toward whatever they happen to feel drawn to — rather than by the judgment of reason — and no one is content with the work assigned to them, but all alike try to do everything in a disorderly and confused way, the result will plainly not be unity but rather chaos.

Ordering Care and Affection

Ordered love means attending first to one's own assigned duty while rejoicing even more in the greater goods accomplished through others, a grace rare even among the devout.

He has set love in order within me. Would that the Lord Jesus might order even so small a measure of the love he gave me within me, so that everything that is his would become my care, yet in such a way that I would attend before all else to what has been clearly established as the chief purpose or duty of my own calling. But let me truly put that first, and yet not be drawn further toward many things that do not specially pertain to me. For what must be cared for first will not always also be the thing to be loved more: since often what comes first as a matter of anxiety is of less real use, and because of this it ought to weigh less even in affection. So it often happens that what is preferred as a matter of duty is set aside by sound judgment, and what truth decides should be put first is the very thing love's order requires us to embrace more dearly. Does the charge of caring for all of you rest on me, for instance, as something laid on me by way of duty? Now, whatever I might happen to prefer to this task so that I watch over it less worthily and fruitfully according to my strength in carrying it out — even if I may seem to do this out of love, the claim of right order does not allow it. But if I do attend to this charge before all else, as I ought, yet I do not rejoice the more in the greater gains of God that I perhaps learn are being brought about through another, then it is clear that I keep love's order in one respect, and in another respect not at all. But if I show myself both the more concerned for what falls to me more specially and, nonetheless, the greater affection for that which is the greater thing, then in both cases I am clearly found to have attained love's order. And there is no reason why I cannot say even I myself, 'He has set love in order within me.'

The Rare Grace of Rejoicing in Another's Good

To rejoice more in another's virtue than in one's own is a rare grace, and the preacher calls his hearers who feel the weight of their imperfection to walk while they have the light, making progress.

But if you say it's hard for anyone to rejoice more in another's great good than in their own small one, you'll certainly notice — even from this — the excellence of grace in the bride, and since it isn't given to just any soul to say, "He has established love in me."✦ Why have the faces of some of you just fallen at this discourse?✦ For deep sighs bear witness to the sadness of souls and the cast-down state of consciences. Assuredly, measuring ourselves against ourselves, we sense that some of us — from our experience of our own imperfection — perceive how rare a virtue it is not to envy another's virtue, much less to rejoice at it, much less still to rejoice at another's virtue even so much more than at one's own, to the degree that one has weighed himself and found himself surpassed in virtue. There is still only a little light in us, brothers, as many of us as perceive this about ourselves. Let us walk while we have the light, so that the darkness doesn't overtake us.✦ To walk is to make progress. The Apostle was walking, who said, "I do not consider that I have grasped it"; and he adds, "But one thing — forgetting what lies behind, I strain toward what lies ahead."✦

Forgetting What Lies Behind

Paul's one thing—forgetting what lies behind and straining forward—is the posture of the great vessel of election who refuses to rest in past progress, for spiritual stillness risks the darkness of death.

What is it — 'but one'? One thing, he says, has remained for me, as it were, for healing, for hope, and for consolation. What is that? Forgetting what lies behind, I reach out to what lies ahead. Great confidence! That the great and perfect vessel of election, refusing, confesses progress. It is dangerous for me — not for one walking, but for one sitting still — to be seized by the darkness of death. And who is sitting still, unless it's someone who doesn't care to make progress?

Days Written in God's Book

Those seized by death before completion will yet find refreshment, for God sees what is imperfect and writes all in his book, and the days of those who advance will be fully formed.

Beware of this: and if you are seized beforehand by death, you will be in a place of refreshment. You will say to God: 'My imperfect things your eyes have seen, and nevertheless, it says, all will be written in your book.'✦ Who are all? Clearly, those who are found in the desire to advance. For it follows: 'Days will be formed, and none of them [will be lost]'; understand [this] subtly: 'The one who is advancing will perish'; understand [this] subtly: those who, if they are seized beforehand by death, are in that which is lacking to them of being perfected will perish.✦ They will be formed, and no one among them will be left unformed.

Envy Healed Through Humility

To envy a brother's progress grieves the one who feels it, and this suffering is to be healed through confession and prayer rather than indulged, leading to greater humility and gentleness.

And how, you say, can I make progress when I envy a brother who is making progress? If it grieves you that you envy, you feel it, but you don't consent to it. The suffering is something to be healed at times, not an action to be condemned. Only don't linger there, nursing wickedness in your bed — that is, don't cherish the sickness, don't feed the disease, don't pursue the innocent one, don't slander, crush, corrupt, and obstruct the good things he has done. Otherwise it does no harm to the one walking and stretching forward toward better things — not because he himself is at work anymore, but because sin dwells in him. There is no condemnation, then, for the one who does not offer his members as weapons for wickedness; I will not let go of anything to tear it down, nothing from the rest of the body to harm or hurt in any way. But he is ashamed that he has been so badly affected, and he tries to drive out the vice grown deep through long habit by confessing, weeping, and praying; and when he doesn't overcome it, he becomes gentler toward everyone and finds himself more humble in his own eyes. What wise and sane person would condemn someone who learned from the Lord to be meek and humble in heart? Far be it that a follower of the Savior — the bridegroom of the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever — should be found lacking in salvation!

Amen

The sermon concludes with a final doxological affirmation.

Amen.

Read the original Latin

Introduxit me rex in cellam vinariam, ordinavit in me charitatem. Ut quidem propositi capituli videtur sonare littera, habito pro votis dulci admodum familiarique colloquio cum dilecto, illo abeunte sponsa regreditur ad adolescentulas, aspectu ita ipsius affatuque refecta atque accensa, quatenus ebriae similis appareret. Et quasi illis stupentibus novitatem, et quaerentibus causam, respondit mirum minime esse, si vino aestuaret, quae in cellam vinariam introisset. Et secundum litteram ita. Secundum spiritum quoque non negat ebriam, sed amore, non vino, nisi quod amor vinum est. Introduxit me rex in cellam vinariam. Quando praesens est sponsus, et sponsa ad ipsum sermonem dirigit; tunc sponsus dicitur aut dilectus, aut, quem diligit anima mea, inquit; loquens vero de ipso adolescentulis, regem nominat. Utquid hoc?

Propterea credo, quia et sponsae amanti atque dilectae conveniat uti familiarius, quod ad se est, amoris nominibus, et adolescentulis tanquam disciplina indigentibus opus sit reverendo premi vocabulo maiestatis.

Introduxit me rex in cellam vinariam. Quaenam ista sit cella vinaria, praetereo dicere, quia dixisse me recolo. Tamen si ad Ecclesiam referatur sermo, cum repleti Spiritu sancto discipuli musto ebrii a populo putarentur; tunc tanquam amicus sponsi pro sponsa stans Petrus in medio eorum: Non, inquit, sicut vos aestimatis, hi ebrii sunt. Attende interim, quod non omnino ebrios, sed ebrios sicut ab illis aestimati sunt, denegavit. Erant enim ebrii, sed Spiritu sancto, non musto. Et quasi testificarentur ad plebem, revera se in cellam fuisse vinariam introductos, rursum Petrus pro omnibus: Sed hoc est, ait, quod dictum est per prophetam Ioel: Et erit in novissimis diebus, dicit Dominus; effundam de Spiritu meo super omnem carnem, et prophetabunt filii vestri et filiae: iuvenes vestri visiones videbunt, et senes vestri somnia somniabunt. An non tibi cella videtur fuisse vinaria illa domus, in qua erant discipuli pariter congregati, cum factus est repente de coelo sonus, tanquam advenientis spiritus vehementis, et replevit totam domum, ubi erant sedentes, adimplevitque prophetiam Ioel! Et nonne unusquisque illorum exiens inebriatus ab ubertate domus illius, et torrente voluptatis tantae potatus, dicere merito quibat: Quoniam introduxit me rex in cellam vinariam?

Sed et tu quoque, si collecto tuo spiritu, mente sobria et vacua curis, orationis domum solus introeas, et stans coram Deo ad unum aliquod de altaribus, coeli ianuam tangas sancti desiderii manu, et praesentatus choris sanctorum, tua penetrante devotione (siquidem oratio iusti penetrat coelos) in ipsorum praesentia miserandus deplores miserias et calamitates quas pateris; crebris suspiriis et gemitibus inenarrabilibus prodas necessitatem, flagites pietatem; si, inquam, hoc egeris, confido in eo qui dixit; Petite, et accipietis, quia, si perseveraveris pulsans, non exibis vacuus. Verum cum te nobis reddideris plenum gratia et charitate, nec poteris spiritu fervens dissimulare munus acceptum, quod sine invidia communicabis; erisque omnibus in gratia, quae data est tibi, non modo gratus, sed fortassis etiam admirandus; poteris et ipse veraciter protestari, quia introduxit me rex in cellam vinariam; tantum cautus esto, non in te, sed in Domino gloriari. Nec omne donum, quamvis spirituale, prodire dixerim de cella vinaria, cum sint et aliae penes sponsum cellae vel apothecae, diversa in se recondita habentes dona atque charismata, secundum divitias gloriae eius: de quibus cellis memini me alibi latius disputasse (supra, serm. 23). Nonne haec condita sunt, inquit, apud me, et signata in thesauris meis? Ergo pro diversitate cellarum, divisiones gratiarum sunt, et unicuique manifestatur Spiritus ad utilitatem. Et quanquam alii quidem detur sermo sapientiae, alii autem sermo scientiae, alii vero prophetia, alii gratia curationum, alii genera linguarum, alii interpretatio sermonum, aliaque aliis his similia, non tamen quis horum pro huiusmodi dicere poterit, quod introductus fuerit in cellam vinariam. Ex aliis quippe cellis sive thesauris ista sumuntur.

Sed si quis orando obtineat mente excedere in id divini arcani, unde mox redeat divino amore vehementissime flagrans, et aestuans iustitiae zelo, nec non et in cunctis spiritualibus studiis atque officiis pernimium fervens, ita ut possit dicere: Concaluit cor meum intra me, et in meditationibus meis exardescit ignis : is plane, cum ex charitatis abundantia bonam et salutarem vini laetitiae ructare crapulam coeperit, in cellam non immerito perhibebitur vinariam introisse. Cum enim duo sint beatae contemplationis excessus, in intellectu unus, et alter in affectu; unus in lumine, alter in fervore; unus in agnitione, alter in devotione: pius sane affectus, et pectus amore calens, et sanctae devotionis infusio, etiam et vehemens spiritus repletus zelo, non plane aliunde, quam e cella vinaria reportantur: et cuicunque cum horum copia surgere ab oratione donatur, potest in veritate loqui, quia introduxit me rex in cellam vinariam.

Sequitur: Ordinavit in me charitatem. Omnino necessarie. Importabilis siquidem absque scientia est zelus. Ubi ergo vehemens aemulatio, ibi maxime discretio est necessaria, quae est ordinatio charitatis. Semper quidem zelus absque scientia minus efficax, minusque utilis invenitur; plerumque autem et perniciosus valde sentitur. Quo igitur zelus fervidior, ac vehementior spiritus, profusiorque charitas; eo vigilantiori opus scientia est, quae zelum supprimat, spiritum temperet, ordinet charitatem. Proinde sane, ne tanquam nimia et importabilis pro impetu spiritus, quem e cella videtur vinaria reportasse, praesertim ab adolescentulis sponsa timeatur; iungit quod discretionis est etiam se pariter accepisse, id est ordinem charitatis. Discretio quippe omni virtuti ordinem ponit; ordo modum tribuit et decorem, etiam et perpetuitatem.

Denique ait: Ordinatione tua perseverat dies; diem virtutem appellans. Est ergo discretio non tam virtus, quam quaedam moderatrix et auriga virtutum, ordinatrixque affectuum, et morum doctrix. Tolle hanc, et virtus vitium erit, ipsaque affectio naturalis in perturbationem magis convertetur, exterminiumque naturae. Ordinavit in me charitatem. Factum est autem hoc, cum in Ecclesia quosdam quidem dedit apostolos, quosdam autem prophetas, alios vero evangelistas, alios pastores et doctores ad consummationem sanctorum. Oportet autem ut hos una omnes charitas liget, et contemperet in unitatem corporis Christi: quod minime omnino facere poterit, si ipsa non fuerit ordinata. Nam si suo quisque feratur impetu secundum spiritum quem accepit, et ad quaeque volet indifferenter, prout afficitur, et non rationis iudicio convolarit; dum sibi assignato officio nemo contentus erit, sed omnes omnia indiscreta administratione pariter attentabunt, non plane unitas erit, sed magis confusio.

Ordinavit in me charitatem. Utinam et in me Dominus Iesus tantillum ordinet charitatis quod dedit; ut sic mihi curae sint universa quae sunt ipsius, ut tamen quod mei potissimum propositi seu officii esse constiterit, ante omnia curem: sed sane ita id prius, ut tamen ad multa, quae mihi specialiter non attinent, afficiar amplius. Non enim semper quod prius curandum, id etiam diligendum amplius erit: cum saepe quod prius est ad sollicitudinem, minus sit ad utilitatem, ac per hoc minus esse oporteat et in affectu. Frequenter proinde quod pro iniuncto praeponitur, de iudicio posthabetur : et quod veritas iudicat praeponendum, id charius amplectendum ordo postulat charitatis. Nonne, verbi gratia, ex iniuncto incumbit mihi cura omnium vestrum? Iam quidquid huic forte praetulero operi, quo minus ipsi invigilem digne et utiliter pro viribus exsequendo; etsi ex charitate fortassis id facere videar, ordinis tamon ratio non consentit. Quod si ante omnia quidem, ut debeo, huic intendo curae, non autem magis ad maiora gaudeo Dei lucra, quae per alterum fieri forte comperero, patet me ordinem charitatis ex parte tenere, ex parte nequaquam. Si vero me et ad id amplius, quod specialius incumbit, sollicitum, et nihilominus ad illud, quod maius est, magis affectum exhibeam; utrobique profecto invenior charitatis ordinem assecutus, et non est cur dicere non possim etiam ipse, quia ordinavit in me charitatem.

Si autem dicas difficile quemquam plus alieno gaudere magno bono, quam proprio parvo, advertes certe vel ex hoc excellentiam gratiae apud sponsam, et quoniam non cuilibet animae dicere sit, quia ordinavit in me charitatem. Quare facies deciderunt quorumdam vestrum modo ad hunc sermonem? Nam alta suspiria testantur tristitiam animorum, conscientiarumque deiectionem. Nimirum metientes nosmetipsos nobis, sentimus aliqui nostrum pro nostrae imperfectionis experientia, quam rara virtus sit alienae non invidere virtuti, nedum gaudere ad illam, nedum etiam tanto plus quam ad propriam quemque gratulari, quanto se perpenderit in virtute superatum. Adhuc modicum lumen in nobis est, fratres, quotquot de nobis ita sentimus. Ambulemus dum lucem habemus, ne tenebrae non comprehendant. Ambulare, proficere est. Ambulabat Apostolus, qui dicebat: Non arbitror me comprehendisse; et addit: Unum autem, quae retro sunt obliviscens, ad ea quae ante sunt, me extendo.

Quid est, unum autem? Unum autem, inquit, quasi remansit mihi ad remedium, ad spem, ad consolationem. Quid illud? Quae retro sunt videlicet obliviscens, ad ea quae ante sunt me extendo. Magna fiducia! quod magnum electionis Vas perfectum abnuens, profectum fatetur. Ego non ambulantem, sed sedentem a mortis tenebris comprehendi periculum est. Et quis sedens, nisi qui non curat proficere?

Id caveto: et si morte praeoccupatus fueris, in refrigerio eris. Dices Deo: Imperfectum meum viderunt oculi tui, et in libro tuo nihilominus, inquit, omnes scribentur. Qui omnes? Profecto qui in desiderio proficiendi inveniuntur. Sequitur enim: Dies formabuntur, et nemo in eis; subaudis: Peribit, Dies proficientes intellige, qui si morte praeoccupati fuerint, in eo quod eis deest perficiendi sunt. Formabuntur, et nemo in eis informis relinquetur.

Et quomodo, ais, ego proficere possum, qui fratri proficienti invideo? Si doles quod invides, sentis, sed non consentis. Passio est, quandoque sananda, non actio condemnanda. Tantum non illic resideas, iniquitatem meditans in cubili tuo, qualiter videlicet foveas morbum, satisfacias pesti, persequaris insontem, bene ab illo gesta calumniando, deprimendo, pervertendo, atque impediendo, gerenda. Alioquin non nocet ambulanti et extendenti se ad meliora, quod iam non ipse operatur, sed quod habitat in eo peccatum. Non est ergo damnatio illi, qui non dat membra sua arma iniquitati, non linquam ad detrahendum, non quidquam reliqui corporis ad laedendum nocendumve aliquo modo; magis autem confunditur sic se esse male affectum: et inolitum ex longo vitium confitendo, flendo, orando conatur expellere; et cum non praevalet, mitior inde ad omnes, atque apud se humilior invenitur. Quis sanum sapiens hominem damnet, qui a Domino didicit mitis esse et humilis corde? Absit ut inveniatur expers salutis imitator Salvatoris, sponsi Ecclesiae Domini nostri Iesu Christi, qui est super omnia Deus benedictus in saecula!

Amen.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Song.2.4 — He brought me to the house of wine, and his banner over me is love.
  2. ↩Song.2.4 — He brought me to the house of wine, and his banner over me is love.
  3. ↩Song.3.4 — Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my soul loves. I held him and would not let him go until I had brought him to my mother's house, to the room of her who conceived me.
  4. ↩Song.1.4 — Draw me after you—let us run together! The king has brought me into his chambers. We will rejoice and be glad in you; we will remember your love more than wine. The upright love you.
  5. ↩Acts.2.13-Acts.2.15 — But others, mocking, said, "They are full of new wine." Acts.2.14 — But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen closely to my words.’ Acts.2.15 — For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day.
  6. ↩Acts.2.15 — For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day.
  7. ↩Acts.2.2 — And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
  8. ↩Song.1.4 — Draw me after you—let us run together! The king has brought me into his chambers. We will rejoice and be glad in you; we will remember your love more than wine. The upright love you.
  9. ↩Ps.38.4 — There is no soundness in my flesh because of your wrath; there is no peace in my bones because of my sin.
  10. ↩Song.2.4 — He brought me to the house of wine, and his banner over me is love.
  11. ↩Song.2.4;Song.2.4 — He brought me to the house of wine, and his banner over me is love. Song.2.4 — He brought me to the house of wine, and his banner over me is love.
  12. ↩Eph.4.11-Eph.4.12;Eph.4.11-Eph.4.12 — And he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers. Eph.4.12 — for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ Eph.4.11 — And he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers. Eph.4.12 — for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ
  13. ↩Song.2.4 — He brought me to the house of wine, and his banner over me is love.
  14. ↩Gen.4.5-Gen.4.6 — but to Cain and to his offering he had no regard; and Cain was very angry, and his face fell. Gen.4.6 — Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?"
  15. ↩John.12.35 — Jesus said to them, "The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, so that darkness does not overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going."
  16. ↩Phil.3.13-Phil.3.14 — Brothers, I do not yet consider myself to have taken hold of it; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, Phil.3.14 — I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
  17. ↩Exod.32.32-Exod.32.33;Ps.139.16;Rev.20.12;Phil.4.3 — But now, if you will forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written. Exod.32.33 — And the LORD said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book." Ps.139.16 — Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in your book all of them were written — the days that were fashioned, when not yet one of them existed. Rev.20.12 — And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their works. Phil.4.3 — Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, for they labored with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
  18. ↩Ps.139.16 — Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in your book all of them were written — the days that were fashioned, when not yet one of them existed.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Bernard reads Peter's standing 'as a friend of the Bridegroom on behalf of the Bride' (tanquam amicus sponsi pro sponsa) as a type of the Church's mediatorial witness; 'friend of the Bridegroom' evokes John 3:29.
  2. 2 ↩Embedded quotation of Joel 3:1-2 (Vulg. numbering; Acts 2:16-17 in most English Bibles). Candidate allusion preserved; final verse-number resolution deferred to Moses stage.
  3. 3 ↩Embedded allusion to Acts 2:2 (sound from heaven like a mighty wind filling the house). Candidate preserved; final resolution deferred.
  4. 4 ↩The form quibat (3sg pres ind act of queo) is textually uncertain; rendered as 'have the power / be able' following the sense of the clause. The return to the Song of Songs refrain (Song 1:4) closes the section.
  5. 5 ↩Quoted span 'Petite, et accipietis' echoes Matt 7:7 / John 16:24; final resolution deferred to Moses check.
  6. 6 ↩Prayerful, direct exhortation; kept modern-you and natural cadence.
  7. 7 ↩Quoted span 'introduxit me rex in cellam vinariam' echoes Song 1:4; final resolution deferred to Moses check.
  8. 8 ↩charitate rendered as love; charitas policy allows love/charity.
  9. 9 ↩Rendered 'cellae vel apothecae' as 'rooms or storehouses' to keep the metaphor natural in modern English.
  10. 10 ↩Quoted span 'Nonne haec condita sunt... et signata in thesauris meis?' echoes a divine-speech formulation akin to Isa 49:16 / Deut 32:13-14 imagery; Moses check needed.
  11. 11 ↩Phrase 'manifestatur Spiritus ad utilitatem' echoes 1 Cor 12:7; Moses check needed.
  12. 12 ↩The catalogue of gifts echoes 1 Cor 12:8-10; Moses check needed.

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