Meditations on the Song of Songs
The spiritual read this book and their love for God increases. But the carnal need a guide when reading it, lest they misunderstand it and turn from its lofty meaning to worldly interpretations!
My sister, the bride
A garden enclosed… a fountain sealed (Song 4:12)
My sister, the bride
It is great humility that the Lord calls the Church—or the human soul—His sister. He says this as the Son of Man, for He emptied Himself and took the form of man, becoming the firstborn among many brethren and resembling them in everything except sin. What a condescension from the Lord of Glory to call His servants brothers!
And He called her the bride as a symbol of love—the spiritual love that makes the two one. As St. Paul said: “I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” Therefore it is said: “The kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.” Thus Christ is called the heavenly Bridegroom, and this spiritual marriage between God and the Church is spoken of in the Epistle to the Ephesians.
A garden enclosed:
It is beautiful that the Lord loves human souls and praises them.
We, as humans, speak of our sins and see our souls defiled by all kinds of iniquity. But while we, in humility, see ourselves sunk in guilt, the Lord sees us in glorious beauty. He casts upon us His divine righteousness, and we become perfect through His splendor—through His righteousness imputed to us. As St. Paul said: “But we have the righteousness of Christ.”
It is amazing that the Lord praises human souls, though He knows the depth of their impurity.
He knows that all have gone astray, that all have become corrupt and fallen short of the glory of God, that all human righteousness is like filthy rags. He knows both the hidden and the revealed; He reads thoughts and searches the depths of the heart. He knows the evils we know about ourselves and also those we do not know.
Yet despite knowing all our sins, He says: “My sister, my bride, is a garden enclosed.”
The Lord praised Job, saying he was “a perfect and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil,” and that there was none like him. We ask: truly, Lord, do You see a perfect and upright man, when all have strayed and none is perfect but You?
But God sees the good He has worked in us, attributes it to us, magnifies it, forgets our sins, and remembers them no more. Blessed be His name!
God’s praise for the human soul is a manifestation of His humility and love.
And it is wondrous that He now sees the bride as a garden. Once He called her “the lily of the valleys,” but now she is a full garden—with all its fruits, flowers, and shade.
Before the humility of the Lord’s praise, the soul bows down in contrition, saying: “All that is good in me is the work of Your grace; we have no merit, for without You we can do nothing. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Your holy name give glory.”
If we boast, let us boast in the Lord—the Lord who dwells in us, works in us, works through us, and works with us by His power and His Holy Spirit.
My sister, my bride, is a garden enclosed.
What is this garden?
Some are fruit-bearing trees, giving thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold, their fruits sweet to His taste. These are fruitful in service or in virtue.
Some are flowering trees—the fragrant shrubs of the Lord’s Church, the sweet aroma of Christ through their good example.
Some are shade trees, to whom others come and find rest, their hearts filled with peace. And from these three kinds the Church is formed, each according to the measure of faith God has given.
So if you are not fruitful in service, be a fragrant shrub in the Lord’s garden. For the bride of the Song says, “My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens and to gather lilies” (Song 6:2). And He Himself says, “I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice” (Song 5:1). Both are perfumes. So be a sweet fragrance in the house of the Lord—“a pleasing aroma to the Lord,” so that all who see you may glorify the faith because of you.
What kind of tree are you in the Lord’s garden—fruit, flower, or shade—or perhaps all three together?
The Lord enters your heart and finds the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal. 5:22). He finds in you the sweet fragrance of cheerfulness, kindness, gentleness, humility, and blessing, and He finds that you are peace and rest to all.
Imagine when the Lord sees you not as a single tree but as a garden—watered by rivers as in Eden, rivers symbolizing the Spirit…
The Spirit of the Lord flows like rivers of living water, a fountain of life. Every tree that drinks from Him will never thirst again.
But beware lest the Lord find something harmful in your garden!
The serpent once entered the garden and deceived humanity, and the garden is still threatened by the little foxes that spoil the vines.
How can you protect your garden from all these? The Lord says, “My sister, my bride, is a garden enclosed, a spring shut up.”
Enclosed, sealed.
Only the spiritual can enter it—no evil thoughts, no sinful senses, no corrupt emotions.
As David the prophet said: “Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion. For He has strengthened the bars of your gates and blessed your children within you.”
What are these gates whose bars the Lord has strengthened?
They are the senses, which are gates to thought. Through senses like sight, hearing, and touch, thoughts and emotions enter your heart. Another gate is reading; another, knowledge; another, the heart itself.
Ask yourself: Are you a garden enclosed and a sealed spring?
Or are your gates wide open, allowing anything to enter? Take for example one gate the Lord commanded to be closed, as David said: “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips.” This gate, if opened, can release much evil, and by your words you will be judged, for “what comes out of the mouth defiles a man.”
The Virgin was a garden enclosed, faithful to the mysteries of the Lord, never speaking of the miracles she saw but keeping all these things and pondering them in her heart.
St. Paul, who was caught up to the third heaven, was a garden enclosed, keeping those secrets “in silence, for it is not lawful for a man to utter.” Thus were all the fathers who lived in the depths of grace—in secret—they did not speak of the heavens they entered nor of the depths they explored.
Our spiritual life is a secret: “Enter into your closet and shut your door…”
It is a mystery between us and our heavenly Father who sees in secret. If we speak of this mystery, the demon of vainglory may snatch its fruit, or the power that performed it in us may withdraw.
Therefore, it is dangerous for people to stand and speak of their spiritual experiences publicly, or to pray openly revealing their private spiritual secrets before others, stepping out of the closed chamber.
And so we hear some say: “From the day grace entered my heart, I became a new person. My heart overflowed with joy; my prayers became fervent; my meditations deep; my spirit soared; my mind is lifted whenever I speak!”
This, my son, is not Orthodox theology!
Our holy fathers reached astonishing levels in the life of grace, yet they never spoke of themselves. And when St. Paul was compelled under great pressure to mention something, he counted himself a fool and insane for doing so!
Some may object that the Lord once said to certain people: “Go and tell how great things the Lord has done for you.” But the Lord said this regarding miracles, not the inner spiritual work or growth in grace.
This inner spiritual work is a garden enclosed, a sealed chamber. But those who pray all at once, each revealing his private spiritual secrets before others, or confessing in groups—these are not enclosed gardens; they lack the spirit of the fathers and the Orthodox way.
God, who is in secret, sees your tears, your meditations, your humility, your love, and the depth of your prayer. But others should not see them.
Our life with God is the Holy of Holies, a mystery like that of the union between the bride and the Bridegroom. It is a sealed spring.
It is a garden enclosed to others, but open only to the Lord. The sealed spring cannot be polluted from outside.
Keep the Lord within you in secret, and keep your spiritual experiences to yourself. Thus did the saints.
St. John the Beloved reclined on Christ’s breast—how deep were his mysteries! Yet he revealed them to no one.
The heart of man is a garden enclosed. From outside, people may smell its fragrance but cannot see within. Perhaps the tree is known by its fruit, but the inner processes within the tree and its roots are the Holy of Holies, unseen.
Many years our hermit fathers spent alone with the Lord—how were their lives and spiritual mysteries? They were Holy of Holies—in secret.
As the poet said of one of them:
“All around you, silence and stillness reveal the hidden secret;
In your silence lies a mystery unseen—
Its Holy of Holies known only to the silent.”
Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, published in Watani newspaper, June 6, 1999.
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