Meditations on the Song of Songs
A Garden Enclosed… A Fountain Sealed

I resume with you our meditations on the Song of Songs. Let our subject tonight be the Lord’s saying about the bride:

“My sister, my bride, is a garden enclosed, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed…” (Song 4:12)

A garden enclosed… a fountain sealed

My sister, the bride:

It is great humility that the Lord should say of the Church, or of the human soul, that she is His sister… He says it as the Son of Man—because He emptied Himself, and took the form of a man, and became the firstborn among many brethren, and was made like His brethren in everything except sin… It is condescension from the Lord of glory to call His servants brothers!

And He called her the bride as a symbol of love, and the spiritual love that makes the two one. As the Apostle Paul said: “I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” Therefore it was 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 He speaks of this spiritual marriage between God and the Church in the Epistle to the Ephesians.

A garden enclosed:

It is beautiful that the Lord loves human souls and praises them.

Each of us speaks about his sins and sees his soul defiled with every kind of sin. Yet while in humility we see ourselves in the depth of iniquity, the Lord sees us in a radiant image. He casts upon us His divine righteousness, and we become perfect with the splendor of the Lord, by His righteousness which He grants us. As the Apostle Paul says: “But we have the righteousness of Christ.”

It is wondrous that the Lord praises human souls while He knows the measure of their uncleanness.

He knows that all have gone astray and have become corrupt and have fallen short of the glory of God, and that all man’s righteousness is like a polluted garment… He knows the hidden and the manifest, reads thoughts, and searches the depths of hearts. He knows the evils we know about ourselves, and also the evils we do not know…

And with all His knowledge of our sins, He says: “My sister, my bride, is a garden enclosed.”

The Lord praised righteous Job and said of him that he was a blameless and upright man who does good and turns away from evil, and there is none like him. And we ask: Is it truly, O Lord, that You see a man blameless and upright, while all have gone astray and become corrupt, and none is perfect but You?

But God sees the good that He has done in us, and attributes it to us, magnifies it, forgets our sins, and remembers them no more. Blessed be His Name.

God’s praise of the human soul is a manifestation of His humility and His love.

And what is wondrous here is that He sees the bride as a garden. Formerly He called her “the rose of Sharon,” “the lily of the valleys.” But now she is a complete garden—a garden with all its fruits, flowers, and shades.

As for the Lord’s humility in praising the soul, the soul bows in contrition and says: All the good that is in us is the work of Your grace; we have no merit in it, 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 dwelling in us, working in us, working through us, working with us, by His power, by His Holy Spirit.

“My sister, my bride, is a garden enclosed.” What is this garden?

Some are fruitful trees that yield thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold, and their fruit is sweet to His taste. These are fruitful in service or fruitful in virtue.

Some are flowering trees; they are the fragrant groves in the Church of the Lord, the sweet aroma of Christ by their good example.

Some are shade trees; people come to them and find rest, and their hearts are filled with peace. From these three kinds the Church is formed, as God has granted to each one a measure of faith.

If you are not fruitful in service, then be a fragrant grove in the garden of the Lord.

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” (6:2). And He Himself says: “I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice” (5:1). Both are perfumes. So be a fragrant aroma in the house of the Lord, “a sweet-smelling aroma to the Lord,” that He may smell from you the fragrance of satisfaction. And everyone who sees you may love religion because of you.

What kind of tree are you in the garden of the Lord: fruit, flowers, or shade? Or are you all these together?

The Lord enters your heart and finds the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22). He finds in you the fragrant aroma in cheerfulness, good dealings, tolerance, humility, and blessing. And He finds you, toward all people, peace and shade.

Imagine that the Lord sees you as a garden, not merely a tree… And this garden is watered by rivers as in Eden, and the rivers symbolize the Spirit…

The Spirit of the Lord who overflows like rivers of living water, a fountain of living water. Every tree that drinks from Him shall never thirst again.

But beware lest the Lord find in your garden something harmful!

The serpent was able to enter the garden and deceive humanity. It is also threatened by the little foxes that spoil the vines.

How can you protect your garden from all these? The Lord says of this: “My sister, my bride, is a garden enclosed, a spring shut up.”

Enclosed… shut up:

Nothing can enter it except spiritual things—no corrupt thought, no sinful senses, no evil emotions… As the prophet David said: “Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! For He has strengthened the bars of your gates; He has blessed your children within you.”

What are these gates whose bars the Lord has strengthened?

The senses, for example, which are gates to the mind. Through sight, hearing, and touch, thoughts and emotions enter your heart. Another gate is reading; a third gate is knowledge; a fourth gate is the heart.

Ask yourself: Are you a garden enclosed and a fountain sealed?

Or are your gates open, allowing everything to enter? Take for example one of the gates which the Lord commanded to be closed, as the prophet David said: “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips.” If this gate is opened, many evils may come out of it. By your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned. What proceeds out of the mouth defiles a man.

The Virgin was a garden enclosed, faithful to the Lord’s secrets; concerning all the miracles and signs she saw, she did not speak of them, but kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.

The Apostle Paul, who was caught up to the third heaven, was a garden enclosed. He kept those secrets in silence, for it is not lawful for a man to utter them. So also were all the Fathers who lived in the depth of grace, in secrecy. They did not speak of what was in the heavens to which they ascended, nor of the depths they explored…

Our spiritual life is a secret: “Enter into your chamber, and shut your door…”

It is a secret with our heavenly Father who sees in secret. If we speak of this secret, the demon of vainglory may come and snatch its fruits, or the power of this secret within us may depart…

Therefore it is dangerous for people to stand and speak of their spiritual experiences before others. It is dangerous and wrong for people to pray openly, revealing their private spiritual secrets before others, coming out of the closed chamber…

Thus we hear someone say: Since grace entered my heart, I have become a new person; joy has filled my heart; my prayers have become fervent; my meditations have all become deep; my spirit has been released. As soon as I speak, my mind is caught away!

This, my son, is not Orthodox theology!

Our holy Fathers reached wondrous degrees in the life of grace, and they did not speak about themselves. When the Apostle Paul was compelled under extreme pressure to recount something, he considered himself foolish and beside himself.

Someone may argue that the Lord said to some: “Go and tell what great things the Lord has done for you!” The Lord said this concerning miracles, not concerning the inner spiritual work and growth in grace.

This spiritual work is a garden enclosed and a chamber shut. Those who pray at one time, each declaring his secrets before others, or who make collective confessions, are not enclosed gardens. They do not have the spirit of the Fathers, nor the Orthodox way.

God in secret sees your tears, your meditations, your reverence, your measure of love, and your depth in prayer. But it is not right for people to see them.

Our life with God is the Holy of Holies. It is a secret like the mystery of communion between the bride and the Bridegroom. It is a fountain sealed…

It is a garden enclosed to others and open to the Lord alone. The sealed fountain is not defiled from outside.

Keep the Lord within you in secret, and keep your spiritual experiences. Do not speak of them to anyone. Thus did the saints…

John the beloved was leaning on the bosom of Christ—how deep were his secrets. Yet he did not tell them to anyone.

The heart of man is a garden enclosed. From outside people smell its fragrance, but they do not see what is within. Perhaps from the fruit the tree is known. But the processes that take place inside the tree and in its roots are the Holy of Holies, unseen.

For dozens of years our hermit Fathers spent in solitude with the Lord. What were their lives and their spiritual secrets like? They were the Holy of Holies, in secrecy…

An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Year Seven (Issue Thirty) – 23-7-1976

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