Meditations on the Song of Songs – Where You Feed 2
Meditations on the Song of Songs
The spiritual read this book and grow in their love for God. But the carnal need a guide when reading it, lest they misunderstand and drift from its lofty meaning to worldly interpretations…
Last week, we began our meditation on the bride’s words to her Lord: “Tell me, O you whom my soul loves, where you feed your flock, where you make it rest at noon” (Song 1:7). Let us continue our meditations on this verse and what follows…
Where You Feed — Part 2
It is very beautiful to contemplate God as the Shepherd—He who tends us so that we lack nothing, the Shepherd among the lilies, who cares for His children and leads them to green pastures and still waters. And if one strays, He seeks it, carrying it upon His shoulders with joy.
“Where do You feed Your flock, where do You make it rest at noon?”
Noon is the time of rest when all take comfort. “Where do You rest, that I may come to You in Your rest, and rest with You, and rest in You?”
It is a soul yearning for God, seeking Him, while her beloved companions—those who prepare this divine, delightful encounter—say to her:
“Where has your beloved gone, O fairest among women? Where has your beloved turned aside, that we may seek him with you?” (Song 6:1)
And the bride answers:
“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).
The garden is the place of fruitful and blossoming trees. The righteous believer is like a tree that yields its fruit in due season, whose leaf does not wither—a tree that bears fruit, and the Lord prunes it that it may bear more fruit. The flowers symbolize the sweet fragrance of the righteous saints, whose aroma fills the whole world and from whom God receives a pleasing scent.
The fruit-bearing tree represents the life of action, and the flowering tree represents the life of contemplation. Together, they form the gardens where the Lord rests at noon.
He rests in His holy children. To them He comes and in them He makes His dwelling. He abides with them and finds a place to lay His head. Thus the bride knows where her Beloved rests and where to find Him: “My beloved has gone down to his garden.” From His heavenly height He descended to be with His children, tending them—“He feeds in the gardens.”
Here we find God—not among the worldly, nor in the bustle of life—but in the gardens, in the paradise of the fathers, among the beds of spices.
There dwell the saints whose fragrance was like musk and incense, as if they were beds of spices, bearing the sweet aroma of Christ. The beds of spices may also symbolize the works of the saints—their conduct and their holy lives.
Thus, near the beds of spices, you find the Lord beneath the image of the Cross, at the holy altar, beside the Gospel, in moments of contemplation and quiet communion with God. There, among the beds of spices, you find Him gathering lilies—gathering the sweat of the saints, their labor, their tears, their fasting, their prayers, their asceticism, their love… gathering lilies. There you find Him.
But what does the soul do if it lacks spiritual experience and does not know the way to God? The divine revelation tells her:
“If you do not know, O fairest among women, go forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed your kids beside the shepherds’ tents” (Song 1:8).
Look where the sheep have walked—My sheep that follow Me, that hear My voice and not the voice of a stranger. Follow their steps that you may imitate their faith.
Contemplate the lives of the saints, who have left the prints of their feet upon the earth. We can follow them and reach God along the same path…
The desert fathers, whose footprints remain impressed upon the mountains, fill us with the beauty of the way; we breathe the fragrance of their lives—the traces of the martyrs, the fathers, the saints…
And perhaps the soul asks: “Where can I see the footsteps of the flock?” We answer: In the writings of the saints, in their beautiful lives, in their sayings, in their stories, in their churches and monasteries.
Go forth by the footsteps of the flock—
not by the paths of the kids, not in the way of the world, in their corruption, their fashions, their amusements, their thoughts and philosophies. Those whom the Apostle warned us about, saying, “Do not be conformed to this world,” meaning, do not be like it or take its form.
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Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine, Year 5 – Issue 8, 23 November 1974.
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