Alright, well we made it. This is the third and final lesson of the short Bible study on the song of songs, a life of divine intimacy. And we're going to be covering the second half of the book. So, last lesson was Song of Songs Chapter 1 through 4, technically chapter 1 verse 1 through 5 verse 1.
But keep it simple, it was 1 through 4 and this lesson is going to be 5 through 8. And this is a really beautiful half of the book. Of course, the first half was really beautiful as well. But I'm going to provide a lot of beautiful quotes from the Fathers from Sacred Tradition here to really help us understand this approach that I introduced in Lesson 1 and then continued on in Lesson 2, which is the Divine Love, Interpretation, the Alagorical Interpretation, as well as the Messianic Love.
And then finally, the Mystic Interpretation, which is of course our soul, how we're all called to love our Lord passionately, mystically, spiritually. So really, really briefly, I want to spend like two minutes on this, that's all. I just want to see where we are in a progress along this chiastic structure in the book of the Song of Songs. So, we talked about the chiastic structure a couple of different times, I'm not going to repeat that, but if you have your notes in front of you, we went along nicely on sections A, B, C and D of the structure.
Excuse me. And then the very center is Letter D, where Solomon is bride right at Jerusalem. And one of the things, remember I emphasized many, many times, following the lead of the Catholic Interduction Deal Testament and some other commentaries, is the fact that there's a lot of dream sequences going on, a lot of visions, and some other things that are going on. A lot of well-wishes, desires, and union between the bride and the groom has not happened yet.
Some commentaries dispute that, but I'm very much convinced and definitely going to continue down the path that this union, this consummation hasn't happened yet. And so we're going to see that in today's lesson. So we're going to go down back the path, C prime, B prime, A prime. We're going to see more dream sequences, daytime, kind of daydreaming sequences, and then the final conclusion.
And it's going to end very, very interesting where the bride is going to call for the groom to come. So keep that in mind. The song never really clearly emphasizes the consummation of the couple, the couple, the two people. There's this sense of expectancy, anticipation because the wedding is not consummated.
She desires to be with him, has visions and daydreams, and regular dreams. It just hasn't happened. And I'm emphasizing that really, really strongly right now. For a lot of reasons we discussed in the last lesson, but it's going to be very, very, very important and very clear as we conclude this book, as to what the meaning behind all that is.
What's the purpose of a whole book, eight chapters here, short as they are still a whole book of this woman, this bride who desires to be with her groom and it hasn't happened. So wedding be consummated, shouldn't they enjoy each other's love and embrace? Well, yeah, they should, but it hasn't happened for a very specific typological reason. So we'll get there very, very soon.
So with that brief review, let's look at chapter five, verse two and following. This is the second dream sequence. It's going to be very clear because it begins by saying I was sleeping. So that's pretty clear.
But let's read verses two through six here in chapter five, and then we have a lot of great quotes from the Church Fathers talking about the spiritual typology and sacramental typology of this section. So here we go. Verse two, I slept, but my heart was awake. Hark, my beloved is knocking.
And then she hears him saying to her, she hears his voice, open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one. For my head is wet with dew, my locks with the drops of the night. So she hears and saying this. And then she goes on verse three, I put off my garment.
How could I put it on? I had bathed my feet. How could I spoil them or soil them? Excuse me.
My beloved put his hand to the latch and my heart was thrilled within me. I rose to open to my beloved and my hand stripped with my fingers with liquid my hands upon the handles of the bolt. I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone. My soul failed me when he spoke.
I sought him, but found him not. I called him, but he gave no answer. I was off there. That's pretty sad, right?
He's right there knocking on the door. And you know, she kind of delayed a little bit and getting up from her bed and she's very excited. Her heart is beating with her chest and she goes to the door and he's gone. Ready to go.
He was just here. All right. So first, this whole idea of knocking, we talked about this briefing in the last lesson. I'm going to mention it here again.
Here she is in her room asleep on her bed and her heart is still moving and her heart is awake. Her mind is racing. However, you're going to translate that. Here's knocking, but then he's gone.
All right. Now, this is really important to many people in me, the comment of in the connection of this verse with Revelation chapter three, verse 20, the famous, very beautiful passage where Jesus is standing at the door. Let me just read it here really quickly so it refreshes your memory. This is chapter three verse 20, Revelation.
This is one of the famous verses in one of the letters to Laodicea. Well, there's seven letters to seven churches. This is the one to Laodicea. And this is what it says, behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me. Very famous verse. I mean, honestly, this isn't another story front of the time. But that was the verse that when I was just a kid, a neighbor of mine shared with me and gave me a little holy card of Jesus knocking on the door.
And she basically preached a simple message of the gospel to whatever to a kid. I was eight or nine something like that. And that's the moment I accepted Jesus as my God, my Lord, my friend. And ever since I've always been a Christian.
So that particular verse is very, very beautiful for me, for my own conversion. But when you think about that verse, obviously, yes, Jesus stands the door of the heart and the soul and knocks. And he needs to be invited in very famously in the painting. There's no door knob on the outside because he must be let into the heart.
He's not going to push his way through. But behind that beautiful verse is the song of songs, the song of Solomon, the cancelable of canticles, where the bridegroom is standing at the door and he's knocking and got to hear his voice and got to let him in. So that's really lovely, the spiritual typology here for each individual's soul is to being ready to answer the call of Christ when he knocks on the door. And he does knock on the door of every single heart.
Every single individual is invited into a life with divine intimacy with our God. Now, St. Ambrose says something beautiful about this. And this is a bit of a long quote, but I decided to share the whole thing with you.
You can find it in your Navar Bible. That's right. I pulled a quote from him. And here's what St.
Ambrose has to say. Listen to how he calls how he wants to enter. Open to me, my sister, my dove, for my head is wet with dew, my hair with the reins of the night. He dains to visit those who are tempted or troubled to ensure that none gives way under the weight of suffering.
Moreover, his head is wet with dew or night rain whenever his body finds itself in difficulty. Then should we stay awake and keep watch so that when the spouse arrives, he will not go away again unheard. For if you are asleep and your heart does not keep watch, he will go away again without having called you. But if your heart is awake and watching, he will call out to you to open the door.
Open wide the door. He wants to come in. He wants to come and find his spouse awake and waiting for him. In that amazing, that was totally worth putting that long quote in there.
It's so beautiful. He says it so well, St. Ambrose, on how Christ wants to come in and dine with us. And in Revelation 3.20, that's very much a Eucharistic reference there.
There's a lot of all kinds of Eucharist references in the book, Revelation of how, well, I'm going to get an attention here really, really briefly and how the Eucharist is a foretaste, literally, a foretaste in the wedding supper of the Lamb, this wedding banquet of eternity. I'm already there soon enough. So what a great quote from St. Ambrose on answering the call of Christ.
And you see that depicted here in the song of Solomon in chapter 5. Now, one of the things that we saw here, she's kind of a little bit delayed a bit because she had dressed for night time, right? She had removed her garment in verse 3. She says, I put on my garment.
How could I put it on? I bathed my feet. How could I soil them? Well, there's some typology here as well as the church Father's always spent so much time reflecting on these verses and teaching us the deeper mystical spiritual connections to our life of faith in Christ, our life of the mind and to the machine Jesus Christ.
The Father's will talk about how this disrobing she put off her garment. How could she put it on again? That isn't referenced to sin. Putting off the garments of sin, the old man, the Saint Paul calls it, in order to clothe ourselves with his grace.
There's a whole big theme in all of Scripture going back to Genesis chapter 3, where Adam and Eve saw that they were naked in a shame because they lost the garments of righteousness. It wasn't so much physical nakedness that they were ashamed about. It was their spiritual nakedness, their shame of committing sin against God because the eyes were open to what they had done. And all throughout the Scriptures, you always talk about, again, in the book of Revelation, it's kind of a full circle there.
You've got the white garments, pure as snow, which is a righteous deed to the saints in Revelation 19. There's a lot there. But this passage in the Song of Solomon, chapter 5, verse 3, is about putting off the old garments of sin. And so, Saint Cyril Jerusalem, a great saint.
I love him a lot because he is my birthday patron saint. I always tell students, you've got your namesake, so in my case, it's Saint Nicholas. And you also have your birthday saint, which in my case is Saint Cyril Jerusalem. And he is like, doctor of the church.
He's one of the great catechical teachers in antiquity. So, of course, I love him because I like to teach the Scriptures. So here's what he has to say about this disrobing of the garments. He says, quote, immediately then upon entering the waters of baptism, you remove your tunics.
This was a figure of the stripping off of the old men with his deeds and the severs from Colossians 39. Having stripped, you were naked, and this also imitating Christ, who was naked on the cross. May the soul that has once put off the old self never again put it on, but say with the bride of Christ in the canticle of canticles, I have put off my garment. How shall I put it on?
End quote. And that beautiful right? So again, we're talking about, in this case, the mystical interpretation of the song, how the bride represents the soul. And in order to be united to Christ and to be ready, as we saw, he's knocking out the door of our hearts, to be ready for that call, we have to put off this robe of the garments of sin in order to be clothed with his grace.
So that's really, really lovely. Now, the story goes on here, and she's not there, so she goes to find him. This is very similar to what we saw in chapter 3. So let's read here just a couple more verses, actually just one verse.
So she's going to find him, I saw him, this is at the end of verse 6. I saw him, I found him not, I called him, but he gave no answer. So in verse 7 it says, the watchmen found me, as they went about in the city, they beat me and they wounded me, and took away my mantle, those watchmen of the walls. Well, that stinks, so first off this is certainly a dream, because again, as we said in chapter 3, no young maiden virgin girl is going to go wandering around the streets of the city in the middle of the night, looking for her beloved.
That would be very foolish and very dangerous, so she's dreaming, right? But in this dream, you'll see this back in chapter 3 verse 3 where the watchmen just found her, but they didn't do anything to her. I'm going to come back to chapter 3 verse 3 at the end of the lesson and give you a different interpretation of who those watchmen are. But for these watchmen in chapter 5 verse 7, which we just read, that's really sad.
Like they're beating her, abusing her, wounding her, taking away her mantle. Like who are these guys? They deserve the death penalty, they deserve some kind of extreme punishment for torturing innocent people like this when they're walking around the city. So I've been thinking about this a lot, and I haven't really, I'm not that I've read every commentary for the song of songs because that would be darn near impossible.
But I've been thinking about this for a while, like who are these watchmen? And then I was reading in the prophets. So many places in the prophets, watchmen is a name given to God's leaders. In the city, in Jerusalem, priests, believers, whomever they may be, and sad to say, may not surprise you, many of the leaders, shepherds, priests of Jerusalem, and Israel were really, really awful.
So there's a couple of verses that I had researched and found where watchmen is another word for corrupt leadership of Israel. So just two examples here for you. The first is Isaiah chapter 56 verse 10. So what it says, his watchmen are blind.
They are without knowledge. They are mute dogs. They cannot bark, dreaming, lying down, loving the slumber. The dogs have a mighty appetite.
They never have enough. The shepherds also have no understanding. They have all turned their own way, etc. So clearly, God's watchmen that he has put over his people are fattening themselves.
They're like dogs. They're persecuting God's righteous people. They're faithful remnant. Those who worship God and turn away from idols.
It's a very ugly thing. These are bad watchmen, bad shepherds. The same thing is mentioned in Jeremiah chapter 6 verse 17. This is what it says.
I set watchmen over you saying give heed to the sound of the trumpet, but they said we will not give heed. Therefore, here are nations and know a congregation what will happen to them. Here on earth, behold, and bring evil upon this people, the fruit of their devices, etc. So yet again, these watchmen are God's leaders and they're very, very bad.
So to my mind is I'm making the connections here. Now, take us with the grain of salt. Whenever I have a personal thought that can't be confirmed by church tradition or really good commentaries. Take with the grain of salt.
But I think what's going on here is these watchmen who found her and beat her and wounded her. Those are the corrupt. That's the corrupt establishment of Israel. And you find that historically the case.
So it's very much in support of this divine love allegory and divine love interpretation, which is the bride is Israel. The groom is God, but these watchmen are God's leaders who actually abuse and mistreat the faithful of God's faithful. God's faithful Israel. And that makes a lot of sense to me anyway.
So I just wanted to share that with you. But these watchmen could also symbolize. And I have found this corroborated as well, which is the watchmen that go and take away her mantle and they wouldn't beat her, would be spiritually speaking the various sins and vices that keep us from union with Christ our bridegroom. So we have to be careful, right?
So following the story allegorically and typologically here Christ knocks on the door of our hearts. We have to be ready and prompt to answer him. If we're not, then he'll go away. I have a great quote on this in just a second.
He's going to go away to test our love. And as we go to find him and we search for him, we have to be very, very careful that those vices and sins are going to wound us and hurt us and keep us from union with Christ. So that makes a lot of sense as well. So two possibilities on who those watchmen are.
Now, after the watchmen mistreat her, she then says in verse eight, I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, tell him that I am sick with love. So then she's going to go out and she's trying to find her bridegroom, her beloved. And this typologically to keep the same pattern here is the soul search for Christ. We really, really need to be consistently faithfully, loyally, and hesitantly searching for Christ.
Now I did put in your footnote here kind of a smidge long quote from your Catholic commentary on Holy Scriptures, a bit of a long, an oldish commentary. I believe the sixties got to double check that. This is a really beautiful quote. I'm just going to read it here for you as well.
So the typology here is her search for the bridegroom is a symbol and a type of the soul search for Christ. Here's the quote. The song is particularly rich in aesthetic applications. God knocks at the door of our heart and the quiet of the night, far from the distractions of the world in solitude.
He comes unexpectedly and we must be ever ready to respond. Those who are neglectful will miss the benefits of God's grace and then it's through penance that they might regain them. Sometimes God seems to abandon the faithful soul, but it is only to test for attachment. I really love it.
Let me read that one line again because it explains why he goes away. Sometimes God seems to abandon the faithful soul, but it is only to test for attachment. The soul that comes out victorious is rewarded with more abundant graces and with the spiritual joy of a closer union with God. I really like that a lot.
So I threw that in foot number three for you. It's true. So why does he go away? People ask.
Well, it's because this is the test spiritual test that we all go through. Sometimes we feel like Christ has left, but he really hasn't. He's just forming our faith, strengthening our faith and our love and attachment to him. So that was really, really beautiful.
Hey, this is Doc Neck. Thank you so much for listening to this course sample. If you enjoyed it and want to listen to the entire lesson, please become a student over at Scripture and Tradition.com where you can listen to this entire course, but also all the other courses that we have available in the S&T Audio Library where you can listen to them on demand, however, and whenever you want. So thank you so much.
God bless you and keep studying your Bible.