How Does Your Garden Grow?
Song of Songs 8:6-14
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Song of Songs 8:6-14
Put me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell, the lamps thereof are fire and flames.
Many waters cannot quench charity, neither can the floods drown it: if a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing.
Our sister is little, and hath no breasts. What shall we do to our sister in the day when she is to be spoken to?
If she be a wall: let us build upon it bulwarks of silver: if she be a door, let us join it together with boards of cedar.
I am a wall: and my breasts are as a tower since I am become in his presence as one finding peace. The peaceable had a vineyard, in that which hath people: he let out the same to keepers, every man bringeth for the fruit thereof a thousand pieces of silver.
My vineyard is before me. A thousand are for thee, the peaceable, and two hundred for them that keep the fruit thereof.
Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the friends hearken: make me hear thy voice.
Flee away, O my beloved, and be like to the roe, and to the young hart upon the mountains of aromatical spices.
Douay Rheims English translation of the Bible, 1899. (See CRBO.org online)
Context: This work expresses the love between God and His people. The Talmud called this an allegory of God’s love for his chosen people-- Israel. The Early Church Fathers then extended that allegory to the love of God for the Church. Others pointed to the love between God and individual souls. Still others highlighted Mary as the Bride.
Translation: Though attributed to King Solomon, who reigned in the 10th century BC, it probably was edited after the experience of exile many centuries after the time of Solomon, just a few hundred years before the birth of Christ.
Vocabulary (Hebrew):
seal: chotham- a sign of legal authority
Many waters: mayim - floods akin to primordial chaos
love: ‘ahabâ – true love
jealousy – qin’â – connotes ardor more than covetousness
“flashes of fire” - šalhebetyâ – “a flame of
Yahweh,” conjures hot intensity
peace: šālôm – peace or well-being
Meditation
Love sometimes is the most complex and painful of emotions, and this passage reminds us that the pain is related to the fact that God created us for this first love, this primeval divine passion. After the fall, we love imperfectly...and thus painfully.
St. John of the Cross experienced a great spiritual awakening through the Song of Songs. His Spiritual Canticle was written while he was unfairly thrown in prison. He was trying to express the deep peace and joy that he had found in the love of God despite all hardships. While the Dark Night of the Soul is more well-known, the flora and fauna of the Song of Songs were the foundation of his work.
Verse 8:6 begins with the Bridegroom offering His love, that survives even death. And we end with the vineyard that we cultivate for the sake of our Beloved. You might wonder, though, about that middle section about our little sister – what is that all about? Those not yet ready for faith in the Messiah.
So, shall she be a wall, or a door? Biblical scholars point to the wall as virtue, building a foundation for society, a safe haven for love. When women build safe havens, love can abound in a protected place. Conversely, the image of the “door” refers to spending too much time opening to others in ways that imperil the inner life of the soul. Boards of cedar would enclose such a soul, protecting her from harm. God provides that door.
The maturity of the bride then emerges from the “wall” as “mountainous” breasts, capable of great nurture. And the milk of her breasts is that interior peace. In our culture, in which so much commotion predominates, the notable women of peace are beacons of light to me. The Church inherits this peace as a gift.
Our hidden souls are as mysterious as the very life of Christ Himself. We were created, indeed, to be an enclosed garden for the bridegroom. So, in these obscure passages, that express love this side of the veil, we can be encouraged to ask God to ignite in our own hearts a meaning that was created for us alone.
Discussion Questions:
1. Has a passionate love ever taken your heart by surprise? Was it more carnal and physical? Or was it more spiritual and hidden? What were its promptings?
2. Do you have a little sister, someone who is immature or not ready for faith? How would you nurture her to prepare to receive our Lord?
3. What is the relationship between peace and passion? How can we understand a God who inspires both?
4. The bride tends her own vineyard, yearning to hear the Bridegroom’s voice. What kinds of gardening does your soul need today? Why?