S. John xvi. 14. in Ps. cxix. S. Greg. M. Evang. Hugo Card. Corn. à Lap. which gave the Apostles utterance, called the Voice of the Beloved, because of the mission of the Comforter from the SON. And so it is written: "He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you." Behold, He cometh leaping upon the mounS. Ambros. tains, skipping upon the hills. "I long," cries a Saint, putting words into the mouth of the Bride, "that love should be stirred up for me. I count myself wounded with love, and love itself hastens to me the more. I said, Come, it leaps and skips. I ask Him to come with grace. He worketh the increase of graces, and as He comes, brings with Him additional grace; nay, He gains it Himself in coming, because even He desires to please His beloved. He leaps upon the high places, that He may ascend to His Bride. For the chamber of the Bride is the Judgment-seat of CHRIST." He leaps on the Church, He skippeth on the Synagogue. He leaps on the Gentiles, He skippeth on the Jews. Let us behold Him leaping. He leaps from heaven into the Virgin's womb, from the womb into the manger, from the manger into Jordan, from Jordan to the Cross, from the Cross to the grave, from the grave into heaven. And there is an ancient tradition of the Church, that the LORD, in the course of His Ascension, tarried one day with each of the nine orders of the Angelic hierarchy, arriving on the tenth at the right hand of the FATHER, and thereupon sending the HOLY GHOST down on the Apostles. For this reason, they say, it is that the Kyrie Eleison is said nine times in the Mass, and ended with the Gloria Patri. All this, observes S. Gregory, was leaping on the mountains, because beyond man's reach, though for the most part visible to him, and also because surpassing, in the might of His loving-kindness, all that the greatest S. Bernard. Saints have ever done. S. Bernard, pointing out that the Bridegroom is said first to leap over mountains, and then over hills, refers the verse to the humiliation of GOD the SON, passing from His throne in the highest, revealing, as He goes down through the choirs of angels, the wonderful mystery of His love, hidden from all generations. He reaches the mightiest Spirits, still unspeakably below Himself, and passing by them, comes to the lowlier powers, and leaves even these far above Him, made, as He was, lower than the Angels for our sakes, and found in fashion as a man. Not only so, but He is said to leap over the Angels for an In loc. Serm. 53. Ps. xix. 5. other cause also, His far greater eagerness to minister Thrice for us the WORD Incarnate high on holy hills was set, Once to shine and once to suffer, and once more, as King of kings, Ascens. Isa. lii. 7. Again; He leaped over mountains and hills by His Origen. The lonely mountains o'er, A voice of weeping heard and loud lament; Edged with poplar pale, The parting genius is with sighing sent; With flower-in woven tresses torn The nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn. Theodoret. Milton, Hymn on the Nativity, 182. He comes leaping also to holy souls, not only to those S. Ambros. more perfect ones, like His Apostles, who are lofty in Ps. cxix. and strong as mountains, rooted deep in love, and kissed by the first rays of the sun; but also to the lowlier hills which court His presence. 66 Behold, He cometh, not upon the plains, nor upon the valleys, but leaping upon the mountains. If thou be a mountain, Cassiodor. Origen. Ps. cxxi. 1. Acts ix. 36, marg. Aponius. Lyranus. He leapeth on thee. He leaps on Isaiah, He leaps on The Jeremiah, He leaps on Peter, John, James. mountains are round about Him. If thou canst not be a mountain, if thou art not strong enough for that, be at least a hill, that CHRIST may go up on thee, and if He pass, let Him so leap over thee, that the shadow of His transit may be thy safeguard." And another Saint reminds us that the Bridegroom is said to leap, and to leap over the hills, to teach us that though He comes often to His Saints, yet that the sweetness of internal contemplation is very brief and rare for each one even in the case of those most advanced in holiness, because we are weighed down with the burden of the flesh. He comes leaping to us as we study Holy Scripture, appearing in passage after passage on the hills of the Old Testament, and the loftier and more conspicuous mountains of the New. And in this sense we may take that saying, "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence is my help.” Like a roe or a young hart. For roe the LXX. reads dopкádi a doe. And because this word is derived from dépкw, "I see," by reason of the animal's large and beautiful eyes, Origen tells us that CHRIST is compared to it because He comes to us in contemplation, and that He is like a young hart, because the stag hates and destroys serpents, and thus figures the active Saints who imitate their LORD in making war upon evil. There is a crowd of other yet more fanciful interpretations, amongst which it is unnecessary to specify more than two, which seem really to illustrate the words, to wit, the swiftness of the creatures named, and their delight in climbing among the mountains, symbolising the working of CHRIST in the soul; and the harmlessness of the young hart, which has not yet put out its horns, denoting the gentleness of the SAVIOUR. Behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, showing himself through the lattice. This wall, observes De Lyra, is that thick darkness in which the Law was given on Sinai, through which pierced the lightning-flashes from the hidden glory of GOD. CHRIST Incarnate stood, notes another, as though behind our wall, because the Godhead lay hid in our humanity. And because human weakness could not endure His infinity, were He to disclose it, He interposed the barrier of flesh, and whatever great work He wrought among men, He did as though hiding behind a wall. He who looks through windows and lattices, is partly seen and partly hides himself: so too our LORD JESUS CHRIST, when He was working miracles by divine power, and enduring insults in the weakness of the flesh, looked forth as it were through windows and lattices, because while hiding Himself in one way, He showed in another way who He was. S. Greg. M. grin. Theodoret. Again, He stands behind our wall, that is, our sin Cassiodor. and fleshly weakness prevent us from seeing Him constantly, and yet He gives glimpses of Himself, by making, as it were, openings in that wall whereby we can contemplate Him partially. This is the wall to Card. Hailwhich Hezekiah turned his face and wept, because he 2 Kings could not yet behold his SAVIOUR. The windows xx. 2. whereat we see Him, observes a Greek Father, are our powers of understanding, chiefly exercised when we pray or read Holy Scripture, and as we are so engaged, we see Him at intervals. And whereas the LXX. word for lattice is nets, the same Father tells us that it is just when we are in the midst of temptation and snares that we see CHRIST's Face shining on us through Origen. the meshes, to bid us be of good courage, for He is at hand to free us. Another, remembering how S. Paul describes that mid-wall of partition which stood between Jew and Gentile till the Passion, tells us that Philo Carp. the wall is the Law, which hid CHRIST altogether under type and shadow. The windows, which gave fitful glimpses of Him, are the Prophets; and the lattices, through which He looks out (LXX.) denote the Apostles, who had seen Him in the body, and were able to preach His full revelation. S. Epiphanius, how- nius. ever, not very dissimilarly, takes the chief Messianic Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel, to be these windows. S. Bernard applies the words windows and lattices very touchingly to the weaknesses and suffer- S. Bernard. ing of our mortal bodies, as though gaps and crevices Serm. 56. in a ruinous wall, and tells us that through these same windows of His own human Body the LORD looked out on suffering mortality, and learned to share and pity its deepest sorrows. The Chaldee paraphrase helps us to another deep mystical meaning, applying, as it does, the verse to the LORD looking through the windows of S. Epipha the Israelites in Egypt as they slew the Paschal Lamb, sprinkled its blood, and ate its roasted flesh with bitter Corn. à Lap. herbs. So the LORD JESUS looks out steadfastly on faithful souls from behind the wall of the species of Bread and Wine in the Holy Eucharist, showing Himself in part to them even there, as they feed on Him in faith, and gives them joy with the light of His counS. Just. Org. tenance. And again, they remind us how His love Cantacu zene. Isa. lix. 2. looked out upon us through the lattices of those Five Wounds He bore for us upon the Cross. The time will at last come when our wall shall be swept away, and all, especially sin, which now hinders us from beholding CHRIST face to face, shall vanish. Our sins separate between us and GOD. Would there were no barrier against me save that of the body, exclaims S. Bernard, and the sin which is inherent in the flesh, and not many another source of evil besides. I fear that besides that sin which is of my nature, I have added many, very many, of my own unrighteousness, whereby I have driven the Bridegroom too far from me, so that were I to speak truly, I should confess rather that He stands behind several walls than behind Ps. xviii. 29. one. But it is written, "With the help of my GOD I shall leap over the wall." Till that blessed time come, Nic. Argent. We may pray in the language of a devout writer: "O my Beloved, Thou standest behind the wall of my mortality, blindness, and sloth, and I cannot see Thee, nor love Thee, as I would. Look upon me, then, through the lattices of all the powers of my soul, that I may know and love Thee as much as Thou vouchsafest. Look at me also, sometimes, through the windows, through those partial images of Thyself in my soul. So, though I cannot see Thee perfectly and wholly, yet I may ever in part behold Thee more clearly, and love Thee more truly, when and how far Thou willest, that I may thus learn by experience that Thou standest behind my wall, looking at me through the windows, and gazing on me through the lattices, and that no barrier parts Thee and me save that wall of mortal flesh, after whose dissolution I may see and know Thee perfectly, even as I am now known unto Thee." 10 My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. |