THE TWO DEGREES OF PERFECTION WITH WHICH THIS COMMANDMENT CAN BE KEPT IN THIS MORTAL LIFE
While the great King Solomon, still possessing the Spirit of God, was composing the sacred Song of Songs, he had, as was allowed in those times, a great variety of women and young ladies dedicated to his service in various conditions and in different capacities. For
1. There was one who was his unique friend in a very special way, all perfect and all rare, like a singular dove with whom the others could not be compared. For this he called her by his own name, Sulamitess.
2. He had sixty who had the first rank of honour and esteem after her and were called queens.
3. There were, moreover, eighty ladies who were not truly queens but had a close relationship with him as honourable and recognized friends.
4. There were young ladies without number kept ready in reserve, as in a nursery, to be put in the place of the preceding as they dropped out.
Now, in the image of what was going on in his place, Solomon described the various perfection of persons who in the future would adore, love and serve the great King of Peace, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Among them there are those who are newly freed from their sins and firmly resolved to love God. They are, nevertheless, still novices, apprentices, tender and weak. They love indeed the divine goodness but with a mixture of so many other different affections. Their sacred love is still as it were in its infancy. They love, along with our Lord, many superfluous, vain and dangerous things. A phoenix, newly hatched from its ashes, still having small, tender feathers and in its first attempts can only make short flights in which it should be said to jump rather than to fly. So also these tender, young persons, newly born from the ashes of their penance, cannot as yet soar on high or fly in the open air of sacred love. They are held captive by a large number of bad inclinations and evil habits which the sins of their past life have left them. Nevertheless, they are living, animated and prepared with love, and love that is true, otherwise they would never have forsaken sin. But it is a love that is still weak and young, surrounded by many other loves. It is therefore unable to produce as much fruit as it would if it possessed the heart completely.
Such was the prodigal son when he left the disgusting company or the herd of swine among which he had lived. He came into his father’s arms, half-naked, completely dirty, soiled and smelling of the filth he had received from these vile beasts. For what is it to leave the swine if not to turn away from sin? And what is it to return all ragged, tattered and smelling but to have the affection still weighed down by habits and inclinations which lead to sin? Yet he still had the life of the soul which is love. Like a phoenix reborn from its ashes, he found himself newly raised to life. He was dead, his father said, and is come to life again (Lk 15:32). He has revived.
Such persons are called young maidens in the Song of Songs because having become aware of the odour of the name of the Spouse, who breathes only salvation and pardon, they love him with a true love. This love, however, is like themselves in its tender youth. Young girls truly love their husbands if they have one. But they do not stop loving greatly rings and trinkets, and their companions with whom they amuse themselves too much in playing, dancing and foolish actions. They occupy themselves with little birds, little dogs, squirrels and such other play things. So these persons, young and novices, truly love the sacred Spouse but with a large number of voluntary distractions and amusements. Thus though they love him above all things, they continue to occupy themselves with many things which they love not according to him but besides him, apart from him and without him. Indeed, though little irregularities in words, in gestures, in clothing, in pastimes and foolish actions are not properly speaking against the will of God, yet they are not according to it but apart from it and without it.
But there are persons who, having already made some progress in the love of God, have cut off all the love they had for dangerous things. Nevertheless they continue to have dangerous and superfluous loves. This is because they love excessively, and with a love too tender and passionate, what God wants them to love. God willed that Adam should love Eve tenderly. Yet not so tenderly that to please her he should violate the order given him by his Divine Majesty. He did not then love what was superfluous or in itself dangerous, but he loved superfluously and dangerously. The love of our parents, friends and benefactors is in itself according to God, yet we can love them too much. So also our vocations, though spiritual they may be, and our practices of devotion (which anyway we ought to love greatly), can be loved immoderately. This happens when we prefer them to obedience or to a more general good. Or when we love them as if they were our last end, while they are only means and helps to our final goal which is divine love.
These persons who love nothing but what God wants them to love, yet are immoderate in their loving, truly love the Divine Goodness above all things but not in all things. The very things they are not only permitted but commanded to love according to God, they do not love solely for God’s sake but for motives and reasons which, though indeed not contrary to God, are quite apart from God. These persons resemble the phoenix which, having got its first feathers and begun to grow strong, already soars freely in the air, but does not as yet have enough strength to remain long on the wing, often coming down to earth to rest there. Such was the poor young man who, having kept God’s commandments since his youth, did not desire his neighbour’s goods, yet clung too eagerly to those he had. That is why when our Lord advised him to give them to the poor, he became sad and melancholy (Mt 19:20-22; Lk 18:21-23). He loved nothing but what it was lawful for him to love. Yet he loved it with a love that was excessive and too attached.
It is plain, Theotimus, that these persons love too ardently and excessively. Still they do not love unnecessary things but only what may be loved. For this they are entitled to the favours of the heavenly Solomon, that is, the unions, the recollections and the repose of love discussed in books V and VI. However, they do not enjoy them in the quality of spouses. The excess with which they love good things prevents them from frequent entry into these divine unions with the Spouse. They are occupied and distracted in loving away from him and without him that which they ought not to love but in him and for him.