Evenings With Bede are taken from the Sunday solemn Plainsong Evensong services of Saint Paul’s, New Smyrna Beach, Fla., where I am Rector.
SEASON TWO is devoted to understanding the Song of Songs with Bede as teacher, and yours truly as interpreter. We will go verse by verse through the entirety of the Song of Songs.
The format is a short passage from the Song of Songs, then comes commentary from the Bede, then an interpretive homily by yours truly expounding upon both. The audio for all three is found above. The text of the two passages is found below.
A Lesson from the Song of Songs, 1.1
Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth: for Your breasts are better than wine, the glowing ardor of the best ointments. Your name is oil poured out: therefore young maidens have loved You. Draw me: we will run after You to the odour of thy ointments. The King has brought me into his storerooms: we will exult and rejoice in You, remembering Your breasts more than wine: the righteous love You.
A Lesson from a Treatise by the Venerable S. Bede (page 38)
The synagogue describes the breasts as “the glowing ardor of the best ointments.” The best ointments are the gifts of the Holy Spirit with which the breasts of Christ are glowing, because the holy teachers – namely, the ministers of evangelical milk – excel in love of virtues through the anointing of the Spirit. And surely the ointments with which the prophets and priests were visibly anointed in the law were good, but the best ointments are those with which the apostles and the successors of the apostles are invisibly anointed, concerning whom S. Paul says, “And it is God who has anointed us and has also sealed us and given the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts” (2 Cor 1:21-22); and the apostle John: “And as for you, let the anointing that you received from Him abide in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things” (1 Jn 2:27), and so forth. Again, they are glowing with the best ointments when they pour forth far and wide the report of their good work or preaching, as they themselves say: “Now thanks be to God, who in Christ Jesus always makes us to triumph, and through us manifests every place the aroma that comes from knowing Him (2 Cor 2:14).
Now, she explains why His breasts are glowing with the best ointments when she adds: “Your Name is oil poured out.” For we should not marvel if the members of that ointment give off an odor, since He Himself took His Name from oil, as He was evidently called “Christ,” that is “anointed” – doubtless with that anointing of which Peter says: “How God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power” (Acts 10:38). Surely the Holy Spirit is accustomed to be understood by the name “oil,” as the prophet bears witness when he says in praise of the same Bridegroom: “God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions” (Ps 45). Therefore His Name is oil that is not just dripping but even poured out, because, as His own forerunner (S. John Baptist) says of Him: “God gives the Spirit without measure, for the Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand” (Jn 3:34-35). And not without cause can we consider those among His elect, upon whom He has most bountifully lavished the gifts of His Spirit, to have had oil poured out upon them, just as that grace which was previously kept hidden among the Jewish people alone has now flooded the ends of the whole world in broad daylight, thus fulfilling the prophecy that says: “I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh” (Acts 2:17, Joel 2:28). The apostle Peter explains this when he says: “Being therefore exalted by the Right Hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this gift that you see and hear” (Acts 2:33). Therefore His Name is oil poured out, because it is rightly named after what it is, that is, the one Who is full of the Holy Spirit is rightly named after what He does, which is to anoint the hearts of the elect with the gift of the same Spirit.
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