“Who is this that grows like the dawn, As beautiful as the full moon, As pure as the sun, As awesome as an army with banners?”
—Song of Songs 6:10, New American Bible
Love stories are best told with music and poetry, and the best ones sing us with timeless wisdom and beauty. Love stories touch us at such a deep level because when we are caught up in Love, we are most open, most vulnerable, most creative, most generous, most grateful, most full of joy and hope. In short, when we are “in” Love, we are “en-Love,” we are completely saturated with Love. Love cannot be contained within one or two, but most go forth outside the exclusiveness of its initial allure to reach out and transform the wider “We.” Nothing short of the whole universe is involved when Love is the guest of honor.
The Song of Songs, long celebrated as Wisdom literature that found a home in the Greek canon of the Hebrew Scriptures known as the Septuagint, has captured readers’ imaginations for centuries, a paean to love poetry if there ever was one. The call and response format of the Song reflects the dynamic exchange of a Lover (M, as designated below) and Beloved (W, as designated below) and celebrates the sheer mystery and erotic sensuality of mutually desired and consummated love, the truly co-creative exchange of energy that leads to profound union and the potential for new life. Detailed descriptions of the lovers’ physical and spiritual desirability mark this poetry as one of the most lovely and evocative genres in the biblical tradition, despite many attempts to spiritualize and allegorize the overt sexual meaning over the centuries. Fortunately, an incarnational theology saved its root meaning, and readers are still invited into the intimacy of the poetic exchange, even as a reflection within the context of the Church’s Advent preparations. So many sensual images, sounds, fragrances and tastes are borrowed from Earth’s body, because creation itself is the language of Love. Listen to the cadence and feel the charge of energy in the natural metaphors employed:
W I am a flower of Sharon,
a lily of the valleys.M Like a lily among thorns,
so is my beloved among women.W Like an apple tree among the trees of the woods,
so is my lover among men.
In his shadow I delight to sit,
and his fruit is sweet to my taste.He brought me to the banquet hall
and his glance at me signaled love.Strengthen me with raisin cakes,
refresh me with apples,
for I am sick with love.His left hand is under my head
and his right arm embraces me.I adjure you, Daughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles and the does of the field,
Do not awaken, or stir up love
until it is ready.W The sound of my lover! here he comes
springing across the mountains,
leaping across the hills.
My lover is like a gazelle
or a young stag.
See! He is standing behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattices.My lover speaks and says to me,
M “Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one,
and come!For see, the winter is past,
the rains are over and gone.The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of pruning the vines has come,
and the song of the turtledove is heard in our land.The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my beautiful one,
and come!My dove in the clefts of the rock,
in the secret recesses of the cliff,
Let me see your face,
let me hear your voice,
For your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely.”W Catch us the foxes, the little foxes
that damage the vineyards; for our vineyards are in bloom!
My lover belongs to me and I to him;
he feeds among the lilies.Until the day grows cool and the shadows flee,
roam, my lover,
Like a gazelle or a young stag
upon the rugged mountains.—Song of Songs 2
As we celebrate the Holy Season of Christmas when Light and Love incarnate is returning to bring new Life to Earth, may we be unashamedly, completely, unequivocally and with full-throated praise enraptured in the creative Love that brings infinite possibility and new Life to every single day. Here’s to Love! Here’s to Life! Rejoice!
—Laura Weber, Prairiewoods associate director and retreats coordinator