Holy Desire

Christians are told that God is the source of all love, that God is love, and that we should love God. In our time, that love is usually described as the love a child has for a parent. But 900 years ago, the Christian monk Bernard de Clairvaux had another idea. He had been studying the Song of Songs, the Bible’s only erotic poem. To Bernard, this poetic tale of a young Black woman waiting for her lover is a metaphor for the Soul’s relationship with God:

"Among all the natural endowments of man love holds first place, especially when it is directed to God, who is the source whence it comes. No sweeter names can be found to embody that sweet interflow of affections between the Word ( God) and the soul than bridegroom and bride. Between these all things are equally shared, there are no selfish reservations, nothing that causes division. They share the same inheritance, the same table, the same home, the same marriage bed, they are flesh of each other's flesh.… Therefore if a love relationship is the special and outstanding characteristic of the bride and groom, it is not unfitting to call the soul that loves God a bride. "

To Bernard, the soul yearns for a relationship with God, even while our conscious minds may be more focused on worldly desires, like money, food and reputation. But deep within us all there is a soul, a piece of the divine, which desires union with God. Bernard imagines it as a total surrender, the spiritual equivalent of what lovers experience in an erotic embrace. 

Bernard wrote this in 1135, just before the Pope declared that priests and monks were expected to be celibate. This edict was proclaimed to discourage the sexual activity and marriages of priests, monks and nuns. So Bernard knew that many of the men and women who would hear his sermons had experienced sexual joy. He encouraged them to imagine their souls yearning for union for God in a non carnal, yet equally intense way. That coming together of the human and the divine was the greatest experience a person could ever have, and like sexual pleasure, was often fleeting. This metaphor has fallen out of favour in our time. It is possible that the enforced celibacy of the Catholic clergy made this erotic metaphor too uncomfortable for priests to discuss with congregations. But for people who have embraced sexual liberation, is it time for this metaphor to have a come back? Peace. 

-Rev. Stephen Milton, Lawrence Park Community Church, Toronto

Source: Bernard de Clairvaux, Sermon 7 on the Song of Songs, 2.

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