SONG of songs
2: 8-14 - Our Hearts Swell
There is hardly a more powerful emotional reaction than when we draw near to the ones we love the most. Love itself is not an emotion; it is an act of giving one’s entire self for another. Still, love will begin to reveal itself through emotions, and these emotions are immediately powerful. They are so powerful that we can be blinded into believing that love is only that which we experience emotionally. Love is so much greater than this because it is the way in which we can emulate God best. It is the method by which we actively choose to be closer to God rather than to sin. If it were simply an emotion, then it would be impossible for us to love those who we may not like or who we may not always want to be around.
However, we should not disregard strong emotions as human folly because they still serve as a powerful reminder of the essence of love. When we see someone draw near to us who we want to be around, this powerful emotion will kick in and it will be recognized at once. Romantic love is often the clearest expression of this emotion. There is a reason why so many stories, movies, television shows, and novels include a love interest: we react to this type of love in a very emotional way. Even the Bible includes an entire book that is considered romantic literature. The Song of Songs is a back-and-forth between two lovers expressing their love for one another and a deep longing to be in the company of the other. Unlike movies, television shows, or novels, this romantic literature was not thrown in the Bible to keep the average reader emotionally invested; there is a profoundly theological expression of what it means to be human in this book. This back-and-forth is an allegory to the relationship between humans and God. The reason why it is expressed in the context of a romantic love is because humans have always known that it is the most emotionally powerful expression of the ardent desire for another that is only perfected in a total, self-giving love.
What we can learn most about true love from romance, and what the Song of Songs expresses so clearly, is that when the one who we love approaches, our hearts swell with a mixture of excitement, wonderful nervousness, and pure joy. When we grow tired of the company of our loved ones, or when we become frustrated or angry with them, we can recall how we felt when they first approached us, and the emotional beauty of love presents itself to us again. When we know we must love those who are difficult to love, the joyfulness of a swelling heart empowers us to spread love beyond those who are easy to love. As our own God soon approaches us, our hearts swell with that emotional expression of love. We can only imagine how great God’s heart swells when we choose to approach Him.
Leaping Toward Each Other
An appropriate and often underused approach to the season of Advent is to consider it a time to prepare for Christ’s second coming, not just a commemoration of his birth. Throughout Advent, we read some truly uncomfortable prophecies and visions of what it will look like when Christ does come back; from the prophets Isaiah and Daniel to the book of Revelation, we are told that Christ’s return at the end of time will be a final purge of sin and death. If sin and death still exist in any way at that time, then this purification of heaven and earth will be truly cataclysmic. Christmas might be a time for rejoicing and delighting in the birth of our Savior, but Advent can, and sometimes should, be intimidating. We ought to purge our own individual selves of sin before he comes again rather than to be caught up in the purging of the world’s sin.
On the third Sunday of Advent, known as Gaudete Sunday, we set aside the focus on penance to some extent in order to focus on the rejoicing that is to come. Even outside of the season of Advent, this ought to remind you of that spirit of taking the time out of a time for penance in order to focus on the rejoicing: our Savior is soon at hand! How can this not be cause for celebration? While it’s true that we are in need of a penitent heart and a detachment from sin, we do not do so merely for self-mortification; rather, it is an act of love trying to perfect the way we love the one who loves us. This excitement for our Savior is symbolized by the act of leaping. In the beautiful Song of Songs, the beloved speaks about her lover as a gazelle or a young stag leaping across the hills. The Jews knew that the Song of Songs was not just love poetry, but a conversation between God and His chosen people. Christ is the lover who leaps across the hills in order to meet the one he loves, his bride, the Church, us. To leap is to be unable to contain the joy within one’s heart and the excitement of what is yet to come. He leaps towards us simply to share a message of comfort: “the winter is past, the rains are over and gone. Let me see you, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and you are lovely.” These are the words Christ has for us.
Beautifully, Christ leaps towards us, but it is far more appropriate that we ought to be leaping toward him. After all, he is our Savior, our King, and our God. Fortunately, humanity was blessed to have proper representatives to meet God when He came down to earth in the form of a human being: present at his royal reception was the Virgin Mary as His bearer, Elizabeth, and John the Baptist in his mother’s womb. The Virgin Mary cradled and comforted the child Jesus within her womb while Elizabeth emulated the beloved in Song of Songs, appreciating the sweet voice of the God-bearer as a sign of God’s nearness. But it was John, before experiencing any element of this world besides the love of his mother, who recognized God made man. It was he, even in his mother’s womb, who knew just how exciting this moment was for the world: our Savior was near, far nearer than we realized. And he communicated this with a leap. On behalf of humanity, he leapt towards Christ just as Christ leaps towards us. We will soon meet our God face to face, and that moment will be marked with Him comforting us, and us glorifying Him. For now, though, we leap in excitement - our Savior is near.