| Song of Songs 2:8-14 View Readings | Psalm 33:2-3, 11-12, 20-21 Luke 1:39-45 |
Throughout the church year, we do not read very often from the Song of Songs, yet this book has been the favorite of many great Saints. The Song of Songs has been called “the Great Love Story between God and the Soul”, yet, it is the only book of the Bible that never once mentions the name of God. But when you read it, with the eyes of faith, you find God everywhere, in the symbolism of this book’s poetry, and song-like dialogues.
Song of Songs is a series
of love poems about a Bride and her Groom.
The traditional Jewish interpretation identifies the Groom as the God
and the Bride as the people of Israel.
Early Christian interpreters understood the Groom as Jesus and the Bride
as the Church. Especially in light of
Saint Paul who refers to the Church as the Bride of Christ several times. In just a few short verses, we realize that
the Bride and Groom in the Song of Songs are passionately in love.
The Song of Songs is very
appropriate for Advent. For as two lovers
joyfully anticipate being in each other’s presence, and call out to each other,
and desire each other, so the Church joyfully awaits Christ.
God is so passionately in
love with us that he is willing to subject himself to humiliation and suffering
for us, he is willing to die for us. This recalls the famous passage of John’s
Gospel: For God so loved the world that he gave* his only Son, so that everyone
who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
I hope your advent
preparations have helped you encounter this God who loves you. For we know how easy it is to let all the
busyness and preoccupation with the materialistic aspects of Christmas obscure
the celebration of God’s love for sinful mankind.
Amidst the distractions of
these busy days, we need more time in quiet prayer, not less, that we may
encounter the God who loves us, who empties himself to come to us.
Hark! my lover–here he
comes
springing across the
mountains,
leaping across the hills.
Rejoice, the Lord is
coming to meet us. Let us open our arms and hearts to Him for the glory of God
and salvation of souls.
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