Who is that coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple tree I awakened you. There your mother was in labour with you; there she who bore you was in labour. Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If one offered for love all the wealth of one’s house, it would be utterly scorned.
From hisCommentary on the Song of Songsby Theodore of Cyrrhus
Our Saviour wishes us to use the Cross as a sign in all our meditations and actions and imprint it as a symbol of himself on everything we do or say, just as the portrait of a monarch is on all genuine royal coinage. It will not be difficult for you to do this, he says, if you continue in your love for me, becauselove is as strong asdeath. As by God’s decree death conquers everything, so too does love overcome all things, proving stronger even than death itself. Think of the Cross as a example to inspire you. If the thought of it remains strong in your hearts, you will refuse to regard anything else as more precious; or to let anything dishearten or discourage you. The sign of the Cross will put you in communion with me.
Many waters, says Scripture,cannot quench love nor can rivers overwhelmit. All the holiest people in the Old Testament as well in the New bear witness to this truth. Abraham’s love for God could not be extinguished by his removing and settling in a foreign land nor by the hardship which poverty and hunger brought nor by the taking away of his wife nor by the sacrifice of his son nor by the dispute about wells. Nor could Isaac’s love be destroyed by the troubles which afflicted him. Nor was Jacob’s love weakened by the unceasing labours and sorrows of his life. What could be more bitter than the trials to which Joseph was subjected? He was sold by his brothers, deprived of the love of his parents and the house of his fathers and forced into slavery. His purity earning him only calumny, he was thrown into prison and subjected to innumerable hardships, yet in all these troubles his love for God shone the brighter.
Then, passing over other saints, the blessed Paul will be enough to demonstrate to us the power of love since he gave more proof of it than anyone else.What can separate us from the love of God?he asks.Can tribulation, hardship or persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger or the sword? As Scripture says, ‘For your sake we are being put to death all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ But in all these trials, he says,we have complete victory because of Christ’s love for us.
Musical Selection(John Michael Talbot)
So I found my beloved in the mountains
On the lonely and far distant isles
O'er resounding waters
I heard the whispering of love's breezes
To heal my broken heart
Oh tranquil evening, silent music
And the sounding solitude of the rising dawn
It is there that I hear You
There that I taste of You
In love's banquet to fill my heart
And I found Your footprints
In the sands by the sea
And like Your maiden
I ran along the way to a secret chamber
And there you gave to me
There you taught me, O so well
And I drank of your sweet spiced wine
The wine of God
And there I gave to You
Keeping nothing for myself
And I promised You forever
To be your bride
So I have abandoned
All I ever sought to be
And in dying
My spirit has been released
Prayer
God of faithfulness,
in your wisdom you have called your servants out of this world;
release them from the bonds of sin,
and welcome them into your presence,
so that they may enjoy eternal light and peace
and be raised up in glory with all your saints.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,