Song 5 | CPDV | STEP | Bride: May my beloved enter into his garden, and eat the fruit of his apple trees.

Song of Solomon 5

Christ calls his spouse: she languishes with love: and describes him by his graces.

1 Bride: May my beloved enter into his garden, and eat the fruit of his apple trees. ^{▼▼5:1The bride welcomes the groom and wants him to take refreshment in his garden. The word ‘dilectus’ is in the masculine, so this is the bride speaking about the groom. +The Church seeks the Return of Christ, for the garden of the whole world is His and He may eat from every tree therein.(Conte)
,} ^{▼▼5:1 Let my beloved come into his garden, etc: Garden, mystically the church of Christ, abounding with fruit, that is, the good works of the elect.(Challoner)}
2 Groom to Bride: I have arrived in my garden, O my sister, my spouse. I have harvested my myrrh, with my aromatic oils. I have eaten the honeycomb with my honey. I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends, and drink, and be inebriated, O most beloved. ^{▼▼5:2The groom has arrived in his garden and has taken refreshment there. He also invites all his friends and his beloved bride to take refreshment there also. + Christ arrived in the garden of this world at His Incarnation. He harvested the myrrh of His bitter Passion. He has bestowed the aromatic oil of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. He has rejoiced in the sweet holiness of His Church. He has provided His Church with the Sacrament of the Eucharist to eat and to drink and to be inebriated with grace. The Christ invites the faithful to be refreshed by the Sacraments.(Conte)}
3 Bride: I sleep, yet my heart watches. The voice of my beloved knocking: ^{▼▼5:3The bride is so anxious for the arrival of the groom, that her heart keeps watch, even while she is asleep. +The Church sleeps and slumbers, awaiting Christ, yet her heart still seeks him in the night.(Conte)}
4 Groom to Bride: Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my immaculate one. For my head is full of dew, and the locks of my hair are full of the drops of the night. ^{▼▼5:4The groom asks the bride to let him in. He extols her purity and her beauty. It is night and he is suffering because of the night. +The Christ asks the faithful of the Church to let him into their hearts at any time and at all times. He seeks those who are peaceful and immaculate. Christ returns at a time of metaphorical darkness in the world, but He returns to bring the world refreshment, like the dew of Heaven.(Conte)
,} ^{▼▼5:4 My beloved put his hand through the key hole, etc: The spouse of Christ, his church, at times as it were penned up by its persecutors, and in fears, expecting the divine assistance, here signified by his hand: and ver. 6, but he had turned aside and was gone, that is, Christ permitting a further trial of suffering: and again, ver. 7, the keepers, etc., signifying the violent and cruel persecutors of the church taking her veil, despoiling the church of its places of worship and ornaments for the divine service.(Challoner)}
5 Bride: I have taken off my tunic; how shall I be clothed in it? I have washed my feet; how shall I spoil them? ^{▼▼5:5The bride is reluctant to get up and to get dressed; she is reluctant to dirty her feet. +The faithful of the Church are not always ready to let Christ into their hearts. When Christ returns, many will not be ready.(Conte)}
6 My beloved put his hand through the window, and my inner self was moved by his touch. ^{▼▼5:6At the first sign of the arrival of her beloved, at the first glimpse of him, she is moved to her inmost being. She watches for him through the window, and at the first sign of him, she is deeply moved. +At the first sign of the Return of Christ, the Church and all its faithful shudder to their very souls and are moved in their inmost selves.(Conte)}
7 I rose up in order to open to my beloved. My hands dripped with myrrh, and my fingers were full of the finest myrrh. ^{▼▼5:7The bride gets up to let her beloved in; her hands are covered with myrrh (used as an ointment for its fragrance and healthful properties). +The Church opens to Christ. The myrrh represents the bitter Passion and Crucifixion of the Church, in imitation of the Passion and Crucifixion of Christ.(Conte)}
8 I opened the bolt of my door to my beloved. But he had turned aside and had gone away. My soul melted when he spoke. I sought him, and did not find him. I called, and he did not answer me. ^{▼▼5:8The groom departs unexpectedly. The bride seeks him and calls to him, but he does not answer. She does not understand why he has departed. +In one sense, Christ is at the very doors of each person’s heart, accessible and ready to enter. In another sense, Christ is ineffable and unreachable, for no mere human person can understand fully the Son of God. The Church seeks Christ and His truth, but She does not always find every truth right away; God permits the Church to search for truth over time, before arriving at what is sought.(Conte)}
9 The keepers who circulate through the city found me. They struck me, and wounded me. The keepers of the walls took my veil away from me. ^{▼▼5:9The guardians of the city, who circulate through its streets, come across the bride. They strike her because she is out late at night, wandering the streets, and they mistake her for an intruder in the city, or a thief. They remove her veil, with which she shielded her face from the cold and damp of the night, in order to identify her. +The keepers of the walls are the secular authorities, who do not recognize the members of the Church as citizens of their city, but treat them like outsiders, as if they were a threat. They prevent will prevent nuns from wearing the habit, monks from wearing their robes, and priests from wearing their collars. They will take away the veil that devout women wear to Mass by taking away the Mass (but not entirely).(Conte)}
10 I bind you by oath, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, announce to him that I languish through love. ^{▼▼5:10The bride seeks the help of other women of the city, to find her beloved. She uses the masculine ‘dilectum,’ so this is the bride speaking about the groom. + The religious and clergy of the Church are bound by their vows to Christ. They are bound by their vows to pray to him about the distress of the faithful, who languish in love for God. The faithful seek the help of the religious and clergy in finding Christ in their lives.(Conte)
,} ^{▼▼5:10 My beloved, etc: In this and the following verses, the church mystically describes Christ to those who know him not, that is, to infidels in order to convert them to the true faith.(Challoner)}
11 Chorus to Bride: What kind of beloved is your beloved, O most beautiful among women? What kind of beloved is your beloved, so that you would bind us by oath? ^{▼▼5:11The women inquire about the groom. They know that she loves him, but they do not fully understand why. +Those who are immature in the faith, and those outside the visible Church, inquire of the Church as to why the Church loves Christ and seeks to do his will.(Conte)}
12 Bride: My beloved is white and ruddy, elect among thousands. ^{▼▼5:12The word ‘candidus’ can also mean radiant, or innocent, or pure. The word ‘rubicundus’ could also be translated as ‘reddened.’ The bride describes the groom as white, whereas she described herself previously as black. +The Christ is pure and innocent and radiant with love; he is reddened with the blood of his sacrifice on the Cross. Christ is God; He is holiness and purity itself. By comparison, the holiness of the Church seems like blackness.(Conte)}
13 His head is like the finest gold. His locks are like the heights of palm trees, and as black as a raven. ^{▼▼5:13The bride describes the appearance of the groom, but her description reveals her insights into his inner self. The gold of his head represents his trustworthy leadership and his pure love. +The Church describes the Christ; his external features reveal his inner sanctity. His head is called gold because He is pure in love and the perfect leader. His heights are tall and black, signifying that complete knowledge and understanding of Christ is unreachable and unknowable.(Conte)}
14 His eyes are like doves, which have been washed with milk over rivulets of waters, and which reside near plentiful streams. ^{▼▼5:14His eyes are peaceful; they show his mildness and generosity. A number of Old Testament rituals involved ‘living waters,’ i.e. running waters, similar to this verse. +The eyes of Christ show his mercifulness and love. He is pure; so pure that he is not merely like a dove, but like a dove washed with milk over pure running waters.(Conte)}
15 His cheeks are like a courtyard of aromatic plants, sown by perfumers. His lips are like lilies, dripping with the best myrrh. ^{▼▼5:15The groom is compared to a garden of plants used to produce perfumes, incense, and medicinal remedies. Perfumers would prepare various ointments, which were healthful as well as fragrant. +Myrrh symbolizes suffering, because it is bitter, and prayer because it is used in incense, which rises up toward the heavens like prayer. The Christ has lips of myrrh because he teaches us to pray and to accept sufferings.(Conte)}
16 His hands are smoothed gold, full of hyacinths. His abdomen is ivory, accented with sapphires. ^{▼▼5:16The word ‘tornatiles’ refers to gold that has been worked, to smooth and shape it. The brides description of him is increasingly metaphorical, because as she considers what she knows about his exterior, she begins to understand his inner self increasingly well. +Such is the way with the Church and the Christ. The Church considers all she knows about Christ and so attains to even further insights into His Divine and human natures.(Conte)}
17 His legs are columns of marble, which have been established over bases of gold. His appearance is like that of Lebanon, elect like the cedars. ^{▼▼5:17The cedars of Lebanon were once among the greatest forests in the known world. The wood of their cedars was among the finest wood in the world. +The Church extols the greatness of Christ, which is deeper than the deepest forest, and purer than the finest gold.(Conte)} His throat is most sweet, and he is entirely desirable. Such is my beloved, and he is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. ^{▼▼5:18The bride realizes the depth of her love for the groom by meditating on his appearance and his inner qualities. She realizes he is both a friend and a love. +Christ’s teachings are sweet to those who are sweet, and bitter to those who are bitter. His words console the heart and mind. He is the desired of nations. He is the friend of the faithful. Seek him and know him, if you would be a child of Jerusalem.(Conte)}
Chorus to Bride: Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? To where has your beloved turned aside, so that we may seek him with you? ^{▼▼5:19After hearing her loving description of him, the chorus (maidens or adolescent girls) also begins to love him and seek him. +Those outside the visible structure of the Church, and those immature in the faith, are not ready to be married to the groom (Christ). But upon hearing the teachings of the Church about the Christ, they begin to love him and to seek him.(Conte)}