A Spiritual Canticle and The Living Flame of Love

The Bride

Where hast Thou hidden Thyself

Why hast Thou forsaken me in my groaning, O my Beloved?

Thou didst fly like the hart, away,

When Thou hadst wounded me.

Iran after Thee, crying; but Thou wert gone.

Explanation

Here the soul, enamoured of the Word, the Son of God, the Bridegroom, desiring to be united to Him in the clear and wk substantial vision, sets before Him the anxieties of its love, complaining of His absence. And this the more so because, now pierced and wounded with love, for which it had abandoned all things, even itself, it has still to endure His absence, unreleased from the burden of the flesh, unable to enjoy Him in the glory of eternity. Hence it cries out, ‘ Where hast Thou hidden Thyself?’ .

It is as if the soul said, Show me, O thou Word, my Bridegroom, the place where Thou art hidden. It asks for the revelation of the Divine Essence; for the place where the Son et of God is hidden is, according to S. John, ‘ the bosom of the Father,’ the Divine Essence, transcending all mortal vision, and concealed from all human understanding, as the Prophet saith, Verily Thou art a hidden God.’ Remember, then, that the communications and sense of His presence, however great they may be, and the most sublime and profound conceptions of God which the soul may have in this life, are not God essentially, neither have they any affinity with Him, for in very truth He is still hidden from the soul; and it is therefore expedient for it, amid all these grandeurs, always to consider Him as hidden, and to seek Him in His hiding place, saying, ‘ Where hast Thou hidden Thyself?’

Neither sublime communications nor sensible devotion furnish any certain proof of His gracious presence; nor is the absence thereof, and aridity any proof of His absence from the soul. ‘If Hecome to me, I shall not see Him; if He depart, I shall not understand.’ That is, if the soul have any great communication, or impression, or spiritual knowledge, it must not on that account persuade itself that what it then feels is to enjoy or see God clearly and in His Essence, or that it brings it nearer to Him, or Him to it, however deep such feelings may be. On the other hand, when all these sensible and spiritual communications fail it, when it is itself dried up, obscured, and abandoned, it must not on that account suppose that God is far from it; for in truth the presence of these things is no sign of its being in a…