The ways of the elect are hedged up with thorns when they find the pain of piercing in that which they desire in this world. He obstructs, as it were by interposing a wall, the ways of those whose desires the difficulty of attainment opposes. Their souls truly seek their lovers but do not find them. They follow malignant spirits but do not gain hold of those pleasures of this world that they desire. It is well added that she says immediately in consequence of this very difficulty: “I will go and return to my former husband, for then it was better with me than now.” For the Lord is the first husband, who united to himself the chaste soul by means of the love of the Holy Spirit. And the mind of each one then longs for him when it finds manifold bitternesses, as thorns in those delights that it desires in this world. For when the mind has begun to be stung by the adversities of the world that it loves, it then understands more fully how much better for it was its former husband. Those who...
Through the prophet Hosea the divine word well expressed God’s concern and providence toward us. He speaks of the image of Jerusalem as a prostitute who is drawn with wicked ardor to the worship of idols. She says, “I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.” The divine condescension replies, with a view to her salvation and not to her will, “Behold, I will hedge in her paths with thorns, and I will hedge her in with a wall, and she will not find her ways. And she will pursue her lovers and not lay hold of them, and she will seek them and not find them, and she will say, ‘I will return to my first husband, because then it was better for me than it is now.’ ” .
