I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine: he feeds his flock among the lilies.
Read Chapter 6
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Thou. Christ again commends his Church, which is well composed of distinct orders, some governing, others retired from the world, and the rest exercising works of mercy, amid its troubles, who altogether form a complete army, terrible to all her enemies. (Worthington)
Jerusalem. Which was then one of the finest cities in the east. (Calmet) The Catholic Church resembles the heavenly Jerusalem. (Theodoret)
Terrible. So great is the power of love, (Romans viii. 35.) in the martyrs, and of the Church, against infidels! (Calmet)
She is lovely to Christ, and terrible to the wicked. Even her spouse is wounded by her glance. (Menochius)
He is, indeed, your true bridegroom. He is also your brother. He is likewise your friend. He is your inheritance. He is your reward. He is God and the Lord. You have in him a bridegroom to love: “For he is fair in beauty above the sons of men.” … He is a friend of whom you need not doubt, for he himself says, “You are my only lover.” You have in him the inheritance that you may embrace, for he is himself the portion of your inheritance. You have in him the reward that you may recognize, for his blood is your redemption. You have in him God by whom you may be ruled, the Lord to fear and honor. - "The Training of Nuns, Preface"
So long as Christ wishes there to be one church of all nations, whoever is a stranger to the church is not considered a part of the body of Christ, even though he uses the name of Christian. That heresy which rejects the unity of the Catholic church is to him a concubine and not a wife, in that it loves Christ with an adulterous love, since Scripture says that there are actually two in one flesh, that is, Christ and the church, in which there is no third place for a harlot. “One is my friend, one is my bride, only daughter of her mother.” Of whom, likewise, the same church speaks, saying, “My lover belongs to me, and I to him.” - "Homily on the Triumph of the Church"
