The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the Second Epistle to the Corinthians
Thirdly, be it observed that from this betrothal and union of the soul to God, the fairest offspring are born. Origen ( Horn . 20 in Num. xxv.) thus describes them : “ When the soul, therefore, clings to her Spouse, and listens to His voice, and embraces Him, she doubtless receives from Him seed, even as He said: ' Of Thy fear, O Lord, have I conceived in the womb, and brought forth, and caused on the earth the spirit of Thy salvation.’ Thence will proceed a noble offspring — thence will be born chastity, righteousness, patience, meekness, and charity, and a fair family of all the virtues . . . . But if the unhappy soul forsakes the chaste embraces of the Divine Word, and surrenders herself to the devil’s adulterous endearments, without a doubt she will bring forth children, but they will be such as those of whom it is written : ‘The adulterous children shall be imperfect, and the seed of the wicked shall be destroyed.’ All sins, therefore, are children of adultery and fornication.”
Fourthly, although this espousal is brought about by many virtues, yet the chief agent among them is charity. Charity carries with it towards God all the powers and affections of the soul, so much so that the more charity increases in a soul, the more closely is that soul united to God. Hence those whose souls are on fire with charity, and who are ever exercising themselves in it, enjoy the bliss of betrothal to God and the possession of His nuptial gifts of Divine joys. For charity is a marriage-union, the welding of two wills, the Divine and human, into one, whereby God and man mutually agree in all things. Hence springs familiar intercourse between the soul and God, hence spring peace and a wondrous delight of the soul. So great becomes the thirst for the Divine love that all other affections of the soul are absorbed in it and lost in God. S. Bernard (Serm. 38 in Cantic.) says : " Such conformity weds the soul to the Word, that, though naturally like Him, she none the less exhibits that likeness in the will, by loving as she has been loved. If then , she loves perfectly , she is wedded to Him. What is more pleasant than this conformity ? what more to be longed for than this charity ? By it it comes to pass that you are not content , O my soul, to rest on human teaching , but you boldly approach the Word , and cling closely to Him , hang lovingly on His lips , and consult Him on everything. You are as bold in your longings as your understanding will allow . Surely this is a holy and spiritual wedding contract. Contract, do I say? — nay, it is an embrace ; for where the same will to have or not have is, where one spirit is made out of two, there there must have been an embrace. Nor need we fear that the disparity of the persons can make this union of wills imperfect, for love knows no fear. Love is self-sufficient : wherever he comes he draws to himself and makes prisoners all the other affections. Therefore she loves what he loves, and knows nought else. There is a bride and there is a bridegroom. What other relation or connection do you seek between them that are wedded than that of loving and being loved?”
If you say that the soul is so far inferior to God in its nature and love as to make it impossible for friendship to exist between them, and much less betrothal and marriage union, all of which can only be between equals, then S. Bernard replies : “ It is true that there is not the same copious flow in the soul that Loves as in Love Himself, in the soul as in the Word, and in the bride as in the Bridegroom, in the creature as in the Creator, any more than there is the same in him that is athirst and the spring that quenches his thirst. But what of that? Are we therefore to lose and see destroyed utterly the devotion of her that is about to wed, the desire of the longing soul — the eagerness of the lover, the confidence of one that boldly draws near— just because a dwarf cannot run on equal terms with a giant, because sweetness cannot rival honey, gentleness cannot compare with a lamb, whiteness with the lily, brightness with the sun, charity with Him who is charity? No, for though the creature's love is less because it is itself less, yet if it loves with all its might, it withholds nothing, and its love is entire. Therefore have I said, ‘So to love is to be wedded already,’ unless any one doubt that the soul is first loved and more loved by the Word. But truly He prevents and surpasses the soul in love. Happy the soul that has merited to be prevented with the blessings of goodness."
Fifthly, it follows that this espousal is most perfectly brought about by vows of chastity and religion. S. Augustine (Tract. 9 in Johan.) says : “ They who vow to God virginity, although they may hold a higher position of honour and dignity in the Church, yet are they not without nuptials ; for they belong to those nuptials in which the whole Church is united to Christ as her Bridegroom ." And the reason is, that as a bride gives her heart and all her goods to her husband, so does a virgin, or a religious, consecrate herself and all that she has to Christ. Hence religion is called and is a state of perfection, or of perfect charity. Moreover, as a bride in contracting matrimony says: “I take thee for mine,” so does a religious say: “I vow to God poverty, chastity, obedience,” and by these she is bound to Christ as a wife to her husband. Hence Tertullian (de Veland. Virgin, c. 16) says: “ Thou hast been wedded to Christ, thou hast committed to Him thy body ; thou hast betrothed to Him the bloom of thy life ; walk , therefore, according to the will of thy Spouse." For this reason S. Jerome (Ep. 27) dared to call the mother of a virgin consecrated to God, “ God’s mother-in-law,” and for this he was found fault with hypercritically by Ruffinus. A ring used to be given to virgins, in token that by it they were betrothed to Christ. “ He gave me a ring,” says S. Agnes (Ambrose, Serm. 90), “as an earnest of my betrothal to His faith.” For this virgins were given veils, even as those who are married to husbands, and that solemnly, by priests, on appointed days alone, as Gelasius says (ad Episc. Lucanice, c. 14), and Optatus Milevit. (lib. 6). He says : “ Spiritual wedlock is of this kind. In will and profession they had already come to be betrothed to their spouse ; and to show that they had abjured all secular nuptials, they had cut off their hair for their spiritual Bridegroom, and had already celebrated their heavenly nuptials.” Ambrose (ad Virg. Lapsam) says : “ She who has betrothed herself to Christ, and received the sacred veil, is already wedded, is already united to an immortal husband; and if she now wishes to marry under the common law, she commits adultery , and is made the handmaiden of death.” S. Cyprian too (Ep. 62) calls such lapsed virgins adulteresses. From all this it is evident, whatever Marloratus may say, that the Church applies this passage of the Apostle to virgins, and reads it as the Epistle in the Mass of Holy Virgins.
Let these virgins ponder this, and recognise their dignity, so as to religiously keep these nuptials pure, and give themselves wholly to their one Bridegroom, Christ. S. Jerome says to Eustochius: “ Hear, O daughter , and consider , and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people and thy father’s house , and then shall the King take pleasure in thy beauty . It is not enough for thee to leave thy land, unless thou also forget thy own people and thy father's house, and, despising the flesh, yield thyself to the embraces of thy spouse . You will say perhaps : ‘ I have gone from the house of my shame ; I have forgotten the house of my father ; I am bom again in Christ. What reward for this am I to receive?’ It tells you : ‘So shall the King have pleasure in thy beauty!’ This then is a great sacrament: therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cling to his wife , and they twain shall be not one flesh but one spirit. Thy Spouse is not haughty ; He has married an Ethiopian woman. As soon as you desire to hear the wisdom of the true Solomon and come to Him, He will tell you all that He knows ; He will as a King lead you into His chamber, and thy colour being wondrously changed, the words will apply to you , 1 Who is this that cometh up all white?’ . . . The bride of Christ is, like the Ark of the Covenant, covered within and without with gold, the guardian of the law of the Lord. As in it there was nothing save the tables of the law, so in thee let there be no other thought. Over this mercy-seat, as upon the cherubim, the Lord wills to sit. The Lord wishes to set you free from earthly cares, that leaving brick and straw of Egypt, you may follow Moses in the wilderness and enter the Promised Land. Whenever in your virgin breast there rages anxiety about earthly business, immediately the veil of the temple is rent in twain, your Bridegroom rises in wrath and says: ‘ Your house is left unto you desolate ' . . . Do thou once for all cast aside every burden of the world, sit at the feet of thy Lord, and say : ‘I have found Him in whom my soul delighteth ; I have held Him fast ; I will not let Him go.’ He will answer: ‘My dove , my undefiled , is but one .’ Let the secret places of thy chamber ever keep thee , let thy Spouse ever play with thee within . When thou prayest thou speakest to thy Spouse. When thou readest He speaks to thee ; and when sleep oppresses thee. He will come behind the wall ; and when thou art awakened thou wilt say : ‘I am sick with love,’ and in return thou wilt hear Him say : ‘A garden enclosed is My sister, My spouse.’ ”