The Fountain of his Lips: Desire and Divine Union in Gregory of Nyssas Homilies on the Song of Songs

Laird, M. S. (Martin S.)

Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality, Volume 7, Number 1, Spring 2007, pp. 40-57 (Article)
Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press

For additional information about this article

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/scs/summary/v007/7.1laird.html

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rereading the classics

The Fountain of His Lips: Desire and Divine Union in Gregory of Nyssas Homilies on the Song of Songs
Martin Laird

he whole world is not worthy of the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all the Scriptures are holy, but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies.1 These sentiments of Rabbi Akiva resound throughout the Christian tradition, from Hippolytus, Origen, Gregory of Nyssa in Late Antiquity, through Bernard of Clairvaux, William of St. Thierry, John of Ford in the Middle Ages, to J.S. Bachs famous cantata, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, where the two duets that follow the opening chorale are clearly inspired by the same wisdom of Solomon.2 This essay concerns itself with the contribution of Gregory of Nyssa (335395) to this richly varied tradition. Composed in the twilight of his career, Homilies on the Song of Songs is often overlooked by scholars of his exegetical works, but indeed it deserves at least as much attention as his more famous Life of Moses.3 Homilies on the Song of Songs allows the reader to see more clearly than any of his other works how Gregory understands union with God. In Homily One he tells us that union with God is the purpose of the Song of Songs itself. This essay, then, will focus on divine union as the organizing theme of the Homilies and argue that, despite Gregorys neo-Platonically inspired language, his understanding of union with God is thoroughly grounded in his exegesis of Scripture.4 Throughout the course of the essay we will see that human longing is fundamental to the search for God. According to Gregory, the primary purpose of the erotically charged imagery in the text Song of Songs itself, is to train human desire to long for God.5 Moreover, this essay will argue that union with God is something quite dynamic. This dynamism is often called epectasy, but what often goes unnoticed is how this dynamic union between God and the soul (symbolized by the brides union with the Bridegroom) is clearly oriented to apostolic mission and service to others. Finally, an examination of the brides dynamic epectasy reveals another characteristic largely overlooked by scholars of Gregorys spirituality; as mature and seasoned in the spiritual life as the bride undoubtedly is, she always feels as though she is just a beginner. Gregory makes an important claim about the nature of religious experience: the person deeply immersed in the ineffable
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Spiritus 7 (2007): 4057 2007 by The Johns Hopkins University Press

mystery of God has no sense of spiritual accomplishment or acquisition and yet is suffused by an abiding sense of newness and inner vastness. Scripture takeS the Bride By the hand One of the characteristics of scriptural commentaries in Late Antiquity is that their prologues often provide the key to understanding the work as a whole.6 While Gregory of Nyssas fifteen homilies do not, strictly speaking, constitute a commentary,7 Homily One functions as such a prologue by revealing to the reader the purpose of the Song of Songs.8 Through the words of the Song the soul is escorted to an incorporeal, spiritual, and pure union with God.9 Further on, Gregory says that we are initiated into the presence of God, the divine sanctuary, by means of the Song of Songs. What is described there is a marriage; but what is understood is the union of the human soul with God.10 In Gregorys view, then, the purpose of the Song of Songs is to guide the soul to union with God.11 The soul, however, must first be properly trained before it is ready for what the Song has to teach.12 This is precisely the role of the previous two Solomonic books, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Origen informs us that among the Hebrews themselves care is taken to allow no one even to hold this book [the Song of Songs] in his hands, who has not reached a full and ripe age.13 Following the inspiration of Origen, Gregory sees the role of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes as preparing the soul for the training found in the Song of Songs.14 Proverbs trains the soul to desire virtue, and it accomplishes this by praising the beauty of Wisdoms body.15 Ecclesiastes trains desire to long for spiritual beauty; it elevates the loving movement of our soul towards invisible beauty.16 Having been trained by Christ (Solomon is for Gregory a type of Christ) through Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, the soul is made ready for the Song of Songs. Gregory makes extraordinary claims about the text of the Song of Songs. Like Rabbi Akiva and Origen before him, Gregory identifies the Song of Songs with the Holy of Holies itself. After commenting on the significance of the title of this third Solomonic book,17 Gregory says, Now let us enter the Holy of Holies that is the Song of Songs.18 He continues, Those who are led into this books sanctuaries of mystery are no longer human but have been transformed in nature into something more divine by the Lords teaching.19 In Homily Three Gregory says the Song of Songs is a participation in divinity itself. Where then is it found, this Holy of Holies that is caught up in Gods own presence? It is the secret chamber of the heart.20 The bride is led on an inner journey, into the apophatic space of the heart, beyond images and thought.21 To express this apophatic space, in which the bride is both one with God and in solidarity with all, we shall see Gregory employ an array of paradoxes and

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conflated biblical images.22 They all serve the pedagogical purpose of leading the soul into the inner sanctuary of the heart that is the Holy of Holies. For Gregory of Nyssa, the human spiritual journey into God is a journey into the hidden depths of Scripture. In all of this, desire remains fundamental for Gregory and continues to be trained to long ever more deeply for God. The Solomonic booksProverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs serve as guides that train desire to long for God. When Gregory says that the books of Solomon are a philosophy he means that they are philosophical exercises that train and guide the soul, engendering virtue and leading it to God.23 He is not suggesting that the Song of Songs is some sort of manual of instruction for attaining union with God. It is the Word himself, hidden in the words of the text, who serves as guide; through the words of the text, the Word escorts the bride to union. This is a theme Gregory emphasizes again and again throughout the Homilies. In Homily Five he says, We now see the bride being led by the Word up a rising staircase by the steps of virtue to the heights of perfection.24 In Homily Eight, Gregory says the Song of Songs is like a teacher.25 The brides pedagogue is the Word speaking through the bridegrooms voice, which exhorts her in order to stir up her desire for the transcendent.26 The same power of the Word in the act of creation is present in the text of the Song and bids the soul that has advanced to approach; the soul is immediately strengthened at his command and becomes what he wishes, that is, changed into something divine.27 The bride touches the Word who leads her onward.28 If the Word is the teacher who instructs, the guide who takes the bride by the hand, escorting her to union with God, by what means does the Word instruct? 29 For Gregory the means are the evocative images in the Song of Songs. The presence of the Word is hidden in these powerfully evocative images. The role of these images is to entice the soul to fall in love with God. As he puts it in Homily One, The most acute physical pleasure (I mean erotic passion) is used as a symbol in the exposition of this doctrine on love.30 Gregory therefore urges, desire as much as you can. Indeed, fall in love.31 i am Wounded By Love Because Gregory of Nyssa has told us that the purpose of the Song of Songs is to lead the soul to union with God, it should come as no surprise to readers of the Homilies on the Song of Songs that union is a pervasive theme. Indeed it is, and Gregory has a rich vocabulary of union, but one of his characteristics is that he can speak of union without ever using the word.32 Instead he uses imagery to suggest it. Sometimes he will tell us that a particular image signifies union, as he does in Homily Four, for example, when he says that the marriage bed is a symbol of the union of the soul with God.33 But at least

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as often we simply have his richly varied and suggestive imagery that suggests union. Moreover, it is precisely this imagery of union, more than the actual use of technical terminology for union, which yields the deeper insight into the provocative and dynamic understanding of divine union that characterizes the Cappadocian. We see this beautifully portrayed if we look at his interpretation of Song 1:2, Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. This kiss by which the bride is united with the bridegroom (the Word) is likened to a fountain. Explaining what he means by the word: the soul united to God never has its fill of enjoyment,34 Gregory says, The fountain is the bridegrooms mouth; the Lord himself is a fountain as he says: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink (John 7:37), so the thirsting soul wishes to bring its mouth to the mouth that springs up with life and says: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.35 The kiss unites the bride to the Lord, and purges away all filth.36 In this evocative image of the bride placing her lips on the fountain of the Lords own lips, which are welling up with words of eternal life,37 Gregory highlights two characteristics of divine union: its dynamic character and prophetic mission. The brides mouth is filled with words, just as with the prophet when he drew in the spirit through his mouth (Ps. 118:31).38 We shall have more to say about the characteristics of Gregorys notion of union in the section on epectasy below, but for the moment it is sufficient to observe the dynamic character suggested by the flowing fountain of divine presence that fills her; for this union, personal as it is to the bride, is not simply about her: the brides union is rooted in prophetic mission. Her mouth is filled with words of eternal life, like a prophets. Moreover, this flow of union is grounded in exegesis (here Song 1:2; Ps. 118:131; John 7:37). The exegetically grounded, prophetic mission, which results from the bride uniting her mouth with the fountain of his lips, has yet further, indeed dramatic, effects described in Homily Two. Even though Gregory has moved on from his reflections on Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, he yet returns in Homily Two to this image of Christ as fountain. The bride says, And running to you, the fountain, I will drink from the divine stream which you cause to spring up for those thirsting after you. Water pours out from your side and the spear has opened that vein. Gregory conflates the image of Christ as the fountain of living water with the image of the water flowing from the wound at the side of Christ (John 19:34). The Eucharistic and baptismal resonances of these images are obvious. For the present purpose, however, it is important to observe the effect the bride says this has on the person who drinks from this fountain. There is no quenching of thirst, rather, the person becomes the fountain: The person tasting it will become a fountain welling up into eternal life (John 4:14).39 Instead of having her own thirst quenched, the bride, because of her union with Christ, quenches

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the thirst of others. These texts give us insight into how Gregory conceives of divine union. While union is deeply personal for the soul, as a result of this union, the soul takes on, according to Gregory, qualities of the beloved and becomes a mediator of the divine, in this case a fountain of living water.

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St. Herman at St. Michael Skete. Tamie Harkins

The Healing Wound The image of the wound has a certain prominence in the Homilies on the Song of Songs. We saw above how Gregory associated the wound in Christs side with his description of the brides union with the Bridegroom as a living fountain of presence. One of the most sustained and moving treatments of his notion of divine union is found in his treatment of the wound in Homilies Four, Twelve, and Thirteen. In the course of Homily Four Gregory turns to Song 2:4, I am wounded by love. He says the bride utters these words in praise of the archers fine marksmanship. Further, he situates this wound of love in a Trinitarian context: the archer is love, the arrow is the only begotten Son, and the triple pointed tip of the arrow has been dipped in the Holy Spirit.40 Intriguingly, he says the tip of the arrow that has been moistened in the Holy Spirit is faith (about which more later): The tip of the arrow is faith, and by it God introduces the archer
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into the heart along with the arrow.41 The Trinity has wounded and indwells the bride, but far from complaining that this arrow has wounded her, she begins to sing in boastful praise that she has been wounded: I am wounded by love. O beautiful wound and sweet blow by which life penetrates within! The arrows penetration opens up, as it were, a door and entrance for love.42 The same joyful boasting is seen in Homily Twelve, where Gregory comments on the verse, They smote me, they wounded me (Song 5:7). Here the bride is wounded by the guards, who strike her with a rod. This divine rod is the Spirit, and she describes it as a comforting staff that deals a healing blow.43 The use of oxymoron, such as beautiful wound and sweet blow, is a favorite figure of speech which the Cappadocian uses throughout the Homilies. It is a key literary expression of his apophatic theology, which serves to point to a union beyond the grasp of discursive reason.44 Here the union is expressed in the language of the indwelling of the Trinity. It is typical, however, of Gregorys descriptions of divine union that he does not stop here. Earlier we saw the bride unite her lips to the fountain of the bridegrooms lips. As a result, she herself becomes the fountain. We see something quite similar in Homily Four. As a result of having been pierced to the heart by the arrow that is the Son, the bride herself becomes the arrow: she now sees herself as the arrow in the archers hand.45 This characterizes many of Gregorys descriptions of the brides union with God; she takes on qualities ascribed to the divine. Above it was a fountain; in this case an arrow. Suddenly the hands of the archer holding the arrow turn into the arms of the bridegroom, and the arrow is now the bride held by her beloved. Gregory states, God is both the bridegroom and the archer.46 Why does Gregory make this apparently random move? Indeed it is not so random. The scriptural verse that Gregory is commenting on itself changes from arrow imagery to nuptial imagery: I am wounded by love. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand will embrace me (Song 5b6). The bride is now both arrow and object of the beloveds embrace. Gregory has simply followed the change of imagery in the text. This exemplifies the exegetical shape of his understanding of divine union and allows him to conflate the two images of the bride in order to emphasize the double face of union. Both bride and arrow, she is shot forth by the bridegroom/archer as a living arrow, addressing as she ascends the daughters of the heavenly Jerusalem. The richness of the brides speech invites us to listen to her in full: His right hand receives me and draws me back, easing my journey upward where I am directed without being separated from the archer. Simultaneously I am shot forth and am at rest in the hands of the archer.47 Once again we see this coincidence of opposites which indicates the non-discursive nature of the brides transfiguration. Further, we see the dual aspect of Gregorys understanding of divine union: as bride she is at rest in the

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arms of the bridegroom, but as arrow she is in apostolic mission, instructing less advanced souls in the way of perfection.48 Gregorys understanding of divine union stresses both the personal dimension and its overflow into the life of the community. The efficacy of the brides mission in the church is grounded in her union with God who indwells her. Homily Thirteens commentary on the wound reveals similar insight. The wounds of love are beautiful,49 says Gregory, commenting on Song 5:8, If you should find my Beloved, tell him I am wounded with love. As in Homily Four the bride has been wounded by the archers arrow but intriguingly she does not keep this union to herself: The bride in turn is inflamed with love and reveals the shaft of love deeply placed in her heart, for this represents communion with God. For God is love, penetrating the heart by the barb of faith.50 The bride manifests the shaft of the wounding arrow for all to see, and Gregory draws attention to the effect this manifestation has on her companions: they implore her, Teach us by what signs this unseen lover can be found, that we may know him by the shaft of love which wounded your heart and intensified your desire for him through sweet pain.51 The Divine Night In Homily Four we saw Gregory ascribe to faith a precise and intriguing role: the arrow tip of faith mediated divine presence. Gregory has at times a rather exalted notion of faith. Above and beyond the understanding of faith as something to which one gives creedal ascent, Gregory will sometimes use the term faith as a faculty of apophatic union.52 In the Homilies on the Song of Songs, this understanding of faith as a faculty of union is tied most closely to one of Gregorys signature themes, the divine darkness.53 Homily Six provides the clearest example of this, where the bride unites with the bridegroom by the grasp of faith.54 Let us recall that for Gregory the faculty of desire is placed in the soul to create longing.55 The spiritual pedagogy of the Song of Songs is precisely to train the soul by showing it provocative images so that it might long for union with God, who is beyond all concepts and images.56 One such image is the marriage bed, which, as we have seen, is a symbol of union. In fact the brides escorts describe the marriage bed to the bride precisely because they want to excite in her the desire for the divine immaculate marriage.57 But this bed also symbolizes all the training she has had and the progress she has made, and so she proclaims I am resting upon the bed of all I have understood.58 This journey has led her deeper than what she can perceive by the senses and so she must let go of all sensual perception. As she does this she proclaims, I am embraced by the divine night, and I seek him hidden in the cloud. Then did I love my desired one even though he escaped my thoughts.59 It is important

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to observe in these passages that the letting go of knowledge based on thoughts and feelings does not bring an end to her desire for the bridegroom, indeed it liberates her desire to love him more, even though the bridegroom cannot be grasped by thoughts and feelings. When Gregory speaks of this need to let go of knowledge based on sense perception he is not disparaging the latter. He is simply saying that desire goes deeper than thoughts and feelings can go. This depthand here it is an epistemological depthhe clothes in the language of darkness suggested by the scriptural passage he is commenting on, I sought him on my bed at night (Song 3:1). After forsaking all manner of knowing, the bride moves to a depth of realization she has not previously known. She realizes that her sought-after love is known only in her impossibility to comprehend his essence.60 The Beloved is known only in unknowing. It is precisely here, in the darkness of unknowing, that the bride grasps what cannot be grasped: having forsaken every manner of comprehension, I found my beloved by faith.61 Again we see Gregory turn to his much loved paradoxes to express what is beyond words, concepts, and images. This coincidence of opposites, of forsaking and finding, knowing and unknowing, at rest on the bed of understanding and yet searching the divine night that embraces her, characterizes Gregorys rich understanding of the depths of the life of faith in which the soul and God find each other. As in the other examples of union we have seen, however, Gregory does not content himself with focusing only on the brides experience of union. Again we see him draw attention to the effects of the brides union with God on others. The bride, as though filled with compassion, turns to her attendants and speaks lovingly to the daughters of Jerusalem. Her words have the same effect on them that the Bridegrooms words had on herher speech causes them to seek the Beloved: the daughters rise to an equal measure of love so that the bridegrooms will might be fulfilled in them.62 For Gregory of Nyssa, union with God, personal as it is, is not private to the soul. It has implications in and for the wider community. the BrideS epectaSy More than any other aspect of Gregorys doctrine on the spiritual life, epectasythe souls perpetual growth in Godhas come to be seen as the unique feature of his spirituality. The term epectasy was coined by Jean Danilou to highlight Gregorys way of describing how desire for God is not ended by the experience of God, but expands in perpetual self-forgetfulness and longs for God ever more deeply.63 As with many of Gregorys doctrines, the exegesis of Scripture gives its final shape to his thought, and epectasy is no exception. Gregory grounds his notion of the souls perpetual growth towards God in Philippians 3:13, forgetting what lies behind but straining forward

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(epekteinmenos) to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of Gods upward calling in Christ Jesus. Gregorys development of Pauls insight into a fundamental characteristic of the spiritual life is usually seen as a counterweight to Origens view that the fall of the soul was due to satiation or boredom in contemplating God.64 Over against this, Gregory developed his view that the experience of God can never satiate the soul, but causes desire for God to grow. While indeed Origens ideas may have underlain Gregorys understanding of epectasy, the latter develops them much further. 65 Grounded in an ontology of desire, the concept of epectasy pervades the Homilies on the Song of Songs.66 But even more characteristic of Gregory is the way he describes the implications for religious awareness of one whose desire for God is increased, rather than satisfied, by the experience of God. As we shall see, even though the bride enjoys the fullness of spiritual perfection, she always feels as though she is just at the beginning of her journey into God. This paradox of the accomplished beginner serves Gregorys conviction that spiritual life is always new. This beginners mind characterizes one who is mature in the spiritual life.67 The Kisses of Moses Given the importance of Homily One in the Homilies as a whole, it should come as no surprise to see the theme of epectasy announced already here. Commenting on Song 1:1, Gregory conflates Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth with Moses meeting God face to face, recounted in Deuteronomy 34:10. By means of this conflation of images Gregory suggests that Moses kisses God. The union symbolized by this kiss does not bring an end to Moses desire for God. Rather, Moses thereby acquired a still greater desire for these kisses after the theophanies. He sought God as if he had never seen him.68 For Gregory the experience of Moses is a prototype which can be applied to all people who encounter God: So it is with all others in whom the desire for God is deeply embedded; they never cease to desire, but every enjoyment of God they turn into the kindling of a still more intense desire. Even now the soul united to God never has its fill of enjoyment. The more it enjoys, the more its desire for [God] increases.69 For Gregory, one can never get enough of God. Seeing God face to face, placing ones mouth on the fountain of the Words lips, increases the capacity to enjoy God. Such are the kisses of Moses. The bride is the accomplished beginner par excellence. In Homily Five Gregory shows us the bride being led by the Word up a rising staircase by the steps of virtue to the heights of perfection.70 It would seem she could not grow beyond this. Indeed Gregory says, The bride at this point partakes in the good as much as she can.71 But suddenly he reverses it all. Clearly the bride has tasted the good, but Gregory says, Then the Word starts to draw

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her to participate in a higher beauty, as if she had never tasted it. Thus, as she progresses her desire grows with each step. And, because there is always an unlimited good beyond what the bride has attained, she always seems to be just at the beginning of her ascent.72 The bride is at the fullness of perfection and yet still moves into God. Progress doesnt end her desire, but makes it grow with each step. While she has long savored the good, each new encounter is as though she has never tasted it before. The brides companions, moreover, seem to notice this about her epectasy, and the brides searching for the beloved rouses in her maiden companions the same desire to know him, and so they implore her: tell us of your beloved and of his nature . . . that we may know him by the shaft of love which wounded your heart and intensified your desire for him through sweet pain.73 The companions likewise know that desire is intensified not by absence but by the overflowing presence of God. There is no hint of frustration in these divine encounters of Moses or the bride.74 There is no sense of dissatisfaction that their communion with God expands with each new encounter. This is simply what happens when a finite creature encounters the eternal God. Gregory presents a brief sketch of this ontology of desire in Homily Six. For Gregory, to be human is to be grounded in paradox. To be human is to be finite and at the same time to participate in the transcendent. This establishes the human being as a sort of paradox, a soaring stasis, an ever-moving repose.75 Gregory draws out the implications of this for the soul: it is always being created while ever changing for the better in its growth in perfection . . . . However, its present state of goodness, even if especially great and perfect, is only the beginning of a more transcendent better stage.76 In Homily Five Gregory claims that the more the soul participates in God the more she recognizes that God transcends her as much as before.77 As in nearly every aspect of his thought, Gregory grounds his doctrine of epectasy in his reading of Scripture. Paul has provided the ontological clue to the epecstatic nature of human longing for God. The Apostles words are thus verified: the stretching out to what lies before is related to forgetfulness of earlier accomplishments (Phil. 3:13).78 This constant growth in perfection has nothing to do with desire being frustrated or inadequate (given adequate training) to finding and communing with God; it is simply the implication of the union of finite being with an infinite God. And Paul has provided the Scriptural key to it all: After hearing the unutterable mysteries of paradise, Paul still continued to move higher and did not cease to ascend.79 A grounding paradox undergirds Gregorys notion of epectasy, created beings participation in the divine infinity. This is why in Homily Four the bride is simultaneously at rest in the arms of the beloved and shot forth like an arrow. Or in Homily Five why the bride is called a dove because of the heights

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of perfection she has reached, while at the same time bidden to become a dove once again by being transformed into something better.80 The epectasy of desire is like the basin of a fountain constantly being filled and as constantly overflowing. The being filled and the overflowing are simultaneous; receiving and letting go are different aspects of the same act.

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Exeter Cathedral. Ren Bakker

Beginners Mind The unending progress and the increasing desire that characterize epectasy do not represent a quantitative increase, where the brides encounter with God leaves her stoking the fires of pursuit ever more intently, while God eludes her ever more tantalizingly. When finite desire meets God it does not consume or grasp, but expands. As a result of this expansion or stretching out Gregory says Paul forgot all previous accomplishments.81 Most commentators on Gregory of Nyssa highlight (not without warrant) the implications of this for unending growth in desire and virtue. But at least as often Gregory himself focuses on something else that goes largely overlooked: the interior vastness and newness that perpetually meets the person who is experienced in the spiritual life. Homily One depicts Moses encountering God and then seeking him as though he had never seen him.82 In Homily Five geographical metaphor is used to express this newness: the one who runs to the Lord will always have wide open spaces before him.83 For Gregory there is something about the encounter with God which renders the present moment always new and vast: this is the wide-open space of being. Indeed, this beginners mind characterizes epectasy throughout the Homilies on the Song of Songs.
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The bride always seems to be just at the beginning of her ascent.84 Gregory draws our attention to this in any number of places, often placing it in paradoxical relationship to her undoubted progress in the spiritual life. In Homily One Gregory presents the bride as one who has already progressed to the very goal of the spiritual life, the goal for which the course is undertaken.85 He then summarizes her progress as follows: Now through what she has already achieved, she has passed to a more interior part of the mysteries with her mind, and she cries out that her passage has brought her only to the vestibule of goodness.86 This passage is typical of Gregorys way of describing epectasy. He presents the bride as one who is undoubtedly mature in the spiritual life, but then qualifies this maturity (an advance to the more interior part) by its opposite (the vestibule), but without taking anything away from the brides perfection. It is a coincidence of opposites, which Gregory achieves in Homily One through an architectural metaphor of the Holy of Holies, a metaphor he has already used of the text of the Song of Songs itself.87 The soul-bride has penetrated the sanctuary, but instead of giving us any sense that she is aware of the great spiritual progress she has in fact made, Gregory says she is only aware of being at the very entrance. From the perspective of spiritual realization Gregory likens her to Paul; she is within the innermost sanctuary of paradise, and as the great Paul said, sees things unseen and hears words not to be spoken (2 Cor. 12:4).88 But Gregory does not stop here. In his teaching on epectasy he makes a claim about what happens to religious awareness when it encounters the depths of transcendent mystery. Awareness is met with a sense of vastness, of wide open spaces, of newness, a sense of just starting out. This is the beginners mind that characterizes those who have matured in the mystery of God. Homily Five reveals the same paradox. After summarizing her growth in spiritual maturity, including the scene (described above) of being wounded by the archers loving arrow and then proceeding to become that arrow, Gregory says, I thought that the bride who had been raised up in so many ways had reached the ultimate peak of happiness. It seems, however, the things accomplished earlier were but an introduction to the brides ascent.89 But Gregory is in fact not in the least surprised. The bride is always both spiritual master and beginner. She is master because of her virtue and the depth of her encounter; she is beginner because Gregory is convinced that mature spiritual experience leaves one with an ever deeper sense of being just at the beginning of the spiritual search. The reason for this lies in Gregorys ontology of desire, where finite desire is grounded in infinite being and goodness. The more the soul participates in it, the more she recognizes that it transcends her as much as before.90 The souls awareness of transcendence is not the awareness of an object, as in the act of comprehension, but an awareness of perpetual and vast newness. Precisely because the bride is so adept in the spiritual life it always
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seems to her that she is just at the beginning.91 This is how Gregory extends into the nature of religious awareness the grounding paradox of his ontology of desire. Further insight into why this constant sense of newness, the sense of being just a beginner in the spiritual life, when indeed the soul is quite advanced, is found in Homilies Six and Eleven. Gregory says that the Good, in whom the soul participates, holds the attention of those participating in it while not allowing them to look at the past; by enjoying what is more worthy, their memory of inferior things is blotted out.92 The sense of always being a beginner in the spiritual life is not due to lack of maturation, much less because God recedes the more God is sought, but because when God is encountered thoughts of all else fall away, including the awareness of past accomplishments. When the bride communes with God she forgets herself, and with this self-forgetfulness goes all thought of past spiritual accomplishment, all thought of God. Because her ascent is constant, her sense of being a beginner is also constant. In Homily Eleven Gregory wonders yet again why the brides progress is without end. To lead us away from a linear notion of progress to a sense of expansive awareness and perpetual newness Gregory cultivates a metaphor from the garden of Eden. If anyone happened to be near the fountain which Scripture says (Gen. 2:6) rose from the earth at the beginning of creation, . . . he would approach it marveling at the endless stream of water gushing forth and bubbling out. Never could he say that he had seen all the water.93 The point Gregory is pursuing is that such a person would always behold the water as for the first time, for the water never ceases to gush forth. In the same way, the person looking at the divine, invisible beauty will always discover it anew since he will see it as something newer and more wondrous in comparison to what he had already comprehended.94 Just as the source of the fountain remains always hidden underground, so Gods essence remains hidden to comprehension, but what can be perceived and comprehended, the fountain as it gushes forth, seems to the bride unending, inexhaustible, constantly new. concLuSion Union with God is the unifying theme, the cantus firmus, of the Homilies on the Song of Songs. Other themes, such as the spiritual senses, virtue, the luminous dark, divinization, apophatic and kataphatic knowledge, phases of spiritual ascent, are all grounded in the theme of union announced clearly in Homily One as the purpose of the Song of Songs. The sojourns of the bride reveal an understanding of divine union that is exegetical, dynamic, and deeply ecclesial. The exegetical character of union is seen first and foremost in the fact that the brides guide is the Word itself hidden in the words of Scripture. The Word

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trains the soul through the philosophical exercises of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, to lead it finally into the sanctuary of divine presence, the Song of Songs. Gregorys notion of union is exegetically shaped by metaphors drawn from the whole of Scripture. Kisses, arrows, wounds, and fountains from the Song of Songs are combined with Moses speaking face to face with God (Deut. 34: 10), Christ the living fountain (John 7: 37), the water flowing from the wound at the side of Christ (John 19: 34), and all to powerful literary and theological effect. The effect is often achieved through paradox and conflation and serves effectively Gregorys dynamic view of union. When the bridegroom kisses the bride with the fountain of his lips, she herself becomes a fountain. When the arrow of divine love wounds her, she herself becomes an arrow, shot forth even while at rest in the arms of the beloved. For Gregory union has a double face. The brides union is at once deeply personal (since she is a vessel of the indwelling presence of God), and yet she becomes immediately a vehicle of prophetic mission. She is one with the fountain and becomes a fountain, quenching the thirst of others. She is indwelled by the wounding arrow of love, while preaching stirring words to the daughters of Jerusalem as she is shot forth in apostolic mission. Gregorys dynamic view of divine union is seen above all in his notion of epectasy. Union with God does not bring an end to desire, but, freeing desire from its compulsion to grasp, it allows it to expand perpetually in self-forgetful love. Among all the efforts by scholars to describe the brides epectasy, there is perhaps none more perceptive than that of J.S. Bach. In the first of the two duets that follow the opening chorale-fantasia of Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, the bride and bridegroom are in dialogue.95 She cries out, Come Jesus. He replies I am coming. As the two voices in dialogue finally unite she holds her longing plea Come Jesus, while Jesus cries simultaneously and, now, from within her, I am coming. Bachs famous cantata gives voice with great perception to what Gregory of Nyssa means by the epectasy of the bride. Union with God does not satiate her desire but liberates, sustains, and enlarges it. noteS
1. Rabbi Akiva, Tosefta Sanhedrin 12, 10, quoted in Marvin H. Pope, Song of Songs: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, The Anchor Bible 7C (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1977), 19; see also U. Neri, Il Cantico dei Cantici: Targum e antiche interpretazioni ebraiche (Rome: Citta Nuova Editrice, 1976). 2. For a sense of the broad sweep of this exegetical tradition see Jean-Louis Chrtien, Symbolique du corps: La tradition chrtienne du Cantique des Cantiques (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2005); Richard A. Norris, ed. and trans., The Song of Songs: Interpreted by Early Christian and Medieval Commentators (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003); see also E. Ann Matter, The Voice of My Beloved: The Song of Songs in Western Medieval Christianity (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990). For a recent in-depth study of Origens important commentary and homilies, with wide

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3.

4.

54

5.

6. 7.

8.

9.

10. 11.

12.

13.

14.

implications for all commentaries on the Song to follow, see J. Christopher King, Origen on the Song of Songs as the Spirit of Scripture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). The Homilies on the Song of Songs is dated usually between 385 and 392. On dating, occasion, and audience see J. Cahill, The Date and Setting of Gregory of Nyssas Commentary on the Song of Songs, Journal of Theological Studies, NS 32 (1981): 447460; Franz Dnzl, Gregory von Nyssas Homilien zum Canticum auf dem Hintergrund seiner Vita Moysis, Vigiliae Christianae 44 (1990): 371381. Apart from some neoplatonically inspired vocabulary and modes of expression characteristic of the philosophical koine of the day, Gregory of Nyssas reliance on Plotinus, or on Neoplatonism in general, should not be over emphasized. See Anthony Meredith, Gregory of Nyssa and Plotinus, Studia Patristica 17 (1982): 11201126 and John Rist, Plotinus and Christian Philosophy in The Cambridge Companion to Plotinus, ed. L. Gerson (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 386413. Elsewhere I have studied in greater detail the training of desire in the Homilies on the Song of Songs. See Martin Laird, Under Solomons Tutelage: The Education of Desire in the Homilies on the Song of Songs, Modern Theology 18 (2002): 507525. The present essay should be seen as a companion piece to that one, but with more focus on union and less on the education of desire. See Angelo di Berardino and Basil Studer, eds., M. OConnell, trans., A History of Theology: The Patristic Period (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1997), 301302. In his critical edition Langerbeck entitles Gregorys work, Commentarius in Canticum canticorum, but the collection of writings are better viewed as homilies. For a discussion of the question of genre see Franz Dnzl, Braut und Brutigam: Die Auslegung des Canticum durch Gregor von Nyssa (Tbingin: J.C.B. Mohr, 1993), 716, especially 10. I do not consider the prefatory letter addressed to Olympias, which Gregory later attached to his collection of homilies, to function as the prologue. Homily One serves this purpose. Homily One, 43 (15, 1315). All references to the Homilies on the Song of Songs will be made in the following manner: First, the homily and page number of the English translation, followed by (in parentheses) the page and line numbers of the critical edition. The English translation is Casimir McCambley, trans., Commentary on the Song of Songs, The Archbishop Iakovanos Library of Ecclesiastical and Historical Sources 12 (Brookline, MA: Hellenic College Press, 1987). The Greek critical edition is Hermann Langerbeck, ed., Commentarius in Canticum canticorum (Leiden: Brill, 1960). Homily One, 47 (22, 1823, 1). Throughout the Homilies on the Song of Songs, the bride can signify either the soul or the Church. One has to be attentive to the context. On occasion, the bride can be understood as referring to both the soul and the Church at the same time. This essay shall focus on the bride as soul, emphasizing the ecclesial nature and mission of her union with the bridegroom. For a more sustained treatment of the specifically apophatic pedagogy which Gregory provides, see Martin Laird, Under Solomons Tutelage: The Education of Desire in the Homilies on the Song of Songs, 507525. Origen, Commentary on the Song of Songs, Prologue, 1, 7, in R.P. Lawson, trans., The Song of Songs, Commentary and Homilies, Ancient Christian Writers 26 (New York: Newman Press, 1957), 23. Gregory acknowledges his indebtedness to Origen in the prefatory letter attached to the Homilies. As inspired as Gregory is by Origen, he feels quite free to diverge from or develop theological ideas quite independently of Origen (such as we shall see below in the discussion of epectasy). On important convergences and divergences between Gregory and Origen see Franz Dnzl, Die Canticum-Exegese des Gregor von Nyssa und des Origenes im Vergleich, Jahrbuch fr Antike und Christentum 36 (1993): 94109; Ronald Heine, Gregory of Nyssas Apology for Allegory, Vigiliae Christianae 38 (1984):

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15. 16.

17.

18. 19. 20. 21. 22.

23.

24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29.

30. 31. 32.

360370; Anthony Meredith, Origens De Principiis and Gregory of Nyssas Oratio Catechetica, Heythrop Journal 36 (1995): 114; Roberto Placida, La presenza di Origene nelle Omelie sul Cantico dei Cantici di Gregorio di Nissa, Vetera Christianorum 34 (1997): 3349. See Homily One, 4546 (18, 722, 7). Homily One, 47 (22, 1415). Gregory has a series of homilies on Ecclesiastes. See Stuart G. Hall, ed., Rachel Moriarty, trans., Gregory of Nyssa: Homilies on Ecclesiastes: An English Version with Supporting Studies, Proceedings of the Seventh International Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa, St. Andrews, September 510, 1990 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1993). To comment on the significance of the title of the book was a standard way to begin a commentary; see Angelo di Berardino and Basil Studer, eds., A History of Theology, 301302. Homily One, 48 (26, 1112). Homily One, 50 (29, 1316); translation altered. Hilda Graef, trans., On the Lords Prayer, Homily Three, Ancient Christian Writers 18 (New York: Newman Press, 1954), 46. The phrase is that of Graham Ward, Allegoria: Reading as a Spiritual Exercise, Modern Theology 15 (1999): 271295 at 286287. On the role of paradox see Mariette Canvet, Grgoire de Nysse et lhermneutique biblique: tude des rapports entre le langage et la connaissance de Dieu (Paris: tudes Augustiniennes, 1983), 340342; Jean Danilou, Platonisme et thologie mystique: Essai sur la doctrine spirituelle de Grgoire de Nysse, 2nd ed. (Paris: Aubier, 1953), 274284; Franz Dnzl, Braut und Brutigam, 390. Homily One, 44 and 46 (17, 11 and 22, 8), Gregory uses the term philosophy in the ancient sense of spiritual training in the life of virtue. By the fourth century Christianity had absorbed much of this into its ascetical and exegetical vocabulary. See Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life, trans. M. Chase (Oxford: Blackwell, 1985), 126144; Quest-ce que la philosophie antique? (Paris: Gallimard, 1995), 355378 and 381387; I. Hadot, The Spiritual Guide, in A. H. Armstrong, ed., Classical Mediterranean Spirituality (New York: Crossroad, 1986), 436439. Homily Five, 119 (158, 1921). Homily Eight, 164 (252, 15). Homily Eight, 163 (249, 24). Homily Eight, 165 (253, 1316); translation altered. Homily Twelve, 219 (357, 12). Gregory uses a range of vocabulary to express the bride being led. Most important among these is cheiragogo, lead or, literally, lead by the hand. On cheiragogo see Innocenzo Gargano, La Teoria di Gregorio di Nissa sul Cantico dei Cantici: alcune indicazioni di metodo esegetico (Rome: Institutum Studiorum Orientalium, 1981), 2301, 21112; Mariette Canvet, Grgoire de Nysse et lhermneutique biblique, 5758; Alessandro Cortesi, Le Omelie sul Cantico dei Cantici di Gregorio di Nissa: Proposta di un itinerario di vita battesimale (Rome: Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum, 2000), 72, 224. Homily One, 49 (27, 58). Homily One, 47 (23, 89). Norman Russell is hesitant to see union with God as an explicit theme in Gregory of Nyssa. This view seems to be based on Gregorys infrequent use of the term hensis. See Norman Russell, The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 232, n. 35. However, Gregory has a wide vocabulary of divine union apart from hensis (for example, ankrasis, koinona, kollo, mxis, sunpto, sneimi, suzuga) and a likewise rich palette of imagery of union that he uses even when no technical vocabulary of union is used. Perhaps Russell follows too closely

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33.

34.

56
35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40.

41. 42. 43. 44.

45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53.

54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61.

the views of Ekkehard Mhlenburg, Die Unendlichkeit Gottes bei Gregor von Nyssa: Gregors Kritik am Gottesbegriff der Klassischen Metaphysik, (Gttingen, 1966); for a more nuanced view see Charles Kannengiesser, LInfinit divine chez Grgoire de Nysse, Recherches de Science Religieuse 55 (1967): 5565; more recently see Martin Laird, Gregory of Nyssa and the Grasp of Faith: Union, Knowledge, and Divine Presence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 101103. Homily Four, 94 (109, 1). See Mariette Canvet, Grgoire de Nysse et lhermneutique biblique, 244; Alessandro Cortesi, Le Omelie sul Cantico dei Cantici di Gregorio di Nissa, 9496; Franz Dnzl, Braut und Brutigam, 114. Homily One, 51 (32, 5). For a recent and intriguing study of the significance of the kiss from the perspective of ritual theory, see Michael Philip Penn, Kissing Christians: Ritual and Community in the Late Ancient Church (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005). Gregory of Nyssa (whose works are mistakenly listed in Penns bibliography under Gregory Nazianzen) uses the kiss in wider senses than Penn indicates on 158. Homily One, 51 (32, 1233, 2). Homily One, 51 (33, 45). Homily One, 51 (32, 1314); translation altered. Homily One, 51 (32, 1415). Homily Two, 67 (62, 67); translation altered. Franz Dnzl, Braut und Brutigam, 375, sees a baptismal allusion in this image. For the rich philosophical and theological background to the connection between eros and the heart see Catherine Osborne, Eros Unveiled: Plato and the God of Love (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), especially 7174. Homily Four, 103 (127, 1416). Homily Four, 103 (128, 15). Homily Twelve, 223 (365, 8366, 5). Hermann Langerbeck, Zur Interpretation Gregors von Nyssa, Theologische Literaturzeitung 82 (1957), 83; Mariette Canvet, Grgoire de Nysse et lhermneutique biblique, 342. Homily Four, 103 (128, 13); translation altered. Homily Four, 103 (129, 34). Homily Four, 104 (129, 1216); translation altered. Homily Four, 104 (GNO VI, 131, 78). Homily Thirteen, 232 (377, 20). Homily Thirteen, 232 (378, 1418); translation altered. Homily Thirteen, 232 (380, 36). For a study of faith and its role in Gregorys apophatic theology see Martin Laird, Gregory of Nyssa and the Grasp of Faith. However, Gregory should not be over-identified with this theme; see Martin Laird, Gregory of Nyssa and the Grasp of Faith, chapter 7, The Luminous Dark Revisited, 174204. See also Annaliese Meiswrmer, Die Verborgenheit Gottes im Hohenliedkommentar Gregors von Nyssa und ihre Rezeption durch Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita, Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 77 (2001), 73107. Homily Six, 131 (183, 9). Homily Four, 99 (119, 56). Martin Laird, Under Solomons Tutelage, 517. Homily Six, 134 (190, 23). In Homily One, 47 (22, 2923, 1), Gregory tells us that marriage means divine union. Homily Six, 131 (181, 1112). Homily Six, 131 (181, 1316). Homily Six, 131 (183, 23). Homily Six, 131 (183, 78).

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62. Homily Six, 132 (184, 1415). The special type of discourse that occurs in apophatic context has been termed by Laird logophatic and examined in detail in Gregory of Nyssa and the Grasp of Faith, chapter 6, Christ Speaking Himself: The Logophatic Discourse of Paul and the Bride, 154173. 63. See Jean Danilou, Platonisme et thologie mystique, 291307. For a recent survey and assessment of the critical reception of Danilous path breaking study see Bernard Pottier, Le Grgoire de Nysse de Jean Danilou, Nouvelle Revue Thologique 128 (2006), 258273. 64. On the relationship between Origen and Gregory on satiation see J. Warren Smith, Passion and Paradise: Human and Divine Emotion in the Thought of Gregory of Nyssa (New York: Herder & Herder, 2004), 106115. 65. Indeed Origen presents in Homilies on Numbers, 17:4, a view of eternal contemplation that harmonizes well with what Gregory will develop. See Brian Daley, The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook of Patristic Eschatology (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 50. 66. On Gregorys ontology of desire see Smith, Passion and Paradise, 202216. 67. There is no intended allusion to Shunryu Suzukis famous, Zen Mind, Beginners Mind. 68. Homily One, 51 (31, 1232, 1). 69. On Gregorys use of Moses see Jean Danilous classic Mose exemple et figure chez Grgoire de Nysse, Cahiers Sionens 24 (1955), 386400. 70. Homily Five, 119 (158, 1921). 71. Homily Five, 119 (158, 45). 72. Homily Five, 119 (159, 511); translation altered. 73. Homily Thirteen, 232 (379, 16380, 6). 74. It was Hans Urs von Balthasar who long ago thought the frustration of desire underlay the doctrine of epectasy; see Prsence et Pense: Essai sur la philosophie religieuse de Grgoire de Nysse (Paris: Beauchesne, 1942), 76; Claudia Desalvo counters von Balthasar in, L oltre nel Presente: La filosofia delluomo in Gregorio di Nissa (Milan: Centro di Ricerca di Metafisica, 1996), 242, n. 36. 75. See Smith, Passion and Paradise, 214216. 76. Homily Six, 127 (174, 713). 77. Homily Five, 119 (158, 1719 ). 78. Homily Six, 128 (174, 1416). 79. Homily Eight, 161 (245, 1920). 80. Homily Five, 120 (160, 69). 81. Homily Six, 128 (174, 1516). 82. Homily One, 50 (32, 1). 83. Homily Five, 119 (159, 1415). 84. Homily Five, 119 (159, 1011). 85. Homily One, 54 (39, 20). 86. Homily One, 55 (40, 58). 87. Homily One, 48 (26, 11). 88. Homily One, 55 (40, 1012). 89. Homily Five, 109 (138, 69). 90. Homily Five, 119 (158, 1719). 91. Homily Five, 119 (159, 911). 92. Homily Six, 128 (174, 1720). 93. Homily Eleven, 201 (321, 712). 94. Homily Eleven, 201 (321, 1519). 95. The texts author, Phillipp Nicolai, has suffused to marvelous effect the New Testament story of the wise and prudent virgins (Matt. 25: 113) with the bride from the Song of Songs; see Malcolm Boyd, ed., Oxford Composer Companions: J.S. Bach (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 501.

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