St. John of the Cross Poetry Reflection Part 4 The Spiritual Canticle

BRIDEGROOM

The bride has entered
The sweet garden of her desire
And she rests in delight,
Laying her neck on the gentle hands of her beloved.

Beneath the apple tree;
There I took you for my own,
There I offered you my hand,
And restored you where your mother was corrupted.

Soft-winged birds, lions, stags and leaping roes,
Mountains, lowlands and riverbanks,
Water, winds and ardor,
Watching fears of night;

By the pleasant lyres
And the siren's song,
I conjure you
To cease your anger
And not touch the wall,
That the bride may sleep in deeper peace.

Christ, the bridegroom, responds to his bride. He is fulfilling the bride's deepest desire, of which she spoke of at the end of her discourse in the last reflection "as she rests in delight in the sweet garden of her desire." The imagery St. John of the Cross uses to describe this is very intimate, at the level which is only found within the context of marriage.

The bride "lays her neck in the gentle hands of her beloved." In terms of the active purification of the soul, he is accomplishing this in her by this very action. St. John places the horrific, but redemptive act of Christ on the cross in claiming his Church as his own in the context of a beautiful scene where the bridegroom offers his hands to the bride and takes her as his own under an apple tree, perhaps a beautiful wedding under an apple tree where the tree represents the Cross and the apples of the tree representing the fruits of Christ's redemptive act in both man and creation as a whole. Finally, by this redemption, St. John speaks of the chaos of creation turning into song, the "pleasant lyres and siren's song" praising and giving glory to God in thanksgiving for what he has done to redeem the entire created universe.