Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Ambrose on the Song of Songs

Comment on 8:1-4

What are the breasts of the church except the sacrament of baptism? And well does he say "sucking," as if the baptized were seeking him as a draught of snowy milk. "Finding you without," he says, "I shall kiss you," that is, finding you outside the body, I embrace you with the kiss of mystical peace. No one shall despise you; no one shall shut you out. I will introduce you into the inner sanctuary and hidden places of Mother Church, and into all the secrets of mystery, so that you may drink the cup of spiritual grace.

Ambrose, Consolation on the Death of Emperor Valentinian, 75 in J. Robert Wright, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: OT IX (Downers Grove: IVP, 2005), 362.

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