Evenings With Bede is a homily podcast. The episodes are taken from the Sunday solemn Plainsong Evensong services of Saint Paul’s, New Smyrna Beach, Fla., where I am Rector.

SEASON TWO is devoted to understanding the Song of Songs with the Venerable S. Bede as teacher, and yours truly as interpreter. We will go verse by verse through the entirety of the Song of Songs.

The format is a short passage from the Song of Songs, then comes commentary from the Bede, and finally an interpretive homily by yours truly expounding upon both. The audio for all three is found above. The text of the two passages is found below.

A Lesson from the Song of Songs, 1.12

While the King was on His dining couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance. My Beloved is to me a bundle of myrrh that shall lie between my breasts. My Bloved is to me a grape-cluster from Cyprus in the vineyards of Engaddi.

A Lesson from a Treatise by the Venerable S. Bede

Because after the death of our Mediator and Saviour there soon follows the glory of the Resurrection, the Bride rightly says, “My Beloved is to me a grape-cluster from Cyprus in the vineyards of Engaddi.” Surely the meaning of this little verse according to the surface of the letter is this: “Just as the island of Cyprus produces grape-clusters that are larger than those from other lands, and just as those that grow in the Judean city that is called Engaddi are nobler than those from other vineyards, inasmuch as the liquid that comes from them is not wine but balsam, that much dearer to me is my Beloved than all those to whom I am joined in love, so that no creature can separate me from His affection.” But typologically, in the same way that myrrh on account of its bitterness signifies the sorrow of the Lord’s Passion, in which He took both myrrh and wine to drink from the soldiers and was anointed with myrrh by the disciples when they laid Him in the tomb, just so, as we have already said, it is not unseemly for a grape-cluster to indicate the joy of His Resurrection. For wine gladdens the human heart (Ps. 104:15). Therefore the Lord, Who had been a bundle of myrrh in His Passion, became a grape-cluster of Cyprus at the Resurrection. Accordingly, He lies between the Bride’s breasts because He has turned into a grape-cluster of the vineyard, which is the reason that holy Church never puts the memory of the Lord’s death away from her heart, since the One Who died for her trespasses also rose from death for her justification (Rom 4:25) and gave her an example of being raised after the anguish of death, so that she might follow in His footsteps.

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