Stanza 13
—
ESPOSA:
¡Apártalos, Amado,
que voy de vuelo!
ESPOSO:
Vuélvete, paloma,
que el ciervo vulnerado
por el otero asoma
al aire de tu vuelo, y fresco toma.
—
BRIDE:
Withdraw them, Beloved!
I am taking flight!
BRIDEGROOM:
Return, my dove!
The wounded stag
Looms on the hill,
cooled by the breeze of your flight.
Excerpt of Saint John +’s teaching on stanza 13:
The misery of human nature is such in this life that when the communication and knowledge of the Beloved, which means more life for the soul and for which she longs so ardently, is about to be imparted, she cannot receive it save almost at the cost of her life. When she receives the eyes she has been searching for so anxiously and in so many ways, she cries: Withdraw them, Beloved!..
This would be an apt place to treat of the different kinds of raptures, ecstasies, and other elevations and flights of the soul that are customarily experienced by spiritual persons…(S)uch a discussion will have to be left for someone who knows how to treat the matter better than I. Then too, the blessed Teresa of Jesus, our Mother, left writings about these spiritual matters that are admirably done and which I hope will soon be printed and brought to light.
Personal reflection on stanza 13:
In the commentary on this stanza, SJ+ validates the idea that a vision of God would cause the soul to fly from the body. The soul’s departure from the body in consequence of the Beloved revealing himself through his pure gaze is reflected in the soul’s exclamation, “I am taking flight!” This stanza only made sense to me after reading the commentary on it, in which SJ+ explains that Jesus’s declaration, “Return, my dove,” is a loving command for the soul to return to the body rather than departing from it in death. SJ+ gives an acknowledgement to Teresa of Jesus in his commentary on this stanza and notes that she has forthcoming writings in which she describes and explains the flights of her soul from her body. How exciting to think of that point in history when Teresa of Jesus’s writings in The Life and Interior Castle were known and awaited but not yet published and distributed. That must have been a period of such delicious anticipation among the newly-reformed Discalced Carmelite community.
The last personal note I will make here is that SJ+ poetically teaches us that if your soul is in a state of flying from the body because of its dearly intense love and affinity for God, this “breeze from your flight” is like a cooling breeze on the stag, i.e., Jesus, who is himself wounded by love for you.
Jesus, may I fly to you.
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