Reflection on June 6, 1984 – (paragraphs 1)

https://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/jp2tb110.htm

So, the book contains about 4 pages worth of writing that is condensed in one paragraph of the speech. Much of it contains quotes from the Song of Songs. SJPII begins with finishing his thoughts on the bride and the idea of the garden closed, the fountain sealed. The way I interpreted this is the idea of the mystery of femininity. The female is unique and different than man, created by God to be this way, created to be man (human) on her own and yet fulfilled with unity with man (male). But this mystery is contained within and man (male) cannot know it until she opens herself up to him, being a gift of self, fully given. We talked earlier about the only way to truly enter into marriage and its vows is for both to fully understand who they are in their masculinity and femininity apart. The female, when described as a garden closed, represents a female who fully knows herself, who she is in all her femininity, and is waiting to give that gift of self, knowing fully what it is, to the one God has made for her. The garden remains closed, the fountain sealed, until that time.

SJPII then moves on to the man (male) as he sees the bride. There is a long portion of Scriptures in Song of Songs that is a list of images the bridegroom uses to describe the bride. Although they may seem out of touch with what we would call romantic, they form the basis for his visually seeing the bride and beginning to discover her in her femininity. Going back to Genesis 2, we see that Eve is brought to Adam, and when he sees her he says, “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh”. It was covered earlier in going over that text, but Adam knows fully that Eve is different than himself in her femininity but like him in being completely unique from all the animals he had named. He knows this immediately and fully upon seeing her. This visual understanding is played out in the bridegroom’s description of his bride. In seeing her, as the images might portray, as the perfect specimen of femininity, he longs to be in union with her, to fully give himself and be fully received.

We then move into that unity. “Set me as a seal upon your heart”. SJPII recognizes this as the two become one, the bride fully receives the bridegroom and vice versa. The seal is the covenant that they make together. The footnotes from my Bible speak of the seal being worn around the arm or on your neck or as a ring. I couldn’t help but think of the ring on my own finger, as a sign of the unity I have with my wife, that was given when we made the commitment to fully give and fully receive each other, when her secret garden was opened and we created our own garden that is to be sealed to all others as both as we are alive. As you flush out these meanings, it is becoming a very beautiful and deep book of Scripture.