Song of Solomon 4:5

And in the song of the bride, hair, teeth, lips, cheeks, the neck, and breasts, are praised by the bridegroom. The bride is either the soul of man, which enters into marriage with Christ, or the church. The parts of the body are interpreted figuratively: if they are said of the soul, then they apply to its powers.

And hence in the Song of Songs it is said to Holy Church by the voice of the bridegroom, "Thy two breasts are like two twin kids of the she goat, which feed among the lilies, until the day breathe, and the shadows incline." For what are the two breasts, except the two peoples coming from Jewry and from among the Gentiles, who are implanted in the body of Holy Church, by the purpose of wisdom, upon the secret of the heart. And they who are elected from these people, are compared to the young of the she-goat, because they are conscious through their humility that they are weak and sinful; but if any obstacles meet them in the way of worldly impediment, as they are hastening on by the power of love, they bound over them, and with the leaps of contemplation climb to the knowledge of heavenly things. And in order to do this, they study the examples of the Saints who have gone before. Whence they are said to feed amongst the lilies. For what is meant by lilies, but the conduct of those who say with all truth, "We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ?" The Elect, therefore, in order to gain strength to attain the highest eminence, feed themselves to the full by beholding the sweet-scented and pure life of the just.

Those who are fed among the lilies, etc. The holy teachers are nourished by the pure and resplendent flowers of the divine Scriptures, and lest the milk of salvific doctrine, with which they feed the little ones, should lack, they always read in the writings of the Fathers what they ought to achieve, how they should teach, and they satisfy their hearts as though with vital sap, and this until the end of the world. For after that day shall dawn which the Psalmist desiringly spoke of: For one day in your courts is better than a thousand (Psalm 83), there will be neither a time for teaching nor a time for learning. The prophecy will be fulfilled which says: And they shall not teach each other, saying: Know the Lord, for they shall all know me (Jeremiah 31); but with all the shadows of this world entirely inclined and consumed, the saints will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matthew 13), each receiving rewards according to what they have learned, done, and taught. Beautiful, indeed, as far as the natural order is concerned, is the vanishing of the night, the inclination of the shadows, because the darkness of the night, as philosophers say, is nothing other than the shadow of the earth. For the sun, circling the earth, brings with it light and day; on the other hand, from the side where it is absent, it leaves the shadow of the earth. And this is the primordial division whereby God divided between the light and the darkness. These shadows, with the sun setting, and now and then rising again, gradually begin to lift, and as much as the sun descends under the earth, these shadows grow and rise, until, at the midpoint of the night, the sun being set under the middle of the earth, the shadows themselves, now raised, occupy the middle of the earth, and then, with the sun gradually proceeding, they also gradually bend towards their setting, until, with the dawn appearing, they entirely inclining vanish away. Therefore, the shadows of the earth do not reach the stars because the sun, created larger than the earth, makes a pointed shadow which, before it reaches the stars, dissipates, and the splendor of the sun spread all around the earth freely illuminates the stars that look upon it. Hence, the present life is night; the sun of justice, Christ. Whose light is often concealed from us by the heavy mass of earthly desires, so that it is not seen. And…