Love Strong as Death
Fervorinos Year 2 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewLove in Song of Solomon: romantic and divine. Love in Martha & Mary., and in the Sister Disciples of the Divine Master.
Notes
Transcript
Striking Words
Striking Words
Love is strong as death & fierce as Sheol
Love is strong as death & fierce as Sheol
Song of Solomon 8:6 “Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave (Sheol). Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord.”
‘love’ & ‘jealousy’ are the same Hebrew word,
also, ‘zeal’ and ‘passion’.
‘strong as death’, ‘fierce as Sheol’
jealousy, zeal, passion are the qualities of Sheol, the nether world.
[these] are often personified as the unrelenting powers experienced by man; no one can escape them—in the end they must triumph.
True love shares in that same mysterious power, for just as certainly it will prevail.
cf. Exodus 34:14 “(for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),”
Set me as a seal on your heart & your arm
Set me as a seal on your heart & your arm
The “seal” was worn on the hand (cf. Gn 41:42; Jer 22:24) and also on a chain, around the neck—hence, on the “heart.”
Because it was used for signatures and identification, it was a valued treasure that a man would keep about his person. 6
i.e. signet; a personal ID, but also a guarantee that the person’s word can be trusted (e.g. when used to sign a contract).
Martha & Mary
Martha & Mary
Love in a different context
Love in a different context
Martha & Mary each express their love for Jesus in different ways:
Martha’s love is expressed very practically
a meal & table service.
Mary takes (basks) in his words and presence.
Most people would choose Martha’s way
Most people would choose Martha’s way
but this story is followed by Jesus saying that loving attention is primary
and it follows a saying on Charity, followed by ‘the good Samaritan’. (ab, ba)
Showing that charity is very important, but love is primary
‘Mary has chosen the good part … and she will not be deprived.“
Benedict & Scholastica
Benedict & Scholastica
Brother & Sister
The story told by Pope St. Gregory the Great
Illustrates a powerful love of a different kind
Sister Disciples
Sister Disciples
embody both sides of Jesus’ sayings here
Active charity in your 3-fold ministry: education, service to priests and to the altar;
Living attention to Christ through Adoration.
May Christ fulfill the work he has begun in you!
<Bible quotes from: English Standard Version Catholic Edition (n.p.: Augustine Institute, 2019), So 8:6.
Commentary from: Raymond Edward Brown, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland Edmund Murphy, The Jerome Biblical Commentary, vol. 1 (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1996), 510.>