Cânticos 6
Augustine of Hippo · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Cânticos 6:6
He praises these sheep also in the Song of Solomon, speaking of some perfect ones as the teeth of his spouse the holy church. — EXPLANATIONS OF THE PSALMS 95:9
Cânticos 6:6
Separated from the world, to which they were once conformed, they pass over into the members of the church. And rightly therefore are they, through whom such things are done, called teeth like to shorn sheep; for they have laid aside the burdens of earthly cares, and coming up from the bath, from the washing away of the filth of the world by the sacrament of baptism, every one bears twins. For they fulfill the two commandments, of which it is said, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets": 16 loving God with all their heart, and with all their soul and with all their mind, and their neighbor as themselves. — EXPLANATIONS OF THE PSALMS 3:7
Cânticos 6:8
The word queens refers to the souls that rule in the realm of the intelligible and spiritual. The word concubines [refers] to the souls that receive an earthly reward, concerning whom it is said, "They have received their reward." — ON EIGHTY-THREE VARIED QUESTIONS 55
Cânticos 6:9
"For as regards the fact that to preserve the figure of unity the Lord gave the power to Peter that whatsoever he should loose on earth should be loosed," it is clear that that unity is also described as one dove without fault. Can it be said, then, that to this same dove belong all those greedy ones, whose existence in the same Catholic church Cyprian himself so grievously bewailed? For birds of prey, I believe, cannot be called doves, but rather hawks. How then did they baptize those who used to plunder estates by treacherous deceit and increase their profits by compound usury, if baptism is only given by that indivisible and chaste and perfect dove, that unity which can only be understood as existing among the good? Is it possible that, by the prayers of the saints who are spiritual within the church, as though by the frequent lamentations of the dove, a great sacrament is dispensed, with a secret administration of the mercy of God? [Thus] their sins also are loosed who are baptized, not by the dove but by the hawk, if they come to that sacrament in the peace of Catholic unity. — ON BAPTISM 3:17.22
Cânticos 6:10
The church is the sun and the moon and the stars, to which it was said, "Fair as the moon, bright as the sun." By it our Joseph is adored in this world as in Egypt, when he is raised from humble to high estate. — LETTER 199:39