SOURCE: "Sermon 31," in On the "Song of Songs" II, translated by Kilian Walsh, Cistercian Publications, 1976, pp. 124-33.

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Sermon 31

THE VARIOUS WAYS OF SEEING GOD

Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon?" The Word, who is the Bridegroom, often makes himself known under more than one form to those who are fervent. Why so? Doubtless because he cannot be seen yet as he is. That vision is unchanging, because the form in which he will then be seen is unchanging; for he is, and can suffer no change determined by present, past or future. Eliminate past and future, and where then is alteration or any shadow of a change? For whatever evolves out of the past and does not cease to move toward future development, passes through the instant that is...