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Introduction
1. The soul in this condition of love, then, is like a sick person who is extremely tired and, having lost the taste and appetite for all food, finds it nauseating and everything a disturbance and annoyance. In all that sick people think or see they have only one desire, the desire for health, and everything that does not lead to this is a bother and burden to them.
Since the soul has reached this sickness of love of God, she has three traits: In all things that are offered to her or with which she deals, she has ever before her that longing for her health, which is her Beloved, and even though she cannot help being occupied with things, she always has her heart fixed on him. The second trait, arising from this first, is the loss of taste for all things. The third, then, which follows from these, is that all these things bother her and all dealings with others are burdensome and annoying.
2. The reason for these traits, deduced from what has been said, is that, since the palate of the soul's will has tasted this food of love of God, her will is inclined immediately to seek and enjoy her Beloved in everything that happens and in all her occupations, without looking for any satisfaction or concern of her own. Mary Magdalene acted similarly when with ardent love she was searching for him in the garden. Thinking that he was the gardener, without any further reasoning or consideration she pleaded with him: If you have taken him from me, tell me, and I will take him away [Jn. 20:15]. Having a similar yearning to find him in all things, and not immediately finding him as she desires but rather quite the contrary not only does the soul fail to find satisfaction in these things, but they also become a torment to her, and sometimes a very great one. Such souls suffer much in dealing with people and with business matters, for these contacts hinder rather than help them to their goal.
3. The bride clearly indicates in the Song of Songs these three traits she had when searching for her Bridegroom: I looked for him and did not find him. But they who go about the city found me and wounded me, and the guards of the walls took my mantle from me [Sg. 5:6-7]. "Those who go about the city" refers to the affairs of the world. When they find the soul who is searching for God, they inflict on her many wounds of sorrow, pain, and displeasure, for not only does she fail to find her desire in them, but she is also impeded by them. Those who guard the wall of contemplation, to prevent the soul from entering, are the devils and the negotiations of the world, and they take away the mantle of the peace and quietude of loving contemplation. The soul that loves God derives a thousand displeasures and annoyances from all of these. Conscious that as long as she is in this life without the vision of God she cannot free herself from them to either a small or great degree, she continues her prayers to the Beloved and recites the following stanza:
Extinguish these miseries,
since no one else can stamp them out;
and may my eyes behold you,
because you are their light,
and I would open them to you alone.
Commentary
4. She continues in this stanza to ask the Beloved to put an end to her longings and pains, since he alone can do this, no one else; and to accomplish this so that the eyes of her soul may be able to see him, since he alone is the light they behold and she wants to employ them in him alone:
Extinguish these miseries,
5. A characteristic of the desires of love is that all deeds and words unconformed with what the will loves will weary, tire, annoy, and displease the soul as she beholds that her desire goes unfulfilled. She refers to this weariness and annoyance she suffers in order to see God as "these miseries." And nothing but possession of the Beloved can extinguish them. She says he extinguishes them by his presence and refreshes her as cool water soothes a person exhausted from the heat. She uses the word "extinguish" to indicate that she is suffering from the fire of love.
since no one else can stamp them out;
6. To further urge and persuade her Beloved to grant her petition, she declares that he must be the one to extinguish these miseries, since he alone suffices to satisfy her need. It is noteworthy that God is very ready to comfort and satisfy the soul in her needs and afflictions when she neither has nor desires consolation and satisfaction outside of him. The soul possessing nothing that might withhold her from God cannot remain long without a visit from her Beloved.
and may my eyes behold you,
7. That is: May I see you face to face with the eyes of my soul,
because you are their light,
8. In addition to the fact that God is the supernatural light of the soul's eyes, and without this light she is enveloped in darkness, she affectionately calls him here the light of her eyes, just as a lover would call her loved one the light of her eyes in order to show her affection.
These two verses are like saying: Since my eyes have no other light (neither through nature nor through love) than you, "may my eyes behold you because you are their light" in every way. David noted the absence of this light when he lamented: The light of my eyes itself is not with me [Ps. 37:10]. Tobit did the same: What joy can be mine, since I am seated in darkness and do not see the light of heaven? [Tb. 5:12]. Through these words he gave expression to his desire for the clear vision of God, because the light of heaven is the Son of God, as St. John says: The heavenly city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it, because the brightness of God illumines it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof [Rv. 21:23].
and I would open them to you alone.
9. With this line the soul desires to oblige the Bridegroom to reveal this light of her eyes, not only because she lives in darkness in that her eyes have no other light, but also because she wants to keep her eyes for him alone. As the soul longing to focus the eyes of her will on the light of something outside of God is justly deprived of the divine light insofar as the spiritual power she has for receiving God's light is occupied with this other light so also does the soul that closes its eyes to all things in order to open them to God alone merit congruously the illumination of the divine light.