ARISE MY BELOVED, AND COME!
6th Day of Simbang Gabi / Misa de Gallo Monday of the 4th Week of Advent – Year C December 21, 2009 Readings: Sg 2:8-14 / Lk 1:39-45 Love is pure energy. It flames. It burns. It energizes even as it consumes. It purifies even as it cauterizes. Such is the tenor of one of the Bible’s more intriguing books – the Song of Solomon! It sounds almost like soft porn. It is actually a paean to God’s love couched in words, symbols, and images that would speak to anyone whose heart has ever beaten like mad in the exhilarating experience of first love. There is palpable excitement in the language – a deep sense of wide-eyed anticipation and runaway expectation … “Hark, my lover – here he comes springing across the mountains, leaping across the hills!” The poetry and the pulsating rhythm are both unmistakable. The image and rhythm build to a climax … they almost make the image of the gamboling gazelle come out alive in the page we are reading. I can’t help as I write, but hum in my head Carey Land...