{"id":3309,"date":"2024-01-17T08:25:01","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T13:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3309"},"modified":"2024-01-17T08:26:40","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T13:26:40","slug":"under-the-banner-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/17\/under-the-banner-of-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Under the Banner of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,<\/em> click here<\/a>
 
In 1571, Friar Luis de Leon, a theologian and professor, was brought before the Spanish Inquisition.
 
He was charged with moral corruption and sentenced to prison, where he spent the next four years.
 
His crime?  He had dared to translate the Old Testament book of Song of Songs into Spanish.  De Leon, in other words, had made it possible for a general audience to read one of the Bible\u2019s most controversial books.
 
For centuries the Church had struggled to figure out exactly what to do with the Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon, as it\u2019s sometimes called).  The book is overtly erotic.  A man and a woman, who are identified as the Lover and the Beloved, openly celebrate and enjoy each other\u2019s bodies.
 
To put it simply: They\u2019re in love<\/em>.
 
Jewish and Christian commentators alike have wondered if the book was meant to be taken literally.  St. Bernard of Clairvaux, for instance, wrote 86 sermons on just its first two chapters, suggesting that all the details (even the woman\u2019s hair and the man\u2019s nose) are just allegories of God\u2019s love.
 
The Song of Songs is certainly about God\u2019s love.  But front and center it\u2019s about God\u2019s gift of the richness of romantic and married human love.  Even though this Hebrew poetry is 3,000 years old, it still feels remarkably fresh in the age of TMZ. 
 
For instance, the Lover and Beloved identify each other with highly personal \u201clove names,\u201d just as lovers have been doing for centuries.
 
Infant language, or baby talk, is the most tender kind of human conversation.  A strong love relationship creates a \u201cculture of two\u201d that typically generates intimate names, often involving food, animals, and body parts.  Think of Snuggle Bunny, Pumpkin, Lamb, and Angel Eyes. 
 
A friend of one of my acquaintances calls his wife Honey Pie Dew Melon Face.  This is perhaps a bridge too far. 
 
Lovers communicate to each other, through their words and their actions, \u201cI will never give myself to anyone else the way I give myself to you.\u201d
 
So what\u2019s at the heart of a healthy romantic relationship?  The answer may be surprising.
 
According to marriage expert John Gottman, \u201cThe determining factor in whether wives feel satisfied with the sex, romance, and passion in their marriage, is, by 70%, the quality of the couple\u2019s friendship<\/strong>.  For husbands, the determining factor in whether they feel satisfied with the sex, romance, and passion in their marriage is, by 70%, the quality of the couple\u2019s friendship<\/strong>.\u201d
 
In other words, it\u2019s not the amazing dinner accompanied by perfect wine.  Or that dream vacation.  Or that one-of-a-kind fragrance that will drive him crazy.  Or Barry Manilow.  We can say with great certainty that it\u2019s not Barry Manilow. 
 
A marital friendship, anchored on deep respect, provides the freedom for courageous love to flourish.
 
Such a friendship is also anchored on deep assurance. 
 
The Beloved says, \u201cMy lover is mine and I am his\u201d (Song of Songs 2:16), and, \u201cHis banner over me is love\u201d (2:4). 
 
The banner was a military metaphor.  Before the days of electronic communication, battles were inherently chaotic.  Soldiers were trained to look for the flag of their king.  Staying underneath the right banner meant security and survival. 
 
There is no way that two flawed people, no matter how earnest and hopeful they might be, can provide ultimate<\/em> care for each other.
 
Yet under the banner of God\u2019s love, even broken, frightened, selfish, and misunderstood human beings \u2013 and that would include all of us \u2013 can find the security we need to keep risking love for each other.
 
And that can even allow us to keep calling each other Sugar Pie, \u201cas long as we both shall live.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here In 1571, Friar Luis de Leon, a theologian and professor, was brought before the Spanish Inquisition. He was charged with moral corruption and sentenced to prison, where he spent the next four years. His crime?  He had dared to translate the Old Testament book of Song of Songs into Spanish.  De Leon, in other… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3310,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[104,226,676],"class_list":["post-3309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-love","tag-marriage","tag-song-of-songs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3309"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3312,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3309\/revisions\/3312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}