Sweetness And The Stone

Si tamen gustatis, quoniam dulcis est Dominus. Hoc, inquit, pacto dimissa atque emendata cordis vestri malitia et spurcitia, vitalem Christi alimoniam concupiscite, si divinae dulcedinis quanta sit multitudo sapitis. Nam qui nihil de superna suavitate animo gustat, non est mirum si hunc terrestribus illecebris sordidare non evitat. Bene autem Psalmista gustare admonet quam dulcis sit Dominus, quia sunt nonnulli qui de Deo sentiunt, non quod dulce interius sapiat, sed quod excussum exterius sonet. Qui etsi secreta quaedam intelligendo percipiunt, eorum dulcedinem experiri non possunt. Et si noverunt quomodo sunt, ignorant, ut dixi, quomodo sapiunt. Et quoniam in ipso psalmo de quo hunc versiculum assumpsit, praemissum est: Accedite ad illum et illuminamini, recte beatus Petrus subdidit, dicens: Ad quem accedentes lapidem vivum, etc. Et hoc de lapide testimonium sumit ex psalmo, ubi scriptum est: Lapidem quem reprobaverunt aedificantes, hic factus est in caput anguli. Quod ne quis Judaico sensu putaret de materiali lapide a propheta cantatum, qui in aedificatione terrenae cujuslibet domus contra hominum dispositionem divino judicio imponeretur, consulte addidit vivum: Ad quem accedentes, inquiens, lapidem vivum, ut de Christo dictum significet. Qui recte lapis appellatus est, qui in carne veniens, ad aedificationem sanctae Ecclesiae, quo hanc confirmaret, sese inserere dignatus est. Vivus autem qui dicere potuit: Ego sum via, veritas et vita. Qui ab hominibus reprobatus est, cum dicerent: Non habemus regem nisi Caesarem. A Deo autem electus, cum ait ipse: Ego autem constitutus sum rex ab eo, et caetera. Et honorificatus, quando post mortem crucis Deus illum exaltavit, et donavit illi nomen quod est super omne nomen, et caetera. Sancta Beda, In Primam Epistolam Sancti Petri, Caput II Source: Migne PL 93.47c-48b

But if you taste that the Lord is sweet...1 In this way, he says, with a heart rid and cleansed of your evils and defilements, desire the life giving food of Christ, if you will taste the how sweet is the abundance of the Divine sweetness. For if someone tastes nothing of the supernal sweetness in his soul, it is not to be wondered if he cannot avoid being defiled by the snares of the world. And well does the Psalmist exhort that the Lord is sweet, 2 because there are some who think on God, but it tastes not the sweetness within, but only touches and sounds the exterior. They who even if they grasp at hidden things with some understanding, are not able to experience the sweetness of them. And if they do know something of them, they are ignorant, as I have said, of how they taste. And because in this Psalm from which the line is taken, it is preceded by: 'Come to him and be illuminated,' 3 rightly the blessed Peter adds: ...to which living stone coming... Concerning this stone, He takes up the testimony of the Psalm, where it is written: 'The stone which the builders rejected has been made the cornerstone.' 4 Which lest someone think in a Jewish sense that the prophet sings of material stone, so that it was imposed by Divine judgement against the wish of man during the terrestial construction of some house, wisely he adds 'living,'  saying,'To which living stone coming,' that signifies he spoke of Christ. He who rightly is called a stone, He who came in the flesh for the building of the holy Church, by which He strengthens it, Himself being worthy to be set there. The living one who is able to say: 'I am the way, the truth and the life.' 6 He who was reproved by men when they said: 'We have no king but Caesar.' 6 But is chosen by God when he says, 'I am estabnlished a king by Him,' and the rest. 7 And worthy of honour, when after death on the cross, God exalted Him, and gave to Him the name which is above all other names. 8 Saint Bede, Commentary on the First Letter of Peter, Chapter 2 1 1 Pet 2.3 2 Ps 33.9 3 Ps 33.6 4 Ps 117.22 5 Jn 14.6 6 Jn 19.15 7 Psal 2.6 8 Philip 2.9