♦18. Now the Church ceases not to kiss the feet of Christ, and therefore in the Song of songs she asks not for one but many kisses; like holy Mary she is attentive to all His discourses, she receives all His words, when the Gospel is read, or the Prophets; she _keeps all His sayings in her heart_. The Church, alone, then, as being the spouse, has kisses, for a kiss is, as it were, the pledge of marriage and the privilege of wedlock. How can the Jew have kisses who believes not in the Spouse, who knows not that He is already come? Sidenote: Exod. xxxiv. 9. Sidenote: S. Luke x. 31, 32. Sidenote: Is. i. 6. 19. Nor is it kisses alone that he lacks, but oil also, wherewith to anoint the feet of Christ, for if he had had oil he would before now have bowed down his neck. For Moses says, _It is a stiff-necked people_; and the Lord says that the priest and levite passed by on the other side, nor did either of these pour oil and wine into the wounds of him who had been wounded by robbers; had they possessed this oil they would have poured it into their own wounds. But Isaiah says, _They cannot apply ointment nor oil nor bandage_. Sidenote: Deut. xxxiii. 24. 20. But the Church has oil wherewith she dresses the wounds of her children, that the hardness of the wound may not sink inwards; she has oil, which she has received secretly. With this oil Asher has washed his feet, as it is written, _A blessed son is Asher; and he shall be acceptable to his brethren, dip his foot in oil_. With this oil therefore the Church anoints the necks of her children, that they may receive the yoke of Christ; with this oil she has anointed the martyrs to purify them from the dust of this world; with this oil she has anointed confessors, that so they might not yield to labour, or sink down through weariness, or be overwhelmed by the waves of this world; it is for the purpose of refreshing them with spiritual oil that she has thus anointed them. Sidenote: Gen. viii. 11. Sidenote: S. John i. 32. 21. The Synagogue possesses not this oil, for she hath not the olive, she did not recognize that dove which brought back the olive branch after the deluge. This same dove afterwards descended, when Christ was being baptized, and abode upon Him, as John testifies in the Gospel, saying, _I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon Him_. But how could he see the dove, who saw Him not upon whom the Spirit descended as a dove? 22. So then the Church both washes the feet of Christ, and wipes them with her hair, and anoints them with oil, and pours ointment upon them, in that she not only tends the wounded and comforts the weary, but also sprinkles over them the sweet odours of grace. Nor is it upon the rich and powerful only that she sheds this grace, but on men of low birth also, she weighs all in an equal balance, she receives all in the same bosom, and cherishes them in the same lap. Sidenote: S. Matt. xxv. 40.