I opened to my beloved,

  but my beloved had turned

    and was gone.

When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.  (John 16.13)

Were not our hearts burning within us while he was opening the scriptures to us?  (Luke 24.32)

I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!  (Luke 12.49)

The passage from the Song of Solomon can be understood to mean the Lord opening up the mystery of the Word to us when the Father grants us the Spirit of Truth, but we, his beloved, lose interest, turn and walk away to pursue other passing fancies.  (“As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word and it yields nothing.” (Matthew 13.22)  “And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire of other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing.”  (Mark 4.18-19)

So it is clear that the cares of the world, the lure of wealth and the desire for other things cause us to turn and walk away when our beloved, that is, the Word, opens to us.

The Lord gives us an indication of the evil of such a willful turning away from his invitation when he says “you will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive.  For this people’s heart has grown dull.”  (Matthew 13.14-15)  Yet if we turn back to him with a sincere and contrite heart, he will heal us (v. 15)

Cassian explains this as “the Lord rebukes the willful – not natural – blindness of the Jews, which they brought upon themselves by their own obstinacy…so that no one would be able to ascribe this blindness of theirs to nature and not to will.”  (13.12.3-4)

The apostles knew what to say to get the Word to stay with them: “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.”  (Luke 24.29)  Jesus had intended to walk on but instead he stayed.  Stay with us, O Lord.