It's a bit odd that the lectionary committee placed this reading from the Song of Solomon in late summer, for it seems like a springtime text. Springtime, according to the poet Tennyson, is that time when "a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love,"1 but I guess summer love is pretty exciting, too. Some recent research, however, suggests that what actually may be going on in the young man may have more to do chemical molecules than with seasonal madness. The researchers recruited a bunch of people who claimed to have just fallen "madly in love." After interviewing these people to document their passion, the researchers then placed them in MRI machines and performed brain scans on them while showing them an assortment of pictures, including shots of their lovers.

They found tha…