Беседа 1. Толкование на Песн. 1, 1–3

Song 1:1. May He kiss me with the kisses of His lips: for Your breast is better than wine, Song 1:2. and the stench of the world is the most aroma of all. Peace poured out Your name. For this reason, for the sake of the maiden, I loved Thee. Song 1:3. Having drawn you: we flow after You into the stench of Your world. The King lead me into His liege: let us rejoice and be glad in you; we will love your breast more than wine; we will love you righteousness. You, who, according to the advice of Paul, like some unclean garment, have put off “the old man with his deeds” and his lusts (Col. 3:9) and with the purity of life have put on the bright clothes of the Lord, which He showed on the mount of transfiguration, or better yet, are clothed in Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, in His robe of love, and are conformed to Him in dispassion and in everything Divine, listen to the mystery Songs of songs, enter the interior of the pure bridal chamber, whitened with pure and undefiled thoughts, so that anyone who attracts a passionate and carnal thought, and does not have on himself the robe of conscience befitting the Divine marriage, will not be bound by his own thoughts, and the pure voices of the Bride and Groom will be reduced to bestial and unreasonable passions, and through them, covering himself shameful ideas, not to be cast out from the host of those having fun at the wedding, exchanging the joy of the bridal chamber for gnashing of teeth and weeping. I testify to this, intending to touch upon the mysterious triumph depicted in the Song of Songs. For by the actions described here the soul is in some way prepared as a bride for an incorporeal, spiritual and immaterial union with God. “Whoever wants to be saved and to come into the understanding of truth” (1 Tim. 2:4) indicates here the most perfect and blessed way of salvation, namely through love. For for others, salvation occurs through fear, when we move away from evil, looking at the threat of punishment in Gehenna, and others succeed in virtue through the hope of reward given to those who lived piously, acquiring good things, not out of love, but out of expectation of reward. But whoever strives with his soul for perfection drives away fear from himself, because such a disposition - not to remain with the master out of love, but not to run away from him out of fear of scourges - is characteristic of a slave; this one despises the rewards themselves, so that it does not seem as if he gives preference to the reward over the One who Gives the benefit; on the contrary, with all his heart, with all his soul and strength, he loves not anything else that He gives, but Himself, that is, the very source of benefits. Therefore, this disposition to the souls of those who listen is put into law by He who calls us to communion with Himself, and this law is confirmed by Solomon, whose wisdom, according to Divine testimony, has no measure, being equally incomparable and not applicable to everyone, both those who were before Him and those who will be after Him, from Whom nothing existing is hidden. Don't you think that by this name I call Solomon, born of Bathsheba, who sacrificed a thousand oxen on the mountain, who took advantage of the Sidonian counselor for sin? The other is designated by him as Solomon: Who Himself comes from the seed of David according to the flesh, whose name is: Peace, the true King of Israel, the Creator of God's church, who declared in Himself the knowledge of all things, whose wisdom is limitless, or better yet, whose being is wisdom, and truth, and every divine and lofty name and concept. He, having used this Solomon as an instrument, through him talks to us, first in Proverbs, then in Ecclesiastes, and after this - in the proposed wisdom of the Song of Songs, gradually and in order indicating in words the ascent to perfection. Just as in life according to the flesh, not every age accommodates all natural activities, and even at very different ages, our lives do not pass in the same way, because a baby does not engage in the affairs of the perfect, and the nurse does not take the perfect into her arms, but for each age of age something of its own is useful and appropriate: so in the soul one can see some similarity with bodily ages, according to which a certain order and sequence are found that guide a person to a virtuous life. Therefore, Proverbs teaches differently, and Ecclesiastes speaks differently, but the wisdom of the Song of Songs surpasses both Proverbs and Ecclesiastes in its lofty teachings. For the teaching taught in Proverbs addresses the speech even to infancy, adapting the words in proportion to age. “Hear, son,” it says, “the laws of your father, and do not deny your mother’s covenants” (Proverbs 1:8). Do you still see in what was said tenderness and lack of education of mental age, why does the father see that his son still needs his mother’s covenants and his father’s admonition? And so that the child listens to his parents more willingly, the father promises him children's jewelry for his diligence in learning; for a decent decoration for children is a gold chain shining around the neck, and a wreath woven from some beautiful flowers. But, of course, this must be understood so that the meaning of the riddle can lead to the better. So Solomon begins to describe Wisdom to his son, explaining in different features and forms the beauty of indescribable beauty, in order to excite him to the communion of goods, not through any fear or necessity, but through lust and love; because the description of beauty somehow attracts the desire of the young to what is indicated, arousing the desire to communicate with the beautiful. Therefore, in order for lust to grow more and more in him, turning from a material addiction into an immaterial union, he adorns the beauty of Wisdom with praise. And not only does she represent the beauty of her beauty in words, but she also lists her wealth, of which, of course, the one who cohabits with her will become the master. This wealth is still considered in the decorations of Wisdom, because the decoration of her right hand is entire eyelids; this is what Scripture says: “Longness of life and years of life are in her right hand” (Prov. 3:16) And in her left hand is placed a valuable wealth of virtues, shining with the radiance of glory; for he says: “in her fortune is wealth and glory” (Prov. 3:16). Then he describes the breath of her mouth, fragrant with the wonderful aroma of righteousness, saying: “out of her mouth comes righteousness” (Prov. 3:16). And on her lips, according to him, instead of the natural scarlet color, “law and mercy” bloom (Proverbs 3:16). And so that the beauty of such a bride turns out to lack nothing, her walk is also praised; for he said: “He walks in the ways of righteousness” (Prov. 8:20). Magnitude does not remain without praise for beauty; because her growth increases like some majestic plant. The plant to which its height is compared, as it is said, “is” the very “tree of the belly,” which serves as food “to all who hold fast, and as an unshakable pillar to those who worship it,” and by the same and another I mean the Lord, because He is life and support, and literally reads like this: “the tree of the belly is to all who hold fast to it, and to those who worship it, as to the Lord, it is solid” (Prov. 3, 18). But her power is taken together with other praises, so that the praise of the beauty of Wisdom is filled with all good qualities; for it is said: “God founded the earth with wisdom, but the heavens were prepared with understanding” (Prov. 3:19), and each of the phenomena visible in creation ascribes a word to the power of Wisdom, adorning it with various names. For he calls it wisdom, and reason, and feeling, and knowledge, and understanding, and the like. After this, Solomon begins to prepare the young man for such cohabitation, commanding him to have in mind the Divine marriage bed. For he says: “Do not forsake me, and you will have it; desire her, and he will keep you. Protect you, and he will exalt you; almost yu, but you will be overwhelmed; May he give your head a crown of graces, and may a crown of sweetness protect you” (Prov. 4:6,8-9). Having already adorned the bride with these wedding crowns, he commands to be inseparable from her, saying: “Whenever you walk, take it, and let it be with you; Whenever you write off, let him keep you, so that when you arise, he may speak with you” (Proverbs 6:22). With this and similar things, having inflamed lust in the still young man according to the inner man and presenting in the word Wisdom itself telling about herself, how she most attracts the love of the listeners, saying, among other things, this: “I love Me who loves” (Prov. 8, 17), because the hope of being mutually loved more strongly disposes the lover to lust, and at the same time offering him other advice in some decisive and at the same time vaguely expressed sayings, and bringing him to perfection, then in the last parables, in which he wrote down the praises of that noble wife, having pleased this good cohabitation, finally adds in Ecclesiastes the wisdom offered to the sufficiently brought in lust for virtues with influx of instructions. And in this word, having blasphemed people’s commitment to the visible, calling everything fickle and transitory vanity, when he says: “all that is to come is vanity” (Eccl. 8:11), above all that is perceivable by the senses, he places the innate movement of our soul towards invisible beauty, and, thus cleansing the heart from the disposition towards the visible, then inside the Divine sanctuary the mind secretly leads the Song of Songs, in which what is written is a kind of marriage preparation, and the implied one is the unity of the human soul with the Divine. Therefore, whoever is called a son in Proverbs is here presented as a bride, but Wisdom is put in the place of the Bridegroom, so that man may be ignorant of God, from a bridegroom becoming an immaculate virgin, and, clinging to the Lord, become one with Him in spirit, through merging with the most pure and impassive, from heavy flesh being transformed into pure spirit. So, since Wisdom says: love as much as you can, with all your heart and with all your strength, and desire as much as you can bear, then I dare to add to these words the following: love ardently, because among the bodiless this passion is impeccable and impassive, as Wisdom says in parables, prescribing ardent love for Divine beauty (Prov. 4:6). And even now the proposed word commands something similar, not expressing its advice about this in direct words, but philosophizes in mysterious expressions, for the construction of these teachings, composing a certain mental image, borrowed from what delights in life. This image is a kind of marriage preparation in which the lust of beauty leads to passion, but it is not the Groom, as usual among people, who begins to reveal lust, but the virgin precedes the Groom, without shame announcing to everyone about passion, and expressing a desire to enjoy the once kiss of the Bridegroom. For when the good bride-givers of the virgins - Patriarchs, Prophets, legislators, presented to the unaddressed Divine gifts, which custom calls marriage, so calling the gifts preceding marriage (these gifts were: remission of sins, forgetting bad deeds, taking away sin, changing nature, transforming the corruptible into the incorruptible, heavenly pleasure, royal dignity, endless joy), then, having accepted the Divine gifts from the wonderful gift-bearers who offer them to her in the prophetic teaching, she confesses the lust and hastens to give thanks, trying to enjoy the beauty of the desired. Some of her friends and peers hear this, exciting the bride to greater lust. The Bridegroom also comes, bringing with Him the face of His friends and favorites; the same can be ministering spirits, with the help of which people are saved, or holy Prophets, who, having heard the voice of the Bridegroom, rejoice and delight in the accomplishment of this most pure marriage, in which the soul, clinging to the “Lord,” becomes “one spirit with the Lord,” as the Apostle says (1 Cor. 6:17). Therefore, I will again turn my speech to parables, so that any passionate and carnal mind, still emitting the deathly stench of the old man, does not reduce the meaning of God-inspired thoughts and sayings to bestial unreason, but so that everyone, in a frenzy of mind, having become outside the material world, dispassionately returning in some way to paradise, and having become like God in purity, in such a state, enters the sanctuary of the mysteries revealed to us in this book. If anyone’s soul is not prepared for such hearing, then let him heed Moses, who enjoins us not to dare to ascend the spiritual mountain without first washing the garments on our hearts and purifying our souls with appropriate sprinklings of thoughts. Why now, while we are engaged in this review, we must, as I think, consign to oblivion thoughts about marital affairs, according to the commandment of Moses, who legitimized those who are secretly taught to remain pure from marital intercourse, and in everything apply to ourselves the instructions of the legislator, as soon as we intend to begin the spiritual mountain of knowledge of God, where the feminine kind of thoughts with their material preparation is left for a lifetime. Any unreasonable thought, if it appears near such a mountain, is beaten, as if with some kind of stones, by harder thoughts. For even at the same time we can hardly endure the voice of this trumpet, sounding something great, extraordinary, exceeding the strength of those who listen to it - a voice strengthened by the very impenetrability of the darkness, in which God, burning everything material on such a mountain with fire. So, let us now enter the Holy of Holies, that is, let us proceed to the Song of Songs. For just as in the name “Holy of Holies” from the superlative degree of this word we recognize a certain excess and special power of holiness, so by the name Song of Songs this lofty word promises to teach us the mysteries of mysteries. For there are many songs in the inspired teaching, from which we learn high concepts about God, and which were written by the great David, Isaiah, Moses and many others; from this same inscription we learn that, as much as the songs of the saints are separated from the songs of external wisdom, the song of the saints is just as much greater than the mystery contained in the Song of Songs, in comparison with which neither hearing nor human nature can find or comprehend anything greater. And therefore, what most strongly produces pleasure in us (I mean the passion of love), Solomon mysteriously presented the exposition of dogmas, letting us know through this that the soul, raising its gaze to the inaccessible beauty of the Divine nature, should love it as much as the body has attachments to its kin and tribe, changing, however, passion into dispassion, so that, after extinguishing every bodily disposition, from one spirit, our hearts boiled with love, warmed by that fire that the Lord came “to bring to earth” (Luke 12:49). But I believe that enough has been said about the disposition in which the soul of those who hear the mysterious verbs should be, and it is time to offer the very words of the divine Song of Songs for observation in the word; and first of all, let us understand the power of the inscription. For it is not in vain, it seems to me, that this book, according to the inscription, is assigned to Solomon, but so that the reader may be aroused by the thought of what is said in it to expect something great and Divine. Since the surprise of every person at the wisdom of Solomon, according to the testimony about him, was extreme, therefore, at the very beginning, a mention of the name is immediately made, so that those who read would hope from this book for something great and worthy of Solomon’s glory. Just as in the art of painting, of course, some substance with different colors performs the likeness of an animal, but whoever looks at an image artificially painted with paints does not stop at examining the color compositions superimposed on the picture, but pays attention only to what the artist represented with paints: so in this Scripture one should not pay attention to the substance of the colors in the sayings, but see, as it were, the image of the King, imprinted in pure concepts. The following words, taken in the closest meaning: lips, kisses, myrrh, wine, names of members, beds, girls and similar ones are colors of white or yellow, or black, or scarlet, or blue, or some other color. And the image formed from them is bliss, dispassion, unity with the Divine, alienation from evil deeds, likeness in the true sense to the beautiful and good. These are the concepts that testify to this Solomon's wisdom, surpassing the limits of human wisdom! For what would be more extraordinary than this, how to cleanse ourselves from our own passions, so that in speeches that are apparently passionate, nature itself legitimizes and teaches us dispassion? For Solomon does not say: one must stand outside the passionate movements of the flesh, having put to death “the fishes that are on the earth” (Col. 3:5), and have lips clean from passionate speeches; but he attunes the soul in such a way that when he shows the apparently opposite, he means something pure, and with passionate words he explains the purest thought. Let the Word, by its beginning, teach us this one thing, that those who were brought into the sanctuary of the mysteries of this book are no longer people, but by the very fact that they became disciples of Christ, they were transformed by nature into the Divine, as the Word testifies of His disciples, that the best of man were those whom the distinction spoken to them by the Lord separated from people when he says: “Whom do men say Me to be?... But whom do you say Me to be” ( Mark 8:27–29)? For indeed, whoever, even from such sayings, the immediate meaning of which indicates carnal voluptuousness, does not creep into unclean understanding, but is guided by these sayings, with pure concepts, to wisdom about the Divine, proves of himself that he is no longer a man, and has a nature not made of flesh and blood, but, having become equal to the angels through dispassion, already shows in himself the life expected at the resurrection of the saints. Just as after the resurrection the body, having changed into incorruptible, will be united with the human soul, but the passions that trouble us now will not rise with these bodies; on the contrary, a peaceful state will come to our life, the wisdom of the flesh will no longer rebel against the soul, in internecine warfare opposing the law of the mind with passionate movements, and, having defeated it by sin, leading it like some kind of captive; but the nature will then become pure from all such things, and both, I mean the flesh and the spirit, will have the same wisdom; because every bodily disposition in nature will be destroyed. Thus, the word in this book commands those who hear, although we live in the flesh, not to turn to it with thoughts, but to keep in mind one soul, and to write all words expressing love, pure and undefiled, to the good that surpasses all understanding, which alone in the true sense is sweet, longed for and worthy, and the enjoyment of which always serves as a reason for greater lust, strengthening the desire with the participation of goods. So Moses loved God; Elijah loved so much; This is how John loved the Bridegroom, saying: “If you have a bride, there is a groom, and the friend of the grooms rejoices with joy for the voice of the grooms” (John 3:29). So Peter answered the question “Do you love?” he answers boldly: “Weigh You, O Lord, for I love You” (John 21:15). So are the other Apostles. So Paul, formerly a persecutor, having loved Christ, whom he had not seen, wrote, expressing himself: “I have betrothed you, a pure virgin, to present to Christ” (2 Cor. 3:2). So now the bride - the Church has loved the Groom, like the virgin who says in the song: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of His lips” (Song 1:1). So Moses, having had a mouth-to-mouth conversation with God, as Scripture testifies, was brought into an even greater desire for such kisses, and after so many Epiphanies, as if he had not yet seen God, he asks to see the Desired. So all the others, in whom Divine love was deeply rooted, never stopped in lust, turning everything given to them from above for the pleasure of what they wanted into food and into maintaining the strongest lust. So now the soul, having entered into union with God, has no satiety in pleasure. The more abundantly she is filled with delight, the stronger the wishes act in her. Because the “verbs” of the Bridegroom are “spirit and life” (John 6:63); and everyone who cleaves to the spirit becomes a spirit, and whoever enters into unity with life, according to the Lord’s word, passes “from death to life” (John 5:24), then for this very reason the virgin soul desires to bring itself closer to the source of spiritual life. And this source is the Bridegroom’s lips, from which flowing verbs of eternal life fill the lips that attract them, as was the case with the Prophet, who attracted the spirit with his lips (Psalm 119,131). Therefore, since the mouth that draws drink from the source must be applied to the water, and the source is the Lord, who said: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink” (John 7:37); therefore, it is desirable for the thirsty soul to bring its lips closer to the lips that exude life, and the bride says: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of His lips” (Song. 1:1). And the One who exudes life to everyone, and wants to be saved to everyone, does not want to deprive any of those being saved of this kiss, because this kiss is a cleansing remedy from all defilement. Therefore, it seems to me, the Lord reproachfully pronounces the following words to the leper Simon: “Thou didst not give Me a kiss” (Luke 7:44). He would become clean from illness by attracting purity with his lips. But Simon was rightly not loved, having grown strong through illness, and by his own lust remaining inexhaustible in his illness. And the soul, having achieved purity, since no carnal leprosy darkens it, sees a treasure of good things; the name of this treasure is heart. And the Prophet prays that a “pure heart” be created in him (Psalm 50:12), from which Divine milk is given to the nipples, serving as nourishment for the soul that attracts grace “according to faith” (Rom. 12:6). Why does she say: “Your breast is better than wine” (Song. 1, 1), - breasts locally signifying the heart. Of course, it will not be a mistake who understands by the heart the hidden and ineffable power of the Divine; and by breasts, others can rightly mean the actions of Divine power that are good for us, with which God supports the life of everyone, providing food suitable for each of those who receive. But from the wisdom of this book we learn in passing another certain teaching, namely, that there is a certain twofold feeling in us, one bodily, the other Divine, as somewhere in the parables the Word says: you will find a Divine feeling, because there is a certain proportionality of mental movements and actions with the senses of the body, and we learn this from the real words of the Spirit. Wine and milk differ in taste, but when they are spiritual, then, without a doubt, the spiritual force that receives them is spiritual. And kissing is accomplished by the sense of touch; because when kissing, the lips touch each other. But there is a certain touch of the soul with which the word is touched, and which is accomplished by some kind of not bodily, but spiritual contact, as he said: “Our hands have touched the Word of the living” (1 John 1:1). And also the stench of the Divine world is a stench smelled not by the nostrils, but by some spiritual and immaterial force, with the attraction of the spirit, which also attracts the fragrance of Christ. For the desire of the virgin, expressed at the beginning of the Song, is read in connection like this: “The blessings of Your breast are more than wine, and the stench of Your world is more than the aroma of all” (Song. 1, 1-2). And this, as we assumed, expresses some thought that is important and worthy of neglect. For with this comparative preference of milk from the Divine breasts to the joy that we get from wine, we learn, perhaps, from what has been said that all human wisdom, and all knowledge of existing things, and all contemplative power, and every mental idea cannot stand in comparison with the simplest food of Divine lessons; because milk flows from the nipples, and is the food of babies; and wine, due to its strength and intoxicating properties, becomes the pleasure of adults, but perfect in external wisdom is lower than infantile teaching in the Divine Word. Therefore, Divine breasts are better than human wine, and the stench of the Divine world is superior to any fragrance of aromas. And this, in my opinion, makes such sense. By aromas we mean virtues, such as: wisdom, chastity, justice, courage, prudence and the like, adorned with which, each of us, to the best of our ability and according to our will, one in one way, the other in another, we come into a fragrance, and some from chastity, or wisdom, some from justice, or courage, or something else recognized as a virtue, and others from all such aromas have dissolved in themselves fragrance. However, all this cannot be compared with that all-perfect virtue that fills the heavens, as the prophet Habakkuk testifies, saying: “The heavens have covered His virtue” (Hab. 3:3), that is, with the original wisdom, the original truth, the original truth, and so on. The stench of the heavenly world, it is said, has a grace incomparable to those aromas that are known to us. Subsequently, the soul of the bride touches even higher wisdom, showing the inaccessibility and incapacity of Divine power to human thoughts, when it says: “Thy name poured out in peace” (Song. 1, 2) - for with these words, it seems to me, something similar to the following is meant: an indefinable nature cannot be accurately captured by a word that has the meaning of a name; on the contrary, all the power of concepts, all the expressiveness of sayings and names, even if they apparently contained something great and divine, do not concern the nature in Existence, but our mind, as if following only traces and insights, guesses about the Word, with the help of what has been comprehended, and by some similarity imagining the incomprehensible. Whatever name we come up with that conveys to us the concept of the world of Your Divinity, says the bride, by expressing the predicate, we do not mean the myrrh itself, but with these theological names we will show only a small certain remnant of the vapors of the Divine fragrance: just as by the vessels from which the myrrh is poured, the myrrh itself is not known, poured out of the vessels, what it is in its nature; although, based on the barely perceptible quality of the vapors remaining in the vessel, we make some guess about the poured out world. This is precisely what we understand from what has been said: the very world of the Divine, as it is in essence, is above every name and concept; The miracles seen in the universe provide content for theological names, by which we call the Divine wise, omnipotent, good, holy, blessed, eternal, also Judge, Savior and the like, which all show some, however, not the main, quality of the Divine world, which all creation, in the likeness of some world-making vessel, has imprinted in itself by the miracles seen in it. “For this sake,” says the bride, “the maidens loved Thee, attracted Thee” (Song. 1, 2-3). Thus (the Word) expressed the reason for the praiseworthy desire and love-filled disposition. For who would not love such beauty, if only he had an eye capable of looking at beauty? Although not much is comprehended by beauty; however, through likening to the visible, it seems to be infinitely varied! But just as material love does not touch those who are still infants, because childhood does not give room for passion, and also we do not see those dejected by extreme old age in a similar state: so in the consideration of Divine beauty, those who are still a baby are overwhelmed and carried by every wind of teaching, and those who have become decrepit, grown old and approaching decay, all of them turn out to be motionless to this lust. For such are not touched by invisible beauty, but only such a soul, which has emerged from its infancy, blossoms in spiritual age, and has not received “filth or vice, or anything from such” (Eph. 5, 27), is not deprived of sensitivity due to infancy and has not weakened in strength due to decrepitude, the word calls it “youth”. She submits to the great and first commandment of the law, loving with all her heart and with all her strength this beauty, the outline, pattern and interpretation of which cannot be found by the human mind. Therefore, such young women, enriched with virtues, who by maturity were already inside the Divine chamber of the Divine mysteries, love the beauty of the Bridegroom and turn Him to themselves with love; for the Bridegroom is such that he rewards those who love with love, so speaking on behalf of Wisdom: “I love those who love Me” (Prov. 8:17), and: “I will divide the wealth of those who love Me” (this property is He Himself), “and I will fill their treasures with good things” (Prov. 8:21). Therefore, these souls attract the love of the incorruptible Bridegroom, walking, as it is written, “in the footsteps of the Lord God” (Hos. 11:10). The reason for their love is the fragrance of the world, to which they always hasten, “reaching out to the things before, but forgetting the things behind” (Phil. 3:13). For they say: “We flow after You into the stench of Your world” (Song. 1, 3). But, as those who have not yet achieved the perfection of virtue and are young in age, they only give a promise to hasten to the goal that the stench of the world shows them. For they say: “We flow into the stench of Your world” (Song. 1, 2-3). The more perfect soul, which further extends “into the foreground,” already reaches the goal for which the flow takes place, and is rewarded with treasures in the chambers. She says: “The King will lead me into His bed” (Song. 1, 2–3). For she who desired to touch the good with the edges of her lips, and touched beauty to such an extent as the strength of the expressed desire shows (she expressed a desire, as it were, to be worthy of the kiss of someone through the illumination of the Word), having achieved this, and penetrating with thought into the inner sanctuary of the mysteries, she cries out that it is not in anticipation of only good things that its course flows, but that, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, by whose grace, as if as a consequence of what kiss, was deemed worthy to experience the “deep things of God” (1 Cor. 2:10), and like the great Paul, having been in the sanctuary of paradise, he says that he sees the invisible and hears “unspeakable verbs” (2 Cor. 12:4). The saying that follows reveals the church's economy in the word. For the first, taught by grace, “the witnesses and servants of the former Word” (Luke 1:2), did not limit the benefits to themselves, but according to tradition, they also imparted the same grace to those who came after them. Therefore, about the bride, who from the mouth of the Word was the first to be filled with blessings and honored with hidden mysteries, the young women say: “We will rejoice and be glad in you” (Song. 1, 3). For your joy is our common joy. Just as you love the breasts of the Word more than wine, so we love you. Let us be like your breasts, from which you give milk to babies about Christ. Let us love wine more than man, and if anyone brings this concept into greater clarity, then the predicate will be as follows. The fallen John loved the breasts of the Word “on the breast” of the Lord (John. 13, 25); he, like some kind of sponge, has attached his heart to the Source of life, according to some ineffable message, he has been filled with the mysteries stored in the heart of Christ, and he offers us a breast filled with words, and makes us full of what is put into him from the Source of good, loudly preaching the ever-bearing Word. Therefore, let us justly say to Him: “We will love Your breast more than wine” (Song. 1, 3), - if only we have reached the point that we are already youths and are not infantile in mind in the vanity associated with youth, nor are we defiled by sin in decrepitude ending in decay. And therefore let us love the flow of Your teachings, because “thou shalt love Thy righteousness” (Song. 1:3). For this is the disciple whom Jesus loved, and Jesus is “righteousness.” This word is better and more divine than what the prophet David calls the Lord. For David says: “The Lord God is right” (Psalm 91:16), and here He is called righteousness, by whom all that is obstinate is brought into rightness. But may “all that is stubborn be right in us” (Isa. 40:4) by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ! Glory to him forever and ever! Amen. You might be interested in: