Беседа 11. Толкование па Песн. 5:2–4

Song 5:2. The voice of My Brother strikes the door: open to Me, My sister, My neighbor, My dove, My perfect one, as My head is filled with dew, and My hair is filled with drops of the night. Song 5:3. I have taken off my robe, how shall I put on nudes? Wash my noses, how can I defile them? Song 5:4. My brother sent His hand through the well, and my belly trembled for Him. This is one of the great commandments of the Lord, according to which the mind of those taught by the word, as if shaking off some dust from everything material in nature, ascends to the desire of the highest, that is, those who have in mind the higher life must be above sleep and always be awake with the mind, as if the seductress of some soul and the accuser of truth, driving away drowsiness from the eyes, I mean that drowsiness and that sleep with which those who plunge into the things of life seduction, these dreamy ideas are formed: authority, wealth, domination, arrogance, the charm of pleasures, love of fame, addiction to pleasures, ambition and everything that in this life for the unwary, according to some empty idea, is coveted, flows along with the transitory nature of time, has existence only in opinion, not being what it is recognized for, and not even remaining permanently in our opinion the same, but appearing at the same time to come into being and perish, like waves rising above the waters, and for a while lifted up by the movement of the winds, but not remaining for long in this arrogance, because those raised by the swiftness of the wind, soon falling along with the wind, again show the smooth surface of the sea. Therefore, in order for our thoughts to become free from such ghosts, the Word commands us to shake off this burdensome dream from the eyes of our souls, so that by diligence about the untenable we do not lose what is substantial and truly existing. Therefore, he inspires us with the thought of wakefulness, saying: “Let your loins be girded, and the lamps burning” in your hands (Luke 12:35), because the light shown to the eyes drives sleep away from the eyes, and the loins, tied with a belt, make the body incapable of sleep, the feeling of labor does not allow rest in sleep. Of course, it is clear what is expressed by the mysterious speech: the one girded with Chastity lives in the light of a clear conscience, because the lamp of boldness illuminates a life in which the soul, from the revelation of truth, remains vigilant and not susceptible to deception, not driven into madness by any of these meaningless dreams. Если же преуспеет и в этом под руководством Слова, то последует с нами ангельская некая жизнь, потому что Божия заповедь уподобляет нас тем, о которых говорит: «и вы подобны человеком чающим Господа своего, когда возвратится от брака, да пришедшу и толкнувшу, абие отверзут ему» ( Лук. 12,36 ). For they too await the Lord’s return from marriage and sit with a watchful eye at the heavenly gates, so that the King of Glory, when he returns from marriage, will enter them again into that heavenly bliss. From where, “like a bridegroom,” in the words of the psalmody, “coming from the palace” (Ps. 18:6), He betrothed us to Himself as a virgin, this nature, which had committed adultery with idols, transformed virginal incorruption through a mysterious rebirth. So, after the marriage had already been completed, after the Church was dissuaded by the Word, as John says: “If you have a bride, you have a bridegroom” (John 3:29), after receiving her into the chamber of the sacraments, the Angels awaited the return of the King, after introducing the Church into natural bliss. Therefore, the Word said, our lives should be likened to them, so that just as they, leading a life far from vice and deception, are ready to receive the Lord’s coming, so we, watching at the threshold of our temporary dwellings, make ourselves ready for obedience when He comes and pushes at the door. For “blessed,” it is said, “are the servants, whom the Lord will find when he comes,” those who do so (Luke 12:37). Therefore, since it is a blessed thing to be obedient to the one who speaks at the door, then for this reason the soul, which vigilantly guards its treasures, constantly thinking about bliss, feels the one standing at the door and says: “The voice of my Brother strikes at the door.” How, from these words, can anyone in any other worthy way understand the ascent of the bride to the Divine? She who, with such power and confidence, drove away the cruel north from herself, attracted the bright wind to herself, produces in her mouth gardens of thorns, the fruits of which are aromatic; the one who offered her garden to the Lord of creation for a meal, at which nothing that was offered was such that it could be rejected, but on the contrary, everything was beautiful, as evidenced by myrrh, aroma, bread with honey and wine with milk; she whose perfection the Word confirmed, saying: “You are all good, and there is no vice in you” (Song. 4:7); that same one is now positioned as if preparing for the first time to receive the coming of God, and as if she has not yet accepted and instilled in herself the Word now standing before her doors, she counts the power of the voice as a miracle. Therefore, he says that the voice of the Suitors does not touch her, but her door; for he says: “The voice of my Brother strikes the door.” Do you see how boundless the procession is for those who ascend to God, how what is passed always becomes the beginning of what lies above? According to what was said to the bride, we hoped for some stop in the continuation of the upward procession. For after witnessing the perfection of what more would another seek? What do we see? The bride is still at home, has not even left the door, has not enjoyed the sight of the newcomer, but by hearing she is only guided to the communion of blessings. Therefore, from what has been said, we learn the following teaching: the apostolic word is always applicable to those who succeed in the most important things, which says: “If anyone thinks that he knows something, he has no understanding, as he ought to understand” (1 Cor. 8:2). For in what preceded the soul knew the Bridegroom, as much as it comprehended. But since what has not yet been comprehended is an infinite number of times greater than what has been comprehended, therefore, although the Bridegroom has appeared to the soul many times, yet with his voice he announces himself to the bride that he will appear to her, as if he had not yet appeared to her eyes. And to make this thought clearer for us, I will add some similarity to the speech as an example: as if someone were near that source, about which the Scripture said that in the beginning “came out of the earth” in such abundance that “it watered the whole face of the earth” (Gen. 2:6), then the one who approaches the source will be amazed at this countless quantity of “boundless” water, constantly filling it with it. poured out, but will not say that he saw all this water (for is it possible for him to see what is hidden in the bowels of the earth?), therefore, even if he stands for a long time at the pouring source, he will always be only at the beginning of this spectacle, because the water still does not stop flowing and is still just beginning to pour out. Likewise, the one who has before his eyes this Divine and indefinable beauty, since what is being acquired again incessantly seems to be newer and more extraordinary in comparison with what has already been comprehended, although he is always amazed at what appears before him, he never stops in the desire to see more, because what is expected is more magnificent and divine than everything visible. Therefore, here too, the bride, always marveling at what she knows and being amazed by it, is never satisfied with what she knows in the desire to continue the review. For this reason, even now, since he still feels that the Word is striking the door, he rises up with obedience and says: “The voice of my Brother is striking the door.” Then, giving peace to his hearing, he listens to the voice of the broadcasting Word: “Open to Me, My sister, My neighbor, My dove, My perfect one: as My head is filled with dew, and My hair with the drops of the night.” The meaning of this will be comprehended by the one who forms such a view. To the great Moses the Epiphany began with light; then God talks with him in the cloud, after which Moses, having become taller and more perfect, sees God in the darkness. And from this we learn something similar to the following: the first removal from false and erroneous assumptions about God is the transition from darkness to light. A more attentive observation of the hidden, which through the visible leads the soul to the invisible nature, becomes like a kind of cloud, which, obscuring everything visible, guides and trains the soul to turn its gaze to the hidden. The soul, stretching through this to the above, as far as this is accessible to human nature, leaving what is below, enters the sanctuary of the knowledge of God, being everywhere enveloped in Divine darkness, in which, since everything visible and comprehended is left outside, only the invisible and incomprehensible remains for the soul’s vision, and in this darkness is God, as the Word says about the lawgiver: “Moses descend into darkness, where God was” (Ex. 20, 21). Based on this review, we must consider what similarity is between what is said and what is brought to our attention. The bride was once black, darkened by dark teachings, when the sun that covered her burned, due to temptations, the seed that had not taken root on the stones. Defeated by those who had once cooked with her, she did not preserve her grapes, because, not knowing herself, she tended flocks of goats instead of sheep. But as soon as she left her alliance with evil, she desired in that mysterious kiss to bring her lips closer to the source of light, then she becomes beautiful, illuminated by the light of truth and washed with water from the blackness of ignorance. Then, in terms of the speed of the flow, she is likened to horses, and in terms of the speed of understanding, she is likened to a dove. Having run around like horses and, like a dove, having flown around everything comprehended and visible, she first rests with lust under the shadow of an apple tree, calling what shades her an apple tree instead of a cloud; and now it is already embraced by the divine night, during which the Bridegroom, although he comes, does not show himself. For how would the invisible appear at night? But although He gives the soul a certain sensation of His presence, He nevertheless avoids clear understanding, hiding through the invisibility of nature. Therefore, what kind of secrecy is performed on the soul on this night? The Word touches the doors. By the name of doors is meant the fortune-telling meaning of the mysterious, by which what we are looking for is introduced into us. Therefore, truth, standing outside our nature, with knowledge “from part” (1 Cor. 13:12), as the Apostle says, with assumptions and fortune-telling strikes at the doors of understanding, saying: open; and to the conviction he adds the way in which doors should be opened - these are wonderful names - giving, as it were, some kind of keys with which to open what is locked. For the meaning of these names: “sister, neighbor, dove, perfect”, in the literal sense, are the keys that open the hidden. If it is desirable for you, says the Bridegroom, for the doors to open and the gates of your soul to be “taken” and the “King of Glory” to enter (Ps. 20:7), then you must become my sister, accepting my will from the soul, as it is said in the Gospel that he becomes His brother and sister who lives according to His will (Matt. 12:49). You must also begin to approach the truth, become a “neighbor,” so that no environment obscures you, and your perfection consists in the quality of a dove; and this means - to be filled without lack of all kindness and all purity. As if some keys, having accepted these names, open with them, O soul, the entrance to the truth, becoming a sister, neighbor, dove, perfect. The profit from the fact that you accept and bring Me into your house will be for you the dew from My head with which I am full, and the night drops from My hair. And from them the dew will bring healing, as we clearly learned this from the prophet, who says: “For the dew that comes from You is healing for them” (Is. 26:19). And the “drops of the night” are in connection with what was discussed above, for whoever was in the sanctuary near the unseen, it was impossible for him to seek any rain or stream of knowledge; on the contrary, it is desirable for him if the truth sprinkles his knowledge with subtle and unclear thoughts, with the assistance of an intelligent drop flowing from holy and God-bearing men. For the “hairs” on the Head of all, in my opinion, in a figurative sense are called the Prophets, Evangelists and Apostles, of whom each, as much as it contained, drawing these hidden, hidden and invisible treasures in the darkness, becomes a river for us, but in reality these are drops of only dew, although they are filled with the abundance and greatness of the teaching. What a river Paul was, carried by waves of thoughts above heaven, even “to the third heaven,” even to “paradise,” to where he heard ineffable and unpronounceable verbs (2 Cor. 12:3.4)! And like the sea, all this height of speech, pouring out in the word, he also shows that this word in comparison with the true Word is a kind of drop of dew, when he says: “We understand in part, and we prophesy in part” (1 Cor. 13:9); and: “If anyone thinks that he knows anything, he does not understand as he ought to understand” (1 Cor. 8:2); and: “I do not think that I have achieved it” (Philip.3, 13)! Therefore, if the moisture of dew and drops on hair are considered in comparison with our strengths to be recognized as rivers, seas and waves, then what should we conclude about this Source, which said: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink” (John 7:37)? Each of those listening, as it is said, will form an idea of ​​​​the miracle. For if a drop is enough for rivers to arise, then what should this drop infer about the river of God itself? But let's see how the bride obeys the Word, how she opens the entrance to the Bridegroom. “I have taken off my robe,” she says, “how will I put on nudes? Wash my noses, how can I defile them? ( Song 5:3 ). She listened perfectly to Him who commanded her to become a sister, a neighbor, a dove and a perfect one, so that as a result of this the truth would dwell in her soul. For she did what she heard, taking off the leather garment in which she had put on after sin, and washing away from her feet the earthly uncleanness with which she was covered, when, returning from the life of paradise to earth, she heard: “As you are the earth, you will return to the earth” (Gen. 3:19). Therefore, the Word opened the entrance to the soul, opening the veil of the heart, that is, the flesh, and, speaking of the flesh, I mean the old man, which the divine Apostle commands those who are preparing to wash the uncleanness of their spiritual feet in the font of the Word. So, having put off the old man and taken away the veil of the heart, the soul opened the entrance to the Word, and when It entered, it makes Him its clothing, according to the leadership of the Apostle, who commands the one who has put off the carnal garment of the old man to put on a robe created “according to God in honor and in righteousness” (Eph. 4:24). He calls Jesus clothing. And the sign of the bride that she will no longer put on the overthrown robe, but, according to the law given to the disciples, will be content with one robe, in which she put on, having been renewed by being born again, confirms the Lord’s word, which commands those who have once been adorned with divine clothing to no longer put on the robe of sin and to have not two clothes, but only one, so that two robe on the same one will not be at odds with one another, because what kind of communication does dark clothing have with light-like and immaterial? The law commands not only not to have two vestments, but also not to sew a new “plate” “to the garment of the vest” (Mk. 2:21), so that no greater disgrace occurs if someone puts on such clothing and what is sewn does not remain intact, and a large and irreparable hole becomes in the old one. For it is said: “The new order will tear away from the old, and the destruction will become worse” (Mk. 2:21), so that the unseemly will also be revealed. Therefore the bride says: “I have taken off my robe, how shall I put on nudes?” For who, seeing on himself the sun-transparent robe of the Lord, placed on him for purity and incorruption, for example, which the Lord showed on the mountain during the transfiguration, will then agree to have poor and torn clothes placed on him, in which, as the parable says, a “drunkard and a fornicator” is clothed (Proverbs 23:21)? And having washed his feet, he does not agree to defile them again by walking on the ground. For he says: “Having washed my noses, how can I defile them?” For it is also narrated about Moses that, by Divine command, having freed his feet from dead leather shoes, he did not put boots on his feet again when he stepped onto the holy and consecrated ground, and also when, according to the image shown on the mountain, he made priestly clothes - in one fabric he combined the shine of gold, scarlet, fine linen, blue and scarlet, so that beauty, dissolved from everything, would shine, without any adornment. managed to do it for the feet, on the contrary, it served as an outfit for the priestly foot to be naked and free from any cover, because the priest certainly had to step on holy ground, which was not allowed to enter with dead skin. Therefore, the Lord forbids the disciples to have boots when he commands them not to walk “in the way of the tongue,” but to follow the holy path (Matt. 10:5.10). Of course, you don’t know this holy path that the disciples are commanded to follow, having learned this from the Rex: “I am the way” (John 14:6) - a path that it is not possible for a dead person to touch without taking off his clothes. Therefore, since there was a bride on this path, on which the Lord, walking along it, washes his feet with water and wipes them with the ribbon with which he girdles; and the girdle of the Lord is the power that cleanses from sins, for it is said: “The Lord clothed himself with strength and girded himself” (Ps. 92:1); then the bride, having cleansed her feet, keeps herself on the royal path, “not turning aside on the right hand or on the left” (Deut. 5:39), so that, having transferred the mark to one side or the other of the path, she does not stain her feet with mud. Of course, you understand what is meant by what has been said, namely, that the soul, having once cast off the boots by baptism (for it is the baptizer’s own business to cast off the straps of the boots, as John testified (John 1:22), that it cannot do this over the Lord alone: for how can it be loosed by Him Who was not at all bound by the strap of sin?), itself washed its feet, casting off all earthly things together with the boots. uncleanness. And therefore he keeps his feet undefiled on the smooth path, as David did when, having washed his feet from the clay of the mud, he set them on a stone, expressing this in words like this: “raised me from the pit of passions, and from the clay of the mud, and set my feet on stones, and set my feet straight” (Ps. 39:3). By the name of stone we mean the Lord, Who is light, and truth, and incorruptibility, and truth is what equalizes the spiritual path. He who has not turned aside from it in one direction or the other, keeps his traces in no way defiled by the dirt of voluptuousness. This is the very thing with which the bride, in my understanding, opens the door to the Word. For the confession that one will no longer accept the rejected mud and will not touch earthly filth on the path of life becomes the entrance of the shrine into the soul thus prepared, and the shrine is the Lord. This is the final thought of what was said. After this, the soul again begins to ascend to the highest, because it is not the voice that only strikes the door of the heart, but the divine hand itself penetrates into the inside, “through the well. “My brother,” says the bride, “sent His hand through the well, and my belly trembled for Him.” Without a doubt, it is obvious to the one who listens intelligently how much more than what was said before, what was said now is more abundant in height. The word, saying to the bride: “Open” with Divine names, gives her the power to open. The bride is obedient to the Word because she becomes what she has listened to: a sister, a neighbor, a dove and a perfect one; he takes off this leather robe, washes the uncleanness from his feet, does not put on himself again this vile and torn clothing, and no longer places his feet on the ground. She heard the voice of the Bridegroom and obeyed the command; opens the door, removing the veil from the heart; pushes aside the curtain of the door, that is, the flesh, opens all the gates of the soul so that the King of glory can enter. But the wide gate turned out to be some kind of small, narrow and cramped hole into which the Bridegroom Himself could not enter, and His hand could barely fit, so that He only penetrated inside and touched the woman who wanted to see the Groom, and from this the bride only benefited, because in the hand that touched her she recognized the hand of her Beloved. What teachings are indicated to us by the wisdom contained in what has been said, we will find out if we do not dwell on this word for a long time. The human soul is within the boundaries of two natures, of which one is incorporeal, spiritual and pure, and the other is corporeal, material and unreasonable. How soon, having freed himself from attachment to the rough and earthly life, because of virtue, turns his gaze to what is akin to it and the Divine, he does not stop in exploring and searching for the beginning of beings - that is, what is the source of their beauty, where does the strength flow from, what exudes from itself the wisdom that is revealed in the essence. Bringing into motion all the forces of reason and all the mental ability of research, with inquisitiveness he strives to comprehend what he is looking for, setting for himself the limit of comprehension only the effectiveness of God, even reaching to us, which we feel in our lives. And just as the air transferred from the earth to the water does not stop at the bottom of the lake, but the resulting bubble strives to the top to its kindred, and then stops moving to the top when it reaches the very surface of the water and mixes with the surrounding air, so something similar happens to the soul that explores the Divine; when he stretches from the lower to the knowledge of the highest and, having comprehended the miracles of His activity, cannot go any further in his curiosity, but marvels and reveres before Him, whose existence is known only because he acts. She sees celestial beauty, the brilliance of the luminaries, the rapid rotation of the poles, the orderly and orderly course of the stars, the circle of the four annual times returning to its beginning, the earth conforming to its surroundings and changing its own actions according to the difference in the movements of what is above it, many different breeds of animals living in the waters and receiving movement through the air as their destiny, and those living on land, all kinds of plants, various herbs, different from one another quality, strength, appearance, properties of fruits and juices; looking at everything else in which God’s activity is revealed, the soul, from the miracles of what is visible, concludes with its mind what is understood by these deeds. In the age to come, when everything visible will pass away, according to the word of the Lord, who said: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass by” (Matt. 24, 35), and we will move into that life that is higher than sight, hearing, and thought, when perhaps not from a part, not only from deeds, we understand the nature of the Good, as now, and not from the effectiveness of what is visible, we understand what is higher, but, without a doubt, otherwise a kind of unspeakable bliss will be comprehended and another way of pleasure will be revealed, which is now unusual for it to ascend into the heart of man. In the meantime, now the limit in the knowledge of the unspeakable to the soul is the effectiveness manifested in beings, which, in our understanding, is allegorically called “hand”. So, this is the teaching that is wisely taught to us in these Divine sayings; according to them, the pure soul, no longer passing through an earthly and material life, so as not to defile its trace, resting its feet on what was below, expecting to receive the Bridegroom Himself, who had fully entered the house, so far loved to see only a hand in the well, by the name of which is meant His effective power. “My brother,” she says, “sent His hand through the well,” because human strength does not have such capacity to accept an indefinable and incomprehensible nature. “And my belly will tremble for Him,” continues the bride. The word “awe” means some kind of amazement and surprise at the miracle that has appeared, because all the power of understanding is set in motion in it by the miraculousness of what is accomplished by the hand of God, the comprehension of which, surpassing its strength, expresses the incomprehensibility and inconceivability of the nature of the acting, because the entire creation of creatures is the work of this hand, revealed to us “through the well,” as John calls, and in accordance with The Prophet speaks the Gospel. For one says: “all this was created” (John 1:2), and the Prophet calls the power that creates beings by hand, saying: “My hand has created all these things” (Ps.66:2). Therefore, if everything else, and the beauties of heaven, are the product of this activity, but the human mind, which is searching for what the essence of man or the sun, or any other of the miracles visible to creation is, has not comprehended, then for this reason the heart itself trembles before God’s activity, reasoning that if it is not able to comprehend this, then how will this higher nature comprehend? But someone else, having understood the mysterious meaning of what was said differently, in his opinion, perhaps, will not sin against what is required by the truth. For I think that by the house of the bride we mean the whole of human life, and this hand that creates creatures, having briefly visited the temporality and frailty of human life, reduces itself by sharing our nature “in every likeness, except sin” (Heb. 4:15). Having come to us, he creates awe and wonder in our souls, how does God appear in the flesh? How is the Word made flesh? How does a Virgo give birth? How does light mix with darkness, and life dissolve with death? How does a small well of life accept into itself all beings containing the Hand, which measures the whole sky, embraces all the earth and all the water? Therefore, it is likely that under the mysterious name of the bride’s hand, the grace of the Gospel is prophetically signified to us. For when the Lord appeared on earth and lived among people, then we recognized the pure and immaterial beauty of the Bridegroom, the Divinity of the Word, the radiance of the true light by the active hand. For by the name of the hand we mean His miraculous power, by which the dead were revived, the sight of the blind was restored, the disease of leprosy was cast out, and by one command all kinds of incurable and serious illness left the body. Since this twofold view of the word “hand” is offered to us, and one assumes that the Divine Nature, as completely incomprehensible and incomparable with anything, is known by its effectiveness alone, and the other asserts that the words of the bride foretell the gospel grace, then we leave it to the listener, preferably over the other, to choose what is more akin and most consistent with the proposed words. At least, whichever of them is considered more spiritually beneficial, may it serve us as a sufficient guide to the benefit of both of what has been said. Knowing that “the rational things of God,” according to Pavlov, “from the creation of the world have been visibly conceived by created things” (Rom. 1:19–20), let us refrain from inquisitive research into the incomprehensible, so that reasoning about the inaccessible and indescribable nature does not serve as a reason for deviating from the truth. If, keeping in mind the Gospel, we formulate a fortune-telling concept about the hand, then even in this case, faith in the mysterious teachings will become stronger in us, in the preliminary proclamation of the dogmas, having borrowed for ourselves the greater certainty about Christ Jesus. Glory to him forever! Amen. You might be interested in: