Беседа 12. Толкование на Песн. 5:5–7

Song 5:5. I rise to open the door to my Brother: my hands are filled with myrrh, my fingers are full of myrrh on my hands of imprisonment. Song 5:6. I opened it to my brother: my brother pass away. My soul went out into His word: I sought Him and did not find Him; I called Him and did not listen to me. Song 5:7. The guards who surrounded me in the city found me, they beat me, they wounded me, and the guards took the upper robe from me. Those who are preparing to travel the seas in the hope of riches, when the ship is set sail from the pier, and the one sitting at the helm turns the stern with the rudder towards the sea, at the beginning of navigation they perform a prayer, asking God to become the leader on a good voyage. And the main thing in their prayer is that the wind blows in the sails, favorable, in agreement with the purpose of the helmsman standing at the stern, with the desired wind of which the sea becomes pleasing to the eyes, barely rippling with the quiet oscillation of the waves, and the latitude of the sea does not bring sadness, because the ship flies and glides across the waters with ease; and the wealth that they hope from trade is already before their eyes, since even before trials they know the good outcome of the voyage. For listeners who are more perceptive, this, offered in the form of an introduction, will undoubtedly be understandable. The Word has before it a great sea of ​​viewing Divine sayings, and there is hope for much wealth of knowledge from this voyage. This animated ship, the Church in its entirety, looks with eager attention at the wealth of interpretation. But the Helmsman - the Word - does not first touch the helm until a common prayer is brought by the fullness of the ship, so that the power of the Holy Spirit will blow upon us, raise waves of thoughts, and with them lead the word directly to the goal of the voyage, so that in this way, having launched into the sea of ​​vision, we will acquire the wealth of knowledge, if through your prayers the Holy Spirit will descend on the word and fill the sails. Let the beginning of the word be the bringing to memory of the inspired sayings, which literally read like this: “I arose and opened the doors to my Brother: my hands are dabbed with myrrh, my fingers are full of myrrh” (Song. 5:5) That the living Word, I mean the pure and incorporeal Bridegroom, who combines the soul with immortality and holiness, can be in us no other way than someone else, having killed “the fish that are on the earth” (Col. 3:5), he will take off the veil of flesh, and thus open the door for the Word, by which It dwells in the soul - this is clearly not only from the divine teachings of the Apostle, but also from what was now said by the bride. For he says: “I opened the door to my Brother,” making my hands for this purpose springs of myrrh, pouring out aroma, and showing that myrrh fills my fingers; so the very way in which the door is opened to the Bridegroom is explained in what was said, that is, “rising up,” having been buried “by baptism into death” (Rom. 6:4). The resurrection would not have had any effect if it had not been preceded by voluntary death. Voluntariness is shown from her hands by the flowing drops of myrrh and her fingers filled with this aroma. For, according to her, it is not from anything else that myrrh comes into the hand. Otherwise, this would convey the idea that what is signified by myrrh is something dependent on circumstances and involuntary. On the contrary, the bride says that the hands (and hands mean the active movements of the soul) themselves exude myrrh, this voluntary deadness of the body, expressing this by what is performed in all fingers. He says what he cares about for the sake of virtue in each of its forms separately, explaining this by the name of the fingers, so that the whole meaning of what was said is as follows: by killing my ouds, “even on earth,” the power of resurrection was acquired, because the killing of such ouds was carried out voluntarily, the myrrh was not put into the hands of others, but according to my will it expires, so that in all virtuous endeavors called fingers, such the location is seen as having no drawback. For in the unzealous followers of virtue one can see that for one passion they are dead, but for others they are alive; as we see that others, if this happens, mortify intemperance in themselves, but carefully nurture arrogance or some other passion that harms the soul, for example: covetousness, anger, love of fame, or other similar things; and while it lives, unfortunately, in the soul, it is impossible to show fingers full of myrrh, because not in all endeavors the mortification and alienation of the bad is visible. But as soon as such fingers are all filled with the myrrh we understand, the soul rises and opens the entrance to the Bridegroom. That is why, perhaps, the great Paul, having well understood the Master’s Word, says that it is impossible for an ear to grow unless the grain is first broken down mortally (1 Cor. 15:36), when he preaches to the Church the teaching that death must be prevented by life, so that it is impossible for life to appear in a person otherwise, unless it opens its entrance by death. Since the nature in us is twofold, one is subtle, spiritual and light, and the other is bulky, material and heavy, then, by all necessity, in each of them there is a striving with the other that is inconsistent and special, because the spiritual and light have their soaring towards what is above, and the heavy and material always inclines and rushes towards what is below. Therefore, since their movements are naturally opposite, it is not possible for one of them to overcome until the other has exhausted itself in its natural striving. Occupying the middle between them, our free power and will impart strength to the weakening nature and relaxation to the strengthening one. For whichever side they are on will achieve victory over the other side. So in the Gospel the “faithful and wise builder” is boasted (Luke 12:42); for this, according to my reasoning, is will, which well disposes of what is in us; it boasts that it feeds the sovereign's servants by killing those who resist, because the death of the latter is food and prosperity for the well-disposed. Condemned is “that evil servant” (Matthew 24:48), who spends time with drunkards and inflicts blows and wounds on God’s servants, because the prosperity of vice is a real blow to the virtues. Therefore, it will be good, having become zealous for the prophetic word, to make your morning by “slaying all the sinful lands that have consumed the hail” (and the hail is the soul) “all the thoughts of the Lord”, “working iniquity” (Ps. 100:8), whose destruction becomes life for the best. This is how we live by death, when from what is in us, as the Prophet says, one thing kills and another gives life. The Word said: “I will kill and make life” (Deut. 32:35). Just as Paul, when he died, lived; exhausted, he gained strength; bound, made a flow; being poor, he made rich; and contained everything, “having nothing” (2 Cor. 6:10), “always carrying the deadness of... Jesus in his body” (2 Cor. 4:10). But let us return to what was proposed, namely, that the soul is restored from death by death. For if she does not die, then she remains forever dead and incapable of life. As a result of the fact that she died, putting aside all deadness, she comes to life. And this teaching is confirmed by the saying offered to us, because this is what the bride says: “I arose to open to my Brother: my hands are filled with myrrh, my fingers are full of myrrh.” And that myrrh is a sign of death, no one who has studied the Divine Scriptures will doubt. Therefore, since death raises us from death, the teaching about this, I believe, will be demanded by others to be presented with greater clarity. Therefore, let's talk about this as much as possible, giving the speech some consistent order. “God created everything that was so good” (Gen. 1:31), the word of the world testifies to this. And among the “good ones” there was also a man; it would be better to say, most of all he was adorned with kindness. For what else would be so good as likeness to the most pure Goodness? If “everything is good”, and among everything, or preferably before everything, man was good, then, without a doubt, there was no death in man. For a person would not be any kind of good if he had the sad trait of mortal despondency. On the contrary, as the image and likeness of eternal life, he was truly and very good, adorned with the bright line of life. The Divine Paradise exuded life to him through the fruitfulness of the trees, and God’s commandment served as the law of life, promising that he would not die. But just as in the midst of the planting of paradise there was a tree exuding life, which is what we should understand about that tree whose fruit is life, so there was a deadly tree, the fruit of which is said to be both good and evil, and it was in the midst of paradise. Meanwhile, it is impossible for these trees to have a place in the very middle. For if we assume that one of two trees occupied the middle, then the other tree is necessarily excluded, of course, from the middle place, because the exact position of the middle is taken relative to the circle, when equal distances are removed from each point of the extreme limit. Therefore, since a circle has exactly one middle, then while the circle remains the same, two centers cannot exist in its middle. If another center is added to the one previously biased, then with the movement of the circle, of necessity, outside its middle the former middle of the circumference of the circle described from the other center will become. But it is said that in the middle of paradise there are two trees, one opposite to the other in strength, I mean the tree of life and the one whose fruit was death, and which Paul called sin, saying: the fruit of “sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). From what has been said, one must understand the following teaching of philosophy: the very middle of God’s planting is life, and death is neither planted nor rooted, not having its own place anywhere, but is planted through the deprivation of life, when the living ceases to partake of the best. So, since life is among God’s plantings, by falling away from it the nature of death is introduced; then about the deadly tree, who enigmatically expounded this wise teaching, says that it is in the middle of paradise, and about its fruit he expressed that it has a power mixed from opposites. For he called the same thing both good and evil, meaning by this, as I think, the property of sin. Since every sinful action is certainly preceded by some kind of pleasure, and whether passions arise from irritation or lust, it is impossible to find a sin with which pleasure is not associated; then for this reason, the fruit, with an erroneous judgment about good, is called good, appearing as such for those who supply good in pleasure, but later turns out to be bad due to the bitter regurgitation of food, in accordance with the word of the parable, which says: “honey drips from the lips” of vice, “which for a time delights the larynx, but the bitter aftertaste of gall” is found for the evil of oneself who has enjoyed (Prov. 5, 3–4). Therefore, when a person, having abandoned the full fruitfulness of good things, through disobedience, was filled with corrupting fruit, and the name of this fruit is deadly sin, then he immediately died for a better life, exchanging the Divine life for an unreasonable and bestial one. And since death was once mingled with nature, deadness entered into those who were born by succession. Because of this, we also received deathly life, since our life itself died in some way. For in the literal sense, our life is dead, devoid of immortality. Therefore, between these two lives, he occupies the environment, who is known among the two lives, so that by destroying the worse one he can bring victory to the one who has not suffered change. And a person, just as by dying of true life fell into this dead life, so when he dies of this dead and bestial life, he is reincarnated into an always living life, and for this reason it is certain that it is impossible to come to a blessed life without becoming dead to sin. For this reason, the philosophical doctrine is set forth in the word that both trees are in the same place “in the middle,” so that one is really there by nature, and the other becomes real due to deprivation. For as a result of communion and deprivation, from the same and in the same there is a transformation of both life and death; because he who is dead for good lives for evil, and he who became dead for vice is alive for virtue. Therefore, the bride does a wonderful thing when she shows her hands full of myrrh, rising in deadness in every vice to open the entrance to the Word. The Word that she infuses into herself is life. But to such a height, what we have considered, the soul is delighted, turning its gaze to God, as Paul says, has not yet known as it should have known (1 Cor. 13:12), “and you do not think that you have reached it,” but hastens to what is even higher, “stretching out to what is before” (Phil. 3:13). And the connection of the following words gives reason to understand this about the bride, having said: “I opened my Brother in my arms,” she added: “My brother has passed away, my soul has gone out into His word.” For this teaches us that in the reasoning of a power that exceeds any mind, there is only one way of comprehension: do not stop at anything comprehended, but, always seeking more than what is comprehended, do not be satisfied with anything. For having become full of myrrh, with all the beginnings of life (which in a figurative sense she calls fingers), letting one see her mortification to evil, and having shown her voluntary zeal for virtue by “dipping myrrh” out of herself, she says that her hands touched the key, that is, she announces that her deeds are close to that narrow and cramped entrance, the key to which the Word hands over to those like her. Petru. Therefore, he opens the door of the kingdom to both of them - both with the hands with which deeds are signified, and with the key of faith. For through both, I mean works and faith, the key of the kingdom is prepared for us by the Word. Therefore, when she hoped, like Moses, that the face of the King would be revealed to her clearly, then the Desired One surpassed her comprehension. For he says: “My brother is gone,” not leaving the soul that follows Him, but drawing it to Himself. For “my soul went forth into His word.” Blessed is this procession by which the soul follows the Word! “The Lord will preserve your going out and your coming in,” says the Prophet (Ps. 120:8). For this is truly the procession and entry preserved by God for the worthy! The departure from that in which we remain is made by entering into higher blessings. It is through this procession that “the soul went forth,” having received as its leader the Word, which said: “I am the door and the way,” and: “By me, whosoever shall enter, shall enter, and shall come out,” never ceasing to enter and never ceasing to proceed, but continually entering with progress into what is higher and always leaving behind what has been comprehended. So then that desired face of the Lord passed by Moses; Thus, the soul of the legislator, following the previous Word, always found itself outside of what it had been in before. For who does not know the ascents with which Moses ascended, always becoming great and never stopping in growing into greater things? He grew at the beginning, when he placed “the reproach of Christ” above the Egyptian kingdom, choosing “more” to suffer evil “with the people of God than to have the temporary sweetness of sin” (Heb. 11, 25-26). It grew even more when he saw that an Egyptian oppressed a Jew and, fighting for an Israeli, put a foreigner to death. Of course, you will understand in this a way of growth, bringing the story under an allegorical view. And Moses also became taller than himself, keeping his life unknown for a long time through wisdom in the desert, then he was enlightened by fire in a bush. First of all, he strips his feet of dead shoes, destroys the Egyptian serpents with a rod, delivers his fellow tribesmen from Pharaoh’s torment, is guided by a cloud, divides the sea, drowns torment, delights Marah, fattens the stone, and is satisfied with angel food. He hears the voice of the trumpets, dares to go to the burning mountain, reaches the top, enters the cloud, penetrates the darkness in which God was, accepts the Covenant, becomes an impregnable sun for those approaching, illuminating his face with light. And how can anyone depict in words all his ascents and his many different Epiphanies? However, with such great and many talents, after so many experiences, having risen so much to God, he still has an insatiable desire for more and begs God to allow him to see Him face to face. And although the Word has already testified that he was honored with a personal conversation with God, however, the fact that he speaks to Him as with a friend, and the “mouth to mouth” conversation with God that Moses had (Num. 12:8), does not stop his desire for even higher gifts. On the contrary, he says: “If I have found grace from You,” show me Yourself in a clear manner; and He who promised to grant the requested grace, Who said: “I know you above all” (Exodus 33:16-17), passes by him, covered with the Divine hand in a divine place in the stone, so that after God’s passing he sees only the “back” (Exodus 33:23). And by this, I think, the word teaches that whoever desires to see God, always following Him, sees what he wants, and seeing the face of God is an unceasing procession to God, successfully accomplished by following the footsteps of the Word. Therefore, it is the same now, when the soul rose mortally, when it became full of myrrh, when through deeds it moved its hands to the key and hoped to bring the Desired One into its house, then the Desired One passes by, and the soul departs, no longer remaining where it was, but following the Word that leads forward. The subsequent speech further confirms the meaning we have discerned, namely, that the greatness of the nature of God is known not from what is comprehended about it, but from the fact that it surpasses every idea and all the power of comprehension. For the soul, already emerging from nature, so as not to encounter any obstacles to the knowledge of the invisible in anything ordinary, does not stop, looking for the unattainable, and does not remain silent, calling on the inexpressible. She says: “I sought Him, and did not find Him.” And how can it be found that does not show anything knowable in itself: neither type, nor color, nor outline, nor quantity, nor place, nor appearance, nor reason for guessing, nor similarity, nor resemblance, but, always found outside any path to comprehension, in every possible way avoids the entrapment of those who seek? Therefore, the bride says: “I sought Him” with the inventive powers of the soul, in conclusions and concepts; and certainly found himself outside of them, running away from the approach of thought. But whoever turns out to always lack such a distinctive feature by which he can be known, can he be included in any nominative meaning? Therefore, the bride invents names of all kinds of power to signify the ineffable good; but all expressive power of the word is overcome and turns out to be small compared to the truth. Therefore, he continues: I called as much as I could, inventing words pointing to ineffable bliss, but He was always higher than what was indicated by the signified. So, for example, the great David does it, repeatedly calling on the Divinity with thousands of names and recognizing himself as conquered by the truth. For he says: “You are generous, O God, and merciful, long-suffering and abounding in mercy” (Ps. 103:8) and true, “my fortress, confirmation, refuge and strength, helper, protector, horn of salvation” (Ps. 17:2-3), and the like. And then he confesses not that His name is known throughout the whole earth, but that everyone is amazed at Him. For he says: “How wonderful is Your name throughout all the earth” (Ps. 8:2). So to Manoah the Angel, who foretold about his son, when asked about the name, answered: “that is, wonderful” (Judges 13:18) and beyond what can be contained in human hearing. Therefore, the soul calls on the Word as much as it can, but not as much as it desires; for she would have wanted more than what was possible. However, he will desire this not so much as it is desired, but as much as the will has the strength to desire. Therefore, since the one who is called is not reachable by the aspirations of the one who calls, for this reason he says: “I called Him, and he did not listen to me.” And what the bride adds to what has been said, although at first glance it has a gloomy appearance, it seems to me that it is tending towards the same goal, and concerns the ascent to the highest. For the bride says: “The guards who went around in the city found me, they beat me, they wounded me, and the guards took the outer robe from me.” It may seem to others that these sayings are more appropriate for one who is mourning than one who is having fun: “Bisha, ulcer, taking the outer robe”; but for one who has accurately grasped the meaning of what was said, these are words of great excellence. In this case, this speech will become clear to us. Not long before this, in what was said, Scripture testifies to the bride that she is clean from all concealment, when she says on behalf of the bride: “I have put off my robe, how can I put on naked?” And here he also says that they took off her outer robe, which covered her head and face, as history says about Rebecca (Gen. 24:65). Therefore, how can she, naked from all clothing, still have an outer robe, which the guards now take from her? Isn’t it clear from what has been said how successfully she has since ascended to even greater heights? For she who has taken off her old robe and folded up all her clothing becomes purer than herself to such an extent that, in comparison with her recent cleanliness, apparently she did not even take off her clothes, but again finds something on herself that can be folded even after this stripping. Thus, the ascent to the Divinity shows that it has more on itself in comparison with what was constantly found. Therefore, the above-described exposure from this robe, in comparison with real purity, like a veil, is again removed from the bride by those who find it. And this is the essence of “the guards who go around in the city,” and the city is the soul; When she is beaten and ulcerated, her outer robe is removed by those whose job it is to guard the city walls. Therefore, that this removal of the outer robe is something good, so that the eye, freed from the veil, can freely direct itself to the desired beauty, no one will doubt this, looking at the Apostle, who attributes the removal of the veil to the power of the Spirit, saying: “Whenever they turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away. The Lord is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:16-17). And that what prepares for good is, of course, good itself, no one who knows how to keep in mind the consequence will doubt. Therefore, if the taking away of the veil is a good thing, then the blow and the wound that serve to the successful taking away will, without a doubt, also be a good thing. But since, according to the closest concept, some unpleasantness is expressed by these sayings (the words “bisha me, hurting me” show a painful feeling), it would be good to first notice the use of these sayings in Holy Scripture, whether there is a mention of them for the better, and then consider the power of what is said here. How does Wisdom save the soul of a young man from death? Let us hear from Wisdom herself what she advises to do so that a young person does not die. “If you strike him with a rod,” she says, “he will not die. You will beat him with a rod, but deliver his soul from death” (Proverbs 23:13-14). Therefore, it is proper to interpret the saying: “bisha” with the word: immortality, as the Word says: “If you beat with a rod, you will not die”; and it is impossible for his soul to be saved from death otherwise unless he is beaten with a rod. It’s such a wonderful thing to be beaten; This is proven by what was said to us, because it is truly a wonderful thing to save the soul from death. This is what God does, according to the Prophet, by giving life by what kills and by healing by what afflicts. For he says: “I will kill and make life: I will smite, and I will heal” (Deut. 32:39). Therefore, the great David argued that from such a rod there is not a blow, but consolation, saying: “Thy rod and Thy club, they comfort me” (Ps. 22:4). They carry out the preparation of the Divine meal and everything that this psalmody contains in order: oil on the head, wine in the cup, which produces sober intoxication, and mercy, which beautifully pursues the Prophet, and the length of days in the house of God. Therefore, if this delivers a sweet blow both according to the tributary teaching and according to the word of the Prophet, then it is good to endure blows from the rod, from which there is an abundance of such benefits. But let us examine better what we left before what we said now. The word “pass”, and for the bride who wants to embrace Him, becomes unattainable; but “pass away” not in order to leave the one whom you passed by, but rather in order to attract her to Himself. For the bride says: “My soul went forth into His word.” Therefore, it first comes from what the soul was in, and then it is found by those guarding the city. For he says: “The guard who went around the city found me.” So, if she was found by hellish troubles, if she says about herself that she was found by robbers, then it is difficult to become the acquisition of something like this. For “the thief does not come unless he steals and kills and destroys” (John 10:10). If “the guards who go around the city” find it, then it is, without a doubt, very blessed, because of such acquisition. For whoever is found by the guard cannot be stolen by robbers. Therefore, what kind of “guards” are these? Are there any others, or, without a doubt, servants of the One who “keeps Israel” (Ps. 120:4), - the One who covers the “right hand” with guarding (Ps. 120:5), - the One who is entrusted “to preserve the soul from all evil” (Ps. 120:7)? This Guardian of “entry and departure” (Ps. 120:8) is the Guardian of the city, about whom it is said: “If the Lord does not preserve the city, it will be guarded in vain” (Ps. 126:1). Therefore, “ministers are sent to serve for those who want to inherit salvation” (Heb. 1:14) are indicated in the word under the name “watchmen” who go around the city. The soul, as it is said, is a city, God’s dwelling place. So, they, they say, found a soul, just as the Good Shepherd once found that sheep about which, according to the word of the Lord, all the angelic faces moved to joy. Thus, a drachma was once found with a lamp, about which all friends and neighbors rejoice. David, the servant of the Lord, is also found in this way, just as the psalmody speaks on behalf of God: “I have found My servant David, and anointed him with My holy oil” (Ps. 88:21). Let us listen to what he was honored with when he became the property of the Found One. “My hand,” says God, “will intercede for him, and My arm will strengthen him” (Ps. 88:22). “I will cut off his enemies from before him, and she who hates him will conquer” (Ps. 89:24), and everything else that contains a list of blessings. Therefore, it is a wonderful thing to be found by the Angels who go around the city - the soul: And this is how the great David conveys the idea when he says: “The Angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear Him, and will deliver them” (Ps. 33:8). Therefore, she who said: “Bisha are the guardians of me,” boasted that she had made some progress in progressing the procession to the heavenly. If she says that she also suffered ulcers, then with these words she depicts an image imprinted deep within her with the Divine rod; because the action of the spiritual rod does not take on itself superficially, so that it is not possible to recognize the place where the rod was applied, but as a result of the ulcer, the blow with which the bride boasts turns out to be significant. What she said is similar to the following: This Divine rod and consoling club, which produces healing by striking, is the Spirit; His fruit, like all the other blessings enumerated by Paul, is also, together with others, the mentor of a virtuous life - abstinence. So Paul, marked by such blows, admiring these wounds, said: “I bear the marks of Christ on my body” (Gal. 6:17). So, it became clear from what was said to us that it is a wonderful thing and a wound with which the bride’s outer robe is taken away, so that the beauty of her soul is revealed, and the robe no longer darkens her. But let us repeat again, briefly stating the content of what was said. A soul that lifts its gaze to God and has received within itself a good commitment to imperishable beauty has within itself an ever-renewed desire for the highest, never weakening its commitment through satiety. Therefore, she never ceases to stretch out “into the foreground” every time, to leave what occupies her, to penetrate into something more internal, where she has not yet been, and every time to humiliate what seems amazing and great to her before what follows, because what she constantly acquires is certainly more beautiful than what she acquired before. So Paul died daily (1 Cor. 15:31), because each time he entered into a new life, always becoming dead to the past and consigning to oblivion what he had done. Therefore, the bride, hastening to the Groom, finds no stop in success in greater things; creates from the lips gardens of thorns emanating aromas; prepares food for the Lord of creation, treating Him with his own fruits. It exudes heligrees and becomes a storehouse of “living waters.” According to the testimony of the Word, it turns out to be “all good” and without blemish. Again, having become higher than this, he feels the splendor of the approaching Word, whose head is filled with dew, and night drops form in his hair. He washes his feet, takes off his robe, and drops of myrrh flow from his hands. He stretches out his hands to the key, opens the entrance, seeks the Elusive, speaks to the Unattainable. The guards find it; from them he takes upon himself a smiting rod, and is likened to a stone, about which the prophet speaks: “strike the stone, and the water flows away” (Ps. 17:20). Look how high the bride has risen. Therefore, like the rock from Moses, it endures blows, so that, like him, it itself will pour out the word to those who are thirsty, having rained it down from the plague. Then, on top of this, she reveals the beauty of her face when the guards took her outer robe. This is what we could understand in this place. But we will not envy in the least if someone, with the help of the Revealer of hidden secrets, develops a more soulful view of what is proposed. Or perhaps someone else will say that Isain’s vision also has something in common with the proposed sayings. I mean that vision when, after the death of the leper king, I saw, as Isaiah says, Himself sitting splendidly on a high and exalted Throne, whose appearance, majesty and image I could not grasp with my gaze. For if he had grasped it, then, without a doubt, he would have said, as he did in the discussion of everything else he saw, counting the wings, describing standing and flight. But the Prophet only says that he heard a voice when, from the singing of the Seraphim, “the door was taken and the house was filled with smoke” (Is. 6:4), and one of the Seraphim put a burning coal into the Prophet’s mouth, after which not only the mouth, but also the ear was cleared to receive the word. For as here the bride says that “bisha and yazvisha” are her “guards” and thus stripped of the veil of the upper robe; so there too, instead of the upper robe, a door will be raised so that the Prophet has an unobstructed view of what is in the sanctuary; and instead of guards they are called Seraphim, instead of a rod - coal, and instead of beating - burning. But both the bride and the soul of the Prophet have one common end - purity. Therefore, just as the Prophet does not feel pain from burning coal, but being enlightened by it, he is glorified; So here too, the bride does not complain about the pain from the beating, but boasts of the increase in boldness, the removal of the veil, which in the word is called the outer robe. But it is possible to find some other meaning in what is proposed that does not contradict what was considered. The soul that has gone “into His word” and is seeking the unattainable, calling on Him who is unattainable for all the significance of names, learns from the guards that it loves the unattainable, desires the immense. In some way they beat and sting with the hopelessness of what is desired, the soul that has recognized that desire is an imperfect and unsatisfying good. But the upper robe of sorrow is taken away by the knowledge that always succeeding in the quest and never stopping the ascent is true enjoyment of what is desired, when a constantly fulfilled lust gives birth to a new higher desire. Therefore, as soon as the outer garment of hopelessness takes hold and the soul sees that the surpassing aspiration and indescribable beauty of the Beloved throughout the eternity of centuries is always found most perfect, then it comes into the strongest desire and through the daughters of Jerusalem reveals to the Beloved the disposition of the heart, namely, that, having received into itself the chosen arrow of God, it is wounded in the heart by the edge of faith, mortally shot by love. And according to the word of John: “There is a God of Love” (1 John 4:8). To Him be due glory and power forever and ever! Amen. You might be interested in: