Беседа 13. Толкование на Песн. 5, 8–12

Song 5:8. You have sworn, daughters of Jerusalem, in the mighty places and in the strongholds of the villages: if you find my Brother, what will you tell Him? As if I am wounded by love. Song 5:9. What is your brother from your brother, kind in wives? How have you cursed us? Song 5:10. My brother is white and black, chosen from those. Song 5:11. His head is golden, Kefaz, His hair is curly, black like a corvid. Song 5:12. His eyes are like a dove upon the filling of the waters, washing in the babe, sitting in the filling of the waters. Who through Moses decreed the sacraments of the law, and on himself fulfilled the whole law and the prophets, as he says in the Gospel: “I did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it” (Matthew 5:17). Who, by prohibiting anger, blotted out the thought of murder, who, by exterminating desire, drove out the abomination of adultery, He casts out of life the accursed perjury by prohibiting the oath, rendering this scythe inactive. For it is impossible to break an oath when there is no oath. Why does he say: “Hear as it was said to the ancients: do not swear to a lie, but repay your oaths to the Lord. “I tell you,” he continues, “not to swear in any way: neither by heaven, for the throne of God is, nor by Jerusalem, for the city of the Great King. Bow down with your head, for you cannot create a single hair, white or black. Let your word be: to her, to her: neither, nor: but I sow too much out of hostility” (Matt. 5:33-38). But the soul, according to the testimony of the Song of Songs, having reached perfection and having laid aside the spiritual veil by taking off the old robe, having thrown off the “outer garment” from its face, by which we mean every doubt-filled and wavering thought, so as to look at the truth purely and without doubt, conjures the daughters of Jerusalem not by the Throne of God, which Scripture calls heaven, not by the royal one of God. the city, whose name is Jerusalem, and not that venerable head, whose hair cannot become either white or black, but transfers the oaths to the village, conjuring the young women with the forces of the villages, saying: “You, daughters of Jerusalem, have sworn in the strengths and fortresses of the villages.” And she, about whom it is fully attested that she is good and pure from all vice, does not utter anything superfluous - such that it belongs to the part of the hostile, on the contrary, she utters the word that is from God, from Whom, according to the word of Micah, “if there is any good, and if there is any good” (Zech. 9, 17), and nothing other than this. This is clear to anyone who, according to the testimony of the Lord, has studied the advantages that the bride has, because she has abandoned all forbidden types of oath and does not conjure the young women with either the royal city or the Throne of the Great King (and from this we learn how much we must refrain from the impudent use of the name of God in oaths: because we are given advice not to mention either the Throne or the city in oaths), Moreover, he even spares the honest head, which he later describes in a golden speech, and about whose hair he says that they are neither white nor black (for how can gold turn black or take on the white color?), without a doubt, because he offers the virgins a certain oath that does not contradict the Gospel law and serves as a reason for the praise of those who swore, according to the word of the Prophet, who says: “Everyone who swears in Him will boast” (Ps. 62:12). Therefore, the meaning of what has been said does not emerge from that twofold way of certifying the truth, whichever one wants to propose to the Gospel law, saying: “Be your word: to her, to her; and: neither, nor” (Matthew 5:33). Therefore, if it is prohibited to use the name of the Royal Throne among oath expressions, the name of the city in which the Tsar resides is also prohibited, as well as the expression: the true head is prohibited from being used in an oath, but only the words “her” and “neither” are allowed; since in both sayings the truth is seen on an equal basis with the word: to her, it will become clear that even now the spell cast by the bride on the young women is limited to the meaning of the word: to her, in which it is used when they need to confirm the will of our soul. It reads like this: “You, daughters of Jerusalem, have sworn in the strength and strength of the villages: if you find my Brother, what will you tell him? As if I was wounded with love." Although these words have already been considered before, as the sequence of thoughts required, nevertheless, even now what appears to us will be briefly said. The Apostle says that an oath is an immutable thing (Heb. 6:18), which affirms the truth and, according to his definition, it is in the knowledge of “every contradiction, the end of the announcement is” (Heb. 6:16). Therefore, the bride casts a spell on the maiden so that they will inviolably preserve what is said to them. But since everyone swears by the “greater,” as the Apostle says (Heb. 6:16), for no one will swear by what is less valuable than him, it is necessary to consider that the greater is indicated by the bride in her oath to the young women: “You have sworn,” she says, “to the daughters of Jerusalem in strength and to the fortresses of the villages.” So, what is higher than us in this? We have no doubt that the name “village” in a figurative sense means the world, because the Lord named and interpreted the world that way (Matthew 13:38). Therefore, what many powers and fortresses of the world are represented in the oath in such a way that they must be recognized as greater than us, so that the oath in which one swears by greater things receives strength to affirm the truth? Therefore, to clarify what has been proposed, it will be necessary to add another translation, interpreting the sayings differently, namely the following: “You, daughters of Jerusalem, have slaughtered with chamois and deer.” So from these names, which are taken in an oath to confirm the truth, we understand what is the strength and what is the strength of this world. Two qualities in a person make him his friend to God. The first is infallibility in defining the Really Existing One, so as not to be drawn into pagan and heretical opinions about the Divine by deceptive prejudices - and this in the true sense is: “her.” The other is pure thought, which does not give room to any passionate thing located in the soul - and this is also not alien to the word: “her”. Therefore, with this dual relationship of a person to goods (of which one causes a person to turn his gaze to the Really Existing, and the other drives away passions harmful to the soul), the reminder of chamois and deer in images makes it possible to recognize power. For the chamois sees without error, but the deer has the ability to devour and destroy reptiles. This is what the bride says to the virgins: “to her,” that is, that they should look piously at the Divine and live their lives purely - in dispassion. If we succeed in this, this immutable thing is affirmed in us: “to her.” This is the oath that certifies the truth, in which “everyone who takes an oath” boasts in himself, as the prophet says. For indeed, whoever has acquired in himself undoubted success in the reasoning of both (and the word of faith, when he looks at the truth without sin, and the way of life, when he becomes clean from all filth of vice), he swears to the “Lord” that he will not rise “on his bedside”, will not give “sleep to his eyes, and every day slumber, Dondezhe will find” in himself “a place Lord”, becoming a village for the One who lives in it (Ps. 131:2–5). So, if we are also children of the Highest Jerusalem, then we will listen to the bride’s mentor, how can we see the Desired One? So what does she say? If we cast this spell on ourselves to be “in the strength” of the vigilant chamois and in the “fortresses” of the destroyers of the vice of deer, then it is possible to see the pure Bridegroom, this archer of love, and the soul of everyone will say to Him: “I am wounded by love.” And that the wounds of love are beautiful, we learn this from the parable, which says: “the wounds of a friend” are desirable, but “the kisses of an enemy” are bad (Proverbs 27:6). But who is the Friend, whose wounds are preferable to the kiss of the enemy - this is obvious to everyone who does not know the secrets of salvation. A true and lasting Friend is the One who never ceased to love us, who were still enemies. An unfaithful and cruel enemy, who brings to death those who have not offended anyone. The prohibition of evil made by the commandment seemed like a pristine plague; because alienation from what is pleasant was considered an ulcer: and a challenge to what is pleasant and visible to the eye was considered a kiss. But experience showed that the imaginary ulcers of a friend were more useful and desirable than the kisses of an enemy. So, since the beautiful Lover of our souls “composes” his love, according to which “Christ died for us as a sinner for us” (Rom. 5:8), therefore the bride, who has mutually loved the Lover, shows in herself the deep-lying arrow of love, that is, communion with the Divinity of the Bridegroom. For, as it is said, “There is a God of Love” (1 John 4:8), entering the heart with the sting of faith. And if it is necessary to say the name of this arrow, then let’s say what we learned from Paul, namely, that this arrow is “faith making progress through love” (Galatians 5:6). But let everyone accept this as they see fit. Let us also consider the question proposed by the virgins to the mentor: “What is your brother more than your brother, good in wives? Your brother from your brother, as if you have cursed us?” In my opinion, this saying, as can be guessed from the connection with what was previously studied, contains such a certain meaning. Because the virgins saw the beautiful departure of the soul of the bride, when she clung to the Word, saying: “My soul went forth into His word,” and they learned that the one who departed was looking for the Unobtainable by signs and called, calling upon the One who did not heed the names, therefore they say how can we recognize Him, who is not found by any distinctive sign, when He who is called does not heed, and the sought is not given in possession? Therefore, take away the veils from our eyes, as the city guards did to you, so that we too may have some kind of direction to the One we seek? Tell me who your brother is, as far as this is possible in relation to His nature. According to some familiar signs, give us guidance towards knowing Him, you who are filled with goodness and therefore have become good among women. Acquaint us with the Searched One, and teach us by what signs the Invisible One is found, in order to notify Him of the arrow of love with which you are wounded in the middle of your heart and with sweet torment you are increasing your passion. It is better to repeat this saying again literally, so that the thought expressed in the words corresponds: “What is your brother more than a brother, kind in wives? What is your brother from your brother, since you have cursed us? Therefore, let us listen to the one from whom the outer robe has been completely removed, and who, without a veil, looks at the truth with the eye of her soul. How does he describe to them what he is looking for? How does one depict the features of the Desired One in words? How he represents the Unknown to the eyes of the virgins. Because in Christ there are both created and uncreated: uncreated in Him we call the ever-present, pre-eternal and creating all beings, and created according to the economy of us in accordance with the body of “our humility” (Phil. 3:21), it is better to say (the concept of this is more appropriately expressed in words in the most Divine sayings), we call uncreated what exists “in the beginning is the Word, by Him are all things.” was, and without Him nothing came into being” (John 1:1-3), and to those created - the Word, made densely and dwelt “in us” (John 1:14), whose glory, revealed after His incarnation, makes it possible to see that “God appeared in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16), of course, “the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father” (John. 1, 18); for this is what John said: “We have seen His glory” (what was visible was man, but what is known in the visible the Apostle calls glory), “For the only begotten of the Father is full of grace and truth” (John 1:14); - so, since the uncreated in Christ is pre-eternal, ever-present, completely incomprehensible and ineffable for all nature, and what is revealed to us in the flesh can somewhat enter into our knowledge, therefore the teacher always pays attention to this, and talks about everything that can become intelligible for those listening; I mean “the great mystery of piety,” by which “God appeared in the flesh, even in the form of God” (Phil. 2:6), and in the form of slaves lived in the flesh with people, because once in the firstfruits He took upon Himself the mortal nature of the flesh, which He borrowed through uncorrupted virginity, He always sanctifies with incorruption the general composition of nature through those who enter into unity with Him by communion of the Sacrament, nourishing His body - the Church, and decently uniting with the common body members, generated by faith in Him, do everything splendidly, as it should and as conveniently, making believers with eyes, lips, hands and other members. For this is what Paul says: “The body is one, but the hands have many” (1 Cor. 12:12), and not all hands are in the same rank, but he who has an eye in the body does not neglect the hand; and whoever is the head does not reject the legs, but, on the contrary, the whole body of the members is dissolved into itself through a variety of actions, so that the members are not at odds with the whole. Having proposed these thoughts mysteriously, the Apostle brings the speech into greater clarity, saying: “God has appointed in the church apostles, prophets, teachers” and shepherds to equip the saints for the work of service, for the building up of the body of Christ: Until then we will reach the union of faith and the knowledge of God, into a perfect man, to the measure of the age of the fulfillment of Christ (Eph. 4:11-13). And he continues: by all measures we will grow “into Him, Who is the head Christ: from the worthless the whole body is composed and put together decently, with every touch of alms, according to the action in measure of each one part, the regeneration of the body creates a creation for itself through love” (Eph. 4:15-16). Therefore, whoever means the Church means Christ Himself, Who by the multiplication of those who are saved creates and increases Himself. Therefore, the one who has folded the veil from her eyes with a clear eye looks at the indescribable beauty of the Bridegroom, and as a result of this, she is wounded by the incorporeal and kindled arrow of fiery love; because intensified love is called fiery, the kind of love that no one is ashamed of when its shooting is not carnal, but, on the contrary, everyone boasts more than an ulcer, when in the depths of the heart he receives the edge of an immaterial desire. This is what the bride did, saying to the young women: “I am wounded by love.” Therefore, having come to such a measure of perfection, since she had to show the virgins the beauty of the Bridegroom, she says not what was in the beginning (the word did not have the opportunity to reveal the ineffable), but guides the virgin to the Epiphany that has taken place for us in the flesh. This is what the great John did, keeping silent about that “from the very beginning,” but carefully telling about that “which we have seen and heard, and touched with our hands, about the Word of truth” (1 John 1:1). Therefore the bride says to them: Song 5:11. His head is golden, Kefaz, His hair is curly, black like a vermin. Song 5:12. His eyes are like doves upon the fullness of the waters, washing in the babe, sitting in the filling of the waters: Song 5:13. His cheeks are like phials of fragrance, a vegetating incense; His mouth is full of dripping myrrh. Song 5:14. His hand is polished with gold, filled with Tarshish, His belly is an ivory vessel set on sapphire stone. Song 5:15. His pillars are like the pillars of Marmor, based on degrees of gold, His appearance is like Lebanon, chosen like a cedar tree. Song 5:16. His throat is sweetness, and all desire: This is my Brother, and this is my Neighbor, daughters of Jerusalem. All this, from which the image of beauty is composed, shows not the invisible and incomprehensible in the Divinities, but that which was revealed according to the economy, when we were visible on earth, lived with people, having put on human nature, which is why, according to the apostolic word, “even the invisible beings of His creation are visible” (Rom. 1:20), revealing themselves in the dispensation of the church world. For the same universe is also the structure of the Church, in which, according to the word of the Prophet, “a new heaven” is created (Is. 65:17), that is, as Paul teaches, “the establishment of faith in Christ” (Col. 2:5), and a “new earth” is prepared, drinking the rain that falls on it, and another person is created, being born again “renewed in the image of Him who created him” (Col. 3:10); a different nature of the luminaries occurs, about which it is said: “you are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14), and: “in them you appear as the luminaries in the world” (Phil. 2:15); and many stars shine in the firmament of faith. And it is not surprising that in this new world many stars are listed and named by God, whose names, says the Creator of such stars, are written in the heavens. For I hear that the Creator of this new creation says this to His own luminaries: “Your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). Therefore, it is not this alone that constitutes the extraordinary nature of the new creation, that in it many stars are founded by the Word, but that many suns are also created, illuminating the universe with the rays of good deeds; for this is what the Creator of such suns says: “Let your light shine before men” (Matt. 5:16), and: “Then the righteous will be enlightened like the sun” (Matt. 13:43). Therefore, as one who, looking at the sensory world and understanding the wisdom manifested in the beauty of beings, infers from the visible about the invisible beauty, about the Source of wisdom, the outpouring of which formed the nature of beings; so the one who turns his gaze to this new world of church creation, which is contained and comprehensible for our faith, guided in the knowledge of the incontainable, sees the One who is and is made “all things in all.” Therefore, since the soul ascending to perfection, the soul-virgins turn with this request to make the desired thing known to them, she describes to the virgins the signs of the Desired One, revealed to us in the matter of salvation, having made the entire Church into a single body of the Bridegroom, in describing beauty, she indicates a special meaning to each of the members; From all this, observed in parts, the beauty of the body is made up. Therefore, the beginning of teaching is what is close and accessible to us; for the catechumen begins with the body, as Matthew did; Having begun the genealogy of the sacraments according to the flesh with Abraham and David, he observed the great John, so that to those who had already been taught these firstfruits, he would preach the gospel both about the beginning intelligible from eternity, and about the Word understood in this beginning. With these concepts the bride secretly guides the young women, because our understanding is not first raised to the incomprehensible and indefinable, as it is declared by faith to be revealed openly. And this revealed thing is the nature of the flesh. For, having said: “My brother is white and dark,” the bride, by mixing these two colors, depicts in the word the distinctive property of the flesh. She did the same before, when she called the Bridegroom an apple, whose outer color is seen to be a mixture of both, because the apple is both white and reddish, and its redness, I think, indicates the nature of the blood. But since all flesh is formed in the same way, and for those who enter into this life through birth, the path to conception is certainly paved by marriage, so that anyone, even in the secret of piety, having allowed a carnal birth, does not creep in thought towards natural deeds and sufferings, imagining the birth of that flesh in his mind to be homogeneous with any other; - for this very reason, about the Participant of flesh and blood, although the bride confessed that he was both “white and dark”, giving two colors to understand the nature of the body, however, he says that His conception did not occur in a way similar to ordinary birth, on the contrary, of all those people (both those who were from the time they began to come into the world, and those who will come), until the flow of nature continues through the conception of those coming again, He alone entered into this life in a new way of conception. In order to come into being, nature did not assist Him, but served Him. Therefore, the bride says that “white and black” is the One who, through flesh and blood, visited this life, and was chosen from all those from virginal purity. His insemination is not from the couple, conception is not bad, birth without birth diseases, for Him the marriage bed is the power of the Most High, like a kind of cloud overshadowing virginity; the wedding lamp is the covering of the Holy Spirit, the bed is dispassion, and marriage is not corruption. Therefore, he who happens in this way is beautifully called chosen from all, by which it is signified that He is not from the marriage union. For His only birth was without carnal conception, just as His beginning of existence was without marriage. For about the Uncorrupted and the Unartificial, it is impossible in the proper sense to use the word: conception, because the names: virginity and carnal conception are not combined in one and the same thing. But just as the Son was given to us without a father, so the child is born without carnal conception. The Virgin, just as she did not know how the God-receiving body was formed in her body, did not feel the birth, because, according to the testimony of the prophecy, she had a birth without birth illnesses. Isaiah says: “Before labor comes, you will avoid stomach pain, and give birth to the male sex” (Isaiah 66:7). Therefore, having been “chosen”, not subject to the natural order in both, as not having received the beginning of existence through voluptuousness, and as not having come into the world with difficulty (and this is done in order, does not go beyond the usual order; for just as death, which introduces sin into nature, is condemned to give birth in sorrows and labors; so the Mother of life, without a doubt, had to begin pregnancy with joy, and give birth in joy, because the Archangel says to her: “Rejoice, full of grace” (Luke 1:28), with this saying eliminating the sadness that was originally given to birth under sin), He alone of all topics is made so by the news and peculiarity of birth, beautifully in flesh and blood is called “white and black”, and by the incorruptible and impassive quality of birth, unlike others, “chosen from those.” Or, perhaps, the bride attached this saying to Him because of other types of birth that take place without pregnancy. Of course, you don’t know how many times “the firstborn of all creation” was born (Col. 1:15), “firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29), “firstborn from the dead” (Col. 1:18); the first to resolve mortal illnesses, and by resurrection to pave the way for everyone to be born from the dead. For He was born for all this, but did not come into being through pregnancy. Birth from water, and rebirth from the dead, and the birthright of this Divine creation do not allow the diseases of womb; on the contrary, in all this, birth is excluded from womb. Therefore, the bride says: “chosen from those.” But it is time to understand from what has been said what beauty is described in each of His members. "His head is gold Kefaz". If the Hebrew saying is translated into our language, then this word means pure gold, unadulterated, alien to any impurity. And those who translated the Hebrew words into the Hellenic saying: “Kefaz” left it untranslated, it seems to me, because among the Hellenic sayings they did not find a single word that would express the power seen in the Hebrew word. Having learned this, namely, that this saying means gold that is completely pure, unmixed and unmixed with any defiled substance, we are led to the following understanding of the proposed saying: The head of the body - the Church - is Christ. Now we speak about Christ, referring this name not to the eternity of the Divinity, but to the God-received man who appeared on earth, lived with people, this vegetation of virginity, in whom lives “every fulfillment of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9), this firstfruits of the general mixture, through which the Word was clothed in our nature, making it pure and freed from all the infirmities that were inherent in it. For this is what the Prophet says about Him: “Thou shalt not commit sin, lest flattery be found in His mouth” (Is. 53:9); “tempted in all ways according to the likeness of our nature, except sin” (Heb. 4:15). Therefore, the Head of the body - the Church, the firstfruits of our entire nature - is pure gold, unmixed and unmixed with any defect. The hairs, once dark and black, in appearance were likened to corvids, those corvids, I mean, whose business, according to the word of the parable, is to pluck out eyes, and deprived of these visual senses, to prepare them as food for the chicks of eagles (Proverbs 30, 17), - these curly hairs, having become tall and ascending trees to the sky, with their desire from the earth to the heavenly heights on The Divine Head of the Bridegroom serves as an increase in His beauty. Of course, everyone knows what the purpose of this hair is, from the Bridegroom’s own words spoken above: “My hair” was filled with “drops” of water. So, His hair, called clouds by the Prophets, sheds drops; from them comes the rain of teaching, watering the living fields to produce fruitfulness of what God has cultivated. I also think that Vlas in the word of God in a figurative sense means the Apostles, some of whom, due to their everyday activities, were previously dark: some as a robber, some as a tax collector, some as a persecutor, and others of such kind, like the black and carnivorous raven who destroys the eyes; I mean the head of the “dark powers” (Col. 1:13), as he says from a raven who became curly, and therefore called the hair of the Divine Head, namely, that he, “who was before” while he was a raven, “a blasphemer, a persecutor and a troublemaker” (1 Tim. 1:13), was prepared for this grace, becoming hair moistened with heavenly dew, the whole body of the Church exuded the teaching of hidden and impenetrable mysteries. In our understanding, the bride calls them hair; holding on to the golden Head, they impart no small increase in beauty, swayed by the spirit of the Spirit, and serve as beautiful crowns to the most pure Head, decorating it with their circumference. It seems to me that the prophecy speaks about them: “Thou hast placed on His head a crown of honorable stone” (Ps. 20:4); so that they are understood by both representations both as magnificent hair and as precious stones adorning the Head. In order, we should consider in the word what is said about the eyes. Literally it reads like this: “His eyes are like a dove upon the filling of the waters, sitting in the babe in the filling of the waters.” But the meaning of these words is beyond our comprehension; for whatever concept we form about them, it will, as we think, be lower than the truth. Upon careful examination, it seems to us that the meaning of this is similar to the following. The Divine Apostle in one place of his Scriptures says: “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘Thou art not in need of me’” (1 Cor. 12:21), setting forth in this teaching that the body of the Church must act well in both ways, the ability to consider the truth, merging with active power, because neither contemplation perfects the soul in itself, if there are no deeds that show progress in moral life, nor active philosophy contains sufficient benefit if true piety does not govern affairs. Therefore, if a combination of eyes and hands is necessary, then with what has been said, you can first understand what kind of “eyes” they are, and then take into consideration the praise written down for them. And let’s save the word about hands to its proper place. It is the nature of the eyes to look. Therefore, according to their local position, they are placed above all the senses, as by nature itself appointed to guide the entire body. Therefore, when we hear that in the Divine Scripture this is what leaders to the truth are called, and one of them was called a “seer” (1 Sam. 9:11), another “seeing” (Am. 7:12), and another “watchman”, being so named by God because of prophecy (Ezek. 3:17), then we are led to the idea that here we are called “eyes” set to foresee, observe and supervise. And that a miracle occurs in the eyes in some kind of comparative similarity, we recognize this from comparison with the best, depicting their beauty. For the bride says: “Eyes like doves.” Truly excellent praise for such eyes is chastity, in which those who are not yet defiled by carnal life, but who live and walk in the Spirit, flourish (Gal. 5:25). For spiritual and immaterial life is distinguished by the appearance of a dove, because the Holy Spirit himself in this form appeared to John as he descended from heaven onto the water. Therefore, whoever is appointed by God as eyes in the body of the Church, if he intends to supervise and observe purely, he must wash away all impurity of vice with water. But there is not only one water that washes the eyes: on the contrary, the bride says that there are many “fulfilments” of such waters. For as many virtues as there are, we must imagine as many sources of purifying waters, from which the eyes continually become purer: for example, chastity is a source of purifying water; another similar source is humility, truth, truth, courage, desire for good, alienation from evil. These and similar waters, although from one source, are collected in different streams into one fulfillment, and they cleanse the eyes from all passionate impurity. But although those eyes are “filled with water”, which in their innocence and purity are likened to doves, the bride appoints milk as a font for them, for this is how Scripture expresses it: “be washed away in the milk.” A decent praise for such eyes is to say about them that such a dove, washed with milk, becomes more beautiful. For, indeed, it is noted in milk that this one liquid has the property of not showing in itself the image or likeness of anything. Everything that is liquid by nature, like mirrors, causes that, due to the smooth surface, similarities appear that look into this liquid. But in milk alone such pacification does not take place. For this reason, such praise is very perfect for the eyes of the Church - not to portray in oneself, contrary to the reality of things, through deception, anything unrealized, sinful and vain, but to have in mind what really exists and not to allow oneself to have wandering glances at this life and dreamy ideas. Therefore, for the purity of the eyes, washing with milk is considered reliable by the perfect soul. The next word serves as a law for the listeners, about which the eyes must be diligent. It is said: “sitting in the filling of the waters.” Such speech, by the very fact that it praises pure eyes, requires constant attention to the Divine lessons, teaching us how we can, always sitting down “when the waters are filled,” acquire the beauty characteristic of the eyes; since many of those appointed to be eyes, having abandoned the knowledge of such “fillings”, settle down to sit on the rivers of Babylon, carrying out what they are accused of on behalf of God: “They have abandoned the source of living waters, and have dug up broken treasures for themselves that cannot contain water” (Jer. 2:13). So, here is the lesson: in order for the eye to become good, decent and conformable to the golden head, it must be immaculate, like a dove, infallible and undeceitful, like the nature of milk, not trusting any deception of unfulfilled things, but with firmness and persistence sit with the “filling” of the Divine “waters”, like a tree planted with the “outgoing waters” (Ps. 1, 3) and not transplanted to another place. For in this case, the fruit will be born in due time, and the branch will always remain fresh, dressed in the good-colored leaves. Now many of the spiritual eyes, not hastening to these waters and caring little about the careful study of the word, either dig for themselves a treasure trove of covetousness, or dig out a refuge for vanity in stone, or dig a treasure trove of pride, or diligently dig for some other treasure trove of deception, which does not have the ability to forever retain the water they desire, because honor, dominion, glory, about which many here have so much zeal, they form up and flow away, and do not leave the deceived any trace of their vain zeal. The Word desires that such be the observers and those who supervise, who must be protected, as if by some kind of bulwark of eyebrows, by a safe stronghold of Divine teachings, and, as if by some kind of veil of eyelids, to cover the purity and lightness of life with humility, so that the twig of conceit, falling into the pure eye, does not become an obstacle to vision. What kind of praise, after the eyes, will be written upon the members of the Bridegroom, God willing, we will tell in subsequent conversations, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Glory to him forever and ever! Amen. You might be interested in: