Беседа 14. Толкование на Песн. 5, 13–16

Song 5:13. His cheeks are like phials of fragrance, vegetating incense: His mouth is full of dripping myrrh. Song 5:14. His hand is sharpened with gold, filled with varsis, His belly is an ivory vessel set on a sapphire stone. Song 5:15. His pillars are like Marmor, based on golden degrees. 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. He who feeds with “unflattering milk” those who are still in their spiritual years of infancy, having become the nourisher of the “newborn” in the Church, as the Apostle himself says (1 Peter 2:2), preserves the bread of wisdom perfect according to the inner man, saying: “And we speak wisdom in those who are perfect” (1 Cor. 2:6), who, having practiced good teachings, are “trained in the senses of the soul” ( Hebrews 5:14), become capable of receiving the bread of wisdom, requiring the assistance of the cheek when eating, grinding food with the teeth of the mind. Therefore, there should also be cheeks in the body of Christ for those who are no longer attached to the breasts of the word, but already long for more solid food; about which the bride is now talking, saying this: “His cheeks are like phials of fragrance, vegetating incense.” Considering what concerns the eyes, the connection of speech requires a word about the cheeks, this is clear to anyone who listens with understanding. For for this purpose, the eye, constantly remaining in the fullness of spiritual waters, must be washed with unchanging and unflattering milk, becoming like a kindly dove, in order to make all who make up the body of the Church sharers of its own benefits. Therefore, the great Isaiah, who ascended in life to a high mountain, commands to cry out with a loud voice, so that those who hear will know from him the Lord, who comes “with strength,” with power holds creatures in his arm, feeds His flock, gathers the lambs, comforts “those who are in the womb” with beautiful good hopes, has embraced the sky with an inch and has squeezed the whole earth. a handful. What else does the prophecy say besides this, everything must be preached to those who have ascended to the very top (Is. 40:9-12). Therefore, if at the same time the strength imparted by waters and milk serves the eyes to the knowledge of the truth, then, in accordance with the order, along with the eyes, the cheeks are also praised, whose duty is to chew food, which serves to preserve the nature and strength in the body. So, let’s see what the praise of the cheeks is, let’s listen to what the bride herself says about them: “His cheeks,” she says, “are like phials of fragrance, a vegetating incense.” If the name phial in the word means a vessel that expands at the sides, in which, by design, emptiness is concealed, because the vessel is not too deep in appearance and does not expand in a straight line, which is why the sides do not appear exactly sunken and not flat, so if the bride with the word “phial” indicates a vessel of this kind, then the praise of the cheeks will have a basis for itself in this type of phial. For another may say that the word made a mention of the vial with the intention of praising the simplicity, versatility and unflatteringness of the teaching, in which the depth forbidden by the Prophet cannot find a place for itself, since he said: “Let them get rid of those who hate me, and from the deep waters” (Ps. 69:15). Therefore, we affirm that the truth, which appears in simplicity, without any deceptive capacity, is signified by the name of the phial, the substance of which is aroma, and the purpose is the vegetation of incense. “His cheeks are like phials of fragrance,” made not from silver or gold, or glass, or any other similar substance, but from the fragrance itself, vegetating from itself that from which the world is prepared. Of course, from what has been said, the meaning seen in these sayings is clearly visible, namely, that it is characteristic of the pure eyes of the Church, with the softening power of the cheeks, to prepare such food for the body so that in what is said nothing deeply hidden and unclear is seen, but everything is visible through and through, freely, far from any deceptive secrecy and depth, clearly even for infants, as the Prophet says: “the testimony of the Lord is true, making wise babies. The commandment of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes” (Ps. 18:8.9). If these are the vials of words, then they will clearly turn out to be not composed of earthly matter, but their nature will be from aroma, from that, I mean, aroma about which the bride at the beginning of the song says that it is “more than all aroma.” Such a vial was Paul, “not in the deceit of flattering words, but in presenting the truth to himself” (2 Cor. 4:2). In him, the substance deposited what was in him from the earth, after he had cast off the scales from his carnal eyes by baptism (Acts 9:18), and was prepared again from a fragrant aroma, becoming a child of the Holy Spirit. Since with such skill he was made into a chosen vessel, then, having become a vial for the influence of verbal wine into him, he no longer had the need for a person who would influence the knowledge of the mysteries into him. Therefore, “he did not take flesh and blood” (Gal. 1:16), but he himself produced and exuded the divine drink, preparing the ointment of those who listened with the fragrance of Christ from the various flowers of the virtues, so that according to the differences and characteristics of those who received the word, in accordance with the need of the seeker, it acquired an aroma for Jews and Greeks, for wives and husbands, for rulers and slaves, for parents and children, for those who have no law and those who live under the law. Truly, his grace of teaching was manifold, dissolved in every virtue, because this vial prepared for those who received the word an ointment from many different teachings, in accordance with the needs of each. Such cheeks are praised by the bride, who describes in words the beauty of the Groom’s body! And that His beauty is meant by praise on the cheeks, this is evidenced by the speech that immediately follows. For after the cheeks the lips boast, from which comes the fragrant word. Praise is expressed like this: “His mouth is full of wine, dripping myrrh.” The bride testifies to the two virtues of the Word with a double likeness; one of them is truth, seen brilliantly and light-like in what is spoken, for this is the appearance of krin, the whiteness of which mysteriously signifies the purity and truth of what is proclaimed; the other is that the teaching of the mouth indicates one spiritual and immaterial life, after the spiritual view has killed the life below, in which flesh and blood act. For myrrh, flowing from the mouth and filling the soul of the recipient, clearly expresses the mortification of the body. Similar usage of words is often observed in the Inspired Scriptures, and the word “myrrh” means death. Therefore, the perfect and pure eye, which makes the cheek a vial that vegetates and exudes incense from itself, also makes the words of words bloom in lips adorned with Divine whiteness. This is how the word calls those who are pure and fragrant with virtue, from whom a drop of myrrh becomes without deficiency filling the thoughts of those who receive. And this is contempt for material life, when everything desirable in real life becomes invalid and dead, due to the desire for higher goods. Such myrrh, mixed with pure vin of chastity, was once poured from the lips of Paul into the ears of the holy virgin. And this maiden was Thekla, who, having perfectly accepted the flowing drops into herself with her soul, puts the outer man to death, extinguishing in herself every carnal thought and lust. After accepting good teaching, her youth is dead, visible beauty is dead, all bodily feelings are dead; One teaching is alive in her, according to which the whole world dies to her, and the virgin dies to the world. So in Cornelius, the once great Peter, speaking out bright words, made the souls of his listeners full of myrrh, who, immediately receiving the word, were buried in Christ by baptism, becoming dead to this life. And besides these, you can find thousands of examples of how the saints, having become the mouthpieces of the common body of the Church, made their listeners full of myrrh, a deadening passion, flourishing with the words of the word, with which the great champions of the faith during the times of martyrdom in exploits for piety began to overflow with myrrh for a good confession. And is it necessary to spread the word about this with a large number of examples, when from what has been said it becomes clear to our understanding why the mouth of the Church becomes cranium, why myrrh drops from the cranium, and why the soul of those who receive is filled with such a drop? But let’s move on to the next word after this. The bride says: “His hand is polished with gold, filled with varsis.” That the gift of the eye, not coupled with the service of the hands, is imperfect for the body of the Church, we clearly learned this from the great Paul, who says: “The eye cannot say to the hand, You do not require me” (1 Cor. 12:21). Then the activity of the eyes is most visible, when deeds testify to the acuity of the eyes, diligence about the beautiful signifying good leadership. Therefore, having offered praise to the hands of the Divine body, we must be guided by what has been said in order to properly form those who instead of hands serve in the Church; then, having proposed this divine saying, let us try, God willing, as much as possible, to consider the thought contained in it. “His hand,” says the bride, is turned into gold and filled with varsis.” So far, from what has been said, this only thought is clear: whatever features the appearance of the Head is boasted of, the same ones serve to praise the hands. But by the Head we mean Christ, in whom “God reconciled the world to himself” (2 Cor. 5:19), according to the word of Paul, and who in the flesh revealed himself with powers and miracles. Therefore, if the Head itself, which we understand, is called in the word the purest gold, because it is far from all sin (it is said: “Thou shalt not commit sin, lest flattery be found in His mouth” (1 Pet. 2:22)); and the bride says about her hands that they are golden; it is clear what is meant by this, namely, that the word commands the hand to be clean in the full meaning of this word, sinless, eliminating and preventing any vice from entering itself. We mean the hand, of course, that disposes of the property of the Church according to the requirements of the commandments; It is a praise for her to become like the nature of the Head in purity and sinlessness. The hand is then made clean when everything that hinders beauty is cut off by cutting. For, just as those who fashion marble into the likeness of some animal by means of carvings cut off on the stone and grind that which, when removed, the likeness takes on a form similar to the model, so for the beauty of the hands of the body of the Church, much must be cut off by cutting off the thoughts, so that the hand becomes truly golden and pure. Of course, it is obvious to everyone what harms the beauty of the hand without being taken away from it, for example: man-pleasing, love of fame, covetousness, attention to only external things, blaming oneself for some kind of celebrity on what is in one’s hands, turning what one has collected by fulfilling the commandments into fun and one’s own pleasure. It is necessary, having cut off all this and the like with the instruments of thoughts, to leave one pure and genuine gold of will, likened to the most pure Head. But what has been said will be clearer for us, according to the words of the Apostle, who, having called God “faithful” (1 Cor. 1:9), does not want to look for anything else in the builders, but only that he may prove “faithful,” writing literally like this: “and whatever else is sought in the builders, that he who is faithful may find himself” (1 Cor. 4:2). Therefore, the faithful and prudent builder, serving the Church instead of a hand, imitating in life his wise Master, shows that the hand of the body, like the Head, is golden. This Judas, pitiful and poor, or better yet, hated and cursed, was not such a hand in the body of the Apostles, to whom the economy of the poor was entrusted, but he did not cut off the leprosy of covetousness and, being the keeper of the ark from the thieves, became the target of himself, stealing with his own hands what he had in his hands, paying attention not to the commandment, but to money, the enjoyment of which was made for him with some kind of voluntary stranglehold, alienation from life, the final death of the soul, a bad monument that remains for all his time. Therefore, the hands must be sharpened and circumcised, so that, after taking away everything that has grown bad, the rest will be gold, corresponding in appearance to the beauty of the Head. And the phrase “varsis”, as used in Scripture, is significant and does not always occur in the same sense; on the contrary, its meaning is often taken into condemnation and often into recognition of Divinity and pleasure. When the Prophet Jonah flees from the face of God, he looks for “the ship sailing in Tarshish” (Jon. 1:3). And the great David says that the ships of the Persians are overwhelmed by a stormy spirit (Ps. 47:8). And stormy, I think, is the name of the Spirit that appeared to the disciples gathered in the upper room, which was first known by hearing, “like a stormy breath,” and then appeared to the eyes, appearing in the form of tongues, and being likened to the illuminating nature of fire (Acts 2:2.3), and by which the vice invading human nature in many forms, called by the Prophet, is crushed Persian ships. These are the places in which the worst is signified by this name. But the great Ezekiel, describing the vision of the Epiphany that happened to him, expresses the sight of one of the Divine contemplations in words, saying the following: “I saw it like the vision of Barsis” (Ezek. 1:16). Those who have accurately studied the expressiveness of Jewish sayings say that the saying: “varsis” means in prophecy something colorless, spiritual and ethereal. Therefore, with the double meaning of the words, since it is clear that what is meant here by this word is taken in the best sense (no one would accept a reproachful person as praise), one should understand this word about the praised hands in such a way that, having completely polished off everything superfluous and bodily, they pass into something divine and spiritual, shaking off any material and heavy relationship to everyday things. So, for example, according to the stories, stone cutters act with a piece of emerald: erasing everything dark and earthy and destroying it with a sharpening stone, they leave undestroyed only that which has a pure greenish and at the same time olive sheen. This, it seems to me, interpreting this more clearly, the divine Apostle in one of his epistles gives advice that one should interrupt relations with the visible and direct desires to the invisible: “those who do not look at us,” he says, “are visible, but invisible: the visible is temporary, but the invisible is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18). So, in praising the hands, we noticed this, how, sharpened by addiction to material things, they become pure, being changed by will into something immaterial and spiritual. For “His hand,” says the bride, “is sharpened with gold, filled with varsis.” The order requires consideration of the speech that follows, in which there is a word about the womb. Literally it reads like this: “His belly is an ivory vessel set on a sapphire stone.” When the lawgiver of nature gave Moses the law inscribed on stone tablets, he called these tablets, on which divine inscriptions were depicted, stone tablets. And He who spoke about them to Moses said this: “Come up to Me on the mountain and stand there: and I will give you tablets of stone, law and commandments” (Ex. 24:12). But after the clarity of the Gospel has erased the corporeal and earthy from the law, it is no longer a stone tablet that receives writing, but something made of shiny, freshly ironed ivory. For the bride calls what receives the commandments and laws, which is called the “womb,” “an elephant vessel set on a sapphire stone.” First, I consider it necessary to explain the sensory pattern in a word, and then begin to review what has been said. Buxe (Greek: pyxis), from which those who need to write make tablets for themselves, is a dense and whitish wood. Therefore, such a tablet, prepared for inscribing letters on it, was, at least on occasion, made from another substance, not in the exact use of the word, called pixion. So, when we hear the word “pyxion,” we mean a certain smooth projectile suitable for placing a pismene on it. Since the word “pixion” is the generic name for such tablets, here Scripture also adds the type of substance used in the sample, saying that the structure of the projectile is not made of wood, but of ivory. Ivory, as they say, due to its great density and hardness, remains indestructible for a very long time, and does not suffer any damage from time. And sapphire, with its azure color, brings rest to the tired eyes of those reading the inscribed tablets with intense attention, since rays of this color naturally calm the eyesight. Therefore, this is the model to which the praised womb of the Church is comparatively likened. And I, hearing the prophecy commanding from the face of God: “Write the vision on the tablet” (Hab. 2:2), I am forming an understanding of what in the praised body of the Lord should be understood under the name of the womb. For, if the word commands to clearly write the Divine vision on the tablet, then perhaps the name of the womb means the purity of the heart, in which we write the Divine visions in memory. As He who opened the mouth of the great Ezekiel and put a “book scroll” in them (Ezek. 2:9), a full writer on both sides - both outside and inside - says to him: “Your mouth will eat, and your belly will be filled” (Ezek. 3:3), calling the mental power of the soul into which Divine lessons are embedded; In the same way, the great Jeremiah, as we know, calls the “womb” a heart tormented by sad thoughts, which is why he says: “My stomach hurts me, and the feelings of my heart are troubled” (Jer. 4:19). If it is necessary to imagine from the Divine Scripture something more directly leading us to this understanding, then let us say that the Lord also spoke to those who believed, saying that rivers of living water flow from the womb of those who believe in Him. Literally it reads like this: “believe in Me, as the Scripture says, rivers will flow out of his belly and living waters” (John 7:38). Thus, all that has been said leads us to understand by the name of the womb a pure heart, which becomes a kind of tablet of the Divine law in those “who,” as the Apostle says, “show the work of the law written in their hearts” (Rom. 2:15), “not in ink, but by the Spirit of God lives,” and such writings are inscribed in the soul not “on tablets of stone,” but, according to the word Apostle, on the clean, smooth and shiny “tablet of the heart” (2 Cor. 3:3). For such a one must be sovereign in the soul, so that a clear and unfused remembrance of the Divine words is imprinted on him, as if separately inscribed in clear writing. It is wonderful that sapphire is taken with such a tablet to praise the belly, because the radiance of sapphire is heavenly in appearance. And such a fortune-telling indication serves as advice for our hearts to philosophize and to rush to the heavenly places, and to calm our eyes there, where our treasure is deposited, so as not to tire of attentiveness to Divine instructions, because heavenly hope gives peace to the visual power of the spiritual eyes. Then praise to the belly is followed by praise to the bald heads. The bride says: “His pillars are like Marmor, based on degrees of gold.” There are many pillars in the house of Wisdom, which she created for herself. Many also pillars, decorated with various substances, supported the tabernacle of meeting; their tops and pillars were gold, and the middle of the pillars was decorated with a silver lining. About the pillars of the Church (and the Church is a house, according to the words of the Apostle: “as it is fitting to live in the house of God” (1 Tim. 3:15)), the bride says that they are marble, established on golden pillars. Therefore, the fact that the bride agrees with the wise Bezaleel in the description of beauty, like him, stood on top and was decorated with gold, this is obvious to everyone who studied what was said about the tabernacle. For just as Bezaleel, having fitted each pillar with a top, places it on a golden stand, so here the bride, looking with a pure eye at the beauty of the Bridegroom, says that His head is pure, genuine gold (this is what the word “Kefaz” means), and about the “lysts” she claims that they are based on golden stands. What kind of fortune-telling meaning should be attached to the name “pillars”, in this we will not stray from the true concept, taught by St. Paul, who called the pillars of those who were predominant among the Apostles Peter, James and John. And since we must also find out how one can become a pillar, so that we too can become worthy of such a name, we hear this again from the wisdom of Paul, who says that a “pillar” is “and the ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15). Therefore, although the truth that serves as the basis of the “lysts” and adorns the hands and head is gold; However, it will not be a mistake who turns its “affirmation” into the nature of marble, so that the meaning of what has been said will be as follows: the “shades” of the body are “pillars of Marmor,” that is, with a bright life and sound teaching supporting and propping up the common body of the Church: through them the feet of faith acquire strength, and the flow of virtue is accomplished, and by the rapture of Divine hopes the whole body becomes exalted. Success in this is achieved by these two – truth and affirmation. Gold is applied to truth, which, according to Paul, serves and is called the foundation of the Divine dispensation. For this is what he says: “No one can lay other foundations than the one that lies, even Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11). And Christ is the Truth on which the “lysts”, the pillars of the Church, are established. By marble we mean the lightness of life, an unshakable and immutable disposition towards goodness. But just as there were many pillars in the tabernacle of the meeting, many pillars supported the house of wisdom; Nowadays, two are enough to support the whole body; then, perhaps, the purpose of this riddle should be elevated to some other meaning. For, I think, this is preparing such a thought: there are many different directions of the law to virtue, many commandments of wisdom tending towards the same goal, but the abbreviated Gospel word reduces all the perfection of a virtuous life into something easy to count and not complicated, according to the word of the Lord, who said: “In this both commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matt. 22:40 ). Without a doubt, equal strength is required to carry a weight, either hung or imposed, for in both cases one can see the same tension of strength in the one who bears the burden in one way or another: because he bears it equally whether the weight hangs on him, or he supports what he is carrying with his palm. So, because the Lord says that “in this two commandment hang the whole law and the prophets”; and the bride now says that the body is carried by two pillars, supported on golden stands, then it will be good, with a review of the riddle about the “lysty”, to take into consideration these two commandments, of which the Lord calls one the first, and the other similar to the first, saying that to love God with all your heart with all your soul and strength is the first commandment; and to love your neighbor as yourself is equivalent to the first. Yes, and Paul, as if preparing the great Timothy for a certain house to receive God, places these two pillars in him, giving one the name of faith, and the other - conscience (1 Tim. 1, 5), by faith meaning love for God with all the heart, with all the soul and strength, and by a good conscience - a disposition filled with love towards one's neighbor. Perhaps the meaning now found does not contradict the previous concept, because in one and another way one can become pillars like Peter, James and John, and if anyone else, like them, has become or will become worthy of such a name. For whoever is perfect in these two commandments builds himself, according to the words of the Apostle, “to be a pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15); because with these two successes the whole body of truth is supported, as if by some kind of “balds,” and the golden foundation of the standing of faith gives thoughts steadfastness, immutability and firmness in all good. After these praises, as if briefly presenting all the beauty of the Groom, the bride says: “His appearance, like Lebanon, was chosen like a cedar tree. His throat is sweetness, and all desire: This is my brother, and this is my neighbor, the daughters of Jerusalem.” By this, I think, the bride more clearly indicates that praise refers to the beauty of the Bridegroom in the visible, but I call visible what the Apostle represents in the form of a body from the individual members who make up the Church. “He has one view,” says the bride, “of the darkness of the cedars with which Lebanon is covered everywhere, letting those who have been said know that nothing low and creeping on the earth serves for the beauty of the body unless it rises up like a cedar and hastens to reach the top. It is better to understand first what is being compared in these words. “His appearance,” he says, “is like “Lebanon has been chosen.” The choice of any thing occurs as a result of comparison with the opposite. Therefore, since the good is of the same name, whether it really is such, or whether it is not such, but is recognized as such by deception and appears to be what it is not, then the one who does not err in judging the good prefers the chosen real good to the deceptive one. Since here the bride likened the appearance of the Groom to the chosen Lebanon, then as a result of this it is assumed by the word that there should be two Lebanons - one wicked and rejected, according to prophecy, crushed like a calf, along with the cedars of Lebanon (Ps. 28:5-6), and the other - the chosen and worthy, whose beauty is divine and god-like. What is meant in what has been said is this: in the proper, true and original sense, One is the King, the King of every creature; however, the ruler of darkness also calls himself a royal name. Legions of Angels belong to the true King, and legions of demons belong to the dark prince of power. Beginnings, Powers and Powers belong to the King of kings and Lord of lords; but even he, according to the word of the Apostle, has principles and powers and forces that will be brought into inaction when evil turns into nothing, as if non-existent; “When,” the apostle says, “he will destroy all rule and authority and power” (1 Cor. 15:24). “On the Throne, high and exalted,” the Prophet sees the King of Glory “seated” (Is. 6:1); and he proclaims that he will set his throne above the stars and will be “like” the Most High (Is. 14:13). The Lord of the universe has His chosen vessels “in His great house”; and he has “vessels of wrath perfected for destruction” (Rom. 9:22). The Lord of the Angels also gives life and peace through the Angels to the worthy; and he “sends rage and sorrow and anger to fierce angels” (Ps. 77:49). And is it necessary to speak in detail about everything by which the enemy exalts himself before the Nature of Good? So, since Mount Lebanon, overgrown everywhere and covered with tall cedars, is a wonderful sight for the senses, then this mountain itself is divided into obvious examples in Scripture according to opposite concepts, being taken for a special purpose in one meaning or another. Thus, among the same Prophets one can see the same name with different meanings, used for praise and condemnation. “The Lord” then crushes the cedars of Lebanon,” and all Lebanon with the cedars on it “destroys” (Ps. 28:5-6), like a calf thrown together in the desert (and this prophecy teaches that vice itself and every height engendered by it, exalted above the knowledge of God, will turn into nothing); then he accepts this word in its best meaning, saying: “The righteous man will flourish like the phoenix, like the cedar tree in Lebanon will multiply” (Ps. 91:13). For the truly righteous (and the righteous is the Lord), who for our sake came from the earth, this high-branched “phoenix”, which grew in the forest of our nature, becomes a mountain on which the cedars “multiply”, taking root on it by faith. As soon as they are “planted” in the house of God, they “will flourish in the courts of our God” (Ps. 91:14). Under the house in which the planting of the cedars of God takes place, according to the leadership of the Apostle, we understood the Church; and under the courts there will be eternal tabernacles, in which there will be flowering, and in due times the manifestation of good hopes. So, since the body of Christ is composed of individual members, and many members become one body, as the Apostle says (1 Cor. 12:12); It is for this reason that the bride called the entire beauty of the Groom “chosen Lebanon,” thereby defining the difference between Lebanon, the chosen and the rejected. This Lebanon, according to the words of Isaiah, will fall along with the heights, when “the flower of the root of Iecceoea rises up,” and the rod of power grows (Is. 11, 1), which will transform the nature of the lion, lynx and asps into tame and meek, so that “the lion will graze with the bull, and the lynx will rest with the goat” (Is. 11, 6), and you will begin to control them. That “Lady” is not enough, Who “was born to us” (Is. 9:6), whose hand is in the cave of asps, touches the asp fiends and renders them inactive by their poison. When this is accomplished, says the Prophet, “Lebanon with its high ones will fall” (Is. 10:34). What the prophecy indicates in these mysterious expressions would be unnecessary to state exactly, since it is obvious to everyone. For who does not know the Child born to us, touching the asps with his hand, whose power makes destructive beasts come into oblivion about their natural cruelty, capable of living together with meek animals. So, since Lebanon falls through this - this malice, and at the same time the beginning of evil also falls - these exaltations of the truth, then the bride likens the beauty of the Lord to the chosen Lebanon, expressing this in words like this: “His appearance is like Lebanon chosen, like cedar trees.” But the bride adds appropriate praise to the larynx, calling it sweetness and desire. Literally it reads like this: “His throat is sweetness, and all desire.” And our understanding of this is this: the part lying below the chin is usually called the larynx. In it, they say, sound originates, set in motion by the impingement of air from the respiratory vein. Since beautiful words are a honeycomb, and the instrument of the word is a voice, the origin of which is in the larynx, then perhaps someone who understands that this name signifies those ministers and interpreters of the word in whom Christ speaks will not sin. For the great John, when asked who he was, called himself “the voice” (John 1:23), because he was the forerunner of the Word. And blessed Paul presented the experience of “Christ” speaking in him (2 Cor. 13:3); Having borrowed a voice from Him, it was sweet when He spoke to Him. And all the Prophets, having given the instruments of their voice to the Spirit who made the sounds by them, became “sweetness”, from their larynx exuding Divine honey, which both kings and commoners use for health, and enjoying it does not suppress the desire for satiety, but by partaking of what is desired, it nourishes the desire even more. Therefore, the bride calls all of Him desire, with this word, as if some kind of definition, describing the beauty of the Desired One: “He is all desire,” she says. How blessed are those members for the sake of which the whole becomes a “desire”, because of perfection in every good, and which produces with its totality a fused, amiable beauty, so that the whole is desired not only by the eyes and hands or curls, but also by the legs, and arms, and bald heads, and likewise by the larynx; and none of the members is inferior to the others in excess of beauty. “This,” says the bride, “is my brother, and this,” she continues, “is my neighbor, daughters of Jerusalem.” In this verbal image, having presented to their eyes all the signs by which the discovery of what was sought was possible, it is finally expressed demonstratively, saying: here is what is sought. He who, having become a Brother, shone forth to us from Judas, became a neighbor to “the one who fell among the robbers,” healed the wounds with oil, wine and bandages, mounted his cattle, calmed him down in the inn, gave two denarii, caring for his life, and promised upon his return to give back what would be added to this commanded work (Luke 10:30–35). Without a doubt, it is clear where each of these actions is heading. For the lawyer, who wanted to show that he was superior to others, and who, out of pride, neglected to have equal honor with others, when he tempted the Lord with the question: “And who is my neighbor” (Luke 10:29), then in the form of a story the Word set forth the entire humane economy, presenting the descent of man from the high country, the machinations of robbers, the removal of the incorruptible robe, sinful ulcers, the dominance of death over half of nature, because only the soul remains immortal; and the useless passage of the law, since neither the priest nor the Levite healed the wounds of the one who fell into the robbers; “It is impossible for the blood of young men and goats to forgive sins” (Heb. 10:4). And Who took upon Himself all human nature in the firstfruits of the mixture, in which there was a part of every people: Jew and Samaritan, and Greek, and absolutely all people, He with the body, that is, with the yoke, came to the place of human suffering, healed ulcers, put him to rest, placing him on his cattle, and made the inn for him a place of humane viewing, where they rest all who labor and are heavy laden. And whoever is in Him, he, without a doubt, takes into himself the One in Whom he abides, for this is what the Word said: “Abides in Me, and I in him” (John 6:56). Therefore, he who receives Him in his own room gives shelter to the Incontainable One, and receives from Him two pieces of silver, one of which is love for God from the bottom of his heart, and the other is love for his neighbor as for himself, as the lawyer answered. And since “not the hearers of the law are righteous before God, but the creators of the law will be justified” (Rom. 2:13), then one must not only accept these two pieces of silver, I mean faith in God and a good conscience towards one’s fellow tribesmen, but one must oneself bring something through deeds to the fulfillment of these commandments. That is why the Lord tells the guest that everything he has done to serve the suffering person will be accepted at His second coming according to the dignity of care. So, Who, through such love for mankind, became our neighbor, just as He who shone to us from Judas became a Brother, Him the word of the bride indicates to the young women, Him the pure bride announces to the daughters of Jerusalem when she says: “This is my Brother, and This is my neighbor, daughters of Jerusalem.” According to these declared signs, may we find and accept Him for the salvation of our souls, according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Glory to him forever and ever! Amen. You might be interested in: