Беседа 2. Толкование на Песн. 1, 4–7

Song 1:4. I am black and good, daughters of Jerusalem, like the village of Kidarsk, like the veil of Solomon. Song 1:5. Do not see me, for I am blackened, as if the sun had scorched me: my son’s mother fought for me, making me a guard in the vineyards: I did not keep my grapes. Song 1:6. Tell me, whom my soul loves, where you graze, where you rest at noon? Yes, not when I will be like one who is taxed over the flocks of Your friends. Song 1:7. If you don’t hang yourself, good woman, go out at the heels of your flocks, and feed your goats at the shepherd’s tabernacles. In the sacred tabernacle of meeting, what was visible from the outside was not equivalent to the beauty hidden within. For the opons were made of linen, and the outer decoration of the tabernacle was curtains of goats' hair, and coverings of red skins; To those looking from the outside, nothing in this seemed great or precious. But inside the entire Tabernacle of Testimony shone with gold, silver and costly stones. The pillars, their tops, the censer, the altar, the ark, the lamp, the purifier, the lavers, the curtains at the entrances, the beauty of which was dissolved with all kinds of good-colored colors, the golden thread, elegantly woven by some artificial work together with blue, purple, fine linen and scarlet, from all this making up something single, making it like fabric amazed the eyes, shining as if with the rays of a rainbow. And what I mean by this speech will, without a doubt, become clear to us from what will be said. The Song of Songs is again offered to us as a complete exposition of the knowledge of God and wisdom. It is the true tabernacle of meeting, in which the coverings, veils and barriers are certain words and sayings expressing love, showing the attitude towards the beloved, also the image of beauty, the mention of bodily members, both visible on the face and hidden under the vestments of clothing. And what is inside, then in the true sense, there is a certain bright lamp and an ark filled with mysteries, and a fragrant censer, and the cleansing of sin, that all-gold censer of piety, this beauty of the veils - a beautiful outflow from the goodness of virtues, these unshakable pillars of thoughts, the immovable pillars of dogmas, and the beauty of the heights by which grace is interpreted in the sovereign soul, and shower washers; and everything that relates to heavenly and incorporeal life, which the law prescribes, to express it mysteriously, can be found in concepts hidden under the letter, if only, having washed away in the font of the Word all the filth of vile thought, by caring for life we make ourselves capable of entering the Holy of Holies, and do not remain ignorant of the miracles inside the tabernacle, being subjected to death for what, contrary prescribed by the law, concerned a dead concept or some unclean thought. For the spiritual law does not allow such people to enter unless someone who has touched any dead and vile thought has washed the robe of his conscience, according to the Law of Moses. But the consistent connection of what has been considered so far leads the word to a review of what was said by the bride to the young women, namely the following: “I am black and good, daughters of Jerusalem, like the village of Kidarsk, like the veils of Solomon” (Song. 1, 4). This teacher beautifully begins to explain the blessings to the souls being taught, right from where she should be. For these souls, in what they have expressed, express their readiness to prefer to every human word, which in a figurative sense is called wine, the grace flowing from its rational breasts, thus expressing this in the word: “let us love your breast more than wine”: because “you will love righteousness” (Song. 1, 3). The Bride, in order for us to better understand the immeasurable philanthropy of the Groom, Who out of love gave beauty to his beloved, informs the students about the miracle that happened to her. For he says: marvel not at the fact that “righteousness” loved me, but at the fact that I was black from sin and through deeds became accustomed to darkness, but the Bridegroom out of love made me beautiful, giving me His own beauty in exchange for my shame. For having taken upon Himself the filthiness of my sins, He imparted to me His purity and made me a partaker of His beauty, He Who first made me from being hated into someone dear to me and then loved me. After this, he convinces the young women that they too should become beautiful, pointing out to them their beauty, like the great Paul, who says: “Be as I am, as I am, and as you are” (Gal. 4:12), and: “Be imitators of me, as I was also of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). Therefore, she does not allow the souls studying with her, looking at their past life, to despair of the possibility of becoming beautiful; on the contrary, she advises, looking at her, to learn from her example that the present, if it is blameless, becomes a cover for the past. For he says: although now my beauty shines, imparted to me because “righteousness” loved me; However, I know about myself that initially I was not beautiful, but black. My previous life made me look just as dark and gloomy. However, having been so vile, now I am beautiful; because the likeness of shame is transformed into the image of beauty. Therefore, you, daughters of Jerusalem, look to your mother, the heavenly Jerusalem. If you were also the villages of Kidar, because the prince of the dark power would dwell in you (the word Kidar is interpreted: darkness); then you will become the curtains of Solomon, that is, you will be the church of the King who has dwelt in you, King Solomon (Solomon means: peaceful, named after the world, and the curtains of Solomon, that is, the bride called the entire volume of the royal tabernacle one part). In the same way, it seems to me that Paul delights in the same ideas with even greater attentiveness, in his letter to the Romans, saying: in this “is” God’s “love for us, as we were still sinners” and the blackened “who are with us” (Rom. 5:8), made us radiant and worthy of love, because he shone with grace. Just as during the night that has taken possession of everything, even that which is naturally light is darkened by darkness, and when light comes, in things darkened by darkness there is no semblance of darkness left: so, by the transformation of the soul from error to truth, the dark way of life is also transformed into bright grace. What Christ’s bride says to the young women is also revealed to Timothy by Paul, who later became bright from the blackened, namely, that he too, who was formerly “a blasphemer, a persecutor, a troublemaker” (1 Tim. 1:13) and blackened, “for Christ came into the world” (1 Tim. 1:15), was made worthy to make those who were blackened. bright, calling not the righteous to Himself, but sinners to repentance, He made them bright in the bath of restoration, like luminaries, washing their gloomy appearance with water. This is what the eye of David sees in the city on high and counts what is visible as a miracle, as in the city of God, about which the “glorious verb” was spoken of, “Babylon” settles, the harlot “Rahab, the foreign women, and Tyre, and the people of Ethiopia” are mentioned “there” (Psalm 86:3-4), so that he does not reproach this city some person because there are no inhabitants in it, saying: can anyone still say to Zion: “A man will be born in her” (Psalm 86:5)? For foreigners become citizens there, Babylonians become Jerusalemites, and harlots become virgins; the white ones are the Ethiopians, and the upper city is Tire. So here the bride, representing the grace of the Bridegroom, encourages the daughters of Jerusalem that, although He will take a blackened soul, He will make it beautiful through communication with Himself, and that, although one is the village of Kedar, it will become the bright abode of the true Solomon, that is, the King of the world who has dwelt in it. That is why he says: “I am black and good, daughters of Jerusalem” (Song 1:4), so that, looking at me, you too may become curtains of Solomon, even if you were the villages of Kedar. Then the bride adds to what was said the following; and with this, the understanding of the students must be affirmed in that thought, so as not to attribute to the Creator the reason for their darkened appearance, but to place the beginning of this appearance in the will of each soul. “Do not see me,” says the bride, “for I am blackened” (Song. 1, 5). This is not how I was originally created. For it would not be natural for something created by the luminous hands of God to have any kind of dark and black appearance. I wasn’t, but I became like that, she claims. For it is not by nature that I am blackened, but such shame came to me when the sun turned my image from light to black; “Like the sun burned me,” she says. What can we learn from this? The Lord in parables tells the people that he who sows the word is not only sowing in a good heart, but even if someone’s heart is stony or overgrown with thorns, or lies on the path and is trampled under foot, out of love for mankind he casts the seeds of the word into them, and explaining in His sermon the properties of each heart, he continues: what happens to a stony soul is that what is sown does not take root in the depths, but, although soon on the easy The stem promises to produce an ear, however, when the sun warms what is under it more strongly, since there is no moisture under the root, the stem dries up. In the interpretation of the parable, the Lord calls the sun temptation. Therefore, from this mentor we learn the following dogma: although human nature, being an image of the true light, was created radiant, in the likeness of primitive beauty, and darkened features are not characteristic of it; However, temptation, deceiving him by exposing him to scorching heat, destroyed the first tender and unrooted sprout, and before some skill for good had been acquired, and by cultivating thoughts the roots had been given space in the depths, immediately dried out by disobedience, the green and good-colored appearance was turned black by the heat. If the opposing attack of temptation is called the sun, then let none of those who listen marvel at this, having been taught the same thing in many places of inspired Scripture. For, in the second song of degrees, the one who has help from “He who made heaven and earth” is given such a blessing that “the sun will not burn” him in the days (Psalm 121:2, 5). And the Prophet Isaiah, predicting the state of the Church, describes, as it were, a certain triumph of its improvement, and in a word, as if playing in the narrative, for he says: about daughters carried “on shoulders”, and about sons carried “on chariots” and reflecting the heat “canopies” (Is. 66:12, 20), with which he mysteriously depicts a virtuous life, pointing out her infancy to immaturity and gentleness, and “shade” for the relief from the heat brought to souls by abstinence and purity. From which we learn that the soul, which is displeased with God, must be lifted up on its shoulder, not trampled under the feet of the flesh, but enthroned on the majesty of the body. Hearing about the chariot, we recognize the enlightening grace of baptism, by which we become sons, no longer establishing our feet on earth, but ascending from it to heavenly life. And life becomes shaded and watered for us after the heat is cooled by the “canopy” of virtue. Therefore, this sun is harmful when its scorching rays are not overshadowed by the cloud of the Spirit, which the Lord spreads over them as a cover. For this very sun, with the attack of temptations, scorches the brilliant appearance of the body and darkens the appearance to the point of disgrace. Then the bride retells where the transformation of our beauty into blackness began. “My mother’s son,” she says, “was fussy about me, making me a guard in the vineyards; I did not keep my grapes” (Song. 1:5). First, let us pay attention not to parsing the composition of words with extreme precision, but to seeing the connection of thoughts. If something is not exactly coherent, let it be attributed to the lack of expressiveness of those who translated it from Hebrew into Hellenic speech. For whoever has made an effort to study the Hebrew mode of speech will not find anything that could seem to lack coherence. But the structure of our language, which is different from the structure of good speech in Hebrew, produces a certain unity of speech among those who follow a superficially literal meaning. Therefore, the meaning of the words spoken before this is as follows. As far as we understand, man initially did not lack any of the Divine blessings; His business was only to preserve, and not to acquire these benefits. But the malicious intent of his enemies made him deprived of what he had, not preserving that good lot that was given to him by God in his very nature. This is the meaning of the proposed sayings. This thought is conveyed in mysterious words in this way: “My mother’s son,” says the bride, “has taken care of me, making me a guard in the vineyards; I have not kept my grapes” (Song. 1:5). In a few words, Scripture dogmatically teaches much. And firstly, to what Paul also affirmed in a similar way, namely, that all things are from God, and “one God is the Father of all things that are not made” (1 Cor. 8:6), and there is not a single being that does not have existence through Him or from Him; for it is said: “all things were made by Him, and without Him they became nothing” (John 1:3). But since everything, “great things God has created, great things are good” (Gen. 1:31); because “He created all things with wisdom” (Psalm 103:24), then the rational nature was given the gift of freedom and the power was added, inventing what was desired, so that arbitrariness took place, good was not something forced and involuntary, but was imputed to the success of will. And how this free movement autocratically leads us to what we want; then in the nature of beings there was found someone who used freedom for evil, and, in the words of the Apostle, became “the finder of evil” (Rom. 1:30). He, since he himself was created by God, is our brother, and since he arbitrarily refused the communion of good, opening the entrance to evil and becoming the father of lies, he placed himself among our enemies in everything in which the purpose of the arbitrariness given to us has the best in mind. Therefore, from him and for others there arose a reason for the loss of benefits, which followed with human nature. And who was once black, but has now become good, thoroughly attributes the cause of the darkened appearance to such sons of the mother, teaching us what has been said that although for all creatures there is one reason for existence and, as it were, one mother, and therefore everything represented by existence is in brotherhood with each other, but the difference of will has divided nature into friendly and hostile. For those who have retreated from intercourse with the good and retreated from the best have realized evil (because there is no other fulfillment for evil except separation from the best) make every effort and plan in every possible way to bring others into fellowship in evil. And therefore the bride says: “my mother’s sons” (the plural shows the variety of vices) raised up a war in me, not by attacking from without, but making the soul itself a field of battle taking place in it, because in everyone there is a battle, as the Divine Apostle interprets, saying: “I see another law in my heart, warring against the law of my mind and taking me captive by the law.” sinners who are in my fortunes” (Rom. 7:23). Therefore, when this internecine warfare was raised in me by my brothers, the enemies of my salvation, I became blackened, and being defeated by the enemies, I did not save even my grapes, by which we must mean the grapes in paradise. For there, too, man was appointed to “guard” paradise (Gen. 2:15); negligence about storage ejects a person from paradise, and makes a person who has retreated from the east an inhabitant of the west. Therefore the east is the west. For it is said: “Sing” to the Lord “who ascended into the west” (Is. 67:5), so that when the light shines in the darkness, the darkness will be transformed into a ray of light, and the blackened will become good again. The apparent incompatibility of the literal reading with the found meaning can be eliminated as follows: the bride says: “She has made me a guard in the vineyards” (Song 1:5). And this is the same as what was said: “he laid out Jerusalem like a vegetable storehouse” (Psalm 78:2). For it was not they who made her the guardian of the Divine grapes, as others would understand from the immediate meaning of the speech. On the contrary, God made her a guard, but they “made a fuss” only about her, and “set” her “like a tabernacle in a vineyard, and like a vegetable storehouse in a garden” (Is. 1:8). For, having been deprived of the fruits she had guarded for disobedience, she presented herself as a useless spectacle when what was protected in her was no longer there. And since God set man to “make and keep paradise,” the bride says the following: God put my soul into life (life was that sweetness of paradise in which God put it to “make and keep” man); and the enemies, instead of the “paradise of sweetness,” gave their grapes to the care of my soul, of which “clusters” produce “sorrow, and clusters produce gall.” Such a grape was Sodom, such a rod was Gomorrah, condemned along with Sodom, from where the evil winepresses of the Sodomites poured out the inhealing “fury of the serpents” (Deut. 32:32-33). But many people to this day can be seen as trustees and guardians of such grapes: they diligently observe the passions within themselves, as if afraid of losing evil. Look at these crafty guardians of idolatry, committed by wickedness and covetousness, how vigilant they are in storing up evils, considering it a loss to themselves to lose iniquity. And in other considerations, in those who have deeply accepted lust, or pride, or arrogance, or something similar, one can also see how they embrace it with all their care, imputing it to themselves for profit, so that the soul is never pure from passions. Therefore, the bride mourns this, saying: therefore I became black, when, guarding the enemy’s tares and their bad offspring, and caring for them, “I did not preserve my grapes” (Song. 1, 5). Oh, how much suffering these words excite in those who listen with a sensitive heart: “You will not save my grapes!” This is an obvious cry that elicits sighs from the Prophets to excite compassion. “What a harlot is the faithful city, Zion is full of judgment” (Isaiah 1:21)? Why was “the daughter of Zion left like a tabernacle of vines” (Isa. 1:8)? “How is it possible to have one city multiplied by people? rule the countries, be under the debt” (Lamentations 1:1)? “How dark is the gold, the good silver is changed” (Lamentations 4:1)? How did the one who shone in the beginning become the true light? All this came true for me, says the bride, because “you did not save my grapes.” This grape is immortality; This grape is dispassion, likeness to God, alienation from all evil. The fruit of this grape is purity. This grape was bright and ripe, distinguished by its special appearance and purity, delighting the senses of the soul. The curls of this grape are a connection and affinity with eternal life; the growing branches are the sublimities of virtues, ascending to the heights of the Angels; and the green leaves, pleasantly swaying on the branches with a quiet breeze, are a varied decoration of Divine virtues blooming in spirit. “Having acquired all this,” says the bride, “and exulting in the enjoyment of these blessings, like one who did not preserve grapes, I was blackened with tears; like one who had lost purity, I was clothed in a gloomy appearance, because that was the appearance of the leather robe. And even now, because “righteousness” has loved me, having again become beautiful and radiant, I don’t trust my well-being, I’m afraid to lose my beauty again without having time to preserve it, due to ignorance of a reliable way to do so. Therefore, leaving the speech addressed to the young women, the bride again, expressing her desires, calls on the Groom, turning her heartfelt attraction to Him in the name of the Beloved. Because what does he say? “Tell me, whom my soul loves, where you graze, where you sleep at noon? lest I be like one who is taxed over the flocks of Your friends” (Song. 1, 6). Where do you graze, O wonderful Shepherd, who feeds a whole flock? For all human nature is one sheep, which You took as your shoulder. Show me a “green place”, make known “still waters” (Psalm 22:2), lead me to nutritious pasture, call me by name, so that I may hear Your voice, announcing that I am Your sheep, and with Your voice give me eternal life. “Tell me” You, “Whom my soul shall love.” For I call You this way, because Your name is above every name, and for every rational nature is ineffable and inconceivable. Therefore, the attraction of my soul to You serves as a name announcing Your goodness. For how can I not love You, Who has loved me so much, and yet so vilified, that You lay down Your life for the sheep that you feed? It is impossible to imagine a love that would be greater than Yours, which exchanged my salvation for Your soul. Therefore, inform me,” the bride continues, “where you are grazing,” so that, having found saving pasture, I can be satisfied with heavenly food, the one who does not taste it cannot enter into life: and so that, flowing to You, the source, I can draw for me the Divine drink that You exude to the thirsty, pouring water from the rib after this stream has been opened with iron, the one who has tasted it himself becomes a source of water flowing into eternal life. For if You keep me there, then, without a doubt, You will rest me “at noon,” when, having rested in peace with You, I will rest in the unshaded light; noon is not shaded everywhere, because the sun shines above the very top, where you give rest to those you flock, when you receive your children with you on your bed. But no one is worthy of the midday rest unless he has become a son of light and day. He who has become equally distant from both the evening and the morning darkness, that is, from where evil begins and where evil ends, rests “at noon” in the Sun of Truth. Therefore,” says the bride, “teach me how to rest, and what is the path to midday rest, so that I, having mistakenly chosen unkind guidance for myself, ignorance of the truth, will not be brought together with the herds that are alien to Your pastures.” The bride said this in painful concern for the beauty bestowed from above, and in a strong desire to find out how her beauty can be preserved forever. But she has not yet been worthy of the Bridegroom’s voice, “It is best for God” that I “forethought” about her (Heb. 11:40), so that the slowdown of pleasure would inflame her love with great lust, and from this, along with love, joy would increase. On the contrary, Zhenikhov’s friends talk to her, in the advice they offer, explaining how to secure real benefits. And their speech is hidden in its obscurity. It reads like this: “If you do not hang yourself, you who are good among women, go out at the heels of your flocks,” and “feed the goats of the shepherds’ tabernacles” (Song. 1:7). Although the meaning of these sayings is clear in connection with what has already been studied; however, there seems to be some ambiguity in the wording. Therefore, what is the meaning of speech? The most reliable protection for us is to know ourselves, and for those who see not themselves, but something else around themselves, not to think that they see themselves, which is what those who do not go deep into themselves are subjected to, who, seeing in themselves bodily strength, or beauty, or glory, or power, or what abundance of wealth, or arrogance, or weight, or height of the body, or good looks of the face, or something else like that, think that it is themselves. Therefore, they are unreliable guardians of themselves, out of attachment to what is alien, not preserving and neglecting their own. For how can a man guard what he does not know? Therefore, the most reliable guard of the blessings that we have is not not to know ourselves and for everyone to know about himself what he is, to accurately distinguish himself from what is around him, so that, when he does not notice it, he does not guard someone else’s instead of himself. For whoever has in mind life in this world, and recognizes the local treasures as worthy of protection, does not know how to distinguish his own from someone else’s; because everything that is transitory is not ours. And how can a person own what passes by and flows away? So, since constancy and immutability are characteristic of spiritual and immaterial nature, and matter is transitory, constantly changing by some kind of flow and movement, then the one moving away from the constant, of necessity, certainly rushes along with the one who does not have constancy. And whoever pursues the transitory and abandons the permanent sins in both, because he misses one and cannot hold on to the other. Therefore, the advice of the Bridegroom’s friends expresses what has been said: “If you don’t hang yourself, good among women, go out at the heels of the flocks, and feed the goats at the shepherd’s tabernacles.” What does this mean? “Whoever does not know himself is excluded from the herd of sheep and becomes part of the herd of goats, which are assigned a place on the left hand.” For thus the Good Shepherd placed the sheep on the right hand, but separated the goats from the better lot, placing them on the left hand. So, from the advice of the friends of the Grooms, we learn the following: we must look at the very nature of things, and not conclude about the truth from deceptive traces. The word about this should be stated more clearly. Many people do not judge for themselves what the nature of things is, but, looking at the customs of those who lived before, they err in a sound judgment about the real, not just any reasonable reasoning, but an unreasonable custom, placing the basis for appreciating the beautiful; why do they strive to achieve superiority and power, they make it a great thing to have nobility and material weight in the world, while it is unknown how each of these advantages will end after this life; because custom is not a safe guarantor for the future, the end of which is often the addition of goats to the herd, not sheep. Of course, you mean this expression, taken from the Gospel image of speech. But whoever has in mind how human nature actually differs (and this is reason), will neglect the unreasonable custom; and what does not benefit the soul, he will not choose, recognizing it as beautiful. Therefore, there is no need to pay attention to the traces of the flock, which in this earthly life are imprinted by the heels of those who have traveled its path; for our judgment about what is preferable, if based on what is visible, is doubtful until we are outside this life and there we do not know whom we followed. Therefore, someone who does not distinguish good from bad by actual reality, but follows in the footsteps of those who went before, and takes the previous custom of life as a teacher of his own life, during the righteous judgment, often without knowing how, he becomes a goat from a sheep. Therefore, he too can hear the following words from the friends of the Bridegroom: if you, a soul who has become good from a blackened one, are taking care that the gift of good looks remains with you forever, then do not wander in the footsteps of those who have gone through life before you. For it is not known whether the path you see is not of goats, and if you, following them, because those who trampled this path with their footsteps are not visible to you, when life has passed through you and they imprison you in the prison of death, you will not increase the herd of goats, in the footsteps of which, without knowing it, you passed your life. For “if you do not hang yourself, good woman, go out at the heels of the flocks, and feed the goats at the shepherd’s tabernacles.” This can be understood more clearly from some other list, in which the word composition apparently does not lack a connection. For it is said: “If you do not know yourself, you are good in wives; then you have left the tracks of the flocks and are feeding the goats opposite the shepherd’s tents.” So the meaning revealed in these sayings exactly agrees with the view that was presented before regarding this saying. So, Scripture says: so that you, soul, do not endure this, be attentive to yourself. For this is a reliable repository of goods. Know how much you are honored by the Creator before other creatures; not the sky was made in the image of God, and also not the moon, not the sun, not the beauty of the stars, below other things that are visible in creation: you alone have become a reflection of nature, surpassing every mind with the likeness of incorruptible beauty, an imprint of the true Divinity, a container of blessed life, a reflection of the true light, at which, looking, you yourself will be the same as He, resembling the ray shining in you, reflected from your purity. There is no creature so great that it can measure its size with you; the whole sky is embraced by God's hand, and the earth and sea are contained in the handful of God's hand. However, the One who is so omnipotent and all-encompassing, Who squeezes all creation in his hand, Himself becomes wholly contained in you: and dwells in you, and is not oppressed, walking in your nature, He who said: “I will dwell in them and walk like” (2 Cor. 6:12, 16). If you pay attention to this, you won’t be able to fix your eyes on anything on earth. What does this say? Even the sky, in your opinion, will not be wonderful for you. For how can you, man, marvel at the heavens when you see that you yourself are more durable than the heavens? And the heavens pass away, but you remain forever with the Ever-Bearing One. You will not marvel at the breadth of the earth and the infinity of the sea, being, like a charioteer driving a pair of horses, put in charge of these elements, having them submissive and subject to his will, because the earth serves you with the needs of life, and the sea, like a bridled horse, offers you a backbone and willingly accepts a person as a rider. Therefore, if you recognize yourself as “you, kind in women,” then you will despise the whole world and, always having an immaterial good before your eyes, you will not pay attention to the traces wandering through this life. So, be always attentive to yourself and do not wander around a herd of goats; during the Judgment you will not find yourself a goat instead of a sheep, you will not be excommunicated from standing at the right hand, but you will hear a sweet voice that will say to the fleeced and meek sheep: “Come, blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25, 34). May we also be worthy of it in Christ Jesus our Lord! To Him be glory forever and ever! Amen. You might be interested in: