Беседа 4. Толкование на Песн. 1:14–2

Song 1:14. Behold you are good, my sincere one, behold you are good: your eyes are like a dove. Song 1:15. Behold, you are kind, my brother, and our bed with autumn is still red, Song 1:16. lay down our cedar boards, our cypress boards. Song 2:1. The color is full and the crin is long. Song 2:2. Like a thorn among thorns, so is My sincere one among my daughters. Song 2:3. As the apple trees are among the trees of the forest, so is my brother among the sons: under His shadow I have longed and sat down, and His fruit is sweet in my throat. Song 2:4. Lead me into the house of wine, make me love: Song 2:5. establish me in the world, put me in the apple shop: for I am wounded by love. Song 2:6. His spirit is under my head, and His right hand will embrace me. Song 2:7. I have sworn you, daughters of Jerusalem, to the strength and strength of the village: if you arouse and arouse love, the Dondezh will delight. They say that those who purify gold according to the rules of art, if the beauty of its luster has faded due to some impure substance intentionally mixed in, help the good color by melting on fire, repeat this repeatedly and with each melting they look at how much lighter the gold has become after the first melting, and until then they do not stop purifying the substance with fire, as the very appearance of gold testifies that it is pure and has no admixture. And why, when starting a real review of what we read, we made a mention of this, this will be clear to us from the very meaning of what is written. Human nature at the beginning was some kind of golden and shining likeness to the most pure good, but after this, due to the admixture of vice, it became thin and black; as in the first verses of the song we heard from the bride that carelessness about the grapes made her blackened. Healing him from ugliness, God, who in wisdom creates all things, does not create for him some new beauty that did not exist before, but melts the blackened into the pure, and through this decomposition brings him back to his former glory. Therefore, just as strict testers of gold, after the first melting, look at how much beauty has gained in a substance that has lost impurity in the fire, and then, after the second melting, if it is not sufficiently purified by the first, they calculate the increasing beauty of gold, and by repeatedly doing the same, by means of testing known to science, they always recognize the increase in beauty; so now He who corrects this blackened gold, as if by some kind of melting, enlightening the soul with the medicines given to it, in the words preceding this, testified to the beauty in the visible of some horses, and now he approves of the beauty that has already been revealed in the maiden as the real beauty of the maiden; for he says: “Behold, you are good, My sincere one, behold, you are good: your eyes are like a dove” (Song. 1, 14). The Word teaches by what has been said that the restoration of beauty consists in man becoming sincere of the Source of beauty, again joining the true beauty from which he has withdrawn. For it is said: “Behold, you are good, my sincere one.” Because before this you were not “good”, because, having become alien to primitive beauty, from an evil closeness with vice, you changed to vileness. The meaning of the predicate is this: human nature has become ready to accept everything that it thinks; and where his inclination of arbitrariness leads him, that is what changes; having accepted the passion of irritability, he becomes irritated; when lust overcomes, he indulges in voluptuousness; when an inclination towards fear, towards fear and towards one of the passions appears, it takes on the image of each passion; as well as, on the contrary, generosity, purity, peacefulness, non-anger, indestructibility by sorrows, courage, infallibility - having accepted all these qualities into oneself, the distinctive feature of each of them shows the state of the soul, enjoying the peace in serenity. Therefore, since virtue has no connection with vice, it follows that it is impossible for both to be together in one person. He who has abandoned chastity will certainly indulge in an intemperate life, and he who has abhorred an unclean life, through his very aversion from evil, will succeed in an undefiled life. So is everything else: the humble man is far from pride, and the one who is puffed up with arrogance rejects humility. And what is the need to dwell on this, talking about everything in detail? As in the reasoning of what is opposite by nature, the absence of one is made by the position and presence of the other; Thus, since we have the will, and it is in our power, to conform to what we desire, the Word appropriately says to the one who has become beautiful: having retreated from communication with evil, you have approached Me, and having become close to the unapproachable beauty, you yourself have become beautiful, like some kind of mirror, depicting My features in yourself. For indeed, a person is like a mirror, transforming himself according to images arbitrarily chosen. Will he see gold, is gold and shows in the image the very rays of this substance; if something disgusting appears, he imprints the vileness of it in himself through likeness, imagining in his own form some frog or toad, or millipede, or anything else unpleasant to the eye, which only from this would be found before his eyes. So, since the soul, which was purified by the Word, leaving behind the vice, took into itself the circle of the sun and itself shone with the light that appeared in it, then the Word says to it: you have already become beautiful, having approached My light, by your approach you have attracted the communication of beauty. “Behold, you are good,” continues the Groom, “my sincere one”; then, focusing his attention on her, and as if seeing that some kind of increase and intensification of beauty is taking place in her, he again repeats the same word, saying: “Behold, you are good.” But, saying this for the first time, he called her sincere; and here he names how she is recognized by the appearance of her eyes; for he says: “Your eyes are like a dove.” Previously, when it was likened to horses, praise was limited to the cheek and neck; now, when her own beauty has become obvious, the pleasantness of her eyes is boasted. And the praise of the eyes is that “the eyes of a dove”; This, however, seems to me to allow me to see the following thought: since in the pure pupils of the eyes faces are visible, at which the eye gazes intently (for those knowledgeable in natural science say that the eye, receiving intrusions of similarities that flow from visible things, through this very thing produces vision); That is why the appearance of a dove that appears in their pupils becomes a praise for the beauty of the eyes; for whatever a person looks at intently, the likeness of it accepts into himself. Therefore, since, no longer looking at flesh and blood, he turns his attention to spiritual life, as the Apostle says, living in the Spirit, walking in the Spirit (Gal. 5:25), putting to death the deeds of the flesh in the Spirit (Rom. 8:13), and becoming entirely spiritual, and not spiritual and not carnal; therefore, about a soul freed from carnal addiction, evidence is given that in his eyes he has the appearance of a dove, that is, that in the visual power of the soul the features of spiritual life shine. So, because the eye of the bride became pure; and capable of taking on the features of a dove; then she begins to look at the beauty of the Groom. Now the maiden looks closely at the image of the Suitors for the first time, when she has a dove in her eyes. For “no one can speak of the Lord Jesus except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). And the maiden says: “Behold, you are good, my brother, and also handsome” (Song. 1, 15). From now on, nothing else seems beautiful to me; on the contrary, I turned away from everything that was previously considered so; I am no longer mistaken in my judgment of beauty, so as to recognize as beautiful anything besides You, or any human praise, or glory, or nobility, or power in this world. Although for those who pay attention to the feeling it is embellished with the ghost of beauty, it is not what it is recognized as. And how can someone who doesn’t even have independence be beautiful? For what is highly valued in this world has its existence only in the opinion of those who think that it exists. But You are truly beautiful, and not only beautiful, but always so in the very essence of beauty, constantly remaining in the fact that You are in Yourself, not blooming at times, and at another time you stop blooming again, but Your beauty extends to the eternity of life; her name is philanthropy. For from the tribe of Judah Christ hath shone unto us (Heb. 7:14), the Jewish people are in brotherhood with the people coming to You from the pagans; therefore, because of the appearance of Your Divinity in the flesh, You are beautifully called the Brother of the beloved. Then the virgin adds: “our bed is overshadowed” (Song 1:15), that is, human nature has come to know You, or will know You, through the economy of being made overshadowed. For the virgin says: you, good brother, have come to our bed very well; having become overshadowed: and if You had not overshadowed Yourself, the most pure ray of the Divine had covered the servant with the image; who could endure Your appearing? “Whoever will see” “the face of God, and will live” (Ex. 33:20). Therefore, You, O beautiful One, came, but having become such that we were able to receive You; - came, covering the rays of the Divine with the cover of the body. For how could mortal and perishing nature prepare itself for union with the most pure and unapproachable nature, if the canopy of the body had not served as a medium between us, living in darkness, and between light? “Odra” the bride calls the unity of human nature with the Divine, explaining it in the applicable sense, just as the great Apostle betroths us to Christ - the virgin, exhorts the soul, and says that the clinging of two to each other before communion into one body is the great mystery of the unity of Christ with the Church; for, having said: “The two will become one flesh,” he added: “This mystery is great: I speak into Christ, and into the Church” (Eph. 5:32). For this secret, the virgin soul called communication with God “bed.” And this “bed” could not have become otherwise than as a result of the coming to us of the Lord, overshadowed by the body. He is not only the Bridegroom, but also the Housemaker; The house itself builds within us and serves as the substance for the building. For he puts a roof on the house, decorating the work with a non-rotting substance - and such are cedar and cypress, in which the hardness inherent in trees is higher than any cause of rotting; It does not give way to time, does not allow the worm to arise in itself, and is not eaten away by mold. Of these trees, cedars, since they are long, bind the breadth of the house under the roof; and cypress trees decorate the interior of the house with the so-called cladding. It reads like this: “Present for our house cedar trees, our cypress boards” (Song. 1:16). But the mysterious meaning of trees is, without a doubt, obvious to those who follow the connection of thoughts. The Lord in the Gospel calls various attacks of temptation rain, speaking of a well-built house on a rock, that “the rain came down, and the winds blew, and the rivers came up” (Matthew 7:25), and the building remained without suffering anything. So, because of this harmful rain, we need such “transformations,” and they will be virtues that, being firm and unyielding, do not allow the influx of temptations within themselves, and even during temptations they resist the influence of vice. Let us find out what was said, comparing the saying of Ecclesiastes with what is proposed here, for it says there: “in laziness the lanyard will be humbled, and in the festival of hands the church will be dripped” (Eccl. 10:18). If the wood used for the roof is thin and not hard, and the owner of the house is lazy to take care of the building, then the roof will be of no use, and the rain will flow in drops. For the roof, of necessity, is pressed in, yielding to the weight of the water, and the frailty of the trees does not resist, breaking under the attack of gravity; therefore, the water accumulated in the depression goes inside, and the very “drops,” according to the word of the parable, “drive a man out of his house” on a rainy “day” (Prov. 27:15). So, by the mysterious meaning of the parable, it is commanded that, through the firmness of our virtues, we should be unyielding to the influx of temptations, without which, softened by the tide of passions, we will become hollows and accept into our secret places from the outside the influx of waters penetrating into the heart, from which the things stored in us are spoiled. These “cedars” are “Lebanon, which the Lord planted,” on which “birds will nest,” over which “herod’s dwelling is presiding” (Psalm 103:16-17). So, cedars, that is, virtues, bring security to the house of the marriage bed; souls that have become birds and flown away from the nets nest on them; they are “led by Herod’s dwelling,” which Scripture calls home; They say that this bird has an aversion to copulation, and if, by some natural necessity, they form pairs with each other, then they do this, shrinking with indignation and showing displeasure: why, it seems to me, the name of this bird mysteriously means purity. The bride sees these “places” on the roof of a clean spoon, and also sees a cypress decoration, which, by some kind of smoothness and foldability in the addition of parts, gives shine to the visible beauty; for the bride says that the roof has cypress sheathing; and sheathing is some kind of cohesion of fitted and cleanly planed boards that diversifies the beauty of the roof. What are we learning from this? Cypress is naturally fragrant; it also does not allow rottenness and is suitable for all artistic carpentry work; due to its smoothness and harmony of layers, it is also suitable for carved decorations. Therefore, I think, we learn from what has been said, not only by skill to excel in virtues secretly, but not to be careless about visible goodness. For we must provide “good things” before the Lord and before “men” (Rom. 12:13), be revealed to “God” and exhort people (2 Cor. 5:11), “have a testimony of good things from outsiders” (1 Tim. 3:7), shine before people with bright deeds “and walk gracefully among those outside” (1 Thessalonians 4:12). Such are the “descendants” according to the fragrance of Christ, a hint of which is the cypress, skillfully crafted in the beauty of life, just as the wise creator Paul was able to put together such things beautifully and harmoniously, who says: “Let all things be in order and in good order” (1 Cor. 14:40). Thus, upon success in this, there is an increase in beauty in us, because the plain of our nature grows fragrant and pure color; The name of the flower is Krin, in which the naturally perceived whiteness implies the brilliance of chastity. For this is what the bride says about herself, saying: after the Bridegroom became the body of our bed, he built me ​​into a house, supporting the roof with cedars of virtues, and decorating the ceiling with the fragrance of cypresses, and I in the field of nature became a color, different from other flowers in its good color and fragrance; for it grew out of the fields like cranium. It reads like this: “I am full of color, and long-winded” (Song. 2, 1). For indeed, according to our preliminary review, the soul is cultivated on the plain of nature. And when we hear about the field, we understand the breadth of human nature, its ability to accept many and countless concepts, sayings and lessons. So, processed by the Cultivator of our nature in the manner shown above, the soul grows in a fragrant, white and pure color on the field of our nature. This field, although, in comparison with heavenly residence, is called “pleasure,” it is nevertheless a field, and the soul cultivated on it has no obstacle to correctly becoming a flower; because the sprout from the recess rises in height, which, as can be seen, happens with krin. For the stem of the crin, for the most part in the form of a reed, running out from the root straight to the top, then produces a flower at the top, located at a considerable intermediate distance from the earth, so that, as I think, its beauty in its sublimity remains pure, not desecrated by mixing with the earth. Therefore, the truthful eye, looking at the virgin who has become, or desired to become, the flower (for in what has been said we mean both, - either that she is magnified as having become what she desired, or that she should become the flower of the Worker, according to His wisdom, appearing from the pleasures of human life in the beauty of the crin) - the truthful eye, I say, of the Bridegroom, seeing good desire The virgin looking at Him, whether she only intends to become, or has already become, whatever she desired, beautifully expressed her will that she should become a krin, not drowned out by the thorns of life, which the Bridegroom called “daughters,” silently, as I think, pointing to the forces hostile to human life, of which the father is called the recipient of malice. Therefore, the Bridegroom says: “Like a bushel among thorns, so is My sister among the daughters” (Song 2:2). What progress we see taking place in the soul in its ascent to heights! The first ascent is that the soul became like the horses, the destroyers of the Egyptian power; the second ascent is that she became sincere and made her eyes dove-like; therefore, the third ascension is that which is called not only sincerely, but the sister of the Lord. For He says: “Whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and My sister and My mother” (Matthew 12:49). So the bride, since she became a flower and the thorny temptations did not harm her in the least in becoming a krin, but forgetting “her people and her father’s house” (Psalm 44:11), she turned her gaze to the true Father; That is why she is called the sister of the Lord, as introduced into this kinship by the Spirit of sonship, and freed from communication with the daughters of the false father, she again becomes superior to herself, and with the eyes of a dove, that is, the spirit of prophecy, she sees the mystery. She says the following: “As apple trees are among the trees of the forest, so is my brother among sons” ( Song 2:3 ) Therefore, what does she see? Holy Scripture usually refers to unclean human life as a forest, overgrown with various types of passions, where destructive animals nest and hide, the natural properties of which, remaining inactive in the light and sun, gain strength in the darkness; for after the sun sets, says the Prophet, with the onset of night, during it the animals come out of their holes (Psalm 103:19-20). So, since the desert beast, feeding in the forest, has destroyed the beautiful grapes of human nature, as the Prophet says: “the crop and the wild boar from the oak grove, and the solitary wondrous devouring and” (Psalm 79:14), then an apple tree is planted in the forest, which is because it is a tree of one essence with human substance (for it is tempted “in every way in the likeness of sin" (Heb. 4:15), and in that it bears such fruit, which delights the senses of the soul, it has a greater difference from the forest than that of the thorns. For the grain has a pleasantness only in appearance and fragrance, and the pleasantness of the apple tree satisfies the three senses, pleasing the eye with the beauty of its appearance, delighting the sense of smell with its fragrance, and, becoming food, gives pleasure to the sense of taste. Therefore, the bride clearly sees her difference with the Master; because He becomes a delight for our eyes, becoming light, and peace for the smell, and life for those who eat; “let him live,” as the Gospel says somewhere (John 6:57), and human nature, perfected by virtue, becomes a flower that does not nourish the worker, but adorns itself. For it is not He who needs ours, but we who need His goods, as the prophet says: “You do not demand my goods” (Psalm 15:2). Therefore, the soul that has achieved purity sees the Bridegroom becoming an apple tree “in the midst of the trees of the forest,” so that, having grafted to Himself all the wild branches in the forest, He would prepare for the abundant growth of such fruit. Therefore, just as, because of the likeness to thorns, we recognized as the children of the false father of those daughters who, being planted near the flower, over time themselves pass on to the grace of the tree: so here, having heard about those who were likened to such trees of the forest, we assume that they mean not the friends, but the opponents of the Bridegroom and those whom the Bridegroom, from being sons of darkness and children of wrath, transforms into sons of light and into sons of the day. Why does the soul that has trained the senses say: “His fruit is sweet in my throat” (Song. 2, 3). The fruit, without a doubt, is teaching; for the Prophet says: “How sweet is Your word to my throat, more than honey to my mouth” (Psalm 119:103). “Like the apple trees in the midst of the trees of the forest, so is my brother among the sons: under His shadow I have longed and sat down, and His fruit is sweet in my throat.” For then the senses of the soul truly delight in the Word, when, in the heat of temptation, the shade of the apple tree overshadows us, and does not allow us to burn from such a sun, scorching our naked head. But one can find coolness under the canopy of the tree of life only when lust leads the soul to it. Do you see why the power of desire has been invested in you? - In order to arouse in you a love for the apple tree, the enjoyment of which is varied in those approaching; because the eye is calmed by the vision of beauty, and the nose inhales the fragrance, and the body is nourished, and the lips are delighted, and the heat is turned away, and the canopy becomes a throne on which the soul sits, having renounced the “seat of the destroyers” (Psalm 1:1). Then the bride says: “Bring me into the house of wine, instill love for me: establish me in the world, put me in the apple shop: for I am wounded by love” (Song. 2, 4-5). The soul, perfectly likened to horses in order to complete its Divine course, stretches forward, as if with frequent and intense leaps, but does not return back to what it has achieved in what has already been achieved before. She thirsts still, and such is the strength of the thirst that she is not content with the cup of wisdom to quench her thirst; she does not consider it sufficient to pour a whole cup into her mouth, but strives to have her brought into the very house of wine, to put her lips to the very winepresses pouring out sweet wine, to see the grapes being crushed in the winepresses, and the vine that feeds such a bunch, and the Maker of the true grape. vine, which makes this bunch so nutritious and pleasant. It would be unnecessary to analyze each of these concepts separately, because the figurative meaning clearly seen in each of them. Without a doubt, it is desirable to understand this secret, why from the trampling of the winepress the Bridegroom's clothes turn crimson, about which the Prophet speaks: “Why are Your garments scarlet, and Your garments like the trampling of the winepress” (Is. 63:2)? For this and similar reasons, the bride desires to be inside the house in which this sacrament of wine is performed. Then, having entered inside, he rushes to even more, for he asks to subordinate it to love - “Love,” according to the word of John, “is God” (1 John 4:8), to subordinate the soul to Whom, as David declared, is salvation (Psalm 61:2). So, says the bride, since I am in the house of wine, then subjugate me to love, or “bring love to me.” Whatever rearrangement of words you use, in both cases, that is, when the soul either submits to love, or subjugates love, the meaning is the same. Or, perhaps, with these words we learn one of the highest dogmas, namely, what kind of love should be given to God, and what disposition to have towards others. For if everything needs to be in order and in a decent manner, then in something like this, orderliness is all the more appropriate. And Cain would not have been condemned for having “divided” badly if, having brought the “right”, he had preserved decency in order regarding what he had left for his own use and what was dedicated to God. He had to offer the firstfruits of the firstfruits as a sacrifice to God, and he, which was more valuable, having thus satisfied himself, offered the remains to God. Therefore, one must know the order of love prescribed by the law - how one must love God as a neighbor, and wife, and enemy, so that the fulfillment of love does not become somehow disordered and perverse. For we must love God with all our heart, with all our soul and strength, and with all our feeling, and our neighbor as ourselves, and the wife of the one who has a pure soul, as Christ loves the Church, and the one who is more passionate, as his own body; This is what the order maker in all such things, Paul, commands (Eph. 5:25. 28); and one must love the enemy in such a way as not to repay evil for evil, but to recompense with good deeds for insult. Nowadays one can see that for many people love is mixed, disordered, and, due to inconsistency, acts sinfully. Some people love money, honors, and wives, if they are warmly disposed towards them, with all their hearts and with all their might, so that they would be willing to lay down their lives for them; and God is only for show; they hardly show their neighbor the same love as they are prescribed to have for their enemies; and they have such a disposition towards those who hate that they can take revenge on those who upset them with great evil. So, the bride says: “bring love to me,” so that I give it to God as much as it is due, and to each of the others without lack in the proper measure. Or in this word one can also mean the following: “since I,” says the bride, “beloved at the beginning, for disobedience, was counted among the enemies, and now I have returned again to the same mercy, having reconciled with the Bridegroom through love, then the legality and immutability of this mercy will be confirmed to me by you, friends of the Bridegroom, with care and attentiveness, observing the indispensable inclination in me for the better. Having said this, the bride again moves on to more sublime speech, because she asks for the strength of blessings to be supported by the worlds, and says: “Confirm me in the worlds.” What extraordinary and new supports! How can the world become pillars of a house? How does the solidity of a roof's construction rely on fragrance? Isn’t it obvious, of course, that the property of virtues, successfully acquired in many ways, is named after the difference in actions? For not only to see the good and come into communication with the best, but also to maintain integrity in the beautiful is virtue. Therefore, the one who wants to be established “in the world” strives for himself to remain firmly in the virtues. For virtue is myrrh, because it is removed from all the stench of sins. Another will marvel at what was said following this: why does the bride desire to cover the house not with bushes and thorns, and hay, and reeds, but it is better, as the Apostle says, not with trees, reeds and hay (1 Cor. 3.12), from which material houses are prepared; but apples serve as a covering on the ceiling of her house; for she says: “Put me in the apple shop,” so that this fruit will become everything and in everything for her - beauty, peace, delight, food, coolness, the shade it provides, a calm seat, a supporting pillar, covering the ceiling. For, as beauty, it is looked upon with lust; like myrrh, it gives pleasure to the sense of smell, like food, it fattens the body and delights the taste; like a canopy, it gives coolness from the heat; like a seat, it soothes after work; like the roof of a house, it serves as a covering for those living in the house; like a pillar, makes one unable to stumbling; like a visible apple, decorates the ceiling. And can anyone come up with any more beautiful sight than laid out apples, when these fruits, arranged in order on some plane without any gaps between each other, diversify the view by the fact that the redness of one apple is mixed with the whitishness of another? Therefore, if it is possible for the position of the apples to be visibly rising upward on a plane, then what could be more graceful than this appearance? But this is not impossible for the desire for spiritual goods; because the fruit of this type is not heavy, does not pull or bend towards the ground, but by nature has a desire for heights. For virtue ascends upward and turns its gaze to grief. Therefore, the beauty of such apples is what the bride desires to clean the ceiling of her own house. For, it seems to me, the main concern of the word is not that there should be some noticeable spectacle from the stacking of apples on the mat. What kind of guide to virtue would there be in this if there was no thought useful for us in what was said? Therefore, what is this thought, according to our fortune telling? In the forest of our nature, out of love for mankind, He who grew through the communion of Flesh and Blood became an apple; for in this fruit one can see the likeness in color of both flesh and blood; by its whitishness it is likened to the property of flesh, and the redness spread over it indicates by appearance that the fruit has an affinity with the nature of blood. Therefore, when the soul, delighting in the Divine, desires to turn its gaze to this roof, through this riddle we learn the following: the fact that, looking at the mountain, we pay attention to the apples, means that we are guided to heavenly life by the gospel teachings, which He who came from above and above all revealed to us, when He appeared in the flesh, showing in Himself examples of all good deeds, as the Lord says: “Learn from Me, because I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29). The Apostle says the same thing, prescribing us humility (one example can prove the whole truth of this word). For to those who behold the mountain says: “Let this be the wisdom of you, even in Christ Jesus, who is in the form of God, not by the admiration of being equal with God, but by making Himself a little, having received the form of a servant,” who was in life with flesh and blood and “instead of the joy that was set before Him,” who voluntarily participated in our humiliation and condescended to the trial of death (Phil. 2, 5–8). Therefore, the bride says: “Put me in the apple shop,” so that, always looking at the heights, I can see examples of good deeds shown in the Bridegroom; there is meekness, there is lack of anger, there is forbearance towards enemies and philanthropy towards those who offend, rewarding malice with good deeds; there is abstinence, purity and generosity, the absence of all vanity and worldly charms. Having said this, the bride praises the archer for his accuracy, for skillfully directing the arrow at her; for he says: “I am wounded by love.” This word indicates an arrow lying deep in her heart; The one who shot this arrow is love. We learned from Holy Scripture that love is God. He shoots His chosen arrow, the only begotten Son, at those who are being saved, anointing the threefold sting of the tip with the Spirit of life. The point is faith, so that in whomever it is, the One who shot it will be introduced along with the arrow, as the Lord says: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30); and: “Let us come and make our abode with him” (John 14:23). Therefore, the soul, elevated by divine ascents, sees in itself the sweet arrow of love by which it is wounded, and the wound turns itself into praise, saying: “I am wounded by love.” What a beautiful ulcer! What a sweet defeat with which life penetrates into the inside where the arrow pierced, opening for itself, as it were, some kind of door and entrance! For together she received the arrow of love, and the shooting immediately changed into wedding joy. For it is known how the hands dispose of the bow, correcting this or that matter according to need; The left hand holds the bow, and the right hand pulls the bowstring towards itself, attracting an arrow by the split end, which is directed to the target by holding the left hand. Therefore, having recently served as a target for an arrow, now, instead of the arrow, she sees herself in the hands of the archer, while in another way the right and otherwise the left hand embraces the arrow. But since later the images of ideas are given in a figurative meaning from the wedding song, the bride not only imagined that the left hand supported the tip of the arrow, and the right embraced its other part, so that the soul became an arrow in the hand of the strong, directed to a higher goal; on the contrary, she imagined that the left hand was placed, instead of the tip, under the “head”, and the right embraced the rest, so that, as I think, in the word with these doubly mysterious expressions the wisdom of the divine ascent was together stated, showing that both the Bridegroom and our archer are one and the same, that the pure soul serves for Him as both a bride and an arrow, and like an arrow, He directs it to the good goals, like a bride, she accepts into the communion of incorruptible eternity, “length of life and years of life,” bestowing with her right hand, and with her hand, “wealth” of eternal blessings and the “glory” of God (Prov. 3:16), of which those who seek the glory of this world become unparticipated. Therefore he says: “His shuitsa is under my head” (Song. 2:6), - the shuitsa with which the arrow is aimed at the target. And His right hand, enveloping me and drawing me to Himself, makes it easy to lift up the mountain and lets me rise, and does not separate me from the archer, so that together I am carried as a result of the fall, and I rest in the hands of the Lord. The book of Proverbs speaks about the distinctive properties of these hands, that “the length of life and the years of life are in the right hand” of Wisdom, “in her hand are wealth and glory” (Prov. 3:16). Then the bride turns her speech to the daughters of heavenly Jerusalem; This speech is a conviction offered with a spell - to always multiply and increase love until the One who “wants to save everyone and come into the understanding of truth” (1 Tim. 2:4) fulfills His will. This is the speech that the bride pronounces: “I have cursed you, daughters of Jerusalem, with the strength and strength of the village: if you rise up and arouse love, the Dondezh will delight” (Song. 2, 6). An oath is a word that certifies the truth; The effect of an oath is twofold: it either itself certifies the listener in the truth, or by making a spell on others it makes it necessary not to lie about anything. For example: “The Lord swears to David in truth, and it will not be rejected” (Psalm 131:11). Here the oath confirms the faithfulness of the promise. When Abraham, taking care of the noble marriage of his only begotten, commands his servant Isaac not to bring into marriage cohabitation anyone from the Canaanite family condemned to slavery, so that the admixture of the slave family does not harm the nobility of succession, but on the contrary, to choose a wife for his son in his own land and in his kinship; then, with a spell, he forces the slave not to neglect the order, and if he sends him, for his own sake, do what he recognized as good for his son; So the servant is conjured by Abraham to arrange a decent marriage for Isaac. Therefore, since the effect of an oath is twofold, here the soul, having ascended to such a height as we saw it reach in what we have studied before, indicating the further path to perfection to the souls it teaches, does not by its oath certify those listening to the certainty of what it itself has achieved; but with a spell to lead them to a virtuous life, to vigilant and vigilant love, until His good will is fulfilled, which is that everyone should be saved and come to the mind of truth. And the oath, as there was about the patriarch’s “steg” (Gen. 24:9), so here “is in the strength and fortress of the village”; for this is what the Scripture says: “I have cursed you, the daughters of Jerusalem in strength and strongholds of the village: if you rise up and arouse love, the Dondezh will delight.” In these words we must consider, firstly, what kind of “village” this is; then, what is the “fortress” of the village and its “strength”, and is there a difference between them, or does both mean the same thing; besides what it means to “raise” and what it means to arouse love; and the expression “until he delights” is explained by what was said before. That “village,” the Lord’s word, means peace, this is clear to everyone from the Gospel; and that “the form of this world passes away” (1 Cor. 7:31), and nothing lasts in the impermanent nature, this is clear from the loud testimony of Ecclesiastes, who classed everything visible and transitory among vain things. Therefore, what power does such a village have that is peace? Or what strength is there in that, the remembrance of which with the spell given to the daughters of Jerusalem makes the command inviolable? If you look at the visible, as if there is some kind of power in it, then Ecclesiastes rejects such an assumption, calling vanity everything that is pointed at and what people desire in the visible. For vain things are untenable; and what is essentially untenable has no force. Or, perhaps, in the meaning of the word: “strength” in the plural, there is some guess about the concept it expresses? For from Holy Scripture we know such a difference in the reasoning of such names: when “power” is said in the singular, then with such a word the understanding is referred to the Divine; and when the same name is pronounced in the plural, it is represented by the word angelic nature. So “Christ is God’s Power and Wisdom” (1 Cor. 1:24); Here the singular number is used by Scripture to mean the Divinity. “Bless the Lord with all His might” (Psalm 102:21) - here the plural of “strength” shows the meaning of the intelligent angelic nature. And the word “fortress”, juxtaposed with the word “strength”, enhances the significance of the concept; thus Scripture, by repeating equivalent utterances, more firmly expresses what it desires. So in the words: “Lord, my strength and my strength” (Psalm 17:23), each of the sayings means the same thing, but a comparison of equivalent words shows the strengthening of the signified. Therefore, the multiple meaning of “forces” and the similar mention of “fortresses” raises, as can be seen, the thought of those hearing to the nature of the angels, so that the spell presented by the teacher to the taught souls in confirmation of the hidden, is done by the power of the not transient world, but the ever-present nature of the Angels, to whom one is commanded to look, so that their example confirms the steadfastness and constancy of the virtuous lives. Because we have the promise that after the resurrection, human life will become similar to the state of the Angels (He who promised is not deceitful); then life in this world should also be prepared for the life expected after this, so that, while living in the flesh and spending time in the villages of this world, one should not live according to the flesh and not conform to this age, but even while living in the world, have concern for the life expected. Therefore, the bride, with an oath, instills in the souls of the students that their life, spent with success in this village, should have in mind the heavenly powers, imitating the dispassion of the purity of the angels. For when love is thus raised and aroused, that is, it rises from the addition, and grows to a greater measure; then, as the bride said, the will of God is fulfilled, both in heaven and on earth, due to the angelic dispassion that succeeds in us. This is what we understood in the words: “I have cursed you, daughters of Jerusalem, to the strength and strength of the village: if you rise up, and arouse love, the Dondezh will delight.” If there is another word that is closer to the truth of what is being sought; then let us accept grace and give thanks to Him who reveals hidden secrets through the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus our Lord. To Him be glory forever and ever! Amen. You might be interested in: