Глава 8

Song 8:1 Who will give you, my brother, to suck my mother's breasts? Having found Thee outside, I kiss Thee, and no one will disgrace me. Song 8:2 I will understand Thee, I will bring Thee into my mother’s house and into the bed of my imprisoned wife: there teach me: I will give Thee to drink from the wine with the stench of the building, from the water of my apples. And the Bridegroom Himself, as a man, accepted the Grace of the Holy Spirit. For it is said about him: “The child was stretched out and strengthened in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was on him” (Luke 2:40). So the Bride, amazed at His inexpressible love for mankind, that He “pissed the breasts of her mother,” says: You, because of Your special goodness, took my nature, the same ones who I sucked the nipples, and sucked not because I needed it, but in order to teach me how I should suck the milk of teaching. “Who will give you, my brother, to suck my mother’s breasts? Having found Thee outside, I kiss Thee, and no one will disgrace me.” I, wounded by Your love, not only in the palace and on the bed, but also outside, will openly throw myself into Your arms, kiss You, and for this no one will reproach me if they only recognize my ardor for You. But having found You, “I will understand You, I will bring You into my mother’s house.” He calls the Holy Church home, the image of the Mountainous Jerusalem - “there I will give you to drink from the wine with the stench of the building, from the water of my apples.” By harmonious wine he means teaching, filled with grace and as if fragrant with aromas, and by water of apples - the benefit that comes from the fruits of love. In these words, the Bride and the Groom speak to the young women: Song 8:3 His sword is under my head, and his right hand will embrace me. I am not afraid of threats of punishment, I am showered with the blessings of the Bridegroom. For this purpose, He placed a shuitsu under my head, and embraced me with His right hand. Song 8:4 I have cursed you, daughters of Jerusalem, in the strength and in the strongholds of the villages: if you move and raise up love, the Dondezh will delight. You must constantly arouse love in order to desire Him more earnestly, and so that, as He himself wants, you may stretch towards perfection. The young women, having heard this and seeing all its beauty, are surprised and say: Song 8:5 Who is this ascendant who is made white and established in her Brother? They don’t say – white, but whitened. For she was black (Song. 1:4) And as the sun scorched her, the Bridegroom made her white, being Himself Light and Holiness, and made her bright and holy. “This one who ascends is made white and established in her Brother,” is established in her Brother - for she, guided by Him, ascends to Heaven and marches to Him through faith. After this the Groom says to her: Song 8:5 I aroused you under the apple tree: there your mother gave birth to you, there she gave birth to you. We, believing the gospel of our Savior, approach Divine Baptism, and there we accept birth, there our Mother, the Holy Spirit, gives birth to us. Song 8:6 Set me as a seal on your heart, like a seal on your arm: as strong as the death of love, cruel as jealousy: its wings are like fire, its coals of fire are its flames. The Groom says to the Bride: “Put me like a seal on your heart, like a seal on your arm.” The heart refers to the mental power of the soul, and the muscle – the active power. So he wants her to have His goal in all her thoughts and actions. This will not be difficult for you to do if you only maintain love for Me, which is strong as death. Death, through the crime of Adam, dominates over everything (Rom. 5:14), so Love conquers everything - even death itself. Feed also jealousy. With jealousy, you will not allow anyone to surpass you, someone else to anticipate your union with Me. For “jealousy is as cruel as hell.” Song 8:7 Water cannot quench much love, and rivers cannot drown it. This is justified both in the Old and in the New Testament by men glorious in piety. Neither life in a foreign land, nor poverty, nor hunger, nor the abduction of his wife could destroy Abraham’s love for God (Gen. 12). What is more terrible than the cave of Babylon? But this oven and this flame did not destroy the commitment of the three youths to Christ, but only increased it further. Isaacs, Jacobs, Moses, Elias, Daniels all spoke with the Apostle Paul like this: “Who will separate us from the love of God, be it tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or trouble, or sword? For we know that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers below, nor the present, nor the future, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:35, 38-39). What's stronger? What is more powerful than such love? So, the Bride is right here: “Water cannot quench much love, and rivers cannot drown it.” Song 8:7 If a man gives all his wealth for love, he will be humiliated. Those who would lay down their property, happiness and life for love will be despised by the wicked and considered nothing. But let them honor it; this will not weaken their love either. Why did Blessed Paul rightly say: “We are reproached, we bless; we are persecuted, we suffer, we are blasphemed, we are comforted: just as the world had been cut off by the world, all have been trampled upon until now” (1 Cor. 4:12–13) Song 8:8 Our sister is small and has no breast; what shall we do to our sister in the day that she is told? Song 8:9 If there is a wall, we will build a fence of silver on it; and if there is a door, we will write a cedar board on it. I think this is what the Holy Prophets, who shone forth in the Old Testament, spoke to themselves, they spoke when they saw the little Bride in spiritual age. When the King of Kings wants to take our sister as a Bride, who is small, has no breasts, and cannot give the milk of teaching to those who demand it, what shall we do? If it should be, as it were, a wall of His house, “we will build silver on it,” that is, spiritual ones, shining with Divine words, in which it would strike the enemies with arrows and destroy all their forges. “Let us place cedar tables on it, having no corruption from sin.” To this the Bride answers, encouraged by the abundance of the Groom: Song 8:10 I am a wall, and my breasts are like pillars: I am in their sight as one who finds peace. The Bridegroom, having predestined me and knowing that I seek peace, made me an inaccessible wall and terrible for enemies. “My breasts,” that is, raised moral and theological teaching to high perfection. But I am not only a wall, but also a grape. Song 8:11 Solomon had grapes in Behelamon: he gave his grapes to the shearers: and the man brought forth a thousand pieces of silver in his fruit. Akila instead of: “in Veelamon” translated – in abundance. So, God of old entrusted these grapes to Israel, but since Israel not only killed the servants sent to gather the fruits, but also lifted up the Vertogradar Himself to the Cross, they were taken away from them and entrusted to the people cultivating them (cf. Matthew 21:33–44). “There were grapes for Solomon,” that is, the Peaceful One, “in Beelamon: he gave his grapes to those who cut them.” Here he calls pious people grapes, and guards those who perform a priestly position and who are commanded to fatten the grapes with spiritual teaching and protect them. Further - “the husband will bring in his fruit a thousand pieces of silver.” This means the salvation of the fruit bearing, for the gardener does not require anything else from the grapes except their own safety. Song 8:12 My grapes are before me: a thousand for Solomon, and two hundred for the harvesters of the fruit thereof. I preserve My grapes, and those who protect them will certainly receive a reward. Song 8:13 Thou sittest in the hill towns, and the friends that listen to thy voice: inspire thy voice to me. Oh, my Groom! You who look upon spiritual and visible beings! The disembodied, without being entertained by anything, constantly contemplate You, but I, burdened with bodily bonds, am afraid, lest I depart from You. So, to me, who is awaiting Your Second Coming, inspire this desired voice: “Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you” (Matthew 25:34) Song 8:14 Run, my brother, and be like a roe or a young tree, to the mountains of fragrance. Calling the righteous into Thy Kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world, like the “roe or youngling” of the tree, destroy the poisonous beasts - the spirits of evil that rage against us, and put an end to the warfare that they raise against the faithful.