Origen

Commentary on Proverbs, 23.

Origen, whose brilliant thought has fertilized all Christian spirituality, first of all in the East, but not only, Origen compares Scripture to almonds. He himself is a divinely inspired exegete, and if his thought in other respects needed to be corrected, in this area he wholly and undoubtedly remains the source that nourishes us.

The bitter peel of almonds is a killing letter that should be discarded.

The protective shell is a moral teaching that encourages purifying and patient asceticism as a necessary path of deepening

Only then is the spiritual seed attained, which alone is of value and nourishes the soul with the mysteries of Divine Wisdom.

The first face [of Scripture], its literal meaning, is rather bitter: it prescribes circumcision of the flesh, contains commands for sacrifices, and represents everything that means "killing letter." Reject it all like the bitter peel of an almond. Then you will reach the strength of the shell, which signifies moral teaching, the duty to rule over oneself: these things are necessary for the protection of what is stored inside, but they must be broken, and then the mysteries of the Wisdom and Omniscience of God will undoubtedly be revealed, locked and hidden under these shells, strengthening and nourishing the souls of the saints.

Throughout the Scriptures, this threefold mystery looms.

Origen

The Ninth Homilie on the Names.

Thus, gradually, from Origen to Cassian and Gregory the Great, the teaching about the four meanings of Scripture acquires clear outlines. Four, since the ethical meaning of Origen is often doubled, meaning not only the ascetic teaching of the Bible, but also the life of the Word of God in the soul. Hence, as Henri de Lubac brilliantly showed in Medieval Exegesis: The Four Senses of Scripture (Paris, 1959), there is a distinction between the historical or literal sense; allegorical, or typological; tropological, or ethical; anagogical, or mystical. Such a contemplative reading of the Bible was for a long time destined to nourish in the West a "spiritual theology" opposed to scholastic theology.

It happens that when you hear the Word, it touches the heart and embraces it. Then you need to stop and let this fire shine quietly.