Homilies on Ezekiel, I, 7, 8.

For the Christian, Scripture is not a revelation of esoteric mysteries. It is the Word of life for everyone, its concrete and direct language is accessible to the simplest people – sometimes to them in the first place. And at the same time, its mystery is incomprehensible to the wisest.

A variety of conditions, a variety of approaches. The stages of one fate are different. That is why we must be able to carry within ourselves the words that are still closed to us, without striving for a hasty interpretation. Life, the partial deaths it brings, and the more desirable grace may one day work us to our own standards.

The Holy Scriptures... He moves the wise to work the most mysterious with his words, and perfects the unwise with the simplicity of words... It is understandable to the uneducated, and those who are experienced in the sciences are constantly discovering a deeper meaning in it... At the same time, it surpasses all knowledge, all teaching, by the very method of expression, for in one and the same language it reveals the mystery by all narrations...

Gregory the Great

Moral teachings on Job, 20.

The truly humble and truly knowledgeable, approaching the heavenly mysteries, know how to understand what they have investigated and to revere the other, the incomprehensible, in order to observe what they are not yet able to understand.

Gregory the Great

Moral teachings on Job, 20, 8, 19.

3. Baptism: Initiatory Rite