It is also necessary to interpret the following saying of the Apostle: (As to babes in Christ) I nourished you with milk, and not with solid food, for you were not yet able, and even now are not able (1 Corinthians 3:2). This saying, it seems to me, can no longer be interpreted in relation to Judaism, if we oppose it with another text of Scripture: "I will bring you out into a land flowing with milk and honey" (Exodus 3:8, 17 and in many other places). Whoever thinks more carefully about these passages of Scripture encounters a considerable difficulty here. If the initial phase of faith in Christ is the infantile age (of faith) nourished by milk, and if this phase is equivalent to its imperfection, then how then is the blessed rest of the Christian, with the knowledge of the gifted (Gnostic) and the perfect, which comes after the tasting of this (solid) food, again called milk, i.e. the food of infancy? It is impossible to think that this passage contains anything contradictory; it is, of course, very accurate and should be read something like this: I fed you with milk in Christ. Now let us add to this another expression, which stands after a certain interval: as to infants. This combination of separate expressions gives the following meaning: Through the oral presentation of the doctrine of Christ to you, I have nourished you with simple, nourishing, and age-appropriate spiritual food. For it is precisely these properties that distinguish the milk flowing from a loving breast, which nourishes all living things. Consequently, on the whole, that word of the Apostle should be understood in this way: as wet nurses nourish newborn children with milk, so I also nourished you with the milk of Christ, the Divine word, pouring into you drop by drop this spiritual food. It follows, therefore, that milk is far from being imperfect food, but is perfect food, since it leads to eternal bliss. That is why the same milk and honey are promised to us in the place of rest. So naturally does the Lord here again promise milk to the righteous, so that by this promise He may speak clearly of both, both of the Alpha and of the Omega, of the beginning and of the end (Rev. 1:8; 21:6; 22:13), for under the image of milk the Logos is allegorically spoken. Homer sings about the same thing. Being an unwitting prophet, he calls the righteous "galactophagi" (mammals).

But this passage of Scripture can also be understood in this way: I could not speak to you, brethren, as to spiritual ones, but as to carnal ones, as to babes in Christ (1 Corinthians 3:1). By carnal people and by babes in Christ we must understand those who were recently catechumenized; the Apostle addresses those who already believe in the Holy Spirit as spiritual people, and the newly-catechumens as carnal people and have not yet been cleansed (by holy baptism). These, almost like pagans, he still justly calls carnal people, because they were imbued with carnal dispositions. For if there is envy, contention, and dissension among you, are you not carnal? and do you not walk according to human custom" (1 Cor. 3:3)? Wherefore, he says, I have given you milk to drink, I have poured out knowledge (gnosis) in you, I have made you known a doctrine that ought to sustain eternal life in you. But the expression "I have drunk you" also indicates the perfection of the message; because the word to drink is used in relation to adults, but when it is said about children, it is used to suck. My blood, says the Saviour, is truth, is drink (John 6:53). By the expression "I gave you milk to drink," does not the Apostle therefore mean that fullness of joy which is contained in the milk of the Logos, namely, the knowledge of the truth?

In the following words, "And not with (solid) food, for you were not yet able," (solid) food may mean the removal of the veil in the future life, seeing face to face. Because now we see as if through a glass darkly, divinationly, says the same Apostle, then face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12). That is why he adds: "But even now you are not able, for you are still carnal, you think carnally, you are not free from carnal desires, you are inclined to sensual love, to passion, to anger, to envy" (cf. Gal. 5:19-21).

"But we are no longer in the flesh (Rom. 8:9), some assert, for though with flesh, yet with a face like an angel, we see the promise face to face." - But if this is really the contemplation of that promise, which will be fulfilled only after death, if this is the contemplation of that which the eye has not seen, and has not entered into the heart of man (1 Corinthians 2:9), then how is it that they are able to contemplate this promise even now, when they have not heeded spiritual inspiration, but through teaching, which no other ear has ever heard? except the ear of him who was caught up to the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2-4) and there received a command to be silent about it? If, however, this self-boasting knowledge (gnosis) is human wisdom, then there is a commandment of the Scriptures concerning it: Let not the wise boast of his wisdom, let not the strong man boast of his strength. But he who boasts, let him boast that he understands and knows Me (Jeremiah 9:23). But we have been taught by God (1 Thess. 4:9), and we boast in this in the name of Christ.

This is how we understand the Apostle's words about the milk of infants; And why not understand it this way? If we, the leaders of the Church, are shepherds following the example of the Good Shepherd (John 10:11, 14), and you are sheep, then should we not admit, so that the comparison remains fully sustained, that we can speak of the Lord's flesh and blood under the image of the milk of the flock? Such an allegory is in perfect accord with the above words of the Apostle: "I have given you milk to drink, and I have not nourished you with (solid) food.

By (solid) food, which we are talking about after milk, we must understand nothing else than the same thing in the essence of the matter. For the teaching remains the same, whether it is offered in the form of artless and simple, in the form of milk, or in the form of a whole, ordered and coherent, in the form of (solid) food. But truly, if this is the meaning of these words of the Apostle, then by milk we can understand the preaching that has spread everywhere, and by food the faith, which after hearing the catechetical teaching is strengthened to the foundation, and which, being much more reliable than the catechetical teaching, is likened to the food that the soul assimilates to its body.

About food of this kind in other places of the Gospel of John, the Lord spoke symbolically and in another way: "Eat my flesh and drink my blood" (John 6:54). Obviously, He speaks here allegorically about faith and promises, and by which the Church, like a man consisting of many members, receives its vital juices and by the power of which it grows. But faith is composed and connected from two component parts: from the body, i.e., faith proper, and from the soul, i.e., hope, just as the Lord is composed of flesh and blood. In fact, hope is the blood of faith; by hope faith is kept in agreement with itself, as if by a quickening soul. But if hope, like blood flowing out, evaporates, then the liveliness of faith is also extinguished.

And when some would still like to jealously insist that milk is the name given to the beginnings of Christian teaching, so to speak, the primordial nourishment; and solid food is the highest spiritual knowledge of those who boast of their gnosis: then let them understand that by solid food they necessarily mean nourishment only with solid elements, through this very way they could by means of their own knowledge, which boasted so much of itself? in order to come to an understanding of the simple truth that by milk the Apostle (1 Corinthians 3:2) means the flesh and blood of Christ, (and not the elementary Christian teaching). Blood is the vital nucleus in man, which is why some have decided to make the very essence of the soul dependent on it. And as blood is the more fluid part of the flesh, and is even the same flesh only in a more liquid form, so milk is the sweeter and more delicate part of the blood. It is primarily the blood that delivers nourishment to the fetus in the mother's womb through the umbilical cord; this blood, being difficult to move through its channels and unable to find an outlet for itself as a monthly purification, flows naturally over the body and, according to the arrangement of the nourisher of all and the race of the author of God, rushes to the breasts, whereby these become fat; Undergoing a certain transformation here, under the influence of warm breath, the blood becomes the nourishment desired by the child. Thus (into milk) nothing else is changed but blood, because the breasts have a relation to the uterus more than all the other members of the body. Therefore, as soon as after the end of childbirth, the afterbirth, through which the blood supplied nourishment to the fetus, comes out from the inside by squeezing from there, the normal circulation of the blood, although it is restored, still it receives a direction to the breasts; and when enough of it flows here, they become fat, and the blood here turns into milk, just as when wounded it turns into pus. This blood from the veins in the breasts, which open at the end of pregnancy, is taken into the natural cavernous being of the breasts, here comes into contact with the breath coming from the neighboring arteries, and, spreading here in waves, becomes, without changing its own being, white like the moving waves of water. As a result of this contact with breathing, the blood turns into a kind of foam. Something similar happens to the sea; in the same way, as a result of being agitated by the winds, it "spits out salty foam" (Fig. IV, 423, 426), although in other respects it retains its substance.

In the same way, river waves "hissing and foaming" (a j r o n m o r m u r o u s i ) are also stirred up by a strong influx of surrounding air when the current is impetuous (Fig. V, 596). And in our mouth, moisture under the influence of breathing turns into white saliva.

What kind of obstinacy is this, therefore, not to admit that under the influence of breathing the blood can be transformed into a lightish and white liquid? For it undergoes this transformation only in quality, and not in its substance. There is nothing more nutritious than milk, nothing sweeter, nothing whiter. How similar it is to spiritual food! And this spiritual food is just as nutritious, because it brings life with it; and this spiritual food is just as sweet, because it is grace; this spiritual food is white, because it is the day of Christ.

And the blood of the Logos turns out to be milk. We have described above how, even during pregnancy, the milk process begins in the mother, and then, after the birth of her child, how the milk itself is formed for him; and the breasts, which had previously looked at the husband, then turn to the child; and as if by some suggestion from him the nourishment prepared by nature for the preservation of his being is most conveniently supplied to him. For the breasts are not filled with milk in the same way as the springs: it is not in a ready-made form that it flows into them, but in them through transformation this food is prepared, which is then absorbed into itself by the child. This poverty, so decent and useful for newborns, is therefore prepared by God Himself, the Father and Nourisher of the newborn and the regenerated. In the same way, manna was given to the ancient Hebrews from heaven; That is why it is called heavenly and angelic food. For this reason, wet nurses still call liquid milk food, originally given to children, manna by the name of this heavenly food. Upon release from the burden, women, having become mothers, ooze milk. However, the Lord, the fruit of the Virgin, did not call the mother's breast blessed and did not recognize it as nourishing (Luke 11:28). Having sent the Logos like rain on the earth, the loving and loving Father Himself nourishes virtuous people with spiritual food. Oh, mysterious miracle! There is one Father in the universe, O Din and Logos in the universe, and the Holy Spirit, omnipresent, is one; The Mother is also one: with pleasure I call the One Church by this name. This mother has milk, but it did not come from her alone, because she is not a wife (swarming) in herself; she is both mother and virgin; She is pure and holy as a virgin, and her love is motherly. She calls her children to herself and nourishes them with the milk of the sacred, eternally young Logos. That is why I said that this mother's milk did not come from her being alone. Its milk is this beautiful and friendly Child, the body of Christ, which brings newborn humanity to a more mature age. It was born of the Lord in the midst of bodily sorrows; He Himself wrapped him in swaddling clothes, sprinkled His precious blood Oh, holy birth! Oh, sacred shrouds! For this newborn humanity, the Logos is everything: father, mother, educator. "Eat my flesh," He says, "and drink my blood" (John 6:53). The Lord provides us with food so appropriate to health. He offers us His flesh and pours out His blood in us, thereby contributing to the growth of His children. Oh, a wondrous mystery! He commands us to abandon our former carnal passions, as well as our former indulgence in them, and to follow another. Christ, His way of life, Him, as far as possible, being inwardly imbued with Him, reproducing Him in ourselves. Bearing the Saviour in our breasts, so that through this we may bridle the desires of our flesh.

Or maybe you want to understand all this differently, but more specifically? Hear from me an exposition of this subject and from this point of view. Under the image of the flesh it is allegorically spoken of the Holy Spirit, for the flesh is created by Him. Blood graphically signifies the Logos, because just as blood brings life with it, so the Logos spreads the richest life throughout the world; and the confusion of both. The Lord (the sacrament of the Eucharist, taught by the Church) is the poverty of children. This word "Lord" designates concretely both the Holy Spirit and the Logos. Our food is the Lord Jesus; this means that we are nourished by the Logos of the Father and together with the incarnate Holy Spirit, the sacred heavenly flesh. This is our food, which is the milk of the Father: this is for us, His little children, the only food. Our friend and nourisher, the Logos, He shed His blood for us, sacrificing Himself for the good of mankind. He taught us to believe in God; through Him we have access to the Father, to His very breast, "which comforts His care" (Id. X, 84), for the Logos is the breast of the Father. It is natural, therefore, that He is the only one who pours out the milk of His love to us, children; From this it follows that only we, who suck milk from this breast, are the only ones blessed. Wherefore Peter says: having laid aside all malice, and all deceit, and "hypocrisy, and envy, and all slander," and as newborn babes, love the pure milk of the word, that ye may grow from it: unto you unto salvation, for ye have tasted that the Lord is good (1 Peter 2:1-3).

But if anyone, yielding to our adversaries, were willing to admit with them that the milk which the Apostle mentions along with (solid) food is something else (and not the body and blood of Christ), he would thereby reveal the lack of scientific knowledge, and would do the equivalent of helping their own opponents to plunge spears into themselves. In winter, when everything is freezing, and when the heat latent in us (due to the compression of the pores) comes out of us less from the cold, the food is heated and cooked, and in this form it enters (into the body), becoming blood in the veins. The veins that are not penetrated by the inhalation of warm air fill up more, gain weight, and beat harder. That is why wet nurses around this time are more abundant in milk. But shortly before that we had shown that in pregnant women milk is formed from the blood through a transformation that does not touch the substance of the blood. In a similar way, brown hair in old people turns into gray. In summer, when the bodily organism is weaker, lighter food is introduced into it, and therefore it abounds less in milk, and hence in blood, because food is not (always) retained in it. If, then, food is processed into blood, and blood can be converted into milk, then blood is the material for milk, just as milk is the material for the formation of a bodily organism, just as the seeds of a grape berry contain all the material for the formation of a vine.

Thus, immediately after birth we are nourished by milk, the poor, which has a relationship with the Lord; and when we are reborn, we are immediately vouchsafed an honorable gift, the promise of eternal rest, which must one day become our lot, the hope of blessedness in the heavenly Jerusalem, where, according to the Scriptures, milk and honey flow. Thus, under the material image, we receive the assurance that one day it should be ours; A portion of the heavenly litany. Food, after all, will be abolished, as the Apostle himself says (1 Corinthians 6:13), but with milk nourishment will ascend with us to heaven, nourishing you as heavenly citizens and members of the choirs of angels.