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.

But since the Logos is the source of ever-flowing life (Rev. 21:6; 22:1; John 7:38; James 3:11); since He is also called a river of oil, then, speaking of Him allegorically and calling Him milk, Paul could naturally add the following expression: "I have given you to drink" (1 Corinthians 3:2). Logos, the content of all that is true, is drunk. In any case, only liquid food is called a drink. But the same nutritive material can be both food and drink, depending on the state in which it will be. So, for example, cheese is the condensation of milk, or condensed milk, whatever you want to call it, I have no desire to chase words; I only want to say that in its essence the same nutritious material can be offered for food in both forms. But for children who feed on their mother's breasts, milk alone is enough; it can be both a drink and food for them.

I have food, says the Lord, which you do not know. My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me (John 4:32, 34). Here you are dealing with another food, which, just like milk, must be understood in a figurative sense; it is the will of God. - But the fullness of His own sufferings in an improper sense is called a cup (Matt. 20:22; Mk. 10:38; John 18:11), since it was His duty only to drink it and empty it to the bottom. Thus, the fulfillment of the will of the Father was His food for Christ, and for us, His children, He Himself serves as nourishment; we suck it into ourselves from the heavenly Logos. Hence the concept of "seek" (to strive, desire, pursue) in the Greek language is conveyed through (m a s t e u e i n ) (to reach for the breast), because the infants who strive for the Logos are given milk in abundance by the humane breasts of the Father.

Кроме того, Логос сам себя называет и небесным хлебом. Не Моисей, говорит Он, дал вам хлеб с неба, а Отец Мой дает вам истинный хлеб с небес. Ибо хлеб Божий есть тот, который сходит с небес и дает жизнь миру. Хлеб же, который Я дам, есть Плоть Моя, которую Я отдам за жизнь мира (Иоан. 6, 32, 33, 31). Здесь через присоединенный знак обозначено таинство (евхаристического) хлеба, и потому что хлебом Господь плоть свою называет, говоря о ней, что она при сгорании мира воскреснет, подобно тому как пшеница всходит из посева и тления. Но что в качестве хлеба при посредстве огня должно быть приготовлено для церкви торжествующей, то значит, как хлеб должно быть испечено.

Но это обстоятельнее мы изложим в книге "О воскресении". А как так Господь сказал: Хлеб, который Я дам, есть плоть Моя; так как далее плоть кровью орошается и так как кровь иносказательно и вином называется, то должно следующее иметь в виду: как хлеб, в смещение (вина с водой) в раздробленном виде опущенный, вино в себя поглощает, водянистых же составных частей в себя не принимает, подобным образом и плоть Господа (Дух Святой, церковь), состоя хлебом небесным, всасывает в себя кровь, т.е. небесных из людей, воспитывая их до бессмертия; и лишь с плотскими пожеланиями она не имеет деда, предоставляя им гибнуть.

Таким образом о Логосе под различными чувственными образами говорится. Называется Он пищей, плотью, питанием, хлебом, кровью, молоком; всем этим Господь состоит для нас, в Него верующих, дабы мы возрастали в Нем.

Никому поэтому пусть не кажется странным наше уверение, что это о крови Господней говорится под образом молока. Не о ней ли же иносказательно говорится и под образом вина? Он моет в вине одежду свою, и в крови гроздов одеяние свое (Быт. 49, 11). Это место означает, что в Его (Святом) Духе тело Логоса (церковь) достигает красоты и славы, подобно тому как и Он сам своим Духом питает тех, которые страстно добиваются общения с Ним.

А то, что и кровь собой означает Логоса, свидетельствует кровь праведного Авеля (Быт. 4, 10; Евр. 12, 24), к небу вопиющая. Кровь никогда не может издавать голоса; иное дело если под кровью разуметь Логоса. Праведник древнего времени есть прообраз нового Праведника; и вопиющая кровь древняя вопиет с отношением к крови новой. Вопиет же эта кровь к Богу не сама по себе, но вопиет под образом ее Логос, так как ею предзнаменован был Он, должный пострадать. Но и плоти самой, и обращающейся в оной крови молоко, в котором они как бы ответ некий на свою любовь встречают, доставляет освежение, и оно содействует собой их приумножению.