Rising Up

Ἀποκρίνεται ὁ ἀδελφιδοῦς μου, καὶ λέγει μοι· Ἀνάστα, ἐλθέ ἡ πλησίον μου καλή μου περιστερά μου. Μαρτυρεῖ τῷ κάλλει τῆς νύμφης ὁ νυμφίος· καὶ οὐχ ἁπλῶς αὐτὴν καλὴν, ἀλλὰ καλήν μου, καλεῖ διδάσκων ὅτι λίαν αὐτῷ τὸ κάλλος αὐτῆς ἀρέσκει. Προσαγορεύει δὲ αὐτὴν καὶ περιστερὰν, τὴν πνευματικὴν χάριν διὰ τούτου τοῦ ὀνόματος αἰνιττόμενος· ἐν εἴδει γὰρ περιστερᾶς ἐπ' αὐτὸν ἐφοίτησε τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον. Τοὺς δὲ τελείους πνευματικοὺς οἶδεν ὁ μακάριος Παῦλος καλεῖν. ∆ιὸ τοῖς ἀτελέσιν ἔτι γράφων φησίν· Κἀγὼ, ἀδελφοὶ, οὐκ ἠδυνήθην ὑμῖν λαλῆσαι ὡς πνευματικοῖς, ἀλλ' ὡς σαρκικοῖς, ὡς νηπίοις ἐν Χριστῷ. Τοῖς δὲ τελείοις γράφει· Ὑμεῖς δὲ ἐν σαρκὶ οὐκ ἐστὲ, ἀλλ' ἐν πνεύματι, εἴπερ Πνεῦμα Θεοῦ οἰκεῖ ἐν ὑμῖν. Εἰκότως τοίνυν τὴν ἐν ἀρετῇ τετελειωμένην ψυχὴν ὁ νυμφίος περιστερὰν ὀνομάζει· τουτέστι πνευματικὴν, καὶ Πνεύματος ἁγίου πεπληρωμένην. Καὶ γὰρ ὁ προφήτης Ἡσαΐας πόῤῥωθεν ταῦτα προορῶν, καὶ τοὺς ἁγίους ἀποστόλους οἷόν τινας ὑποπτέρους πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην περιϊπταμένους θεώμενος, καὶ τοὺς ἐκείνων φοιτητὰς καὶ ἀκροατὰς, ὥσπερ τινὰς νεοττοὺς, ἑπομένους αὐτοῖς, βοᾷ καὶ λέγει· Τίνες οἵδε ὡσεὶ νεφέλαι πέτανται, καὶ ὡσεὶ περιστεραὶ σὺν νεοσσοῖς αὐτῶν; Οὕτω καὶ ὁ νυμφίος ἐνταῦθα τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν αὐτοῦ κάμνουσαν ἐν τοῖς πειρασμοῖς ψυχαγωγῶν καὶ παραμυθούμενος, καὶ ἐκ τῶν θυρίδων παρακύπτων, καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν δικτύων ἐκκύπτων, παρακαλεῖ αὐτὴν ἀναστῆναι, καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν ἀναπτῆ ναι. Ἔδωκε γὰρ αὐτῇ τῆς περιστερᾶς ἐκείνης τὰ πτερὰ, περὶ ἧς ὁ μακάριος ∆αβὶδ λέγει· Ἐὰν κοιμηθῆτε ἀναμέσον τῶν κλήρων, ἐκεῖ πτέρυγες περιστερᾶς περιηργυρωμέναι, καὶ τὰ μετάφρενα αὐτῆς ἐν χλωρότητι χρυσίου· κλήρους τὰς δύο ∆ιαθήκας ὀνομάζων, περιστερὰν δὲ τὴν τοῦ Πνεύματος χάριν, πτερὰ ἔχουσαν περιηργυρωμένα, τὴν τοῦ λόγου λαμπρότητα· μετάφρενα δὲ ἐν χλωρότητι χρυσίου, τῶν κεκρυμμένων μυστηρίων τὸ περίβλεπτον· Ἐὰν γὰρ, φησὶν, ἐν μέσῳ τῶν δύο ∆ιαθηκῶν διαναπαύσησθε, καὶ ἑκατέρωθεν τὴν ὠφέλειαν ἑλκύσητε, εὑρήσετε ἐκεῖ τὰ ποικίλα τοῦ Πνεύματος δῶρα. Ἡ νύμφη τοιγαροῦν τὴν πνευματικὴν δεξαμένη παραίνεσιν, καὶ κοιμηθεῖσα ἀναμέσον τῶν κλήρων, εὗρε τὰς περιηργυρωμένας πτέρυγας, δι' ὧν πρὸς τὸν νυμ φίον ἀναπτῆναι παρακελεύεται. Θεοδώρητος Ἐπίσκοπος Κύρρος, Ἑρμηνεία Εἰς Το Ἀσμα Των Ασμάτων, Λόγος Δεύτερος Source: Migne PG 81.101d-104c

And my bridegroom answers and says to me: 'Rise up, come, my dear, my beauty, my dove... 1 The groom bears witness to the beauty of the bride, and he does not say 'beauty' only, but 'my beauty' teaching how greatly this beauty of hers pleases. And then he addresses her as dove, intimating by this name spiritual grace, for with the image of a dove the Holy Spirit came down upon Him. And the blessed Paul knew what it was to call the spiritual perfect, for certainly to the yet imperfect he writes, 'And I, brothers, am not able to speak to you as spiritual creatures, but as carnal ones, as infants in Christ,' but to the perfect he writes, 'You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you.' 2 It seems, then, that for the perfection of the soul the groom used the name 'dove', that is, spiritual and full of the Holy Spirit. For the Prophet Isaiah, seeing these things long before, contemplated the holy Apostles as being winged and flying through the whole orb of the earth, and their disciples and hearers were as fledglings following them, and with great voice he cried out, 'Who are these who fly like the clouds and like doves with their young ones?' 3 In the same manner the groom refreshes and consoles His Church while it labours in trials, and, looking in at the windows, and looking through the lattice, 4 he exhorts her to rise and fly. For he gives to her the wings of the dove, concerning which the blessed David says: 'If you sleep in the midst of lots, you shall be covered with silver like the wings of the dove, and like the hind parts of its back with a pallor of gold.' 5 The lots are the two Testaments, the dove is the grace of the Holy Spirit, the wing covered with silver is the splendour of the word. But by the hind parts of the back with their pallor of gold he speaks of the enlightenment of hidden mysteries. As if he said, 'If in the midst of the two Testaments you repose, and from both you grasp some usefulness, you shall find there various gifts of the Holy Spirit.' Thus the bride, receiving a spiritual exhortation while she rests in the midst of the lots, finds wings covered with silver, by which she is exhorted to fly to the groom. Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Commentary on the Song of Songs, Book 2 1 Song 2.10 2 Rom 8.9 3 Isaiah 60.8 4 Song 2.9 5 Ps 67.14