The Spirit And The Dove

Μία ἐστὶ περιστερά μου, τελεία μου· μία ἐστὶ τῇ μητρὶ αὐτῆς, ἐκλεκτή ἐστι τῇ τεκούσῃ αὐτήν. Ὅπερ ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ διὰ τῆς τοῦ Kυρίου φωνῆς σαφέστερον ἡμῖν ἑρμηνεύεται· πᾶσαν γὰρ τοῖς μαθηταῖς ἑαυτοῦ ἐναποτιθέμενος διὰ τῆς εὐλογίας δύναμιν τά τε ἄλλα διὰ τῶν πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα λόγων ἀγαθὰ τοῖς ἁγίοις χαρίζεται καὶ προστίθησι τῶν ἀγαθῶν τὸ κεφάλαιον, τὸ μηκέτι αὐτοὺς ἐν διαφορᾷ τινι προαιρέσεων ἐν τῇ περὶ τοῦ καλοῦ κρίσει πολλαχῇ διασχίζεσθαι, ἀλλ’ ἓν γενέσθαι τοὺς πάντας τῷ ἑνὶ καὶ μόνῳ ἀγαθῷ συμφυέντας, ὥστε διὰ τῆς τοῦ Πνεύματος τοῦ ἁγίου ἑνότητος, καθώς φησιν ὁ Ἀπόστολος, τῷ συνδέσμῳ τῆς εἰρήνης διασφιγχθέντας ἓν σῶμα γενέσθαι τοὺς πάντας καὶ ἓν πνεῦμα διὰ μιᾶς ἐλπίδος εἰς ἣν ἐκλήθησαν. βέλτιον δ’ ἂν εἴη αὐτὰς ἐπὶ λέξεως παραθέσθαι τὰς θείας τοῦ εὐαγγελίου φωνάς· Ἵνα πάντες ἓν ὦσι καθὼς σύ, Πάτερ, ἐν ἐμοὶ κἀγὼ ἐν σοί, ἵνα καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐν ἡμῖν ἓν ὦσιν. Tὸ δὲ συνδετικὸν τῆς ἑνότητος ταύτης ἡ δόξα ἐστίν· δόξαν δὲ λέγεσθαι τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον οὐκ ἄν τις τῶν ἐπεσκεμμένων ἀντείποι πρὸς αὐτὰς βλέπων τὰς τοῦ Kυρίου φωνάς· Τὴν δόξαν γάρ, φησίν, ἣν ἔδωκάς μοι, ἔδωκα αὐτοῖς. Ἔδωκε γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς τοῖς μαθηταῖς τοιαύτην δόξαν ὁ εἰπὼν πρὸς αὐτούς· Λάβετε Πνεῦμα ἅγιον. Ἔλαβε δὲ ταύτην τὴν δόξαν ἣν πάντοτε εἶχε πρὸ τοῦ τὸν κόσμον εἶναι ὁ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην φύσιν περιβαλόμενος, ἧς δοξασθείσης διὰ τοῦ Πνεύματος ἐπὶ πᾶν τὸ συγγενὲς ἡ τῆς δόξης τοῦ Πνεύματος διάδοσις γίνεται ἀπὸ τῶν μαθητῶν ἀρξαμένη. Διὰ τοῦτό φησι· Τὴν δόξαν, ἣν ἔδωκάς μοι, ἔδωκα αὐτοῖς, ἵνα ὦσιν ἕν, καθὼς ἡμεῖς ἕν ἐσμεν· ἐγὼ ἐν αὐτοῖς καὶ σὺ ἐν ἐμοί, ἵνα ὦσι τετελειωμένοι εἰς τὸ ἕν. Ὁ τοίνυν ἐκ μὲν νηπίου πρὸς ἄνδρα τέλειον ἀναδραμὼν διὰ τῆς αὐξήσεως καὶ φθάσας εἰς τὸ μέτρον τῆς νοητῆς ἡλικίας, ἐκ δὲ τῆς δούλης τε καὶ τῆς παλλακίδος τὴν τῆς βασιλείας ἀξίαν μεταλαβών, δεκτικὸς δὲ τῆς τοῦ πνεύματος δόξης γενόμενος δι’ ἀπαθείας καὶ καθαρότητος, οὗτός ἐστιν ἡ τελεία περιστερὰ πρὸς ἣν ὁ νυμφίος ὁρᾷ λέγων ὅτι Μία ἐστὶ περιστερά μου, τελεία μου, μία ἐστὶ τῇ μητρὶ αὐτῆς, ἐκλεκτή ἐστι τῇ τεκούσῃ αὐτήν. Oὐκ ἀγνοοῦμεν δὲ πάντως τὴν μητέρα τῆς περιστερᾶς ἐκ τοῦ καρποῦ τὸ δένδρον γνωρίσαντες· ὡς γὰρ ἄνθρωπον θεασάμενοι ἐξ ἀνθρώπου αὐτὸν εἶναι οὐκ ἀμφιβάλλομεν, οὕτω καὶ τῆς ἐκλεκτῆς περιστερᾶς τὴν μητέρα ζητοῦντες οὐκ ἄλλην τινὰ ἐκείνην ἢ περιστερὰν ἐννοήσομεν· τῷ γὰρ τέκνῳ πάντως ἡ τοῦ γεγεννηκότος ἐπιθεωρεῖται φύσις. Ἐπεὶ οὖν τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τοῦ Πνεύματος πνεῦμά ἐστι, περιστερὰ δὲ τὸ τέκνον, περιστερὰ πάντως καὶ ἡ τοῦ τέκνου μήτηρ ἐστίν, ἡ ἐπὶ τὸν Ἰορδάνην ἐξ οὐρανῶν καταπτᾶσα, καθὼς Ἰωάννης μαρτύρεται. Ἅγιος Γρηγόριος Νύσσης, Ἐξηγησις Του Αἰσματος Των Ἀσμάτων Ὁμιλία ΙΕ’ Source: Migne PG 44.1116d-1117c

One is my dove, my perfect one, one is she for her mother, the chosen of the one who bore her. 1 The meaning of this is made clearer for us by the voice of Lord in the Gospel, for when by a blessing He conferred all power upon His disciples and also by His speech to the Father endowed those holy ones with other goods things, He also added to all these things the chief of goods, that they would never be divided among themselves by any difference in choices of judgement concerning the beautiful, but instead they would all become one by their growing together with the one and only good, so that through the unity of the Holy Spirit, being bound together in the bond of peace, they would all be one body and one spirit through the one hope to which they had been called. 2 But it would be better to set forth the Divine speech of the Gospel as it was said. 'That they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that even they may be one in us.' 3 And that which holds this unity together is glory, and that this glory speaks of the Holy Spirit no one who looks into it will deny, if one attends to the speech of the Lord, 'For the glory you have given to me, I have given to them.' 4 For He who truly gave such glory to the disciples was He who said to them , 'Receive the Holy Spirit.' 5 He who always had this glory before the world existed, He who took up human nature, and when it was glorified by the Spirit, this addition of the glory of the Spirit was passed on to all the inheritors, with the disciples as the beginning. This is why He said, 'The glory that you have given to me, I have given to them, so that they be one, even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one.' He, then, who has passed from childhood to manhood by growing to the maturity of man, and has come to the measure of the intelligible stature, who from being a slave and concubine has taken up the status of kingship and has received the glory of the Spirit by impassibility and purity, this is the perfect dove on whom the Bridegroom looks as He says, 'One is my dove, my perfect one, one is she for her mother, the chosen of the one who bore her.' And since we grasp the tree from the fruit, we are not completely ignorant of the mother of the dove, for as we do not doubt that a man whom we see is from another man, so here, if we seek who might be the mother of the chosen dove, we shall not think of her as anything else but a dove, for the nature of the one who begets is always seen in the child. Since, then, 'that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,' 6 and the child is a dove, it is certain that the mother of the child is also a dove, the dove that flew down from heaven upon the Jordan, as John gives witness. 7 Saint Gregory of Nyssa, Commentary on The Song of Songs, from Homily 15 1 Song 6.9 2 Ephes 4.3-4 3 Jn 17.21 4 Jn 17.22 5 Jn 20.22 6 Jn 3.6 7 Mt 3.13-17