First of all, beloved, you must know this. The crucified Christ Himself, of whom the Apostle speaks as though feeding infants with milk, is understood differently by carnal men and by spiritual men.
His very flesh, in which His true death took place, is understood differently. He was pierced and had real wounds. He was nailed and shed true blood. For some this is milk; for others it is solid food.
They do not hear more than the others, but they understand more. Even what is equally affirmed in the faith of both is not received with an equal mind.
Thus Christ crucified, preached by the apostles, became a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, He is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God (cf. 1 Cor 1:23-24).
The carnal, like infants, hold this only by faith. The spiritual, being more capable, receive it through understanding. Therefore for the one it is like milk, and for the other like solid food.
This is not because they learned it in different ways, some among the people and others in secret chambers. Both heard the same thing when it was spoken openly. Yet each received it according to his measure.
Christ was crucified to shed His blood for the remission of sins. Through the suffering of the Only-begotten, divine grace was entrusted to us, so that no one should boast in man.
How, then, did those understand the crucified Christ who were still saying, "I am of Paul" (1 Cor 1:12)? Did they understand Him as Paul did, who said, "God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal 6:14)?
Certainly the Apostle himself received the crucified Christ as solid food according to his capacity. Yet he fed them with milk according to their weakness.
Knowing that what he wrote to the Corinthians could be understood differently by infants and by those more capable, he said, "If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord. But if anyone does not understand, let him not understand" (1 Cor 14:37-38).
He wished the knowledge of the spiritual to be firm. There faith would not merely be added, but exact understanding would abide. Thus the carnal believed the same thing as the spiritual, but did not grasp it with the mind.
"Let him not understand," he says, who does not understand. For it has not yet been given to him to know what he believes.
When this happens in a man's mind, he is said to be known by God, because God has caused him to know Him. Thus the Apostle says elsewhere, "Now that they have known God, or rather are known by God" (cf. Gal 4:9).
It was not that God then first knew them. They were known to Him beforehand and chosen by Him before the foundation of the world (cf. Eph 1:4). Rather, He then caused them to know Him.
It is now clear that spiritual and carnal men hear the same things. Yet each receives them according to his measure: some as infants, others as more mature; some as milk, others as solid food.
Therefore there seems no need for secret doctrines that must be left unspoken. Nor should they be hidden from believing infants as matters to be discussed separately with the mature, that is, with those of greater understanding.
Let us not think this must be so because the Apostle said, "I could not speak to you, brethren, as to spiritual men, but as to carnal" (1 Cor 3:1).
Even his resolve to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified (cf. 1 Cor 2:2), confirms this. He could not speak to them as to spiritual men, but as to carnal, because they could not understand this spiritually.
Yet all who were spiritual among them received with spiritual understanding what the others heard only carnally.
Thus the words, "I could not speak to you, brethren, as to spiritual men, but as to carnal" (1 Cor 3:1), should be understood as though he said, "What I spoke, you could not receive spiritually, but only carnally."
For the natural man, that is, the man who understands according to man, "does not receive the things of the Spirit of God" (1 Cor 2:14). He is called natural from soul, and carnal from flesh, since the whole man consists of soul and flesh.
Such a man does not know how much grace the cross of Christ grants to believers. He thinks that the cross accomplished only this: that it gave us an example to imitate, so that we might contend for truth even unto death.
If such men, who wish to be no more than men, knew the truth, they would not boast in man. They would know that Christ crucified became for us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
Then it would be as written: "He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord" (1 Cor 1:30-31). They would not say carnally, "I am of Paul," "I am of Apollos," or "I am of Cephas," but spiritually, "I am of Christ" (cf. 1 Cor 1:12).
There is also a question about what we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews. "By this time you ought to be teachers, yet you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. You need milk and not solid food.
"For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food belongs to the perfect, whose senses have been trained by practice to discern good and evil" (Heb 5:12-14).
Here we see, as it were, a definition of what he calls the solid food of the perfect. This is what is written to the Corinthians: "We speak wisdom among the perfect" (1 Cor 2:6).
To make clear whom he means by the perfect in that passage, he adds, "whose senses have been trained by practice to discern good and evil."
Those unable to make this discernment have a weak and untrained mind. Unless they are sustained by the milk of faith, they are easily turned aside by the promise of falsely named knowledge.
By that faith they believe invisible things they do not see, and things beyond understanding that they do not yet comprehend. Without it, they fall into empty and sacrilegious fables.
Thus they think of good and evil only through bodily images. They suppose that God is some kind of body. They can conceive evil only as a substance.
Yet evil is rather the defection of changeable substances from the Unchangeable Substance. These changeable substances were created from nothing by the Unchangeable and Supreme Substance, who is God.
Whoever not only believes this, but understands, receives, and holds it in knowledge through trained inward senses, need no longer fear being seduced.
He will not be seduced by those who make evil a substance not created by God. Such men make God Himself a changeable substance, as do the Manichaeans and other impious men, if there are any, who utter such madness.
Yet for those who are still infants in mind, whom the Apostle calls carnal and who must be fed with milk, every discourse on this matter is a heavy burden.
Such discourse aims not only that they believe, but also that they understand what is being said. Yet it is beyond their strength. It weighs them down more than it nourishes them.
Thus the spiritual do not in any way hide this from the carnal, since the catholic faith demands it and must be preached to all. Nevertheless, they do not argue as they ought.
When they try to make these things intelligible to one unable to contain them, they make the discourse on truth repellent rather than make truth understood through the discourse.
Therefore he says in the Epistle to the Colossians, "Though I am absent in the body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ" (Col 2:5).
And in the Epistle to the Thessalonians he says, "Night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face and complete what is lacking in your faith" (1 Thess 3:10).
This must surely be understood in this way. Catechumens are first fed with milk, not with solid food.
In the Epistle to the Hebrews he mentions that this milk was already sufficient for those whom he wished to feed with solid food. He says, "Therefore, leaving the beginnings of the doctrine of Christ, let us press on to perfection.
"Let us not again lay the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the teaching of baptisms, of the laying on of hands, of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment" (Heb 6:1-2).
This is the abundance of milk. Without it, those who have enough reason to believe cannot live. Yet they cannot yet discern good and evil, not only by faith but also by understanding. That belongs to solid food.
The teaching which he included in this milk is the very teaching handed down in the Creed and in the Lord's Prayer.
It should not be thought that this milk contradicts the solid food of spiritual things. To receive that food, firm understanding is needed. It was lacking to the Colossians and Thessalonians, and they still had to receive it.
When what was lacking is gained, what was already possessed does not become unnecessary.
In the food we receive, milk is so far from contradicting solid food that solid food itself is changed into milk. Thus it becomes suitable for infants, to whom it comes through the flesh of a mother or nurse.
So also did Mother Wisdom. Though She is solid food for the Angels in heaven, She deigned in a certain way to become milk for infants, when "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:14).
Yet the Man Jesus Christ, who appears in true flesh, on a true cross, in true death, and in true resurrection, is pure milk for infants. When rightly understood by the spiritual, He is the Lord of Angels.
Therefore infants should not always be fed with milk, lest they forever remain outside the knowledge of Christ as God. At the same time, they must not be deprived of milk, lest Christ as man be rejected.
The same thing may be said another way. They should not always be fed with milk, lest they never understand Christ as Creator. Nor should they be deprived of milk so completely that they ever reject Christ as Mediator.
Here, of course, the comparison of mother's milk is better made not with solid food, but with a foundation.
When a child is weaned and ceases to eat infant food, he eats solid food and does not return to the breast he sucked. But Christ crucified is both milk for infants and solid food for the more mature.
The comparison with a foundation is more fitting here, because the foundation is not removed when the building rises higher.
Since this is so, whoever you are, and many of you are plainly still infants in Christ, strive for solid food. It is needed for the mind, not for the belly.
Make progress in discerning good and evil. Cleave more and more to the Mediator, by whom you are delivered from evil. From that evil you must not merely be separated for a time, but healed within yourselves.
Someone may tell you not to believe that Christ is truly man. Or he may say that the body of any man or animal was not created by the true God.
He may say that the Old Testament was not given by the true God. Or he may say something similar, which was not told you before when you were fed with milk, because your heart was not yet prepared to receive truth.
Such a man prepares not food for you, but poison.
Therefore the blessed Apostle speaks to those who already regarded themselves as perfect, while he called himself imperfect. He says, "Therefore let as many of us as are perfect have this mind.
"And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you" (Phil 3:15).
He then prevents them from suddenly rushing into the embrace of seducers. Such men wished to tear them from the faith by promising true knowledge.
He also prevents them from thinking that the Apostle meant this knowledge when he said, "God will reveal even this to you." Therefore he immediately added, "Nevertheless, to what we have attained, let us walk by the same rule" (cf. Phil 3:16).
If you have understood something that does not contradict the rule of the catholic faith, then build further. You stand on that rule as on the road leading you to the homeland.
THEOSIS