On Reproof of the Clergy

On Reproof of the Clergy Memra Forty-Five On Reproof of the Clergy And it is fitting for a difficult time: A wicked time, it is hard for me to speak about its evil, And its inequality made me that I should say about its confusion. Outside of the order I saw that it disturbed the order of its path, And my mind ran to be confounded in its confusion. I saw it clearly going on a path of error, And its ruin was great in its wantonness without law. Like wild beasts it was agitated, And it gave no hand to a man to approach it. In its madness my thoughts flew as in a dream, And I thought that a dream was its course and not its reality. I considered the dream to be a change of times that occurred in my days; It was not a dream, but a deception better than a dream. Its inequality constrained me that I called it a vision of a dream, And like a dream it shows a man away from reality. Like a seal it stamped the world with its heaviness, And no man desires to remove from it the burden of iniquity. The darkness of the night resembles the darkness of its ignorance, And it is very difficult to discern well in its depth. Dark is the time of this time more than all times, And there is no other time darker than it. Over all and everything it extends its dominion in darkness, And it hinders the light of discernment by its bitterness.

The travellers turned aside from the path to the appointed time of the hour, which stood before them in the likeness of darkness before their eyes. All the measures were blotted out from the order of the beautiful things, and each one concealed his thought within himself as in a secret place. The dividers turned their minds as in a hidden manner, and they went up and hid themselves so that they might not be found in the bitterness of the time. Injustice took hold of them like fire, and it did not consent to interpret the hidden voices in the hands of men. In a sickness without knowledge, all the orders fell, and there is none who applies the word of truth to the pain of his companion. The pain of their circles resembles the burning of coals, and no man knows how to suffer beautifully in faith. The sickness of the fallen ones is difficult beyond all pains, and there are no physicians who can heal its wounds. In a hidden manner, the sickness of this time has become solitary, and behold, it shakes the rational man as in the likeness of a moth. In its sweetness, all the orders and all the measures are cast down, and this wonder each one sees, yet no man perceives. The kings are sick, and the crown on their heads is weakened, and there is no strong authority that maintains its rank and governs in order. The priests are sick, and the rod of their commands is enfeebled, and there is no foundation that stands before the health of the spirit. Spiritually, the priests are sick, healers of the soul, and in their persons they are cast into the fire of the passions of the body.

The pains, the boundaries of all the orders, are pressed and confined, and one of his companions is crushed and destroyed in the contests. The end: the traveler sought the path, desiring to cry out, and when there are no causes bound, causes that are not loosed. Wrath, disturbed, burning, raging against the living, and each one goes astray who would destroy his companion like a beast. Snares in cunning, nets in anger, coverings in deceit, and who can escape from the distresses? Swords unsheathed, arrows shot, spears sharpened, and no survivor remains for the indestructible substance. Battle is prepared, the arena is made ready, the ranks are set for the living, and this tumult is with whom and with whom there is a contest. Come, marvel, rational natures, and also the silent ones, at the harsh arenas that the priests arrange, one against the other. Come, see, spiritual ones, and be amazed distinctly, how much revelry there is at this time. Come, contemplate, nature, in yourself, you who are upon yourself, and wail and weep over your evils that have no law. Without law, your evils have grown, O wandering nature, and without order you have trodden the paths of coldness. Revelrously, your will has turned against the truth, and behold the proof of your revelry upon the heads of your people. The heads of your people have received the harmony that was placed in you, and they have divided you into the portions of all the orders.

The sowers of discord cast their seed among the orders, and they threw a dart between the earth and the heavens. An evil dart they cast, the orders, between all and everything, and behold, the troubled world is in conflict with itself. An evil error they put on like a garment, one against another, and without restraint they hurled words like arrows. Arrows of wrath the nobles shot at their own members, and they did not consider that they strike the face of their own bodies. A blind wound they inflicted upon themselves from the beginning, and they did not understand that they ate from their own limbs. A foolish sting they drove into themselves from the beginning, and they did not discern nor know which part was fitting for their great name. The love of money bound them in earthly matters, and they did not prepare for the exchange of the life that is to come. Greed stirred them up in the pit of errors, and the world was diminished of good things for their markets. The love of glory trapped them in the snare of glory, and like a bird they fell from the height of their conduct. The desire of the belly corrupted their thoughts, and they were cut off from everything, yet the craving within them was not filled. They were not lacking in anything, yet when everything of theirs was in their hands, they were empty of everything. They rejected their own, the firm foundations of the wealth of their patrons, and behold, they are compelled to ask for alms like beggars.

Their severity made the upright flee from all, and their disturbances consumed the good from their mouths. They cast their foundations in a worthless place, and they diminished the high rank in which they once stood. The thoughts of eloquence were disturbed, and they left humanity and went astray after enchanters. Without distinction they loved the distinguished from the distinguished, and to the silent they set up a barrier of their excesses. With the love of the earth they obscured the vision of spiritual things, and with simple things they exchanged the wealth of precious things. For the sake of lowliness they stirred up a tumult of height, and they falsified the true voices of the orders with lies. Truth became a witness in judgment between him and them, and from them followed the shaving of the hair of his truthfulness. In judgment he sat and covered the priests who were able, who rejected his gift and diminished the mysteries of his precious things. Judgment spoke with all the partakers who were silent about his wealth and did not distribute the sustenance of humanity in it. To them he gave his word to distribute life to humanity through it, and they hid it within from the foundation of their actions. To them he said that daughter of the voice which is for hearing, and they heard it and were silent about the meaning that was concealed within it. To them he hastened the stability of the members of humanity, and they ate the flesh of the heavenly ones and drank the blood of the weak.

Upon them it is fitting to apply the word of reproof, because the pastors are evil, foolish, and stupid. Without discernment they pastured the flock of pastors, and without care they scattered the lives among the mountains of error. Like a flock that has no shepherd, our humanity became, and upon the wild beasts, evil and destructive, they fell and ruined the race. In the paths of ignorance the guides wandered, and no man turned their thoughts toward the written truths. The pastors departed from the foundation of the fear of truth, and the people erred in the path of the corruption of their deeds. By their deeds they corrupted the way of faith, and by their words they filled the measure of inequality. Inequality they cast like a stone before the travelers, and the measure increased, and no man walked rightly. The words of the church they changed and removed from their place, and the house of hope and love became desolate. Like warriors they heaped thoughts upon thoughts, and they sent man away from the good things empty-handed. Great wealth filled the treasury of faith, and man plundered it not with love but with guile. Guile they mounted, the deceivers with the deceiver, and they plundered the confession without division in their utterances. The mysteries of iniquity the revelers bound upon the rebellious one, and they disturbed the church of the name of the Creator, the house of you and them.

The evil priests were companions without equity, and they set up a rebellion without discipline against the word of the flock. To the pasture of the flock they set the word of the flock as a snare, and they drove the flock from within the flock to the desolation outside. In the desolation outside the flock of the Creator's name is scattered, and it has no place to enter or settle near its acquaintances. Like a wretched one driven from the dwelling of its truth, and it wanders, grieving for its inheritance, and seeks its possessions. The voice of the flock is heard in the desert, and it dwells there, and it raises its voice and cries out with a staff against the priesthood. The desert does not fear the tyrants who dwell in it, as the side of the flock is cut off from the deserts. The inhabitants of the desert are not disciplined by the beasts, as the lovers of love tremble from discipline. A great ruin occurred in it in the bitter generation of the evil one, for the cause of the flock became the cause of all evils. The cause of the flock was the priesthood among the lands, and the priests turned the order of the flock toward the desert. In place of light and instead of salt, it was given to us, and its light darkened and its taste spoiled, and it turned the land to ruin. It gave evil counsel and gave life to its own sickness, and its evil increased and its taste spoiled, and the scent of life fled from it. The keys of the heights gave it a divine sign, but it did not open the door for the cause nor for the penitents.

The priests seized the gate of mercy in the face of the people, and they did not accept the groaning and tears of the penitents. The priests hid the word of life from the dying, and they did not give a hand to the dead of iniquity who sought healing. Without compassion they decreed judgment upon sinners, and they did not place the medicine of repentance upon their wounds. With haste they approached the work that was appointed to them, and with violence they exacted the debt that they owed. The work of the priest is a herald of the Spirit to the rank of priests, and they turned the name of authority into earthly things. Earthly-mindedly they thought that the orders of the Church were theirs, and like laymen they sought their orders from the people. Like a judge the priest sits at the gate of his house, and like a ruler he raises his voice and demands fees. The name of authority he raises over the laity among his hearers, and he does not understand that his rank is far from authority. It is not authority that is your rank, O foolish one; you err, O woman, you are a servant and a minister of your virtues. It is not for demanding that you are set, O man; you are one who seeks, to strike a bargain. Mercy called you to the gate of the king. It is not your own, the great treasure that you dispense with your hands; why are you proud of the portion that is yours as if it were your own? You are a steward, son of the dying, of the king who is over all; do not boast when you give from the house of your Lord.

Your Lord gives you from his treasury to dispense. See that you do not wrong your congregations by taking with [your] face. Hear the voice of your Lord who rebukes the evil servant. Dispense well, so that he may not be a companion in judgment. In judgment the Creator is prepared to choose his servants. Woe to him who hides his Lord’s money from the needy. With feelings and tremors he enters the court of his judgment. Woe to him who does not pity his congregations mercifully. In fire he burns deeds and words of body and soul. Woe to him who does not seek the labors of the just in the quest of truth. Without profit he brings forth judgment upon all his orders, And is not restrained from the authority of priests and kings. For priests he sharpens his cord more severely, According to the gift and the greatness of power they received from him. Upon them he stretches a tight cord without loss, Because they were entrusted to show mercy and did not pity and forgive. Before angels and men he contends with them, Because they were honored above earthly and heavenly orders. Above earthly and heavenly orders he was honored, And they became his servants without worthy deeds for his honor. Above the stars of the heavens he was honored, And they did not discern and know that they ascended to a place of rank unworthily. To the high rank higher than the watchers he ascended, And they did not understand how much folly increased in man.

the step of the priesthood, witness how many have fallen from all [their] honor, for even the spiritual ones who are cast down from it are humbled from it. The watchers are not permitted to ascend to the step of receiving, and the worthy are not able to serve in their places. The powers of the heavens are mighty, and their authorities, and when they are compared, they are found to be much less than the priesthood. Glorious is Gabriel, and great is Michael, and their names are witness, and when they are thus compared, their rank is less than the priesthood. The name of the priesthood is greater in rank than everything, and if there is anything greater than something, it is beneath the priesthood. Priests have set up the high step of honor for themselves, and they have adorned its beauty with the virtues of their deeds. In every form they have set up the name of its dignity, until the foolish have laughed and mocked at its folly. With prices they have sold this gift which is not to be sold, and when the world was not sufficient for its prices, they set prices for it. With substitutes they have exchanged the step which is not to be exchanged, and when there is nothing that resembles its name, they set a price for it. O wretched ignorance that is not to be denied, which set prices for something that is difficult to sell. O priesthood that exchanged its name for trifles, and when it gave all that is its own, it gave its own in exchange for a loss. In exchange for its own, it sold its own as a common thing, and behold, it is laughed at among the buyers and sellers.

One enters it while giving base coins, and one casts it away while taking it with the palms. The buyer looks at the fleece of the animal to be sacrificed, but is not aware of the power that is hidden within it. O blind ones who do not perceive between good and evil, to what end have you exchanged the height and depth without knowledge? O foolish ones who have erred, to what end have you exchanged the heavenly things for a base garment? Pearls that cannot be sold without connoisseurs, and behold, the foolish ones have sold the laughter of priesthood. The seals of stones are found only in the treasury of kings, and behold, the wonder of the Holy of Holies is proclaimed in the marketplace. The ranks of the world are not given without examination, and the wisdom of truth has no inquiry concerning its price. This alone the priest asks when he gives it: whether there is gold or not; if not, he does not care to sell. According to the gift, the priest looks and gives it: if it is abundant, he also increases and multiplies it. According to the loss, the buyer trades in it, while being stripped of the fraud that he would lose by his craft. Craft is considered the work of the sacrifice, and like merchandise, both its buyers are turned about in it. There is no dispute over the merchandise of earthly things as there is over the dispute that brings in and takes away the spiritual things.

There is no reproof for the corrupt priests, like the weaver who casts a web upon the looms. The foolish kings did not make treaties one with another, as the priests acted against the priests with enmity. With enmity they persecuted the priesthood, and without shame they trampled one another in their freedom. In their freedom they denied the world that was to come, and behold, it is being stirred up against them, a day without end. In their divisions they sold the foundation of faith, and many faiths without number multiplied in the land. In their insolence they cast down the righteous ones in the churches, and behold, every man is divided and no man completes the word of his companion. One is the hidden body that Christ conceals in his passion, and the priests have divided it into countless parts. One is the body that was a sacrifice for our salvation, and the foolish have destroyed it through the mixture of one with another. One is the nature that is and is not as it is, and the crippled have mixed it with the sign of the work of his hands. In body and soul the sacrifice of the salvation of our life was complete, and the excommunicated, deficient in soul and without substance, have made it. One is the Word, the Son of God, with his begetter, and the insolent one has sold that equality, though he did not sell it.

without reproof, and without vision, is the substance of nature. And its members are bound within the limbs, while it is not bound. The natures were distinct in substance, one person, and the eyes of the heart do not perceive the smallness that was in it. I said to you, not in reproach, but in love. And when it is good, thus one is separated from another, as it is separated. The Creator is separate and does not mingle with the work of his hands. And creation is humbled by the greatness of the power that created it. Creation is creation, how could it be increased by its own causes? And being is being, how could it be diminished by a borrowed name? By a borrowed name the worker is diminished, as it is fitting that it be diminished, for this too, the borrowed name, is of arrogance. It is of arrogance that it afflicts being, and a confusion is set, and it is of foolishness that it says that it will return again by a name. There is nothing for substance to be diminished from what it is, neither by borrowing nor by actions, nor at all. The fashioner of evils sought to diminish the hidden reproach, and this affliction does not condemn the priests. The priests, if they had stood firmly in one confession, the foolish ones dwelling in the house of truth would not have desired. The priests, if they had seen their movements towards the straight path, the eyes of the heart would not have been filled with words of anger.

If the priests had loved the equality of the body of Christ, the righteous ones would not be divided within the churches. If the priests had considered the thoughts of spiritual things, the love of man would not have laughed at the future things. The priests are the cause of life and the cause of death, and if they had remained in the order of life, it would have been good for the race. The cause of death is now manifest in their actions, and behold, each one is eager to kill his companion without mercy. From them men learned to shut the doors, and behold, each one wears the garment of wrath against his neighbor. From them began the pursuits of the watches, and behold, each one is bound to pursue the watch from his partner. From them they established the orders of the canons that were to be observed, and behold, our community is confused, and there is in it no order that resembles man. It was fitting for them to teach wisdom to the childhood of man, and to establish taste for the tasteless by means of their words. It was necessary for them to guide well to the promise of the world to come, and by their labors to show the way of the kingdom. The kingdom of heaven rules over the rational man, and the priests have closed the way of heaven, and no man walks. The travelers have ceased from the discipline of the beautiful things, and no man travels on the path of the hope of faith.

If there is one who is zealous from love or from a just cause, he does not let go of the rope of the priests for a good reproof. A great calamity of their faults has fallen upon everyone, and there is none who believes, nor even one whose love is true. In the house of division without equality, a calamity has fallen upon everyone, and there is no trust of a man in his companion, not even in word. If there is one who trusts, his trust is not the trust that sets snares from all sides before his trust. In word, men hunt men like snares, and silence and quiet would be better than disturbance. The word is the sign of eloquence that is in the just cause, and when will it be done that all reproof is for its correction? The reproof of the priests is set like a fierce lion, and behold, it humbles eloquence with the evil of wrath. The evils of the beast have corrupted the priesthood, have defiled man, and have begun to cause error and confusion to man without remedy. In it, the peace of men and of ranks was bound, and behold, the watchers and men are afraid to approach it. A great tumult was in this generation full of sins, which from its trust sought a calamity for us and cut off hope. Upon the priesthood were placed hopes and faiths, and behold, it has fallen and with it has fallen the trust itself.

like a foundation that has gone astray, the building of life became for him, and he loosed the spirits of the orders and shook the custom. It is not the priesthood that shook and disturbed, as I said; the negligent priests shook from the voice of the spirit of the mysteries. It is not the shaking among those whom I accused of the deacons; their minds became small and were cut off from the duty. It is not the pressing of the word of the peace that was established in her; the sons of her right hand did not wish to confirm the building of her love. It is not the disturbance of her honor before strangers; the guardians of her treasure became weak, her air in their deeds. I saw the folly of her mysteries when the mouth of fools was open, and they hid the window of the entrance to the entrance, which shines in the darkness. I sought the watchfulness of her hair, that it might be set by her words, from the wanderers who disturbed her freedom and diminished her orders. In the multitude of her limbs, I saw how the deceivers of the heart delight, and much dust that gives birth to words of wandering. Wandering is that which is adorned with greatness, and I do not know how the church is adorned. The error of the priests is difficult to be adorned in their deeds, for they left the way of faith and followed after filth. My word is adorned for their lawless deeds, and when it is well adorned, it does not reach the order that is in them.

Not out of envy do I speak against you, nor from malice do I bite the heel of your deeds. Truth bears witness that I have not spoken against you, nor do I hate you. Against the injustice that you have committed, I have spoken, that it might cast upon you an evil inheritance. I love you because of the rank that is placed in your hands, and I hate you because of the injustice that you have cast upon the earth. I love you because of the bond of the order, and I hate you because of the injustice, and I take it upon your face. I do not say that a man should be disturbed concerning your ranks, that you should not be disgraced, however evil your conduct may be. By the bond of the mystery, I will repay you the debt of the bond; and if you are not worthy, I will not wrong whichever side is fitting. The great one of the great ones has placed a canon upon your ranks, and he does not permit us to loosen the order of your canons. For your conduct that is without law, a scourge shall scourge, while it does not spare from the duty that is fitting for your name. The heavy name that is above all is placed upon your head, and it is not right for us to speak against you as against the laity. The keys of height are entrusted to the hand of your minds, and no man enters that door apart from you. In this, you shall bear honor as a bond, like treasurers and keepers of the bond of the spiritualities. In this matter, I also have kept silence from your reproach, that no man might be able to mock your great name.

Nor is it a quarrel that I quarrel, one that is full of bitterness, but it is a fire that is full of love and bears witness to destruction. The love bears witness that I have spoken justly with you, and it has compelled me to go with you according to its laws. Lawfully I have gone with you, O priests of the Church, because I have seen that you have deviated from the canonical law. On account of its words, I have strengthened my speech from the beginning, and I will not cease from that which I have begun until the end. The garment of its love has covered me more than anything, and it grieves me that I have begun and have become weary and have kept silent from its correction.