Memra 4: On the Vegetables for the Sick

Memra 4: On the Vegetables for the Sick Now we have spoken concerning the commandments of perfection and concerning the service that is beneath perfection. We shall now show concerning the food which is the vegetables that are suitable for the sick. For just as the sick person is disgusted by all foods, so also the sick mind is repelled by good deeds. The sick mind is disgusted by the good customs of the village which are in its vicinity, and it does not choose them, but it condemns that which is like itself, and it does not accept and confirm it with compassion, but it oppresses it and casts it down into evil. For this reason, the master who knows that he who errs is that one who is left and not idle, and he does not have mercy on himself, and he does not have compassion on his brother, says to him: "What you have seen, that your brother has erred, correct him with love. And if he does not listen to you and you are not able to restrain your eyes from evil, and you are not able to close your ears so that you do not hear evil about your brother, approach him again with your request and to him alone and rebuke him. For love covers many sins, and hatred stirs up evil. If your brother listens to you, you have admonished him; but if he does not listen to you and you are not able to separate yourself from your brother, approach him before one. And if neither he is corrected nor you are with yourself, approach him before two.

And if he does not eat, and you are not able, you are free from the heads: up to three of his heads. But if you do not care for yourself and he is not ashamed, before the whole church he shames him. And if he does not even listen to the church, leave him to the head and he will teach you from him. Up to here it is enough. Consider him like the rest of the sinners who rebel and you are not able to persuade him, and you do not break the empty ones. And just as when a sinner meets you, you are a cause for him to be a Christian, so also for this one, your brother, you were a cause for him. And do not be an enemy to him, lest he be devoured by Satan. And just as in true food a man grows from a man who increases humility, so also in this, which is the discipline of the sick, a strong man from a man. Which one, then, persuades his brother in his request and if he listens, he teaches him; and if not, he listens, he teaches him. Strong is he from the one who spreads him before one. And the one who spreads him before one: if he hears him, he increases him; and if not, he teaches him. Strong is he from the one who spreads him before two. And the one who spreads him before three persuades him and spreads him: easy is he from the one who goes and spreads him before the whole church.

If he does not leave him the evil of the fever, and he strikes him or drives him out, he falls from the priesthood because he is foolish, that he did not heal him when he was sick, and he strikes the one who sinned. Up to this point, the distinction of those who eat vegetables. But if you wish, even you, that you should interpret as the Apostle writes to you: in your houses and to you alone you interpret. If they listen, your brothers will be more; and if not, you will be freed from the heads and from the law; quickly you will go up to true food. And you will be healed and completed. And the rest of you will be ashamed that you did not sin. And what is it to you that you have servants who are not your own? For if they fall, they fall to their master; and if they rise, they rise to their master. For it is the place of their master that they rise. For it reaches in the hands of Jesus that he raised you, as he raised Paul. For from where do you know if Paul is the one who is now the one whom you seek to pursue and to serve? But listen to me, my brother: not even in the martyrdom that is in your house and to him you will be hard upon the sick, that you will not be much disturbed. But interpret him humbly and gently and pleasantly. For he who desires to be completed does thus as it is written: "What is it to you that you are occupied with folly? It is to you that you, with a humble spirit, interpret him." And you are obligated to the powers of the diseases of the sick: take and cast their spirit with everyone.

Listen to me, my brother: it is good for you that you take counsel for yourself, and also for myself with you, so that when you see a man who is unclean, you speak to him thus: "Alone, my brother: blessed are the saints and the pure who see our Lord Jesus and are not ashamed before his face, and from every evil they are delivered, and they fast from the world and from its desires." And when you see a man who is hard, say to him thus: "My brother: blessed are the meek who have inherited the land of the living." And say to him: "My brother, if there is hardness in you, be meek now, and be sanctified, and run in the great and meek commandments of your Lord, and know the height and depth, the length and breadth, with all the saints." And when you see a man who has no mercy on his fellow man, say to him: "My brother: blessed are the merciful, upon whom mercy will be, even when they have many follies, and because they forgive their Lord for what offends them, or steals from them, or commits a great sin against them, just as they forgive, so the righteous judge forgives them, and as they pursue, so he pursues them." For he had left that guilty one many talents of his follies, because he sought from his Lord, when it was time, that he and his wife and his sons be redeemed, and afterwards he went to judge what had offended him.

Thus we should do for you, my father in heaven, but you should leave a man to his brother from your heart his follies. Also the four and ninety hours in one day. And know that you too have follies before God. And if he leaves a sin, the Lord leaves him. And when you see the poor and the needy who are hungry for poverty, say: "My brothers, blessed are those who hungered and thirsted for the sake of the church, and not for the sake of plunder and greed and poverty, which is the fear of idols." For all this sickness is that a man thinks that from the sins of his companion he is absolved, while he does not sin with him and is content with his thoughts, if he sees that he has erred and transgressed and does not admonish him or drive him away; he thinks that he is absolved like him. And because of this, the sick one desires in his thought that he cause him to transgress by means of the very things by which he transgressed, so that he thinks that by the death of that one, or by his being driven out, or by his condemnation, he himself is justified, or conquers, or is redeemed from the sins which he thinks are clinging to him by contagion. And because of this, the Lord said to him: "When your brother does not wish to listen to you, consider him as the rest of the wicked, who are rebellious and do not obey. And as you do not pay heed to those who are outside, so do not pay heed to this brother of yours who has rebelled." And when you see enemies, one of another, say: "My brothers, blessed are the peacemakers, who in the name of God are called.

The makers of peace, then, are those who heal the enemies that are in the secret places of the other distant hours, and they make peace on the earth of your father, and they become mediators between you, and they heal you with supplication, humility, and meekness. And when they heal the enemies, and they speak in their assemblies evil words one against another, they turn and come and say good things instead of them, as one who is grieved for a certain person because he did not heal with you, and he desires that he be healed for you, and he says: I was not glad in this enmity, and Satan stirred me up, and I harmed my brother and my member. When that one does not speak thus, until their anger subsides, when they are distant from one another, and they come and give peace to one another with a holy kiss. Otherwise, they turn their evil words into good ones; on account of every evil word they speak one against another, and you who are a good mediator, if you go, you will bring them as they are, you will trouble them, and they will not be healed. And when you see a sign of enemies that are hidden within them in their enmity from within, say: My brothers, blessed are those who are pure in heart, for they will see God. And thus I was walking humbly and meekly with everyone, and you teach them and you persuade them, from where you see that you enter upon them.

And when she saw the evil one, who is now gentle, you are upon the good and upon the evil, speaking and saying: What then shall I do, that I may show him to be a foul and evil man? And he looks upon them as if upon saints, and he treats them as if they were brothers. Woe is me, what shall I do? I have no place now to do battle with him. For all this battle of mine was that the man might heal his wounds, even because of his sins, and now he loves and embraces sinners like a master. Woe is me, that one like him condemns me and kills me. But I know what I shall do: that I may let go and be silent, and he will open the way for me, and he will not kill me, through humility, like that teacher of his, Jesus. The end of Memra 4: On the Vegetables for the Sick.