Memra 5: On the Milk of the Children

Memra 5: On the Milk of the Children Now then, he speaks concerning the manner in which milk is the food of the child. That he should not eat bread with pagans, and with oppressors, and with heretics, and with the ignorant, and with the accursed. He commanded the child that he should not eat bread with them, and that he should not mix with them, because he is a child. Lest they lead him to their will, because he knows nothing and is led like a child. He says to him that he should not dwell with them until he knows himself and grows up and becomes a man, and then he sends him that he may go and teach them and become a lamb among their flocks and do what the fathers of perfect lambs do. For this reason he spoke thus: If, then, this child wishes to be better than the rest of the children, that he may grow quickly and come to a complete stature, and that evil may not prevail over him and strike him with hidden pains as a child, he himself should beware that he not be joined to the cause of foods and be led to the will of evil. And he should not be an enemy to them nor separate the sinners, but rather make peace with them, while not eating bread with them. It is bread alone that the Apostle said you should not eat with them. Not that you should be an enemy to them, nor that you should separate them. For he who makes peace with them and is careful of himself is better than he who does not eat bread with them and separates them.

For in that he says that a child should not eat bread with pagans, he reveals his own intention, and the hearers know that he saw something that troubled him. And because of that, he flees from them. But if he is careful with himself, he should not fear to eat bread with sinners. He does not sin, even if they are wicked. For it is because he should not be led by their evil will that the apostle commanded this, not because he himself sins. And thus he comes quickly to that commandment: that you should consider every person as better than yourself. And if it is possible, and he comes to this commandment, he should love every person, both insiders and outsiders, and not be troubled, and honor them, and place them as better than himself. And he who eats bread with them and is with himself, it is better than he who does not eat with them and separates them with his lips. But if he transgresses against this and strikes them, or curses them, or reviles them, or becomes an enemy to them, he falls from righteousness. Rather, he should be with them in peace as with the rest, and increase their number. But if they are not persuaded, they fall into the hands of evil judges of the evil world, and their judgment rules them. Otherwise, he would already make them sick, as with Paul, or as with the tax collector and the sinner.

For where do you know that you are angry? From him who does evil deeds. Is it Paul, or Zacchaeus, or Matthew the tax collector, or Rahab the harlot, or that Samaritan woman who was a prostitute among many, as Mar Ephrem testifies concerning her, that she had five men besides the one in the days of Mar Ephrem? And all these repented and lived. And they are exalted over sinners, and they do not know that perhaps the end of your Shalimites or of Iscariot or of the rest of the men who were good in their beginning, and in the end they sinned, may happen to you. Do not rejoice in the destruction of your enemy, lest God bring his destruction upon you and not spare you, as he did not spare your brother, so that you rejoice in his evil, his destruction will be. For it is not this that grieves Mar Ephrem, that he died for sinners, and that they sinned and sinned. For when he pities, he pities you; many remain sinning because of the debt of Mar Ephrem. When he heals you, you will never see him. There are yet other commandments of milk for you, mothers, and for the children Mar Ephrem said to you: this, that on the path of the pagans you should not go, and into the city of the Samaritans you should not enter, but go to the tents of the strayed from the house of Israel. That is, go to the sons of your people and preach. And again, when you enter a village, ask who is worthy in it and dwell with him.

And if you are traveling on a road, do not ask, "Where is the inn?" And if someone does not receive you with what you have brought, strengthen the sinews of your feet, and let Sodom not be pleasant to you on the day of judgment, more than that village. These, then, are the ones to whom our Lord said, "Opponent, I have come because of these great commandments, which are set for everyone as is better for you." And when you enter a house of sinners, eat what they set before you. What is this that you enter a house of sinners, but you do not go on the road of sinners? Our Lord, however, commanded thus: while he did not ask with whom he was equal and with whom he began, but he began with the wicked, just as the Pharisees also used to run after him, because he used to go in and eat and drink with sinners, tax collectors, and harlots. And it is not that the healthy are disgusted by the physician, but rather those who are very evil. These are not like that one who is with the righteous and equal, but you enter. Also the apostle, when he was with everyone, for everyone's sake, he used to command the others not to mingle with sinners like him. How then, when they were mixed and did not separate the good from the evil? But all that our Lord and the apostle commanded thus to their disciples: one because of their weakness, and the other because of their youth.

like a nurse who gives bread to an infant and sees that it cannot eat and is distressed by its hunger, immediately gives it milk that strengthens its power, and it grows quiet and rejoices. Thus did the Lord and the Apostle. For they were still weak from the truth, and had not yet been nurtured in the knowledge of perfect disciples, and were being weaned from the tares. They were afraid to enter the house of idols, and there was much idolatry at that time. And the Jews, who were afraid of the Lord, used to flee from many idols. For when the sinners who were among them went and entered the house of idols, they became like them; the Lord used to kill them. Because they abandoned him and worshipped idols. And because there was no strength in them, as soon as they saw idols, their evil inclination carried them away to its desire. And when the Lord saw, he commanded that they should not enter the house of idols, like infants. For the disciples thought at that time, because they did not yet know the truth, that even one who goes to teach in the house of idols sins. And the Lord kills him like those others, and they exchanged their good teacher for their murderous Satan, and the living Word for a dead corpse. For this reason they were bound in harsh fetters, like slaves who rebel against their masters. As it is said: Woe to those who call the evil good, and the good evil.

as the children of Israel said concerning that wicked one who led the people astray in the wilderness, and concerning that good one who brought them out of Egypt, and they named the elder after the holy name of the strong one of Jacob. It is not, therefore, concerning one who loves sinners and nourishes them and sets them as good as though they were better than him, that God is displeased; but rather concerning one who changes his truth and loves the wicked because of their deeds. Little by little, therefore, he was raising them in knowledge and guarding them from stumbling, until they grew and were filled with spirit, and would no longer stumble. For every person who does not digest solid food, milk is his food, until he knows the truth. In peace, when a person travels on the road, do not ask; but do not speak with a person on the road, until you go and arrive where you were sent. For this reason our Lord said to them here: that you should not, for the sake of peace, stumble by means of a person, or be distressed or led astray, when you go on the road with a person who is called. Our Lord commanded them when they were young here. And when they grew and matured, he permitted them to be with every person, so that they might help every person, and that their return to every person might be in the light that our Lord gave to every person, as one who is able to hear and speak with him. For a person is not held accountable for the sins of his companion, nor is a person separated from a sinful fellow human; but he acts according to his own deeds.

For the Apostle says: not only those who themselves commit sins, but also those who participate with those who commit them. When he sees thieves and robbers and murderers, and he becomes their companion in murder or in theft or in robbery, or he takes from their plunder, or he receives a bribe and then conceals them. Because of one of these, he places his hand with them. But if he rebukes them in his own house and theirs, and does not expose them, because they are of his own flesh, as one who does not wish to do evil to him, thus he does not expose them when he errs and seeks from every man who sees him to conceal him so that he does not die, he does not sin. But rather, a man says thus to one who errs and sees him or hears about him: My son, I do not receive a bribe from you, but because love conceals sins, and because I am ashamed of the shame of the man who exposed me, I also am willing and kill a man, a murder, because of this, so that I do not fall into grief, that which a man who exposed me does. How shall I expose others and be wicked and not grieve? Because this does not come by my hands, evil comes upon you. For it is written: evil comes, but woe to him by whose hands it comes.

Understand that evil does not come upon a person by itself; rather, it comes upon him either through his own hands or through the hands of his companion, or else God wills that he be punished by a bear or slain by Satan, as with Job. Woe to us if evil comes through our own hands! You see that evil comes through the hands of a person, either his own or his companion's. Now, my son, through my own hands I have received and seen you, so that evil does not come upon you; but if it does come upon you through the hands of others who see you, or through your own hands because you commit this sin, then pray to God and make a covenant with him that you will not act thus, and he will have mercy on you. For if you do not do this, you will escape through the hands of merciless wild beasts, and God will bring his wrath upon you, so that you grieve the heart of a person of your own race from Adam. Woe to me if evil comes through my hands and harms a person! Thus a person shows his companion, for his own sake and for his sake, when he sees him sinning: he does not associate with murderers and killers, setting his portion and sharing with them, but he is holy and fulfills the law of Christ. For when he spreads himself out, he does something that helps that person do what he does, and he becomes wicked and without shame. And evil comes through his hands, and he receives that woe: woe to us if evil comes through our hands!

See, then, how you run with the thieves and you place your hand with the murderers. When you have envied your brother or you have divided with him, or when you have caused him to be sick. With love, then, cause every man to live; with a humble spirit, lead the one who sins, that he may not add sins, and lead the one who stands, that he may be strengthened and increase and not fall. Do not judge a man and divide, and evil will not come through your hands. For it is written that you should not judge that which is not known. And be like your Father in heaven, who is set over the good and over the evil and lets down his rain over the righteous and over the wicked. And you will say to me: These things are written for the perfect, and I do not wish to be perfect, but righteous. Do not be angry with me for what I say to you. If these things are said to the perfect, that you should not judge and evil will not come through your hands, yet see that these things are also not said to the good, that you should judge and divide, but to the sick, and to men whom evil has overcome, and they go as far as murder. He said: I do not despise their beginning, but their end is fitting for you like a tax collector and like a robber, and you should not be evil and kill them or uproot them like a weed, and you are not aware whether it is a sin. There are men like Paul and tax collectors and merchants who in the beginning were weeds and in the end were good sins.

And which one shall I leave for you, O judge, that which commanded you not to uproot the seeds? Or that which, as you are foolish, you do not harm yourself, you should not harm others? Or that which conquers evil with good? Or that which you do not know so that you may not be known? Or that which places your companion as though he were better than you? Or that which leaves him who insulted you to be forgiven seventy times seven? Or that which gives your peace and does not stand against evil? Or that which says, "Woe to him through whose hands evil comes"? And how much more is written for you, that you transgress the entire law of the Lord, when you harm him who insulted you. But if you harm him who did not insult you, how much do you sin and diminish God, when you transgress his law and do not do his will, and you torment yourself on the day of judgment? For you do not reach perfection, but you fall from the height of sorrow, whenever you harm a man. But if you wish to be perfect or sorrowful, leave your judgment; God will judge him. And he who is evil falls into the hands of evil judges of the evil world, and they torment him. And if he escapes from their torment and does not repent, God torments him, for there is no one who escapes from his hands. It is a great fear to fall into the hands of the living God, for it is not as it is here; he will be humble on the day of judgment.

But, my brothers, not when you judge will you be judged, or when you curse will you be cursed, or when you pursue will you be pursued, or when you persecute will you be persecuted. And in that judgment which you judge, you will be judged; the king of the world will be silent from judgment and will give mercy to everyone in love. But do not do judgment to yourself, for I will do judgment to you, says God. For if you insult, or if you curse, or if you strike, and you do not restrain your anger and you are silent, God will not do judgment to you. But if you wish to be perfect, pray that your Lord forgive him and that you not be his enemy. For it is not permitted even to the Church to pray and to ask from God that evil come upon one who does evil to her; but thus the Church says: as my Lord knows, so let him do. If it is necessary to pursue, let him pursue; and if it is necessary to forgive, let him forgive. Perfection, however, prays with all her heart that God forgive the one who erred against her. But God does not pursue the erring; he pursues him when the perfect pray that he be forgiven. For she has no portion of flesh that stands against truth and shines and oppresses the one who is her Lord, so that her Lord does not strike him. If he repents, he does not first repent and entreat and ask for his folly, and he is pitied and forgiven.

And when he left his master, he went and pursued that which had offended him; the master turned and pursued him. For if that guilty one had returned before his master, his master would have forgiven him his sins, which had been such that he and his wife and his children were sold and he was released; and concerning that which had happened, he had pressed the neck of the one who was guilty toward him. But as for that one who offended him and did not wish to forgive him, God turned and pursued his former follies and did not spare him, just as he had not spared his own neck. But I say to you: as many follies as you have, do not pursue the folly of a man; rather, tremble for yourself and for that which offends, until your follies pass from you. And when your own follies are finished, show your necks, lest when you pursue, God turn and pursue those follies of yours from before your repentance, those which he had forgiven you, as with that guilty one. For there is none among the children of Adam who does not sin first and then become justified, because that thought was sown in Adam on the day he transgressed the commandment; in all his children it is sown from their mother’s womb. And then, when they know themselves, they struggle and conquer it and become justified, or they are purified and become guilty and are condemned by it. An evil deed has been done to you: you were guilty of showing your neck as your brother did.

Thus did our Father in heaven not do to you; rather, you will leave aside the hatred for your brother from your heart, his follies. Concerning that matter, he who was casting a stone at you from above, because of the childhood of your disciples, he was vigilant over them, like a child who is in the flesh, whom his mother of flesh raises with care and diligence, in everything that is needed for him, so that he might quickly grow without blemish, so that his upbringing might not be hindered, becoming pure and fair of appearance. Thus did our Lord raise his disciples, with a vigilant and fitting spirit, so that they might quickly become men of spirit and be perfected, and for the many they might perfect and accomplish the captivity of the living from the hands of the destructive Satan, and prepare for the Lord a complete people who are zealous in good works, and who love their God with all their strength and heart, and each one as himself, as in both Testaments it is written and made known: one God and Lord of all, who created all and holds all, and everything is his. For this reason, therefore, he said to those who are young, who asked, "How much is left and is equal?" and "Turn to him." So that your thought might not be hindered and disturbed, or that it might be snatched away and stumble from evil or from the sons of hatred, by one of the cries of my error. And if our Lord had not done thus, and little by little had led them like infants, they would have stumbled for themselves.

As one who knows: that after they received the Paraclete and he ascended, the Lord departed, and the disciples knew the truth. With the Jews alone they were speaking the word of God, and they were not mixing with the pagans and the sinners, because they were not associating with the wicked or with the servants of wickedness, until the Lord showed them after they received power and sent a revelation to Simon, and in it he depicted foul beasts, which are their unclean mysteries. And he said to him: “Drink and eat.” And Simon was indignant and said: “It is not for me.” And the Lord cried out to him three times: “Something that God has purified, will you not accept?” For if he had spoken concerning beasts and concerning flesh, he would have said to him: “The apostles did not eat flesh; rather, they were fasting until the ninth hour, and they were eating bread, salt, vegetables, and olives.” This, then, is the interpretation of that “Drink and eat”: Go, enter the house of pagans and the unclean, and teach them that thus God wills, and do not accept yourselves. And when Simon was amazed at the vision, and behold, peoples came to him, the Spirit said to him: “Arise, go with them, and do not be divided; these are the beasts of which the Lord said to you: ‘Drink and eat.’ Something that God has purified, you shall no longer refuse.

Then Simon remembered the Lord’s word to them as he was ascending: “Go to all the peoples and teach them, baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Then Simon, the steadfast shepherd, took heart and went out to teach the peoples and instructed them: “Baptize them as I did you.” And when he entered Jerusalem, the Jews were accusing him: “These are the ones from the circumcision—how did she go to the uncircumcised and the impure and eat and drink with them, something not permitted?” The Jews were also accusing him from the precepts of the ancients: “Do not mix with sinners.” Then he gave them the great precept, that is, the true food, saying: “God gave me this; concerning a man I do not say whether he is a Greek or a Jew.” Therefore he gave his spirit until the youths grew up. And then, when they were men, he gave them the true food through the Paraclete and revealed to them the whole truth. And then one from another was confirmed: that they knew these precepts from those that are high. So the Paraclete came, for whom the world is not sufficient, and no man can receive him, except that he be a stranger to the world, as the Lord said: that the world is not sufficient for the Paraclete, but for the gift of the Eucharist the pure sons of the world are sufficient.

So when the twelve apostles received the Paraclete on that day together, fear fell upon them. For not immediately upon receiving the Paraclete is a person perfected; rather, he knows what he has received—the Paraclete, the whole truth—and then he begins to be perfected. And this continues until the day he departs from the world, increasing and growing. For they knew that from the moment they received the Paraclete, they were afraid to go among the pagans until the Lord cried out in their hearing, and Simon cried out to his companions: “It is to the lairs of wolves that our Lord has sent us, not to righteous lambs.” And Paul also, when he saw that they were not proceeding boldly with the gospel because of their fear, after they received the Paraclete, he reproved them, as is written in Galatians. It is not that they were not perfected, a person says; rather, that not on the very day a person receives the Paraclete is he perfected and freed from fear; but he knows what he has received—the Paraclete, the whole truth. If, however, a person does not know the truth, he has not received the Paraclete. For the apostles knew the truth after they received the gift of the Spirit, the Paraclete. And there were places where they were afraid and did not preach boldly, one by one. Then Paul said to them: “Do not take the spirit of fear.” And so they took heart and gave themselves over to death, and preached steadfastly.

And they received the Spirit of the Holy One, one by one, until they were perfected. And when the Paraclete came, then a person knows the whole truth. And when he knows the whole truth, then little by little the complete fear is removed from him, and then he is set free. And when he is set free, then he is perfected; and when he is perfected and his forms are sealed, then he increases day by day in love until the day when the Lord desires to bring him to Himself, and with Him he will be His dwelling-place, just as God is, and He does not pass away nor change, while He is as He is. And He is praised and glorified with His friends forever and ever. And that which the strength of your feet escaped, when they entered the place and did not receive you, while they were infants from the truth, they were being nourished and were being hardened against you, as if they desired that you do when the Lord is with you, that you bring down fire from heaven upon the village that did not receive you, as harsh men do daily. But the Lord spoke a gentle voice among you: that you should not think thus again. And He absolved you concerning those who were infants from the truth in this: that you should not be hardened, but that they should seek strength and go in peace. But as for him who did not receive you, even when you pray over him, he repents; the Lord pursues him. But as for him who seeks strength and contends with him who did not receive him, it is not fitting.

The rest of them, when they were perfected in their spirit, thus they heard from the Lord: that they should pray for the one who strikes them. For how much, then, did they pray for the one who does not strike them? But woe to him on the day of judgment for the one who does not receive their prayer. But after they were perfected, they were striking them and driving them out and expelling them from that door, and they were entering from another, and they were asking of them that they be brothers, and not as if they had not received their prayer, and they were asking that their prayer be kindled. The end of Memra 5: On the Milk of the Children.