Memra 16: On How a Person May Surpass the Major Commandments

Memra 16: On How a Person May Surpass the Major Commandments. On how a person may surpass the major commandments. On how a person may surpass the major commandments through love. If you wish, then, listen to me, and I shall show you how you may surpass and be exalted even above these major commandments. I tell you: When someone strikes you on the cheek, approach him a second time; give him again your whole body, and behold, you have surpassed the one who struck, who gave only once. I tell you: When someone insults you with a single word, go with him a second time; go beyond what he said to you, and behold, you have surpassed the one who went as he was commanded. And I tell you: Forgive seventy times seven for the foolish; do not yourself pursue folly at all, and behold, you have surpassed the one who forgave only seventy times seven. I tell you: Do not judge so that you are not judged; you, however, do not expose your brother, and behold, you have surpassed even the one who struck, who gave only once. For I tell you: Do not call anyone "empty-head" or "fool" or "stupid" or "senseless," lest you be condemned to Gehenna. But when someone calls another "senseless" or "empty-head," he condemns himself for that entire day. Concerning one who calls his brother "empty," he becomes empty for the whole day. In the judgment in which you judge, you yourselves are judged.

and if he reads tomorrow, he is empty; and if he reads thus until he departs from the world, he is deficient in understanding, and he does not attain full understanding until he uproots these thorns, as my Lord said. It is easy, then, to go from folly to folly, and from Gehenna to Gehenna. Every person is known by his deeds. You, then, call a person who is your equal "my brother" and "my sister," and a person who is younger than you "my son" and "my daughter," and those who are older than you "my father" and "my mother," and those who are priests "my lords" and "my patrons," and the holy men and holy women "my lords" and "my ladies." And to what is worthy of honor, honor; and to what is worthy of love, love; and to what is worthy of fear, fear—with honor and diligence. And thus you will be above the first and last commandment; that is, you will be with the Lord of the commandments. But if you call a person "my brother" and "my sister," look upon him as a brother and a sister; do not lie with your word. You are not permitted to harm him, nor even if he harms you. And if he errs, you shall not err, for he is your brother in love. And he whom you call "my lord" and "my lady," remember that you have made him so by your will. If he harms you, do not rise up against him, but bear with him as with a lord.

And you who read, say to him, "My son and my daughter: remember that your eyes have seen in the womb; a great one has seen and bent over you and loved you as much as you can." And if your eyes err, you shall not err concerning your eyes, and you shall not cease from them. And you who read, say to him, "My Lord and my Patricius: remember that he offers sacrifices and prayers on your behalf and on behalf of all the sons of the Church, and because of their deeds they have been mingled with them and have been enslaved to them." And he said again: "When you pray, say: 'Our Father who art in heaven, forgive me my sins, for even the sin has forgiven the guilty. Forgive your brother, and then pray; and say in your prayer: Forgive me, Lord, for I have forgiven him who was guilty toward me, and you forgive those who have wronged me; and I seek from you, though I am ashamed, I who have come to you because you were angry to be angered.'" And thus you are above the great and small commandments, and above the Law and the Prophets, and you attain the Lord. This then is the way of his conduct, by which you go to him and to his apostles. You, however, if you reach these great commandments, it is easy for you to pass beyond them.

If you stop, you are the one of the dancer; at that very hour you call, "My brother." And if you stop, you are the one of the fool; at that very hour you call, "My son." And if you stop, you are the one of the madman; it is easy for you to call, "My beloved." And if you leave off seventy times seven, it is easy for you to leave off the whole. And if you are a shepherd and you pray, it is easy for you not to be angry again. And if you trip the feet of your enemies, it is easy for you to oppress the poor. And if you give a ransom, it is easy for you to give your whole body. And if you go two miles, you may go as many as you wish. And if you give your tunic, you are able to give also your cloak. And if you reach the commandments, you are above them, and it is easy for you to be and to be cast into that time. At first you are constrained, and at the end you are at ease for yourself. For it says, "Keep your law forever and walk in the Spirit." It says to you, then, "Love your brother more than yourself." From here you do not know what love is, until one places himself in place of his friend. And if it is true for you, what is my love? Place yourselves in place of your brothers. If, then, you love the poor more than yourself, you are very much greater than the one who loves his companion more than himself and his poor as himself; and thus you surpass even the great commandments and are praised with your Lord.

For whoever performs these great commandments is perfect. And if he does more than the great commandments and loves, he also humbles himself greatly and suffers with the sick; he is praised with him, because he looks at him in spirit and suffers with him, as it is said: "I have set this example for you, that you may be ashamed of the feet of your brothers and of your disciples." You bind the feet of your disciples, and behold, you have increased more than the one who binds the feet of his disciples. The sick one calls all of you, the sons of healing, to his friends and his loved ones, and he loves you more than himself, as he placed himself in your stead. And when he has a disciple, he does likewise; and if your master is without sin, he does not make himself a sinner, that which commits the sins of all sinners. Consider yourself something worse than a sinner, and behold, you do not go to healing. For if you say, "There is no one more guilty than I," and you are found to go to healing or to rebuke him, you have increased yourself over him, and your deeds do not match your words. Do thus, and you are found with the sick one; and because you consider yourself a sinner, you do not go to the sinners. And because the sin of the whole creation commits sins, your sins are not trusted; and because your sins are not trusted, you do not know to what the trustworthiness of his sins extends.

If, however, you have not done for your Lord and your Master what you did for your sinful self in humility, how much more ought you to humble yourselves? For he who did not know sin did it for your sake, because of your sin. But he who did it to himself and humbled himself, so that he might be a companion to you, to be likened to him. And if a sick man asks after the health of the healthy in his humility, it is fitting that he should bow down to men and to the healthy. For just as that child who said to you, "The Lord said, 'Be like him,'" like a child who sucks milk or a humble nursling, the Lord said, "Be like him." Where can you find a child who knows the village, or who knows which are the strangers or the thieves in it? So also, can strangers hide from the children of whom the Lord said they were like them? Because they do not know that they have spread out their eyes, and impurity is not visible to their minds. Otherwise, the child would enter a house that has strangers and thieves, and say to him, "Come, see what is inside, and see that you do not see them as evil, and that you do not send them away, and that you do not drive them out." And also it is fitting that children be from these, in evil things and in knowledge and in love and in humility, they will be perfect. I will therefore explain to you what you take from children and what you leave: what you have seen, therefore, a child who is not ashamed of his clothing and his upbringing, say, "This is mine.

When you see a man who is without passion and is master over himself, so that he weeps at all times, say: "This is mine; I will become without passion and weep at all times." And when you see a man who does not judge and is not seen among evil and proud men, say: "This is mine; I will become like him." But if you see a man who curses, or is angry, or does evil, or strikes, say: "These are not mine; do not resemble these." For it is not thus that your mind, which went after evil things like a child, is broken: for when a man says to him, "Curse," he curses; and when a man says to him, "Strike," he strikes and is angry, because sin is born with him, and she is young and he is a child. But you have conquered her and uprooted her, and the child has become from the suppression of evil, as it is said: "From evil things children become, and from knowledge they become perfect." Again, distinguish for yourself concerning the fool: when you see the fool who casts himself down, and cares not for house, nor wife, nor children, nor sisters outside his garment, nor patience, but lives for the day, say: "This is mine; I will become and resemble them." And when you see him speaking in his folly with everyone, and setting for himself a law without shame because he is not ashamed, and the wise man of the world who is foolish in wisdom, and the philosopher who is mad for something that is seen, say: "This is mine; I will become like this folly of the apostles.

When you see a man who is deaf or dumb, or who is lame or maimed, or who worships idols, say: "These are not mine; I will become." And even the fools of the world, be in their foolishness and do not distinguish, neither from those who insult them nor from those who honor them; and with him who struck you in the evening, speak with him first in the morning. Thus be like them: like a fool go to those who insult you and speak with them, and honor those who honor you. And look at the fool who does not distinguish good from evil in his foolishness; and thus you love both good and evil, while you know them. And when you see him who is governed by his foolishness, if a man says to him, "Go, steal, or commit adultery, or curse," and he does it, thus in his foolishness, do not be like him, because from the earthly wisdom of philosophy it says to you, "Be a fool," not from heavenly wisdom; and not like those wise philosophers will you see evil and judge them, but like those fools you will see and be amazed at their foolishness; and like a heavenly wise man, consider your own faults that you may correct, and not like an earthly wise man judge your companions' faults by means of evil ones. And be like the goodness of God, and do good to every man, and do not be like him who repays everyone according to his deeds, because you are not being and without law like him. For if he does not do justice to the wicked, why should you do it?

Do you wish to become like him? Make yourself a creation like him. Do not be a god within his creation, lest you be overturned like Satan. As for the man who runs after love in spirit, the law has no power over him; rather, he is above the law. Do you wish, then, that the first law not judge you? Do not sin with your body. And if you wish that the final law not reach you, do not sin with your heart by the evil thought concerning humanity. And if you wish to be with the lords of the scriptures, love your Lord and love every human being who is from the sons of Adam; and behold, you have completed the law. The sum of the law is love, from the pure intention and faith without disturbance; for these have abandoned the commandments, left behind the sign, and strayed from truth and purity of heart. The scripture does not kill you, because you do not know how to distinguish its commandments and take from them love, and our Lord Jesus revives you so that you may share with him. In humility and in the love of the humble, Christ dwells and reveals his mysteries to them. And if you wish, come to this rest and taste this sweetness. And see when you were troubled: when you were judging everyone, or now that you leave everyone and love them?

See when the power of sin begins to be broken within you: when you are in enmity with the children of your faith and with the terrors, or now when you love all the children of men, good and bad, and you have no enemy except Satan, and you have no quarrel with flesh and blood among the children of Adam, but you wage war against the evil spirits, the powers of sin? And falsehood, and iniquity, and everything that passes: leave and distance yourself from it as from an enemy. And all men and the sick shall appear to you as beloved friends, relatives, and fathers, and lords, and you shall be a servant to them in your love, and a son, and a brother, and a friend, and an heir. So be it then: and pray for all the children of men from Adam until the end of their life, and praise the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the perfect Trinity. For the Lord witnesses to me: that if all the children of men who were and who will be from the offspring of Adam, from the beginning until the end, if each one of them had a thousand mouths, and each mouth a thousand tongues, and each tongue a thousand words, and each word a thousand praises, and each praise a thousand eulogies, they would be too small to recount and praise the goodness of God which was upon the children of men, whether in the beginning, or in the middle, or in the end.

and the little ones, they went to the regions of the desert that were prepared for him for every man according to his deeds and according to his measure, and as he constrained himself and humbled himself and was oppressed. And if they increase again more than the apostles and more than anything that our Lord showed them, the pattern of humility, many little ones more than anything that our Lord prepared for them. It is fitting for a man that the pains of this time and the course that the perfect run are not equal to the praise and beauty that are prepared for those who will receive, something that the eye has not seen and the ear has not heard, and nothing that our Lord prepared in the high degrees for those who love him and left everything that passes and loved that which does not pass, that with him they will be in the kingdom and with him they will be praised, because they suffered with him and did not acquire anything that passes with him, so that the service of the spirit might not be interrupted from themselves and they did not perform the works of the earth, and they left the heavenly works from the day they knew him. And also for the poor and the doers of good deeds, what is prepared is magnificent, and that whole world is magnificent and surpasses for the measure that enters it. But glory surpasses glory: there is that which is like the glory of the sun that increases, and there is that which is like that of the moon, and there is that which is like that of the stars. And there is glory that is great and hidden that surpasses that of the sun and the moon and the stars.

others, the glory of heaven and the glory of earth, and the glory of the sun, and the glory of the moon, and the glory of the stars. And a star does not surpass another star in its light. So also among the living and the dead, the glory and light of one person surpasses that of his companion. And that glory of heaven is the thing of which the Lord said: that the eye of flesh did not see and the heart of man did not conceive, the thing that God has prepared for those who love him and who have kept his commandments, which is much greater and more glorious than all glories. It is completed and attained by those who humble themselves and sanctify themselves and strip themselves of this world and look to their Lord in heaven as in a vision in their mind and are made like him in all his humility. And when they pass from this world, they are with the Lord. The end of Memra 16: On How a Person May Surpass the Major Commandments.