On Lent III

On the Third Sunday of Lent Memra 12 (of the series) On the Third Sunday of Lent A Hymn New life has been given to you, O Creator, and He has placed eagerness in His life. Of Elijah: my brothers. The path that the son of the inhabitants of Edessa showed me in words, And I desired to journey to the deeds of his proclamation. A journey: my journey to the teaching of the words of the Spirit, Which He bound and loosed according to His will, and it was not false. He stopped the requests and dried up the tree like roots, And turned, became barren, and the tree became green by a hidden sign. He descended like a lion to the lair of death, the tree, And took from it a portion of the tree with the help of his Lord. He made a contest with the gods and their worshippers, And confounded their error and conquered by his hand the power of concealment. He conquered in the arena by the power of divine help, And put to shame the tree for the sake of the godless in the name of God. And the son of mortals, whose nature is base, did not err, He was silent from it and trembled at the sound of the high, weak voice. The son of the inhabitants learned two things from this cause: His own baseness and the love of his Lord for the tree. He showed his journey to the hidden one by his conduct, And heard a voice full of salvation at the end of his path. The traveler journeyed in his fervor like a revealer, And asked for death, and lay down, and was immersed in the bitterness of his heart.

He called him the hidden one to rise up, the stranger among the inhabitants, for the path of the casting away without foundation is harsh. Behold, a sign has been given to you, a hidden mystery, a revealed food; take, be nourished, know your own, and have mercy on your race. The baker arose and saw that the table of the sign was set; he ate and drank, turned and immersed, while it was bitter to him. Two sacrifices called the spirit to the bodily one, that the dead one might rise and nourish yourself with the food of the sign. That command which conquered by force through the silent ones, that same now gives food through the speakers. The speakers and the deaf who are before him in his service, and without toil, a perfect life in place of truth. He ate and drank the food of fire and the drink of the earth, and entered the power of the heavens in earthly things. Why then did he give him hidden power in revealed food, and upon what did he sharpen the strength of his help upon the food? In the food he gave him, show that fire is in need of food, and in his help reveal his power, that the keeper of fire is he. Through food he taught fire that it lives by food, and through his sign he revealed that if he wishes, he can kindle quickly. It is not difficult for him to keep life without fuel, but to show that the life of the sacrifice is known in food.

He would not err for the Knower of All, the mockery of the foolish, who were destined to err in the form of their persons. The arrogance of their thoughts was revealed to him, when they who die snatch at a rank of the undying. He cut off the love of glory beforehand by means of Elijah, lest mortality aspire to the height of life. By the food of the sea he gave him the strength of forty days, and by the flesh of a single bird he drove away the hungry. He arose and walked by means of the food, a son of the inhabitants, forty days and nights until the desert. By the power of the food he said, "The way is not human," when he taught us that the power of his help is loosed in his deeds. For forty days the traveler ran, while being strengthened, and daily waged a harsh battle against the arrogant. He arrived and reached the house of the end of his journey, and heard a voice that questioned him as if he did not know. "What are you doing, you there?" Elijah spoke with him. "How did your pursuer drive you from within the inhabited world to the desert of the strong one?" O the greatness of the hidden depth of the God of all, who questions the son of the inhabitants, "What are you doing, you there?" He kept him by a sign of the journey, his ribs toward health, and sought to learn the cause of his journey as if he did not know. He himself asks, "What are you doing, you there?" as if he did not know, that the path of the one who travels might be examined, hidden from his words.

He would not err for the Knower of All, the mockery of the foolish, who were destined to err in the form of their persons. The arrogance of their thoughts was revealed to him, when they who die snatch at a rank of the unending. He concealed his knowledge from all that had reached the error of the people, the great covenant of the hiddenness of your love. The sacrifices of the guilty were about to be offered to your name, and they brought incense to the name of the demons who blaspheme you. Your servants they killed and shed their blood without restraint, and he came, the simple one, and behold he seeks my soul like my companions. He called them openly while making known his hidden will: "Go out, stand, hear, see, learn, and depart from your wrath." Behold, I make spirit and motion and flame, and I move the earth before you according to your will. He signalled a command to the senseless ones, and they hastened; fire and spirit agitated one another, and the earth quaked. He ceased from the tumults and moved the fire before the deceiver, the liar who would gather the fire of his wrath in the iniquity of the people. By motion and fire he revealed his purpose, that he who seeks to move the earth and kindle fire with fire and spirit might show spirit and prolong motion, and then fire, and make heard a voice: "I do not wish that these things happen." You, like a man of man, wish to destroy man, and it is not fitting for me to be likened to you in the destruction of man. After the fire, he made heard his voice, a sweet voice, while teaching him concerning his will, that he who loves man is he. Elijah trembled from the harsh things that were set before him, and he hid his face from the terror of the harsh vision.

He spoke with him the voice of the deceiver, that he might do what he would, and he also erred like the first who reached the error. He mounted his person from harshness with a gentle voice, and placed for him a good thought of man that would be pleasing to him. Turn, I say, to your way towards the deeds of pride, for behold, I have left seven thousand who listen to me. The deceiver thought that he alone was proud and sad, and taught him the voice that he has companions in the fear of his Lord. "I have left," he said, "seven thousand who did not err and did not worship," while he made known to you that his sign guards their thoughts. He left the deceived from the erring by means of his helps, and did not drag the man to the stone of iniquity for the worship of the erring. In the rest that he left, they did not participate in the worship of Baal; he taught the sad a good thought of his mercy towards man. Go, I say, and anoint a king and a king for the people and the nations, that they may check the insolence of the erring people. Anoint again and set up a proud one of the spirit who will be in your place, so that whoever comes out of sadness may be glorified in him. Turn, deceiver, from harshness to gentleness, and rejoice in the way of pleasantness towards the needy. Anoint the proud one and set up a king for the people and the nations, and join words to the deed in his proclamation. For this reason, declare the sign until it is destroyed, that in the contest the love may be fixed towards his relatives.

He went forth while the deceiver was plotting to go and receive a welcome from the nobles, and taught him the voice of the way of the devil, that he might go to the man. He turned from ruin to the houses of the elders who served the devil, and saw that the people and the king were weary from the pain of iniquity. Because iniquity had abandoned the people and served the king, and he thrust forward and came and saw that the people and the king were distressed. He stood at the gate of the worship of Baal, full of sacrifice, and sought the pain of deceit that was hidden in the soul. The king saw the counsel and became enraged at the poverty that was his, and concealed the wrath that was hidden in his heart under the name of zeal. To Naboth he said, "Give me your vineyard for good silver, or I will give you a vineyard better than yours in exchange." And when his deceit was not perceived in the guise of sacrifice, his thoughts were troubled by the grief of a soul without rest. Ahab slept while he was grieving him, and he did not wish that he should escape from the word of the false witness that the evil one had set for Naboth. Jezebel heard that the counsel had been humbled before zeal, and she unsheathed a sword in the hand of falsehood against the truth. "Why are you grieving and your heart is troubled?" she said to Ahab. "Why do you humble yourself before the voice of the leaf of the name of zeal? Why have you not hastened to the deeds of deceit? And while you sleep, you are with the falsehood of the clashing of silver? You are weak and also old in the work of iniquity, and you are not fit to be king over Israel.

Rise up, eat, drink, and rejoice, and let your heart be glad, for the father has given you his vineyard, though he did not wish it. The sword of deceit was sharpened within their minds, to shed blood in the name of righteousness, lawfully. He hid the sword of deceit within the letter, and bound the lie within the cover of the scriptures. They wrote iniquity and sealed falsehood, that deceit might flourish, and the scribes of falsehood interpreted it, taking it at face value. O the letter that was written in the name of righteousness, and concealed within it deceit that begets murder. In the name of righteousness, the cunning one desired to commit murder, so that the entirety of evil would not be exposed before the beholders. With a fair and lawful cover, she concealed her iniquity, so that whoever separates the name of God dies by the sword. In this letter, also written to the liars, who set up men as false witnesses against the father. Observe the fast and put on sackcloth like mourners, and follow the decree of the name of God and the king of the people. Fasting and sackcloth became witnesses to the blood of the father, so that he who thirsts for the king and the God of all is worthy of death. The men of the house of Israel, elders and freemen, did for you, as it is written: the murder of deceit against the innocent. They gathered the people and decreed a fast, and mounted deceit, and condemned the blood of the innocent of heart with false testimony.

O martyrdom that, without sowing it, raised a cry in the ears, corrupted the heart with the sword of deceit and gave birth to murder. O thought, bitter fruit of eloquence, that darkened its light in the martyrdom of falsehood of innocent blood. The speakers became silent from the obligation to the outside of the deaf, and they condemned the blood that was not guilty and were not ashamed. The perfect one died by the sword of stones that deceit stoned him, and injustice snatched the inheritance of her house to be his. He called them openly to a hidden sign, to the outside of the inhabitants: "Rise, erring one, and follow the blood that deceit shed." Show your error like a mighty one to the wicked, and follow the hands of him who wronged you, and do not be hindered. Go and tell him that thus says the Knower of All: "You killed and inherited, not truly, as you supposed." By the blood you shed, measure out your blood in the earth, and it will be exacted, I say, what the fathers sought by reason of sin. Arm himself, the good worker, with the armor of the spirit, that he may go and contend with the wicked who tramples justice. The erring one saw the heavy-hearted one who hastened to blood, and he drew the sword of the word of the spirit and showed it before him. Behold, you served murder with deceit and inherited the vineyard, but your deceitful desire does not ascend to completion. Before him, divine knowledge, to your evil inclination, and shed your blood with the blood you shed before the deeds.

He gave the judge the poison of death upon you, and the sword of the castrator drew a hidden sign. In the place where he shed the blood of the father of Mach, he was immersed, and let there be the Jezebel of sacrifice to the dogs of the people. And because evil succeeded in your hands from all that were, in you also sorrow will be confirmed in a harsh judgment. Evil was confounded with the righteous when he did not wish, and he took his crown and put on a sack and went secretly. He grieved and labored over the deed without law: he stoned and was stoned, and snatched and killed and trampled the commandment. It was the word of the hidden sign concerning Elijah, when he taught him the raging one of the soul. I saw that Ahab the king was ashamed before his face, and he put on grief within his mind over what he had done. Instead of being ashamed of me and knowing that he had erred in the blood of a man, no man brings evil in his days upon his children. In the days of a king who loves evil like his father, a man will follow him to the house of Ahab when the people are angry. The section of the hidden sign concerning evil is finished, and he prepared himself for the stoning of the Edomites. The raging one swallowed in the harsh fire that the sign cast him, and his fetters were completed by the word of the sorrowful one as it was decreed. The evil ones cast stones of flint at the father of the sorrowful one, and the raging one also swallowed from the evil ones in the likeness of the father.

The wicked one died and his hope perished from the assembly, and he handed over his crown to the evil heir who resembles his father. And because he ran swiftly on the path of iniquity, he fell from peace into the snare of pain, which his prayer had hidden as a sign. The fool sent to inquire about his rebellion, to see if there was any chance to heal his harsh ruin. The messengers went to inquire of the one without God, and they blocked the path before the faces of the son of the settlers. The deceiver revealed the whole of his heart to the son of the wicked, how he was bound by the affection of kinsmen in the likeness of his father. They went and said to the one deficient in heart, complete in sin, that there is no God among the chosen people to heal your pain. Instead of leading them astray from God, he stood without gods. "Cut short your life, without your being shown the demons you loved." The messengers turned to the wicked one who had sent them, and they brought the good news of cutting off hope for the one without hope. "Ask him how he deceived you so quickly, and show him that the error of your father has ceased from your path." The sick one strengthened himself, who lies in the midst of his two pains, and he hid the sword for the blade of pains in the likeness of his father. The weakened force armed itself in a garment against the truth, and he hid from his strength the power of the spirit of the one who makes bitter. The great one of the seventy ascended when he threatened Elijah, and in his boasting he rejoiced in the son of the settlers.

Hasten quickly, O swift one of the spirit, and do not delay, for the king desires to see your face speedily. The swift one who hears the sound of the trumpet from the runner, he shot arrows of fire at him and burned with his camp. The lip of the fire of the hidden sign among the garments of wood, and the armor burned with its wearers, evil ones of the trumpet. The son of iniquity did not move the conflagration that occurred, and he opened and sent a great one of fifty that resembles the first. The runner ascended in the flames of the heart to the deceiver, and began to say, "Hasten quickly, for the king desires." And that his trumpet ascended to the great height of swiftness, and descended in shame to the lowly one as before. He fled in its pit, heavy of heart, and sank into the earth. And he opened and sent a great one of fifty, three times. The lowly one saw the armor of the trumpet, subduing his companions, and he put on the armor of humility that is not condemned. The lowly one ascended and ran so that he might please humbly, that my face might be honored and not strike me with the sin by which I came. And that he might not arm his face with the trumpet as before, he revealed a sign openly to the deceiver, "Descend, go with him." Elijah put on the hidden armor of swiftness, and descended and killed him with the sound of his words, the son of the murderer. Thus spoke the one who angered them, the vain one of God: "The bed upon which you ascended, you shall not again descend and see life.

He cut off his hope from the beast with the sword of the spirit, and sealed his words by the deeds in the house of Ahab. He completed and finished the great height of wickedness, and the ship of his proclamation sank in the midst of the flood. The hidden one hinted to him through one of his spiritual revelations: "Come, flee to the island in the midst of life, above death. Come, delight in the mystery of renewal that does not die, and abide in life in the new order of the high kingdom. Come, enter and see, as in a mystery, that kingdom which you have made known through your words to the people and the nations." Before the deeds, I will show you the sign of life. Prepare my will for the spiritual and the corporeal. In the new life without end, I am destined to keep watch and to heal while being changed spiritually. In you I give the sign of the flood to the race of healing. Your life will be like a guide to immortality. In you I will pledge your entire race that lives with you, and with your proclamation I will seal the confession of my words. In you I will tread the path to life without end, so that death may not cut off the meaning of the measure of your life. In you I will increase good hope for the hopeless, so that they may not be torn from the trust of their free ones. I will show in you that I do not despise the dust of Adam, for behold, its worth has returned to insignificance through your glory.

Elias heard that a sign was being shown to him in life, and he sought to conceal his remaining life from the people, from silence. The captain of this ship considered his humility, that the wicked nature should not boast in his own likeness. He saw with his hand the whole of his will, that which he had seen, and he revealed the secret of the remaining life to the thought of the people. It was also fitting that the cause of his life should not be concealed, for what is manifest is again established in the future. In this, the Creator revealed his deed to the discourse of his servant, that the people might be bound in the love of life without end. Elias also, not like one envious of his remaining life, desired to conceal his life from the thought of the discourse. The captain considered whether the way of life might be a cause of pride, even a hindrance to those after him. He abandoned the way and mounted the cause to his disciple, that God had sent him on the way of the threshing-floor between them and him. He showed the sign of his life to the thought of the people, and before all he revealed to Elisha as a true one. "Lord, live, and life is your remnant," he said to Elias, that your great love may not cease until the end. To the house of El he said, "The Lord sent me mysteriously to a place worthy that the name of God might be concealed in it." The hidden sign revealed to the prophets the cause of his way, and they went out to his way, that they might be purified by the spirit of revelation.

Elias saw that a sign was being shown to him in life, and he sought to conceal his remaining life from the people, from silence. The captain of this ship considered his humility, that the wicked nature should not boast. The seers of the future came to his disciple, who knows that today the Lord will take your master. And he said, "Be silent from this." Also to Jericho he gave a reason to his disciple, and he cut off his reason in the name of God and the life of his soul. The prophets also went forth there in spirit to the way of the tree, while being occupied with his discourse from the side of the fire. You know that today the Lord will take your master. The prophets asked Elisha, and he said, "Be silent." He saw the wonder-worker that his spirit revealed to him the secret of his discourse, and he gave a reason to his disciple three times. My Lord, send me to the Jordan, that I may go and return. And the warm heart was not healed by the reasons. His spirit rejoiced in him that he went out and saw the great river, while the dust of Adam was scattered from the spirits. Elias went on a new way outside of fire, and he struck the waters and the silent nature fled from before him. He lifted his cloak and struck the river, and its two sides were split, and the wild beasts were not hindered before his word. The silent nature of power from the sign that he concealed in the cloak, and it fled from its course and kept the order without delay. Elias crossed with his disciple as on dry land, and the river returned as before to the course of its way.

The great teacher stood up to interpret for his disciple and explained to him the mystery that was hidden by means of causes. "What do you wish?" he asked, and gave you the wealth of the spirit, until it is directed to where the sign commands me to go. The disciple asked the teacher, the ascetic, the zealous, the abstinent, to go and offer by means of his help against the erring ones. The teacher, seeing that he had asked much and beyond the order, stopped him from this until he was silent and still gave to him. Not grudgingly did he withhold the gift from his disciple; that disciple had asked much and set an order. "If you see that the sign speaks to me from you, take the gift as you asked, and the honor of his rank." It was not a dispute about his story that his thought approved, but a fear that perhaps his remaining might stand a little. "If a hidden command leads me beyond the sign, let the power of the spirit be with you according to your will." The teacher entrusted to his disciple the admonition of his words, and brought the pains of the heavens that were hidden in their mystery. They showed the order of the chariots of fire that were of burning coals, and the chariot that was bound in the wheels of fire. Wheels of fire were seen beneath the chariot, and wings of fire were fixed, the chariots like birds. It was not fire that was that chariot which was seen, nor were the fixed chariots sensations or riders.

It was a vision and not a body that was being shown. A vision of a chariot and the form of riders without mounts. Spiritual beings showed riders as is their custom, and to the height of the son of the inhabitants they made ready a chariot. A hidden sign hastened Elijah toward the action of the terrible ones; he showed a vision of the height of fire. Spiritual beings performed a great mystery for the earthly ones, that base nature is elevated toward the height. By means of a chariot they depicted the triumph of the earth of Adam, which a sign indicates to the end through a type. In a single moment, without being swallowed by death, he performed for us the mystery of new life without end. Through Elijah the Creator revealed to mortality that hope stands for the poor hope at the end of sacrifices. He made his ascent with one of the spiritual beings in a great vision, so that he might show us concerning our ascent toward the height. Also the chariot that was exalting the son of the inhabitants was showing him the sign of his running toward the face of the height. He was a charioteer like a thought, above the spirit, and he held flesh on the rungs of the chariot and did not stumble. O charioteer who mounted the spirit and commanded the chariot, O flesh that was not shaken in the flame. O weighty one who bent the wings of flight, O mortal one in whom the hand of death did not strike.

He placed the sign by means of the spiritual beings above the chariots, and his dust remained like a cloud toward his disciple. In the place of his body he gave him a sign of something that he asked, that he might receive the rank in a twofold manner, openly and hiddenly. He mounted on the flesh above the spirit and flew through the air, and the sign completed the end of his journey toward the place that he knew. He knew the son of the inhabitants, not the heavens, and on the earth the sign preserved him in life, not in the firmament. For his feet of flesh did not tread the path of height, nor did that entrance open to mortality. He alone of mortals ascended to the heavens. He who dwelt in him opened the firmament over him who ministered in the holy of holies in place of his mortals. He who ascended with the will that descended toward him, and he was exalted above all that surrenders everything. By his own word, which is not to be dissolved, he measured the word of him who has no man who ascended from mortals except him. The sign led the son of the inhabitants to the face of height, and when he was exalted, he placed him after a time in a fitting place. There the sign preserved him with his fellow, the brother of the one who was established, that there they might be for the son apart from pain in the mystery of the kingdom. In that hour he showed you the sign of the messenger to our fellow, and in their lives life ruled over mortality. The reins of love took hold of the messenger of man, and as they were in the place of life, our hope is true.

The secrets of the soul and the passion of the body he confessed to him, and he passed over like clouds in the letter of the living. He placed his hand on the testaments of the renewal of the bodily, by which their members are preserved without corruption. He divided the sacrifice of the dwelling of the sacrifice for the feasts, that he might sow the hope of the life of the dead in all generations. He darkened your countenance with ten generations that destroyed the order, and he taught him by his discourse from his wrath. In the midst of the generations of the son of Elijah he preserved him in life, and in his exaltation he revealed the glory of the immortals. At the end of the sacrifices he took one of them as a beginning, and by his offering he shepherded all with his greatness. Not like servants he preserved him in life for the son of man, of servants on earth, while he like a lord above in heaven. Your countenance and Elijah on earth are preserved in the place of their eternity, and he in heaven rules over all with his elder. Within paradise he settled Enoch for the good servants, instead of the fear of that place that is indestructible. Not vengeance did the faithful receive, the dwelling of their eternity, which preserves the reward of their crowns in the high kingdom. For before, that one who knows all saw in the help of the living, and preserved him in mystery for the coming of the wise for our sakes. He saw him and completed for him the confession of his words, that he might receive together the secrets of your body and the salvation of your soul.

Behold, I have shown you the cause of the pains, the way to life. Come, follow as in a mystery toward the end. Behold, I show you by the discourse of the two signs, which leads you to the union that is indestructible. Come, stretch out for you the vision of the pains and look upon his reception, and see each one by the intensity of their thoughts. Awake, who slumber in the gentle voice of their words, and pursue the weight of the subtleties from your thoughts. Fashion your thoughts from the clamor of evil, the rebellious, and behold yourself by the mirror of their conduct. Like mountains, each one is surrounded for the encampment of your body; do not be shaken, lest evil break your ranks. Always guide by their conduct toward the end, today and tomorrow, for behold, the end of your life draws near. By faith, conquer the glorious ones over the passions that are in them; by it, be strengthened in all the disturbances of body and soul. The key is the receiver of the fiery coals of the enemy, and the sword of fire does not cut it from its truth. By it, the thought of the two signs is chosen as a firstborn, and the boiling of the passions shows the filth of the rebellion of the soul. Let your soul's thought be gold in the furnace of its testing, and do not be shaken before the incisions of your evil nature. Look upon Jesus and also be likened in the intensity of your soul, so that he may be the head and also the fulfiller of your faith.

Instead of joy, the cross bore your causes. Persevere in the love of the faith of the king who counsels with him the mystery. Let your fast be for the Messiah, a victory for the liberation of your seals.