On Lent IV

On the Fourth Sunday of Lent The Twelfth Memra On the Fourth Sunday of Lent A Supplication Come, O mortals, and flee from iniquity; and love the life that is indestructible, my brothers. In a brief span of time, the course of painful suffering looses mortals, and in a short time it returns each one to the life of the world. The course runs in a single change that hastens it, and with the course, man becomes like a shadow. The world resembles a dream in its running and its changes, and in the likeness of a vapor it displays the life of mortals. Vapor is man, and vain are the lives of the course, and the course bears witness, and the change of the lives of vapor is death. Course passes to course, and they hasten like travelers, and course gives place to course without confusion. Generation delivers to generation, giving the foundation of life, and death runs like a herald before every generation. The course proceeds without delay, and generation with it, and the deaf one cries out to the speaker not to tarry. The course in its running covers at every hour the faculty of speech. Why are the limbs of the useless one shaken? Like a speaker, the deaf one cries out to the separators: "Behold, they have been consumed in the change of course and the end of lives." Where is the course whose running endures without change? And when have men persisted in the life that has no end?

The course of the whole sun is unchangeable, and the course of the seasons is cast into death that cannot approach it. He gives silver and pearls and buys life, and he conceals his body in hiding from illness. Where is the king who preserved his life from afflictions? And when he died, did his crown endure and not perish? There is no mortal whose name is "man" who is not mortal, and there is no dust that is not with its fellow, for his sorrows are mixed. And if he is mortal, and the garments of pains clothe his thought, how does the scattered dust boast of the life of purchase? Behold, his destruction cries out in a voice over his ruin, that man is dust, and his fellow turns to dust again. Like a hireling, he dwells in the land of dust, and in the likeness of a passer-by, he covers death as if for evening. By birth, he is hired like a morning laborer in the work of the earth, and when evening comes, death releases him as if at the sixth hour. Nothing remains that is not destroyed with his ruin, and he himself with his own turns always towards scattering. Why does the mortal boast of what is not his own, since he does not leave behind what is his, nor is what is his his own? He exchanges his purchase for his life, and sees and ceases, and death takes him to Sheol, and his own becomes silent. Do not rejoice, then, over possessions like one who possesses, for behold, you are separated from what is yours, and what is yours from you.

Call your children and stand, go in the time of your death, and see if there is one who opens his mouth and persuades death. Gather your servants and clothe, go, the armor of his strength, and shoot arrows at the ranks of death that cannot be conquered. Arm also the limbs of your soul and descend to the arena, and take up the contest with illness and wrestle and throw it down. And if the strength of your members is weakened by the fever, refine silver and give an offering and deliver your soul. The rich man does not have these remedies, and death is not hindered by bribery from taking you by the face. And if you wish, be sorrowful like a mourner, and bring lamentations into the furnace of your soul and see the sorrows. Look steadfastly at the simple garment of mourning, and see that the dwelling of your life is a vapor and beneath it is a sting. Your dwelling testifies to your wanderings, that it is not our own, for it changes us with one change to everything. Man does not know to rejoice in a short time, nor to be troubled over the covering of one whose dwelling is deficient. Do not oppress with your arrogance the bitter one of your soul, lest you be oppressed by the decree of the one who knows his furnace. Do not strive enviously after one who has ascended, lest you be submerged with the rich man in the abyss of Sheol. Remember his abandonment and his festivals in Gehenna, how many he persuaded and his words became superfluous.

Do not rejoice alone, as if you were separate, lest you be cut off from the fellowship of the blessed ranks. Do not meet with earthly affairs outside the order, lest the twisted cords of the unmeasured be spun for you. Open for yourself a measure that suits the life of the sacrifice, and give the excess to the one who is lacking from the measure. Not your own is the wealth you have acquired, but your Lord's. Distribute yourself and your possessions like a master of the house. A master of the house you are not over all that you have acquired, and the account of your treasures you are destined to give to the Lord of the house. The Lord of the house is God, who established all, and he entrusted the wealth of his goodness to the servant of his hands. He gives wealth to those who grow rich in earthly affairs, that they may choose to go in their own poverty if they are truthful. He also urges the measure of the sacrifice for those of Damascus, that they may go in poverty like the firstborn. He was able to give wealth to everyone as to one, but this was not possible for speech. For he knew before he established all that he would give as he did, and he held a fitting measure for the distribution that wears out sufferings. To one he gave wealth that his nature might go in its own poverty, and to one he made poor that in need he might seek his life.

Do not be one who is ignorant, going about as if you do not know, but know the power of the curses that are placed in the words. By more and less, the desire to examine the wealth of the soul, how exalted is its separation from the animals. To the animals, great wealth and poverty are equal, and it is neither increased nor completed by more or less. The soul of a human is a treasury of treasures of separation, and it is sovereign to rejoice in much and to be grieved in little. In the treasury of its nature, it places its wisdoms, setting a limit, so that according to its choices it distributes the treasure that it holds in its hands. It is manifest that to the choices it gives both, that they may be witnesses in judgment to the clothing of your soul. You have nothing, O rich one, a response of words, nor can you prevail when you are pursued because you have perverted. Not because you have hated, do you bring a lawsuit against your people, bringing a lawsuit against all, but because you have been hidden from the companions and have hated the human. Because the human gives wealth, that which enriches all, and you have concealed it and hidden the human from their life. By the measure of the sacrifice, the life of the sons of man is hung, and where the life of a human ceases, that human kills a human. But do not weep over the rich one hidden from the companions, who becomes a companion in the evil of his nature to kill a human.

There is nothing greater than a human being in everything that happens. There is nothing worse than a human being who harms a human being. Why, O my wealthy soul, do you act like one who is clothed? And you became a helper to a human being who is the image of the Creator. Why did you become angry at the helper of a human being, the helper of a human being, and make yourself hidden from mercy in an evil likeness? Flee from the summit of the error of sin, a barren mountain, and dwell in the land of humility, whose service is pleasant. Restrain yourself with the suffering of a human being, the lovers of the helper, and subdue your inclination with the pleasant yoke of humility. Sow your righteousnesses in the land of a human being that cannot be defiled, and gather the fruit of hope that conceals life in its consumption. Give to the needy and descend to the depths, and comfort the orphan, and brighten your face, and do not be angry with yourself when you give. See that you do not give when you are sad, and your heart is distressed, lest you hear that daughter of a voice that is against Cain. Even he, the master of the sacrifice, the helper who was like him, and when he saw him, the heart of the one who was sad and gloomy forgot and cast him aside. Do not sow the seed of your righteousnesses in the cutting off of hope, lest the fruits of your labors be defiled by the reward. There is no reward for fruits that come from sadness, and the sacrifices of the helper are not accepted before the one who sees all.

Two losses stand before one who gives and becomes angry: he loses what is his and imprisons himself under authority. By a known and sealed gift he litigates against himself through his own gift, and it is not known when he gives and when he loses. He gives and oppresses that giver who gives to him and to all, and it is not known that he himself, by his own means, makes his life evil. For God is the one who, as much as he wills, enriches kings and paupers, and from his gift both man and the heavens grow rich. It is fitting that he give what is his in pure love, so that he not be litigated against by the poverty of our own, as if it were our own. And if wealth, life, and the reward of recompense are his, why does the scattered dust in which gold is placed boast? Paul restrains: let not everything that is done boast; and if it boasts, let it boast in the Lord alone, and its thought is raised. Against the doer, cut off every thing that stands, apart from the iniquity of our own, which is, and with which it is used. For our nature is the iniquity of our self, and not of another; and when it is good, that iniquity is when it wishes to justify its iniquity. He himself bears witness to the authority of his separation, that by his will he conquers and loses among those that stand. Come, O mortals, order the course of your will, for it has been revealed that your will is what rules over all. Against the will of his self, let everyone who is healed work, and by his choice look upon his standing and cut off his iniquity.

His nature becomes like a judge over all his actions, and into his choices enter iniquity and righteousness. Guilt condemns everyone who is rational to know these things, and if he does not repay his nature, he diminishes his injustice. It is not known that the power of the wisdoms that are hidden in him has gone forth, and he produces a thought without understanding concerning his creator. Do not be exalted when wealth and power are abundant for you, and do not be troubled when your life is disturbed and your body is weak. Do not be arrogant at the greatness of the rank of authority, and do not be diminished to be subject to a true order. Whoever commands, let him soften his words with a gentle speech, and whoever keeps watch, let him repay kindness like a guilty one. Whoever is a head, let him be a head in his deeds, in the likeness of a head by which the whole body is purified. Whoever is obedient in the place of his feet, let him always go towards the commanders in the likeness of feet. Whoever is discerning of the nature of his soul to distinguish well, let him show the way to those who are in darkness from understanding. Whoever has a light ear to hear the truth, let him raise his voice like a trumpet in the hands of the deaf. Whoever has a sharp sword of his word to kill iniquity, let him destroy the ranks of the adversary by his words. Whoever is wise and knows the order of the word of life, let him give taste to those who are hungry from necessity.

The one whose debt is true, his self in faith, and the spiritual food nourishes the youth of man. The one who is strong from the seals of the steps, and the limbs of his virtues are fashioned from the foundations. The one who is holy from the filth of the desire of the flesh, and his words grow in the form of dew upon sinners. The one who is weary in the true meditation of the spiritual things, and renews his companions in the good hearing of the service of life. The one who has learned and desires to teach his disciple, and anoints his words according to the thoughts and teaches correctly. The master says to his disciple: "Look at me and learn," and the disciple also looks at the face of the words of his master. The master is not disturbed in his authority over his disciple, nor does the disciple despise the master who makes him wise. The master becomes in the place of an eye for the senses of the body, and the senses follow after the eye towards teaching. He fills the order of the word of the mouth towards the limbs, and the limbs also obey his voice without satiety. In the order of the body, he binds the bond of one to his companion, as the body is bound by the senses and is one whole. One is the body and is not divided by the distinction of the senses, and when many, they are equal in unity that is not to be rejected. One is Christ, the head of the Church, a pure body, and in one wondrous bond, the bodies of the anointed are held.

The limbs are distinct and equal in their forms, as they are seen. How the hidden movements are directed toward the hidden vessels. The feet are distinct in their actions, one toward its companion, and the course of their labors is equal toward one body. There is no limb that envies its companion in its excellence, nor have they become weary and overcome the food of their strivings. In the order of the senses, they look at one another like dividers, and like limbs, each one resembles the other in its actions. The mind binds the heart, its voice, to the one who is weak, and it heals its pain with the medicine of hope that is not to be shaken. It restrains the soul that is despised from being despised, and loves silence, and it quenches the anger of the wrathful. The wise one is for the deficient one, to know the truth, and the excellent one is for the labors, watchful for the lazy ones, for the work of life. He stands firm in the foundations and spreads his wealth wisely, and the deficient one hides his treasures, guarding himself from error. The limbs are strong, he does not cast his desire toward the one who is strong, and he establishes the body, not to be healed by division. He wonders at the sight, not to be deceived by the flattering face, and he strives for the vision, not to be troubled by what is thus. He is skilled in the discourse, he orders your words without boasting, and he restrains the word, stop your tongue from blasphemy. The movements are sharp, see that you do not strive after the hidden vessels, and be hasty, do not be drawn toward instruction.

Love of money: do not be wearied to take what is another's, lest your honor be lost, the two lips of the spirit. Love of glory: do not fashion your labors for the sake of the spectators, lest you be implicated in that daughter of the voice which is separate. Be abstinent from wine: see that you do not mix anger with your drink, lest you become drunk with the drink of wrath and your mind go astray. Be a fast: restrain your thought from the meals, lest you be ensnared by the hunger of the table and by gluttony. Be diligent in prayer: pray in secret as you were commanded, lest vain glory nullify the labors of your soul. Be modest in your appearance: do not gaze at the beauty of faces, lest you be entangled in the snares of the lust of the flesh. In a hollow, a meal: the honored ones fell from their ranks, and the mighty ones showed from the wounds of the encounter of faces. The hollow of the eyes: it laid low Shamshon the mighty man of strength, and the beauty of faces it cast down David the vigilant of mind. And if mighty ones and chiefs of mind fell in the sight, how much more will the gaze of his eyes not guard from stumbling? The eye is a loose thing and a vessel of blows, hidden in its depth, and if it is opened, it inflames the body and kindles the soul. Hold the stone as a door of your eyes and guard your pupils, lest the treasure of chastity be plundered by vigilance. Do not gaze at the beauty of faces in the fullness of desire, lest you become drunk in the sight in the dissolution of height.

Also, show the covering of your face in humility and asceticism, lest you be caught by the snares of your companions, the foolish one. Order the course of your nature and your passions, lest the pursuers stumble on the path because of your footprints. Look steadfastly and seize yourself with truthfulness, lest you remain outside the door with the fools. Prepare oil and go forth into the assembly of the wise, lest your knowledge extinguish your love and you become a laughingstock. Do not be adorned with the beauty of outward faces, lest the weavers of beauty in the beauty of the soul be disturbed by you. Restrain your ways and your passions from the foolish ones, lest the stone of the stumbling-block of the deceiver in the market strike you. Look and be vigilant over the snare of your footprints and the beauty of your face, and by you the senses and movements are caught like a bird. The snare, come, all of you who are hidden in the earth before the ways, and no one knows where it falls in your midst. With twisted knots, the nets of your stages are woven, and it is very difficult to escape from your traps. You resemble the dancer who summons death to the members of his body, and with his limbs kills his companions, and he himself also dies. In the likeness of the dancer, you lower your vision to the ground before you, and with your disturbances you hunt the young like partridges.

Death, the chaste one, is bound in the snare of your evil nature, and it calls out to man for destruction as if to a demon. The speech of your mouth before the simple ones resembles a gathering. And when they are provoked to eat from it, they die in sin. There is no hunter more skilled than you at hunting man, and there is no fowler who calls out as beautifully as your disturbances. Your traps are many for the hunting of man, and no man knows how to escape the snares of your tricks. Your nature is wise at reading from the books of the slayer of man, and it has broken your heart to be exercised in the wisdom of truth. You have been a skilled master from the beginning, and through his writings you have read, exercised, sinned, and caused sin. Keep away from the thought of the scribe who teaches filth with a full mouth, and come, be exercised in the books of the spirit that bring life. Do not resemble Eve, your mother, who heard her counsel, ate the fruit, and bore death to the house of Adam. Behold, again you will err from the inheritance of death through your tricks. When you have killed through the food of the fruit of your mother's desire, do not die through the desires of the flesh like the fruit. Keep away, do not become a prey of iniquity before the spectators, for all the forms have been exposed in the nets of your face. Woe to you, you have become a helper in the vision of your face like your thoughts, for the blood of the young heart was shed from your help.

Woe to you, O desire of the face and the snares, for you have not been sated. The lovers of desire would have been silent from your evil nature. But rather, cast a bridle upon your eyes and your steps, and put your garment within the chamber like beasts. But rather, bind your evil inclination with a yoke at all times; the voice of the one who disturbs the peaceful silence of man would have ceased. But rather, place the seal of silence upon your tongue; the order of man would have remained from destruction. Blessed is the one who stops his ears and does not listen to your words, and becomes deaf to the evil nature of your vileness. Blessed is the one who, when he is with you, is not with you, and dwells with you but keeps himself from your wiles. Blessed is the one who does not err in your evil lineage of his words, and is not tossed about by the changes of your vileness. In your lineage I have turned away from the discipline of the path of words, for I have seen that the snares of your wiles are many and without number. Your lineage I have cut off from the evil nature that is with every man, for I have seen that the whole world is bound in the evil nature of your love. Not from wickedness have I eaten your insults as you supposed, and I have not reviled you, but rather your sinful and sin-causing inclination. Nor have I reviled that inclination of yours as if it were something clothed, but rather that when it is good, it becomes evil at all times, both it and its companions.

Woe to you, O desire of the face and the snares, for you have not been sated. The lovers of desire would have been silent from your evil nature. But rather, cast a bridle upon your eyes and your steps, and put your garments in order like the silent ones. And not only you, O pure one, do the tremors approach the sisters. The test of your chastity is equal to that of a man. And if it pleases you, your incorruptibility is not diminished by his labor. The nature of chastity is one for men and women, and the power and freedom of the soul is one that conquers and sins. It is not the order of women that makes one forget the hunt of the all-knowing, but rather the nature of wantonness that cannot be restrained. It is not the abundance of pure ones that causes a man to sin, but the snare of the contemptible that shames the youths. It is not the union of true partnerships that defiles, but the evil of the drunkard, the laughter of the lawless. The woman is pure when she is far from laughter, and the union with her people and the child of her mother is holy and pure. She is equal in labors and in recompense, she and her husband, and together they inherit the dwelling of the sacrifice and the kingdom of heaven. Here they are distinguished in their forms, one from the other, until there are no males and females of a single nature. And if one goes to a place pure from blemishes, a man does not distinguish anything that God has established as equal. The nature of men and women is one, and the Creator is one, and it is fitting that they serve one purpose in their actions. A man is not outside of a woman in faith, nor a woman outside of a man in the fear of truth.

The man shall fill the place of the head for the women, for the feet; and the woman shall walk in the order of the man for the feet below. Let the man be like a tongue, a harp of words, and the arm at all times sounds and voices in the hands of women. The voices of women, the sound of his words in faith, and the fruits of purity, hope, and love. Do not be troubled by the sounds of his mouth, that sower, and do not let hearing be established upon the seed of the word of life. Sow, O man, the word of life in the hands of women, and come, O women, receive and hear the testimony of men. The debt of love obligates you, one side of companions; repay one another and to the Creator, one that is fitting. Pure love is able to repay the debt of the man, and he makes mercy for the hidden and the spiritual. Love, O men, one confession of one Creator, and love, O women, one equality of one God. Confess well that the nature which is fitting for the fashioner of your being is one substance and one authority, three hypostases. Confess that He is a common nature that is not divided, and He is something, a nature that is without beginning. Confess that He is Father and Son and Spirit from Him, one begetter and one begotten and one emanator.

Praise the Father who has no beginning, and believe in the Son who has no time when he was not a Son, and a sacrifice is not offered for him to his Father. Praise and add the Spirit, who is one in being, and not less or smaller than the authority of the Father and the Son. Call the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit truly a nature that is equal and not divided by change. God does not change at all from what he is, and the nature of his being is not circumscribed within a limit. There is no eye that can see him, a visible form in external senses, nor does a perceptible sound arise like that of bodies. He is entirely existent, and entirely hidden, and entirely equal. And he is entirely perfect in his divinity and his activity. His sign establishes heaven and earth and everything that is in them, and from nothing creates everything that is hidden and revealed. The sacrifice determines the work of his hands as it pleases him, and when he wills, he brings to light the hiddenness of his love. For by his love everything exists, and not by his nature, and to his ordinances he shows his power, and not his being. He establishes everything from nothing by the power of his will, and he renews everything at the completion of sacrifices, forming his image. His is the being, the first from nothing, and also the renewal of the one being that is his. In the beginning he established from nothing as a creator, and now he renews the work of his hands as a wise one.

Praise the whole and renew the whole wisely, as is fitting for the power of his essence, which is hidden from all. In the image of man, he completed his work at the beginning of creation, and in man he renewed and gave life at the end of the sacrifices. In the form of man, he gathered everything as in a house, and in the image of man, he stored his will as in a treasury. In man, he bound the whole power of his creative power, and in man, he renews all and judges all. In his image, he established the image of man when he praised all, and through him, he is revealed as in an image when he judges all. To the image of man, men and spiritual beings look, that he might make a covenant and choose evil, and reject and choose. In the temple of his body, all worship the God of all, and in his revelation, all see the one hidden from all. Through the external senses, they see the visible body, and through the gestures, the invisible divinity. Through his body, he answers their questions as in a mirror, and the hidden request of the one hidden within him is not frustrated. Through his love, earthly and heavenly ones are stirred, and a single confession praises in him the one Creator. Come, approach the temple of his body with faith, and offer in it sacrifices of love that follow his love. Come, be sealed in him as in a divine treasury, and praise in him divinely the God of all.

Come, see in him the hidden from all in faith, and believe in him in the revealed and the hidden, here and there. In faith, the mind is able to know these things, and she reveals to him the hidden mysteries of the secrets. In her hand, he sees the distant as near, and they are certain to him as if they were in his hands through actions. In her hidden treasury is stored the life of the future things, and from her spiritual and corporeal beings are enriched. Like a ship that is cast into the sea of sufferings, that it may not be wrecked among the breakers of the waves. Come, bind with her the ship of your self as with a cable, and preserve love among the troubled billows of the waves. Come, sail with her like a pilot who knows the way, and bring her to the completion of the high kingdom. Come, see in her the image of your self as in a mirror, and reject evil and choose love, the friend of truth. Come, reveal to her the blemishes of your bodies and your members, and with her remedies heal your pains, both internal and external. She is a good physician who knows the cures of the sick, and there is no remedy that is not in her treasury, purifying and sustaining. She knows how to heal the Athenians and the Damascenes, and upon her help the needy and the wicked depend. Come, O rich man, reveal to her the pains of your oppression, and give alms and take for yourself the medicine that heals your evil.

Come, O poor one, take hold of the staff with the power of her help, and labor with her without interruption in the monastery of life. Come, O righteous one, place the foundations in the hollows of her love, and cast the seal of her truth upon your thought. Come, O sinner, write and offer to her the confession of your mind, and set down the burden of pain and tears, and receive forgiveness. Come, O contemptible one, bend yourself in her humility, and put on the garment of holiness upon your limbs. Come, O proud one, cease from error and walk in her way, and hope for her hope, that she may give you a writ of your debts. Come, O strong one, sanctify your body with her holiness, and sprinkle upon all of you the life-giving waters of the mystery of forgiveness. Come, O humble one, pursue the company of her humility, and delight with her in the feast of joy without end. Show, O virgin, that you have become wise through faith, and beware of the danger of guarding yourself from your enemy. As a spectacle, establish her purity before your mind, and wipe away the stain upon your thoughts with the beauty of her comeliness. Remove the covering of ignorance, the fruit that is external, and bind yourself with the fitting garment of your purity. Put on asceticism, clothe it upon your body and upon your mind, and become a spectacle of light for the eyes of the world.

Come, O poor one, fix your dwelling before your fathers, and look and be examined by the gentle and true measure and the just and chosen dwelling that is prepared for good and evil, and which without end receives every man to the place that is fitting. Without end, the good rejoice and the evil weep, and at the end of labors, delight is hidden and the cord is woven. Come, trade while there is time, and seek to trade, lest the time of end come and your labor be lost. Come, gain mercy here at the altar of time, that your petitions may be received under its unceasing shadows. With love, perform your deeds and your works, for love can make divine man. Grieve wisely with your thoughts over those who have sinned, and cover your formation, which stands for his resurrection like a divider. Every man is formed by the formation of his own self, that daughter of the voice, for she is the life, the word of God, all and every one in his own testing. Interpret the formation with the tongue concerning the future, and explain to him the mysteries hidden in the upper place. Show the vision to the eyes of the body, the fitting weight, that delight which is insatiable in its sweetness. By the vision, see him and cleave to him with the love of self, that in the end you may receive his wealth face to face. A hymn. Glory to you, O one who forgives sins: Alpha upon Alpha, my times.