On the Canaanite Woman

On the Canaanite Woman Memra of the Third Sunday of the Canaanite Woman The serpent, blessed of his poison, cast his net from the abyss Through the son of Gehazi, who is victorious and conquers. My brothers, The abyss of fire kindled a flame against man wickedly, And destroyed the image that was to be depicted in the name of being. He slew man, drunk with envy, against man, And inflamed the fire with the bitter venom of his bitterness. The error of wrath clothed the rebel against man, Who, because of a stumbling, rent the dust in the name of being. He slew man, drunk with envy, against man, And inflamed the fire with the bitter venom of his bitterness. The error of wrath clothed the rebel against man, Who, because of a stumbling, called the dust in the name of being. With the weapon of all, he armed his soul to destroy the fire, And with the wounds he hid his sword to devour their blood. In all forms he prepared his soul for the contest, To complete the work of his bitterness through their deaths. He mounted frail horses upon them against their lives, And deepened and buried the snares of death that would kill the fire. The net of iniquity he cast his thoughts artfully, That it might suffice to take the prey of man into its bosom. On sea and land he spread his thoughts in the likeness of nets, And caught all peoples and made them food for death. He fought with their lives while they were unaware, And sent them like spies and caught their companions. Through their hands he brought them near to their ranks and destroyed the fire, And through the swords of their own arms he consumed the fire. He cast the terror of his confusion into their thoughts, And incited them to fight one another.

They destroyed one another like wild beasts and were not sated, and they consumed the bodies of their limbs as if they were not fire. He taught them the craft of the bitterness of his poison, and he made them wise, so that they might be like him in the cunning of his curse. A book of deceit he wrote on the page of their thoughts, which they read wickedly according to his will. He saw that they were eager to be guided by his writings, and he removed himself from them, that he might complete his teaching without toil. He began to hunt them and dwelt with them and was with them, and when his love was good, he deceived them and overturned them. It was not through love that he loved the business of the earth-dwellers, but because of the disturbance of the demon that was in them through their business. In the guise of love he armed them from the side of truth, and with threats he hid them in the error of his words. Demons were stripped and prostrated themselves, one in fire and fire in demons, and the world passed through sea and dry land in the likeness of a drunkard. The creator saw that his disturbance was evil for the demon of fire, and he sent his sign that fire might heal the demon of his name. He sent his sign by a bodily messenger, that through it the word of the demon might be interpreted with fire. On the paper of the body he wrote the desire of his love, that bodily ones might see the hidden in the revealed. With the visible members he sealed his desire, and came to them to teach them that they might be healed from him. He mounted the body on writings like a letter, and cast the hand of the power of his concealment and stamped it with his name. He taught the body that in it he might read the mystery of the hidden things: and it would interpret his letters, the interpretation of mysteries.

Like a commander, he sent his army against the evil one, and by his victory he took his body, a herald of his sins. The divine will went forth with the body, and he raised his hidden voice openly, and the demons trembled. The rebellious ones heard a new voice crying out in the body, and they were shaken and confounded by the novelty of a voice not customary. The power of essence became in the creature through the mouth of the dying, and the ranks of the evil hosts trembled, and death was troubled. The sound of the name of Jesus struck the earth like thunder, and the demons wailed, for they could not endure the greatness of his voice. By voice alone he stirred up the inhabitants of the air, and they began to flee from their dwellings unwillingly. The sound of his name was heard within the head of their ranks, and trembling seized him, and he wailed and wept bitterly. The fragrance of the name of Jesus went forth to all places, and peoples and cities were gathered to hear his word. The hidden sign gathered the nations to his love, that they might come and worship their shepherds in the name of his name. They heard that by his word he pursues demons and heals pains, and they desired from every place to receive medicine for their wounds. The woman whose daughter a demon inhabited went forth to ask from him the medicine of the spirit for the pain of the demon. Her thoughts journeyed with her limbs after Jesus, and her movements and senses began to cleave to the name of his name. How then did he teach the daughter of the Canaanite woman, the servant of servants, to go forth and ask for freedom of the soul from the son of Abraham? He revealed to the Canaanite woman, the daughter of the cursed Ham, that the son of Shem could loose the nature bound to pain.

He loosed the bonds of the demon-worshippers whom the demons had defiled, and by the voice of Jesus the demons are scattered from their dwellings. He wrote for her a new book of the name of the Creator, for the salvation of the soul that was bound in the snares of the demons, the ancient enemies of truth. He showed her the way to the gate of the judge, that she might enter the path of faith in one God. A hidden sign he gave her in the air mysteriously, that the service of idolatry might cease, and she might believe and live. She girded herself with faith as with a weapon, to go forth and do battle with the rebel who had seized her daughter. With faith, hope, and love she armed herself, and as with a sword she cut off the evil one with the word of her mouth. Faith clothed her mind like a breastplate, and she bound hope like a helmet upon the head of her thoughts. The garment of love she wove with her thoughts and her limbs, and she ascended step by step the high ladder of the pure. With a hidden weapon she armed herself spiritually, that she might find the hidden war of the evil powers. She knew that the hidden measure of the contest with her was great, and she prepared the spiritual weapon for the sake of her hiddenness. In secret faith conquered within her mind, and she gained strength to do battle with the enemy. With faith her limbs were girded after her desire, and they raised the voice of her senses and her members to ask for mercy. Mouth and breath together in a gentle voice, and they broke the impudence of faith that cannot be conquered. Like a trumpet, the mind cried out in the outer senses, and the mouth opened upon the hiddenness of the pains within.

He became a scribe for her, a mouth for the limbs before the judge, and the magicians interpreted in place of the words, the sounds of the afflicted. The daughter of the cursed one cried out before the son of the wretched one, saying, "Have mercy, son of David, and free my servitude from the Sabbath." The son of Abraham showed love to his daughter-in-law, and redeemed her life from the service of evil work. The father of his father cursed his fathers from the hidden mouth, and the hard stone became a wall that eats away. He cursed the father who plundered and destroyed wantonly, and blessed the father who honored and loved wisely. As with a rod, the righteous one drove him from the heart, and behold, he stretched a sinew over his parent until now. When the wantonness of the father was swallowed up in the sinews of the father, they became servants to the servant who rebelled against the worker. When the tyrant of iniquity enslaved the freedom of the soul, he destroyed the peaceful one over the foundation of the living fire. And if servitude condemns the seed of Ham the wanton, they become servants to the son of Shem the wretched, and not to the tyrant. Also the wretched one thus interpreted in his poverty, that for Shem he served the wretched one in servitude as to a lord. For you, then, the debt of love is due as to a debtor, for from that seed you are who is marked in it with the freedoms of fire. Son of David, you are, and son of Abraham, son of Shem, son of Noah; free your servants from the sorcerer, and they will be yours. The confession of life I have heard, that David your father received; seal his words by deed, as he did. To the messenger of fire, send a divine sign; complete the coming in deed, show it to the half.

She heard that he had gone out into the land and the rebels had cried out, and she went out to see the manifest truth through the physician. In the name of his authority she heard that the demons were pursuing men, and she came to take the gospel of heaven and bring it to the demons. The pursuing demon came upon her and hid itself in the person of her daughter, and it hastened in the pit to cut short her life from the beast. Without delay it consumed her body and made her soul vanish, and by his commands it does not allow her to know her own life. Send your sign quickly like a messenger, and restrain the demon before it hastens to shed blood. Give me the seal of the name of his authority and show it to him, and behold she is amazed like a woman whose children have been taken from her. Write a letter and cast it, the power of his help, and if he sees her again he will not transgress his commands. With a broken voice she was entreating, the daughter of the Canaanite, and he knew everything and was astonished at her as if he did not hear. With the boldness of her voice the disciples were amazed at how much she asked, and they approached and persuaded the physician who had settled her with the power of his help. He gave her the medicine of the word of his mouth as if from a midwife, and she went to heal the pain of the demon that raged in her daughter. The great physician spoke to his disciples wisely, that he had not been sent except to heal the sons of Jacob. The sheep of the God of Israel went out to seek that they might enter the stream of the life of the name of the Creator. For it is not fitting to give the bread of free men to Canaanite dogs, beasts that have not had their fill of injustice. The daughter of Ham heard that the dog, the master of the house, had called her, and she conceived hope that she too might live in the order of the dogs.

She saw the Canaanite woman looking at the master of the sheep, whose lambs were scattered, and she desired to enter the fold of his sweet words. She saw that even the dogs were eating the flock like heirs, and wisely she sought a remedy from the master of the house. She said to him, "I am here," and the good master spoke well: "I have a dog, but it is not fitting that I call it an heir." She said, "What is mine is the freedom of the soul of free men, and what is mine is also the sin of the dogs of the demon." "Give a remedy to free men as is fitting, and remove the dogs from the couches of their tables." "Give me that I may live by the order of the dogs with their help, as long as the magi cast down the living with the dead." "Give me that I may be equal to the small portion of their gifts, for there is no deed that is not from the treasury of the living love." "Give me that I may take with the silent the course of my life, and live by grace like all creatures that move at their sign." O wisdom of the father, the heart that errs in error, and learns and teaches how to interpret wisely. O knowledge that bends the ear to sin, and instead of shame speaks truth before the omniscient. O thought that grows old in the land by the work of iniquity, that ascends the ladder of spiritual things that are not seen. Not newly did she see him and marvel at him as if she did not know, for her faith had seen him before she spoke. In her he looked, until the voice of prayer was composed, and her words were heard by him, and the fear of her elders. He was pleased that the pain of her daughter might be healed by the medicine of his sign, and it was revealed to him that the demon pursued with the power of his help.

She did not cease from her request, nor was she silent from her words, for the truth of his love desired to show itself to the ignorant. She did not abandon her hope, nor cast herself away from his flock, for the spark of the fire of her love was kindled to care for all. She did not, like a wall, stand over the matter and keep silent, but rather she sharpened her impudence to ask for mercy from the physician. With impudence she learned to be shameless for the sake of her help, and she was not deterred whether she received little or nothing. Through her confusion she drew goodness to the circumcised people, who were being glorified in the household of the name of the Creator. She seized the door of the face of the intellect of the mouth of the Lord, for behold, she stood before the sons of Abraham and the hairs of the pagans. With the hidden seed of their thoughts she was sown, and before its root could wither, it would bear fruit. It was revealed to her that if she cried out for her daughter, who was afflicted, she would cry out with him who would see her serving the demons. He knew the woman whose love was true, how she was rejected even if she cried out and did not cry out for her. By this sign, he did not refuse her hint lightly, that her truth might be revealed and the barrier of the bolts of the heart be broken. Her voice was pleasing to him, the words of his mouth from her voices, and he was silent that she might add and sing more voices of praise. Through her confusion he stirred the steadfast heart, that she might add and knock at the door of the mouth with the voice of her petition. Through her petition she drew near to the people and taught the nations to see the light of faith in the daughter of darkness. Through her petition she drew near to the people and taught the nations to see the light of faith in the daughter of darkness.

From the people of his land the demons were driving him, from the prayer. And his sides were gladdened by her light for the darkness. As if to kindle a fire, her mouth was the bellows of her soul. And he was entering into the sphere of the sun in its brightness. Like a herald, her voice was in the ears of all people: "Come, all who are afflicted, mount the voices and take help." The master of the house saw that she was eager to live and to give life, and he made her voice like a gentle one towards the reward. By the voice of her mouth he revealed the reward of the future: that thus he enriches the one who asks without ceasing. O great woman, how great is your faith! And the whole world is not able to comprehend your love. Great power your thought set against the evil one, and you are not hindered by the envious one who contends with you. Wise was your heart and small your formation for the contest, and no one knows how to take a generation greater than you. Subtle was your thought and swift were you to distinguish well, and there is no bird whose flight is light in the likeness of your movements. There is no athlete who knows how to take a generation in your likeness, and no bow that shoots an arrow like your zeal. For your love is zealous and does not slacken for his supplication; behold, the rewarder gives reward to the labors of your faith. You knocked and you struck at the door of divine mercies; behold, the opener opens the door to your voice: "Enter and be glad." For you brought your sign in the form of the dogs of a savage nature; behold, the hand stretches out the land of mercies towards your poverty. For you set your formation wisely and called the Lord; behold, the writer writes not in your ignorance in the name of the heirs.

Her steps and her sitting were to become a sign in the flock of sheep. Behold, I cast the seal of my lordship upon your pasture. Her faith and her declaration that my help suffices to pursue the demons. Behold, I placed by means of the deeds the truth of your soul. Behold, a star came, the power of help, hidden in words. And I stamped for him with a secret sign and gave to you. Go, show the demon the taste of the seal that is before me. And behold, he is bewildered and leaves his trembling and flees, trembling. Go, say to him that Jesus said, "Get out of my dwelling." And go, be scorched in the desert far from the fire. Go, examine for him his fall to overthrow the fire. For behold, the height of the request is hidden, the stone that seeks in the earth. Go, explain to him the power of the understanding of my heavy name. That the name of Jesus saves fire and overthrows serpents. Go, say to him, "Behold, a king has gone out after his own. A captive is released, and give thought to the one who honored him." Take for yourself the sackcloth that the divine hand cast, and go show him that the authority of the rebellious servant is loosed. And that the power of my words is true and not deceptive. Behold, words have clung to deeds until the distant ones. Behold, the demon has gone out before he saw the truth openly, and left his dwelling like a fugitive before the righteous. Go, be confirmed in the truth of my words by means of help, and take the demonstration of the greatness of the power of my perfect authority. Behold, I have given my will, apophasis, over his evil, and he begins to be shaken from his standing by means of a contest.

Behold, the good hearing that is contested, I say, for his rebelliousness, and a cry and a wail until his command reaches the cord of the army. Behold, the body that was worn out for him in his bitterness, and the garment that was spread for him in his affliction. The king from afar decreed a command against the rebel, and before him he cast the key of the writings. Until the messenger confirms to the king that he will cast his hand, the cunning one is worthy that his foam not be spread openly. How then did he teach the evil demon manifest truth, and while the walls of the house were distant, he condemned him? How did he roll the cunning one entirely onto the porch, and conceal himself from the confession that all men confess? How did he pursue the small wolf, destroyer of men, for behold, the son of David went out to hunt in the manner of his father? How did he show the cunning fox the path of the lion, and strengthen at the door that he not be confounded by the might of his voice? The sign of the army moved his heart and loosened his strength, and his coldness continued and he left off the tumult and loved the retreat. Weeping and lamentation filled his mouth as he went out, for he saw that the harsh exorcism that was sent to him was difficult. In the dwelling of men he was comforted by his songs, and when he saw that his expulsion was hastened and he ceased, that there was no remedy. He saw that the wilderness was arrayed, the servant was hot from his servitude, and he knew that the yoke of his labor was abolished by the dead. By the clapping of hands he learned the proof of the greatness of his youth, that if the daughter of the accursed one broke his yoke, how would he consider himself? The great tumult that seized the evil one in that deed, and the loosened jaw conquered his teeth, and the field of his pride was trampled.

Behold the wonder of the gate, for she also by force, and she held the arm with the righteous one and was not justified. A great cry she made, the daughter of Ham, with the rebel, and in the likeness of heroes she cast at him words of faith. O righteous one whose voice of the arrogant was silenced in him, when the voice of his limbs became in the midst of paradise. O warrior who sinned with the army that conquers him after him, and his loins, the hands that bound him, he ate with the food of the fruit. With the food of the fruit he loosed the serpent that heard his word, and he turned the fruit from her limbs and her head to the earth. With the juice of the fruit the guilty one laughed and condemned Adam, and after Adam he sinned and was scattered, for he was not victorious. With the grief of Eve his limbs sang of the mistress of death, and after Eve he heard the tidings of the abolition of death. After him he mounted joyful voices like a victor, and here he wailed lamentations like a guilty one. In severe pain he was stretched out when he heard that he gives every man blessedness to Mary the bearer of the stone who gave birth. He himself mourned for her as for the dead, for Mary mourned him when he fled from the daughter of the voice of the son of David. The voice of the woman he heard when the daughter of Jesus cried out, "O son of David, save the daughter of your house from the righteous one." Her voice was like a suppliant asking mercy for her daughter; it was better than the satanic measure of fire. With the voice of her lamentations the pains of Rome were amazed, and the assembly of demons was bitter and mourned outside the order. How much the name of Jesus was pressed upon the head of her tongue, the troubled demon was bitterly agitated.

How she was entreating with impudence for the help of the demon, how he was being stretched out in weeping over his fall. O the humbling of the voice of the powers to be insufficient for the demons, and their voice cried out, "The insufficient ones, men of trembling." O the subjugation of the one who was wearied in the service of error, who freed herself from the servitude of the harsh Lord. O the thirst of the demons who increased the dwelling of her soul, whose voice the temple of her daughter, which was about to collapse, made silent. O you, mother of mercy, how great is your love, that you put on armor against the evil one who seized your daughter. O you, woman, by the sacrifice of your faith, my shepherds, the king, and the faces of your captivity from the captor. O how you believed, and how you loved, and how you endured, and the violence of your soul was not relaxed from trust. O the just one, how he keeps the order of his imprisonment, that he may open and repay the debt that is owed to the just man. The nature of her cry to the Canaanite woman in the likeness of a strait, and great pain came upon the daughter of her wombs, whom the demon crushed. The small one saw her daughter in the strait of her entire being, and her spirit flew in the soul of her daughter and in her will. She considered her own pain as the pain of the daughter of her members, and she did not rest until she set a limit to the destruction. In great mourning she was seated as if over a corpse, as the rebel raised his voice in the temple of her daughter. Weeping and wailing filled her mouth at all times, she was hearing the disturbed voices of the groaning of the demon.

In severe torment she was stretched out night and day, when she saw the struggle of the body and the confusion of the soul. Her mouth did not cease from bitter wailings until the body of her daughter ceased and her limbs grew still. She did not cease the lament of the demons from her thoughts until she saw that the finger of the mistress of evil was dry. She did not remove the garment of mourning from her mind until she heard the daughter of the voice of the exorcist of demons. She was not hoping that she was in the land of the living, even alive, until the voice of Jesus struck her like from a tomb. With his voice he struck her from grief and from the mouth of the demon, and she turned and saw the life of the sacrifice and of the one without end. He placed life, he cast into her soul like a seed, and she bore fruits of faith within her mind. She lived from the death of the destruction of the demon, she and her daughter, and she put on the garment of faith that is indestructible. Two advantages the sinner gained through her faith: the abasement of the demon and the confession of the name of the Creator. With the rod of the demon that struck her daughter she gained healing, and she learned the order to go on the path toward the hidden one. Also to him, to the demon, heavy pain was added to him, for when he thought he was ruling, the ruler was turned and stretched out. In the snare of prayer the rebel fell without knowing, and he turned his whole mind upon her as is written. He sought to destroy the dwelling of her soul and to ruin her members, and the sign overturned the request of his face and destroyed his members. In the fury of his anger he wished to turn her to the sweetness of the demon, and the demon denied his bitterness to the dead.

As one drunk with wine, her mind was intoxicated by her weeping, and when it was wearied by the flood of the spirit, her appearance changed. Like a slave she was subjected to the demons, and one of them rose up and freed her from her servitude. As if with whips, he drove her through the villages of the earth, and he raised his voice, and the body trembled and shook from him. He was strong and dwelt in the dwelling of the man like a king, and he heard the sweetness of the authority of the man, and he trembled and was confounded. The bonds of death seized him from the one who was silent like a mother, who saw the torment that pursues the demons in the name of the Son of Man. "What is this?" a demon asked his fellow demon, "for behold, the powers are confounded by the voice of the man." "When did the strength of the mighty bow before the weak, as now the demons have cast down the spirits? When did the sick body heal its limbs, as now the sisters of the body heal the sick bodies? When did a slave free himself from servitude, as now Jesus has given freedom to the man?" And already the writing upon the Son of Man is fulfilled, that the head of the powers is sanctified when it is afflicted. And already the time is the completion of the words of Balaam the seer, and that which he called by the star the light that illuminates the man. And already the word of that spirit is true, who preached in his belly and called him Lord and Son of the Most High. Never before has this happened in this time, that a man calls out in the name of the Son of Man and the demons tremble. It was not heard that the dead lived without prayer, as this one awakens the dead as if from sleep.

her from her bonds. The multitudes of men spoke, one with another, who saw the suffering that torments men from their side. They saw that the twisted cords of their disturbances were loosened, and the prey that they had hunted from Adam until now was released. They saw also that the morning bird, weak of wing, broke its cage and flew up, ascending above the snare of their deceits. In astonishment they saw the fall of their ranks, how like a loosened rib she was cast down to the contest of demons. Or they put on the weak armor that sins, and they donned spiritual weapons, drew near, and conquered. Take the key of faith in your minds, and place the helm of saving life upon the head of your intellect. Arm your thoughts wisely in secret, and learn the order for how to contend with spirits. It is not with flesh that the multitude contends with your life, but the spirit that takes the contest in secret movements. According to its concealment, prepare the spiritual weapons, and draw near and conquer by the force of your minds. Guard your life from evil, that you may see evil and be silent.