Gospel Epic 1 part 2/6

For the practice of a defiled body will accuse you, and will set you bound before the lofty judge. The ministers will drag the condemned to cruel chains, nor shall you be loosed from the darkness of the black prison before the last farthing of the smallest coin is paid back. Not unknown to you, I think, stands the caution of the Law forbidding the body to adultery; but now my commands restrain the hidden strivings of the inner mind: no less must the penalty be paid for the wish than for the deed. If by chance the error of your right eye has ensnared you, hastening, tear out the author of that wretched fall and cast it far away. For it is better to lose a small member than to give the whole body to the flames and likewise to plunge the soul into perpetual punishments.

And if the right hand leads the mind through devious ways, it is better to cut off the cause of error with the blade than to give over the whole body to eternal flames. The ancients enjoin that if anyone breaks the bonds of marriage, he should write a bill of divorce, the fatal words of the law. Only an adulteress shall rightly depart from a husband's dwelling, but let the others remain; for the deserted woman, with her husband as the cause, will lose the rights of chaste modesty. The ancient laws forbid perjuries upon the tongue, but let the boldness of swearing yield to our commands. Nor is it right for a man to swear by lofty heaven, because it is the seat of the Lord, nor by the earth, which bears the footsteps of God, nor by the venerable name of the city of Jerusalem, which belongs to the great King — never shall it be sworn by.

Nor shall it be permitted for anyone to swear upon his own head, for you see that you have not the power over the least hair, nor to change its colour to white or black. Let 'It is, it is' suffice; what is not, say: 'It is not.' Whatever exceeds these things, the foul force of poison, creeping in, will suggest it all deceitfully to a sick mind. You hold the long-published precepts of the Law: let a like vengeance ever follow the one who wounds. But tranquil patience will better conquer evil; and if anyone strikes one side of your face with his palm, remember soon to offer the other side of your face. Or if anyone, pressing with the force of a judge, takes away your tunic, yield it willingly and let him likewise carry your cloak away with him.

If by chance someone bids you, having suffered it, to go a mile of road and to bear the toil of a heavy burden, soon you shall go and accompany him another double stretch of the journey. If a needy man asks, or if he feigns to be needy, give freely, pitying him from the heart; or if anyone begs for a loan, grant it, and do not withdraw a gentle countenance. Nor let it please you to succour only your friends, or to count your enemies worthy of blind hatreds. Rather I shall enjoin that you be always of soothing compliance toward all, and soften God with kindly prayers for the life of those very ones who rejoice to cut you off, and who, fierce in their adverse spirits, pursue you with hatreds.

For our Father gave the common light of the sun and the common rains to the just and to the wicked alike. But if we honour only joined friends, what place can there be here for a just reward? Even the race given over to gain serves friendship only. But you, be like the perfect Parent. Wherever a fair occasion of righteousness shall open, shun the eyes of men; for no reward will await a deed of such a kind done afterward. Only the barren praise of the crowd applauds. But what the right hand does, let it do so that it befits the left hand not to know; then He alone, the searcher of the hidden heart, will repay rewards worthy of just merits.

There are those whom the boasting of an over-swollen mind exalts, and who delight to have crowds standing by at their own prayers, and they tire out the day, drawing it out with many-streaming words; to these vows succeeds the empty fruit of show. But let the inner chambers of the house be closed for chaste prayers, and you shall worship God with few words. The Father Himself knows what is the trembling of your heart. We speak nothing while God is absent; no hidden recesses of the breast keep anything shut away; God, present, discerns all things. Therefore let it please you to conclude your vow with these words: 'Father, dwelling on the starry summit of heaven, we pray that the reverence of your name, O exalted Father, be sanctified in us; and let your kingdom come to the world, and may the kindly light unbar it.'

So in heaven as on earth let your bright will be done, and let the vital substance of holy bread come forth for us today; let your bounty soon dissolve, in indulgence, the countless debts of our wicked error; and let us grant our debtors no otherwise. Let the cruel temptation of the foul demon be far off, and let your right hand lift us out of evils into the light. For thus the Father will remit the sins of his peoples, if you in turn are willing to forgive one another's sins, and not to set a hard heart against their errors. Also pleasing to God are the people's fastings; but many labour to disfigure their own faces, so that their fastings may catch the empty fame of men.

But you, your hair made bright with welcome oil, wash your rejoicing face from pure springs, so that the Father alone, seeing the deep service of a devoted breast, may praise it and repay the merit. It is vain to keep watch over talents buried in the earth. There rust and devouring moths hold sway, and thieves plunder all that has been carried out from its hiding-places. Store up treasures for yourselves on the summit of heaven; no rust nor moths nor the dreadful faction of thieves shall plunder them. Where your wealth is stored, there too your hearts are held under a like dominion. The eye is the body's light, by which you perceive the common lights; but if the gaze shall shine pure and single in your eyes, the limbs of the whole body will gleam brightly. But if it be wicked and shall see meanly, dark shadows will press over all the members.

But if the light is turned into black shadows, how great will be the horror to those very shadows that have no light? No one can serve two masters equally; he will yield either to the hatred or to the love of the one, nor will a servant endure both masters alike. Never will anyone be able to serve riches and God together; but hold you these commands: let care for clothing not trouble you on account of your own body, nor seek out easy sustenance with anxious care. Do we not reckon the soul of more worth than the body's food? Or does anyone doubt to set the body before clothing? Let us behold the birds of the air: do they turn the back of the soil with pressed ploughshare, or cast the seeds of grain, or cut down the stalks of crops with curved sickle? Yet for these too shall come a fullness of drink and food.

Is not the care of men more in God's heart? Nor was it worthy to hang care for clothing in our breasts, not if men could place cubit-long increases upon their own limbs. Behold, how through the rich fields the lilies gleam! Yet no labours ever bowed over these, nor did such grace of clothing cover even that Solomon, when the hall of his wealthy realm overflowed. But if God himself clothes the green gladness of meadows and shrubs, things liable to our flames, why is your trust in the Father not greater? Therefore food, drink, clothing, and all empty things — leave that earthly care to the faithless nations. Rather seek you worthily the heavenly kingdoms and the righteousness of God — the rest will run to you of its own accord — and let not tomorrow's abundance of things be a care to you;

each day is enough for itself in the deceit of the day. Let cruel condemnation flee your judgment; for the Lord will follow the proofs of your own justice, which you shall establish on earth at the time you are taken: the measure which you set, you must yourself bear. You perceive the speck clinging in your brother's eye, yet you do not feel a beam fixed in your own, and you labour first to cleanse another's eye; but deceiver, pluck the log out of your own eye, then you shall take care to remove the smallest ear of grain from another's. Do not give what is holy to dogs, nor be willing basely to cast pearls before unclean swine. For those pearls will lie in the mire, trodden underfoot, and the turned swine will rend you with a vast wound.

To him who asks it shall be given, he who seeks shall hold what he finds, and to him who knocks the entrance shall be opened wide with unbarred doors. You men will surely not all give a stone to your sons asking for bread, nor a snake to those seeking a fish; you, I say, hard ones, in whose hearts a deep hardness is implanted, will yet always give good things to your sons. How much more does the indulgent Father of men rejoice to grant fitting and gentle good things to those who ask aright! Whatever benefits of men you desire to come to you, these same things bestow on all with your favour. This is the sum of the Law, this the prophets declared as right. Go, you just, through the narrow gate above the heavens. How broad and spacious is the way that, on the left-hand path, winds its steep course in the darkness of death, and countless throngs press through it down the slopes!

The path of life is hemmed in by vast rocks, and lofty virtue scarcely leads a few through the rugged places. But if the all-too-deceptive and alluring level of evils, slippery, has persuaded any with its deforming slide, it snatches them and drags them headlong, as the rush of a river, or as a brisk-footed steed unbridled with reins broken, or as a wind-tossed ship lacking a helmsman over the seas. Watch out for those who, under a false name, lay snares for you and are called prophets. The look of sheep clothes these, but they hide the cruel breasts of wolves with treachery, and rending they drag off the unwary ranks of those who yield, whom a savage error deceives. Such monsters are known by their own fruits; one must see to what end a deceitful teaching tends.

For you have never noted that figs have come forth from thorns, nor grapes from briars over the ridges of the field. And as a tree is clothed with the proper bud of its fruit, so the deceit of those men is laid bare when its fruit reveals it. I shall not be moved by the words of flatterers and by honour, nor, because over-fawning adulation calls me Lord, shall they receive the spontaneous rewards of the heavenly seat. But those shall rejoice deservedly in the gift of the kingdom who willingly do the commands of our Father. Soon the supreme day will come, which by severe justice will grant the rewards of righteousness and to wickedness Gehenna. Then the weeping of many shall cry to me such things: 'Did not mighty powers once, under your name, subdue all things for us by holy commands?'

Often too our voice has been counted among the prophets, and the demon has served us under your name. Then I shall swear to them that such a life of men, sordid with wicked deeds, was never known to me. Whoever shall consecrate his ears and his deeds to my admonitions, him I shall liken to a man placing the foundations on solid rocks, over which level-balanced walls shall rise. That house shall remain unharmed by rains and winds, and shall conquer the threats of torrents with strengthened firmness, since the foundations cling immovable to the rock. But whoever shall hold my commands by hearing only, and shall go far off through slippery ways with deeds of a different sort, him I shall make like one who props the foundations of his house on shifting sand; for him, at the first blast of the winds —

and when the rain began to press in with poured-out streams, the whole mass, its weight overturned, falls down, and ruin follows with the heavy collapse of the roofs.' As he was saying such things, a fixed astonishment of the people was immeasurably amazed, since the power granted to Christ had far transcended the teaching of the ancients. At last, as he was leaving the heights of the lofty mountain, a rejoicing crowd of following peoples thronged him. But behold, a young man, pierced in his entrails with dreadful corruption, whom leprosy had defiled, his whole body beset, fell down worshipping and beseeches Christ: 'That I may at last be free from the weight of so great a sickness, your willing it will suffice.' Then the right hand of Christ, by its touch alone, cleansed the foul limbs. And to him, now made whole, he commanded: 'Conceal your joys, and, obedient to the Law, offer your gifts to the temple.'

Then, as he withdrew, a centurion at once offers himself as a suppliant, and, cast down, prays with such pleas: 'The ailing spirit of a youthful boy is tormented, whose every function of the limbs a sudden languor dissolves, and a surviving torment now holds his life. But have mercy, I pray, at your command, for our sins forbid that the Parent of life and light should enter our roof. Now it is enough that by a word you bid health return. Often our authority has thus compelled men subject to us to obey duties commanded by a word.' He had spoken. And Christ, moved by the man's prayers and faith, turning, gives such words to the following people: 'Never do I remember to have found such faith of my ancestral nation;

but learn from true words that the lofty kingdom of heaven will call many men, born in diverse parts of the world, to recline at the table of life with our fathers — while the offspring of those fathers, plunged into blind darkness, dreadfully gnashing with their teeth and frequenting weeping, driven on, shall undergo perpetual torments of punishment. But to you now, young man, faithful in the virtue of your mind, as you believe, there shall come the fruit together with the light of salvation.' He had spoken, and swifter than the word, with the voice of him speaking, the gifts of the swift word run across to the boy; and the soldier, entering his house with hastening return, rejoices that he has anticipated the gifts of the healing God. Thence holy Jesus was entering the dwelling of Peter, whose mother-in-law lay panting with heat and fever.

And as the Saviour Jesus touched her right hand, the woman, made well, was furnishing service at the table. And now the day, departing with sloping light, had sunk into the sea, and the dark-blue night was drawing across the void its dusky cloak painted with starry flames: when the peoples, in the now blind night, were bringing many men collapsing with sickness of mind and bound in soul by the raging art of the demon, striving against it. But the word of Christ, removing so great a sickness, bestowed on all the gifts of the Father, granting them. But behold, a greater tumult arose with the increased light, of the grateful people with their throngs; anxious, he commanded the disciples to bring the lofty vessel down into the sail-winged sea. Then a scribe, with prayers poured out, sought to depart together in the Holy One's ship. To him Christ says: 'Where do you, scribe, follow me?

To the foxes the rock hewn out in the glade offers hiding-places, and the wood gives rest to the birds of the air; but to the Son of Man it is permitted to enter under no roof: such are the strivings of your race.' Then one of the disciples thus asked with his lips: 'The last offices are owed to a deceased father, but let your will, Holy One, grant us the interval, that it may be permitted to bury the body of my wretched father.' Christ to this: 'You shall better accompany our journey, and let the dead bury their dead in the earth.' They mount the ship, and the sails swell, puffed up with their wind, and the keel flies with the hissing of the wave. After the vessel held the deep, the sea begins to rise into wrath and, with winds let loose from this side and that, to swell, and to raise raging mountains to the sky;

and now with its mass it strikes the stern, now with its whirling the prow, and the planking of the sides catches the waves dashed over it, and the earth is laid open as the deep is scattered apart. Meanwhile Jesus was taking sleep in the stern. The disciples and sailors alike, in fear, beg him to awaken and show him the perils of the sea. He then: 'How no trust is in you! Fear rushes upon your faithless souls!' Then he commands the storms, and spreads a calm peace over the waters. They mingle among themselves the marvels with timid conversations — what so great a power has even been permitted to him, or what is the command at which the seas, stirred up by the winds, and the storms, raised by their threats, thus submit their necks. Now the ship had stood beneath the shore of the Gerasenes;

but behold, as he disembarked, a young man — marvellous to tell — runs to meet him, whose wretched mind a black spirit was filling, rending it with the unclean force of madness. To him a welcome home was to dwell in foul sepulchres; nor could anyone restrain his swift fury, for he even broke strong bonds of iron and tore heavy chains like threads of wool. And now it was sport to him, light, to leap up with shackles loosed, and to gash his savage breast on the rocks. And when he saw Christ passing along the shores, he rushed with a cry and ran up from afar, adoring: 'Most certain Offspring of the ever-reigning Lord, we pray, do not cast us far from the shores of our accustomed region, tormented with torments. For our name is Legion, and the single force of harming associates many breaths under one name.'

'You see how the unclean swine work over these pastures? Let it at least be permitted to these to satisfy our repelled madness; we ask it by the lofty name of the Father enthroned on high.' Christ commands them to release the man's mind, and allows them to end their furies in the herds of swine. And now the man's stunned breast, the demon shaken off, venerates the unhoped-for gifts of his salvation. And now the swine, headlong over the edge of the cliffs, cast into the sea, hasten to destroy their lives. But indeed the swineherds, dreading from their lookout marvels so great, flee away and rush to the dwellings of the city, and kindle the rumour and drive the peoples to the shores. But after the crowd of beholding peoples was compelled to believe that the mad youth had come to his senses, they were begging, terrified, that he would leave that region.

Thence Jesus, the light of the lands, returns home. Behold, as he was returning, the numb limbs of a young man, whose function a grievous disease had dissolved, men placed before the feet of Christ as he lay on a bed. Pitying him in his soul, Jesus addresses him with words: 'Let firm constancy attend your mind, young man, for the error of your past life shall be forgiven you.' The scribes were carping at this saying through the hidden recesses of a malignant mind, because he had uttered words to be borne by the power of God. But Christ, discerning such breasts, said: 'This word the scribes' sayings censure. How much lighter it would have been to have spoken, by the power equally of word and of deed, they shall prove from what follows, and they shall perceive that to me it has been granted to forgive sins.'

'Wherefore, young man, your bodily use being strengthened, rise vigorous and carry your bed back under your roof.' He rose and now fits the bed to his strong shoulders, and, vigorous, went off through the midst of the marvelling people. Then fear and praises of the Lord throughout the breasts of the people frequent together the joyful marvels, celebrated as one. Then, advancing thence to the tax-office, he saw Matthew in the midst of the company; therefore at once he bids him cling to his disciples. He, refusing nothing, obeys the command of Christ and rejoices, having followed. Thence, setting out on the journey, with like discourse he urges Philip on and admitted him as companion to his friends.

When he had come to know the powers and the way of Christ, as soon as he met the just Nathanael, he said: 'Lo, it has been granted that there rise in our ages the one whom the voices of the ancients and the holy prophets foretold. Joseph, coming of David's origin, begot him, whose blessed homeland is Nazareth and whose name is Jesus.' He replies: 'I marvel if Nazareth has begotten anything that could ever be worthy of such great virtues.' Then Philip says: 'You shall see; cease to doubt.' When Jesus looked upon him approaching from afar: 'A man comes here,' he said, 'whose breast, ignorant of falsehood, keeps a pure virtue without malignant deceit.' He thereupon: 'Where, or at what time, have you known me?' To him the Lord brings forth these words from his divine breast:

'When the shade of the spreading fig-tree covered you, even before the words of Philip called you, the Spirit, the Author, saw and chose you as companion.' Astonished at such words, the voice of Nathanael follows: 'Venerable Offspring of God, glorious King of the nation, you are the manifest salvation to the peoples and the Master of life.' Christ to this: 'An easy proof persuaded you to believe, that I saw you reclining under the tree's shade; but greater marvels of things remain hereafter. You shall alike behold the whole heaven split open and the swift ministers of God penetrate the upper air, and thence bear a bright crown to the Son of Man.' Meanwhile in the bridal chambers they were preparing festive nuptials in the region of Cana, where the mother of glorious Jesus, together with her Son, was celebrating the banquet.

But meanwhile wine was failing the guests. Then the mother beseeches Christ with such words: 'You see that the liquor of gladness has now failed? Let there be present, Son, the gifts given from you to the good tables.' To her replied Christ, the glory of the lands: 'You make haste, mother; the time does not yet compel me to grant such gifts for the sustenance of men.' Then, gladdened, the mother thence calls the ministers of the tables and bade them obey the commands of her Son. Six fair vessels were there, hollowed from stones, which would open their flanks for three measures each. These she bids the ministers fill from the bosom of the spring. The young men obey the commands and crown the waves, the lips of the stones being filled; then foam over the brims, with airs mingled with the waters, rolls to the top. Hence he bids that they hand a draught to be tasted by the chief minister.

When he perceived the gifts of the venerable savour, not knowing that the waters lately drawn from pure springs in poverty had passed into the pleasing liquor of wine, he rebukes the unwitting bridegroom, that, reserving the fairer wines, he had first given the poorer at the tables. By these signs he worthily strengthened with stable firmness the perpetual mind of the believing disciples. Thence, when the solemnities of Passover were at hand for the Jews, he directed his journey to Jerusalem and was entering the temple. Here he found a people setting up many wares for sale: part sold sheep, part the great bodies of bullocks, part, gaping for coins, busied themselves counting at their craft. Here Christ binds together the lashes of a scourge with cords, and drives such peoples from the holy shrine, and, overturning the tables, pours out heaps of bronze, and rebuking over them:

'Take these things far away, you profane ones, so that this house of my Father may be cultivated, not sordid gains.' Then the Jewish people, demanding a sign, were murmuring, by which, trusting, they might raise their spirits to such deeds. Then Christ mingles such things to come in obscure words: 'Destroy with your polluted hands this venerable temple, and I shall restore it when the third lights of the sun begin to pour the ruddy light upon the lands.' They, debating among themselves with blind murmur: 'This temple,' they say, 'scarcely built through six and forty years with the labour of the ancient realm, can you renew in the space of three days?' This word, after the due times, worthy men once came to know: that Christ had called the shrine of God his own body. But seeing the signs, then many took faith and followed the Holy One.

In the dark night, one of the chief nobles of the Jewish name, raised to lofty honour, came, and to Christ with subdued voice speaks: 'There is no doubt that the abundant will of God, Holy One, has granted light to rise upon human affairs through you; nor will anyone perform marvels with such signs, unless the power of God, accompanying, bids it shine forth.' Christ to this: 'If you seek the summits of the just journey, no one will be able to climb to the lofty kingdom unless, born again, he penetrates the beginnings of birth restored, and receives a new life by divine gift.' But he, stupefied in heart at such great speeches: 'This,' he said, 'is not for our mind to comprehend. Who will be able to call back the beginnings of a life already begun?

Or shall an old man again be received into his mother's womb, that he may come anew into the light and unroll his life again?' He thereupon: 'If anyone, reborn from the liquid spring and by the holy breath, shall begin to stand firm with raw, new members, he, free, shall climb into the heavenly hall. An earthly body is born from an earthly body; not otherwise does the Spirit generate a breath like itself. This Spirit is God, whom all things of the world obey. He, where he wills, flies wherever he wills and casts his voice through the airs, but you know not what are the beginnings of the voice, and toward what part its running breaths make their way. Whoever therefore seeks again the first beginnings of a just life, it is certain that he flourishes anew, like to the holy breath.' And the Jew to this: 'I can perceive none of these things.' Then Christ such things:

'Great master of Jerusalem, do you then, O pitiable one, plunge headlong into dusky shadows the mind that has been snatched from the light of life, and cannot you comprehend such things with your blunted sense? Behold, there is no faith; I have spoken only of earthly things! What, if my speech should begin to climb to heavenly powers and to comprehend the higher forms of things? Who of you will be able to open his hard mind to me? Receive therefore what is the judgment concerning new things. No one will be able to climb to the starry heaven, except he alone who, sent, came from the hall of heaven, the same Son of Man, who abides in the seat of heaven.

As the serpent of old, in desert regions, was lifted up to highest honour by the hands of Moses, so must the Son of Man be lifted on high, so that whoever has set faith, in the deep recesses of his mind, upon his name, may, beneath the whirlwind of the age, trample death underfoot, and, rising beyond the stars, sublime, receive the inviolable gift of life. For God so loved the world that his only Offspring descended into the lands, joining believers to the Lord in eternal life. Nor did God send this Son to examine the lands with severe justice, or to weigh them out with grim judgment, but that gentle gifts of life might come to the peoples. For where sure faith has embraced salvation, there will be no doubtful agitation of judgment.

But where the gifts of healing have been shut out afar, now their own condemnation racks their mind; for to these the only Offspring of the Lord was unknown. The wretched proud fled the coming of the light and rather, embracing them, held the blind shadows. So whoever shall stain his mind with evil deeds, fearful, takes refuge in the shadows, lest in the clear light the sordid contagions of a polluted mind lie open. But whoever has held the footsteps of a holy life hastens to the midst and rejoices to shine in the light, so that the glory of virtue may shine forth in bright deeds.' Thence the Saviour Jesus seeks Galilee again. But passing through, by chance he came to Samaritan Sychar. There was an estate, mighty by the name of Jacob, and a well sunk into hidden depths with a cold spring.

Here the Saviour, panting in the swift heat, had sat down, and the disciples, buying food, dispersed here and there in the walls of the city, left the Master alone. Going out from the walls, a Samaritan woman came to draw waters from the hollow recesses of the well. To her Christ says: 'Give me a drink of the liquid, woman.' Answering, the woman said: 'A strange thing you bid me, that I, a Samaritan woman, should furnish drink to you, a Jew, despising the commands of the ancient Samaritans.' Then the Saviour says: 'If you knew the gifts of the Lord, and who it is that, thirsting, asks of you well-draughts, you would rather ask, and he would hand you living water.' She thereupon: 'The well curves into a deep bosom; there is no urn, nor have you cords of rope; whence then will you be able to hand me living water?

Are you greater in power than our father? For Jacob with his offspring drank from this well, and often led his own flocks here to the watering-places.' To her replied Jesus, the ruler of the world: 'No one shall be fully satisfied from that water, for he will thirst again; but the gifts of our liquor will shut out the burning of drinking into eternal ages. To whomever the sweet draughts of our spring shall come forth, thence shall flow more bountifully the vital grace of the wave. But if desire for our water seizes you, let your husband, summoned, come soon with you from the city.' The woman denies that she is bound by wedlock. Then thus continues Jesus, the perceiver of the mind: 'Woman, you speak truthful words about a husband.