Isaque o Sírio — Tratados Místicos
Traduzidos para o inglês por A. J. Wensinck, publicada em 1923
::XXVIII::
A SYMBOLICAL DEMONSTRATION CONCERNING THE THEORY OF SABBATH AND SUNDAY
Sunday is the symbol of true knowledge which is not received by flesh and blood, and which is elevation above ( mere ) opinion. In this world, however, there is no eighth day; but neither is there a true Sabbath. The fact that God rested on the seventh day is a symbol of the rest of our nature from the course of this life. For the grave is also of a bodily nature; it belongs to this world. Six days are accomplished in the service of life; the seventh is accomplished in the grave; the eighth in departing from it. As those who are worthy receive in this world the mysteries of the Sunday in a symbol — they do not receive the day as long as they are in their bodily nature — so
203 those who are worthy receive in this world the mysteries of the Sabbath symbolically, not the true Sabbath which is perfect rest from wanton influences. God has given us to taste of a mysterious indication of all things, but He has not decreed that we should walk here in intercourse with the real truth. For the real, not the symbolical Sabbath, will happen in the grave, viz. rest which finishes the torments of the affections and the toil against them. The whole man gives rest there to the body together with the soul.
In six days God established the existence of this world and created the elements{FOOTNOTE()} also the planets and zodiacal signsFOOTTNOTE/ and connected their existence with the administration of never resting motion and ( ordered ) that they should not rest from their course before their dissolution. And from the force of these, viz. the primeval elements, He has composed our body. He did not give those rest from their motions; neither did He grant our body, their offspring, rest from service. As the term of our nature He fixed rest, when we shall follow our first relatives, rest consisting in the dissolution of life. Thus He said to Adam: In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread. Till when? Till thou returnest unto the dust, for out of it wast thou taken. Thou shalt work in the ground and it shall bring forth to thee thorns and thistles. This denotes symbolically that this world is a world of service as long as it exists.
Our Lord, since the night when He sweated, has changed this sweat caused by working in the earth which brings forth thorns and thistles, into the sweat which also rises during prayer and which man should produce in the service of righteousness. For five thousand years He left man to work in his sweat, for the way of the saints had not yet been revealed, as the Apostle says. He appeared, however, with His grace in the latter days and ordered our free will to replace sweat by sweat. At any rate this change does not show that He ordered rest. But He was mercitul upon us for the sake of our long and weary work in the earth. If, however, we desist from sweating for this ( spiritual service ), we must necessarily reap thorns; for desisting from this, means the service the material earth which brings forth thorns and thistles cording to her nature. In reality the thorns are the affections which grow in us from bodily seed. As we bear the image of Adam so we necessarily bear his affections too. The earth is not free to desist from bearing -, for it brings forth on account of its nature. The earth is our relative according to God’s witness unto us ‘the dust out of which thou wast taken’, he one ( brings forth ) thorns; the other, the rational ( earth ), affections.
If now our Lord has been a symbolical example for us in every respect, viz. in all his different dealings — for till the ninth hour Friday He did not take rest from work, not even from the toilsome work which symbolically represents our whole life; the Sabbath He expected in the grave only — where then are those who pretend that there is a Sabbath in this world, viz. rest from affections? Concerning the Sunday, however, it is difficult to speak. Our Sabbath is the day of the grave. In reality our nature rests there. So every day it is necessary to eradicate thorns from this earth as long as it exists. For constant service brings about decrease of weeds. But even thus the earth does not wholly become pure. If thou;laxest but a short time in this respect, the weeds will grow and cover the surface of the earth and choke thy seed and thy previous work as if it had not existed. Therefore, it is necessary to purify, every day; for a pause in this work produces a multitude of weeds.
PÁGINAS: toc
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