Lazarus was a great one, seeing that Lazarus had conversation with men, and ate and drank. But because he was powerful, having a following in Jerusalem, and possessing with his sister Magdala and Bethany, they knew not what to do. Jesus entered into Bethany, into the house of Lazarus, and Martha, with Mary, ministered unto him. Mary, sitting one day at the feet of Jesus, was listening to his words, whereupon Martha said to Jesus: 'Lord, seest thou not that my sister taketh no care for thee, and provideth not that which thou must eat and thy disciples?' Jesus answered: 'Martha, Martha, do thou take thought for that which thou shouldst do; for Mary hath chosen apart which shall not be taken away from her for ever. Jesus, sitting at a table with a great multitude that believed in him, spake, saying: 'Brethren, I have but little time to remain with you, for the time is at hand that I must depart from the world. Wherefore I bring to your mind the words of God spoken to Ezekiel the prophet, saying: "As I, your God, live eternally, the soul that sinneth, it shall die, but if the sinner shall repent he shall not die but live." 'Wherefore the present death is not death, but rather the end of a long death: even as the body when separated from the sense in a swoon, though it have the soul within it, hath no other advantage over the dead and buried save this, that the buried [body] awaiteth God to raise it again, but the unconscious waiteth for the sense to return. 'Behold, then, the present life that it is death, through having no perception of God. 195. that shall believe in me shall not die eternally, for through my word they shall
hey perceive God within them, and therefore shall work out their salvation. 'What is death but an act which nature doth by commandment of God? As it would be if one held a bird tied, and held the cord in his hand; when the head willeth the bird to fly away, what doeth it? Assuredly it commandeth naturally the hand to open; and so straightway the bird flieth away. "Our soul," as saith the prophet David, "is as a sparrow freed from the snare of the fowler," when man abideth under the protection of God. And our life is like a cord whereby nature holdeth the soul bound to the body and the sense of man. When therefore God willeth, and commandeth nature to open, the life is broken and the soul escapeth in the hands of the angels whom God hath ordained to receive souls. 'Let not, then, friends weep when their friend is dead; for our God hath so willed. But let him weep without ceasing when he sinneth, for [so] the soul dieth, seeing it separateth itself from God, the true Life. @