"As I was grazing my cows
at the convent, and contemplating the sorrowful condition you
tolerate, I heard a desperate cry coming from your miserable homes --
a cry of oppressed souls -- a cry of broken hearts which are locked in
your bodies as slaves to the lord of these fields. As I looked, I
found me in the convent and you in the fields, and I saw you as a
flock of lambs following a wolf to the lair; and as I stopped in the
middle of the road to aid the lambs, I cried for help and the wolf
snapped me with his sharp teeth.
"I have sustained imprisonment,
thirst, and hunger for the sake fo Truth that hurts only the body. I
have undergone suffering beyond endurance because I turned your sad
sighs into a crying voice that rang and echoed in every corner of the
convent. I never felt fear, and my heart never tired, for your painful
cry was injecting a new strength into me every day, and my heart was
healthy. You may ask yourself now saying, 'When did we ever cry for
help, and who dares open his lips?' But I say unto you, your souls are
crying every day, and pleading for help every night, but you cannot
hear them, for the dying man cannot hear his own heart rattling, while
those who are standing by his bedside can surely hear. The slaughtered
bird, in spite of his will, dances painfully and unknowingly, but
those who witness the dance know what caused it. In what hour of the
day do you sigh painfully? Is it in the morning, when love of
existence cries at you and tears the veil of slumber off your eyes and
leads you like slaves into the fields? Is it at noon, when you wish to
sit under a tree to protect yourself from the burning sun? Or at
eventide, when you return home hungry, wishing for sustaining food
instead of a meagre morsel and impure water? Or at night when fatigue
throws you upon your rough bed, and as soon as slumber closes your
eyes, you sit up with open eyes, fearing that the Sheik's voice is
ringing in your ears?
"In what season of the year do you
not lament yourselves? Is it in Spring, when nature puts on her
beautiful dress and you go to meet her with tattered raiment? Or in
Summer, when you harvest the wheat and gather the sheaves of corn and
fill the shelves of your master with the crop, and when the reckoning
comes you receive naught but hay and tare? Is it in Autumn, when you
pick the fruits and carry the grapes into the wine-press, and in
reward for your toil you receive a jar of vinegar and a bushel of
acorns? Or in Winter, when you are confined to your huts laden with
snow, do you sit by the fire and tremble when the enraged sky urges
you to escape from your weak minds?
"This is the life of the poor; this
is the perpetual cry I hear. This is what makes my spirit revolt
against the oppressors and despise their conduct. When I asked the
monks to have mercy upon you, they thought that I was an atheist, and
expulsion was my lot. Today I came here to share this miserable life
with you, and to mix my tears with yours. Here I am now, in the grip
of your worst enemy. Do you realize that this land you are woking like
slaves was taken from your fathers when the law was written on the
shapr edge of the sword? The monks deceived your ancestors and took
all their fields and vineyards when the religious rules were written
on the lips of the priests. Which man or woman is not influenced by
the lord of the fields to do according to the will of the priests? God
said, 'With the sweat of thy brow, thou shall eat thy bread.' But
Sheik Abbas is eating his bread baked in the years of your lives and
drinking his wine mixed with your tears. Did God distinguish this man
from the rest of you while in his mother's womb? Or is it your sin
that made you his property? Jesus said, 'Gratis you have taken and
gratis you shall give. . . . Do not possess gold, nor silver, neither
copper.' Then what teachings allow the clergymen to sell their prayers
for pieces of gold and silver? In the silence of the night you pray
saying, 'Give us today our daily bread.' God has given you this land
from which to draw your daily bread, but what authority has He given
the monks to take his land and this bread away from you?
"You curse Judas because he sold his
Master for a few pieces of cilver, but you bless those who sell Him
every day. Judas repented and hanged himself for his wrongdoing, but
these priests walk proudly, dressed with beautiful robes, resplendent
with shining crosses hanging over their chest. You teach your children
to love Christ and at the same time you instruct them to obey those
who oppose His teachings and violate His law.
"The apostles of Christ were stoned
to death in order to revive in you the Holy Spirit, but the monks and
the priests are killing that spirit in you so they may live on your
pitiful bounty. What persuades you to live such a life in this
universe, full of misery and oppression? What prompts you to kneel
before that horrible idol which has been erected upon the bones of
your fathers? What treasure are you reserving for your posterity?
"Your souls are in the grip of the
priests, and your bodies are in the closing jaws of the rulers. What
thing in life can you point at and say 'this is mine!' My fellowmen,
do you know the priest you fear? He is a traitor who uses the Gospel
as a threat to ransom your money. . . a hypocrite wearing a cross and
using it as a sword to cut your veins. . . a wolf disguised in
lambskin. . . a glutton who respects the tables more than the altars.
. . a gold-hungry creature who follows the Denar to the farthest land.
. . a cheat pilfering from widows and orphans. He is a queer being,
with an eagle's beak, a tiger's clutches, a hyena's teeth and a
viper's clothes. Take the Book away from him and tear his raiment off
and pluck his beard and do whatever you wish unto him; then place in
his hand one Denar, and he will forgive you smilingly.
"Slap his face and spit on him and
step on his neck; then invite him to sit at your board. He will
immediately forget and untie his belt and gladly fill his stomach with
your food.
"Curse him and ridicule him; then
send him a jar of wine or a basket of fruit. He will forgive you your
sins. When he sees a woman, he turns his face, saying, 'Go from me,
Oh, daughter of Babylon.' Then he whispers to himself saying,
'Marriage is better than coveting.' He sees the young men and women
walking in the procession of Love, and he lifts his eyes toward heaven
and says, 'Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.' And in his solitude he
talks to himself saying, 'May the laws and traditions that deny me the
joys of life, be abolished.'
"He preaches to the people saying,
'Judge not, lest ye be judged.' But he judges all those who abhor his
deeds and sends them to hell before Death separates them from this
life.