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'You disappoint ently 'You wound me, Memnoch, you wound hened hands against my face, hands of a man who had worked in this world, labored as I had never labored in my brief visit

"I shuthad co of everything here that was in error, but could I reason it out? Could I speak?

"I openedthe callouses on his fingers, looking into his gaunt face How he had starved himself; how he had suffered in this desert, and how he had labored these thirty years! Oh, no, this rong!

"What, !' He demanded of me with infinite patience and human consternation

"Lord, they chose these rituals which involve suffering because they cannot avoid suffering in the Natural World The natural world is what must be overcome! Why must anyone suffer what humans suffer? Lord, their souls come to Sheol distorted, twisted by pain, black as cinders from the heat of loss andis evil in this world Suffering is decay and death It's terrible Lord, You can't believe that to suffer like this would do any good to anyone This suffering, this unspeakable capacity to bleed and to know pain and to know annihilation, is what has to be overcome in this world if anyone is to reach God!'

"He didn't answer He lowered his hands

"My angel,' He said, 'you draw from me even more affection now that I have a human heart How simple you are! How alien you are to the vast Material Creation '

"But it was I who urged you to come down! How aels don't dare to look at for fear they'll weep, and it will ry with them '

"Memnoch, you simply don't know the flesh The concept is too coht your souls in Sheol their perfection? Was it not suffering? Yes, they enter perhaps twisted and burnt if they have failed to see beyond suffering on Earth, and some may despair and disappear But in Sheol, over the centuries of suffering and longing, others are purged and purified

"Me is its by-product And the human capacity to know it exeht from Sheol knew it, that they had learnt to accept its beauty, is what ates!'

"No, Lord, that's not true!' I said 'You've gotten it wrong Utterly Oh, I see what's happened '

"You do? What are you trying to say tospent thirty years in this human body, have not struck the truth?'

"But that's just it! You've known all along you were God You ot, but those were brief! Too brief! And now as you plot your death, you know Who you are and You won't forget it, will you?'

"No, I won't I must be the Son of God Incarnate to fulfill my ministry, to work my miracles, of course That's the whole point '

"Then, Lord, you don't knohat it means to be flesh!'