The Sermons of Johannes Tauler · 104 of 124

Second Sermon for the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist

This man came for a witness, to give testimony of the light, that all men might believe through him. — John l, 7.

Our holy mother the Church devotes this week to honoring St. John the Baptist. But if we praise with words, that amounts to little, for our Lord Jesus Christ has worthily praised him, as we read: “What went you out into the desert to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Behold they that are colthed in soft garments, are in the houses of kings. But what went you out to see? A prophet? Yea, I tell you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written: Behold I send My angel before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee” (Matt, xi, 7-10). Thus does Jesus praise John. And John also said of himself: “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord” (John i,23). Our Lord said on another occasion that he was a burning and a shining light. And our text so yn that he came to bear witness of the light.

Upon these last words we shall now discourse; for the light he tells us of is light essential, incomprehensible, and glorious above all other light. It shines in the most interior regions of the soul’s life. But it happens that when this light begins to shine upon the soul and to stir it into life, the soul often makes a false step. It should wait patiently in the innermost interior; but instead of doing that, it all too readily turns outward and thereby reverses the right order. It will insist on running into outward religious ways, now this one and now that. Therefore the testimony of the light is given in vain, on account of the absorption of the soul in outward pious works.

“He came into His own, and His own received Him not.” The soul is here described as in opposition to the light. This is a yet worse condition, for it means downright antagonism to the light, arising from worldly heartedness. Men guilty of this are like the Pharisees, of whom John said that they w’ere the brood of vipers. They called themselves children of Abraham, and yet they were opposed to all who loved God’s true light. Ah, that is a perilous position to be in. Such men hang on to the light of truth and to the holy faith by but a single thread.

Now we must realize that nature is spoiled and diseased, and of itself can do little. Therefore has God given us an aid more than natural, namely the light of grace. This is a supernatural created light, lifting the soul upwards high above itself, bestowing upon our nature all the assistance it stands in need of. There is, besides, an uncreated light which is called the light of glory and which beams in heaven alone — a divine light, yea God himself. For if we ever shall know God, it must be through God and with God — God through God; as the prophet says: “In Thy light we shall see light” (Ps. xxxv, 10).

Now God is the all essential and perfect light. He is the light that ligkteneth every man that cometh into this world, shining upon all, good and bad, as the sun shines upon all creation. If men are blind to it, that is their misery. If a man were in a dark room, and could open a window wide enough to let his head be thrust out into the sunlight, he W’ould be in the light. So may men open their souls and be presently in God’s light.

Let us take notice of the first thing one should do, rightly to receive the witness of the divine light. As this light begins to beam in the lowest powers of his soul, and when it also beams in its higher faculties, a man should cut himself off from all transitory things. The lowest faculties are the concupiscible and the irascible. By the latter one rejects pain. The concupiscible power is the appetite for pleasure, and is shown in one’s enjoyment of the company of his fellow men, or of personal adornment, or any other common relaxation of life. As far as necessity goes, God fully allows this appetite to be gratified. But beyond that, it is the wilderness in which God’s voice sounds loud and strong, calling for detachment from all pleasures of soul and body.

In the irascible appetite, a man must be endowed with fortitude and perseverence, standing against all aversions to unpleasant things like

He must not be a reed shaken by the wind, nor a man clothed in soft garments, ministering to his fleshly comfort. We meet with men who are ashamed of a self-denying course of conduct; they are moved by what people say or do as a reed is tossed about by the wind — a sarcastic word, or some petty inconvenience. Ah, dear man, what harm can a scolding word do thee? Knowest thou not that the evil spirit takes advantage of thy unsteadiness? — that it is he who sways thee to the right or left, and throws thee into deep pain by trifles, or lifts thee into inordinate joy by the same? Ah, but thou art a silly man.

And God gives this testimony of the light in our higher faculties, namely in our reason or understanding, and in our will, or power of loving. Now the light in the understanding is indeed a prophet’s gift to us; for a prophet is one who sees deep and far. But if the soul be lighted up with this supernatural ray, it has the farsightedness of a prophet. If one then hears some mysterious thing, the voice from the interior of the understanding witnesses to him of its right meaning.

But our Lord said of John that he was more than a prophet. And that has reference to a part of the soul wherein our natural understanding cannot enter. There it is that (if we are entirely illuminated) we see light in light; that is to say, though the ^interior brightness of the soul we behold most perfect light; we behold the divine light of grace shining amid the created light of our reason. This is at first in an unknown way, and as it were unconsciously. This divine depth is immeasurably beyond the power of the natural faculties to reach. For the breadth of spiritual insight is now become so divine, that there is neither mental figure nor form, nor any such thing as relation of one place to another, but a fathomless abyss. The soul seems to be so still as to be an empty voiceless void; and again its voices are like those of many waters, and threaten to swallow up all existence. This abyss is God’s chosen dwelling place, far more so that in all creatures, yea even more than in heaven.

Whosoever comes into these depths finds God most truly, and he finds himself most simply and in God. From these depths God is never absent. To such a man God is present indeed; to him the sense of eternity is most real, as if he touched and tasted it, and the division between things past and things to come is lost in the divine present. Into these holy depths no natural light can penetrate, for God is the light in His chosen abode. When this divine abyss is revealed to the

And O how waste and barren of creatures is this wilderness, into which never an ordinary thought can come, no not one. All those many learned disquisitions on the most holy Trinity — not a single one of them can enter into this most spiritual union with God, so intimate and interior, so far removed from human activity, having no ken of place or count of time, simple and indivisible. Whosoever has truly reached this state, to him it feels as if he had been there with God from all eternity, as if he were one with the eternal presence now within Him; and yet as if he had been there but one little instant, which seems to generate an eternity of being.

The shining of the light is a witness to the spirit, of how it had been in God’s purpose eternally before creation as God’s image in God. As St. John teaches: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John i, 4) ; and all that was made by Him was one life. Thus the soul learns of the mystery of how in its created life it is the same as it was in the divine idea and purpose before creation and eternally.

So long as a man has not reached the state of purification which God willed for him while he was yet uncreated and existed only in the divine idea, he cannot return again into God. Every inclination to self, every attachment to creatures, every atom of self-satisfaction everything that may stain the inmost soul with self, must vanish away. Every inordinate pleasure of soul or body, whether felt in the understanding or in the will, must be gone — it must be washed away as being an ugly spot on the spirit’s cleanliness: otherwise a man cannot return again into his origin in God.

Nor is purification alone sufficient: the spirit must besides be new formed in the light of grace. Whosoever earnestly strives after this transformation, and is a man rightly converted to the interior life.

God is, more manifestly than he beholds the sun in the heavens with his bodily eyes.

as far as “There was a man sent from God.” But all this the philosopher taught with words of hidden meaning. The same philosopher gained some knowledge of the most holy Trinity. Children, all such things came from the deep recesses of the soul, in which such men as Plato lived, and whose stores of wisdom they had access to. Is it not a shame and a scandal that we who are Christians, and who have such heavenly aid, we, who are in God’s grace, who enjoy holy faith and have the blessed sacrament, is it not a shame that we should run about like blind hens, knowing neither our own selves nor the deep things of God within our souls?

The cause is that we scatter our hearts’ love abroad in multiplicity; and that in religious matters we are absorbed too greatly in what appeals to the senses. We go by self-chosen ways, and these engage us and hinder us from entering inward towards God. But, dear children, in case one happens to be inapt for deep spiritual things, let him at any rate be faithful to ordinary devotional practices. If one may not offer the wine of Cyprus, let him at least bring gifts of some sort to God, even if they are cheap and common. It is the empty and the idle spirit that the evil one overcomes. And certainly one can always recite the five decades of the rosary with profit.

The testimony of the light is also in the other higher faculty of the soul, that of loving. During this week, in the churches, we have sung of John, that “he was a burning and a shining light.” Now a lamp has

And if the light be in a lantern, thou canst see it only through the glass or horn. Ah, children, mark well the meaning of this light and heat. It means the wounded heart of love — that love that would lead thee into that same deep foundation place of thy soul of which we have been speaking, that thou mayst there be ravished with love, and there excite thy ardent desire of God as if thou went bending thy bow and drawing thy arrow to hit the mark in the very centre.

It also means that imprisoned love of the heart which is enchained in this deep and secret chamber of the spirit. There must thou surrender thyself to love, for thou hast no longer control over thyself; neither conscious thought, nor exercise of the faculties, nor ordinary practise of virtue now has place. And if love happens to leave thee free for a moment’s thought or act, thou soon longest to be again happily enchained; but then thou must wrestle with love, implore its constraining embrace and compel it back to thee. If thou canst not frame right words, at least utter deep inner longings, as did St. Augustine: “Lord, thou hast commanded me to love Thee with my whole heart, and my whole soul, with all my mind and all my strength. Give me what thou commandest from me. Teach me to love Thee and command me what Thou wilt.” If while in that state thou are so stupid as not to be able to think even thus much, at any rate, speak the words mechanically with thy mouth. But, children, this humble way is not theirs who, as before explained, enter on a false inner peace, before being well practised in virtue, acting and feeling as if all now were done and over in the work of perfection. These have not the love we speak of.

After this comes languishing love, and then what is called frantic or foolish love. And now alas, children, it strangely seems to this poor, man as if divine love were all vanished and mere natural reason were placed in control. He seems never to have been so keen in worldly wisdom as now, in such matters as buying and selling and all active affairs: and meantime he is foolish and distraught. One in this period of love, which I have called frantic or raving, may be compared to a blindfolded man with a lantern. He knows he has bright love of God within him, but he feels no manner of joy in it, though it runs riot in all his soul’s powers. O how he longs for love’s joy, for a feeling of love — but he cannot have it; and so he is foolish in his ways, and almost raves. Love devours the marrow of his bones, and yet gives him no comfort. If thou comest to this test of love, I beg thee to beware; in thee. Thou darest not shrink from this holy ordeal; follow on submissively, even through storm and tempest, until God’s plan is accomplished in thee.

Now some may object and say, that they will make sure of avoiding this stormy trial of love: its shame is more than they can bear, it is incompatible with their state of life. Children, I answer that when this folly of divine love comes upon you, human ways must give place. Then in due time comes our Lord and speaks His word in thy soul, piercing it through and through — Oh, it is a word worth a hundred thousand spoken by men. St. Dionysius says: “When the eternal

And so did He speak to St. Augustine: “Thou shalt be changed into Me.” But to this state of union can no man come, except by the way of this foolish degree of love.

St. John the Baptist said: “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord.” This way is in the practise of virtue. This road is very level. Again he says, that he is to prepare the Lord’s paths. Now these footpaths are not so level as the open and public road of the Lord, and they are harder to find and to keep. Whosoever would go to the Lord in his deeper consciosness by the short cut through the fields, must make up his mind to suffer much; and furthermore he may easily go astray; yet this way is indeed much shorter than that of the open and common highway. If one will but study his deeper soul carefully, his journey will be safer. Let him be absorbed in his own faults to correct them, in God’s guidance to follow it, difficult though it may seem, and dark and strange. Whosoever behaves thus shall not be overwhelmed when opposition comes, nor altogether oppressed with anguish of soul. Nor shall he break out into the defects to which men are liable in this journey. But God will now lead and again drive him forward, until he has reached the depths of the interior life.

In this manner let a man smooth the way of the Lord in his spirit’s relation to God and God to him. The difficulties are serious, and they are unexpected and hidden. Many souls for the sake of relief are misled into outward exercises of religion and charitable good works — holy in themselves, but unless imposed by duty, they are not now opportune. To go deeper into the interior spirit is now the task, and for this one should not go outward. That is like a man starting for Borne and taking the road to Holland: the faster he walks the farther he is from his journey’s end. So does a man act who travels into external devotions instead of absorbing himself in interior meditation: — if he is to attain a deep state of peace and recollection he must devote himself to his interior life. Perhaps after growing old in this misdirected way, these souls at last turn into the right one. But then they are weak and nerveless, and their heads cannot stand the stress of love’s storm in the final trial.

And when love’s storm does break on a man’s spirit, then, children, let him not stop to think fretfully on his past sins or anxiously question about his humility or about anything else except this: am I rightly responsive to God’s love as it does its work in me here and now? For now a man must battle with love while suffering coldness of heart and from a sense of total abandonment. Oh, let him give up to love in all fidelity of heart, stript of everything that is not purely love of God, his soul destitute and miserable for love’s sake. Have deep and constant longings for God’s love; have firm trust in God; keep thyself true to love and firm in love. In due time thou shalt be granted in one hour as many graces as in another way thou wouldst acquire in a lifetime.

Especially cherish firm trust in God’s love: if that weakens, thy longing for God sinks away, and the hidden love is soon quenched within thee. Be sure that if thou dost lack this sign, namely confidence in love’s final rescue of thy distressed soul, then all other signs together are deceitful — thou must totally fail. This is the testimony of the true light. The demon will leave all else, if only he can unsettle thy confidence. He will even leave thee a treacherous show of love itself, if only thou wilt give up this true witness of genuine love, — confidence in God’s love during the time of desolation of spirit.

If one now questions as to whether or not he has true love, let him search deep in his soul and ever deeper, and light will be granted him to know how he stands towards this degree of love. All the harm and it ceases to be heard, and that forever. The cause of this misfortune is nothing else than self-trust. But if one be only humbly submissive to the divine guidance, it will finally lead him into such a divine union, that he shall enjoy in this life somewhat of the bliss proper only to life eternal. May God grant that this shall happen to us all. Amen.

Praying for a faulty brother is often a better favor than chiding him — Many rules for guidance of superiors in administering correction— The strict rule that fraternal correction should be preceded by self-correction — Need of great gentleness of manner.