The Sermons of Johannes Tauler · 118 of 124

Sermon for the Feast of Many Holy Martyrs

God, our heavenly Father, honored these holy martyrs with special glory; they were transformed into the close likeness of His only begotten Son. He pressed to their lips that bitter but precious chalice which His Son drained to the dregs. For these martyrs suffered death for the name of Jesus Christ. Therefore it is that this day we sing the praises of these dauntless warriors of Christ and favorite friends of God.

Now take notice that there are two kinds of martyrdom. One is outward martyrdom by the sword; the other is inward martyrdom by the stroke of dying love. And we read of St. Martin, that although untouched by the outward sword, he was yet not deprived of the glory of martyrdom. Here let us realize that a Christian man should experience the sufferings of Christ our God, seeking after them in due and proper penance for his sins in a dying life; thus does he become a friend of God. But these sufferings come to us in two ways.

The first suffering of a dying life is outward, by withstanding all concupiscence and sinfulness. St. Paul says: “They that are Christ’s have crucified their flesh with the vices and concupiscences” (Gal. v, 24). The other suffering is interior. It consists in an oppression of spirit; God deprives the soul of all sensible or perceptible joy in His service, and dries it up totally. In this trial men are usually found wanting; and yet by this means are they most effectually forced to turn to God. Some think that all is lost if they cannot enjoy high illumination in their thoughts, and are lacking sweet feelings of devotion. But this is a trait of beginners, and is set aside by those who aspire to the best form of love; for these make little of sensible devotion. It is a good preparation, to be sure, to something nobler, but taken in itself, our sensible feeling of religion is not of much worth.

Alas, true lovers of God are not many. Men will follow Christ only in sweetness. This sort of love may be called wounded love, and God, seeing that men’s hearts will not be otherwise drawn to Him, imparts to them the sensible sweetness of devotion they feel in His service. Gradually, however, He leads them to that love which is called’ the imprisoned or the captive love; and then they cannot escape Him. After that there is the degree of love called the raving, or frantic, or foolish love. In this state of love souls are granted great strength. Well are they compensated by their graces for the loss of all things; easily do they endure men’s contempt and derision. Whatsoever suffering God permits, they instantly offer it to God in the deep abyss of the Godhead. With perfect trustfulness they say: O God, whether Thou wilt save me or damn me, may Thy will be done (if one could possibly or lawfully say this of his future state) : all power and all love is in Thee. Now when a man has reached this love, he has won the prize to gain which God started him forth. But as to how and by what processes this is brought about, that is God’s secret.

It is to attract each soul to Himself that God bestows His gifts so affectionately, serves us with His graces so tenderly. For He would have us offer back these gifts and graces to Him in all detachment of spirit, and without reluctance or parleying. When He grants great spiritual sweetness, it is to induce us to self-renunciation. And when He leads us from sweetness to aridity, it is to place us in a higher grade of the spiritual life. He takes away, seemingly, everything He has given us. Our soul seems to stand miserably poor, and all outside of God. The purpose of this is to force us to make a beginning of the noblest self-denial, to force us to rest upon no created thing whatsoever, but only upon God. Now there are two ways of arriving at God’s true love.

The first is the way of joy in Divine grace. O how happy one is in the holy exercises of religion. And God causes that in order that we may contrast spiritual joys with fleshly ones. These last are now quenched in the former. A man sells himself to God for these spiritual sweetnesses. He despises bodily pleasures, and he shows this so plainly that his friends wonder at the sight of it. For we read of many saints, that when they were first drawn hard to God, they fled from the comforts of life so suddenly and so violently that men were amazed. This is doubtless the work of the Holy Ghost, whose love is strong as death.

The second way is that of spiritual sorrow and suffering. And now all these joys we have been speaking of are snatched away. And it is precisely in this trial that the spiritual strength of our martyr is generated— in utter aridity, barrenness of devotional feeling. Meanwhile you must know that amid all this sorrow of heart and in this spiritual vacuum, souls continue to hold God very dear, and to purpose and practice virtue no less than before this visitation. But they are sorely embarrassed, and know not which way to turn for relief, for God seems to them to have quite given them up. They can but stand fast in faith, hope, and charity, in a very thick darkness of soul. As to sinning, oh! no matter what might come upon them, they are firmly resolved never to sin, for they ever bear in their bosom a deeply humbled heart, overflowing with contrition. When they see the signs of God’s grace in other men, they are cut deep with pain; but they blame only themselves for not being equally favored, accusing themselves of wanting in fidelity. And when they strive to obtain grace by diligence and zeal in good works, they only grow dryer within. A stone is not dryer or harder than their heart feels.

Sometimes all patience seems to vanish away from them. Forebodings of the future haunt them; their sadness steadily increases in bitterness. And presently they accuse themselves of envying others the graces they enjoy; and that brings sorrow upon sorrow. By all these tribulations they are utterly worn out, and know not what they shall do. They would not willingly fail in fidelity to God and in the practice of virtue, and yet they feel unequal to any good work. They dread lest they have aroused God’s anger by their impatience; they fear that they have been guilty of the awful sin of despair — and that pains them intensely; for they really hate sin because it is rebellion against God. This feeling of intense aversion to sin heartens them somewhat, for they know that they would not wilfully provoke the Divine wrath. But at last they fall back upon mere patience and arrive at peace, even though continuing under heavy depression of spirit. They resign themselves to suffer on until it pleases God to give them a change; for they now perceive that they cannot do otherwise than blindly trust God. And this is the way God teaches detachment from all things and submission to Him. And presently a change comes over them; these souls now appear more like others who have great sweetness of devotion; but in various respects they are far nobler spirits. For their way is more like that of Christ, whose life was full of suffering.

Such a man thinks himself the poorest of the poor in spiritual gifts. But in God’s sight he is very rich. Such souls are the farthest away from God, to their own seeming, but as He sees them they are the nearest. To themselves they are God’s outcasts, and to Him they are the chosen ones. They rate themselves the most untrue to Him, and He knows them to be His most steadfast friends, most reliable to resist His dishonor, most eager to advance His glory; for they suffer only for His sake.

On account of this interior poverty they are open to severe temptations, but to these they will in no manner give place. Yet they cause them much mental torture — worse indeed than the agony of death. This is especially the case when they scruple that they have yielded to the tempter. They would gladly overcome their petty imperfections; they long to practice good works; and they find themselves powerless to do either. The pains of hell itself seem less to them than the torture this causes, this and their other interior tribulations. But it all arises from their great fidelity to God, for meanwhile their heart’s trust is ever His, but they are not able to realize this. They reckon themselves as the basest sinners in the world; in God’s eyes they are the most spotless.

One thing in them displeases God, namely, that they make so much of this their sad condition. To punish them, He now and then allows them to show impatience with others, or to commit some petty imperfection against pure love. If they were entirely faithful, God would not thus visit them; they would then simply make their sorrows their only peace. In that case their progress would outstrip that of all other men. This advantage they lose by yielding to excessive despondency.

This fault of theirs comes from their inadvertence to the wonderful fruit that must result from God’s discipline. Or perhaps from som^ hidden lack of self-abandonment, some weakness of resolve to suffer oh and on to the end — they forebode that the term of their sorrows will be longer than they can endure. They should understand that this lack of patience only prolongs the agony, and lessens the benefit to be gained. What alone can shorten their trials is patient and gentle endurance, simply giving themselves over to sorrow for God’s love. The more simply they do this, the nobler shall be their triumph, the brighter their final illumination.

For if a man will but tread this darksome way faithfully, a bright

Yet more is to be said of this blissful state, for it leads to a happy death. O, my soul, consider over and over again, the unspeakable bliss of heaven; of a soul that looks directly upon the face of God, the infinitely lovely God; think of the joy of possessing the sovereign good that God is. In Him is found all joy, power, beauty, all that is holy, all that our heart can desire. Think of possessing God with everlasting security — being very closely united to God; joined to Him, never to be again separated. O, how supremely blissful will be the sight and presence of the most holy Trinity; how sweet the company of Mary, our beloved Lord’s holy mother, with all the heavenly choirs of the angels, with all the ancient patriarchs and prophets, the apostles and the martyrs, the confessors and the virgins, and all the saints. How glorious to dwell forever in that company, so mutually affectionate, and ever rapt in the divine love. The greatest of the saints in that loving family, would, if it were possible, gladly share his joy with the least, as the least would gladly add his share of glory to that enjoyed by the greatest. So shall the souls whose proving we have been considering, having been tried and found faithful, receive in this life a foretaste of these overwhelming joys.

O how foolish are the men who turn their backs on eternal happiness, for the sake of fleshly joys on the passing good things and honors of this world. Study this matter, O my soul, whilst thou art in the way of grace and probation. Do good works, See to it, lest thou dost forfeit everlasting happiness. Hasten on to a life of virtue. Let no toil dishearten thee, but labor steadily during the short span of thy earthly existence, and with real fidelity to God, that thou mayst gain an eternal good, an eternal joy. Let there be nothing so dear to thee that thou shalt allow it to hinder thy gaining the eternal friendship of God. Canst thou not plainly see, that all possible pain, adversity and misery of this life is as nothing, if we but keep in mind the joys of eternal life? Think of all the glorious saints of God, and

Set them before thy eyes; imitate their virtues, so that thou mayst be made a sharer of their glory. O my soul, consider the joys and the honors of the heavenly Jerusalem, and its gracious loving citizens. All of them have journeyed thither along this road of Christian virtue and self denial, passing out of this valley of tears into its open gates of everlasting joy.

There are five signs of God’s favor attached to the lives of mortified men, as our Lord teaches. The first is that they cast out devils in the name of Christ. All men who have confessed their mortal sins with true contrition, can enjoy that prerogative, for they have expelled the demon from their own souls. The second is that they shall speak with new tongues. Such is the privilege in a certain sense of all who renounce sinful and idle words, and speak good and useful ones; and of all those who preach the word of God, who read the holy gospels, who recite devout prayers, who admonish and correct sinners, and who instruct the ignorant. The third sign is that they can take up serpents and not be hurt by them. This is enjoyed by all who banish bad thoughts from their souls, and withstand them manfully. The fourth sign is that they can drink any deadly thing, and it shall not hurt them. This is fulfilled in those who patiently suffer persecution and contempt of men for justice sake. The fifth and last sign is that faithful souls can lay their hands upon the sick, and they shall recover. The like of that do all good men, who forgive their enemies out of whole hearted kindness, no matter what harm has been done them; and also those who give alms to the< poor. Of all those who show these signs, as given in the holy gospel, one can safely say that they truly belong to God’s faithful friends, and that if they but persevere, they will be taken up to Christ in eternal life. God grant all of us that happy lot. Amen.

The various kinds of temptations and how to deal with each of them — How they cure a tendency to misuse sensible devotion — A sorely tempted man is well taught the supreme virtue of humility — Explanation of the more subtle interior trials — The dread of sinning — how it may be utilized.