The Sermons of Johannes Tauler · 34 of 124

First Sermon for Palm Sunday

It is expedient for you that one man should die for the people. — John xl, 50.

St. John adds that Caiaphas spoke not of himself when he said these words, but that he was moved by the Holy Ghost to prophesy; and yon will notice, dear children, that this last prophesying was just before our Saviour’s death. The chief priests had said: “What do we, for this Man doth many miracles. If we let Him alone so, all will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and will take away our place and nation.” Children, let ns admire the deep and unspeakable love of Jesus for us, shown by the wonderful sufferings He endured in all His powers of body and’ of mind, in His inner and in His outer life.

Now, children, many men enquire for the shortest road to the highest truth. Mark well that to answer this our Lord calls three kinds of men to perfection. One kind He calls to suffer public humiliation, in order that they may turn to God and maintain entire purity of intention; and such as these, if they but accept their lot humbly, will experience wonderful effects of Divine grace. To our outward senses such souls may seem deserving of condemnation, for appearances are often against them. But if we do condemn them, we shall only hurt our own selves.

Another kind of men God draws to Himself by works of penance. But let us ask, What is true penance? It is, for example, that when a man would gladly talk, he yet, for God’s sake, keeps silence; and when he would with much pleasure enjoy looking at something or indulging any of his other senses, he yet will not allow himself to do it, but, for God’s sake, shuts himself away from it. The third kind of men our beloved Lord draws by His own self.

Mark this well, children: Every man must die if all shall go well with him. And what “man” do we mean by this? We mean a man’s own

And what sign shall a man have, that he has thus spiritually and in very truth died? Be it known to thee that if thou wert dead and raised to life a thousand times over, and if thou hadst fed daily only on rocks and thorns, and been broken on the wheel, yet all this would not be the true sign of dying to self. But rather this, and this alone: If thou hast bowed thyself down beneath the infinite mercy of God with all humility and self-renunciation, yea, and under the feet of all creatures, then know for certain that Christ, entirely out of His loving kindness and compassion, has granted thee His gift.

And here shines forth Christa teaching: “So you also, when you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: We are unprofitable servants.” (Luke xvii, 10.) And if it should happen that a man comes to the end and expires fixed fast in his own will, then the Romans shall come and take away his place and nation. For, as the Empire of Rome was the greatest power in the world, so is spiritual pride the greatest among all the vices, holding possession, as it does, of the very highest powers of the soul — those that God alone should possess by His grace. It is this terrible enemy, pride, that destroys the whole virtue of a man in all his powers, from the highest to the lowest, as the Romans smote and destroyed the Jews.

Children, be on your guard, for there are many men who seem to be something wonderful, and who, with all their great knowledge and fame, go astray from this one only way to God. As long as self-guidance and self-will rules in ns and is not exterminated, it will go right onward in its fatal course, till all that Christ has done within our souls is destroyed. How many men are there not — men of fair appearance spiritually, and with whom God in the beginning worked wonders — who have, nevertheless, finally failed? It was because they did not accept this truth in single-hearted sincerity, but rested upon self, inwardly and outwardly, in mind and body. Look at King Solomon as an example of this; God once spoke familiarly with him. Look at Samson, who received God’s

And now come yet another class — men rich in the treasures of their own natural understanding and puffed up with self-importance, and they would boast that they have acquired all spirituality. No, children, their spirit is false; go not after them. For all that our poor fallen nature gives, it exacts again; and what Christ gives, He also exacts again. Yet these men often seem to bear pain more courageously than really spiritual men, to whom they speak and say: God have mercy on us! What an unmortified man art thou! Thus they mock a man who is really mortified in spirit as well as in outward behavior. But sometimes these really good men do not appear mortified, for God grants them, as a sign of their genuine and interior self-denial, the grace of being cheerful and hopeful toward God and toward all men, good and bad; they are gentle and kindly and happy in their manners. Creatures can neither give nor take, in their case; for what they long to possess, namely, God’s holy will, that they ever have, whether in pain or ease, weal or woe. That alone they desire in time and eternity, whether they reckon for themselves or think of created things. Children, waste no time with self-righteous men, led only by reason’s light. About them Christ has taught us: “Every plant which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” (Matt, xv, 13.) This fate is visited upon them because they will not repent and turn to better ways. Thoroughly good men, on the other hand, are instructed by the example of our Lord in the garden. When His bitter agony came upon him, He sweat blood, so great was His anguish of soul; and in this awful pain of heart did He continue, till He lovingly gave up His life for us. Every man must do in like manner. He must suffer death in soul and body, in what he does and what he leaves undone. Children, learn our Saviour’s lesson: It is to give yourselves up to all suffering for His sake; it is to be wholly subject to God and to all His creatures, even unto death, both in spirit and in body. God grant us this. Amen.