The Sermons of Johannes Tauler · 54 of 124

First Sermon for the Feast of Pentecost

Be prudent, therefore. — I Peter It, 7.

Holy Church at this time celebrates the sending of the Holy Qhost upon the apostles, who received Him in a most interior manner. It was necessary for onr sakes that they should make such a beginning of a new existence, for we are by their means to receive the same Divine gift. And it was good that they should be comforted, for they had languished comfortless and forsaken within and without. And it finally came to pass, that as long as they continued in this life the disciples constantly grew into deeper union with the Holy Qhost. So should every true friend of God celebrate this lovely festival every day he lives — yes, every day and every hour should he receive the Holy Qhost in his soul. The whole task of his life is to prepare a loving welcome for Him. And His coming again and again continuously fits the soul better and better for His ever-renewed entrance. As Pentecost day was the festival of the Holy Ghost’s being sent to the disciples, so is every day of the year a Pentecost day to each Christian. If he will but thoroughly prepare his soul, the Divine Spirit will enter in with all His graces and gifts.

And now, Children, here is our dear apostle St. Peter to teach us what that preparation is. He says to us: “Be prudent, therefore.” And this does not only mean wisdom, but experience also, by which a man knows how to do a thing all the better, because he has made trial of doing it over and over again. The apostle means that we should have the habitual knowledge and the foresight which come from practice, and that in all our spiritual affairs. He means that we shall thereby

Children, the men who rightly comprehend this preparation, and who understand the noblest manner of receiving the lloly Ghost, are those who cut off all thingB but God, who are made entirely empty, and thus attain to the interior life and Divine unity: these are rightly prepared for the Holy Ghost.

And what is this true and genuine detachment? It is voluntary separation from all that is not simply and purely God. It is the searching of the soul with careful scrutiny, to discover if there is even the least thing, though it be in its inmost depths, that is not simply God. It is constantly enquiring whether or not God and God alone is had in view in all things done or omitted. And when anything is found that savors aught else than God alone, it means cutting it off absolutely. And this preparation is the task not only of men whose lives are very holy and interior, but of every good man whatsoever.

Children, we meet with good men, well versed in excellent religious exercises, who yet know nothing whatever of the interior life. Yet these are bounden to search out all that may interfere with God’s reign in their souls, and instantly to cut it off. This much detachment every one must certainly have; otherwise he cannot receive the Holy Ghost and His Divine gifts. It is taking God into account in all things, separating ourself from all that is not God.

But men differ much in way of this separation, and in their waiting for God’s Spirit. Some receive Him in the way of the senses and of devotional feeling; others, more nobly, by way of the soul’s highest faculties and in the reason, far removed from sensible emotions; others, again, while partaking of both these ways, receive the Holy Spirit in the hidden recesses of their soul, in that secret Kingdom of God, where the sweet vision of the Holy Trinity is enshrined: and this is the noblest way of all. Ah, children, how gladly does the Holy Ghost make such a soul as that His chosen abode, and how divinely are His gifts imparted there. As often as that man but glances intelligently into his interior life, so often does he renew his union with the Holy Spirit, each instant receiving new favors. Nothing more is needed than that he maintain his earnest purpose to be ever turned toward God alone, in all wisdom, and in all detachment of spirit. He scrutinizes all his doings and all his ways and words and works, eager to detect whatever may not have God alone for its meaning, instantly correcting himself when necessary.

By the Holy Spirit’s light of grace, he guides his steps in all the moral virtues — such as humility, mildness, gentleness, silence and piety; watching his motives lest any of these good acts should be done for other intention than God only. And the natural virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance, are all under this same Divine light, as he performs their holy acts. This is indeed the good ordering of a man, a divine ordering, the establishing of purely Divine motives, all thingB arranged in God, all done for God’s sake.

When the Holy Ghost finds that a man has done his part in this field of the natural virtues, He pours into the natural light of the soul His supernatural illumination, and with it the grace of the supernatural virtues — Divine faith, and hope, and love. Now he is enlightened; now he becomes a virtuous man indeed, a Godlike man in his state of disengagement from created things. But as to this, one must act with prudence, for it often happens that what appears to be God’s action, is, when more closely considered, found to be not so, and hence one must be on one’s guard.

And furthermore it sometimes happens that a man who has entirely given himself up to God, yet fancies with much anguish of mind that he has not done so sincerely. He then thinks that all the good he ever did is lost and wasted. Peace has now fled from his soul, all is trouble and woe. Children, this anguish frequently comes from natural bodily causes; or, again, it is due to bad weather acting on the nerves; or it is the influence of the evil one, who would gladly distress the soul of so good a man. And Buch an unfavorable condition one must meet in all quietness of mind and meekness of spirit.

Some would oppose it with violence, storm against it with forceful measures, and by such means make fools of themselves. They run about to learned doctors and to devout servants of God begging advice. But they are asking for what they cannot have: no one can give them relief. Children, when this interior storm strikes a man, he should do as one does when overtaken by a storm of wind, rain and hail — he should take shelter under a roof till the storm passes over. Is a man conscious that he desires nothing whatever but God? Then when this trial assails him, let him humbly bow to it, let him patiently suffer in all abandonment to God, in all painful detachment of spirit, and wait upon God in his deep affliction, his soul all calm and gentle. Who can tell in what manner the loving God will come to him and grant him His precious favors? Dear soul, remain under the sheltering roof of God’s will man cannot lose his upright intention so easily as when he revels in consolations and the sweetness of devotion. Among these nature can readily insinuate lower motives, and the taint of spiritual self-indulgence may unconsciously stain the soul. God’s gifts are not God’s self. Our joy must be in God alone, not in His gifts.

Children, human nature is ever greedy, ever selfish. We hinder God’s work in us, we destroy his glorious gifts after they are granted us, because we allow selfishness to appropriate what is not our own, yielding to the poisonous influences inherited from original sin. Our nature looks to self in everything. St. Thomas teaches that by this infection of nature, man is inclined to love himself more than anything else, even the angels, nay, even more than God — not that God created us thus perverse, but it has all resulted from the original turning away from God in the fall of Adam. And this evil tendency is rooted so deep in us, that its traces baffle the search of all the wise men in the world. All the industry of man cannot correct this innate weakness of both his inner and outer life. It often happens, that when we fancied God alone was our motive, it turned out that it was only the poisonous influences of nature that guided us — we were but seeking self in everything. St. Paul was a true prophet when he said: “In the last days, shall come dangerous times. Men shall be lovers of themselves” (II Tim. iii, 1, 2). This is manifestly the case in these times; for the world is full of misery because men, both of the world and of the clerical stated-how pitiful a spectacle! — are both openly and secretly striving to defraud one another. And father confessors are sometimes privy to this, by condoning it by means of their novel and pagan interpretations of holy scripture. Children, if any of you fall under my accusations in this matter, I beg him to amend at once, if he would come to God. O if one could but give up self in his outer and inner life, in spirit and in nature, it were a precious gain! It would be a small price to pay if he gave up gold and silver and castles and farms for this end. Even in our interior spirit and in our devotions, nay, in our closest approach to God, nature secretly insinuates selfishness, so great is the deordination of self-love; and herein God’s way of having us act, is rightly given us by St. Peter: “Be ye prudent, therefore.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ also admonishes us how to be wise: “Be ye therefore wise as serpents” (Matt, x, 16) . Remark how the eternal Son of Qod has given us this very humble comparison, to teach us the wisdom of His Father, and His Own unspeakably glorious wisdom. As He was Himself always very humble, so is His teaching very simple. Now you should know the wisdom of the serpent in this: when it finds its skin grown old, it selects a place where two stones are close together, and by going between them it draws off the old skin, and soon is furnished with a new one. So must a man’ get rid of his old skin, that is whatsoever he possesses by nature, no matter how great or how precious — all that is not purely God he must lay aside. To accomplish this he must pass between two Divine stones, one being the eternal Godhead, which is truth itself; and the other is the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the way and the truth. Between these must be drawn a man’s very life in its essence and its action, including all his virtues, both natural or moral. Of this stone that Christ is, St. Paul speaks: “Jesus Christ being the chief corner-stone” (Eph. ii, 20). And thou mayst be sure, that if thou dost not truly strip thyself thus most humbly between these stones, then nothing will avail thee, even if thou wert as wise as Solomon and as strong as Samson. Lose thyself in Christ’s poverty, in His obedience, in His love, drawing all thy transgressions off of thy soul in detachment of spirit; and then take upon thee all His virtues, His doctrine, and His life. By this means will a man receive the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, and more especially the three Divine virtues of faith, hope and charity, all perfection, and all truth, interior peace and joy in the Holy Ghost

From this detachment is born kindness, and also separation from all worldly things; so that one now receives freely from God’s hands and with entire thankfulness, joy or sorrow, or whatever else may befall him In the inner life or the outer: everything helps him to eternal happiness. Such a man has the grace to feel, that whatever happens him has been eternally foreseen by his heavenly Father, and in the very way it does happen, and, viewing all things as God does, he rests in peace of mind, no matter what occurs. This peace of soul is gained only in the practice of real detachment, and in solicitude of spirit; in that school and in no other can it be acquired. Let a man seek it in all sincerity, and it will soon be his, and become a virtue rooted in the depths of his being.

All that I have preached to you in this sermon is addressed to noblehearted men; let such bear these rules continually in mind, and in word before them as their single motive, stripping themselves of all hindrances to grace by means of our corner-stone, Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth eternally with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Amm.

Himself in the soul — Signs of this are dullness and self-disgust, despondency arising from self-contempt and a feeling of total emptiness of good — Delusions resulting from the first joys of divine union: self-appropriation of divine gifts, silly excess of spiritual enjoyment, forgetfulness of inborn weakness— On return to their good sense, these souls honor God by wisdom of speech, and by charity of act, and by invincible patience.