The Sermons of Johannes Tauler · 56 of 124

Third Sermon for the Feast of Pentecost

And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. — Acts 11, 4.

This is the blessed day on which the Holy Qhost was sent down upon the Lord’s holy disciples, and upon all who were united to them in God’s love. Today was restored to us by God’s mercy that precious gift of grace, first lost to us in Eden through the evil counsel of Satan and human weakness. The outward manner of this high gift was wonderful, to say nothing of the hidden marvels enclosed in the apostles’ souls, for this is incomprehensible to all reason and sense. The Holy Spirit is so immeasurable and so lovable a boon, that His infinite greatness totally surpasses all our powers of understanding by means of figures and mental conceptions. A little grain of dust compared to the whole bulk of the world, even this is more than all our power of thinking and imagining, compared to the task of understanding the Holy Ghost. And all creatures together are infinitely less than our least thoughts of the Holy Spirit. Therefore it is that wheresoever He shall take up His abode, He must Himself make ready all thingB for His reception. God’s own deep abyss must be God’s place of welcome, and

The disciples were all filled with the Holy Ghost. This bringB ns to the consideration of their condition at the time; and it is that of all of God’s followers when they are to receive Him. We find that they were all shut in and assembled together in one place, and that they sat in all stillness, when they received the Holy Ghost. And so with us. This beloved Spirit of God is given to each one of us, as often and as much as we are shut off from all creatures and turned wholly to God. The very instant this happens in a man, the Holy Ghost comes to him with all His graces, and He fills every desire; He takes possession of the very being and essence of the soul. And, on the other hand, the very instant the soul turns away from God — that is to say deliberately — and gives itself to creatures apart from God, having its own self and not God in view, that very instant the Holy Ghost takes His departure from the soul with all His treasures.

“And filled the whole House” where the disciples were sitting. And herein we may understand holy Church to be meant, which is indeed God’s house; and in another sense it may mean each man among us. For each one should be a temple and dwelling place of God, well beloved by the Holy Ghost as being His chosen shrine. And as in every house there are many different living rooms, so in a man there are many senses, powers and activities, into all of which the Holy Ghost comes with His gifts. And the moment He enters in He lights up a man’s soul interiorly with His brightness, He excites him to the practice of virtue. This entrance of God into the soul and His interior working is not always perceived, although Ho is thus present in all good men. If one would plainly feel that holy presence and taste God’s sweetness, he must gather all his faculties together into one place, as it were; he must shut himself away from all outward things, and give himself up in all stillness to His Divine Guest. Then will he feel Him in all his soul’s activities, all the more in proportion to the increase of his fervor in turning wholly to Him, hour by hour adding to his first impulse of devoted allegiance.

The disciples of God were shut in out of fear of the Jews. O merciful God, how much more necessary a thousand times is it not for us in these days, to take flight and to be shut in and separated from the wicked

Jews whom we meet at every corner of oar life, and who fill all onr houses. Ah, beloved children, beware of these hateful Jews, that is to say the men who would rob yon of God, of confidence in God, and of the delightful communion of your soul with the Holy Ghost. The Jews of old could do no more against the apostles than take away the life of their bodies, but the men of the wretched world of today can deprive you of eternal life, rob you of your soul and of God. Fly from these Jews, shut yourselves safely away from them, put an end to your dangerous companionship with them, beware of dallying with them, whether by words or deeds; for God’s honor and praise is not with them. And if you fail in this, be sure that you will lose the Holy Ghost and forfeit all His gifts.

But someone might say: No, sir, this intercourse with men does me no harm, because I mean no evil in it. And I must recreate myself and enjoy some little relaxation. But O my God, how is it that Thou, the sweetest and the only good, Thou eternal and infinite joy — how is it that Thou hast no sweetness to our taste, while we can find peace and happiness in the enjoyment of miserable, perishing creatures, full of darkness and destruction. O man, how canst thou prefer the joy of creatures to that of God, and drive from thy heart the blessed Spirit that made thee, and is and must be thy truest consolation?

But, dear children, fly not the company of good men, those who long for God’s love alone, and who keep Him ever in mind with deep sincerity. When such as these are engaged with outward things, they nevertheless remain preoccupied with their interior life, where they are always privileged to enjoy the peace and happiness of the Holy Ghost.

The disciples of God were all assembled together; and this teaches us to gather in to our hearts all our mental faculties and all our bodily senses, so that the Holy Ghost may constantly act upon them, producing, as He is sure to do, wonderful fruits of grace, when place and time are found appropriate.

The disciples of God were seated when they received the Holy Ghost. So must thou in very truth sit down submissive to God’s will in all events, whether joyful or sad, doing or not doing. And this is a necessary requirement on the part of God from all who would become spiritual men. For what is meant by spirituality, except to be intimately united to God in one will? All Christians who would be saved are bound to this — to will nothing against God’s will.

And now one might enquire whether all men in the ecclesiastical state are bound to become perfect. They are bound, answers St. Thomas,

The first gift is Divine fear, which is the certain entrance way to perfection even the highest. The gift of fear is like a solid wall of resistance against all transgressions and all hindrances. Holy fear causes one to flee from deadly snares, as well as to escape falling into the deep pit. The soul becomes like a bird that the hunter would entrap, but which flies swiftly away into safety. As God gives this instinct of safety to His inanimate creatures, so does He bestow His blessed gift of fear upon us, to enable us to escape whatever would hinder us from union with Him. This noble gift guards us from the world, from the evil spirit and from our own weakness — from every manner of means by which we may forfeit our peace of soul. Whatever man has really given place to the Holy Ghost within him, quickly flees from danger; and he makes no terms with evil, nor holds any middle place between what is for God and what is against Him, that is to say in what involves mortal sin. And in all this, the gift of fear is, as the prophet taught, the beginning of wisdom.

After the gift of fear comes that of piety, a gentle endowment, which leads the soul far in advance on the journey toward union with sovereign truth. This gift takes from a man all depressing influences that might result from fear, lifting him out of his heaviness of spirit, so that he may have Divine trustfulness in all that may occur, both in inward feelings and outward happenings. Piety cures spiritual weariness, remedies obstinacy, and softens bitterness against one’s self. And it makes one kindly toward one’s neighbor in word and deed, very peaceful in outward behavior: and as to rashness, that the Spirit of God by this gift banishes totally away.

The third gift follows after, elevating the soul yet higher — the gift of knowledge. These gifts lap over one another and partake more or less of one another, but each in turn places the soul nearer to God. Dear children, in God a man is enabled by this gift to hearken to the Holy Ghost’s interior voice warning him and guiding him, ‘according to the words of our beloved Lord Jesus Christ: “When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will teach you all truth” (John xvi, 13) ; that is to say, all thingB that we need to know. The warning of God is like this: O man,

Qod also bids ns do thingB: Act in such and such a way; give up this and undertake that. All these thingB are the gentle leadings of the Holy Spirit. He would have our souls possess the mastery over our bodies in all things, ruling them with a noble spiritual supremacy. He would have our bodies live a worthy life, by practicing virtue and in steadfast industry. He would have us suffer disgrace patiently. He would draw every single one of us to Himself, that He may elevate us to a thousandfold more perfect union, banishing inordinate fear.

They who are faithful to this gift of knowledge, Qod leads to the fourth gift, Divine fortitude. O children, how noble and how very superior a gift of God is this, for it lifts us high above our human weakness. This was the force in the holy martyrs, as they cheerfully suffered death through God’s assistance Fortitude makes a man greathearted. He feels able to perfectly accomplish everything for God, to suffer everything for His sake, as St. Paul said: “I can do all things in Him who strengtheneth me” (Phil, iv, 13). To such a man neither fire nor water nor death itself has any terrors; as St. Paul again teaches: “For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Bom. viii, 38, 39). With this gift a man becomes so strong, that he goes far beyond abstaining from mortal sins; he would rather die than deliberately commit even a single venial sin. And this is a doctrine taught us by our dear saints; for if all will admit that we should give up life rather than wilfully commit a mortal sin, the saints, in addition to this by example and teaching, lead us to abhor venial sin.

With the gift of fortitude the soul can do wonderful thingB. You must know, dear children, that when the Spirit of God comes into our souls. He always brings great joy, bright light, sweet consolation, for He is called and He is the Comforter. And now what too often happens? When the silly man feels this happiness, he appropriates it to himself in a state of self-satisfaction. He diverts his mind away from God to the enjoyment of God’s gifts. Quite the contrary is the way of the wise Christian. He ever reverts to the origin of his joy, restores all God’s gifts back to God with clear-minded self-renunciation. Not this or that particular one; but all without exception that he is and has he refers straight back to God alone.

Upon this follows the Divine gift of counsel, the fifth in order. Ah, how great is the need of God’s counsel now; for it will be as if He had taken away all that He had given before, showing a man in naked reality what he is and what he can do! But He will instruct him how he should bear himself in this sore trial of self-knowledge. A man is now left destitute; of God he knows nothing — bo it appears to him, — has nothing of His grace, is wholly deprived of comfort. Whatever he had before is gone — gone, at least, out of his knowledge, snatched away and vanished. He stands desolate, at a loss what to do or whither to turn. The gift of counsel is now of essential necessity, if he would behave as God would have him, and yield himself up to God’s holy will, dying to self, standing ‘ in utter abandonment to his heavenly Father, giving himself cheerfully up to the awful secret judgment of God, by which he has been despoiled — so he thinks — of those graces which were once his perfect salvation and joy and comfort. This gift is no less a grace than to be content to be robbed of one’s very self — this utter abandonment to God’s will, this sinking down into the abyss of the Divine sovereignty. Nor is it enough to be willing to accept this fate for a week or a month of dark suffering, but for a long thousand years, if God so wills it — nay (if such a thing were possible consistently with loving God), to accept the eternal pains of hell, if God so willed, so that one might at last be wholly conformed to the Divine decree.

Dear children, here is a grade of self-renunciation above all others. Compared to this, the giving up of a thousand’ worlds is nothing; or the offering of their lives that the blessed martyrs made, for they had God’s comfort in their souls, so that they could laugh at tortures and could die joyously. But there is no torture to compare with the loss of God that is now felt by the soul undergoing this trial. And, besides, all the misery that the soul had previously endured with patience, all the temptations it had previously overcome, all the faults it had rooted out — all this together now returns upon it and assails it, and that with a violence far greater than when the soul was struggling out of a state of sinfulness. Now let a man suffer meekly, now let him give up to God’s will, and that for as long a time as God pleases. Sometimes a good soul will be so self-weary as to find solitude an unbearable agony — not for one hour can he be alone. For relief he turns now to this solace and again to that, and ever in vain: his only recourse is to struggle meekly through it all and yield himself up to God. Why, think you, did the Lord say to St. Peter, that a man should forgive his enemy seventy times seven

Dear children, in this trial as in all things else, one must resign himself into God’s hands, and be guided by His gift of counsel, lifting himself high above all created existence, and becoming united to the origin and essence that is God’s will.

Dear children, by the three first gifts of the Holy Spirit — fear of God, piety toward God, and God’s science or knowledge — a man is made good and holy; but by those of fortitude and counsel he becomes heavenly, and as it were Divine. It is by these, in truth, that God sets a man in everlasting life. After enduring the agony we have described, the soul endures no other agony whether in earth or hell. It is impossible that the eternal God would ever give that soul up, any more than He would give Himself up, for the soul has yielded itself totally to the Divine will. That soul has placed itself safely in the one only origin of all things, and if all the suffering in this world fell upon it, it would regard it not at all, it would experience no manner of harm, nay, it would even turn it into joy — such a soul seems to be in Heaven itself. That man’s conversation is in that blessed home of his soul, into which he has, as it were, placed one foot; and now he has only to draw the other one after it in order to be wholly in life eternal. He is in direct communication with everlasting joy, which, indeed, has already begun in his soul.

And now come the last two gifts, understanding and wisdom, which lead a man directly into the abyss of God’s being, and in a manner far above any other means. The way of these gifts is understood by God alone, for they grant a savor of His own essential wisdom. When the soul is given them, it is forthwith lost to its own consciousness. Self is absorbed in God. A man can think of nothing of his own, neither works, nor feelings, nor knowledge, nor life. All this has been absorbed and centered in one simple infinite good, to which it is joined in the unspeakable depths of God, joined in essential unity. What God has in Himself by nature, that He now imparts to the soul by grace, the Divine being, unnamed and without form or manner of existence that we can express. And now everything that is done in that soul God Himself does, acting, knowing, loving, praising, enjoying; all of which the soul has and does as if it were passive instrument of God’s activity. One can no more speak of this state clearly than he can speak clearly of the Divine life itself. To men and angels it is far too high for expression. The created mind is incapable of understanding God’s’ life, whether in Himself in His natural activity, or in these favored souls, when it is a gift of grace.

And thus it is that the Holy Ghost leads those who prepare their souls for Him, who long to be filled with Him, who would entertain Him as their Divine Guest, who would yield themselves freely and loyally to His guidance. How glad and more than glad should we not be to extend Him this welcome, giving up for His dear sake ourselves and all things else. That is what the disciples did when He was granted them on the feast we today celebrate; that is what is done daily and hourly by all who make themselves ready for His coming. May God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, grant us the privilege of this noblest way of union with the Holy Spirit. Amen.