The Sermons of Johannes Tauler · 100 of 124

Sermon for the Feast of Our Lady’s Visitation, or

Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits. — Bed I. xxlv, 26.

Of our blessed Lady St. Bernard writes: “We cannot praise her enough, and yet we must be silent on account of the surpassing glory of her virtues.” And he elsewhere says, addressing her: “However lofty thy place in thy kinship with the deity, yet forget not thy kinship with our poor humanity: enter not so deep into the abyss of the divine nature as to become unmindful of the weakness of our human nature, which thou in thy day hast so well experienced.” And there are many other praises of Mary by St. Bernard and other saints.

Now as relates to our Lady’s patronage there are two classes of souls. One class prays not to her because, aB they say, they cannot pray at all: or rather all their prayer is a sort of vain abandonment to God that He may deal with them and with all that concerns them according to His good pleasure. The other class earnestly and continually pray to our Lady and to the other saints, seeking their intercession in all their necessities. Now both these classes of souls may easily go astray. The first class are wrong in not fulfilling the commands of holy Church, which require them to pray. Our Lord himself taught us to pray, and left us a beautiful form of prayer: He Himself cohtiinially prayed to His Father. Such persons offer as excuse that their prayers have not been heard — and this shows their foolishness; for they would have been heard if they had asked no hurtful gift. Borne things the Lord will not grant, no matter how earnestly we beg Him. St. Gregory writes: “God dqsires us to pray our loving trust in Him has been stimulated; and our soul is comforted by receiving help from Him.

The others may also easily go wrong, because they pray with unmortified spirits. They would have every things succeed with them just only because they pray: they do not leave the disposal of their affairs to God. Now they should indeed pray, but with real submission to God’s will — let Him do as He pleases in all circumstances and about all things. You will remember how we lately said, that beginners must cut off as if with a sharp shears all foul sins; that thoed more advanced should exterminate their foul inclinations to sin; and that those who seem to be even more perfect, should shave off the slightest tendencies to evil.

As to these latter, the beautiful souls who have disengaged themselves from all love of created things, and turned to God with all their heart to love and serve Him alone, — these the evil spirit assails with temptations so terrible as to affright any worldling who could appreciate them. Worldlings, to be sure, have their temptations, but in a differway, for they arise from their own unmortified nature, from the humors of their flesh and blood all tainted with sin. And how shall such a one escape? By striking down his corrupt nature, and steadfastly resisting the evil one, and casting him forth: so he is defeated and gives over exciting this man’s sensuality. But a perfect man has done all this long ago. He is already a mortified soul. His temptation does not come from within, but from without, except the demon may find some remnants of sinful inclination within him, as for example a tendency to anger. Upon this the evil one fastens, here he concentrates his cunning and his guile. The demon as it were throws a burr upon him, then several more burrs, some front and others back, and so on till he is all covered with burrs, that is to say with temptations. If he is inclined to anger, the evil one suggests wrathful thoughts, irritating recollections, until at last the poor man roars with rage as if he were actually beating somebody. Could he but steady himself for a moment, and prostrate himself in spirit before God in deep humility imploring His assistance, and mentally turn towards his enemies and set his soul to be reconciled and at peace, nor offer any excuses or palliations for his angry outburst, but sink down meekly into his own nothingness — if he could but do this, then, children, his

God’s face like snow before the sun; the demon would vanish away empty handed. If he can have access to his father confessor, all this will be much facilitated. Whatsoever man acts thus wisely, will gain ground by his trial and be prepared to go higher up in the divine favor.

Now I will speak of something that does not concern everybody; and from speaking of which we poor, weak men naturally shrink, and indeed from even hearing about it, for it is high doctrine, especially to those who never lived according to it. Yet even those who are familiar with it cannot rightly explain it. The book of Job says: “A spirit passed before me, and the hair of my flesh stood up” (Job iv, 15). St. Gregory understands this to mean the apparition of our Lord’s sacred humanity, the word spirit signifying His divinity, which is hidden from all creatures. He understands the same of the vision of Elias: “A great and strong wind before the Lord, overthrowing the mountains, and breaking the rocks in pieces: the Lord is not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake: the Lord is not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire: the Lord is not in the fire; and after the fire, the whistling of a gentle air. And when Elias heard it, he covered his face with his mantle” (III Kings, 11-13). The Lord was thus in “the whistling of a gentle air;” and children, the overthrowing of the mountains, the earthquake and the fire, these were all but preparations for the Lord. St. Gregory says: “The high mountain means proud, lofty souls; the hard rocks, mean unmortified spirits and self -conceited men, fast fixed in self-chosen spiritual ways, doing great things indeed, but all with a sense of personal proprietorship.” When the Lord would come to such men as these, he sends an earthquake beforehand, turning everything within them upside down. But, alas, those who profit by this visitation are not many. The reason is that men cling to transitory things, and this is rooted in their dogged resistance to God: they rest in that, and in gratification of the senses.

In some, however, the Lord works His way, with greater or less success; and as His visitations are repeated, it seems to such a man a hundred times over — I have met many a one of them — as if he were at the point of death. Once such a man, dreading day and night that in his agony his life was about to be wrenched away from him, begged our Lord to tell him what to do and whether it was right for him to accept such a visitation at the peril of his life. Our Lord answered him: Canst thou not inwardly dare and suffer what I outwardly suffered in

After the earthquake came the fire, and the Lord was not in the fire. Children, this means fiery love, devouring one’s blood and marrow, and making one as it were beside himself. A certain man was so inwardly consumed with this ardent love, and indeed so strongly affected even outwardly, that he felt he would never amount to anything again — he would soon be entirely burnt up with the heat of his feelings. Another one whom I knew could no longer sleep from the burning sentiments of his soul. Only when he could lie down in the snow of a winter’s day could he fall asleep — and presently the heat of his body melted the snow into a wide pool of water around him. Behold, children, how this fiery love in the spirit spreads its heat into the ‘ body: and yet in nothing of all this did the Lord come.

After that came a sweet, silent air, a soft breathing of the wind like a whisper: in that came the Lord. Children, what think you was this?

— coming after the swift and strong wind, the earthquake, - and the fire, and all the upheavals of poor human nature in body and soul. O what a wonderful thing must that be, to have such a preparation, and to introduce the entrance of onr Lord. Be sure that unless the Lord had supported that man’s natural forces with supernatural strength, then would he have sunk beneath the marvellous joy of the Lord’s coming, even had he the might of a hundred men together. And yet this coming of the Lord is only a glimpse of Him. For only a glimpse was granted to Elias, and it was so dazzling that the prophet covered his head with his mantle. The cave of Elias may represent onr impatience; but the door of the cave, is the grace of beholding God; and the covering of the eyes with the mantle, is to teach ns that however fleeting may be the sight of God granted to the soul in this condition, it yet overwhelms it — nature cannot endure it. Children, the Lord God is there in very truth, and His presence if sweeter than honey and the

As weak eyes cannot bear the sunlight, a thousand times less able is weak human nature to bear the sweetness of this experience. Dear children, whatever one may say of this, or even think about it, is wholly unlike the truth: it is as if I .were to point to a heap of black coals and exclaim: Behold the bright sun that shines through all the universe. Children, it is in this manifestation that essential peace is born in the soul, that peace that surpasses every other peace.

The Spirit spoken of in the book of Job was the person of the Son of Qod; and the Lord that came to the prophet in the whispering of a gentle air, that was the Holy Ghost. And St. Gregory notices that: “Whereas He came to the prophet in the whisper of a gentle air, He came to the disciples on Pentecost day in the rushing of a mighty wind. And this is the reason: the disciples received Him for the outward life and benefit of the whole Christian people, and hence He came to them in a public manner, striking and captivating the senses; but this was not necessary in the prophet’s case, for to His spirit alone He was sent.” Blessed is the man who was born to enjoy this great favor, if it be only for a single instant before his death. Yet you must understand that however high this privilege may be, it is wholly unequal to the sweetness that the soul will enjoy in eternal life hereafter — yes, it is no more than the littlest drop of water compared to the bottomless ocean.

And now how flues it with these interior souls, thus favored with newly discovered- joys? They sink down into their own nothingness in a manner quite indescribable; they- would be annihilated a hundred times over, (if they could be allowed so to think) for God’s praise and glory, so strong is their sense of His majesty, so great is their love of His goodness. For the more they are interiorly taught of His dignity, the more do they recognize their own littleness, their very nothingness. By this sense of their own unworthiness they are so wholly stripped of self-hood, that if God willed to deprive them of their present sweetness of consolation, they would not repine, nay, they would fly from it instantly. And if they freely and deliberately wished to retain it against God’s will, that would be a fault in them, and they might easily merit purgatory for it: all is not quite right with a soul thus selfishly yielding to spiritual joy.

The faculty of love in man thirsts for suffering for the sake of the beloved, however much one’s reason may revolt against it. And hence these favored souls have a burning desire to suffer. The greatest joy

Christ: beneath that beloved cross they constantly stand, longing for its sorrows and pains with most interior love, for it is their lover’s gibbet. In their souls, every day is the feast of the holy cross in very deed, so sweet to them iB a share in Christ’s crucifixion. The gracious form of Jesus crucified is imprinted deep on their inmost soul; in glorious splendor does it shine within them. St. Paul was rapt into the third heaven, and yet what was his glory? He tells us: “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. vi, 14). And thus speaks the holy man Job: “My soul rather chooseth hanging, and my bones death” (Job vii, 15). Of all the favors God had bestowed on him, this was the one he chose in preference to the others. To the soul that we have been considering, hanging on the cross is indeed the extremity of pain, but yet it is preferred to every other lot, because its beloved God has hung on the cross for its sake. And the soul’s longing for suffering is now granted: God casts upon it the most awful darkness of woe, the most terrible sense of abandonment.

When this happens, how fares it with the soul’s power of loving, being thus ablaze with dreadful fiery love, and yet wholly deprived of all perceptable consolation? The power of loving is now chided by the power of reasoning in this wise: Behold, thou lover, and consider the heritage of love bestowed on thee by thy Beloved: — thou art a soul filled with God and a body and all natural faculties filled with pain. And this is the very truth. And as love burns hotter and more painfully, so does this heritage become more welcome and its banquet taste sweeter. It is the heritage promised of old by the prophets to the friends of God. The more lovingly the heritage of suffering is cherished by the lover, the more blissful and glorious shall be the eternal heritage hereafter. It is what the holy martyrs longed for with sighs of love. And the favored souls we are considering seem to themselves only now to begin to live; and they feel like beginners in the life of perfection. Alas that this most delightful, exceptional and perfect good gift is so little known. Alas, that it is so commonly neglected, and that men prefer to it the miserable enjoyments of this wretched world. May God pity such folly, and may we ever lament it. May God direct us in this, His chosen path of perfection, and bring us straight to the end. Amen.

Synapsis — Unchaste tendencies considered — Temptations arising from carelessness — Self-denial a safeguard — The secret springs of unchastity — Occasions arising from spiritual relationships — Precautions in dealing with the other sex.