The Sermons of Johannes Tauler · 106 of 124

Sermon for the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene

Martha, Martha, thou art careful, and art troubled about many things; but one thing is necessary. Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her. — Luke x, 41, 42.

Dear devout children of God, I greet you in our blessed Lord Jesus Christ and in His coming, which shall be to you fruitful of eternal life. I have this day gathered into one discourse that divine doctrine that is the straightest way to eternal happiness. Amen.

Dearly beloved, earnestly observe your own hearts and their failings; and at the same time take careful account of the Divine inspirations sent you. Be not deluded by the attractions of transitory things, nor the evil tendencies of your own nature. Would you become the best loved friends and followers of our dear Lord Jesus Christ? Then you must wholly cut off from you all perishable things whose use does not lead you to God. You must dispense with their use except in cases of real necessity. You must rest upon God alone in all circumstances of life, quite cut off from reliance on created things. As to your fellow-men, you must likewise cut off all unnecessary communication with them, whether in deeds or words; and especially must you be averse to the human and natural pleasure of their company. You are to banish from your soul the images of creatures, and stand free of natural joy in them, or even consciousness— as far as duty allows — of their existence. This was what the Blessed Mary Magdalene did; this is what our Lord praised in her. All this being done on thy part, the Lord can do His part within thee,

His supernatural work after His own holy will. He can inflame thee with His burning love; He can overflow thy soul with Divine grace. He will meanwhile impart to thee heavenly prudence, giving thee all guidance necessary to bring thee to sit at His feet and contemplate Him as Mary did.

Be assured of this, dear children, that if we only knew it, all outward superfluity in things and in works has power to blind our soul’s eyes to true perception of God’s inspirations and our own transgressions. Even when these external things engage us from motives of divine love and are far from being bad, they are often the less perfect ways to God. For did not our Lord Jesus Christ praise Mary Magdalene for her total detachment when He said that she had chosen the best part? And did He not rebuke Martha for being careful and troubled about even important outward service? And yet she was engaged with ardent love in the very seemly duty of providing for the comfort of Himself and His dear disciples. Wouldst thou, therefire, have God’s special consolations, and wouldst thou understand His high spiritual doctrine, so full of fruit, so very needful; and wouldst thou be provided by Him with all things necessary for body and soul? Then must thou cut off all superfluities. Thou must dispense with what is not truly necessary in thy every day life, both inner and outer, guided herein by the voice of God in thy conscience.

Above all must we shun all those persons whose memory dwells with us, whose image interposes between us and God. And it matters not how holy they may be; if dealing with them halts us on the way to God, then they must be given up. In that case they are not truly our friends or helpers in acquiring real loyalty to God, whether they be religious or secular or even father confessors.

One never finds God so perfectly, so fruitfully, as in separation and solitude. Bo did the Blessed Mother of God find Him, St. John the Baptist. St. Mary Magdalene, the other saints of Christ, and the patriarchs of old. They fled from the world and the company of men. They shook off the cares of human society, and then withdrew into wastes and forests the most remote they could find. Ah, children, amusements and company and conversation and all unnecessary dealing with creatures, lead to a sad old age, even when such intercourse is well intended and all seems innocent enough. The reason is that when our heart is full of the images of these things — nil alien to our falsehood and unrest. A man dreams he will find comfort and relaxation of mind, and he ends in wholly losing inner comfort; he is robbed of that peace of heart which he had gathered by long-continued selfdenial and recollection. We become encumbered with all sorts of superfluities, we become addicted to petty lying, and we waste precious hours of time. Our hearts are cooled towards God, love is quenched, conscience is gnawed with remorse, and we are made impatient and easily provoked to bitter anger.

Oh the misery of not being able to understand this truth: that neither comfort nor peace, neither true joy nor veritable relaxation of mind can be anywhere found except in God alone. If we did but turn to Him in whole-hearted fervor and waited on Him with gentle patience —as did the souls of the ancient fathers in limbo for thousands of years — how happy would be our lot; though our waiting can be at most only for the short space of our natural life. He will grant us His sweet comfort in due time, however unworthy we may be of it. He hides Himself for a little while, but that if for our best advantage so that He may inflame our love the more later on, and lead us to higher perfection. Whatsoever is for our spiritual advantage He neither will nor can withhold from us, whether it be external favors or interior graces; and He best knows what we stand in need of.

Alas, how pitiful it is that we so foolishly allow trifling things to hinder us, even to hurt us. We fancy that our fine discourses, full of eloquent things about God, will be pleasing to Him, forgetting how exceedingly simple was His own address to His well-loved disciples. Or, . again, we fancy that with noisy and showy works — eating up our precious time — we may serve God rightly and best help our neighbor. Others are not even as good as that; they idly gad about among pious people, making useless visits, and filling their souls with images that obscure the all-lovely figure of our Lord Jesus Christ. We fail to remember that even our Lord’s most holy presence in bodily form had become a hindrance to His disciples, as He said: “If I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” (John xvi, 7) . .

Another delusion is that we can possess and enjoy with all feeling of proprietorship many things in this life without spiritual hurt — temporal goods, favorite company, amusements, friends in the world and those in religion, relatives; not recalling that He Himself chose to be disgraced, a wretched outcast, and destitute of all things. And listen to His doctrine: “Every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife or children, or lands for My name sake shall receive an hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting” (Matt, xix, 29). And in another place: “If any man come to Me, and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke xiv, 26). Ah, if we did but look deep into our Lord’s blesed doctrine, many a one of us would find that their whole life had gone wrong, and that they have been living amid dreams and delusions.

If we shall ever attain to true Divine peace, if we shall be united wholly to God, then all comfort from transitory things must cease, as well as all recreation from them. Reasonable necessity must be the exclusive rule in their use; all beyond that, whether for solace of mind or pleasure of body, must be given up. Whatsoever thing lodges thougts in our mind diverting us from God, must be renounced. God insists on being our heart’s only guest. He will tolerate no rival there. Divine tenderness must have the field entirely to itself.

Ah, children, honor the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, and prize His infinite merits. Consider the shortness of this miserable life; learn the deceitfulness of this poor, evil world. Consider the danger of men’s company, no matter what appearance of spirituality it may have. Remember that the last hour of life may sound at any moment; that death is surely creeping onward to snatch us away. Consider all this and turn your hearts earnestly to hearken to God’s inspirations. Do this, and in one hour God will take charge of you, teach you more truly and sweetly in one hour than all men together in a thousand years. Dear children, make good use of the precious hours of this life; let no creature lead you astray, give your confidence to none, lest you forfeit your eternal salvation. If we lose our worldly goods we can recover them again, and at any rate they serve us no purpose except this side of death. But it may happen that in one fatal hour we shall lose what, once lost, can never be recovered — the glory of eternal life.

I tell you in all sincerity that I foroode the evil fate of many among ns. They trust in creatures, for they cleave to them. Their souls are filled with thoughts of them and affection for them. They race here and there after idle stories to hear or to tell. They are crippled spiritually with a heavy weight of superfluities. Thanks be to God’s boundless mercy that He often holds us back from gross, deadly sins. But think how perilous a state is that of tepidity — coldhearted, stupid, stuck fast and motionless on the road to perfection. For this we must at last endure a bitter purgatory.

We are like a miserable jackass; his only song is his loud discordant bray; his only movement is his slow, dragging pace; his only food is coarse hay — all this is the joy and sweetnes of his life, and meanwhile he is bitterly cursed and cruelly beaten. In his favor it must be said that he deserves far better treatment; but not so the reasonable and Christian spirit that grovels along in his cowardly imperfections. Now this besides: if we would not cut off our attachment to creatures for God’s love and our own eternal happiness, then we might do it wisely for a selfish reason, namely, the sweet peace of heart that it gives us during this life. God’s love sets us free from many an inner pang, and soothes away many an oppression of spirit.

This is not our highest motive, and yet a most reasonable one. The man who busies himself with all sorts of earthly things, who would set every wrong thing right, who meddles with other people’s affairs, who resists when attacked and attacks when angered — such a man is full of unrest. He goes astray; he reaps trouble on all hands. And if the whole world leaves him in peace he none the less devours himself with irritation and discontent. If we want peace we must commit all our affairs into God’s hands with childlike confidence. In all our works of soul and body let Him be the master workman, planning and doing as He wills; that brings full peace, and brings it surely. Is not He a better workman and a wiser one than I am? Does not He know what is best for my outward welfare and for my soul’s estate? And He undertakes, this care of us the moment He finds us doing and thinking and speaking all things solely for His praise and glory. That is our part, that and nothing more. Neither for our bodily welfare nor our interior happiness need we make any provision, except to give ourselves up to Him with deepest sincerity of heart and real humility. From time to time

He will show us ways and means of acting wisely in all our affairs, both spiritual and temporal. Does He not know what we need? And will He not provide for us perfectly, if we will only place all our trust in Him?

The misery is that we insist on ruling ourselves and all our affairs, aud our guide is self-love. We trust usually to mere natural light. We act as if we thought ourselves wiser than the very fountain of all wisdom. What is it that deeply concerns us? It is some trouble to be shaken off; some person to be quit of, because he annoys us; to have this or that office; to enter a certain society — one or other of such things as these we fasten on as the best thing in the world. If we only knew ourselves thoroughly well, we should find traces of the evil spirit in all this. He is misleading us; he is gradually winning control of us by taking advantage of our unsteadiness.

Steady perseverance is that virtue which gathers other virtues into one; hence the evil spirit does his best with all of us to throw us off one good purpose onto another. His aim is to make us unstable. If we knew our own hearts better we should discover that it is selfseeking that inspires our life; or that we unconsciously, perhaps, are striving to at once be rid of some cross that God would have us carry a while longer. But this must not be. Our beloved Lord will have His chosen ones constantly crucified. He brings this about in many strange and secret ways, but always acting out of His merciful love. He will not allow created things to make us happy, for He is determined that the enemy of souls shall never gain mastery over us. Our Lord crucifies one man in this way and another in that. He causes one to suffer more, another less, according as He perceives our necessities, our readiness for certain graces, and our progress in perfection. Hence we must suffer as submissively under one infliction as under another, according as God may bring it about.

Meantime we should not rashly draw conclusions from the occurrences of our life, as if God’s will was this or that; let us wait till’ His designs are maturely developed, or seek and follow the guidance of His devout friends. In all this we tread the road of real peace. It sometimes happens that in running away from a slight suffering we run straight into a very serious one.

Would to God that we were not so silly. Did we but appreciate how closely a little anguish of soul joins us to God and sinks us.

once to carry for Christ’s sake. What did the holy Apostle St. Andrew do? When he came in sight of the cross on which he was to die he overflowed with joy. It was an ecstacy to him to feel that in his death he was so much to resemble his divine Master. Christ was crucified for us all. What, then, shall be our best joy but to bear Him company. Ah, what a wonderful and eternal reward of glory may we not earn in this poor, fleeting life of ours in this matter of suffering, if we will but gladly give ourselves up to God’s guidance. It is every way a noble thing to suffer; it is fruitful of joy here and eternal joy hereafter; it makes men like God, and that is why He will not dispense His friends from suffering. Rather than allow His elect souls to be without the heavenly benefits of suffering God would create new sufferings out of nothing; He would set over us the whole universe of dead and senseless things, to painfully exercise us in the virtues that lead to eternal joy.

But, alas, we are unworthy of such precious favors; we are unreceptive of such gifts, and unregardful of our opportunities. Nay, we incessantly run away from sufferings. Especially are we unwilling to suffer from one another; we cannot tolerate the least annoyance by words or deeds. If any man attacks us, forthwith we strike back; among our adversaries we are like savage dogs. Interiorly we are full of bitterness; right or wrong we defend ourselves vehemently and with burning words. We will not bear to be put down by anybody whatsoever. O misery, misery, how wild is our nature, how utterly unmortified, and how very foolish. We ought to deem ourselves unworthy of so high a principle as suffering in common with Christ. Besides, do we not know this to be needful for our perfection? We should accept trouble and annoyance as gifts from heaven, receive them in real thankfulness, and humble ourselves silently and meekly beneath the blows that are dealt us, imitating the wise and prudent and constant patriarch Job.

Another sentiment that should inspire us is that of penance. We into a state of true peace. This fits us to exhort and lead our neighbor to the practice of virtue. And this way is far more profitable to us, far more conducive to God’s honor, than all manner of self-chosen devotional or penitential exercises.

Surely, dear children, if all teachers were dead and buried, and if all books were burnt, we should have learning enough and wisdom enough in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever virtue we may lack let us but fix our eyes on Him and study Him earnestly, and we shall abound with grace; how He has gone before us in all patience and mildness, enduring every conceivable opposition from men and devils, in abandonment and desolation, in disgrace and shame and destitution, in the bitterest pains and griefs. O let us often look at ourselves in this wonderful mirror, for that will strengthen us cheerfully to endure every infliction without and anguish within. This tells us how to overcome temptations and patiently bear misfortunes, no matter from where or from whom they may come. This study of Jesus crucified makes toil and pain easy to bear.

And this shows us how to take good out of all the events of life. For if we would enter the harbor of peace in God we must diligently learn to turn everything to a good use. This custom gives us, besides, a natural tranquility of mind, and saves us from the world’s unrest — bearing ourselves mildly and gently towards all, whether rough men or smooth. Serving God faithfully, we must expect to be often mistreated by our fellows, and so be ready to make all allowances for them. We shall constantly be tempted to say of one that he talks too much, and of another that he is too silent; one displeases us because he goes too slow, and another because he goes too fast. People’s manners offer many occasions for our falling into interior defects against charity and justice. All this we must strenuously resist, never allowing such thoughts to get a hold upon us. We may be too weak to quite exclude them from our hearts, but we must at least totally repress every outbreak of impatient words correcting nobody whatsoever. Nor is it right to make people’s manners and ways and words topics of conversation, neither with one or many companions, no matter what compulsion may be put upon us. There is certainly much

Our beloved Lord Jesus Christ taught that doctrine well and truly by His example. Consider how gently He treated Judas and all His other tormentors. He showed them every sign of affection, well as He knew their deadly hate. He could easily have punished them; yet He was the most innocent Lamb of God among them. To be sure, no man can reach that degree of perfection, or say that he is without sin. Let any of us but examine his conscience sincerely and he finds many faults to lay to his own charge — too many to allow of his presuming to administer punishment to others. And that is true of my own poor self, whose faults you are well aware of. Learn by my faults to guess at your own, and humbly to acknowledge them.

Lay to heart the words you have heard from me. I assure you, as God sees me, that I have studied you all out of the book of my own transgressions. My purpose has not been to preach doctrine to you, for I am in need of your teaching rather than you of mine. But I have given you a brotherly warning, that if any man will not live a recollected life he will become a failure. Any man who does not cultivate entire purity of motive, namely, God alone, and who is not rooted in real humility, shall not be able to offer stout resistance to temptations, nor can he hope to attain to perfection in truth. Better is voluntary and spontaneous poverty than all worldly gods; better is union with God than the empire of the earth and the heavens, even if God filled them with riches for you to give to the poor. And now may God’s everlasting peace be with you in time and in eternity. Amen.