The Sermons of Johannes Tauler · 114 of 124

First Sermon for the Feast of All Saints

And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain, and when He was set down, His disciples came unto Him. And opening His mouth, He taught them saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. — Matt v, 1-3.

Thus it was that our Lord taught us the eight Beatitudes. The mountain into which Jesus went up, may be considered as His own Divine beatitude, by which He is one with His Father. There followed Him a great multitude of all His beloved saints, whose solemnity we this day celebrate. And how variously did all these follow Him, each one according to his different calling from God. It behooves us to do likewise, everyone of us observing closely what his vocation from God may be, and therein to abide in peace.

Let us honor these great servants of God with all earnestness. And now what is the best honor we can do them? It is to cultivate entire detachment of spirit from all created things; and then to sink deep into the heart of God as they did, and to be lost there. That is their beatitude; no other can be ours. This sentiment is the best celebration of their holy feast.

Let us closely study this holy multitude, assembled on God’s mountain, each one placed and ranked as God has differently drawn and appointed him. First came the ancient Fathers of the old law, who spent their lives in ardent sighings for the coming of the Redeemer. They were filled with God’s hope and love; and not only outwardly but inwardly they were disengaged from all things that were not God. With great charity did they share all their possessions with God’s chosen people. They were deeply concerned lest any fault should stain that race, out of which was to spring forth the Saviour of the world.

They lived without any proprietorship of their own flesh, which was dedicated to the birth of the Messiah. Of this race it is read today in the Apocalypse, that out of each of its twelve tribes, twelve thousand were signed with God’s special favor; and after these followed on a multitude so great that no man could number them.

After them came the glorious company of the holy apostles, called by our Lord to a far higher perfection. Not only by secret longings, but in actual possession did these have the Redeemer. They were with Him in true poverty of spirit and of body; indeed they attained the highest degree of holy poverty that a man can ever reach.

Then came Christ’s martyrs, a vast multitude of heroic souls. They not only gave up all things for His sake, but they gave up their very lives, just when and where and how God willed.

Then came the great army of holy confessors of Christ’s faith, who had variously followed Him in many a sacred calling. Some of them were hermits, and spent their lives in solitude, far removed from all men. There they sat still and hearkened to what God, the eternal Word, spoke within them, dwelling in deserts, in caves and in forests. Others again passed their lives in the state of holy orders, as God provided for them. These labored in holy church in preaching God’s word to her children, in writing about Divine things, hearing confessions, teaching, governing congregations; all done with ready good will as God guided them, in true submission to Him, and detachment of spirit from both themselves and all things else that are not God.

Then there followed the Lord the great choir of the pure and spotless virgins, chaste in soul as well as body. O how lovely a thing is that — to be found at death as clean as an angel of God, to be clothed in that robe of virgin whiteness that our Lord and His holy mother prized above all other adornment. Whosoever is granted this privilege, may laugh to scorn all the troubles of life. As long as he holds fast to this priceless pearl, no pain that is known to man can reach his heart. But thus to retain holy chastity, one must make ready to fight a hard battle. He must suffer many a pang from the rebellion of his senses and the foolishness of this world, besides the plots of the devils. But be well assured that such striving every way brightens the purity of a chaste soul with renewed splendor. Dear child, keep a close guard over thyself, and often call to mind the wondrous reward of chastity in the company of Christ’s holy virgins.

After these the great multitude of the Christian people follow our

Lord, men and women who have lived in the world and been occupied in the common walks of life. These were upheld and saved by the prayers and ministration of the closer friends of God; and ere they come into the Father’s kingdom, they must for the most part be purified in purgatory. As we celebrate the perfectly sanctified souls in this festival of All Saints, so tomorrow we shall commemorate the souls not yet perfectly sanctified, namely those in purgatory. And we should realize that for one earthly self satisfaction, one venial sin, we shall suffer sharper pains than were endured by all the martyrs whom today we honor. This needs must be, as we can see if we consider what it is to stand against the infinite God even in the smallest matter.

Now all these beautiful groupings of holy men and women, form the great multitude that have followed Christ to the mount of His Beatitudes. And having them gathered about Him, He opened His Divine mouth and He proclaimed His eight Beatitudes. Let us say a few words about each of them. First: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This virtue is given the first place, because it is a capital or head virtue, and a beginning of all perfection. Children, whatever way you look at Christian perfection, the inmost soul of a man must, to begin with, be free, and unencumbered, and therefore destitute. If God is to do His work in thy soul, it must be stript of all ownership. That is a foregone conclusion, if God is to make thy soul His own.

One kind of poverty is to be poor against one’s will. Persons who are thus poor may have their faults, but let no man judge them harshly, for our Lord overlooks their defects all the more graciously on account of their poverty.

The second kind is spoken of by St. Thomas. Herein man loves poverty and practises it according to his lights, because he knows that it ministers to his freedom of spirit and detachment; but yet he retains his own necessary goods. Many a one is only the more elevated in spirit if he is placed so as not always to feel want, rather than if he must daily struggle for life's comforts. When one lawfully possesses the goods of this world, offering thanks to God for the same, he is sometimes more pleasing to God, than if he must look out constantly for his bare support. But in case one finds his ownership of goods absorbing his mind and becoming inordinate, hindering the prac tice of such virtues as meekness, temperance, humility, disengagement

The third kind of poverty is that in which God is so dear to a man, that none of this world’s goods can hinder his love for Him. More: everything in the world helps him to love God. St. Paul says: “ We know that to them that love God, all things work together unto good” (Bom. viii, 28). Such a soul is untouched by anything that is not simply God, his whole spirit being immune from the love of earthly goods, remaining under all circumstances poor and detached. The apostle tells of this kind of spirit: “As having nothing, and possessing all things” (II Cor. vi, 10). Such a man may own the treasures of a kingdom without harm to his inward spirit.

The fourth kind is a deep love to be poor, with the motive of being in the company of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ in His state of destitution. This poverty is embraced out of unfeigned desire to have a soul unencumbered of all that is not God, interiorly and exteriorly. It helps the return of our spirit into God its origin by detaching it from all creatures. It makes it harder for any sudden danger to fetch us down, for it clears the spiritual perceptions, and smooths the way to our turning inwards to God. Children, this is the purest poverty. For the highest dignity of poverty is this: it facilitates our soul’s flight to the heart of God; or will increase the beatitude of the soul in eternity.

And now let us consider the second Beatitude: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall posses the land.” This lifts us a grade higher in beatitude. True poverty, indeed, frees us from certain hindrances: but this blessed meekness goes deeper, and banishes from our hearts all bitterness, wrath, and untruthfulness. For it is written: “All

Dear child, in former times the pagans tortured God’s friends, but nowadays good appearing Christians persecute those who would closely follow Christ. Ah yes, these thy neighbors inflict deep wounds upon thee. If thou wouldst serve God perfectly men say to thee: Thou art raving to do such things, thou are guilty of singularity, thou art a deceiver. Then comes meekness to thee and leads thee back into thyself; and now thou acceptest all this as from God and not from man. And then thou restest peaceful, and sayest to thyself: What

Thus does the soul that is meek possess the land, namely interior peace; that heritage remains his no matter what befalls him. If thou shalt act otherwise, then thou failest in virtue and losest thy peace, and art no better than a snarling dog in thy quarrelsome resistence to God’s visitations.

The third Beatitude is, “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.” And who are the mourners? In one sense they are those who have any suffering whatever to endure. In another sense, they are those who mourn and weep in sorrow for their sins. Yet again it is those faithful friends of God who have done true penance, and have already bewailed their sins and been entirely pardoned. They need not weep any more for their own sins, but they do weep bitterly for the sins and imperfections of their fellowmen. We read that once our holy Father St. Dominic asked one of his companions why he was weeping so bitterly. “Dear Father,” said he, “it is on account of my sins.” Then the Saint answered: “No, dear son, weep not for them, I pray thee, for they are pardoned and all penance done for them. But I beg thee to weep now for the sins of those who will not weep themselves for their wickedness.” God’s true friends weep over men’s blindness of heart, and over the miserable sinfulness of the whole world. When we see the threat of God’s wrath upon us, in fire and flood and storms and darkness and famine, then do we weep and mourn before God’s face, day and night imploring Him to spare us. And so he holds back His hand and gives us space for repentence. But if we do not use this respite well, He visits us with yet greater plagues. The dark cloud of God’s judgment hangs over us, but God’s servants keep it back with their tears. But be sure that if we do not repent, the Divine wrath will break forth against us with such fury as will make us dread that the day of judgment is at hand. Those who now rest in the false peace of sin, will then feel the heavy hand of justice. They easily omit hearing mass; they readily neglect hearing God’s word — these Divine things are growing very strange to them, as one of them goes here and another there in his guilty ways. But others there are, whom the faithful God will find true to Him. These weep and mourn for their sinful brethren.

The fourth Beatitude is, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice.” Children, this is a virtue that few men have possessed in such measure, as that all their hunger and thirst and desire was

The fifth Beatitude is “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Of mercy it is written: “The Lord is sweet to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Ps. cxliv, 9). Therefore is a truly merciful man a Godlike man, for mercy is born of Divine love and kindness. Hence it happens that real friends of God are more merciful than other men, and are more trustful and patient with sinners than those who love God less than they do. Mercy springs from that mutual love that men should have one for another. At the last day our Lord will demand an account of this brotherly love, and if we cannot show that we have had it He will withhold His mercy from us. He will say nothing about all other perfections, and will found His sentence on this question alone: Were you merciful to your fellowmen? Nor does this virtue consist alone in giving gifts. No, it extends to a merciful regard of all the faults our neighbor commits, and patient endurance of all the injuries He may inflict on us. Whosoever does not feel a loving sympathy for his neighbor’s misery, whosoever does not overlook his faults with kindly feelings — such a man may well forbode that the Lord will not show him mercy, for with the measure with which thou metest it shall be measured again to thyself withal. See to it, that thou dost not condemn thy neighbor, lest thou thyself shalt be condemned eternally.

The sixth Beatitude is: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” Men of truly peaceful hearts are indeed blessed men. No man can take their peace away, either in time or eternity. For all their will has gone out from them into God’s will, in joy or sadness, in weal and woe, for time and eternity. All their doings are according to God’s ways and not men’s, for they are guided supernaturally, Divinely. They are baptized in the power of the Father, in the wisdom of the Son, and in the sweet love of the Holy Ghost, and this Divine influence has penetrated so deep, that their peace is beyond man’s reach to disturb. The tranquility of the blessed Trinity has so entirely sanctified them, that they could order

Nor can any such peace as theirs be otherwise obtained, than by a most interior union with God. This Beatitude can not be gained by self chosen methods of piety of an outward description.

The seventh Beatitude is: “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.” What is a clean heart? It is a heart free from the entanglement of creatures; a heart whose depths God finds empty of all love, naked of all attachments to creatures. These clean souls will truly see God. Purity of heart is stained, when a man willfully seeks satisfaction in created things and rests in them. In whatever degree a man finds content in creatures, in the same does he cut himself off from God. And the effect is such darkening of his soul’s vision as to hinder his seeing and finding God in the interior life. Outward con* ) ditions of chastity aid the soul’s interior cleanliness, as St .Paul says:

“He that is without a wife, is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please God” (I Cor. vii, 32). As with bodily chastity, so with purity of heart. As the former is sullied by unguarded mingling with outward company, so is the Godlike integrity of the spirit, soiled and even destroyed by wilful contact with what bears not the stamp of God. The soul’s eyes become darkened, so that it cannot recognize the Divine source of all purity within its depths. It requires a soul all cleansed from worldly and fleshly satisfaction to enable one to flow back without ceasing into God, our creator and our beginning. Cleanness of heart is a most admirable virtue, inasmuch as it prepares the human spirit to be the spouse of God, and fixes all its desires upon Him alone.

The eighth Beatitude is: “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’s sake, for their’s is the kingdom of heaven.” No man can fully explain, or indeed understand, what an amount of good lies hidden in suffering. Our faithful God, who has set apart His chosen

And that is a trait of fidelity in God that we should be exceedingly thankful for. That I must suffer is a favor from God that I am unworthy of. And it causes a great hope to rise in my heart that God has a special love for me, for it makes me like His Divine Son, and compels me to imitate Him. St. Bernard says: “It is a far greater honor to suffer slight pain with holy patience, than to perform many good works for God.” And St. Thomas says: “There is no pain so slight, whether in our interior or exterior life, but that in suffering it patiently we may image forth the adorable passion of our Lord Jesus Christ; and in every suffering we endure, we can, if we will, obtain a share of the merits of Jesus crucified.”

But I must speak of a nobler kind of suffering, and a sort that brings us yet closer to God, than even these wonderfully beneficial pains and deprivations. I mean suffering from the direct act of God in our inner life. As high as God is above creatures, so is this pain greater than any that man can inflict on us. It is the pain of being compared with God’s greatness and holiness now fully revealed. We should love Him dearly for securing our eternal beatitude by suffering direct from His own self. Our beatitude thus becomes God’s work and not ours; we have but to accept Him and yield to Him.

By nature a man is better fitted to suffer than to act, to accept than to give. Every gift of God makes our longing for all His gifts a thousandfold greater, if we will but passively sit still and wait for God’s action in us, giving Him all room in our souls to continue and complete His blessed work. For God’s is most pure act, and the soul, on the contrary, in this supernatural relation to Him, is purely passive. If a man will but rest tranquil under God’s action, only accepting and longing and nothing more, God will perfect His plans upon him, and impart to him His marvelous beatitude. May God grant us to be still, patient, and passive under His hand, and to experience the fulness of His loving influence. Amen.