The Sermons of Johannes Tauler · 117 of 124

Sermon for the Feast of All the Holy Apostles

If you love Me, keep My commandments. — John xiv, 15.

St. John tells us that Jesus “Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them unto the end” (John xiii, 1). And many a proof had He given of this His tender love; but He especially showed His love for His disciples at the last supper. Then it was that He reminded them of the great debt of love they owed Him, which they could only rightly pay by observing His commandments. And He#promised them to pray His heavenly Father to send them another Comforter, “That He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, nor knoweth Him” (John xiv, 16, 17).

Therefore, dear children, I will once again speak to you of holy love, to discourse about which is always a sweet task and very comforting; and far sweeter yet is it to taste its savor. Our God bids His lovers hold Him dear to them by keeping His commandments, and He tells us that whosoever keeps them not, does not love Him. It is manifest, therefore, that God hates the man who lives in sin. On this sad theme I will not discourse; but I will speak according to my lights about the man who serves God with the highest kind of love.

Whosoever would love God must keep His commandments. That means that they must be subject to God’s will. They dare no longer have any will of their own, but only God’s. They must say in all truth: “Not My will, but Thine be done” (Luke xxii, 42). God’s

First, a watchful guard of the outward senses, shutting up close and fast those five doors of the soul, lest inordinate desires should arise, enter in, and gain force. In this way must one be vigilant, lest interior hurt is done by means of the outward senses.

The second is mortification of interior self complacency. By this one readily gives up his own chosen practises of piety and manner of life when God’s will so indicates. He guards against self will in such matters. He stands firmly opposed to hell’s five gates, namely: perverse self will, self complacency, spiritual pride, self flattery, and self conceit.

The third is placed in the motives of one’s daily life. A man in all his deeds and words and thoughts, in all that concerns himself, his neighbor and God, should be actuated purely and simply by love. In this he makes a living sacrifice of himself to God, standing in perfect awe of the Almighty before all mankind. And this can be done in a grade of love so marvelously high as to pass the power of words to express; to be understood it must be experienced, transcending as it does all nature’s powers. The soul goes beyond itself into the freedom of the Spirit that is given it, and therein it is united to the heavenly Father. This is accomplished with a sense of self abandonment for God’s greater praise. The soul is entirely subjected to God, immersed in the Divine abyss, praying Him meanwhile to make it fruitful in His service, according to His eternal good pleasure. And the soul also prays Him to perfect it and every creature He has made, so that His all lovely will may be done in everything without exception. Again, the soul, as it is become an example of God’s mercy, now offers itself to be made an example of the Divine Justice. But it does not wish that its works shall deserve damnation. And in this way it prays God for the perfecting of his holy will.

From the Father the soul goes onward to the Son, the eternal Wisdom, subjecting itself to Him in all simplicity, as being nothing, knowing nothing, feeling nothing — as far as its powers go — as to what it shall do or not do for God’s praise and to carry out His blessed will. Only does the soul pray Him to perfect His will in itself and all creatures with His Divine wisdom, just as is best for His praise and glory and most fruitful of good for mankind. In all this the soul pays no regard to itself, but all to God.

And now, peacefully content in all things, the soul is established in unfeigned simplicity, waiting God’s action, trusting without doubt that He will assume control of it and do His will in it. Then whatsoever happens to it, that the soul accepts as from His hand and to His praise. This is the soul’s firm foundation. If it stands in doubt about God’s will in particular cases, it follows whatever course it believes nearest to it. And if it is forced by circumstances to follow its own judgment, that often seems to be unwise and to contradict sound reason. Not willing to act thus, it can only give up again to God, trusting confidently that He will finally guide it. And now God is exalted in the soul in His sovereign wisdom, and the soul itself is proportionately sunk down before Him in the littleness of its understanding. And this state abides in the soul even while engaged in the most petty duties of daily life. Thus is it united to God’s wisdom in much simplicity, and attains to the immensity of the deity, amid the darkness of His unknown being, in which He dwells elevated incomprehensibly high above all created life. He is a simple being, to whom the created human faculties cannot attain, but to whom they may be united through the work of grace, namely, supernatural faith, hope and charity.

And when this has all been completed, the loving soul goes onward to the Holy Ghost, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. To Him the soul subjects itself so perfectly that it is raised above all created things, and almost transcending faith and hope, it enters into God by love. This degree of love is more precious than all gifts; by it the soul is absorbed so deep into the uncreated life as to surpass comprehension, for the closeness of union and the Divine freedom there attained is unspeakable. And, if one may be allowed to say so, the soul in its union with God is now a faint resemblance even of the humanity of Christ. No longer does it hesitate from timidity, but takes up its company with Christ more lovingly and freely than ever before.

When such a soul would obtain a favor from the Father, it takes Christ with it, especially in holy communion; and it thus offers itself to the eternal Father in union with the Son. Particularly does it then pray for the fruitful life of holy Church, saying with Christ on the cross: “Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit” (Luke xxiii, 46). Again and again does the soul thus pray. It is as if it said: O Lord, rule freely over me, as Thy Father ruled over Thee; help me to pray, that the will of the most holy Trinity may be done in me; and

Thy glorious perfection; and permit me to be one with Thee for the welfare of holy Church. O Lord, once Thou didst suffer, and thus didst Thou redeem the world; and now Thou canst no longer suffer. But I can suffer in Thy stead. Therefore, spare me not, as Thy Father spared Thee not. My heart is ready for all that pleasest Thee in time and in eternity. Lord, Thou knowest in what manner I can most rightfully thank Thee, and how I can be most helpful to mankind: order my life to that end, I beseech Thee. Thus it is that this soul gives itself over to God, that the Divine honor may in it and by it be advanced. But ere the soul attains to the degree of perfection in which such an oblation of self can be made, it must journey over many a desert road, and die many an unheard-of painful death.

To this third way does God elevate those who have trodden the two first ways. God comes to these loving ones and leads them Himself, teaching them the higher path, and uniting them to Himself in the manner we have described. But alas and alas, that so few men nowadays are really spiritual-minded. It is due to the fact that they are not willing to go this way of God and be made fruitful for other men’s salvation. But any man who will turn to God’s commandment of love thus to keep it, such a one will do more good than any ten other men, who would indeed serve God but yet turn unguardedly towards the world; who do not rest in patient waiting and are not single-minded towards God. They are absorbed in the active and external service of religion, rather than in the interior work of love, as we have explained it. For we have shown how a man awakes from the sleep of darkness into the true light of God.

But what if this new grace were held out to us, and we should wilfully fail to grasp it? It will escape us in a way that we shall not be able to understand. Therefore, let us one and all implore God in simplicity of heart and deep humility, for help to abase ourselves and despise ourselves, reckoning ourselves the lowest, basest, most contemptible and worthless creatures that ever lived. Let us beg Him to inspire all who meet us with contempt for us, that they may revile us, wag their heads at us and despise us. Let us beg Him to so manifest our misery to His mute, inanimate creatures, that even they will rise up and condemn us — anything, everything to teach us how to die to our own will. By this prayer we may obtain grace to shake off all sense of proprietorship inner and outer, and learn how to immolate ourselvea

May God help us to do this, and to do it not out of self-approval, but only from an ardent desire to please Him. Amen.