The Sermons of Johannes Tauler · 119 of 124

Sermon for the Feast of a Holy Martyr

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation. — James 1, 12.

The holy man Job tells us that our life on this earth is a state of warfare. Indeed the saints often speak of life as a long series of temptations; when one goes another comes. The reason of this is our Lord’s purpose that we should go onward, and should bring forth the fruit of victory, moving ever forward on God’s road and conquering in His name. From temptation we can extract the hidden joy of the spirit, as the bees do honey from thorn bushes and weeds. Solomon says: “What doth he know that hath not been tried?” (Eccli. xxxiv, 9). And the holy doctor, St. Bernard, enlarges upon that teaching. There are more than a thousand passages of Holy Scripture showing the good uses of temptations. It is a special sign of God’s favor over a man, if he has fought a good fight and come forth victorious. To such a one the crown is given, as it was to our martyr, of whom Holy Church sings today, that he was blessed because he had endured temptation, had won the victory and had received the crown of life reserved for those whom God loves.

One kind of temptation is that of the external senses. By this a man is tempted to place his joy in men, whether friends, relatives or others. It leads to anxious care in personal adornment, as clothing and jewelry; or in fine books, elegant and luxurious dwellings, delicate food and drink. These cleave to him as a burr to a dog. Some times a man will be far from these temptations, but assailed by yet more unusual ones, being tormented with impure thoughts. But,

The other kind of temptation is interior, and would set up an alien rule in the kingdom of the mind. The activity of soul and that of body are mingled together. Our inward turning to God in this life is closely joined to our outward tendencies, and this gives rise to temptations. Scripture says that Satan can transform himself into an angel of light; and that takes place in his temptations while our soul is absorbed in contemplating God.

Now notice further, dear children, how St. John divides all sin into three classes: “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence

(I John ii, 16). And as these rule in the world, so do they seek to rule in our flesh; and then to reign in our interior life by assuming a spiritual appearance. Outward sins are plain enough, if one will but see them. But sins of the interior life are more hidden. They fake on a disguise of spirituality so cunning that a man is on the point of falling before he is aware of any danger.

And I ask you to observe that there is a certain kind of spiritual unchastity, which name we give to spiritual self indulgence. I mean the excessive pleasure one takes in interior sweet feelings of devotion. The one who yields to that temptation, insists on having unbroken interior peace of soul; he resents being corrected or admonished for his faults; he neglects his ordinary duties in order to attend to his own particular devotions. All this is due to the sensible sweetness he enjoys in his spiritual exercises. When that fails, he is utterly unhappy, irritable, impatient of the most trifling annoyance. He loudly complains of the terrible temptations he suffers from. And this is all nothing else but absence of sensible devotion. St, Bernard says: “Our Lord, in His mercy, often grants interior sweetness to souls quite unworthy of it, in order that He may the better draw them to His love. On the contrary, He often withholds it from nobler souls, who are truly deserving of it, being long practised in solid virtue.” Yes, sometimes He deprives such souls of devotional joys their whole life long, so that in the life to come they may receive all the greater reward. And, indeed, our spiritual fruit is not in such things, nor our highest gratitude; but, rather in interior trust in God, firm loyalty to Him, entire absence of self-seeking, whether

His will at our own cost, and so to do, if it were lawful to say such a thing, for all eternity.

And yet, one may be allowed to pray to God for sensible sweetness of devotion, in case he happens to be a young and weak beginner in the spiritual life; for our kind heavenly Father may by that means induce him to a stronger service and gradually strengthen him In His love. But mark the danger. It is quite possible that we may value this sweet tranquillity of soul over much, even loving the gift — however unconsciously — more than the Giver. Anyway, we should never forget that these tender feelings are not of our earning — they are God’s mere gifts to us. We may, besides, fall into spiritual gluttony in their enjoyment. This is plain and gross disloyalty to God our Savior, Who won all these favors for us by His own lifelong self-denial, and who has merited better treatment at our hands.

Spiritual gluttony is a temptation to ever crave more favor from God than is necessary in our earthly pilgrimage. Now what more should a pilgrim take with him on his journey than what he would bring back home again. Believe me, it is an open stain on our outward state of poverty as religious men, to seek to have more bodily comfort than is necessary for us. And the same kind of a stain is fixed on our inward poverty of spirit, yes, a much uglier spot, if we long for more spiritual comfort than is necessary. Ah, which of us men has ever been so poor as Jesus Christ? He gave up all heavenly riches and took a life of the greatest earthly distitution, and was finally abandoned by all creatures, and even cast helplessly back on Himself by His divine Father — as He complained from His cross: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matt, xxvii, 46). Now all this was for our instruction; He would teach us to cherish spiritual destitution of all things.

But thou mayst answer: Alas, I could bear it better if it was not all my own fault; I could bear it more patiently but for my former neglect. I am myself the cause of all my trouble. But I answer: Do not let that thought distress thee. Knowest thou not what the wise man says? “A just man shall fall seven times” (Prov. xxiv, 16). And dost thou dream that thou shalt always stand? Yes, I agree that it is all thy own fault, and that thou dost richly deserve this desolation of spirit. But yet it is all for the best that thou shouldst trust

Father with childlike confidence, and Bay humbly with the prodigal son, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee; I am not worthy to be called Thy son; make me as one of Thy hired servants” (Luke xv, 18, 19). Thinkest thou that God would treat thee otherwise than the father in the parable treated his son? Mercy is God’s most precious treasure, and it will be a small thing for Him to forgive thee, if thou wilt but put thy trust in Him. His hand is not shortened that He should not save thee. Therefore, be on thy guard against spiritual avarice, for the poorer in spirit thou standest in God’s presence the more acceptable shalt thou be, and the more richly will He endow thee with His gifts.

Spiritual pride is that vice by which a man is not ashamed of his sins, excusing himself and sparing himself in everything, never being willing to submit. It often happens that such a man uses abusive and injurious language to exculpate himself, and even falsehood. Those men forget that if plain truth will not help a man, lies are of little use. A simple man, humbly submissive under God’s will, is infinitely better than one with some pretence to virtue, but full of interior pride, and swaggering about with arrogant manners. Tell me, dear child, what is all our righteousness? Let the prophet Isaias answer: “We are all become as one unclean, and all our justices as the rag of a menstruous woman” (Isaias lxiv, 6).

And when were we really just in God’s sight? If God our Lord would but show us our deservings, we must needs confess our guilt in His Bight, and own that all our virtue is due to His grace. Many a time does our Lord favor a weak and wayward soul because it casts itself humbly at His feet and craves his mercy. God demands that every knee shall bend before Him, and strictly exacts thanksgiving for all the virtues we possess. And be it remembered that spiritual pride is often a very secretly-hidden vice; and this accounts for much of the harm it does. Whosoever, on the other hand, carefully guards against spiritual gluttony, avarice and pride, will be held fast in God’s true way, and his interior life will not go astray.

To this end three rules will help. First, that he should remember that any interior difficulties and contradictions which discipline our such trials are not due to depraved nature, nor are they the suggestions of the evil spirit. All such trials undoubtedly come from God. As He is the supreme God, nothing but good can come from Him, and whatsoever results from His interposition can only be good. All life flows back to its fountain head, and all existence rejoices in its return to its Divine origin. But mark well that whatsoever distorts our likeness to God in Christ is due to an evil cause, either' our perverted nature or .the wicked demons. These are ever bent on drawing us away from God. The same is to be said of every influence that makes for separation from Christ, as He says: “He that is not with Me is against Me, and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth.”(Luke xi, 23). Now this rule is useful against the first spiritual evil I spoke of, namely, spiritual excess or gluttony in enjoying devout feelings.

The second rule is this: Whatever inner tendency or happening forces a man nearer to his own heart to observe it; whatever concentrates and unifies the spirit of a man into greater simplicity; whatever tends to increase his loving trustfulness in God’s fatherly care, diverting him from thoughts of his own works and feelings; this is all, without doubt, from God. So that when a man stands before God confessedly a sinner and a beggar, thinking nothing of how good he may seem in men’s eyes; when a man finds himself out, and plainly avows to God and to himself that he is devoid of virtue; when he rates himself as a poor, lost, good-for-nothing, empty-hearted creature, who can be cleansed by God alone and by Him alone filled with virtue; when he cleaves to God in utter self-abandonment, avowing his total powerlessness to help himself: — when a man is conscious of this interior state, let him be quite sure that it is entirely the work of God. None but God can drive a soul inward to learn and acknowledge its own utter destitution. Depraved nature and the evil one would rob a man of all his spiritual goods, all his graces or virtues; and their opportunity is when a man does not know himself, and when he thinks he has virtues that he really has not. Then he is open to the condemnation found in the Apocalypse: “Because thou sayest: I am

(Apoc. iii, 17). And this has a mixture of spiritual avarice, mingled with the leaven of spiritual gluttony.

The third rule is this: Whatever makes a man little in his own eyes; whatever humiliates him under the mighty hand of God and under* all creatures in sincere lowliness of spirit; whatever makes him long to be downtrodden and made nothing of: all that without doubt is from God. For, inasmuch as Lucifer and his rebel angels were swollen with pride and presumption, and were for that cause banished from heaven, so, on the contrary, shall we be led into heaven, because of our sincere humility; as of the three holy kings it is written: “They went back another way into their own country”

According to each one’s essential being does he act, and after the pattern of his own nature would he form all others whom he can influence. Now the evil spirit is besotted with self-love; pride and effrontery are permanently hardened into his intelligence and will. Not to obtain heaven itself would he humble himself to God; no, not for a single instant. And all proud spirits tend to become like the demon. From him they have learned to prize their own opinion above the sense and reason of all mankind. Hence their constant quarrelsomeness, hence their fierce insistence on their own views and their own will. And hence their incessant unrest, evil thoughts about others, and violations of brotherly love. They will suffer correction from no man, they are so stiff-necked. They even disregard the warnings that Divine Providence sends them, and they despise the admonitions of their best friends. God characterized them plainly, when condemning hypocrites in the words of Isaias the Prophet: “I have spread my hands all the day to an unbelieving people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts” (Isaias lxv, 2).

Furthermore, our dear Lord is Himself all meekness and humility, and toward these virtues he is constantly drawing all willing souls. Yet think of his greatness. His being is the cause of all things and their beginning and essence. He is the life of the living, the resurrection of the dead, the restorer of souls ruined by their own sinfulness. He recalls the wandering, He upholds the falling. Of those that stand He is the strong support, of those that journey onward to heaven He is the safe guide. He is the dawn of day to every enlightened spirit, the manifestation of all heavenly secrets, the first beginning of all our beginnings of eternal life. And He is the infinite and incomprehensible and unnameable God. And, nevertheless, He is the meek and lowly Jesus.

Let us praise His mysterious divinity with silent awe, and never more praise aught but what honors Him. Let us reverently salute the first rays of His Divine light in our souls, turning our spirits to Him to reflect His brightness as burnished mirrors. Always, amidst all our love, should we cultivate a fearful awe of Him, according to the words of God to Moses sanctifying Mt. Sinai: “Everyone that bounds in the lowest place. And when we are thus properly humbleminded, the Lord will call us up higher, saying: “Friend, go up

And then, not by his own power, but drawn and elevated by God's grace, a man ascends to divine union, his life of the senses entirely cleansed, his soul lighted up with heaven’s splendor. By this means of holy humility, silence, patient waiting, does a man attain to God; and by this means more effectually than by a more active spirit in outward exercises of religion. The divine nature of Christ is the power that would draw to God all spirits, all hearts that follow His example and daily unite themselves to Him in holy love. Richard of St. Victor says: “I am to receive Christ, not only as He is crucified on Calvary, but also as He is transfigured in glory on Mount Tabor. But to receive Him thus glorified T must have His duly appointed witnesses, Peter and James and John, Moses and Elias.” That is to say, when Christ comes to us in deep anguish of heart we may instantly trust that it is truly our Redeemer. But if He is manifested to us in interior contemplation, amid the light of glory within our soul’s Mount Tabor, then must we pause. We must have witnesses and external approval; we must take precautions, lest we should indulge to excess in this feast of light, and thereby commit spiritual gluttony. As a man can eat more sweet things than he can digest, so may we abuse the gifts that God generously bestows in our interior life. We must incessantly humiliate ourselves in His sight; we must never forget the danger of spiritual pride. The virtues of humility, meekness, obedience are the witnesses approving our free enjoyment of the transfigured Christ in our inmost souls. Against these guardians of truth and peace no false angel can ever prevail. God grant us this happy lot. Amen.