The Sermons of Johannes Tauler · 12 of 124

Second Sermon for the Vigil of the Epiphany

Where is He that Is born King of the Jews? — Matt ii, 2.

The soul knows that God exists, and that even by the light of natural reason; but as to who He is it has no knowledge; this is hidden from it. Now, there arises in every guileless soul a sweet yearning for more knowledge of its God; it seeks earnestly and enquires anxiously for Him; how gladly would it find Him Who is so hidden away from it. In this diligent search there appears to the soul a star, which is a gleam of the light of Divine grace. This light speaks to the soul and says, He is born today; and at the same time it points out His birthplace. Now, this cannot be any natural guidance, for all who follow nature’s light in seeking God’s birthplace will but go astray. God’s birth would not be known but for the shining of a Divine light, telling us what that birth is, and where it has taken place. Foolish men cannot wait for the light of grace to shine and guide them on till they find the Divine generation; they break away and seek for it by the natural light of reason, and all in vain; they must bide their time, which has not yet come. This yearning for God works strong within them; in some it becomes so violent as to pierce flesh and blood; yea, to penetrate even to the marrow of the bones. It is true that our natural reason has a part to play and must use all its powers, if the soul’s longing for God shall be satisfied; but natural reason does not know God’s generation in us, and cannot, therefore, reveal it.

Herein are three things to be considered. One is the yearning, another is the seeking, and the third is the finding out of the Divine birth. Consider, too, three other things in the soul of man. One is what cleaves to his fleshly nature, his bodily senses and sensibility; another is his

Now, when the senses enter the reason and the reason penetrates the purely essential spirit, then the black has become yellow and the yellow has become white. Thus a purely simple state of light results, and in that, and that alone, the light of the Divine birth shines forth. When rightly received all images, forms, and resemblances vanish away from the soul, and the light of the Divine birth alone beams in very truth within it. The natural light of day may be obscured by darkness, but when the sun rises in all his splendor, he triumphs over darkness, and all lesser luminaries disappear from sight. It is thus that the clear beams of this supernatural light shine in the soul, all forms and images disappearing. And hence wherever it shines natural lights are quenched, for the star that showed the three kings the Divine birthplace was not like other stars; it was not naturally fixed in the sky like them. The senses of man take from material things their images, and these are fairer than the things themselves. Then the understanding in turn strips these images of their sensible grossness, and retains only the heavenly forms that are in them by making them reason’s images — the yellow glass acting upon the black. And finally the understanding itself may become the white glass; that is to say, if it will cleanse itself by self-renunciation, and thereby be made a purely spiritual faculty. Into this soul alone does the star of the Divine birth brightly shine. Toward this happy lot does all human life constantly tend.

Now, these three answers that I have given to the three questions, may be compared to the three gifts of the three kings; and this shall be the subject of tomorrow’s sermon.

sake — Danger of seeking pain out of self-unll — The crowning bitterness is inner anguish caused by God’s testing the soul’s fidelity — Patience herein — The joy finally resulting.