The Sermons of Johannes Tauler · 13 of 124

First Sermon for the Feast of the Epiphany

And opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. — Matt ii, 11.

Let us first consider the myrrh. This means the bitterness that one must taste ere he finds God; for in turning to God one must turn away from the world; and, besides that, he must banish away all pleasure and concupiscence. It is a matter of necessity that whatever a man holds dear must be given up, and that is a task bitter in the extreme. Whatever was sweet before must become just as bitter to thee now, and this calls for a strong and diligent effort; the greater the pleasure before, the greater the bitterness now.

If I am hungry, I eat; if I am thirsty, I drink; if I am drowsy, I sleep; if I am cold, I warm myself. All this is nature’s law, and how can I change it as long as nature is what it is? How can what is sweet by nature be turned into bitterness? I answer that these joys, pleasures, savors, satisfactions, complaisances, when they are not sinful, may not be totally destroyed; but, at least, they ought not to enter into the inner depths of the soul nor have any place there. These feelings should come and go with the acts which caused them, and leave behind no trace of their existence. Thou shalt take no pleasure in them, but let them pass off and away. Whatever of the world and of created things thou findest lingering in thy soul, thou shouldst not consider as thy own to possess, nor permit thyself the least satisfaction therein. Creatures and the pleasure arising from creatures, must be to thee something thou hast overcome and put to death. And this applies even to the joys thou findest with men who are friends of God. Whatsoever of this kind of joy thou findest thyself inclined to must be totally overcome. Thy soul is the child, and until Herod and all his court who seek that child are really dead to thee, thou deceivest thyself if thou imaginest that thou makest any progress. Be not without fear; be not too eager; see how things stand with thee.

There is yet another kind of myrrh, whose bitterness goes far beyond the first kind. That is the myrrh that God gives. It is trouble and suffering, whether interior or exterior, sent especially by God. Oh, if thou canst but receive that myrrh with the same deep-hearted love with which God gives it, what a happy state shall be generated within thee — joy and peace and elevation of soul! Yes, whether God sends thee suffering little or great, it is from the depths of His unspeakable love; and in this He but gives thee something greater and more useful than any gift; namely, His very love itself. If God has numbered the hairs of thy head, so that not one of them falls to the ground without His knowledge and will, much rather has He foreseen from all eternity the least suffering He gives thee to endure, and hast loved it; and He has willed it for thy advancement in perfection.

Hence if thy finger pain thee or thy skin is hurt, if thy feet are cold or thou art hungry and thirsty, if someone annoys thee by word or deed, if anything whatever distresses thee with want or pain, it is all a preparation for the joyful time to come. It was all foreseen and ordered by God, as if weighed out and measured and numbered by Him for thy perfection. That my eye rests sound in my head, God has eternally foreseen. That its light goes out and I become blind, or that I become deaf, the heavenly Father has foreseen it eternally, decreed it in His eternal counsels. And shall not I, though blind and deaf outwardly, lift up my soul’s glances and thank my God that His eternal decree has been fulfilled in me? Instead of my misfortune afflicting me, it should wonderfully excite me to thanksgiving. It is the same with the loss of friends, goods, honors, the comforts of life; such calamities are given by God to prepare thee for the truest interior peace if thou but knowest how to receive them. And if thou sayst: These afflictions have come from my harboring an evil thing in my soul and I have deserved them as a punishment, then I answer: Dear child, whether these painful things are deserved or undeserved, they equally come from God. In either case thank Him for them, suffer them and be resigned.

All the myrrh of suffering that God sends, is by Him intended to lead thee to great things. It is that we may be privileged to suffer, that God other things God wills that man must be tried. Everything that happens is thus foreseen and prearranged by Him. We know how carefully the painter calculates the strokes of his brush, broad or narrow, short or long, mingling the red and the blue with all foresight to produce a masterpiece of his art. God is a thousand times more intent than this upon making a man the masterpiece of His Divine art; and He does this by His strokes of suffering and His colors of pain. O that we would accept and use the Divine gift of myrrh in the same spirit in which it is given!

And there are some men who are not content with the myrrh that God gives; they seek and find other pains out of self-will, injuring their brains and breeding illusions, suffering much and long from this indiscreet mortification. Little grace comes to them, for they build upon their own foundation, whether in penances, fastings, praying or other devotional practices. In such cases God must wait till their meddlesome interference is over and done. It has brought them no good. It is God’s way not to reward any works other than His own. In Heaven, He will bestow on thee a crown for His works and not for thine. Whatsoever work of thine God does not work in thee, counts for nothing.

The third kind of myrrh is very bitter; it is God’s gift of inward anguish and darkness, aridity and distaste for spiritual things. Whosoever recognizes God’s hand in this and resigns himself to it, will find flesh and blood and human nature consumed in him; the Divine artist’s inward work changes the colors far more than all one’s own outward practices. God tries us herein with dreadful tests, and in amazing and strange ways, unknown to all save those who have experienced them. There is a wonderful store of the myrrh of suffering in man’s nature, which, if it were set loose, we could scarcely endure; but God knows how to use it for our good. If one does not understand this, then when the trial comes he is more deeply injured than can be imagined; for no heart can measure God’s love for us in giving us this myrrh of inner sorrow. Given to us for our profit, we may yet get no good from it by bearing it with sleepy indifference or with murmuring of spirit. And if thou complainest: O, I am all dry and dark within my soul, I answer thee: Dear child, bear it patiently, and thou shalt be much better on account of, it than if thou hadst been full of sensible sweetness.

Now, the bitterness of this myrrh is felt both in the senses and in the mind. When felt in our sensible and external life, a man will sometimes would presume to guide and correct, being quite unwilling to accept anything and everything from His Divine hand. In the end these suffer the bitterest woe.

Others would manage their interior distress and sweeten their myrrh’s bitterness, by using the resources of natural reason. They take refuge from their inward sorrow in the occupations and images of their intelligence. It, therefore, often happens that uneducated persons are sooner granted a solace than the learned. These uneducated souls are more single-minded and follow God’s guidance more implicitly, knowing no other method than that of perfect trust in Him. Would that the more intellectual would do the same! This way would bring them to an elevated and free state of soul even sooner than it does the others, because they would be aided by their mental endowments. O that thou wouldst give thyself thus up to God, not a drop of blood in thy body but would help thee to thy perfection!

Out of this soul is breathed forth the frankincense of the magi — a little vapor from the fragrant grains of incense. Incense has a sweet odor. When the fire takes hold of its grains, it sucks into itself the sweetness concealed in them, and then gives it forth in its fragrant fumes. By the fire is meant nothing else than the burning love of God which blazes up in prayer. Prayer is the smoke of incense, arising from our souls to God during our devout exercises; for prayer is defined as the elevation of the soul to God. External devotion, however, is like straw; its whole use is for the wheat, and after the grain has been thrashed out of it, it is good for nothing better than to make a bed, or for kindling a very smoky fire. So outward devotional exercises are of no other use than to excite interior devotion, which is the sweet perfume of the soul before God. When thou feelest thy soul rising upward in interior aspiration, then cease the external practice; but this ought not to be done when holy Church commands us to observe outward devotional exercises, or when our father confessor imposes them by way of a penance.

May our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Glory, help us thus to benefit by these gifts of frankincense and myrrh, and may He draw our hearts’ prayers thus upward to God. Amen.

God’s interior guidance in ordinary things — God’s deeper visitation baffles the soul’s faculties and makes it stupid, alienates friends, and shrouds it in darkness — In due time this state of ignorance and misery is changed for one of God’s own wisdom and power.