The Sermons of Johannes Tauler · 20 of 124

Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany

My yoke is sweet and My burden is light — Matt xi, 80.

It is eternal truth itself — our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ — who utters these words. And yet men contradict Him, men who live according to mere matter; these by act and word affirm that God’s yoke is bitter and his burden is heavy. But the right is with God.

Anything that crushes a man and drags him down is a burden. Now, we understand by the word yoke, as here used, the inner man; and by the word burden, the outer man. The inner man has come from God, and he is a noble being, made after God’s image and likeness. And as he comes from God, so is he invited and urgently called back to God, so that, being drawn into the Divine life, he may become partaker of all good. The blessedness that belongs to God by nature the soul may hereby obtain by grace. Now, dear children, the treasures that God has hidden in the depths of our souls, whosoever discovers them and contemplates them becomes, indeed, a happy man. And, although a man may allow his spiritual insight to be for a time diverted from Divine things, yet he is incessantly drawn again to consider God’s interior presence; he can never otherwise be at rest. The whole universe is not enough to content him. All outward things only turn him back into his inner life, whether he perceives it or not; for there is God, his final end and the only purpose of his existence. As all material things rest on their proper basis, as a stone on the earth; or as they rise upward into their

Now, to what men is this yoke sweet and light, as they accept it and bear it along? Surely only to those whose thoughts are turned inward in search of God, and quite turned away from all created things. Children, our souls ever stand on the boundary line between time and eternity. If we turn toward time, we shall without doubt forget eternity, and soon be led far away from the things of God. Whatever we see from a distance looks small; whatever we see close at hand looks large, for there is but little intervening space. Thus the sun is many times larger than the earth, but if reflected in a cup of clear water on a summer’s* midday it seems no bigger than a little bean, and any little object that should come between the sun and that mirror, would be large enough to entirely take away the image of the great luminary. So it is with a man’s soul. No matter how trifling may be the earthly image he places in the depths of his soul, it is enough to interfere with God’s light shining there; the infinite good that God is may easily be hindered from entering and possessing the soul of man. And this is equally true when it happens that the image in the soul is not an evil and a little thing, but a great and really good thing; it may hinder the entrance of God, Who is without any image or intermediary whatsoever. Know, therefore, for a certainty, that in whatever soul the infinitely good God shall be mirrored, it must be totally freed and emptied of all images; if the soul reflects a single created thing, that is enough to exclude the reflection of God. All souls who have not established in their very depths this freedom from creatures, who have not uncovered and laid bare before God their innermost recesses, are as yet only scullions in the Divine service, and to them God’s yoke is bitter. And, says Origen, the man who has not looked into the deeper depths of his being has a plain sign, that as yet he has not tasted of the eternal sweetness of God.

Let it be well understood, therefore, my dear children, that at least once in the day we should turn inwards with all possible recollectedness; for if we do not even that much for the interior life, we are without doubt unworthy the name of Christians. And all who cleanse the mirror of their souls perfectly clear of the images of created things, so that God may pour in the sunlight of His divinity quite unobstructed, to them His yoke is sweet beyond all other possible sweetness. To such souls whatsoever is not God is tasteless; yea, it is bitter and loathsome to the taste, whether it be within them or come from without, and the

God’s eternal image expels completely from the soul every other image whatsoever.

But let us ask, children, why it is that the things amid which we live here below hinder us spiritually? It is because thou clothest thyself with them as if with thy own proper personal qualities; for if thy mind were in very truth unencumbered with their images, thou mightest be master of a kingdom and suffer no spiritual harm. Be but free from all images, and all sense of ownership of creatures, and all is well with thee. What thou needest, thou mayst in humility and in fear of God without doubt possess and use, and God is thereby pleased. If thou tallest short of thy needful substance, trust God confidently, for He will provide for thee, even, if necessary, by means of His dumb creatures; He no more forsakes His children than He gives up His own eternal life.

There was once an ancient hermit, whose soul was so free that no created thing encumbered his thoughts. Now, it happened that a certain man knocked at the door of his cell, and when the hermit opened it and went out to him, the man asked him to give him a certain object inside the cell, and the hermit turned and entered to do so. But when he would seek for it he found he had, meantime, forgotten what it was. After a while the man knocked at the door again, and then the holy hermit came out, and bade him go inside himself and take what he wanted: “For,” said he, “my dear son, I cannot retain in my mind what it is thou dost want me to give thee, for I am entirely stripped of all thoughts of created things.”

Children, in such imageless souls, the light of God shines without hindrance. They are elevated in spirit and set at liberty from creatures, even detached from their own selves, and their wills in all joy and sorrow, in all work and rest, are entirely united to God. They are most joyfully enveloped by God’s will, as if they were caught in a net. To them pain and pleasure are all one, or rather are instantly forgotten, for God’s yoke is sweet to their souls. All creatures, considered in themselves, look far off and seem petty and contemptible, for they behold them from the Divine bosom, into which they have sunken away; and eternal things are close at hand and most wonderfully grand, for them they behold in their own souls with God. If men hate them or love them their peace is equally untroubled, for the sweetness of Divine love

Now, we are to consider that other Word of Christ: “My burden is light.” This refers to the many sorrows we suffer in our external life. O, good and merciful God, who are those that nowadays find Thy burden light? For, alas, men no longer want to bear the burdens of life, even those that are unavoidably necessary for our welfare. And yet whichever way thou turnest thou must bear burdens, in spite of thyself. Fly from the heat and thou shalt fall into the deep cold snow. O, give thyself up willingly and joyfully to suffer, commending thyself piously to God’s protection in whatever may happen to thee. Consider how bitterly our Lord Jesus Christ suffered, and how it was by suffering that He entered into His glory and into the bosom of His heavenly Father,

And what, dear children, shall a servant of God suffer? Thou must suffer all the visitations of God’s providence, and that in entire submissiveness, without arguing about their justice or injustice, whether they are allowed to come to thee from men or come direct from God — the death of thy friends, the loss of thy property or of thy good name, the privation of consolations, whether exterior or interior, from God or from creatures. My dear child, these burdens must thou take up cheerfully and bear joyously. And, besides these, thou must bear with thy own defects, however painful they may be to thee, and however miserably thou hast failed to overcome them. Put thy shoulder meekly under thy burdens, and trust to God for strength to suffer; let God’s blessed love be thy guide for time and eternity. Take an example from horses in the stable. Their manure is filthy and it is offensive to the smell. But the same horse that makes it, draws it with great labor into the fields and there it makes fine wheat and rich wine — all the better wheat and wine for the filthiness of the manure. Thus mayst thou use those disgusting faults of thine which thou canst not quite overcome. Scatter them upon the field of God’s holy will, and abandon thyself very humbly to His loving care; rich fruit of virtue thou shalt without doubt gather to the honor of God and the edification of His servants.

Whatsoever man bows his back humbly under God’s dispensations, and yields himself joyfully to His holy will in weal and woe; whatsoever man looks to God for everything in steadfast hope, receiving all from Him and returning all to Him in sincere detachment of spirit; whatsoever man sinks himself deep down into his own soul, seeking only for

God’s will in entire renunciation of self and of all creatures; whatsoever man, I say, does all this with a true heart and perseveres steadfastly in it, to him will God’s burden in very truth be made light. Yes, children, so light that if it were possible to lay on that man alone all the burdens of the world, they would seem so light to him that it would be a joy to carry them — a joy that would seem like that of Heaven. For you must understand, that it is God Himself who bears such a man’s burden; God has entered into him and taken charge of all that he does and all that he endures. May the eternal God do the like in us. May He thus make His yoke sweet and His burden light to us, God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.