The Sermons of Johannes Tauler · 29 of 124

Sermon for the Third Sunday of Lent

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him: If you continue in My word, you shall be My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered Him: We are the seed of Abraham, and we have never been the slaves of any man: how sayest Thou: You shall be free? — John viii, 31-33.

Upon this angry reply from the Jews, Jesus told them that not only Abraham, but the devil, was their father, for it was the devil’s work they were occupied with. “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. Now, the servant abideth not in the house forever, but the Son abideth forever; if, therefore, the Son shall make you free, you shall be free, indeed. * * * My Word hath no place in you. I speak that

Herein we may distinguish between the true and the false in the spiritual life. The false spirit does not seek God, but self, and that in everything whatsoever — personal advantage or personal enjoyment in all created things. And it takes all things not as leading to God or coming from God, but in a selfish spirit. The master and the father of this way is the evil one, who, when he has accomplished his purpose, leads his victims into his own house. They are not sons of God, but servants of the devil. They have been cast out of God’s house and rejected by Him.

The other spirit — and the only true one, because it is born of God — is altogether admirable and praiseworthy. It would go straight to God as a ray of sunlight darts down to the earth. It is as Jesus said:

“I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world and I go to the Father.” (John xvi, 28.) The Son returns to His Father with all that He brought out from the Father. And that man is Christ’s in word and in doctrine, who holds back nothing from God of all that he has received from Him — no, not a hair’s weight. As he came forth from God, so does he return again to God. In this is he the Lord’s true disciple, full of love and of thanksgiving to His Father, reserving no joy in self nor approval of self, having no thought and no sentiment whatever, that is not veritably consecrated to the Father’s honor.

But there are some in whom, together with this solid foundation, there is mingled a certain weakness, the soul thinking of other things and having other affections, together with those devoted to God. And this defect a man must cure by the sacrament of penance, nourishing deep contrition and performing penitential works. This requires that one should learn how to confess his sins with much intelligence, and in a very interior spirit of sorrow. The father confessor must, on his part, carefully point out to the penitent in what manner his dispositions are defective — a duty very generally neglected nowadays, either from lack of skill or want of time; or, as is perhaps more often the case, from lack of affectionate interest of the priest in the penitent. Meanwhile the penitent should enter deeply into his own soul, and thoroughly search and discover what his motives are for everything he does or even thinks. And then, whatsoever he discovers inordinate or faulty, let him resolutely set to work to correct it. Let him pour out all his imperfections into the very heart of God, consumed with deep interior sorrow. By this means a man soon learns how to know himself; purity of heart is acquired, and fear of God, and earnest zeal of virtue, especially to guard against future defects. And if it should happen that when he goes to confession he forgets some faults, he has, nevertheless, already repented of them fully and been pardoned. His constant and contrite confessions to God, should be so made as to bring him continually in spirit before God’s awful tribunal. There let him prostrate himself at God’s feet in the deepest humility, and so remain till he is at least all afire with the Divine love, and melted, as it were, with confidence in the Divine mercy. O how good a gift of God is this, and how deserving of heartfelt thanks! And if it happens — as, indeed, it may — that the soul still continues to suffer from the remembrance of past infidelity to God, let this be accepted humbly and fearfully as God’s blessed will.

Many men, however, who have begun in this right way, give it up and exchange it for the wrong way, because they must have consolations and spiritual solaces. But what peace can there be between the temporal and the eternal? Can joy in transitory things exist in the same heart with joy in eternal things? Where the joys of this life dwell, there the joys of eternal life cannot abide. These deluded men say with the Jews: We are the children of Abraham; we are spiritual men; do we not sing hymns and read pious books and say fine prayers? Why, then, should we not have the comfort of created things? Do we not know by experience that these relaxations and consolations are not harmful? Are we not well-disposed and really pious men? Are we not always in the state of Divine grace? Dear children, listen to St. Paul’s answer to all this: “If I speak with the tongue of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. * * * And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” (I Cor. xiii, 1-3.) And tell me, I pray thee, how can that love be called God’s love, which is given in all joy and self-satisfaction to created things? Ah, this is a false spiritual way! It is quite otherwise in the true way, in which all one’s love is held captive to God alone.

This captivity is twofold — interior and exterior. The interior affects the higher faculties of the soul, directing them so resolutely to God, and binding them so fast to His will, that they shall not ever resist Him. The external captivity to God is best shown when heavy sorrows are borne in all patience for God’s sake. When one’s worldly goods, one’s honor, beloved friends and relatives, are all lost; ah, then poor human nature weeps and wails to God and to all creatures in earth and Heaven for relief. And this painful experience must happen to all well-tried friends of God. They must have their inmost soul full of God and their outward life full of suffering. But the outward tribulations and pains can well be endured, if the interior life be only fast and firm in its union with God.

But, again, the inner man is sorely tried by temptations — those of pride, impurity, irritability, silliness, rashness and many others — as St. Augustine teaches: “For such is the misery of our poor fallen, nature. O let us grapple courageously with these evil tendencies and ever keep God and His blessed law before our eyes, absolutely resigned to suffer all these trials, simply and entirely because such is the Divine

Father knows it, and knows just exactly when and where and how it happens. Let us even be thankful to God that He permits us thus to suffer temptation, remembering that God allows the bitterest sufferings to fall on those whom he best loves. And this applies especially to those whom He has set over His people as their teachers or father confessors. Of that class, those who have had the hard lot of trial and temptation are the ones who are very compassionate in dealing with sinners. Others are not so much so, but are too often over-severe with them.

Whatsoever man, therefore, shall steadfastly endure this course of trial repeated over and over again, has become in very truth God’s disciple. He will easily find the right path to perfection. Him the truth will in very deed make free from all subjection to sinful inclinations. And one effect of this self-renunciation will be that even his body will by God’s grace be so freed from its weakness and fitted for all possible virtue, that it will become a proper companion for his soul. That we may thus be made God’s disciples, and that we may thus be made free, may His blessed grace be granted us. Amen.