The Sermons of Johannes Tauler · 36 of 124

First Sermon for Good Friday

With Christ I am nailed to the cross. — Gal. ii, 19.

Thus speaks the apostle, teaching us that we must never permit the sacred passion of our Lord to be absent from our thoughts, but that with deep emotion, sympathy and gratitude, we must ever meditate on it. There is no surer, easier or better way to be freed from our sins and to acquire all virtues, graces and joys than this devout practice. Nay, there is no other way to go to God; it is the one only way that all the saints have trodden. O, how much is to be said on this holy theme, one which surpasses the angels’ powers of understanding: Of how God became man out of His great love for us, and then for such vile sinners humbled Himself even to the bitter cross!

And if the everlasting Lord and God of all, suffered such shame and such torment for ns, should not all who claim to be His friends willingly suffer whatsoever God allots them, whether they be guilty or innocent? Should they not esteem themselves honored, thus to be made like Him and allowed to follow after Him in this His chosen way of the cross? Hence the holy apostle St. Peter admonishes us: “Christ, therefore, having suffered in the flesh, be you also armed with the same thought.” (I Peter, iv. 1.) And so does our holy and faithful mother, the Church, tell us that this thought should never be absent from our hearts. This now study the lessons that our beloved Lord has written upon His crucified body, and let us print them indelibly in our hearts.

The first lesson is taught by the nakedness of His body on the cross; it is voluntary poverty. So must we learn to be poor for His sake, since He became poor for our sakes. Out of all His rich kingdoms, He kept not so much as would serve to cover Him as He hung on the cross. He had said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven/’ (Matt, v, 3.) Is not the Kingdom of Heaven a rich treasure to him who is so fortunate as to possess it? And it is a blessed lot for more reasons than its riches. Voluntary poverty bestows more upon a man than he can desire. What he has contents him; he is satisfied in his poor estate, so much so that he does not feel himself poor at all. The covetous man ever covets to gain yet more, ever dreads to be robbed; the poor man of Christ is ever thinking that he has more than enough. Therefore is he rightly called blessed and happy, because he has all that he desires; for all he desires is to be poor, and to suffer want is his purpose — very willingly and for God’s sake. Such men have, indeed, learned by heart and in their hearts how to be poor. They have always before their eyes the spectacle of Jesus crucified. His blessed humanity, poor and in want all His days on earth, is printed on their heart’s tablets. Blessed are these men; no man can rob them, for they own nothing worth stealing. Again they are blessed, because they have been granted a foretaste of Heaven’s blessed freedom, owning all and more than all that is needful even in and by their poverty; for that gives them a sweet contentment of mind, to be rewarded after death by the Kingdom of Heaven itself.

The second lesson of Jesus crucified is perfect brotherly love, for you know that He was hung between two thieves; and this was His own

He ever have better shown that His love was perfect, than by bearing the burden of the guilt of His enemies on His own shoulders, having it struck and cut into all His members? If He had but died for His friends alone, even so it were a mark of mighty love; but that He died for His enemies is a mark of perfect love. In this He teaches us that we should love our enemies, and that we should do so by serving them in all their necessities. Our Lord would be put to death not only for His friends and for good people; He would suffer all His bitter passion and His cruel death for the wicked and for His enemies. And if He showed such love to His very enemies, what, think you, must be His love for His friends, who have so faithfully followed Him? St. Paul tells us: “When as yet we were enemies, according to the time, Christ died for us; much rather therefore now, being justified by His blood, shall we be saved from wrath through Him.” (Rom. v, 9.)

The third lesson of Jesus crucified is His overflowing mercy. See how He treated the thief that hung all justly for his crimes alongside of Him on the cross, and who had reviled and blasphemed Him. (Matt, xxvii, 44.) But when this malefactor repented and begged a grace of Jesus, He instantly pardoned him, and He granted him a greater boon than he had asked. He said: “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.” Jesus gladly hearkened to him, and answered: “Amen, I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.” Jesus not only thought of him kindly and spoke a good word to him, but He joined the poor wretch very closely to Himself, Who is the true and living paradise of eternal joy. And you know how our Lord, as soon as He died, descended in His human soul joined to His Divine nature into the Limbus of the just, and announced to all those Godfearing souls there the near approach of their eternal happiness. In that happy journey the good thief was our Lord’s companion, and his paradise was to see Jesus then amid His chosen friends. Was not this a proof of a heart overflowing with mercy? And if He treated an enemy thus, will not His love overflow yet more generously toward His friends? But, besides adoring His mercy, let us be sure to imitate it in our conduct toward friends and foes, and especially the latter.

The fourth lesson learned beneath the cross of Christ is, perfect and devout obedience. Obedience it was that nailed Him to the cross, and that virtue did He especially show when He bowed His head and gave up the ghost. Herein piety and obedience are both shown forth. For it obeyed Thee even unto death, and all of Thy holy will I have completely accomplished: “It is consummated” (John xix, 30) ; and, bowing His sacred head, He gave up the ghost. Learn from this to be not only obedient, but devoutly obedient, as our Lord was. Whatever is commanded us, or advised, or counselled, let us receive it with a devoutly bowed head. Thus will men know that we have gentle hearts and a devout spirit in our obedience; for the devotional spirit is always gentle and yielding.

Let me tell you what is true piety toward God. It is that one interiorly realizes for whose sake we give up our body and our goods in holy obedience — namely, for God’s sake. And when one receives directions from a superior, let him say in his own mind: My Lord and Father and Redeemer, I gladly accept this obedience out of love for Thee; receive this the submission of my will as a sacrifice to Thy glory. And let us maintain this devout obedience to the end, even unto death; for St. Paul teaches what Christ did for us: “He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death.” (Phil, ii, 8.) We should often meditate on Christ’s obedience, gaining thereby strength to practice obedience ourselves. For whosoever comes to the end of his life and is not found in a state of holy obedience, cannot hope to share in the merits of Christ’s obedience on the cross.

The fifth lesson of Jesus crucified is that of respect and friendship. Mark well His treatment of His beloved mother. As she stood beneath His cross, He would not allow her to suffer her dreadful sorrow without any solace. However sad His own desolation as He hung there, He yet did not forget her. He could not speak much with her, so great was His pain. But the few words He did say, proved to her how boundless was His love and His respect for her. All sweetly did He address her, as best He might in His state of torture, being nigh unto death, His bodily forces wasting fast away: “Woman, behold thy son!” How mindful was He of His beloved mother, even amid such bodily torments. He committed her to the care of His beloved disciple St. John, as if He would say: You perceive, dear mother, to what a pass I, thy only Son, am come. I know that My sufferings pierce thy soul with a sharp sword of

How well this teaches us to honor and reverence our father and mother, and not only our natural parents, but also our spiritual parents — our fathers and mothers in religion; yea, and our brothers and sisters, too — all for the sake of God and in God, just as our Lord has commanded us, so that it may be well with us in the land He will give us.

The sixth lesson of Jesus crucified is the virtue of patience. For our Lord, in allowing Himself to be nailed fast to the cross, as much as said to His torturers: Inflict on Me all the suffering you wish; I will gladly bear it all. In his whole life He never did anything that merited the least punishment. And yet, now that He is so cruelly treated, He is so patient that He has not a single bitter thought, not one word of reproach. For what did He say? “Father, forgive them” — these men who are torturing Me; “forgive them, for they know not what they do.” This teaches us to willingly accept unjust punishment, to patiently suffer wrong, never forgetting how patient the Lord was as He allowed Himself to be nailed to the cross. What else does this mean but that we should suffer miseries visited on us rightly or wrongly, with equal and entire submission, accepting meekly whatever God permits to happen to us.

The seventh lesson of Christ’s cross is steadfast perseverance. Mark that he allowed His feet to be nailed to the cross, as if to say: I will stand fast here in My obedience to My Father; I will not move one step away; here stand I till death. Thus should we stand fast in a good life, bearing the cross of penance to the end, hands and feet nailed to the cross of a dying life, never harboring a single thought except that of following Jesus crucified, crucifying all our vices and concupiscences with great good will, and so persisting even unto death. If Jesus finds us thus fastened to the cross, He will forgive us every evil thing that we ever did. To stand fast in good — that is our purpose; for if one had lived a good life for a thousand years, and afterwards fell away but for one hour and thus died, then in spite of all his former goodness he would be lost. Therefore, let us persevere with all steadfastness, and, as it were, nailed hands and feet to the cross, even unto the end; for as we are found at the moment of death so shall we be judged.

The eighth lesson of Christ’s cross is constant prayer, for you know that our Lord, amid all his pains, prayed without ceasing. A certain teacher surmises that He recited a hundred and fifty verses of the

God, who was all innocent and guileless, was so desolate in His last agony as to exclaim, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me!” When we consider that, must we poor sinners not shrink in dismay from the thought of our own last agony? What shall we then say to God? Jesus prayed to His Father thus humbly, and as if He had been a lifelong sinner, and He did so to set us an example, so that now and always until death we should meekly appeal for pardon to our Heavenly Father. Such should be our constant prayer, for prayer is always necessary, and if diligently persevered in, as death conies, when it is most necessary, we can easily turn our heart, with all its emotions and affections, perfectly to God. Then shall we be granted deep and humble confidence in God’s blessed mercy; we shall be enabled with this prayer to beat off all evil spirits, who will then assail us more fiercely than ever before, in order to bring us to eternal ruin. May God grant that they shall have no power to hurt us. Amen.