The Sermons of Johannes Tauler · 40 of 124

Sermon for Easter Monday

And they said one to another: Was not our heart burning within us whilst He spoke in the way, and opened to us the scriptures? — Luke xxiv, 32.

Dear children, one of these two disciples of our Lord was named Cleophas, and the other, as some think, was St. Luke, the evangelist, who tells of this apparition of our Lord the evening of the resurrection. Their eyes were held as the Lord appeared to them, and He was disguised as a pilgrim; they did not recognize Him at first. St. Gregory says that He appeared to them because they loved Him, and that yet He concealed who He was, because they were still doubtful about His resurrection. Hence He upbraided them fo * their incredulity and hardness of heart and their want of understanding, and opened to them the hidden meaning of the scriptures. Their faith was mingled with doubt, and yet they had been speaking affectionately about Him; and when He joined in their conversation, His words made their hearts burn within them.

St. Dionysius tells us that love has five degrees. The first degree is the active one, and is less closely joined to God than the others. In this degree the soul begins to turn to God and to cherish Him with a kind of anxious love. It practices certain devout exercises very earnestly, is afraid that it will cool in its ardor, and would seek its beloved and ever follow Him. Its voice is that of Ihe bride: “In my bed by night I sought Him whom my soul loveth.” (Cant, iii, 1.) But the Bridegroom finds this couch of active love too narrow, and this state is not according to His will. But the soul does not give Him up; on the contrary, it seeks to possess Him with much distress of mind, as Zacheus eagerly climbed a tree in order to behold our Lord Jesus Christ. Such an undersized man is every lover of Jesus, when first he turns in all seriousness to the love of God. Like Zacheus, he avows himself a great sinner, overcomes his shame in a good confession and reveals all his wickedness. He says with St. Paul: “Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief.” (I Tim. i, 15.) And this sinner is enriched with grace, for as in him sin did abound, so now does grace superabound. Let every one aspire to enter this first degree of love, as Zacheus climbed the tree to behold Jesus; let none despair because his sins are grievous. This is the degree of active love in which the soul diligently practices all sorts of meritorious works, its sins not only being forgiven, but, as St. Augustine teaches, many great gifts bestowed upon it.

The two disciples who journeyed toward Emmaus, had this sort of love, meanwhile conversing about their beloved Master with afflicted hearts. Although every lover of Christ is in this world like a sojourner in Egypt, and is bowed down under a heavy burden of fear and of anguish, yet he has the privilege of this degree of love. And the thought of the eternal life hereafter, now and again fills his soul with deepest joy. Yet there are brief intervals, during which he overflows with spiritual happiness and says with Sarah: “God hath made a laughter for me; whosoever shall hear of it will laugh with me.” (Gen. xxi, 6.) But presently all is changed and the soul exclaims: “Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged!” (Ps. cxix, 5.) And again with Job: “Who will grant me, that I might be according to the months past, according to the days in which God kept me, when his lamp shined over my head and I walked by His light in darkness? * * * When

I washed my feet in butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil?” (Job. xxix, 2, 3, 6.) What else is the soul’s lamp but Divine grace, and what is its shining, but the bright rays of that same grace enlightening our mind? The lamp is over our heads and guides us forward in the darkness, till we pass out of and beyond this first degree, namely, that of active love. We may also compare the soul’s faculties of desiring and seeking, to a man’s spiritual feet, which are now to carry him into the more interior regions of the spiritual life. The oil that flowed from the rock, may be taken to mean the tears of sweet joy shed by the soul in its love of God.

The second degree of love is perseverance. By this love we continue to hold fast and firm to God in joy and sorrow, nay, even when we are groping in darkness; what we began with, that we keep on even to the end, just as Mary Magdalene outstayed all the disciples at the Saviour’s tomb. And as her perseverance in love was rewarded with the first apparition of the risen Lord, so shall we be likewise blest if we remain steadfast in His grace. The worth of perseverance and the perfect completeness of our task of love, was typified in the old testament by the law that no beast that had been deprived of his tail was to be offered in sacrifice to God. Joseph’s coat, so long as to reach to his feet, had the same signification of steadfastness in our devout exercises of love, no matter what our darkness of mind. To the same effect is the word of the bride in the Canticle: “My soul melted when He spoke; I sought Him and found Him not; I called, and He did not answer me. The keepers that go about the city found me; they struck me and wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me” (Cant, v, 6-7.) The veil is perseverance in love. And then the bride heartens herself to renewed seeking for her Beloved: “I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my Beloved, that you tell Him that I languish with love!” (Ibid., 8.)

The third degree of love is fervor, by which the heart receives a grace which sets it on fire. Thus Job asks: “Art not thy garments hot when the south wind blows upon earth?” (Job xxxvii, 17.) Then it is that both of the soul’s powers, those of loving and understanding, are aroused and enflamed. Therefore, Hugo of St. Victor teaches: “When thou dost not seek thy Beloved with ardor, thou remainest apart from His true lovers, dull and heavy.” And St. Augustine: “O love, ever burning and never extinguished, how late have I come to know thee! Thou wast within me and I sought thee out of me; thou wast with me and I was not with thee.” Love, like the burning bush that Moses saw, is always burning and never consumed. For however much the lover ia tormented by his love, he is also comforted by it and well pleasea with it, as witness the two disciples: “Was not our heart burning within us^ whilst He spoke in the way, and opened to us the scriptures?” And they partook of the second grade of love, for with strengthened faith they turned back to Jerusalem; and also of the first grade, for they showed the active zeal of love in constraining Christ, whilst they thought Him only a pilgrim, to accept their hospitality.

Him. This was St. Augustine’s petition: “Lord, help me, that I may know Thee and myself.” And it was thus that the two disciples knew the Lord after their loving conversation with Him, in the breaking of bread. This penetration of love pierces through obstacles, and sheds so clear a light as to show forth its own glorious brightness in the soul, relieving the lover of many a bitter pain. St. Augustine says in his confessions: “O Lord, when I cling to Thee with all my might, I am unburdened of the heavy load that I am to myself; my life is full of Thee, and toil and distress are done. O, who will grant me to have Thee dwell within my heart and so to inebriate me with love that I shall forget all my pains!” Hugo of St. Victor says: “The fire of love bursts forth in flames strong and consuming; it burns until the lover is united to the beloved: ‘I found him whom my soul loveth; I held him, and I will not let him go till I bring him into my mother’s house and into the chamber of her that bore me.’” (Cant, iii, 4.) That happens when the penetration of love has entered into the deepest depths that can be explored, a state of love beyond what one can understand — love enters within and understanding remains without.

The fifth degree is love so overflowing as to obtain a gift beyond even that of penetration, namely, love’s freedom. The heart is like a vessel of water boiling over in the fire. The fire of love in the heart casts the soul out of itself, so fierce is its energy — a force all hidden and known only by its mighty effects. In the Book of Job, Elihu said: “Behold, my belly is new wine which wanteth vent, which bursteth the new vessels” (Job. xxx, 19), meaning that his’soul was overflowing with his message to Job. And thus the lover in the Canticles: “My soul melted when he spoke” (Cant, v, 6), as if to say: As molten gold is poured into its mold and takes its shape, so am I melted and poured into and shaped by my beloved. Hence St. Paul says: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of His Son.” (Rom. viii, 29.) And, again, the apostle quotes from Moses: “Our God is a consuming fire.” (Heb. xii, 29.) When at last the soul is thus melted by God and rests at peace in Him, it is united to Him and filled with His light. Love, then, gives a man power to say: All things are common with Him and with me, for I have nothing of my own; we two have but one house, one heritage, one table, one couch.

But if any weakness in such a soul happens to intervene between it and God, then it is instantly in anguish. Ah, it says, tell my beloved that I languish with love; for that soul cannot remain separated from Him. This painful visitation has happened to the soul because it still harbors some remnants of self-love. Yet, in all its pain, the soul is still faithful to its beloved, and this is shown by its diligence in keeping up its sweet exercises of devotion to God. Gilbert says: “Wheresoever love is, there is an active and powerful impulse toward the beloved, especially if it is withdrawn from it.” The holy prophet Daniel suffered from this, for “He was a man of desires” (Dan. ix, 23) ; his yearning for Divine things made him weak and sick. And the two disciples on the way to Emmaus were likewise greatly distressed, till they had questioned the Lord and listened to Him, and finally were made sure of His resurrection; and then they were united to Him in the breaking of bread. God grant us the same favor. Amen.

loves God without rivals, God and God alone — It loves Him unceasingly, either by praises or by good works — Meantime God constantly rewards such love with the gift of greater desire and power of loving — A summary of God’s worthiness of our love.