Meister Eckhart — Franz Pfeiffer, trans. C. de B. Evans (1924)

undiscovered ? Those who have written of the soul’s nobility have gone no further than their natural intelligence could carry them: they never entered her ground, so that much remained obscure and unknown to them. ‘I will sit in silence and hearken to what God speaketh within me,’ said the prophet. Into this retirement steals the Word in the darkness of the night. St John says, ‘ The light shines in the darkness : it came unto its own and as many as received it became in authority sons of God : to them was given power to become God’s sons.’

Mark now the fruit and use of this mysterious Word and of this darkness. In this gloom which is his own the heavenly Father’s Son is not born alone : thou too art born there a child of the same heavenly Father and no other, and to thee also he gives power. Observe how great the use. No truth learned by any master by his own intellect and understanding, or ever to be learned this side the day of judgment, has ever been interpreted at all according to this knowledge, in this ground. Call it an thou wilt an ignorance, an unknowing, yet there is in it more than in all knowing and understanding without it, for this outward ignorance lures and attracts thee from all understood things and from thyself. This is what Christ meant when he said : ‘ Whosoever denieth not him- self and leaveth not father and mother and is not estranged from all these, he is not worthy of me.’ As though to say: he who abandons not creaturely externals can neither be conceived nor born in this divine birth. But divesting thyself of thyself and of every- thing external thereto does indeed give it thee. And in very truth I believe, nay I am sure, that the man who is established herein can in no wise be at any time separated from God. I hold he can in no wise lapse into mortal sin. He would rather suffer the most shameful death, as the saints have done before him, than commit the least of mortal sins. I hold that he cannot willingly commit, nor yet consent to, even a venial sin, whether in himself or in another. So strongly is he drawn and attracted to this way, so much is he habituated to it, that he could never turn to any other : to this way are directed all his senses, all his powers.

May the God who has been born again as man assist us in
this birth, continually helping us, weak man, to be born again in
him as God. Amen.

This Is Another Sermon

Ubi est qui natus est rex Judeorum ? (Matt. 2,). Where is he who is born King of the Jews ? Now concerning this birth, mark where it befalls. I say again as I have often said before that this

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birth befalls in the soul exactly as it does in eternity, neither more nor less, for it is the same birth: this birth befalls in the ground and essence of the soul. ,

Certain questions arise. Granting that God is in all things as intelligence (or mind) and is more instinct in things than they are in themselves and more natural ; and granting that God wherever he is is in operation, knowing himself and speaking his Word, then mark in what respects the soul is better fitted for this divine operation than other rational creatures God exists in.

God is in all things as being, as activity, as power. But he is procreative in the soul alone for though every creature is a vestige of God, the soul is the natural image of God. This image is perfected and adorned in this birth. No creature but the soul is susceptible to this birth, this act. Such perfection as enters the soul, whether it be divine light, grace or bliss, must needs enter the soul in this birth and no otherwise. Do but foster this birth in thee and thou shalt experience all good and all comfort, all happiness, all being and all truth. What comes to thee therein brings thee true being and stability and whatsoever thou mayst seek or grasp, without it, perishes, take it how thou wilt. This alone gives life ; all else corrupts. Moreover, in this birth thou dost participate in the divine influx and its gifts. This is not received by creatures wherein God’s image is not found : the soul- idea belongs to the eternal birth alone and this happens only and solely in the soul, begotten of the Father in the ground and innermost recesses of the soul whereinto never image shone nor soul-power peeped.

Another question is: If this birth befalls in the ground and essence of the soul, then it happens alike in sinner and in saint, so what use or good is it to me? The ground of nature is the same in both, nay even in hell the nobility of nature persists eternally.—It is characteristic of this birth that it always comes with fresh light. It always brings great enlightenment to the soul because it is the nature of good to diffuse itself. In this birth God pours into the soul in such abundance of light, the ground and essence of the soul are so flooded with it, that it runs over into her powers and into the outward man as well. Thus it befell Paul when upon his journey God touched him with his light and spake to him: the reflection of this light showed outwardly so that his companions saw it surrounding Paul like the saints. The superfluity of light in the ground of the soul wells over into the body which is filled with radiance. No sinner can receive this light nor is he worthy to, being full of sin and wickedness, or darkness. As he (John) says, ‘The darkness neither receives nor comprehends the light.’ Because the

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avenues by which the light would enter are choked and obstructed with guile and darkness. Light and darkness are incompatible, like God and creatures. Enter God, exit creatures. Man is quite conscious of this light. Directly he turns to God this light begins to glint and sparkle in him, telling him what to do and what to leave undone, with many a shrewd hint to boot of things he hitherto ignored and knew nothing of.—How dost thou know ?— Suppose thy heart is vehemently moved to retire from the world. How could that be if not by this light? It is so charming, so delightful, it makes other things so tiresome which are not God ° or God’s. It attracts thee to God and thou art sensible of many a virtuous impulse albeit uncertain whence it comes. This interior mood is in no wise due to creatures nor is it any of their bidding, for what creatures effect and direct comes in from without. But thy ground alone is stirred by this force and the freer thou dost keep the more truth and discernment are thine. No man was ever lost save for the reason that once having left his ground he has let himself become too permanently settled abroad. St Augustine says: Many there be that have sought light and truth but only © abroad where they are not. They finally go out so far that they

never get back nor find their way in again. Neither have these

found the truth for the truth is within in their ground, not without.

So he who means to see this light and find out the whole truth

must foster the awareness of this birth within himself, in his

ground, so shall his powers all be lighted up and his outer man as

well. Directly God inwardly stirs his ground with the truth its

light darts into his powers, and lo, that man knows more than

anyone could teach him. As the prophet says, ‘I know more

than I was ever taught.’ It is because this light cannot lighten

and shine in sinners that this birth cannot occur in them. This

birth is inconsistent with darkness and sin therefore it befalls not

in the powers but in the ground and essence of the soul.

Then comes the question : If God the Father labours only in the ground and essence of the soul, not in her powers, what have the powers got to do with it? How do they help by being idle and taking holiday ? What is the use, seeing this birth befalls not in the powers ?—It is well asked. Butconsider. Every creature works towards some end. The end is ever the first in intention and the last in execution. And God too works for a wholly blessed end, to wit, himself: to bring the soul and all her powers into that end, into himself. For this God’s works are wrought, for this the Father brings his Son to birth in the soul, that all the powers of the soul may end in this. He lies in wait for all the soul contains, all are bidden to his royal feast. Here, the soul is scattered abroad among her powers and dissipated in the act of

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each : the power of seeing in the eye, the power of hearing in the ear, the power of tasting in the tongue, and her powers are accord- ingly enfeebled for their interior work, scattered forces being . imperfect. It follows that for her interior work to be effective, she must call in all her powers, recollecting them out of extended things to one interior act. St Augustine says, ‘ The soul is where she loves rather than where she animates the body.’ Once upon a time there was a heathen philosopher who studied mathematics. He was sitting by the embers making calculations in pursuance of his art when there came along a man brandishing a sword, who, not witting that it was the master, cried out, ‘ Quick, thy name, or I shall slay thee!’ The master was too much absorbed to see or hear his enemy and failed to catch the threat. So after hailing him several times the enemy cut off his head. And this to acquire a mere natural science! How much more does it behove us to » withdraw from things in order to concentrate our powers on perceiving and knowing the one infinite and immortal truth! To this end do thou assemble thy entire mind and memory : turn them into the ground where thy treasure lies hid. But for this thou must drop all other activities ; thou must get to unknowing to find it. The question is, Were it not better for each power to go on with _ its own work, then none would hinder the others in their work nor yet God in his? Can there not be creaturely knowledge in me that is no hindrance, as God knows all things without hindrance and so do the saints ?—I answer: The saints behold God in a simple image and in that image they discern all things; and God himself sees himself thus, perceiving all things in himself. He need not turn, as we do, from one thing to another. Supposing that in this life we were always confronted with a mirror wherein we see and recognise all things at a glance in one single image: neither act nor knowledge would be a hindrance then. At present "we must turn from one thing to another: we can only mind one thing at the expense of all the others. And the soul is bound so straitly to her powers that where they flow she must flow with them; the soul must be present at everything they do, and attentive too, or nething would come of their exertions. The drain of attending to external acts is bound to weaken her interior operation. For this nativity God wants, and he must have, a vacant, free and unencumbered soul wherein is nothing but himself alone, which waits for naught and nobody but him. As Christ says: ‘ Whoso loveth aught but me, whoso cleaveth to father or mother, or many other things, he is not worthy of me. I came not upon earth to bring peace but a sword; to cut away all things, to part thee from brother, child, mother and friend, which are really thy foes.’ For verily thy comforts are thy foes. Doth

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thine eye see all things and thine ear hear all things and thy heart remember them all, then in these things thy soul is destroyed.