I
THIS IS MEISTER ECKHART
FROM WHOM GOD NOTHING HID
Dum
medium silentium tenerent omnia et nox in suo cursu medium iter haberet etc. (Sap.
1814). 'For while all things were in quiet silence and the night was
in the midst of her course, etc.' Here in time we make holiday because the
eternal birth which God the Father bore and bears unceasingly in eternity is now
born in time, in human nature. St Augustine says this birth is always happening.
But if it happens not in me what does it profit me? What matters is that it
shall happen in me.
We intend therefore to speak of this
birth as taking place in us: as being consummated in the virtuous soul; for it
is the perfect soul that God speaks his Word. What I shall say is true only of
the perfect man, of him who has walked and is still walking the way of God; not
of the natural undisciplined man who is entirely remote from and unconscious of
this birth.
There is a saying of the wise man:
'When all things lay in the midst of silence then leapt there down into me from
on high, from the royal throne, a secret word.' This sermon is about this word.
Concerning it three things are to be
noted. The first is where-abouts in the soul God the Father speaks his Word,
where she is receptive of this act, where this birth befalls. It is bound to be
in the purest, loftiest, subtlest part of the soul. Verily, an God the Father in
his omnipotence had endowed the soul with a still nobler nature, had she
received from him anything yet more exalted, then must the Father have delayed
this birth for the presence of this greater excellence. The soul in which this
birth shall come to pass must be absolutely pure and must live in gentle
fashion, quite peaceful and wholly introverted: not running out through the five
senses and into the manifoldness of creatures, but altogether within and
harmonised in her summit. That is its place. Anything inferior is disdained by
it.
The second part of this discourse has
to do with man's conduct in relation to this act, this interior speaking, this
birth: whether it is more profitable to co-operate in it-- perhaps by creating
in the mind an imaginary image and disciplining oneself thereon by reflecting
that God is wise, omnipotent, eternal, or whatever else one is able to
excogitate about God -- so that the birth may come to pass in us through our own
exertion and merit; or whether it is more profitable and conducive to this birth
from the Father to shun all thoughts, words and deeds as well as all mental
images and empty oneself, maintaining a wholly God-receptive attitude, such that
one's own self is idle letting God work. Which conduct subserves this birth
best?
The third point is the profit and how
great it is, which accrues from this birth.
Note in the first place that in what
I am about to say I intend to avail myself of natural proof that ye yourselves
can grasp, for thought I put more fain in the scriptures than myself,
nevertheless it is easier and better for you to learn by means of arguments that
can be verified.
First we will take the words : 'In
the midst of the silence there was spoken in me a secret word.'
-- But, Sir, where is the silence and
where the place in which the word is spoken?
As I said just now, it is in the
purest part of the soul, in the noblest, in her ground, aye in the very essence
of the soul. That is mid-silence for thereinto no creature did ever get, nor any
image, nor has the soul there either activity or understanding, therefore she is
not aware of any image either of herself or any creature. What-ever the soul
effects she effects with her powers. When she understands she understands with
her intellect. When she remembers she does so with her memory. When she
loves she does so with her will. She works then with her powers and not with her
essence. Now every exterior act is lined with some means. The power of seeing is
brought into play only through the eyes; elsewhere she can neither do nor bestow
such a thing as seeing. And so with all the other senses: their operations are
always effected through some means or others. But there is no activity in the
essence of the soul; the faculties she works with emanate from the ground of the
essence but in her actual ground there is mid-stillness; here alone is rest and
a habitation for this birth, this act, wherein God the Father speaks his Word,
for it is intrinsically receptive of naught save the divine essence, without
means. Here God enters the soul with his all, not merely with a part. God enters
the ground of the soul. None can touch the ground of the soul but God only. No
creature is admitted into her ground, it must stop outside in her powers. There
it sees the image whereby it has been drawn in and found shelter. For when the
soul-powers contact a creature they set to make of the creature an image and
likeness which they absorb. By it they know the creature. Creatures cannot go
into the soul, nor can the soul know anything about a creature which she has not
willingly taken the image of into herself. She approaches creatures through
their present images; an image being a thing that the soul creates with her
powers. Be it a stone, a rose, a man, or anything else that she wants to know
about, she gets out the image of it which she has already taken in and is thus
enabled to unite herself with it. But an image received in this way must of
necessity enter from without through the senses. Consequently there is nothing
so unknown to the soul as herself. The soul, says a philosopher, can neither
create nor absorb an image of herself. So she has nothing to know herself by.
Images all enter through the senses, hence she can have no image of herself. She
knows other things but not herself. Of nothing does she know so little as of
herself, owing to this arrangement. Now thou must know that inwardly the soul is
free from means and images, that is why God can freely unite with her without
form or similitude. Thou canst not but attribute to God without measure whatever
power thou dost attribute to a master. The wiser and more powerful the master
the more immediately is his work effected and the simpler it is. Man requires
many instruments for his external works; much preparation is needed ere he can
bring them forth as he has imagined them. The sun and moon whose work is to give
light, in their mastership perform this very swiftly: the instant their radiance
is poured forth, all the ends of the world are full of light. More exalted are
the angels, who need less means for their works and have fewer images. The
highest Seraph has but a single image. He seizes as a unity all that his
inferiors regard as manifold. Now God needs no image and has no image: without
image, likeness or means does God work in the soul, aye, in her ground whereinto
no image did ever get but only himself with his own essence. This no creature
can do.
-- How does God the Father give birth
to his Son in the soul: like creatures, in image and likeness?
No, by my faith! but just as he gives
him birth in eternity and no otherwise.
-- Well, but how does he give him
birth birth there?
See. God the Father has perfect
insight into himself, profound and thorough knowledge of himself by means of
himself, not by means of any image. And thus God the Father gives birth to
his Son, in the very oneness of the divine nature. Mark, thus it is and no other
way that God the Father gives birth to his Son in the ground and essence of the
soul and thus he unites himself with her. Were any image present there would not
be real union and in real union lies thy whole beatitude.
Now haply thou wilt say: 'But there
is nothing innate in the soul save images.' No, not so! If that were true the
soul would never be happy, for God cannot make any creature wherein thou canst
enjoy perfect happiness, else were God not the highest happiness and final goal,
whereas it is his will and nature to be the alpha and omega of all. No creature
can be happiness. And here indeed can just as little be perfection, for
perfection (perfect virtue that is to say) results from perfection of life.
Therefore verily thou must sojourn and dwell in thy essence, in thy ground, and
there God shall mix thee with his simple essence without the medium of any
image. No image represents and signifies itself; it stands for that of which it
is the image. Now seeing that thou hast no image save of what is outside thee,
therefore it is impossible for thee to be beatified by any image whatsoever.
The second point is, what it does
behove a man to do in order to deserve and procure this birth to come to pass
and be consummated in him: is it better for him to do his part towards it, to
imagine and think about God, or should he keep still in peace and quiet so that
God can speak and act in him while he merely waits on God's operation? At the
same time I repeat that this speaking, this act, is only for the good and
perfect, those who have so absorbed and assimilated the essence of virtue that
it emanates from them naturally, without their seeking; and above all there must
live in them the worthy life and lofty teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Such are permitted to know that the very best and utmost of attainment in this
life is to remain still and let God act and speak in thee. When the powers have
all been withdrawn from their bodily form and functions, then this Word is
spoken. Thus he says: 'in the midst of the silence the secret word was spoken to
me.' The more completely thou art able to in-draw thy faculties and forget those
things and their images which thou has taken in, the more, that is to say, thou
forgettest the creature, the nearer thou art to his and more susceptible thou
art to it. If only thou couldst suddenly be altogether unaware of things, aye,
couldst thou but pass into oblivion of thine own existence as St Paul did when
he said: 'Whether in the body I know not, or out of the body I know not, God
knoweth!' Here the spirit had so entirely absorbed the faculties that it had
forgotten the body: memory no longer functioned, nor understanding, nor the
senses, nor even those powers whose duty it is to given and grace the body;
those powers whose duty it is to given and grace the body; vital warmth and
energy were arrested so that the body failed not throughout the three days
during which he neither ate nor drank. Even so fared Moses when he fasted forty
days on the mount and was none the worse for it: on the last day he was as
strong as on the first. Thus a man must abscond from his senses, invert his
faculties and lapse into oblivion of things and of himself. Anent which a
philosopher apostrophised the soul: 'Withdraw from the restlessness of external
activities!' And again: 'Flee away and hide thee from the turmoil of outward
occupations and inward thoughts for they create nothing but discord!' If God is
to speak his Word in the soul she must be at rest and at peace; then he speaks
in the soul his Word and himself: not image but himself. Dionysius says: 'God
has no image nor likeness of himself seeing that he is intrinsically all good,
truth and being.' God performs all his works, in himself and outside of himself,
simultaneously. Do not fondly imagine that God, when he created the heavens and
the earth and all creatures, made one thing one day and another the next. Moses
describes it thus it is true, nevertheless he knew better: he did so merely on
account of those who are incapable of understanding or conceiving otherwise. All
God did was: he willed and they were. God works without instrument and without
image. And the freer thou art from images the more receptive thou art to his
interior operation; and the more introverted and oblivious thou art the nigher
thou art thereto. Dionsyius exhorted his disciple Timothy in this sense saying:
'Dear son Timothy, do thou with untroubled mind swing thyself up above thyself
and above thy powers, above all modes and all existences, into the secret,
still, darkness, that thou mayest attain to the knowledge of the unknown
super-divine God.' All things must be forsaken. God scorns to work amongst
images.
Now haply thou wilt say: 'What is it
that God does without images in the ground and essence?' That I am incapable of
knowing, for my soul-powers can receive only images; they have to recognise and
lay hold of each thing in its appropriate image: they cannot recognise a bird in
the image of a man. Now since images all enter from without, this is concealed
from my soul, which is most salutary for her. Not-knowing makes her wonder and
leads her to eager pursuit, for she knows clearly that it is but knows
not how nor what it is. No sooner does a man know the reason of a
thing than immediately he tires of it and goes casting about for something new.
Always clamouring to know, he is ever inconstant. The soul is constant only to
this unknowing knowing which keeps her pursuing.
The wise man said concerning this:
'In the middle of the night when all things were in quiet silence there was
spoken to me a hidden word.' It came like a thief, by stealth. What doe he mean
by a word that was hidden? The nature of a word is to reveal what is hidden. It
appeared before me, shining out with intent to reveal and give me knowledge of
God. Hence it is called a word. But what it was remained hidden from me. That
was its stealthy coming 'in a whispering stillness to reveal itself.' It is just
because it is hidden that one is and must be always after it. It appears and
disappears: we are meant to yearn and sight for it.
St Paul says we ought to pursue this
until we espy it and not stop until we grasp it. When he returned after having
been caught up into the third heaven where God made nothing known to him and
where he beheld all things, he had forgotten nothing, but it was so deep down in
his ground that his intellect could not reach it: it was veiled from him. He was
therefore obliged to pursue it and search for it in himself, not outside
himself. It is not outside, it is inside: wholly within. And being convinced of
this he said, 'I am sure that neither death nor any affliction can separate me
from what I find within me.'
There is a fine saying of one heathen
philosopher to another about this, he says: 'I am aware of something in me which
sparkles in my intelligence; I clearly perceive that it is something but what
I cannot grasp. Yet methinks if I could only seize it I should know all
truth.' To which the other philosopher replied: 'Follow it boldly! for if thou
canst seize it thou wilt possess the sum-total of all good and have eternal
life!' St Augustine expresses himself in the same sense: 'I am conscious of
something within me that plays before my soul and is as a light dancing in front
of it; were this brought to steadiness and perfection in me it would surely be
eternal life!' It hides yet it shows. It comes, but after the manner of a thief,
with intent to take and to steal all things from the soul. By emerging and
showing itself somewhat it purposes to decoy the soul and draw it towards itself
to rob it and take it from itself. As said the prophet: 'Lord take from them
their spirit and give them instead thy spirit.' This too the loving soul meant
when she said: 'My soul dissolved and melted away when Love spoke his word: when
he entered I could not but fail.' And Christ signified it by his words:
'Whosoever shall leave aught for my sake shall be repaid an hundredfold, and
whoever will possess me must deny himself and all things and whosoever will
serve me must follow me nor go any more after his own.'
Now peradventure thou wilt say: 'But,
Sir, you are wanting to change the natural course of the soul! It is her nature
to take in through the senses, in images. Would you upset this arrangement?'
No! But how knowest thou what
nobility God has bestowed on human nature, what perfections yet uncatalogued,
aye yet 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 at 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 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 himself and leaveth not father and more 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 of everything external thereto
does indeed give it to 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.