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003 - The Nearness of the Kingdom · Meister Eckharts Sermons First English Translation

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  Speaker 1: Sermon too of Meister Eckart's sermons translated by Claude Field.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by
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  Speaker 1: Erik Metzler. The Nearness of the Kingdom Saint Luke twenty
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  Speaker 1: one thirty one. Know that the Kingdom of God is
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  Speaker 1: near our Lord saith that the Kingdom of God is
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  Speaker 1: near us. Yea, the Kingdom of God is within us,
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  Speaker 1: As Saint Paul saith, our salvation is nearer than when
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  Speaker 1: we believed. Now we should know in what manner the
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  Speaker 1: Kingdom of God is near us. Therefore, let us pay
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  Speaker 1: diligent attention to the meaning of the words. If I
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  Speaker 1: were a king and did not know it, I should
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  Speaker 1: not really be a king. But if I were fully
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  Speaker 1: convinced that I was a king, and all mankind coincided
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  Speaker 1: in my belief, and I knew that they shared my conviction,
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  Speaker 1: I should indeed be a king, and all the wealth
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  Speaker 1: of the king would be mine. But if one of
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  Speaker 1: these three conditions were lacking, I should not really be
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  Speaker 1: a king. In similar fashion, our salvation depends upon our
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  Speaker 1: knowing and recognizing the chief good, which is God himself.
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  Speaker 1: I have a capacity in my soul for taking in
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  Speaker 1: God entirely. I am as sure as I live that
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  Speaker 1: nothing is so near to me as God. God is
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  Speaker 1: nearer to me than I am to myself. My existence
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  Speaker 1: depends on the nearness and presence of God. He is
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  Speaker 1: also near things of wood and stone, but they know
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  Speaker 1: it not. If a piece of wood became as aware
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  Speaker 1: of the nearness of God as an archangel is, the
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  Speaker 1: piece of wood would be as happy as an archangel.
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  Speaker 1: For this reason, man is happier than the inanimate would
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  Speaker 1: because he knows and under stands how God is near him.
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  Speaker 1: His happiness increases and diminishes in proportion to the increase
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  Speaker 1: and diminution of his knowledge of this. His happiness does
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  Speaker 1: not arise from this that God is near him and
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  Speaker 1: in him, and that he possesses God, but from this
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  Speaker 1: that he knows the nearness of God and loves him,
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  Speaker 1: and is aware that the Kingdom of God is near.
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  Speaker 1: So when I think on God's kingdom, I am compelled
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  Speaker 1: to be silent because of its immensity, Because God's kingdom
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  Speaker 1: is none other than God himself, with all his riches.
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  Speaker 1: God's kingdom is no small thing. We may survey in
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  Speaker 1: imagination all the worlds of God's creation, but they are
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  Speaker 1: not God's kingdom. In whichever soul God's Kingdom appeareth, and
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  Speaker 1: which knoweth God's Kingdom, that soul needeth no human preaching
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  Speaker 1: or instruction. It is taught from within and assured of
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  Speaker 1: eternal life. Whoever knows and recognizes how near God's kingdom
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  Speaker 1: is to him may say, with Jacob, God is in
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  Speaker 1: this place, and I knew it not. God is equally
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  Speaker 1: near in all creatures. The wise man saith. God hath
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  Speaker 1: spread out his net over all creatures, so that who
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  Speaker 1: whoever wishes to discover Him may find and recognize Him
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  Speaker 1: in each one. Another saith. He knows God rightly, who
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  Speaker 1: recognizes Him alike in all things. To serve God with
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  Speaker 1: fear is good. To serve him out of love is better,
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  Speaker 1: But to fear and love Him together is best of all.
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  Speaker 1: To have a RESTful or peaceful life in God is good.
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  Speaker 1: To be a life of pain and patience is better,
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  Speaker 1: But to have peace in the midst of pain is
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  Speaker 1: the best of all. A man may go into the
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  Speaker 1: field and say his prayer and be aware of God,
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  Speaker 1: or he may be in church and be aware of
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  Speaker 1: But if he is more aware of him, because he
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  Speaker 1: is in a quiet place. That is his own deficiency,
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  Speaker 1: and not do to God, who is alike present in
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  Speaker 1: all things in places, and is willing to give himself everywhere,
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  Speaker 1: so far as lies in him. He knows God rightly,
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  Speaker 1: who knows him everywhere. Saint Bernard saith, how is it
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  Speaker 1: that mine eye and not my foot sees Heaven? Because
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  Speaker 1: mine eye is more like Heaven than my foot is.
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  Speaker 1: So if my soul is to know God, it must
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  Speaker 1: be God like. Now, how is the soul to arrive
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  Speaker 1: at this heavenly state that it recognizes God in itself
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  Speaker 1: and knows that He is near by, Copying the heavens,
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  Speaker 1: which can receive no impulse from without to mar their tranquility.
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  Speaker 1: Thus must the soul which would know God be rooted
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  Speaker 1: and grounded in Him so steadfastly as to suffer no
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  Speaker 1: perturbation of fear or hope or joy or sorrow, or
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  Speaker 1: love or hate, or anything which may disturb its peace.
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  Speaker 1: The heavens are everywhere alike, remote from earth. So should
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  Speaker 1: the soul be remote from all earthly things alike, so
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  Speaker 1: as not to be nearer to one than another. It
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  Speaker 1: should keep the same attitude of aloofness, in love and hate,
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  Speaker 1: in possession and renouncement. That is, it should be simultaneously dead, resigned,
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  Speaker 1: and lifted up. The heavens are pure and clear, without
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  Speaker 1: shadow of stain, out of space and out of time.
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  Speaker 1: Nothing corporeal is found there. Their revolutions are incredibly swift
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  Speaker 1: and independent of time, though time depends on them. Nothing
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  Speaker 1: hinders the soul so much in attaining to the knowledge
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  Speaker 1: of God as time and place. Therefore, if the soul
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  Speaker 1: is to know God, it must know him outside time
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  Speaker 1: and place, since God is neither in this or that,
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  Speaker 1: but one and above them. If the soul is to
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  Speaker 1: see God, it must look at nothing in time. For
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  Speaker 1: while the soul is occupied with time or place, or
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  Speaker 1: any image of the kind, it cannot recognize God. If
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  Speaker 1: it is to know him, it must have no fellowship
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  Speaker 1: with nothingness. Only he knows God, who recognizes that all
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  Speaker 1: creatures are nothingness. For if one creature be set over
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  Speaker 1: against another, it may appear to be beautiful and somewhat,
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  Speaker 1: but if it be set over against God, it is nothing.
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  Speaker 1: I say. Moreover, if the soul is to know God,
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  Speaker 1: it must forget itself and lose itself for as long
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  Speaker 1: as it contemplates self. It cannot contemplate God. When it
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  Speaker 1: has lost itself and everything in God. It finds itself
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  Speaker 1: again in God when it attains to the knowledge of Him,
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  Speaker 1: and it finds also everything which it had abandoned to
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  Speaker 1: complete in God. If I am to know the highest
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  Speaker 1: Good and the everlasting Godhead, truly I must know them
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  Speaker 1: as they are in themselves, apart from creation. If I
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  Speaker 1: am to know real existence, I must know it as
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  Speaker 1: it is in itself, not as it is parceled out
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  Speaker 1: in creatures. The whole being of God is contained in
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  Speaker 1: God alone. The whole of humanity is not contained in
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  Speaker 1: one man, for one man is not all men, but
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  Speaker 1: in God. The soul knows all humanity and all things
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  Speaker 1: at their highest level of existence, since it knows them
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  Speaker 1: in their essence. Suppose any one to be in a
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  Speaker 1: beautifully adorned house, he would know much more about it
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  Speaker 1: than one who had never entered therein and yet wished
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  Speaker 1: to speak much about it. Thus I am as sure
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  Speaker 1: as I am of my own existence and gods, that
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  Speaker 1: if the soul is to know God, it must know
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  Speaker 1: him outside of time and place. Such a soul will
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  Speaker 1: know clearly how near God's kingdom is Schoolmen have often
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  Speaker 1: asked how it is possible for the soul to know God.
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  Speaker 1: It is not for severity that God demands much from
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  Speaker 1: men in order to obtain the knowledge of himself. It
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  Speaker 1: is of his kindness that He wills the soul by
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  Speaker 1: effort to grow capacious of receiving much, and that he
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  Speaker 1: may give much. Let no man think that to attain
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  Speaker 1: this knowledge is too difficult, although it may sound so,
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  Speaker 1: and indeed the commencement of it and the renouncement of
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  Speaker 1: all things is difficult. But when one attains to it,
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  Speaker 1: no life is easier, nor more pleasant, nor more lovable.
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  Speaker 1: Since God is always endeavoring to dwell with man and
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  Speaker 1: teach him in order to bring him to himself. No
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  Speaker 1: man desires anything so eagerly as God desires to bring
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  Speaker 1: men to the knowledge of himself. God is always ready,
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  Speaker 1: but we are very unready. God is near us, but
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  Speaker 1: we are far from him. God is within, and we
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  Speaker 1: are without. God is friendly, we are estranged. The prophet saith,
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  Speaker 1: God leadeth the righteous by a narrow path into a
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  Speaker 1: broad and wide place, that is, into the true freedom
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  Speaker 1: of those who have become one spirit with God. May
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  Speaker 1: God help us all to follow him, that he may
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  Speaker 1: bring us to himself. Amen. End of sermon too recording
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  Speaker 1: by Erik Metzler, Albuquerque, New Mexico,