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006 - The Self-Communication of God · Meister Eckharts Sermons First English Translation

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  Speaker 1: Sermon five of Meister Eckhart'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 Self Communication of God, Saint John fourteen
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  Speaker 1: twenty three. If a man love me, he will keep
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  Speaker 1: my words, and my Father will love him, and we
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  Speaker 1: will come unto him and make our abode with him.
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  Speaker 1: We read in the Gospels that our Lord fed many
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  Speaker 1: people with five loaves and two fishes. Speaking parabolically, we
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  Speaker 1: may say that the first love was that we should
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  Speaker 1: know ourselves what we have been everlastingly to God, and
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  Speaker 1: what we now are to him. The second that we
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  Speaker 1: should pity our fellow Christian who is blinded. His law
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  Speaker 1: should grieve us as much as our own. The third
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  Speaker 1: that we should know our Lord, Jesus Christ life and
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  Speaker 1: follow it to the utmost of our capacity. The fourth
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  Speaker 1: that we should know the judgments of God. All that
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  Speaker 1: may be said of the pains of Hell is true.
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  Speaker 1: Saint Dionysius saith to be separated from God is Hell,
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  Speaker 1: and the sight of God's countenances heaven. The fifth is
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  Speaker 1: that we should know the Godhead, which has flowed into
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  Speaker 1: the Father and filled him with joy, and which has
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  Speaker 1: flowed into the sun and filled him with wisdom. And
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  Speaker 1: the two are essentially one. Therefore said Christ, where I am,
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  Speaker 1: there is my father, and where my father is there
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  Speaker 1: am I. And they have flowed into the Holy Ghost
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  Speaker 1: and filled him with good will. Therefore said Christ, I
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  Speaker 1: and my Father have one spirit, and the Holy Ghost
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  Speaker 1: has flowed into the soul. The soul has, by nature
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  Speaker 1: to capacities. The one is intelligence, which may comprehend the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Trinity with all its works, and be contained by it,
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  Speaker 1: as water is by a vessel. When the vessel is full,
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  Speaker 1: it has enclosed all that is contained in it, and
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  Speaker 1: is united with that which it has enclosed and of
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  Speaker 1: which it is full. Thus intelligence becomes one with that
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  Speaker 1: which it has understood and comprehended. It is united therewith
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  Speaker 1: by grace, as the son is one with the Father.
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  Speaker 1: The second capacity is will, that is a nobler one,
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  Speaker 1: and its essential characteristic is to plunge into the unknown,
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  Speaker 1: which is God. There the will lays hold of God
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  Speaker 1: in a mysterious manner, and the unknown God imparts his
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  Speaker 1: impress to the will. The will draws thought and all
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  Speaker 1: the powers of the soul. After it in its train,
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  Speaker 1: so that the soul becomes one with God by grace,
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  Speaker 1: as the Holy Ghost is one with the Father and
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  Speaker 1: with the Son by nature. In God, it is more
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  Speaker 1: worthy to be loved than it is in itself. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: Saint Augustine said that the soul is greater by its
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  Speaker 1: love giving power than by its life giving power. If
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  Speaker 1: man might only abide in this union and do all
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  Speaker 1: the works which have ever been done by creatures, he
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  Speaker 1: would be no other than God. If his higher powers
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  Speaker 1: so brought his lower powers under control, that he could
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  Speaker 1: only work god like works that, however, may not be.
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  Speaker 1: And man's highest faculty therefore contemplates God as best it can,
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  Speaker 1: and so influences his lower faculties that they can discern
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  Speaker 1: between good and evil. Adam possessed that union with God
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  Speaker 1: which we have spoken of, and while he had it,
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  Speaker 1: his capacity contained the capacities of all creatures. The loadstone
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  Speaker 1: attracts the needle, and the needle receives the magnetic power,
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  Speaker 1: so that it can also attract other needles and draw
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  Speaker 1: them to the lodestone. But if one draws the first
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  Speaker 1: needle away, all the other needles come with it. Thus
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  Speaker 1: was it with Adam, when in his highest capacity he
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  Speaker 1: was separated from God, all his capacities deteriorated. Thence came
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  Speaker 1: also discord in the clashing of opugnant wills among the
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  Speaker 1: lower creation, and the deterioration of their powers down to
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  Speaker 1: the lowest. It is necessary, therefore, for all the creatures
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  Speaker 1: which issued forth from God, to cooperate earnestly with all
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  Speaker 1: their powers, to form a man who may again attain
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  Speaker 1: that union with God which Adam enjoyed before he fell,
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  Speaker 1: and who may again restore to the creatures their forfeited powers.
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  Speaker 1: This is fulfilled in Christ, as he himself said, I,
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  Speaker 1: if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.
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  Speaker 1: He means, if he is exalted in our knowledge, he
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  Speaker 1: will draw us unto himself. In him, human nature grew
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  Speaker 1: divine and thanked God and loved him with immeasurable love.
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  Speaker 1: This also befits God that he loves human nature with
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  Speaker 1: so great love. I counsel you, sisters and brothers, that
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  Speaker 1: you grow in knowledge and thank God while you are
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  Speaker 1: in time, that He brought you out of non existence
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  Speaker 1: to existence and united you with the divine nature. But
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  Speaker 1: if the divine nature be beyond your comprehension. Believe simply
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  Speaker 1: on Christ, follow his holy example, and remain steadfast. Convert Jews, heathen, heretics,
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  Speaker 1: bad Christians, and all who do not enjoy your knowledge
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  Speaker 1: of God and are still astray. Now rejoice, all you
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  Speaker 1: powers of mine my soul, that you are so united
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  Speaker 1: with God that no one may separate you from Him.
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  Speaker 1: I cannot fully praise nor love Him. Therefore must I
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  Speaker 1: die and cast myself into the divine void till I
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  Speaker 1: rise from non existence to existence. If I should remain
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  Speaker 1: entombed in flesh till the judgment day and suffered the
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  Speaker 1: pains of hell, that would be for me a small
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  Speaker 1: thing to bear. For my beloved Lord Jesus Christ. If
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  Speaker 1: I had the certainty at last of not being separated
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  Speaker 1: from Him while I am here, he is in me.
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  Speaker 1: After this life I am in him. All things are
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  Speaker 1: therefore possible to me. If I am united to him
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  Speaker 1: who can do all things. Previously I could not distinguish
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  Speaker 1: whether we were divine by nature or by grace. Then
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  Speaker 1: came Jesus and enlighten me, so that I recognized in
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  Speaker 1: the divine nature three persons, and that the Father was
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  Speaker 1: the brain forth of all things. As Saint James says,
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  Speaker 1: every perfect gift cometh down from the Father of Lights.
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  Speaker 1: The Father and the Son have one will, and that
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  Speaker 1: will is the Holy Ghost, who gives himself to the soul,
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  Speaker 1: so that the Divine Nature permeates the powers of the soul,
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  Speaker 1: so that it can only do god like works, just
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  Speaker 1: as a spring which perpetually flows and waters the roots
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  Speaker 1: of the flowers, so that the flowers bloom and receive
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  Speaker 1: their colors from the water of the spring. So that
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  Speaker 1: God had imparts itself to the capacities of the soul,
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  Speaker 1: that it may grow in the likeness of God. The
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  Speaker 1: more that the soul receives of the Divine Nature, the
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  Speaker 1: more it grows like it, and the closer becomes its
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  Speaker 1: union with God. It may arrive at such an intimate
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  Speaker 1: union that God at last draws it to himself altogether,
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  Speaker 1: so that there is no distinction left in the soul's
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  Speaker 1: consciousness between itself and God, though God still regards it
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  Speaker 1: as a creature. Wherefore, let yourselves not be misled by
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  Speaker 1: the light of nature. The higher the degree of knowledge
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  Speaker 1: which the soul attains to in the light of Grace,
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  Speaker 1: the darker seems to it. The light of nature. If
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  Speaker 1: the soul would know the real truth, it must examine itself,
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  Speaker 1: whether it has withdrawn from all things, whether it has
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  Speaker 1: lost itself, whether it loves God purely with his love
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  Speaker 1: and nothing of its own at the same time, so
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  Speaker 1: that they may not be separated from Him by anything,
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  Speaker 1: and whether God alone dwells in it, if it has
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  Speaker 1: lost itself. It is as when the virgin Mary lost Christ.
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  Speaker 1: She sought him for three days, and yet was sure
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  Speaker 1: that she would find him, although while Christ was in
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  Speaker 1: the highest class in the school of his father, unconsciou
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  Speaker 1: of his mother's seeking him. Thus happens it to this
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  Speaker 1: noble soul, which goes to God to school and learns
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  Speaker 1: there what God is in his essence, and what he
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  Speaker 1: is in the Trinity, and what he is in man,
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  Speaker 1: and what is most acceptable to him. Saint Augustine saith
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  Speaker 1: that the righteousness of God, in the Godhead and in
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  Speaker 1: the Trinity and in all creatures, is the source of
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  Speaker 1: the chief joy which is in Heaven. God in human
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  Speaker 1: nature is a lamp of living light. And the light
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  Speaker 1: shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it. Not. The
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  Speaker 1: darkness must evermore flee the light as night flees day.
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  Speaker 1: Thus the soul learns to know God's will. Saint Paul saith,
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  Speaker 1: this is God's will our sanctification, and this is our sanctification,
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  Speaker 1: to know what we were before time, what we are
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  Speaker 1: in time, and what we shall be after time. Thus
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  Speaker 1: the soul loses itself in these three and wrecketh not
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  Speaker 1: of the body till it comes to it in the
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  Speaker 1: temple and obeys it without murmuring. The Father is a
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  Speaker 1: revelation of the Godhead, the Son is an image in
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  Speaker 1: countenance of the Father, and the Holy Ghost is an
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  Speaker 1: effulgence of that countenance, and a mutual love between them.
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  Speaker 1: In these properties they have always possessed in themselves. The
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  Speaker 1: three persons have stooped out of pity down to human nature.
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  Speaker 1: And the Son became man, and was the most despised
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  Speaker 1: man on the earth, and suffered pain at the hands
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  Speaker 1: of the creatures whom he himself created with the Father,
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  Speaker 1: through whose will he became man. Thus was Christ till
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  Speaker 1: his death, and when he rose from the dead, then
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  Speaker 1: was seen the most despised of all men, united with
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  Speaker 1: the Godhead in the person of Christ. End of Sermon five,
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  Speaker 1: recording by Eric Matzler Albuquerque, New Mexico,