Latest / Meister Eckharts Sermons First English Translation / 007 - Sanctification

Transcript

007 - Sanctification · Meister Eckharts Sermons First English Translation

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Sermons. Six of Meister Eckhart's sermons, translated by Claude Field.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Eric Matzler. Sanctification, Saint Luke ten forty two. One thing
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: is needful. I have read many writings, both of heathen
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: philosophers and inspired prophets, ancient and modern, and have sought
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: earnestly to discover what is the best and highest quality
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: whereby man may approach most nearly to union with God,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: and whereby he may most resemble the ideal of himself
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: which existed in God before God created men. And after
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: having thoroughly searched these writings, as far as my reason
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: may penetrate, I find no higher quality than sanctification, or
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: separation from all creatures. Therefore, set our Lord to Martha.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: One thing is necessary, as if to say, whoso wishes
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: to be untroubled and content must have one thing that
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: is sanctification. Various teachers have praised love greatly, as Saint
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Paul does when he saith to whatever height I may attain.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: If I have not love, I am nothing. But I
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: set sanctification even above love in the first place, because
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: the best thing in love is that it compels me
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: to love God. Now, it is a greater thing that
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: I compel God to come to me than that I
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: compel myself to go to God. Sanctification compels God to
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: come to me. And I prove this as follows. Everything
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: settles in its own appropriate place. Now, God's proper place
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: is that of oneness and holiness. These come from sanctification. Therefore,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: God must, of necessity he give himself to a sanctified heart.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: In the second place, I set sanctification above love, because
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: love compels me to suffer all things for the sake
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: of God. Sanctification compels me to be the recipient of
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: nothing but God. Now it is a higher state to
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: be the recipient of nothing but God than to suffer
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: all things for God. Because in suffering one must have
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: some regard to the person who inflicts the suffering. But
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: sanctification is independent of all creatures. Many teachers also praise
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: humility as a virtue, But I set sanctification above humility
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: for the following reason. Although humility may exist without sanctification,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: perfect sanctification cannot exist without perfect humility. Perfect humility tends
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: to the annihilation of self sanctification also is so close
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: to self annihilation that nothing can come between them. Therefore,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: perfect sanctification cannot exist without humility, and to have both
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: of these virtues is better than to have only one
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: of them. The second reason why I set sanctification above
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: humility is that humility stoops to be under all creatures,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: and in doing so, goes out of itself. But sanctification
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: remains self contained. But to remain contained within oneself is
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: nobler than to go out of oneself for any purpose. Whatever.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Therefore seeth the Psalmist, the King's daughter is all glorious within.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: That is, all her glory is from her inwardness. Perfect
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: sanctification has no inclination nor going out towards any creature.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: It wishes neither to be above or below, neither to
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: be like nor unlike any creature, but only to be one.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Whosoever wishes to be this or that wishes to be somewhat.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: But sanctification wishes to be nothing. But some one might say,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: all virtues must have existed in fullness in our lady.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Therefore perfect sanctification must have been in her. If sanctification
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: is greater than humility, why did our ladies speak of
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: her humility and not of her sanctification. When she said,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: for he hath regarded the hololiness of his handmaiden. To
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: this I answer that God possesses both sanctification and humility.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: So far as we may attribute virtues to God, Now
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: thou shouldst know that his humility brought God to stoop
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: down to human nature. And our lady knew that he
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: wished for the same quality in her, and in that matter,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: had regard to her humility alone. Therefore she made mention
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: of humility and not of her sanctification, in which she
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: remained unmoved and unaffected. If she had said, he hath
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: regarded the sanctification of his handmaiden, her sanctification would have
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: been disturbed, for so to speak, would have been going
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: out of herself. Therefore, the Psalmist said, I will hear
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: what the Lord God will say in me, as if
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: to say, if God will speak to me, let him
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: come in, for I will not come out. And Bothius said, men,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: why seek you outside you? What is inside you? Salvation?
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: I set also sanctification above pity, for pity is only
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: going out of oneself to sympathize with one's fellow creatures
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: sorrows from such an outgoing sanctification is free and abides
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: in itself, and does not let itself be troubled. To
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: speak briefly, when I consider all the virtues, I find
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: none so entirely without flaw, and so conducive to union
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: with God as sanctification. The philosopher Avicenna says, the spirit
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: which is truly sanctified attains to so lofty a degree
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: that all which it sees is real, all which it
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: desires is granted, and in all which it commands, it
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: is obeyed. When the free spirit is established in true sanctification,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: it draws God to itself, and were it placed beyond
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: the reach of contingencies, it would assume the properties of God.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: But God cannot part with those to any one. All
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: that He can do for the sanctified spirit is to
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: impart himself to it. The man who is wholly sanctified
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: is so drawn towards the eternal that no transitory thing
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: may move him, no corporeal thing affect him, no earthly
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: thing attract him. This was the meaning of Saint Paul
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: when he said I live, yet not I Christ liveth
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: in me. Now the question arises, what is sanctification? Since
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: it has so lofty a rank, thou shouldst know that
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: real sanctification consists in this, that the spirit remain as
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: immovable and unaffected by all impact of love or hate,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: joy or sorrow, honor or shame, as a huge mountain
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: is unstirred by a gentle breeze. This immovable sanctification causes
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: man to attain the nearest likeness to God, that he
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: is capable of. God's very essence consists of his immovable sanctity,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: thence springs his glory and unity and impassibility. If a
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: man is to become as like God as a creature,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: may that must be by sanctification. It is this which
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: draws men upward to glory, and from glory to unity,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: and from unity to impassibility, and effects a resemblance between
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: God and men. The chief agent in this is grace,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: because grace draws men from the transitory and purifies them
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: from the earthly. And thou shouldst know that to be
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: empty of all creature's love is to be full of God,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: and to be full of creature love is to be
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: empty of God. God has remained from everlasting in immovable sanctity,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: and still remains so. When He created heaven and earth
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: and all creatures, his sanctity was as little affected thereby
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: as though he had created nothing. I say further, God's
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: sanctity is as little affected by men's good works and
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: prayers as though they had accomplished none. And He is
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: by those means no more favorably inclined towards men than
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: if they ceased praying and work. King, I say even more,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: when the divine Son became man and suffered, that affected
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: the sanctity of God as little as though he had
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: never become man at all. Here, some one may make
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: the objection, are then all good works and prayers thrown away?
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Since God is unmoved by them? And at the same
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: time we are told to pray to him for everything.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: In answer to this, I say that God from all
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: eternity saw everything that would happen, and also when and
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: how he would make all creatures. He foresaw also all
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: the prayers which would be offered, and which of them
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: he would hear. He saw the earnest prayers which thou
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: wilt offer tomorrow, But he will not listen to them tomorrow,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: because he heard them in eternity before you was a
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: man at all. If, however, thy prayer is half hearted
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: and not in earnest, God will not deny it now,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: seeing that he has denied it in eternity. Thus God
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: remains always in his immovable sanctity. But sincere prayer and
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: good works are not lost, for whoso doeth well will
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: be well rewarded. When God appears to be angry or
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: to do a sun kindness, it is we who are altered,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: while he remains unchangeable, as the same sunshine is injurious
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: to weak eyes and beneficial to strong ones, remaining in
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: itself the same. Regarding this Isidorus, in his book Concerning
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: the Highest Good says, people ask what was God doing
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: before he created heaven and earth? Or whence came the
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: new desire in God to create? To this, he answers,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: no new desire arose in God, seeing that creation was
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: everlastingly present in him and in his intelligence. Moses said
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: to God, when Pharaoh asks me, who thou art? What
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: shall I answer? God said, say, I am hath sent
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: me unto you, that is to say, he who is
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: unchangeable hath sent me. Perhaps some one may ask, was
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Christ then also unchangeable when he said, my soul is
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: troubled even unto death or marry, when she stood under
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: the cross and lamented. Here thou shouldst know that in
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: every man are two kinds of men, the outer and
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: the inner man. Every man who loves God only uses
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: his outer senses, so far as is absolutely necessary. He
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: takes care that they do not drag him down to
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: the level of the beasts, as they do some who
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: might rather be termed beasts than men. The soul of
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: the spiritual man, whom God moves to love him with
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: all his powers, concentrates all its forces on the inner man.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: Therefore he saith, thou shalt love the Lord thy God
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: with all thy heart. Now there are some who waste
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: the powers of the soul for the use of the
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: outer man. These are they who turn all their thoughts
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: and desires towards transitory things, and to know nothing of
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: the inner life. But a good man sometimes deprives his
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: outer man of all power that it may have a
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: higher object, while sensualists deprive the inner man of all
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: power to use it for the outer man. The outer
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: man may go through various experiences, while the inner man
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: is quite free and immovable. Now, both in Christ and
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: in our Lady, there was an inner and an outer man.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: When they spoke of outward things, they did so with
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: the outward man, while the inner man remained immovable. It
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: may be asked, what is the object of this immovable sanctity.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: I answer nothing, that is so far as God has
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: his way with a man. For he has not his
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: way with all men. Although God is almighty, he can
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: only work in a heart when he finds readiness or makes it.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: He works differently in men than in stones. For this
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: we may take the following illustration. If we bake in
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: one oven three loaves of barley bread, of rye bread,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: and of wheat, we shall find the same heat of
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: the oven affects them differently. When one is well baked,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: another will be still raw, and another yet more raw.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: That is not due to the heat, but to the
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: variety of the materials. Similarly, God works in all hearts,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: not alike, but in proportion, as he finds them prepared
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: and susceptible. If the heart is to be ready for
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: the highest it must be vacant of all other things.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: If I wish to write on a white tablet, whatever
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: else is written on the tablet. However, nobles purport is
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: a hindrance to me. If I am to write, I
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: must wipe the tablet clean of everything, and the tablet
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: is most suitable for my purpose when it is blank. Similarly,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: if God is to write on my heart, everything else
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: must come out of it till it is really sanctified.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Only so can God work his highest will. And so
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: the sanctified heart has no outward object at all. The
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: question arises, but what then does the sanctified heart pray for?
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: I answer that, when truly sanctified, it prays for nothing.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: For whosoever prays asks God to give him some good
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: or to take some evil from him. But the sanctified
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: heart desires nothing and contains nothing that it wishes to
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: be freed from. Therefore it is free of all want,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: except that it wants to be like God. Saint Dionysius,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: commenting on the text, know ye not that all run,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: but one receiveth the prize, says this running is nothing
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: else than a turning away from all creatures and being
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: united to the uncreated. When the soul gets to this point,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: it loses its own distinctiveness and vanishes in God as
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: the crimson of sunrise disappears in the sun. To this goal,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: only pure sanctification can arrive. Saint Augustine says, the strong
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: attraction of the soul to the divine reduces everything to
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: nothingness on earth. This attraction is manifested as sanctification. When
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: this process has reached its culminating point, knowledge becomes ignorance, desire, indifference,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: and light darkness. The reason why God desires a sanctified
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: heart more than any other is apparent when we ask
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: the question what does God seek in all things? The
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Mouth of Wisdom says to us, in all things I
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: seek rest, and rest is to be found only in
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: the sanctified heart. Therein. Therefore God is more glad to
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: dwell than in any other thing. Thou shouldst know that
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: the more a man sets himself to be receptive of
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: divine influence, the happier he is. Who most sets himself
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: so is the happiest. Now, no man can reach this
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: condition of receptivity except by conformity with God, which comes
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: from submission to God. This is what Saint Paul means
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: when he says, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, that is,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: be conformed to Christ. Whosoever wishes to comprehend the lofty
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: rank and benefit of sanctification must mark Christ's words to
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: his disciples regarding his humanity. It is profitable for you
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: that I go away, for if I go not away,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: the comforter will not come to you. As if to say,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: ye have so much desire towards my natural outward form
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: that ye cannot fully desire the Holy Spirit. Therefore, put
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: away forms and unite yourself with formless being. For God's
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: spiritual comfort is only offered to those who despise earthly comfort. Now,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: all thoughtful folk mark me, no one can be truly
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: happy except he who abides in the strictest sanctification. No
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: bodily and fleshly delight can ever take place without spiritual loss,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: against the flesh. Therefore, the more a man fleeth from
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: the created, the more the Creator hastens to him. And
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: consider this, If the pleasure we take in the outward
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: image of our Lord Jesus Christ diminishes our capacity for
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: receiving the Holy Spirit, how much more must our unbridled
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: desire for earthly comforts diminish it. Therefore, sanctification is the
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: best of all things, for it cleanses the soul and
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: illuminates the conscience, and kindles the heart, and wakens the spirit,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: and girds up the loins, and glorifies virtue, and separates
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: us from creatures, and unites us with God. The quickest
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: means to bring us to perfection is suffering. None enjoy
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: everlasting blessedness more than those who share with Christ the
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: bitterest pangs. Nothing is sharper than suffering. Nothing is sweeter
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: than to have suffered. The surest foundation in which this
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: perfection may rest is humility. Whatever here crawls in the
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: deepest abjactness that the spirit lifts to the very heights
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: of God. For love brings suffering, and suffering brings love.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Ways of living are many. One lives thus and another thus.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: But whosoever will reach the highest life, let him, in
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: a few words hear the conclusion of the whole matter.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Keep thyself clear of all men, keep thyself from all
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: imaginations that crowd upon the mind, Free thyself from all
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: that is contingent, entangling, encumbersome, And direct thy mind always
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: to gazing upon God in thy heart, with a steadfast
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: look that never wavers. As for other spiritual exercises, fasting, watching,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: and prayer, direct them all to this one end, and
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: practice them so far as they may be helpful there too,
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: So wilt thou win to perfection. Here. Some one may ask,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: who can thus gaze always without wavering at a divine object?
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: I answer no one who now lives. This has only
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: been said to know what the highest is, and that
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: thou mightest have desires after it. But when thou losest
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: sight of the Divine, thou shouldst feel as if bereft
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: of thine eternal salvation, and shouldst long to recover it,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: and watch over thyself at all times, and direct thy
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: aims and longing towards it. May God be blessed forever. Amen.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: End of Sermons six, recording by Eric Metzer, Albuquerque, New Mexico,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: U s a