What is pecxiliarly the Father’s? Power is ascribed to him beyond either of the other Persons. And I tell you, no one can experience this birth without a mighty effort. None can attain this birth unless he can withdraw his mind entirely from things. And it requires main force to drive back all the senses and inhibit them. Violence must be offered to them one and all or this cannot be done. As Christ said: ‘ The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.’
Regarding this birth there arises the question, Does it happen continuously or only at intervals when one is disposed for it, what time one is exerting oneself to the utmost to forget things altogether and be conscious in this?
Here let us discriminate. Man possesses an active intellect, a passive intellect and a potential intellect. Active intellect is ever in act, ever doing something, be it in God or in creature, to the honour and glory of God. That is its province and hence its name active. But when God undertakes the work the mind must preserve a state of passivity. Potential intellect again has regard to both these, to the action of God and the passion of the soul, to its acting potentially. In the one case the mind is active, when it is function- ing, to wit; in the other receptive, when God takes up the work and SERMONS AND COLLATIONS 15 then the mind ought, nay must, remain still and allow God to aet. Now ere this is begun by the mind and linishcd by God, the spirit has prevision of it, potential knowledge of its happening. This is the meaning of potential intellect, which, however, is often neglected and does not bear fruit. When the mind is exerting itself in real earnest, God interests himself in the mind and its work, and then the soul secs and experiences God. But since the un- interrupted vision and passion of God is intolerable to the soul in this body, therefore God withdraws from the soul from time to time, as it is said, ‘ A little while ye sec me, and again a little while and ye do not see me.’
When our liord took his three disciples with him up the mountain and showed them the trans figuration of his body by union with the Godhead, which also we shall have in our archetypal body, straightway Peter, beholding it, was fain to remain there always. Verily, where we And good we are loath to leave it, in so far as it is good. Where intuition finds, love follows and memory and all the soul to boot. And our l.ord knowing this hides himself sometimes; for the soul is the impartible form of the body, so she turns as a whole to whatever she turns. Were she conscious of good, God to wit, immediately, unintermptedly, she would never be able to leave it to infiuence the body.
Thus it befell Paul: had lie remained a hundred years there, where he knew the good, he would never have returned to his body, he would have forgotten it completely. Seeing then that it is wholly foreign to this life, and inconijiatible therewith, the good God veils it when he will and unveils it again when he chooses and when he knows, like a trusty physician, that it is best and most useful for thcc. This withdrawal is not thine, but his whose is also the work; let him do it or not as he will, he knows what is good for thee. It is in his hands to show or not accordiiig as he knows thee able to endure it. God is not a destroyer of nature, he perfects it, and this God does ever more and more as thou art fitted for it.
Haply thou wilt object: Alas, Sir, if this requires a mind quite free from images and without activity, albeit both are natural to its powers, then how about those outward works we must do sometimes, works of charity, external ones, such as teaching and comforting those in need thereof: are we debarred by these? things which so occupied our Lord’s disciples, notably St Paul, who endured a father’s care on account of other people: are we to be deprived of this great good because we arc engaged in charities?
The answer is this. The one is perfect, the other very profitable. Mary was praised for choosing the best, but Martha’s life was very useful, serving Christ and his disciples. 8t Thomas says the 16 MEISTER ECKHART active life is better tlian the life of contemplation, so far as we actually spend in charity the income we derive from contemplation. It is all the same tiling; wc have but to root ourselves in this same ground of contemplation to make it fruitful in works, and the object of contemplation is achieved. True, there is motion, but no more than one; it conics from one end, God, and goes back to the same. As though I went from one end to th«^ other of this house; that would in sooth be motion, but of one in the same. Even so in this activity wc are in the state of contemplation in God. I'he one is centred in the other and perfects the other. God’s puqDose in the union of contemplation is fruitfulness in works; for in contemplation thou servest thyself alone, but the many in good works.
Hereto Christ admonisheth us by his whole life and the lives of all his saints, every one of whom he drove forth into the world to teach the multitude. St Paul said to Timothy, ‘ Beloved, preach the Word.’ Did he mean the outward word that beats the air? Nay, surely! He meant the in-born, hidden Word that lies secreted in the soul; it was this that he exhorted them to preach, to the end that it might be made known to and nourish the powers of such as spend themselves wholly in the exterior life. That what time thy fellow-man hath need of thee thou niayst be found ready to serve him to the best of thy ability. It must be within thee, in thought, in intellect and will, and shine forth in thy deeds. As Christ said, ‘ Let your light shine before men.’ He was thinking of those people who (*are only for the contemplative life and neglect the virtuous uses of it, which, they say, do not concern them, they are passcxl that stage. Not these had Christ in mind when he observed: ‘ The seed fell upon good ground and yielded fmit an hundredfold,’ but these he meant when he declared: ‘ The tree that bcareth not fruit shall be cut down.’
Thou mayst object: ‘ Hut, Sir, what of that silence you said so much about? This means images galore. Every one of these acts has its ayjpropriate image, be the act internal or external; whether it be teaching one or comforting another or arranging this or that, so what quiet can I get withal? If the mind sees and formulates and the will wills and memory holds it fast, does not all this necessitate ideas? ’ Let me explain. We were speaking just now of the active intellect and the passive intelle(!t. Active intellect abstracts the images of outward things, stripping them of matter and of accidents, and introduces them to the passive intellect, begetting their mental prototypes therein. And the passive intellect made pregnant by the active in this way, knows and cherishes these things with the help of active intellect. Passive intellect cannot keep on SERMONS AND COLLATIONS 17 knowing things unless the active intellect keeps on enlightening it. Now observe. What the active intellect does for the natural man that and far more does God do for the solitary soul: he turns out active intellect and installing himself in its stead he himself assumes the duties of the active intellect.
When a man is quite idle, when his intellect is at rest within him, then God takes up the work: he himself is the agent who produces himself in the passive intellect. What happens is this. The active intellect cannot give what it has not got: it cannot have two ideas together, but first one and then the other. What though light and air sliow multitudes of forms and colours all at once, thou canst only observe them one after another. And so with thy active intellect, which resembles the eye. But when God acts in lieu of thy active intellect he engenders many images together in one point. Suppose God prompts thee to some one good deed, thy powers are all proffered for all virtuous things, thy mind being straightway set on good in general. All thy possibilities for good take shape and come into thy mind collectively, focussed to one point. Clearly this is not the work of thine own intellect which has in no wise the perfection nor plenitude for it; rather is it the work and product of him who has all forms at once in himself. As Paul says: ‘ I can do all things in him who strengtheneth me; in him I am undivided.’ Know then, the ideas of these acts are not thine own: they belong to the author of thy nature who has planted therein both their energy and form. Lay no claim thereto, for it is his not thine. True, thou rcccivest it temporally, but it is gotten and born of God beyond time', in eternity above images.
Thou wilt say, perhaps: From the moment my intellect is divested of its natural activity and no longer has either form or action of its own, what is preserving it? It must have a hold somewhere; the powers, whether memory, intellect or will, are bound to have some lodgment somewhere, some place to work in.
The answer is this. Intellect’s object and sustenance is essence, not accident, just pure unadulterated being in itself. On descrying something real the intellect forthwith relics upon it, comes to rest thereon, pronouncing its intellectual word concerning the object attained. As long as intellect fails to find the actual truth of things, does not touch bedrock in them, it stays in a condition of quest and expectation, it never settles down to rest, but labours incessantly to trace things to their cause, that is, it is seeking and waiting. It spends perhaps a year or more in research on some natural fact, finding out what it is, only to work as long again stripping off what it is not. All this time it has nothing to go by, it makes no pronouncement at all in the absence of experimental knowledge of the ground of truth. Intellect never rests in this 2 18 METSTER ECKHART life. However much God shows himself in this life it is nothing to what he really is. Truth lies in the ground, but veiled and concealed from the intellect. And meanwhile the mind has no support to rest on as on something permanent. It gets no rest at all, but goes on expecting and preparing for something still to come but so far hidden. There is no knowing what God is. Something we do know, namely, what God is not. This the dis- cerning soul rejects. Intellect, meantime, finding no satisfaction in any mortal thing, is waiting, as matter awaits form. As matter is insatiable for form, so is intellect unsatisfied except with the essential, all-embracing truth. Only the truth will do, and this God keeps withdrawing from it step by step, purposing to arouse its zeal and lure it on to seek and grasp the actual causeless good: that, not content with any mortal thing, she may clamour more and more for the highest good of all.
But thou wilt say; ‘ Alas, Sir, you laid so much stress on our quieting our faculties and now this calm resolves itself into yearn- ing and lamenting: to a muckle moan and clamour for something not possessed, which puts an end to peace and quiet. This may be desire or purpose or praise or thanksgiving or any of their brood, but it is not perfect peace and absolute stillness.’
I answer that, when thou hast emptied thyself entirely of thine own self and all things and of every sort of selfishness and hast transferred, united and abandoned thyself to God in perfect faith and complete amity, then everything that is born in thee or that enters into thee, external or internal, joyful or sorrowful, sour or sweet, is no longer thine own at all, but is altogether thy God’s to whom thou hast abandoned thyself. Tell me, whose is the spoken word? His who speaks it or his who hears it? Though it fall to the hearer it really belongs to the speaker, to him who gives it birth. The sun, for example, throws out light into the air and the air receives the light and transmits it to the earth. Now, although the light seems in the air, it is really in the sun: the light is actually from the sun, originating in the sun, not in the air: the air entertains it and passes it on to anything that can be lighted up. And so with the soul. God begets in the soul his ehild, his Word, and the soul conceiving it passes it on to her powers in varied guise, now as desire, now as good intent, now as eharit}^ now as gratitude, or as it may take thee: It is his, not thine at all. What is thus wrought by God take thou as his and not thine own, as it is written, ‘ The Holy Ghost asketh in us with unutterable yearnings.’ He prays in us, not we ourselves. St Paul says, ‘ No one is able to say. Lord Jesus Christ, except in the Holy Ghost.* Above all, lay no claim to anything. Let go thyself and let SERMONS AND COLLATIONS 19 God act for thee and in thee as he pleases. This work is his, this Word is his, this birth is his and all thou art to boot. For thou hast abandoned thyself and art gone out of thy faculties and thy personal nature. God installs himself in thy nature and powers when, self-bereft of all belongings, thou dost take to the desert, as it is written, ‘ A voice crying in the wilderness.’ Let this eternal voice cry on in thee at its sweet will and do thou be a desert in resj^ect of self and creatures.
Maybe thou wilt say: ‘ But, Sir, what must one do to become this desert, void of self and creatures? Should one stay waiting for God all the time and do nothing oneself or should one do some- thing between whiles, such as praying or reading or some good occupation like going to church or studying the Bible? Not, of course, taking things in from without, but everything from within, from one’s God. Besides, is there not something we miss by neglecting these things? ’ My answer is this: Outward works were instituted and appointed for the purpose of directing the outer man to God and training him to ghostly life and virtues lest haply he should stray out of himself into ineptitudes: to act as a curb upon his inclination to run aw’'ay from self to things abroad; so that when God shall choose to work in him he shall find him close at hand and not first have to fetch him back from things gross and alien. The greater is the ]3leasurc in external things the harder work it is to leave them; the stronger the love the sharper the pain when it comes to parting.
All pious practices - ])raying, reading, singing, watching, fasting, penance, or whatever discipline it be were contrived to catch and keep us from things alien and ungodly. Suppose one feels God’s s]3irit is not working in one, but rather that one’s inner man is God- forsaken, that is the proper moment for the outward man to exer- cise the practical virtues, and particularly such as arc most feasible and useful to him; not for his o\vn selfish ends, but that, respect for truth preserving him from being led away by what is gross, he may stick straitly to God who will not need to seek him far afield, but will find liini there at hand when he chooses to return and carry on his own work in liis soul. But given that a man has genuine experience of the interior life, then let him boldly drop all outward disciplines, even those practices which thou art vowed to and from which neither p(3pe nor prelate can release thee. From vows made to God no man (Nan excuse thee: such vows are a bond between thyself and God. But supposing one has taken solemn vows of fasting, say, or prayer or pilgrimage, then on entering some order, one is released from them forthwith: in the order, obligation is to goodness as a whole, to God himself.
Ami so I say here. Whatever one’s vows to manifold things, 20 MEISTER ECKHART MEISTER ECKHART initiation into the real interior life releases from them. While the interior expei'ieiicc lasts, maybe a week, a month, a year, no hours arc neglected by the monk or nun, for God who occupies them will also answer for them. On returning to himself the religious shall perform his vows for the time present, but the time elapsed and lost, as thou dost think, ’tis no business of thine to make good. God makes good any time he takes up. I'hink not to make it good by any act of creature, for the smallest act of God outweighs all the work of creatures put together. I am speak- ing here of clerks and those enlightened souls who are illumined by God and by the scriptures. But what about the poor profane who, ignorant of corporal discipline, has assumed some vow or other, praying or the like? My view is this. Tf he finds it hampering and that he draws much nighcr God and much more easily without it, let him boldly give it up, for whatever brings nearest to God is the best. Paul implied this when he said: ' But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.’ Vows taken before priests, vows of marriage, for example, arc very different from these other obligations which amount to solemn promises of oneself to God. Vows taken with the laudable intention of binding oneself to God are for t he moment the best way. But supposing that we find a better way, a way we feel and know to be much better, then the first may be deemed null and void.
IV THE ETERNAL BIRTH Et cum facUis esset Jesus annorum duodecim etc, {Luc, 2j,). We read in the gospel that when our Lord was twelve years old he went with Joseph and Mary to Jerusalem into the temple; and when they went out, Jesus remained behind in the temple without their knowing it. And when they reached home and missed him, they sought him among aequaintan(‘es and among strangers, among their kindred, and among the multitude, and found him not; they had lost him in the crowd. So there was nothing for it but to return whence they were come; and when they got back to their starting-point, into the temple, there they found him.
If thou wilt find this noble birth, verily thou must quit the multitude and return to the starting-point, into the ground out of which thou art come. The powers of the soul and their works, these are the multitude: memory, understanding and will, these all diversify thee, therefore thou must leave them all: sensible perception, imagination and everything wherein thou findcst SERMONS AND COLLATIONS 21 thyself and hast thyself in view. Thereafter thou mayest find this birth, but, believe me, not otherwise. He has never been found among friends, nor among kindred nor acquaintances, there rather docs one lose him altogether.
Now the question arises, whether this birth is to be found in anything which, albeit relating to God, is nevertheless taken in from without through the senses, in any presentment of God as good, wise, or compassionate, or whatever intellect can conceive of divinity: whether tJiis birth is to be found in any such-like things? In truth, no! for, although good and godlike, they are neverthe- less introduced from without through the senses; all must well up from within, out of God, if this birth is to shine with a really clear light, and thy own work must lie over, every faculty serving his ends not thine own. If this work is to be tlone, God alone must do it, and thou must undergo it. Where from tliy willing and knowing thou truly goest out, God with his knowing surely and willingly goes in and shines there clearly. Where (xod thus knows himself thy knowledge is of no avail and cannot stand. Do not fondly imagine that thy reason can grow to the knowledge of God; that God shall shine in thee divinely no natural light can help to bring about; it must be utterly extinguished and go out of itself altogether, then God can shine in with his light bringing back with him everything thou wentest out of and a thousandfold more, besides the new form containing it all.
Of this we have an allegory in the gospel. When our Lord had talked so friendly with the Gentile woman at the well, she left her pitcher there, and running to the town announced to her people that the true Messiah was come. The people, not believing her report, went out with her to see him for themselves. Then said they unto her, ‘ Now we believe, not because of thy words, but because wc have seen him in person.’ Verily, neither by any crcaturcly science nor by thine own wisdom canst thou be brought to know God divinely. To know God God-fashion, thy knowledge must change into downright unknowing, to a forgetting of thyself and every creature.
Now haply thou wilt say: ‘ Prithee, Sir, what is the use of my intellect if it has to be inert and altogether idle? Is it my best plan to raise my mind to the unknowing knowing which obviously cannot be anything? For if I knew anything it would not be ignorance, nor should I be idle and destitute. Must I remain in total darkness? ’ — Aye, surely! Thou canst do no better than take up thy abode in total darkness and ignorance.
— ‘ Alas, Sir! must everything go then, and is there no return? ’ — No, truly! By rights th^c is no return.
22 MEISTER ECKHART — ‘ But what is this darkness? What does it mean, what is its name? ’ — It can only be called a potential receptivity, which, however, is not altogether wanting in nor indigent of (real) being: the merely potential conception wherein thou shalt be perfected. Hence there is no return from it. An thou rctiirnest it is not because of any truth; it is cither the senses, the world or the devil. And pei\sisting in this turning back, thou dost inevitably lapse into sin and art liable to backslide so far as to have the eternal fall. Wherefore there is no turning back, only a pressing forward and following up this possibility to its fulfilment. It never rests until fulfilled with all being. As matter never rests until fulfilled with every possible form, so intellect never rests till it is filled to the full of its capacity.
Concerning this a heathen master says: ‘ Nature has nothing swifter than the heavens which surpass all else in swiftness.’ But surely the mind of man outstrips them. Given that it retains its vigour and stays undemeaned and undisinembered by what is base and gross, it can outstrip high heaven nor slacken till the summit, where it is fed and cherished by the Arch-Good, by God himself.
How' profitable then to (.‘iisiie this possibility, for by keeping thyself empty and bare, merely tracking and following and giving up thyself to this darkness and ignorance without turning back, thou mayest well win that which is all things. And the more thou art barren of thyself and ignorant of things the nearer thou art thereto. Of this barrenness it is written in Ilosea: ‘ I will lead my friend into the desert and wall speak to her in her heart.’ The genuine \Vord of eternily is vSpoken only in eternity, where man is a desert and alien to himself and multiplicity. For this desolate self-estrangement the prophet longed, saying: ‘ Who w^ill give me the wings of a dove that I may fly away and be at rest! ’ Where shall I find peace and rest? Verily in rejection, in desola- tion and estrangement from all creatures. Wherefore David says: ‘ I had rather be an abject in the house of my God than have honour and riches in the tabernacles of sinners.’
Now haply thou wilt say: ‘ Alas, Sir, after all, is it necessary to be barren and estranged from everything, outward and inward: the powers and their works, must all go? It is a grievous matter for a man thus to be left by God without support; for God to thus augment his misery, neither enlightening nor encouraging nor working in him, for that is what your teaching means. For a person in such downright nothingness would it not be better to be doing something to beguile the gloom and desolation; to pray or read or go to church or else make shift by working at some useful occupation? ’ SERMONS AND COLLATIONS 23 No, be sure of this: absolute stillness, absolute idleness is best of all. Know that thou canst not without harm exchange this state for any other whatsoever. Fain wouldst thou partly fit thyself and let God partly fit thee, but that cannot be. Art never so quick to think of this fitness and desire it, God forestalls thee always. But granting, what is impossible, that it is shared: that the preparation for this working or infusion is jointly his and thine, know then, that God is bound to act, to pour himself out (into thee) as soon as ever he shall find thee ready. Think not it is with God as with a human carpenter, who works or works not as he chooses, who can do or leave undone at his good pleasure. It is not thus with God; but finding thee ready he is obliged to act, to overflow into thee; just as the sun must needs burst forth when the air is bright and clear, and is unable to contain itself. Forsooth, it were a very grave defect in God if, finding thee so empty and so bare, he wrought no excellent work in thee nor primed thee with glorious gifts.
In the same sense philosophers declare that the instant the child-stuff is ready in the mother’s womb, God pours into the body its living spirit, that is, the soul the form of the body. It is one flash, the being-ready and the pouring-in. Nature reaching her summit, God dispenses his grace: the instant the spirit is ready God enters without hesitation or delay. In the book of Mystery it is written that our Lord offers himself to men; ‘ Behold I stand at the door and knock, waiting for someone to let me in, with him will I sup.’ Thou needst not seek him here or there, he is no further off than at the door of thy heart; there he stands lingering, awaiting whoever is ready to open and let him in. Thou needst not call to him afar, he waits much more impatiently than thou for thee to open to him. He longs for thee a thousandfold more urgently than thou for him: one point the opening and the entering.
Thou wilt say, perhaps: ‘ How can that be? I have no inkling of him.’ — Know, that to find him is not in thy power but in his. He discovers himself when he chooses and he hides himself too when he will. This is what Christ meant when he said to Nicodemus, ‘ The spirit breatheth where he will; thou hearest his voice, but knowest not whence he corneth nor whither he goeth.’ This is a contradiction: ‘ Thou hearest but knowest not.’ By hearing we know. Christ meant that through hearing it is imbibed or absorbed; as though to say: thou rcceivest it but unawares. For know, God cannot leave anything void and unfilled; that aught should be empty or void is not to be endured by nature’s God. An thou seemest, therefore, not to find him and to be wholly empty of him, yet that is not the case. For were there any 24 MEISTER ECKHART emptiness under heaven, whatever it might be, or great or small, the heavens must either draw it up to them or, bending down- wards, fill it with themselves. God, nature’s lord, on no aeeount permits of anything remaining empty. Wherefore stand still and waver not, lest turning away from God now for the moment thou never turn baek to him again.
Perad venture thou wilt say: ‘ Well, Sir, since you are always assuming that some day this birth wdll happen in me, that the Son will be born in me, can I have any sign whereby to recognise that it has taken place? ’ Yes, surely! There would be three signs. 1 will tell you one of them. I am often asked whether it is possible to reach the point of not being hindered by anything in time, cither by multiplicity or matter? Indeed it is! If this birth really happens no creature can hinder thee, all point thee to God and this birth. We find in lightning an analogy for this. Whatever it strikes, whether tree, beast or man, it turns towards itself with the shock. A man with his back to it instantly fiings round to face it; all the thousand leaves of the tree turn over to front the stroke. So with all whom this birth befalls, they arc promptly turned towards this birth with everything present, be it never so earthly. Nay, even what was formerly a hindrance is now nothing but a help. Thy face is turned so full towards this birth, no matter what thou dost see and hear, thou rceeivest nothing save this birth in anything. All things are simply God to thee who seest only God in all things. Like one who looks long at the sun, he encounters the sun in whatever he afterwards looks at. If this is lacking, this looking for and seeing God in all and sundry, then thou lackest this birth.
Thou mayest question: ‘ Ought anyone so placed to practise penance? Does he lose anything by dropping penitential exercises? ’ Penitential practices, among other things, were instituted for a special object. Fasting, watching, praying, kneeling, scourging, wearing of hair shirts, hard lying or whatever it may be, were all invented because body and flesh stand ever opposed to spirit. The body being far too strong for it, there is always battle joined between them, a never-ending conflict. Here the body is bold and strong for here it is at home; the world helps it, the earth is its fatherland, it is helped by all its kindred: food, drink, ease — all are opposed to spirit. The spirit is an alien here, in heaven are its kindred, its whole race; there dwell its loved ones. To succour the spirit in its distress and to impede the flesh somewhat in this strife lest it conquer the spirit, we put upon it the bridle of penitential practices to curb it, so that the spirit can control it. This is done to bring it to subjection; but to conquer and curb it SERMONS AND COLIATIONS 25 a thousand times better, put thou upon it the bridle of love. With love thou overcomest it most surely, with love thou loadest it most heavily. God lies in wait for us therefore with nothing so much as with love. For love is like the fisherman’s hook. To the fisher- man falls no fish that is not caught on his hook. Once it takes the hook the fish is forfeit to the fisherman; in vain it twists hither and thither, the fisherman is certain of his catch. And so I say of love: he who is caught thereby has the strongest of all bonds and yet a pleasant burden. He who bears this sweet burden fares further, gel s nearer therewith than by using any harshness j)ossiblc to man. Moreover, he can cheerfully put up with whatever befalls, cheerfully suffer what God inflicts. Naught makes tlice so much God nor God so much thine own as this sweet bond. He who has found this way will seek no other. He who hangs on this hook is so fast caught that foot and hand, mouth, eyes and heart and all that is man’s is bound to be God’s.
So then thou caiist not, better than by love, prevail over thy foe and stop him doing thee a mischief. Wherefore it is written: ‘ Love is strong as death and hard as hell.’ Death separates soul from body, but love separates all things from the soul; she will not tolerate at any cost what is not God nor God’s. Who is caught in this net, who walks in this way, whatsoever he works is wrought by love, whose alone the work is: busy or idle it matters nothing. Such an one’s most trivial action is more profitable, his meanest occupation is more fruitful to himself and other people and to God is better pleasing than the cumulative works of other men, who, though free from mortal sin, arc yet inferior to him in love. H(^ rests more usefully than others labour.
Await thou therefore this liook, so thou be happily caught, and the more surely caught so much the more surely freed.
That we may be tlius caught and freed, help us () thou who art love itself. Amen.
V DEUS CHARITAS EST Deus charitas est et qui manet in charitate in deo manet et deus in eo (J Joh, 4jq). ‘ God is love, and he who dwells in love dwells in God and God in him.’ This is the epistle we read at Mass, and it is St John speaking.
Take the opening words: ‘ GocL is love.’ That is so, inasmuch as all that can love, all that does love, he compels by his love to love him. God is love, secondly, inasmuch as every God-created and loving thing compels him by its love to love it, willy-nilly.
26 MEISTER ECKHART God is love, thirdly, inasmuch as his love drives all his lovers out of multiplicity. The love of God in multijDlicity pursues the love which is himself right out of multiplicity into his very unity. God is love, fourthly, who by his love provides all creatures with their life and being, preserving them in his love. The colour of the cloth is preserved in the cloth: even so creatures are preserved in existence by love, that is, God. Take the colour from cloth, its subsistence is gone: so do creatures all lose their subsistence if taken from love, to wit, God. God is love, and so lovely is he that lovers all love him, willy-nilly. No creature is so vile as to love what is bad. What we love must be good or must seem to be good. But creaturely good, all told, is rank evil as compared with God. St Augustine says, ‘ Love, that in meditating love thou mayst provide the wherewithal to satisfy thy soul.’ God is love.
My children, mark me, I pray you. Know! God loves my soul so much that his very life and being depend upon his loving me, whether he would or no. To stop God loving me would be to rob him of his Godhood; for God is love no less than he is truth; as he is good, so is he love as well. It is the absolute truth, as God lives. There were certain theologians who maintained that the love which is within us is the Holy Ghost, but this is false. For the bodily food we take is changed into us, but the spiritual food we receive changes us into itself, hence love divine is not preserved in us, otherwise there would be two. Divine love preserves us in itself as one in the same.
‘ God is love, and he who dwells in love dwells in (iod and God in him.’ There is a difference between ghostly things and bodily things. One ghostly thing dwells in another; but nothing bodily dwells in another. There may be water in a tub, with the tub round it. But where the wood is the water is not. In this sense no material thing dwells in another. But spiritual things dwell in each other: each several angel with all his joy and happiness is in every other angel as well as in himself, and every angel with all his joy and happiness dwells in me, and God to boot with his entire beatitude, though I discern it not.
If anyone should ask me what God is, I should answer: God is love, and so altogether lovely that creatures all with one accord essay to love his loveliness, whether they do so knowingly or unbeknownst, in joy or sorrow. Instance the lowest angel in his pure nature: the smallest spark or love-light that ever fell from him would light up the whole world with love and joy. See his innate perfection! Moreover, as I have explained at various times, the angels are numerous beyond number. — But to leave love and come to knowledge. If only we knew God it would be easy to forsake the world. All that God ever made or shall yet make.
SERMONS AND COLLATIONS 27 all this (I say), if God should give it to my soul without himself, he staying, so to speak, a hair’s-breadth off, would not content my soul nor make me happy. I am happy when all things are in me and God, and where I am God is, and where God is I am.
‘ He who dwells in love dwells in God and God in him.’ Suppose I am in God, then where he is I am; and if God is in me, then, unless the scriptures lie, where I am God is. It is the absolute truth, as God is God.