The masters tell us that God made the powers of the soul by nature receptive to their likes, thus the ear is always hearing and the eye is always seeing. What my eye sees is one with it, just like the air with light. The nature of the eye is to see colour, otherwise it would not be an eye. And conversely with colour, by nature it affects the eye or it would not be colour. To think of it as colour yet incommunicable to the eye would be to deny that it is colour. I can see the minster. But no one sees it in me. For a thing to be visible in me, it must be so placed that its reflection can be seen in me. Standing in front of me and face to face a man could see his'image in my eye. Stand over flowing water and you cannot see yourself. But supposing it is clear, then where it is collected and still enough for a reflection you can see your form in it. They say glass is transparent, like a crystal. But cover it with lead or wax and it reflects: it gives an image __ of whatever stands before it, perfect in every detail. _
1 See also Wackernagel, No. Ixiii.
Sermons and Collations 119
God made the soul, her highest power, her best, in order to beget himself therein. There, says a philosopher, begetter and begotten are the same and there is neither time nor place nor matter. Matter means gross bodily things; it is intractable and hinders. Hence it has been said that if the Father could he would make himself. But he cannot, so he makes his like.
Our Lord said, ‘I dwell in Jacob and I rest in Israel.’ Jacob stands for riddance. God is gotten nowhere excepting in the soul that has put all creatures under her feet. St Augustine says, God is being born within the soul the whole time without ceasing, but not born to us to whom he is not manifest but hidden. As long as God is hidden in the soul by aught, he is not born to us, and you may be quite sure that God is never born to any soul excepting she has put all creatures under her feet: where there is no other there God begets himself, not his likeness, his own self: God and God. Well and truly then the Son may say, ‘I dwell in Jacob and in Israel I rest. And said he: ‘My Father sent me and he engendered in me that which is my nature: that I am being born all the time within the soul who is pure enough for him to see himself in.” There God is at rest and the soul reposes in God. To deprive God of resting in the soul would be to deprive him of his deity. To rob him of it even in one’s thoughts is to rob him of his Godhood, since he is pleased to rest in all things. David says: ‘My Lord said to my heart: thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee in the reflection of the Holy Ghost,’ and again he said: ‘I have begotten thee in my innermost heart, in the depths of my soul; I have spread my roots, I have estab- lished myself in the city- of Zion and my power in Jerusalem.’ The soul in Zion, who has transcended things and is dwelling in her central depth, in her does God give birth to his inmost self. The heavenly Father said to his only Son: As I begat thee in my inmost heart, even so I charge thee by thy divine nature that thou comest not to birth save in the innermost recesses of the soul.—Whosoever would deny to God that he should beget himself in this way in the soul would deny him his God-nature. May God thus beget himself in us, So help us God. Amen.
In omnibus requiem quesivi (Eccl. 24,,). We find this in the Book of Wisdom. We may imagine Wisdom in friendly
120 Meister Eckhart
conversation with the soul, saying, ‘In all things I sought rest.’ To which the soul replies, ‘ He who created me rested in my tent.’ And Wisdom says again, ‘ My rest is in the holy city.’ If I were _ asked to say to what end the creator has created creatures, I should | answer: rest. And were I asked a second time, what are all creatures seeking so eagerly by nature? I should answer: rest. ' And if a third time I were asked what the soul seeks in all her agitations, once more I should say : rest.
Look how the face of divine nature turns foolish and demented all the powers of the soul with longing for it, so as to draw them to itself. God likes this so wel], it pleases him so much that his entire God-nature is turned into this bent. He says, ‘ In the holy place likewise I repose.’ As the soul rests in God so God reposes in her. If she rests partly in God he rests partly in her. If she rests wholly in him he rests altogether in her. In those limpid
* souls where God can see the reflection of himself, God is reposing in the soul and the soul is reposing in God. To deprive God of _this, though but in thought, is to deprive him, to deny to him, his ‘ Godhood who is seeking rest in all things, for God’s nature is \rest. 7 Fourthly, whether they know it or not, creatures are all in search of rest. No one can shut or open his eyes without seeking rest: he is ridding himself of some hindrance or finding some- \where to rest. These are the two motives of all human action. As I often say, my love is placed where I most clearly see God’s likeness. But rest is more like God than any creature.
Mark how the soul must be for God to rest in her. She must be pure. What makes the soul pure? Keeping to spiritual things. She is exalted too by these. The more she is exalted the purer she becomes in her intention and the more efficient in her work. As the philosopher says about the stars : they become less potent as they near the earth, being out of their true course. In their proper orbit, though they are invisible on earth, they have more pull upon it. St Anselm apostrophises the soul, ‘ Withdraw thyself a little from the tumult of external things.’ And again, “ Flee away and hide thee from the rush of inner thoughts which
_ cause such great disquiet to the soul.’
\ We can ask of God no better thing than rest. All God wants of man is a peaceful heart ; then he performs within the soul an act too Godlike for creature to attain to or yet see. The divine Wisdom is discreetly fond and lets no creature watch. As our
. Lord says, ‘I will lead my bride into the desert and will speak to her in her heart,’ into a solitude, that is, away from creatures.
Fourthly, he says the soul must rest in God. God cannot do divine work in the soul, for in the soul things are all ruled by
Sermons and Collations 121
measure. Measure means limit, within and without. There is none of this in God’s operations, which are infinite: openly enclosed in God’s revelation. David says, ‘God sits above the Cherubim. He does not say, above the Seraphim. Cherubim means wisdom, knowledge which brings God to the soul and leads the soul to God. But not into God. Not in her own intelligence does God perform his godly operation, because in her this is ruled by measure; but he uses it as being God, divine. The highest power steps forth (that is, the will) and breaking into God, leads in the soul with her intelligence and all her powers and makes her one with God. Here God is acting above the power of the soul: not as in the soul but as in God. The soul now dowsed in God and in divine nature, receives divine life ; now she is subject to the law of God and is of the order of God. To take an illustration from natural philosophy. At the moment of conception the child in its mother’s womb has neither limbs nor colour. But when the soul is poured into the body it takes form and colour and becomes an entity (in virtue of the soul), with .the created nature of the soul and the appearance of a living being. And the soul, when perfectly atoned with God and dowsed in his divinity, loses all her hindrances, her feebleness and instability, and suddenly renewed with divine life grows orderly in all her ways and virtues. Look at a light, the nearer the wick the duller and denser the glow; as the flame shoots up from the wick it gets brighter and brighter. The more exalted the soul the better God can do in her his divine work in his own likeness. Like a mountain rising up two leagues above the earth, graven with magic runes and sacred characters which defy the winds and rain. Even so the really holy soul is uplifted into perfect calm, absolute and changeless in divine activity. That religious has good cause for shame who is moved so readily to gloom or anger or desire. He is no true religious.
Lastly, creatures are all seeking rest whether they know it or not. Never is the stone bereft of motion while it is not lying on the ground. And similarly fire. All creatures also: they seek their natural place. The loving soul finds rest nowhere except in God. David says, ‘God has ordained to everything its place: to fish the water, birds the air and beasts the earth and to the soul the Godhead.’ And Job declares in the same strain, ‘ What is in God he gives us for our joy and bliss.’ God grant us peace and rest in him, So help us the eternal truth, which is himself. Amen.
SOUTHERN CA schoo SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY LIBRARY
122 Meister Eckhart
XLVI! POVERTY
The really virtuous man does not want God. What I have i want not. He makes no plans, he sets no store by things. As God is higher than man so is he readier to give than man is to receive. Not by his fasts and vigils and his many outward works does a man prove his progress in the virtuous life, but it is a sure sign of his growth if he finds eternal things more and more attrac- tive than the things that pass. The man who has a thousand marks of gold and gives it all away for love of God is doing a fine thing ; yet I say, it were far finer and far better for him to despise it, setting it at naught on God’s account.
A man should orient his will and all his works to God and having only God in view go forward unafraid, not thinking, am I right or am I wrong ? One who worked out all the chances ere starting his first fight would never fight atall. And if, going to some place, we must think how to set the front foot down we shall never gety . there. It is our duty to do the next thing : go straight on, that is the right way.
There are five kinds of poverty. The first is devilish poverty ; the second, golden poverty ; the third is willing poverty; the fourth is spiritual poverty ; the fifth, divine poverty.
The first, or devilish poverty, applies to all who have not what they fain would have, outward or inward. That is their hell.
The second, golden poverty, is theirs who in the midst of goods and properties pass empty out and in. If everything they own was burnt the effect on them would be to leave them quite un- moved. Heaven must needs be theirs and they would have no less.
The third is willing poverty and belongs to those who, renouncing goods and honours, body and soul, leave everything with right good grace. These give judgment with the twelve apostles and by pronouncing judgment it is their judgment day who, knowing what they leave, yet set another in their heart and mightily bestir themselves about their own departure. Such are the willing poor.
The fourth are spiritual poor. These have forsaken friends and kindred, not merely goods and honour, body and soul; further, they are quit of all good works: the eternal Word does all their work while they are idle and exempt from all activity. And since in the eternal Word is neither bad nor good, therefore they are absolutely empty.
The fifth are godly poor, for God can find no place in them to