The fourth reason is, that the interior life is more self-sufficient than that of outward man. The inner man needs nothing for his work but the freedom from bodily affairs which comes with detachment of the soul-powers, together with knowledge and love. The freer and less occupied with mortal things the better adapted to God is the life of the inner man. But the life of outward man has need of many things which are disturbing: of working and talking and giving and taking and eating and drinking. St Luke tells us how Martha, meaning the outward man, was cum- bered with overmuch serving; aye, though it be all on God’s account, like works of mercy, natheless it entails a deal of trouble.
The fifth reason is, that the interior life is infinitely more enjoyable than that of outward man. As the philosopher says, Intellectual delights are free from drawbacks, but every mortal
1 This is not numbered separately in Pfeiffer’s text.
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pleasure has its other side. St Augustine says that while Martha was distraught Mary was in company with her interior man, Hence the comment of one teacher, ‘ Mary taxed Martha before the eterna] Word Christ Jesus.’ Why did not Mary answer? She did not hear, because she was not at home by herself. Where was she then? She was with her inner man in the Word whose word she was attending to. For the soul is where she loves rather than where she is giving natural life.
The sixth reason is, because the interior life, apart from know- ledge and apart from love, is desirable in itself. But the outward life is desirable only in so far as it makes for the greater good of the soul. The prophet cries, ‘One thing have I desired of the Lord and that same will I seek : to see God’s will and behold his godly habitation.’
The seventh reason is, because the inner life is concerned with things divine and the outer with things human. St Augustine says, Mary heard the Word in the beginning, whereas it was the human word that Martha served.
The eighth reason is, because the inner life is that of the powers most proper to the soul. But the powers used for outward purposes we have in common with the brutes, the senses, namely. David says, ‘ Lord thou dost nourish man and beast.’ And later on he adds, * but Lord, we men shall see thy light in the light of thine own self,’ that is, in the light of understanding whereby man is distinguished from the brutes.
The ninth reason is given by our Lord himself, who says, ‘ Mary has chosen the better part.’ St Augustine says, ‘ Martha had no bad one; hers was a good one too, though Mary had the best.’ Hers the uses of the inner man, which starting here go on eternally. But the outward life of works of mercy ends where there is no poverty nor woe, that is, in eternity. Now though the inner life is intrinsically best, the outward life is sometimes better, as in cases of bodily necessity ; to feed the hungry, for example, were better than to spend the time in contemplation. According to one teacher, to see a man in any need and fail to help would make me guilty towards him, and St Augustine says I ought to lend: him aid. In cases then of real necessity, to use the works of the outward man for the relief of one’s own self or neighbour is better than to settle down to the interior man’s spiritual idleness of mind and will.—It is now explained how our Lady rested in the eternal good. Let us too seek rest for the inner man as well as for the outer, So help us God. Amen. :
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Honour Thy Father
Hec dicit dominus : honora patrem tuum ete. (Matt. 15,). This Latin quotation is taken from the gospel. The words were spoken by our Lord, and the translation runs, ‘ Honour thy father and mother.” And another commandment is given by God our Lord, ‘Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s goods nor his house nor anything that is his.’ The third point is that the people went to Moses and said, ‘ Do thou speak to us, for we cannot hear God.’ ‘The fourth, that God said to Moses, ‘ An altar of earth and in earth shalt thou make unto me and all that is offered thereon thou shalt burn away.’ The fifth is that Moses went into the cloud and ascending into the mountain there he found God : it was in the darkness that he found the true light.
There is a saying of St Augustine’s, ‘ Where the lamb sinks there swims the ox and the cow and where the cow swims the elephant runs and forges ahead.’ Which is a pretty parable to draw a moral from. The scriptures are the deep sea, St Augustine says, and the little lamb the humble, simple soul which is able to fathom Holy Writ. By the ox that swims we understand ill- tutored folk: each choosing out of them the: things that suit himself. But in the elephant that goes ahead we recognise wise souls searching the scriptures and making progress in them. I am amazed how full the scriptures are withal the mastérs say they are not to be taken merely as they stand ; the material things in them, they say, must be translated to a higher plane, for which we must have symbols.—First it reached to the ankles, next it came up to the knee, thirdly it rose to the girdle, and fourthly it covered his head and he was submerged altogether.
Now what does this mean? St Augustine says, at first the scriptures will amuse and attract the child, and in the end, when he tries to understand them, they make fools of the wise, for none is so simple-minded but can find his level there nor none so wise but when he tries to fathom them will find they are beyond his depth and discover more therein. All the stories and quotations taken from them have another, esoteric, meaning. Our , under- standing of them is as totally unlike the thing as it is in itself and as it is in God, as though it did not exist.
To return to our text. ‘Honour thy father and mother,’ and in a general sense it does mean father and mother, that we ought to honour them, and all who have spiritual power are to be honoured and preferred as well as the authors of thy temporal weal. Herein
we wade, herein do we touch bottom ; but it is precious little we
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get out of it. It is a woman who says, ‘If we ought to honour the authors of our outward good much more are we behoven to magnify the author of it all.” What we have here outwardly in multiplicity is all within and one. Yours to make this likeness like unto the Father. I was thinking this evening that all likeness ends in sameness with the Father. In the second place, thou oughtest to honour thy father, meaning thy heavenly Father, the source of thy being. Who honours the Father? None but the- Son: he alone does him honour. And none honours the Son save only the Father. The Father’s whole love, his fondness, his favours, are for the Son and him only. The Father knows nothing at all but the Son. Such delight does he take in his Son that he wants nothing else but to be getting his Son, for he is his exact © likeness, the perfect image of his Father.
The teaching of our school is that anything known or born is an image. They say that in begetting his only-begotten Son the Father is producing his own image abiding in himself, in the ground of the image, as it has ever been in him, (forme illius) i.e. his immanent form. It is contrary to nature and seems to me irrational, the doctrine that God is known by likeness, by this thing or by that. For he, after all, is neither this nor that, and father is not satisfied till he returns to his first nature, to the innermost, to the-ground and core of fatherhood, where he has been for ever in himself, in his father-nature : to where he enjoys him- self in the Father as the Father does himself in the one alone. Here wood, stone, grass-blades, all things are the same. This is the best of all, and I have fooled myself therein. All the natural powers being gathered to a head are plunged into the Father- nature, so that they are one, one Son, transcending all the rest and subsisting alone in the paternal nature, or if not the one they are at least the image of the one. This nature, being of God, seeks not what is outside her, nay, this nature, existing in itself, has naught to do with ornament: nature which is of God seeks none other than God’s likeness.
I was thinking this evening that a likeness is an outwork (preamble). I cannot see a thing unless it has some likeness, some relation to me, neither can I know a thing excepting it is like me. God has all things hidden in himself; not this and that distinct but one in the same nature. The eye is coloured and also receives colour, the ear not. The ear senses tone and the tongue has taste. It is a case of like to like. The form of the soul and God’s image have the same nature: we being sons. If I had neither eyes nor ears still I might have being. Who robs me of my eyes robs me not therefore of my being nor yet of my life, for my life is seated in the heart. A blow aimed at my eye I parry by a lifting of the
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hand. A blow at my heart I should stop with any portion of my body. But if someone attempted to cut off my head I should hit out straight from the shoulder in order to preserve my life and being.
~~ I am fond ‘of saying, You must break the outside to let out the inside : to get at the kernel means breaking the shell. Even so to find nature herself all her likenesses have to be shattered and the further in the nearer the actual thing. On coming to one, where it is all one, she is the same. Who honours God ? He who is ever seeking God’s glory.
Many years ago I was not; not long after that my father and my mother eating bread and meat and the vegetables growing in the garden, I became a man. In this my father and my mother were unable to assist, but God made my body without aid and created my soul after the supreme. Thus I became possessed of life (possedi me). This grain of rye has it in its nature to develop into wheat, and it never rests until it has that nature. This corn seed has it in its nature to be all things and pays the penalty of death in order to be all things. And this metal, copper, has it in its nature to be gold, and it will never rest till it has gotten that same nature. Aye, this wood has in its nature the power of turning into stone; I say more than that : it may indeed become all things if put into the fire and allowed to burn away and be transmuted to the fire-nature ; then same comes to same and. has eternally one being. I trow that wood and stone and bone and all the grasses have collectively one being in the first nature. And if so with this nature then how about the nature which is so intrinsically pure that it seeks not either this or that but transcending all the others is simply making for its primitive ‘perfection ?
I was thinking this evening, there are many heavens. There are some incredulous who will not believe that this bread upon the altar may be changed, that God can do it. (How unworthy, to deny that God is capable of this.) If God has given to nature the power to be all things, how much easier to him must be the changing to his body of this altar bread. If this frail nature from a drop of blood can contrive a man, how much more possible for God to make his body from a bit of bread. Who honours God ? He who is ever seeking God’s glory. This meaning is more obvious albeit the former is the better one. .