Sermon 05. How men must receive all that God gives, as from His Hand, and?... (The Inner Way) (Tauler, John)

How willingly God gives great gifts, when, in lowliness of mind, we esteem ourselves of small repute; and how all things are as nothing without God.

Hic est discipulus ille, quem diligebat Jesus. "This is that disciple whom Jesus loved."

Dear children, though God is no respecter of persons, and loves all the things that He has made, still He has His Friends (those who are most conscious of His favour, and turn to Him with all their might) who are especially dear to Him; and it is not His fault that all men do not turn to Him of their own free will. He is always ready to receive us; and He lets the sun of His grace shine on the good and on the evil.

Now St John especially was conscious of the grace of God from his youth, and was always the dearly loved disciple of our Lord, on account of his virginal purity, his perfect love, his keen vision, and all his other virtues. If therefore we would be the dear disciples of God, we must first follow St John by dying wholly to ourselves, by resigning ourselves and all our affections to God; and by receiving all things from His hand; we must deny ourselves all pleasure in the love of created things apart from God. Those men who thus resign themselves, and submit entirely to God, seek earnestly all that God gives them; for it is, and it seems to them the best. You may (as truly as God lives) be certain that it must of necessity be the very best, and that no other way could be better than it is, though another might appear so; yet it would not be so good for you, for God has chosen this and no other way; therefore it must needs be the best. It may be sickness, poverty, hunger or thirst; whatever it may be that God ordains or does not ordain, it is still the best for you. It may be devotion or fervour, or that you are to possess neither, as long as it is not caused by your own neglect; only make up your mind to seek God's honour in all things, in all that you have or have not, then all that He sendeth you will be for the best.

Now you mightest say perhaps: "How do I know whether it is the will of God or not?" Know this, that if it were not the will of God, it could not happen. You have neither days of sickness, nor anything else, except it be the will of God. Now, if you know it is God's will, you oughtest to have so much pleasure and delight therein, that you wouldest not heed pain as pain, even though it were extreme. It would be wrong for you to be sensible of pain or suffering; for you oughtest to accept it from God as the very best for you. It is His very life, to desire only the best; therefore I ought to desire it, and nothing ought to please me better. Now, if there were a man whom I was most desirous to please, and I knew for certain that I should please him better in a gray garb than in any other, however good it might be, that gray garb would seem to be more desirable than any other though it were ever so good. Oh! take heed to yourselves, see how your love is fashioned! If ye truly loved God, nothing would delight you more than doing that which pleased Him best, and desiring that His will should be fully accomplished in us. However severe pain and discomfort may seem, if you have not as great delight in them as in comfort and pleasure, all is not well with you.

There is one thing which I am wont to say constantly, and which is also true, that we cry out every day and say in the Lord's Prayer: "Lord, Your Will be done!" but then we feel angry, and are not so content with His will as that all He does should seem for the best. They who do accept it as the best, are kept in perfect peace in all things. Now, sometimes ye say: "Oh! if it had only been otherwise it would have been better," or, "if it had not happened thus it might have happened better." As long as you are of this mind, you will never attain to peace; you must accept all as the very best.

Now, mark, God is the Giver of all gifts, and all things that are best and highest are His real and most peculiar gifts. God gives nothing so willingly as great gifts, for it is natural to Him to give great things; therefore, the better things are, the more of them there are, the noblest creatures, the Angels, are especially wise; they have no bodily nature, and there are more of them in number than of all other created beings. Great things are really great gifts; and they are what I can best make my own and most desire.

I speak also of that which may actually be expressed in word, and which must come out from within quite freely; it must not come from without into the heart; but that must come out from within, which really dwells in the inmost heart. There all things are present to you, and live and move and have their being, in Him, who is the Holy and Sovereign God. Why do you not find it thus? Because you are not at home there. The nobler a thing is, the commoner it is. I have my natural sense in common with animals; and life in common with trees; and my being, which is still more to me, in common with all creatures. Heaven is more than all that is thereby; therefore it is also nobler. The nobler things are, the commoner they are. Love is noble, because it is universal. It seems hard to do that which our Lord has commanded, and to love our neighbours as ourselves. Common people say, "We ought to love them as we love God; for we love ourselves too well." But no, it should be otherwise. We must therefore love them very much, just as we love ourselves; and this is not hard; for, if ye would only see it, this command is more of a reward than a command. A command seems hard, but a reward is desirable. He, who loves God as he ought to love Him, yea, and as he must love Him, whether he will or no, and as all creatures love Him, must love his neighbour as himself. He must joy in his joys, as though they were his own; he must be as desirous for his honour as though it were his own; and he must treat a stranger as though he were dear to him. Then that man will be always rejoicing, always useful, and always honourable. It will seem like heaven to him; and he will have far more joy, that if he rejoiced only in his own good.

Now, know of a truth, that if your own honour is of more importance to you, and dearer than that of another man, you do wrongfully. Know this, that if you seek something that is yours own, you seek not God only; and you will never find Him. You are acting as though you madest a candle of God to seek for something; and, when you have found it, you cast the candle away. Therefore, when you do this, that which you seek with God, whatever it may be, it is nothing; gain, reward, fervour, or whatever it may be, you seek nothing, therefore will you find nothing. There is no other cause for finding nothing, but that you seek nothing. All creatures are absolutely nothing. That which has no being is nothing. And creatures have no being, because they have their being in God; if God turned away for a moment, they would cease to exist. He who desired to have all the world with God, would have nothing more than if he had God alone. All creatures have, without God, nothing more than a man has, who has a mite, or absolutely nothing, without Him; neither more nor less.

Listen, I beseech you, to a true saying. A man might give a thousand marks to build churches and monasteries, and it would be a great gift; but he who cares nought for a thousand marks has done more and given more. When God created all creatures, they were so vile and mean that He could not live and move in them. Then He made the soul of man, like to and in harmony with Himself, that to him He might give Himself; for all else that He gave him, man heeded not. God must give Himself to me as my own, as He is in Himself, or I have nothing and care for nothing. He, who would receive God in full measure, must give himself wholly to God; he must go our of himself. He will receive the like from God, all that He has as his own, as God Himself has it, and as He has given it to our Lady and to all that are in heaven. Those who have thus gone forth, and have given themselves, shall also, all alike, receive all in all and nothing less.

Now know, that of ourselves, we have nothing; for this and all other gifts are from above. Therefore he who would receive from above, must of necessity place himself beneath, in true humility. And know of a truth, that if he leave anything out, so that all is not beneath, he will have nothing and receive nothing. Dost you trust to yourself, or to anything else, or anybody else? you are not beneath, and wilt receive nothing; but if you have placed yourself beneath, then You will receive all things fully. It is God's nature to give; and He lives and moves that He may give to us when we are humble. If we are not lowly, and yet desire to receive, we do Him violence, and kill Him, so to speak; and, though we may not wish to do this, yet we do it, as far as in us lies. That you may truly give Him all things, see to it, that you cast yourself in deep humility at the Feet of God, and beneath all created beings; that you exaltest God in your heart, and that you confessest Him. The Lord our God sent His only-begotten Son into the world. God sent His Son in the fulness of time, for the sake of our souls, and that we might be filled with Him. When a soul is freed from place and time, the Father sends His Son into that soul to be born there. Nothing can hinder God in us, or us in God, if in our hearts we neither hang on to, nor cleave to time and place, nor exalt ourselves above time and place in Eternity, which is God Himself. Amen.