Light, Life, and Love: Selections from the German Mystics of the Middle Ages

by William Ralph Inge

WHEN the interior man and contemplative has thus pursued his eternal image, and possessed in this purity the bosom of the Father by the Son, he is illuminated by the divine truth, and receives anew at each instant the eternal birth; and he goes forth according to the mode of light, in a divine contemplation. And here arises the fourth and last point—that is to say, the loving meeting, in which before all else resides our eternal blessedness.

You know that our heavenly Father, like a living foundation, is actively inclined towards His Son, as towards His own eternal wisdom. And this same wisdom, and all that lives therein, is actively inclined in the Father—that is to say, in the foundation whence it proceeds. And in this meeting arises the Third Person, between the Father and the Son, and this is the Holy Spirit, their mutual love, which is united to them both in the same nature. And He envelopes and penetrates, actively and joyously, the Father and the Son and all that lives in them with such riches and such joy, that all the creatures must be silent thereupon eternally, for the incomprehensible marvel of this love surpasses eternally the intelligence of all the creatures. But where we comprehend and taste this amazement, without being amazed, there the spirit is above itself, and one with the Spirit of God, and it tastes and sees, without measure, like God, the riches which He is Himself in the unity of the living foundation, where He possesses Himself according to the unity of His uncreated essence.

Now this delightful meeting is without interruption actively renewed in us, according to the mode of God, for the Father gives Himself in the Son, and the Son in the Father, in an eternal gratification and a loving embrace, and this is renewed at every hour in the ties of love; for even as the Father without interruption contemplates anew all things in the birth of His Son, so all things are beloved anew, by the Father and the Son, through the influence of the Holy Spirit. And this is the eternal meeting of the Father and the Son, in which we are lovingly wrapped by the Holy Spirit in eternal love.

Now this active meeting and this loving embrace are, in their foundation, joyous and without mode, for God's infinite absence of mode is so obscure and so destitute of mode, that it envelopes in itself every divine mode and every work, and the individuality of the Persons, in the rich envelopment of essential unity, and forms a divine rejoicing in the abyss of the unnameable. And here there is a joyous and outflowing immersion in the essential nakedness, where all the divine names and all the modes, and all divine reason, reflected in the mirror of the divine truth, fall into simple ineffability, in the absence of mode and of reason. For in this boundless abyss of simplicity, all things are enveloped in joyous blessedness, and the abyss remains itself uncomprehended save by the essential unity. Before this essential unity, the Persons must give way, and all that lives in God. For here is nought but an eternal rest, in a joyous envelopment of loving immersion, and this is the essence, without mode, which all interior spirits have chosen above all other things. It is the dark silence in which all lovers are lost. But if we could prepare ourselves thus for the virtues, we should unclothe ourselves, so to speak, from life, and should float on the wide expanses of this divine sea, and created things would no longer have power to touch us.

May we be able to possess, rejoicing, the essential unity, and clearly to contemplate the Unity in Trinity; and may the divine love, which rejects no suppliant, grant us this. Amen.

THEOLOGIA GERMANICA

SIN AND SELFISHNESS

SIN is nothing else but the turning away of the creature from the unchangeable Good to the changeable; from the perfect to the imperfect, and most often to itself. And when the creature claims for its own anything good, such as substance, life, knowledge, or power, as if it were that, or possessed it, or as if that proceeded from itself, it goeth astray. What else did the devil do, and what was his error and fall, except that he claimed for himself to be something, and that something was his and was due to him? This claim of his—this "I, me, and mine," were his error and his fall. And so it is to this day. For what else did Adam do? It is said that Adam was lost, or fell, because he ate the apple. I say, it was because he claimed something for his own, because of his "I, me, and mine." If he had eaten seven apples, and yet never claimed anything for his own, he would not have fallen: but as soon as he called something his own, he fell, and he would have fallen, though he had never touched an apple. I have fallen a hundred times more often and more grievously than Adam; and for his fall all mankind could not make amends. How then shall my fall be amended? It must be healed even as Adam's fall was healed. And how, and by whom, was that healing wrought? Man could not do it without God, and God could not do it without man. Therefore God took upon Himself human nature; He was made man, and man was made God. Thus was the healing effected. So also must my fall be healed. I cannot do the work without God, and He may not or will not do it without me. If it is to be done, God must be made man in me also; God must take into Himself all that is in me, both within and without, so that there may be nothing in me which strives against God or hinders His work. Now if God took to Himself all men who are or ever lived in the world, and was made man in them, and they were deified in Him, and this work were not accomplished in me, my fall and my error would never be healed unless this were accomplished in me also. And in this bringing back and healing I can and shall do nothing of myself; I shall simply commit myself to God, so that He alone may do and work all things in me, and that I may suffer Him, and all His work, and His divine will. And because I will not do this, but consider myself to be mine own, and "I, me, and mine," and the like, God is impeded, and cannot do His work in me alone and without let or hindrance; this is why my fall and error remain unhealed. All comes of my claiming something for my own. ii., iii.

THE TWO EYES

We should remember the saying that the soul of Christ had two eyes, a right eye and a left eye. In the beginning, when the soul of Christ was created, she fixed her right eye upon eternity and the Godhead, and remained in the full beholding and fruition of the Divine essence and eternal perfection; and thus remained unmoved by all the accidents and labours, the suffering, anguish, and pain, that befell the outer man. But with the left eye she looked upon the creation, and beheld all things that are therein, and observed how the creatures differ from each other, how they are better or worse, nobler or baser; and after this manner was the outer man of Christ ordered. Thus the inner man of Christ, according to the right eye of His soul, stood in the full exercise of His Divine nature, in perfect blessedness, joy, and eternal peace. But the outer man and the left eye of the soul of Christ stood with Him in perfect suffering, in all His tribulations, afflictions and labours; in such a way that the inner or right eye remained unmoved, unimpeded and untouched by all the labour, suffering, woe, and misery that happened to the outer man. It has been said that when Jesus was bound to the pillar and scourged, and when He hung on the cross, according to the outer man, the inner man, a soul according to the right eye, stood in as full possession of Divine joy and blessedness as it did after the ascension, or as it does now. Even so His outer man, or soul according to the left eye, was never impeded, disturbed, or troubled by the inward eye in its contemplation of the outward things which pertained to it. The created soul of man has also two eyes. The one is the power of looking into eternity, the other the power of looking into time and the creatures, of perceiving how they differ from each other, of giving sustenance and other things necessary to the body, and ordering and ruling it for the best. But these two eyes of the soul cannot both perform their office at once; if the soul would look with the right eye into eternity, the left eye must be shut, and must cease to work: it must be as if it were dead. For if the left eye is discharging its office towards outward things—if it is holding conversation with time and the creatures—then the right eye must be impeded in its working, which is contemplation. Therefore, he who would have one must let the other go; for no man can serve two masters. vii.