Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation)

The preface identifies Meister Eckhart, called "Father of German thought," as a Dominican monk born about 1260 in Thuringia and dying at Cologne in 1327. It lists his positions: Prior at Erfurt and Vicar-General of Thuringia (1295), study at Paris of Aristotle and the Platonists (1300), summons to Rome to assist Pope Boniface VIII against Philip the Fair (1302), Provincial for Saxony (1304), Vicar-General of Bohemia (1307), and teaching at Paris and Strasburg (1311). It notes suspicions at Strasburg, examination of his writings, citation before the Inquisition at Cologne, his willingness to withdraw, and the Pope's condemnation of certain propositions in 1329. It summarizes his philosophy of the Absolute Unity, God as incomprehensible, the eternal generation of the Son, and "the spark" of the soul, calling the theology Pantheism and Eckhart a fore-runner of the Reformation. A note cites Vaughan's "Hours with the Mystics." Sermon I, on John vi.44, expounds how the Father draws to the Son. It describes the Trinity drawing with Power, Wisdom, and Love, enumerates the consequences of deadly sin, and recounts how Christ, seeing the Father's failure over five thousand two hundred years, came down, was incarnate, and drew men by three means: affinity, emptiness, and the heat of love. The Holy Spirit then draws with a net of attributes, graces, gifts, and virtues. Sermon II, on Luke xxi.31, states the Kingdom of God is near and within us. It teaches that happiness depends on knowing God's nearness, that God is equally near in all creatures, and that the soul must become God-like, forgetting time, place, and itself to know God.

Sermon III, "The Angel's Greeting," takes Luke i.28, listing three things to understand: the angel's modesty, his sense of unworthiness to accost the Mother of God, and his addressing the multitude of souls longing after God. Eckhart states the Virgin bore God spiritually before bodily. A woman tells Christ, "Blessed is the womb that bear Thee," and Christ answers that rather blessed are they that hear and keep the Word. He relates a parable of a man whose wife loses an eye; the husband puts out one of his own to be like her, likened to God taking human nature. He speaks of spiritual birth, an echo on a mountain, humility drawing God's grace, fear, and earth fleeing heaven. God brings forth His Son in man. The Son comes forth to fetch His Bride and returns to the Fatherhood. God remains unknown; the light shines in darkness. Sermon IV, "True Hearing," takes Ecclesiasticus xxiv.30. Three things hinder hearing the Word: fleshliness, distraction, illusion of time. God teaches that we are His Son. Loving all men as oneself is discussed; St Paul said he would be cut off from God for his friends' sake, and Eckhart calls him perfect. The highest renunciation is giving up God for God's sake. He describes a somewhat in the soul akin to God, the angels' undiminished joy, the eye with which one sees God, and true self-renunciation. Sermon V, "The Self-Communication of God," takes John xiv.23, expounding five loaves as five kinds of knowledge, the soul's two capacities of intelligence and will, Adam's lost union illustrated by loadstone and needles, Christ restoring union, Mary seeking Christ three days, and the Three Persons stooping to human nature, the Son becoming the most despised man, then risen united with the Godhead.

Sermon VI, "Sanctification," opens on Luke x.42, "One thing is needful." The speaker reports searching heathen philosophers and prophets and finding no quality higher than sanctification, or separation from all creatures. He sets sanctification above the love praised by St Paul, above humility, and above pity, giving reasons for each ranking. He addresses an objection about Our Lady, who spoke of her humility rather than her sanctification, and cites the Psalmist, Boethius, and Avicenna. He invokes St Paul's "Christ liveth in me," then defines real sanctification as the spirit remaining immovable. He states God's sanctity was unaffected by creation, by men's prayers, and by the Son's becoming man and suffering, answering an objection about wasted prayers by saying God foresaw and heard all prayers in eternity. He cites Isidorus, Moses' exchange with God ("I AM"), and distinguishes the outer and inner man in Christ and Our Lady. He gives the illustration of three loaves baked in one oven and the blank tablet, cites St Dionysius, St Augustine, and Wisdom seeking rest. He closes urging separation, unwavering gazing upon God, praising suffering and humility. Sermon VII, "Outward and Inward Morality," on 1 Cor. xv.10, "The Grace of God," describes grace working in the soul's depth. It uses images of fire, wind (the Holy Spirit), and light producing blessedness in men. It discusses grace and will co-operating for freedom, love as foundation of the commandments, and fear as approach to love. It maintains outward works remain necessary, citing the disciples receiving the Holy Ghost and Mary serving after Christ's ascension. It describes grace distributing among faculties as Belief, Love, and Hope, the spiritual birth, and concludes on sorrow: Christ's sorrow surpassed all, and sorrow is the root of virtue.