This is a growing series of all Latin Sermones of Eckhart in English Translation - so come back and see how far I have got - and please share if you have suggestions:
Sermo I
Sermo I
About the introduction of mass on the fourth Saturday of Pentecoste
God’s love has been poured out etc. through the Holy Spirit who sojourns in us (Rom. 5:4).
On this verse, state that the Holy Spirit is more immediate to the soul. Mention the example of light and colour. How non-worldly, therefore, such a soul must be is said in John 14[:17]: Whom [scil. the Spirit] the world cannot accept. Augustine writes on John: ‘If the world gives you pleasure, then you are already part of this world’ and later: ‘and if you were non-worldly, you would not remain in the world’. Hence, the Holy Spirit elevates the soul beyond the world.
State that the effect of colour is as far reaching as the one to whom it is applied deserves it. So, see, how much love, the tool of the Holy Spirit, can elevate. Therefore, it is necessary that you be Spirit, because God is Spirit (John 4:24). And it is necessary that you be Holy, according to Lev. 11[:44]: Be Holy, because I am Holy. Go well on about the question through whom the soul should be Spirit and in which way she should be holy. How you have to understand sanctity, is given in the Sermo ‘Beloved by God and men’ (Sir. 45:1). Also note: who wants to be edified by the Holy Spirit, needs to be poor in his own spirit, on what one can read in the Sermo ‘Stay alert’ (Matth. 25:13).
Sermo II/1
ON THE EPISTLE ACCORDING TO THE DOMINICAN MISSALE AT THE FEAST OF TRINITY
The God of peace and love will be with you (2Cor. 13:11).
Leaders use to sent messangers to hostels where they want to stay to prepare for their reception who give greetings to the hosts, praise their Lords, and certify that the rent will be paid, so that their Lords will be received with greater honours. An example is the advent of the Word in this world. The angel came in to Mary and said: Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you! (Luke 1:28), and received the best hostel of the world. In this way also has the blessed Trinity itself, the one God, when He came into this world, or rather when he created the world he has chosen or better he has built for himself the best hostel, the best creature of this world, namely human being, as stated in Gen. 1[:26]: Let us make a human being etc. Let us make and our, see the plurality of persons, according to the image, see the unity of essence. Image, however, he is through what makes him a recepticle of God, to receive God in him. John 14[:23] states: My Father will love him, see the Trinity, follows by we will come to him and take up residence with him. Indeed, the right hostel, where the noble sofa for three is, for memory, intellect and will, these three, but one substance, one mind, one life. He therefore sends in the Epistle a messanger to announce the advent of him: he will be with you, to praise the one who will come: God, to indicate the benefit: of peace and love. God, what is more heavenly and sublime? Of peace: what is more enjoyable? Of love: what is more delightful? He will be with you: what is more secure?
But the initial words can have a two-fold meaning: First, they can serve to insinuate the blessed Trinity, second, to our information. With regards to the first, three thinks can be said: the persons of the trinity - the God of peace and love, the unity of essence - He will be, the property of the essence itself - with you.
On the first: God is the person of the Father, according to Gen. 1[:1f.]: In the principle, which means 'in the Son', God, the Father, created, according to the Glosses and the Saints. Followed, however, by and God's Spirit was moving over the surface of the water. Therefore, Scripture which in its opening hints at the trinity, takes up the name of God as the person of the Father, the reason being according to Augustine, because he is the Father of the principle and the entire divinity.
It follows: Of peace, which means 'of the Son', according to Eph. 2[:14]: He himself is our peace. Of love, which means the Holy Spirit, according to Col. 1[:12f.]: Giving thanks to the Father who has moved us into the kingdom of the Son of his love. The love, namely, by which Father and Son love each other is the Holy Spirit himself. Because they love through the Holy Spirit like a tree blossoms through blossoming, blossoms in the blossom, according to Isaia 11[:1f.]: A bud will sprout from his roots, and theLord’s spirit will rest on him etc., the spirit of wisdom etc. Namely all that is the effect of one and the same Spirit(see 1Cor. 12:11). It follows: He will be: the unity of essence, according to that of Isaiah 6[:3]: The Seraphim who always see the face of the Father exclaim: holy, holy, holy, the Lord, God. And according to [1]John 5[:7]: Father, Word and Holy Spirit, and these three are one.
Beloved, in essential causes, even in second-first ones, the cause brings itself always entirely down, descending into what it causes, so that whatever is whatever in whatever way, as it is said in De causis. In the very first causes or in the original very first ones, where the name is more properly that of principle than that of cause, the principle descends entirely and with all its properties in what has been principled. I dare to say with all his proprieties, according to John 14[:10]: I am in the Father and the Father is in me, so that not only this one be in that one, whoever in whoever, but that this one be that one, whatever whatever, according to John 10[:30]: I and the Father, we are one. Because the Father is what the Son is. Paternity itself is the same what Sonship is. The power through which the Father generates is the same as that through which the Son is generated. Therefore, as the better say, the power to generate rightly signifies the essence.
God, therefore, of peace and of love will be, because these three are one, the reason being because the Father descends into the Son with all his properties, consequently they are indistinct. But it is also impossible for God that there are two who are indistinct, two who are infinite. Therefore also the Son himself is one with the Father, rather the same principle than what has been principled, according to the Psalm: with you a principle, in splendour (Ps. 109:3) etc. For this reason it is said in Deut. 6[:4] and Gal. 3[:20]: God is one.
It follows, thirdly, with you: which means the property of the essence itself, according to the last chapter in Matthew [28:20]: Remember, I am with you all days, to the consummation of the age, the reason being because indistinction is proper to God, the distinction proper to the creature, as Augustine said: 'You have been with me, and I have not been with you'.
These three are one, [1]John 5[:7]. First, because the Father descends into the Son with his properties, as said above. Second, because that is an inner process, because it is in one respect an intellectual one, in another because nothing is external to God, beneath him nothing is. Therefore, the end [of the process] goes towards one, in the highest form in a perfect internal process. Third, three are one, because privation is the root of the number, and negation the root of multiples. In God, however, there is neither privation nor negation. Therefore, there is neither number nor multitude. Therefore, they are one. Fourth, because God is called one, the term 'one' does neither belong to the genus of numbers nor is anything else to be assumed in God. Therefore he does not pour out a number, but three are one. See below the Questions about the attributes [of God]. Sexth note that he says three things: First, that these are, therefore they are not absent; second, that they nevertheless are in a way in which they are united and are one; third, that they are one in being, in the essence that reflects being. Neither idea nor relation reflect essence, but these reflect each other. In this way, therefore, idea and relation are in the essence of things, receive being in essence, but do not distinguish it [essence], because in this way, as in being, it already leaves the nature of relation, the nature of distinction, as also the relation in life and being of the rational soul.
Therefore, note that distinct ideas of attributes are in God, even if nobody outside would recognize them, but they are without distinction because they are in being, they are in one, are one in one being, as the Psalm says: The multitude that you have hidden (Ps. 30:20)
Sermo II/2
About the epistle according to the dominican missale on the feast of the holy trinity
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communication of the Holy Spirit be always (2Cor. 13:13).
Amongst all festivals this one [the festival of the Trinity] seems the most sublime, because on the one side it is about the Divinity itself and the Trinity, on the other because it does not seem to be one of the present militant Church, but rather one of triumphant solemnity. In important solemnities, however, the people who are celebrated are announced and made public, other people of lower status, however, congratulate, are taken care of and become something in return. Accordingly, therefore, the apostle who previously was caught up into the paradise, as if into the third heaven [see 2Cor.12:2.4] of the triumphant Church, informs, hints at and notifies us in the aforequoted words about the divine persons: of Jesus, of God and of the Holy Spirit. Similarly, the people of lower status of the present Church are cared for, when he mentions the donations or gifts which have been collected or conferred from the divine persons for us: Grace, love and communication.
Hence he says, the grace of our Lord Jesus etc.; to begin with, three things have to be noted about this verse: First, that the term 'God' has to be understood as 'Father', because according to Augustine, the Father is the principle of the entire divinity. In the proposition, therefore, also 'love' accords to the Father, because it is the principle of all merits. Second, that the individual [elements] have to be referred to the individuals and to all, according to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ etc. Third, that the expression 'our Lord' has to be replicated for each individual person, like 'of our Lord Jesus Christ', 'of our Lord God', namely the Father, 'of our Lord the Holy Spirit', according to that verse in Is. 6[:3]: Holy, holy, holy Lord etc.
According to that there are three things that we have to take from the wording of our theme:
The unity of divine essence - our Lord; the Trinity of persons - of Jesus Christ, of God, and of the Holy Spirit; and the appropriate congruity of their indivisible work, namely grace, Love and communication. The non-division highlights the unity of essence, the appropriation that of the persons. From which follows: He will be with you all. The expression he will be highlights the unity, with you all the plurality. On the first two, namely the unity of essence and the plurality of persons, I mention the one authority of the Apostle, Rom. 11[:36; 16:27]., because it eminently belongs to our teaching: Of him through him and in him are all, him the honour and glory. It seems to me, however, that in this saying one has the Trinity of persons, the propriety of each, the equality of them, and their identity of being. Of him, like the Father: see, the person of the Father and his propriety; because of him, namely of the Father, all fatherhood in heaven and on earth has received its name (Eph. 3:15); through him, namely the Son, according to John 1[:3]: Everything has been made through him; and in him, the Holy Spirit, the propriety of which it is that everything be in him, in one way because he is the connection, in another because the goal or the ultimate person is not to be taken in being, but as originating and processing.
To explain, therefore, this extraordinarily fruitful witness, we first have to note that the root, the first origin, and consequently that very fruitful distinction is a notional distinction, based on ideas or an idea. This needs explanation. According to John 1[:1] it is said: In the principle was the Word, which in Greek is 'Logos', hence the idea. In this respect we also maintain that the intellect is preeminent to the will, because according to its form the will looks for and receives the Good, while the intellect does [receive] the idea of the Good. Therefore, also the cause is called 'idea', when we commonly say: the idea of this is.
Second one has to note from what has been said: Because there are three types of cause, it follows that there are also only thee ways of a distinction with regards to the idea or the relation; Father, of whom all is effectively, Son, through whom all is formally, Holy Spirit, in whom all is finally.
Third one has to note that if all is of the Father, all is through the Son, all is in the Holy Spirit, their equality is obvious. Because the same thing, namely all things, would not be of every of them, if they were not equal, this very same or one.
From which follows forth, that one has to note that everything that is from something else, consequently is through that and in that. For example, the term 'God' of which our sermo speaks may vary. Let us call him 'being', because God is one (Gal. 3:20). It accords that of being itself all things are. Similarly, through being is all, and in being is all. Because what is outside of being is certainly nothing. Is, however, the house that is of somebody else, say of Martin, or is Robert who is of Peter, his father, are these through them in in them? I state that the house, insofar it is that of Martin, it is certainly also through him and in him. Therefore also Father and Son are not called one who breathes, but two breathing being, because the house is not by a contractor, but of the one who actually built the house.
Therefore the most real distinction of persons becomes clear, second, their distinction into three, third, their equality, and fourth, their identity in being. Take for example colour and taste of an apple, where they are really and fully distinctly understood in their nature, but, nevertheless, they are the same with regards to the place, the object and what is in it. From what follows: him the honour and glory, he does not say: 'to them'.
Sermo III
Sermo IV
(more to follow)
Sermo XI (trans. by James M. Clark and John V. Skinner, 1958, altered)
ON THE EPISTLE (Rom. 8:18-23)
Existimo quod non sunt condignae passiones huius temporis, etc.
The reading in Augustine's 88 Quaestionum is 'are unworthy'.
Suffering. Point out firstly that we do not acquire merit by suffering, and that for two reasons. In the first place, suffering is the action of another person, not of the sufferer. Secondly, it becomes out action when the will accepts it and only then does it acquire the rank and excellence of the worthiness in question. Say at this point that when it is manifested thus it is nobler than any natural action or any action which has its origin in the nature of the bodily creature. See on this point the sermon for the third Sunday on the text The God of all grace (1Peter 5:10).
Point out, secondly, that merit has regard to action, reward on the contrary to suffering, since to suffer is to receive. Good measure shall men give into your bosom (Luke 6:38). Say accordingly that it is clear from this that blessedness resides substantially and originally in the intellect, whose function is to suffer and receive, and not in the will, whose function is to act. Merit, properly speaking, comes under the latter heading, namely the will. Remark, secondly, that some authorities claim that blessedness does not consist in suffering but in doing, since it is in beatific action that the soul comes to resemble God most closely. God, they point out, receives nothing but is wholly act. This argument, however, is faulty, for blessedness is not so much a matter of likeness as union, which is the final goal of likeness. Here on earth, accordingly, we grow in likeness but in our fatherland we are rather joined in union. True, perfect and intimate union, however, necessarily requires pure passivity in one or other of the parties concerned. An example may be found in the union of soul and body. Develop this point and show how there comes to be one indivisible being of God and the soul, in accordance with the verse I live, yet no longer I (Gal. 2:20). This will then be truly fulfilled.
Of this time. In saying this time he implies that there is a different time. Point out here that our time is a matter of number, number moreover which is continuous, whereas the time proper to the angels so far as their external actions are concerned is also a matter of number, but not continuous number. Hence an angel moves to his goal without traversing any intervening medium. In conformity with this point out that the sky transcends colour and heat, as a man who has become rich and noble transcends the filth and squalor of the kitchen. Yet the sky is subject to number, and that continuous whereas the soul which is joined to a particular body is subject to number, but not to continuous number, to number I mean, in so far as it is accident or quantity. The soul, on the other ahnd, which is separate form the body, is subject indeed to number, but in this case the number is not quantity but is the primal differentiation of being, as is number also in the case of the angels. God, however, is properly speaking exempt from all number, for He is one without unity and threefold without trinity, just as He is good without quality, and so on. For He is above every name, above reason and intellect, above existence and being, which is differentiated by number, and above all such things. As for the fact that He is above existence and being, this is obvious, since He is the cause of existence and being. Elucidate this point.
With the future glory. Future, because it is always coming into being, is always future and is always perfect. Point out that God is always effecting new grace in the soul, yet does not always creat it. For He operates continuously above continuity, especially in the soul, which is above time and above continuity.
Which shall be revealed. Point out that God is not found in the soul by adding anything but by a process of subtraction. Hence he says, shall be revealed. For He is in the innermost depths of the soul and the activity of the creature can only penetrate to there by dint of purgation and preparation. Refer to Avicenna's statement that no form is derived from an agent operating with motion and in time. Only the predisposing conditions are so derived. Form itself, like knowledge, on account of its perfection and simplicity derives from the intelligence which confers it above time and motion. So in the present instance, the creature merely effects the work of purgation, whereas grace, the Holy Spirit, descends from the Father of lights (James 1:17).
Alternatively, say that the glory shall be revealed, because glory itself is revealed in the blessed state. Every veil is removed, this is implied by the word glory, including even the veil of goodness, under which the will receives God, the veil of truth, with which the intellect receives Him, and the veil of being itself in general. The will accordingly receives a thing first while it is as yet more heavily veiled by the good but the intellect receives being first, even before it receives truth albeit truth is also present along with being. This shows the pre-eminence of the intellect and explains why blessedness may more justifiably be held to reside in the action of the intellect. And yet, since every veil is removed, it might with even greater justice be held to reside in the naked essence of the soul itself.
So we find next the words in us. Which shall be revealed in us, he says. Remark here that the essence of the soul is remote from the kingdom of this world, since it is in another world, above the power of the soul, above intellect and will. Although such powers enjoy a wondrous pre-eminence, so much so that the light of the intellect raises a stone above the realm of sense and above all here and now, yet the creature still has access to them, and God Himself, when He enters into them, only does so under the veil of the true and the good. Into the essence of the soul, on the other hand, no creature ever enters, nor yet God Himself, escept He be stripped of every veil!
Sermo XXII (trans. by James M. Clark and John V. Skinner, 1958, altered)
Sermo II/1
ON THE EPISTLE ACCORDING TO THE DOMINICAN MISSALE AT THE FEAST OF TRINITY
The God of peace and love will be with you (2Cor. 13:11).
Leaders use to sent messangers to hostels where they want to stay to prepare for their reception who give greetings to the hosts, praise their Lords, and certify that the rent will be paid, so that their Lords will be received with greater honours. An example is the advent of the Word in this world. The angel came in to Mary and said: Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you! (Luke 1:28), and received the best hostel of the world. In this way also has the blessed Trinity itself, the one God, when He came into this world, or rather when he created the world he has chosen or better he has built for himself the best hostel, the best creature of this world, namely human being, as stated in Gen. 1[:26]: Let us make a human being etc. Let us make and our, see the plurality of persons, according to the image, see the unity of essence. Image, however, he is through what makes him a recepticle of God, to receive God in him. John 14[:23] states: My Father will love him, see the Trinity, follows by we will come to him and take up residence with him. Indeed, the right hostel, where the noble sofa for three is, for memory, intellect and will, these three, but one substance, one mind, one life. He therefore sends in the Epistle a messanger to announce the advent of him: he will be with you, to praise the one who will come: God, to indicate the benefit: of peace and love. God, what is more heavenly and sublime? Of peace: what is more enjoyable? Of love: what is more delightful? He will be with you: what is more secure?
But the initial words can have a two-fold meaning: First, they can serve to insinuate the blessed Trinity, second, to our information. With regards to the first, three thinks can be said: the persons of the trinity - the God of peace and love, the unity of essence - He will be, the property of the essence itself - with you.
On the first: God is the person of the Father, according to Gen. 1[:1f.]: In the principle, which means 'in the Son', God, the Father, created, according to the Glosses and the Saints. Followed, however, by and God's Spirit was moving over the surface of the water. Therefore, Scripture which in its opening hints at the trinity, takes up the name of God as the person of the Father, the reason being according to Augustine, because he is the Father of the principle and the entire divinity.
It follows: Of peace, which means 'of the Son', according to Eph. 2[:14]: He himself is our peace. Of love, which means the Holy Spirit, according to Col. 1[:12f.]: Giving thanks to the Father who has moved us into the kingdom of the Son of his love. The love, namely, by which Father and Son love each other is the Holy Spirit himself. Because they love through the Holy Spirit like a tree blossoms through blossoming, blossoms in the blossom, according to Isaia 11[:1f.]: A bud will sprout from his roots, and the
Beloved, in essential causes, even in second-first ones, the cause brings itself always entirely down, descending into what it causes, so that whatever is whatever in whatever way, as it is said in De causis. In the very first causes or in the original very first ones, where the name is more properly that of principle than that of cause, the principle descends entirely and with all its properties in what has been principled. I dare to say with all his proprieties, according to John 14[:10]: I am in the Father and the Father is in me, so that not only this one be in that one, whoever in whoever, but that this one be that one, whatever whatever, according to John 10[:30]: I and the Father, we are one. Because the Father is what the Son is. Paternity itself is the same what Sonship is. The power through which the Father generates is the same as that through which the Son is generated. Therefore, as the better say, the power to generate rightly signifies the essence.
God, therefore, of peace and of love will be, because these three are one, the reason being because the Father descends into the Son with all his properties, consequently they are indistinct. But it is also impossible for God that there are two who are indistinct, two who are infinite. Therefore also the Son himself is one with the Father, rather the same principle than what has been principled, according to the Psalm: with you a principle, in splendour (Ps. 109:3) etc. For this reason it is said in Deut. 6[:4] and Gal. 3[:20]: God is one.
It follows, thirdly, with you: which means the property of the essence itself, according to the last chapter in Matthew [28:20]: Remember, I am with you all days, to the consummation of the age, the reason being because indistinction is proper to God, the distinction proper to the creature, as Augustine said: 'You have been with me, and I have not been with you'.
These three are one, [1]John 5[:7]. First, because the Father descends into the Son with his properties, as said above. Second, because that is an inner process, because it is in one respect an intellectual one, in another because nothing is external to God, beneath him nothing is. Therefore, the end [of the process] goes towards one, in the highest form in a perfect internal process. Third, three are one, because privation is the root of the number, and negation the root of multiples. In God, however, there is neither privation nor negation. Therefore, there is neither number nor multitude. Therefore, they are one. Fourth, because God is called one, the term 'one' does neither belong to the genus of numbers nor is anything else to be assumed in God. Therefore he does not pour out a number, but three are one. See below the Questions about the attributes [of God]. Sexth note that he says three things: First, that these are, therefore they are not absent; second, that they nevertheless are in a way in which they are united and are one; third, that they are one in being, in the essence that reflects being. Neither idea nor relation reflect essence, but these reflect each other. In this way, therefore, idea and relation are in the essence of things, receive being in essence, but do not distinguish it [essence], because in this way, as in being, it already leaves the nature of relation, the nature of distinction, as also the relation in life and being of the rational soul.
Therefore, note that distinct ideas of attributes are in God, even if nobody outside would recognize them, but they are without distinction because they are in being, they are in one, are one in one being, as the Psalm says: The multitude that you have hidden (Ps. 30:20)
Sermo II/2
About the epistle according to the dominican missale on the feast of the holy trinity
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communication of the Holy Spirit be always (2Cor. 13:13).
Amongst all festivals this one [the festival of the Trinity] seems the most sublime, because on the one side it is about the Divinity itself and the Trinity, on the other because it does not seem to be one of the present militant Church, but rather one of triumphant solemnity. In important solemnities, however, the people who are celebrated are announced and made public, other people of lower status, however, congratulate, are taken care of and become something in return. Accordingly, therefore, the apostle who previously was caught up into the paradise, as if into the third heaven [see 2Cor.12:2.4] of the triumphant Church, informs, hints at and notifies us in the aforequoted words about the divine persons: of Jesus, of God and of the Holy Spirit. Similarly, the people of lower status of the present Church are cared for, when he mentions the donations or gifts which have been collected or conferred from the divine persons for us: Grace, love and communication.
Hence he says, the grace of our Lord Jesus etc.; to begin with, three things have to be noted about this verse: First, that the term 'God' has to be understood as 'Father', because according to Augustine, the Father is the principle of the entire divinity. In the proposition, therefore, also 'love' accords to the Father, because it is the principle of all merits. Second, that the individual [elements] have to be referred to the individuals and to all, according to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ etc. Third, that the expression 'our Lord' has to be replicated for each individual person, like 'of our Lord Jesus Christ', 'of our Lord God', namely the Father, 'of our Lord the Holy Spirit', according to that verse in Is. 6[:3]: Holy, holy, holy Lord etc.
According to that there are three things that we have to take from the wording of our theme:
The unity of divine essence - our Lord; the Trinity of persons - of Jesus Christ, of God, and of the Holy Spirit; and the appropriate congruity of their indivisible work, namely grace, Love and communication. The non-division highlights the unity of essence, the appropriation that of the persons. From which follows: He will be with you all. The expression he will be highlights the unity, with you all the plurality. On the first two, namely the unity of essence and the plurality of persons, I mention the one authority of the Apostle, Rom. 11[:36; 16:27]., because it eminently belongs to our teaching: Of him through him and in him are all, him the honour and glory. It seems to me, however, that in this saying one has the Trinity of persons, the propriety of each, the equality of them, and their identity of being. Of him, like the Father: see, the person of the Father and his propriety; because of him, namely of the Father, all fatherhood in heaven and on earth has received its name (Eph. 3:15); through him, namely the Son, according to John 1[:3]: Everything has been made through him; and in him, the Holy Spirit, the propriety of which it is that everything be in him, in one way because he is the connection, in another because the goal or the ultimate person is not to be taken in being, but as originating and processing.
To explain, therefore, this extraordinarily fruitful witness, we first have to note that the root, the first origin, and consequently that very fruitful distinction is a notional distinction, based on ideas or an idea. This needs explanation. According to John 1[:1] it is said: In the principle was the Word, which in Greek is 'Logos', hence the idea. In this respect we also maintain that the intellect is preeminent to the will, because according to its form the will looks for and receives the Good, while the intellect does [receive] the idea of the Good. Therefore, also the cause is called 'idea', when we commonly say: the idea of this is.
Second one has to note from what has been said: Because there are three types of cause, it follows that there are also only thee ways of a distinction with regards to the idea or the relation; Father, of whom all is effectively, Son, through whom all is formally, Holy Spirit, in whom all is finally.
Third one has to note that if all is of the Father, all is through the Son, all is in the Holy Spirit, their equality is obvious. Because the same thing, namely all things, would not be of every of them, if they were not equal, this very same or one.
From which follows forth, that one has to note that everything that is from something else, consequently is through that and in that. For example, the term 'God' of which our sermo speaks may vary. Let us call him 'being', because God is one (Gal. 3:20). It accords that of being itself all things are. Similarly, through being is all, and in being is all. Because what is outside of being is certainly nothing. Is, however, the house that is of somebody else, say of Martin, or is Robert who is of Peter, his father, are these through them in in them? I state that the house, insofar it is that of Martin, it is certainly also through him and in him. Therefore also Father and Son are not called one who breathes, but two breathing being, because the house is not by a contractor, but of the one who actually built the house.
Therefore the most real distinction of persons becomes clear, second, their distinction into three, third, their equality, and fourth, their identity in being. Take for example colour and taste of an apple, where they are really and fully distinctly understood in their nature, but, nevertheless, they are the same with regards to the place, the object and what is in it. From what follows: him the honour and glory, he does not say: 'to them'.
Again, one has to note that he said: Of him … are all. Therefore he is not amongst all, but is the cause and reason of all and above all, he is neither counted with them, nor is he divided as they are or distinguished from them. Where one has to note that the expression of him does not indicate the efficient cause, but the reason, the idea, of the efficient cause. Likewise, the expression through him is the reason for the formal cause and in him is the idea or the reason of the final cause.
The grace of our Lord etc.
Note that the apostle also here as frequently in other places, mostly in the openings and in the endings of his letters, wishes us to receive grace. From which we should infer two notes: First, what grace operates in us; second, to whom grace is brought and given.
With regards to the first one, note that grace creates three things in us: First, it redeems us from guilt that is the worst evil, according to Tit. 3[:7]: since we have been justified by his grace – and he speaks of Christ – we become heirs with the confident expectation of eternal life.
Since we have been justified according to Augustine: It is a greater work to justify the non-believer than to create heaven and earth. We become heirs, according to Rom. [8:17]: heirs of God, namely, but co-heirs of Christ, Gregory: ‘it really is glorious’, according to hope, because hope does not disappoint, Rom. 5[:5], or because the heir, as long as he is a minor, is no different from a slave, Gal. 4[:1]; [1]John 3[:1]: [and he] has not yet been revealed etc., or because hope is about what is difficult to achieve, according to Wisd. 3[:4]: The hope of them is full of immortality and is invisible, according to Rom. 8[:24]: Hope that is seen is not hope.
Second, it [scil. grace] assists or strengthens towards all good work and in good work, according to [2]Tim. 2[:1]: So you, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and this is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Third, it [scil. grace] it makes alife the true and perfect soul, so that she is life and eternal life, according to Rom. 6[:23]: The grace of God, eternal life; and because ‘life for those who live is being’, as it is said in [1]Cor. 15[:10]: Through the grace of God, I am what I am. Where one has to note that the term ‘what’ before ‘I am’ can be understood as noun and conjunction, and it accords to interpret the proposition in both ways. More subtle and better, however, is it, to take it as a conjunction. Because grace allowes man to negate himself, to carry the his cross and to follow God, to live for God and not for oneself, according to [2]Cor. 5[:15]: Those who live should no longer live for themselves, and Gal. 2[:20]: So the life I now live, is not me. Right like the just who lives for justice alone.
Hence, because grace creates these three elements, namely that it liberates from guilt by justifying, promotes to good work and subsequently strengthens in this work, beatifies the soul by conferring to her eternal life, therefore the Lord said in [2]Cor. 12[:9]: My grace is sufficient for you.
Sufficient – see the God’s free giving; for you – our benefit; my grace – the precious value of the gift. It is best for the heart to be strengthened by grace, Hebr. 13[:9].
Second, more importantly, we should see to whom grace is given. First, however, it is given to the humble, according to 1Peter 5[:5f.]: All of you, instill in yourselves humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, humble yourself. Sir. 3[:20]: Humiliate yourself in all and you will find grace before God. Develop both Scriptural references. That Scripture, however, says before God, explain in one way according to [2]Tim. 4[:1]: I solemnly testify before God. Hence, it is given to the humble against those who are arrogant. Second, it is legally given to those who live against those who endulge, as Prov. 1[;8f.] puts it: Listen, my son, to the discipline of your father etc., so that grace will be added to your head. Explain! Third, it is given to all against those who are narrow-minded and full of fear, as Tit. 2[:11f.]: says: For the grace of God, our saviour has appeared to all people, it trains us to reject etc. To all people (hominibus), derives from ‘earth’ (humo), first, therefore to the humble (humilibus). Or to the people, meaning the peaceful. Because man is an animal of peaceful nature, according to Prov. 3[:34]: To the peaceful he gave grace. Or to the people: ‘man’s species’ lives ‘through art and ratio’. To all or to none. He teaches all, he teaches each of all, namely man, and he teaches them all truth: all or nobody, because all are in one, all so that they be one, all together and as one before God and in God. Moreover, all truth or no truth at all, because he speaks through one single Word. Moreover, equally all and the truth of all is in the Word of God. Therefore he teaches all or none.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Note that it is said in this way, either because he gives grace, insofar as he is God, or because only that one accepts grace who is Son of God. Because grace itself makes the one who receives it the Son of God, makes to be Christian, a brother in Christ from both parents. Again, all virtue that makes the Son of God is grace. In addition, however, every gift of God, all universal good in us, so that it is without our merits – For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable, Rom. 11[:29] –, that means that the totality is grace. Nothing, namely, in us is from us. Nothing, therefore, belongs to us: We are adequate to understand anything from ourselves, as if it came from ourselves, [2]Cor. 3[:5]. This is meant by Sir. 24[:29]: In me is all grace. Where one has to note that all that is from his entire matter, <is> one as heaven or earth; and ‘what has been said more excellently, only accords to one alone’. So, therefore, in God alone, in God’s wisdom, in the Son, is all grace, because all his gifts are without merits, and they are solely his. Therefore, he says: In me is all grace, be it because in him is all or nothing, be it because in nobody else. Because the first, and this alone, out of its nature, does not fall under merit, but falls or always stays under grace. Therefore, the following is said: Those who eat me, will remain hungry (Sir. 24:29).Sermo III
About the Gospel according to the Dominican missale on the feast of the holy trinity
I have told you about earthly things, John 3[:12].
Earthly things, like Destroy this temple etc., like the body that was formed from earth in the beginning. So the explanation of saint Augustine. According to Chrysostom, he said earthly things, namely baptism, either because it is given on earth, or because the generation of grace is an earthly one compared to the eternal generation.Sermo IV
About the Epistle according to the roman missale on the feast of the holy trinity
Of him, through him and in him are all things, Rom. 11[:36]
Sermo XI (trans. by James M. Clark and John V. Skinner, 1958, altered)
ON THE EPISTLE (Rom. 8:18-23)
Existimo quod non sunt condignae passiones huius temporis, etc.
The reading in Augustine's 88 Quaestionum is 'are unworthy'.
Suffering. Point out firstly that we do not acquire merit by suffering, and that for two reasons. In the first place, suffering is the action of another person, not of the sufferer. Secondly, it becomes out action when the will accepts it and only then does it acquire the rank and excellence of the worthiness in question. Say at this point that when it is manifested thus it is nobler than any natural action or any action which has its origin in the nature of the bodily creature. See on this point the sermon for the third Sunday on the text The God of all grace (1Peter 5:10).
Point out, secondly, that merit has regard to action, reward on the contrary to suffering, since to suffer is to receive. Good measure shall men give into your bosom (Luke 6:38). Say accordingly that it is clear from this that blessedness resides substantially and originally in the intellect, whose function is to suffer and receive, and not in the will, whose function is to act. Merit, properly speaking, comes under the latter heading, namely the will. Remark, secondly, that some authorities claim that blessedness does not consist in suffering but in doing, since it is in beatific action that the soul comes to resemble God most closely. God, they point out, receives nothing but is wholly act. This argument, however, is faulty, for blessedness is not so much a matter of likeness as union, which is the final goal of likeness. Here on earth, accordingly, we grow in likeness but in our fatherland we are rather joined in union. True, perfect and intimate union, however, necessarily requires pure passivity in one or other of the parties concerned. An example may be found in the union of soul and body. Develop this point and show how there comes to be one indivisible being of God and the soul, in accordance with the verse I live, yet no longer I (Gal. 2:20). This will then be truly fulfilled.
Of this time. In saying this time he implies that there is a different time. Point out here that our time is a matter of number, number moreover which is continuous, whereas the time proper to the angels so far as their external actions are concerned is also a matter of number, but not continuous number. Hence an angel moves to his goal without traversing any intervening medium. In conformity with this point out that the sky transcends colour and heat, as a man who has become rich and noble transcends the filth and squalor of the kitchen. Yet the sky is subject to number, and that continuous whereas the soul which is joined to a particular body is subject to number, but not to continuous number, to number I mean, in so far as it is accident or quantity. The soul, on the other ahnd, which is separate form the body, is subject indeed to number, but in this case the number is not quantity but is the primal differentiation of being, as is number also in the case of the angels. God, however, is properly speaking exempt from all number, for He is one without unity and threefold without trinity, just as He is good without quality, and so on. For He is above every name, above reason and intellect, above existence and being, which is differentiated by number, and above all such things. As for the fact that He is above existence and being, this is obvious, since He is the cause of existence and being. Elucidate this point.
With the future glory. Future, because it is always coming into being, is always future and is always perfect. Point out that God is always effecting new grace in the soul, yet does not always creat it. For He operates continuously above continuity, especially in the soul, which is above time and above continuity.
Which shall be revealed. Point out that God is not found in the soul by adding anything but by a process of subtraction. Hence he says, shall be revealed. For He is in the innermost depths of the soul and the activity of the creature can only penetrate to there by dint of purgation and preparation. Refer to Avicenna's statement that no form is derived from an agent operating with motion and in time. Only the predisposing conditions are so derived. Form itself, like knowledge, on account of its perfection and simplicity derives from the intelligence which confers it above time and motion. So in the present instance, the creature merely effects the work of purgation, whereas grace, the Holy Spirit, descends from the Father of lights (James 1:17).
Alternatively, say that the glory shall be revealed, because glory itself is revealed in the blessed state. Every veil is removed, this is implied by the word glory, including even the veil of goodness, under which the will receives God, the veil of truth, with which the intellect receives Him, and the veil of being itself in general. The will accordingly receives a thing first while it is as yet more heavily veiled by the good but the intellect receives being first, even before it receives truth albeit truth is also present along with being. This shows the pre-eminence of the intellect and explains why blessedness may more justifiably be held to reside in the action of the intellect. And yet, since every veil is removed, it might with even greater justice be held to reside in the naked essence of the soul itself.
So we find next the words in us. Which shall be revealed in us, he says. Remark here that the essence of the soul is remote from the kingdom of this world, since it is in another world, above the power of the soul, above intellect and will. Although such powers enjoy a wondrous pre-eminence, so much so that the light of the intellect raises a stone above the realm of sense and above all here and now, yet the creature still has access to them, and God Himself, when He enters into them, only does so under the veil of the true and the good. Into the essence of the soul, on the other hand, no creature ever enters, nor yet God Himself, escept He be stripped of every veil!
Sermo XXII (trans. by James M. Clark and John V. Skinner, 1958, altered)
ON THE GOSPEL (LUKE 16:1-9)
Homo quidam erat dives
There is a distinction between the outer and the inner man. The outer man is the old man, the earthly man, the man of this world, who grows old from day to day (1Cor. 4:16). His end is death: he stands in need of the sacraments and instruction drawn from sensible things. The Psalmist says: All men are liars (Ps. 115:11 LXX). For all that he has from any source other than the intellect comes from what is false. The inner man, on the other hand, is the new man, the heavenly man, in whom God shines. Truth is, as it were, God's way to the inner man, love man's way to God.
In this connexion say that the first summons of grace to man is the voice of John crying in the wilderness, Prepare th way of the Lord (Luke 3:4; Isa. 10:3). This way is prepared in the first place by the removal of all obstacles and stumbling-blocks obscuring the truth, which is God, so that the way may be completely level. This is brought about by poverty of spirit. Note at this point that the disposition or preparation proper to passive things is naked being.
Secondly, the way is prepared when nothing unclean appears or is left on it. Let your eyes be pure that you may see no evil, and You shall not be able to look upon iniquity (Hab. i:13). This is achieved by purity of heart. Therefore the Psalmist says: [Create in me] a clean heart (Ps. 50:12 LXX). Comment separately on heart and clean: Pharisee, cleanse that which is within (Matth. 23:26). Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created, etc. (Ps. 103:30 LXX). Augustine says: Do not go outside, etc.
Thirdly, the way is prepared by evenness of mind, as is shown by the words: Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be brought low (Luke 3:4; Isa. 40:4). Say that humility is the most appropriate disposition for all manner of grace. So, when the angel hailed her as full of grace, the Virgin replied, as it were, with the words: He has regarded the lowliness of his servant (Luke 1:28. 48). For it is in accordance with the nature of what is higher to influence [that which is lower] through its essence, just as it is natural for the lower to receive through its essence; and the higher a thing is, the more natural and pleasant, the more intimate, profound and abundant its influence is. Hence man is called homo in Latin, from humus [ground] and humilitas [lowliness].
From this it is clear conversely that pride is directly opposed to grace and hence is the source, root and, as it were, the generic form of all vice, just as love is of all virtue, so much so that any virtue without love becomes as it were a vice, and in the same way conversely sin, if it could exist without pride and coupled with true humility, would no longer be sin. For grace is received from God alone and so banishes all sin. But it is the nature of pride, inasmuch as it is an act of the outer man, to exalt himself, that is to say to refuse to submit to God's commandments, to leave them undone by setting oneself above them or, yielding to passion, to neglect or transgress them in action. Hence in all sin there is an element of pride. For all sin is sin by virtue of this fact alone, that it exalts itself and transgresses God`s commandment.
Next we have the words: All flesh - that is to say, the inner man, the son - shall see the salvation of God (Luke 3:6; Isa. 52:10) which no man knows except he who receives it (Rev. 2:17).
A certain man. Point out that, although the inner man and the outer man may be seen together at the same time and place, they are nevertheless further removed from one another than the highest heaven and the centre of the earth. It is just like the difference between heat and the substantial form of fire. Note also that 'in the inner man', according to Augustine. 'truth dwells', that is to say, God, whose nature it is always and solely to be within and in the inmost parts. But if this is ture of God, then it is true of all things, since all things are in God. Thirdly, point out that the inner man is not at all in time or place but is purely and simply in eternity. It is there that God arises, there He is heard, there He is; there God, and God alone, speaks. Blessed are they that hear the word of God (Luke 11:28) there. There the inner man attains his full space because he is great and without magnitude. This is the man the Apostle comments to us in Collossians [3:10-1]: Putting on the new man which is renewed in the knowledge of God after the image of Him that created him; where there is neither male nor female, Gentile nor Jew, Barbarian, Scythian, bond or free: but Christ is all and in all (Gal. 3:28). Here too he expresses the wish, as one speaking from personal experience, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts (Eph. 3:16). It is this that makes a man rich.
This brings us next to the phrase was rich. Has not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith (James 2:5). Say in this connexion that the soul which clings to multiplicity withdraws from God. And the more and more closely it clings, the poorer, the worse and the more wretched it is and the less it really is. Hence the words spoken in Matthew [25:21] to the good and faithful servant: I shall set you over many things. For he would not be good if he were not over many things, higher than multiplicity. You are troubled about many things: one thing is necessary (Luke 10:41-2), and You say, I am rich and know not that you are wretched and miserable and blind and poor (Rev. 3:17). As Augustine observes in the first book of his De ordine: 'The soul which goes forth into multiplicity is greedily pursuing poverty, all unaware that she can only avoid it by keeping herself separate and apart'. And he goes on to say: 'The more she strives to embrace, the more she suffers want'. He gives this illustration: 'Just as in a circle, however large it may be, there is a single centre upon which everything converges, which holds sway over all by virtue, as it were, of a certain law of equality, so that if you were to go out from it in any direction, everything would be lost by the very act of advancing into multiplicity: so the soul poured forth from itself is torn asunder by a sort of universality and wasted away by real poverty or falsehood, inasmuch as it is compelled by its nature everywhere to seek the One and is prevented by multiplicity from finding it'. Hence in the first chapter of Luke, Chrysostom gives the following reading: 'He has filled the poor with good things and the rich He has sent empty away'. The poor, having nothing of their own and consequently having no falsehood, have the truth, have God, and have all things in the truth, in God.
Was rich, because having Christ he has all things. He gives us all things with Him (Rom. 8:32). Therefore he who has Christ has all the treasures of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God (Col. 2:3). Such a man can give of his riches to all men and can give abundantly. If you have much, share it out abundantly (Tob. 4:9); that is to say, show out of a good conversation (James 3:13) that you are rich in Christ 'through His indwelling spirit'. Augustine, commenting on the verse of the Psalm The righteous has compassion and will make restitution (Ps. 36:21 LXX), Augustine's reading is 'lends', says: 'He whose breast is full of love has always the wherewithal to give, Good will is the treasure of the poor. In this treasure there is sweetest repose and real security. No robber enters to make away with it nor is there any fear of shipwreck. He goes forth naked and is yet full. He lends eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, hands to the maimed. He provides counsel, prays for the afflicted, and is perhaps more readily heard than he who offers bread'. Thus Augustine.
But what is the meaning of the Apostle's words in the second chapter of Corinthians: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has ascended into the heart of man that which You have prepared for them that loves You (1Cor. 2:9). Augustine in his first sermon on John's Gospel writes: 'If it has not ascended into the heart of man, how has it ascended into John's heart? Or was John not a man?' And in reply he says, first, that 'it did not ascend into John's heart, but John's heart ascended into it'. Secondly, that 'if it did ascend into John's heart, it did so only in so far as he was not man', but 'began to be an angel'.
Thirdly, again, expound the passage thus. This kind of ascent is found in the case of those things which are too high for belief. But his is true of the blessed state, since our thoughts and beliefs concerning it always fall short of the reality. Fourthly, thus. Spiritual powers ascend by a precess of abstraction. Abstraction, however, comes to a standstill in being, above which is God, as the cause of being. Fifthly, as follows: those things which rank as lower than the intellect exist in nobler mode in the intellect than they do in themselves, and the opposite is the case with those things that are of a higher order than the intellect. Sixthly, the heart does not grasp it and so the verse says significantly into the heart, implying that it is enclosed in it. In the words of Matthew: Enter into the joy of your God (Matth. 25:21). Seventhly, it is not corporeal or material, whereas the heart is an organ of the body. Eighthly, according to the Gloss on the second chapter of Corinthians, 'a thing is said to ascend into the heart of man', therefore, that is to say, of the carnal man, 'it has not ascended'.
Listen to one such 'rich man', Paul giving a true and faithful account of heavenly riches from his own personal experience. I know a man in Christ, caught up to the third heaven (2Cor. 12:2). In this connexion point out first that the word I is not expressed in the Latin text but is understood in the verb scio. The reason for this is, firstly, because the experience he wishes to relate is ineffable; this is shown by the phrase in one of the ensuing verses: it is not lawful for a man to utter. Augustine says: 'If I have declared it, I have not declared it, for it is ineffable'.
In the second place the word I is understood, because the reference is to the intellectual light. In Your light shall we see light, says the Psalmist (Ps. 35:10 LXX); and again The light of Your countenance is impressed upon us, O Lord (Ps. 4:7 LXX). Point out here that, whenever the word super is used in the Scriptures, it is because God gives more abundantly than we ask. See Ephesians 3:20. Secondly, because all gifts of this kind come from above or from a higher sphere and are supernatural. Thirdly, because we ourselves must be raised or borne aloft to receive them, since they are given in the Holy Spirit, whom the world cannot receive (John 14:7). Fourthly, because every gift of God is conferred upon us, is given to us in its entirety and benefits us. Fifthly, because such gifts are freely given and we do not deserve them. For if they were deserved, they would no longer be gratuitous gifts.
Thirdly, the word I is not expressed because we ought to die to the world and to ourselves and to deny ourselves. I live, yet not I (Gal. 2:20). There shall no man see Me and live (Ex. 33:20). Note, too that the word I signifies pure substance, yet nevertheless we must deny it.
A man, that is to say, a humble person, from the Latin word humus [the ground]. The action of a humble man is: To despise the world, to despise no one, to despise oneself, to despise being despised. Point out also that the ground or the earth is fruitful and explain why.
Or man in the sense of a rational being, from the intellect, which is separate from here and now and from matter and is uncompounded.
In Christ, conformed to Christ, fashioned after the only-begotten, that he may be the son of adoption, crying detesting evil or departing from evil men, I called My Son out of Egypt, and this is preceded by: Israel is My child and I have loved him (Hos. 11:1). Secondly, by overcoming or mastering one's passions, that is, by the conquest, extirpation or overthrow of passions, These words are most faithful and true, and thereafter: He that overcomes, I will be his God he shall be My Son (Rev. 21:5. 7). Thirdly, in the fullness of time, when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son (Gal. 4:4). Fourthly, by the simple acceptance of faith, As many as received Him (John 1:2). Fifthly, by love, that is by love of God and one's neighbours, The Father has bestowed love upon us, that we should be called and should be the sons of God (1John 3:1). Sixthly, by divine generation, You are My Son, this day I (Ps. 2:7).
In Christ. John writes: He who says he abides in Christ ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked (1John 2:6), so that the true signs of the Son may be manifest in him. These are: first, seemly conduct, I will be his father and he shall be My Son, as the Lord said to David of Solomon (2Sam. 7:14). Secondly, peaceable behaviour, particularly love for one's enemies, Blessed are the peacemakers (Matth. 5:9), and with those who hate peace (Ps. 109:7 LXX). And there is another verse later in the fifth chapter of Matthew: Love your enemies, that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. Thirdly, continual increase of good works, You have found favour with God: and behold, you shall conceive and so on, down to the words the Son of the Highest (Luke 1:30-2). Fourthly, zealous contemplation of divine matters, Israel is My son, My first-born (Ex. 4:22). Sixthly, constant perseverance in obedience in all things, As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God (Rom. 8:14). Therefore, I know a man in Christ.
The phrase caught up follows next. In this connexion see the second article of the question dealing with ecstasy in Thomas' De veritate, at the end, where he establishes four kinds of ecstasy. The first is that of intention, when one spurns all creatures and is joined to God alone in love. The second consists in imaginative or spiritual vision, as when one is drawn by some supernatural power to see things supernaturally without the use of the senses or the action of the senses or external sensible objects. The third is when the mind is withdrawn or rapt from sense and imagination to intellectual vision, whereby it sees God by intelligible infusions. The fourth occurs when the mind itself sees God in Himself through His essence.
The first is the ecstasy of love, according to Dionysius. The second is the spirit in which John (Rev. 1:9-10) and Peter (Acts 11:5-6) found themselves. The third is the sleep or trance of Adam referred to in Genesis (2:21). The fourth is Paul's ecstasy which we have been discussing. 'These three terms, "ecstasy", "trance" and "rapture", are frequently understood in the same sense in the Scriptures'.
Homo quidam erat dives
There is a distinction between the outer and the inner man. The outer man is the old man, the earthly man, the man of this world, who grows old from day to day (1Cor. 4:16). His end is death: he stands in need of the sacraments and instruction drawn from sensible things. The Psalmist says: All men are liars (Ps. 115:11 LXX). For all that he has from any source other than the intellect comes from what is false. The inner man, on the other hand, is the new man, the heavenly man, in whom God shines. Truth is, as it were, God's way to the inner man, love man's way to God.
In this connexion say that the first summons of grace to man is the voice of John crying in the wilderness, Prepare th way of the Lord (Luke 3:4; Isa. 10:3). This way is prepared in the first place by the removal of all obstacles and stumbling-blocks obscuring the truth, which is God, so that the way may be completely level. This is brought about by poverty of spirit. Note at this point that the disposition or preparation proper to passive things is naked being.
Secondly, the way is prepared when nothing unclean appears or is left on it. Let your eyes be pure that you may see no evil, and You shall not be able to look upon iniquity (Hab. i:13). This is achieved by purity of heart. Therefore the Psalmist says: [Create in me] a clean heart (Ps. 50:12 LXX). Comment separately on heart and clean: Pharisee, cleanse that which is within (Matth. 23:26). Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created, etc. (Ps. 103:30 LXX). Augustine says: Do not go outside, etc.
Thirdly, the way is prepared by evenness of mind, as is shown by the words: Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be brought low (Luke 3:4; Isa. 40:4). Say that humility is the most appropriate disposition for all manner of grace. So, when the angel hailed her as full of grace, the Virgin replied, as it were, with the words: He has regarded the lowliness of his servant (Luke 1:28. 48). For it is in accordance with the nature of what is higher to influence [that which is lower] through its essence, just as it is natural for the lower to receive through its essence; and the higher a thing is, the more natural and pleasant, the more intimate, profound and abundant its influence is. Hence man is called homo in Latin, from humus [ground] and humilitas [lowliness].
From this it is clear conversely that pride is directly opposed to grace and hence is the source, root and, as it were, the generic form of all vice, just as love is of all virtue, so much so that any virtue without love becomes as it were a vice, and in the same way conversely sin, if it could exist without pride and coupled with true humility, would no longer be sin. For grace is received from God alone and so banishes all sin. But it is the nature of pride, inasmuch as it is an act of the outer man, to exalt himself, that is to say to refuse to submit to God's commandments, to leave them undone by setting oneself above them or, yielding to passion, to neglect or transgress them in action. Hence in all sin there is an element of pride. For all sin is sin by virtue of this fact alone, that it exalts itself and transgresses God`s commandment.
Next we have the words: All flesh - that is to say, the inner man, the son - shall see the salvation of God (Luke 3:6; Isa. 52:10) which no man knows except he who receives it (Rev. 2:17).
A certain man. Point out that, although the inner man and the outer man may be seen together at the same time and place, they are nevertheless further removed from one another than the highest heaven and the centre of the earth. It is just like the difference between heat and the substantial form of fire. Note also that 'in the inner man', according to Augustine. 'truth dwells', that is to say, God, whose nature it is always and solely to be within and in the inmost parts. But if this is ture of God, then it is true of all things, since all things are in God. Thirdly, point out that the inner man is not at all in time or place but is purely and simply in eternity. It is there that God arises, there He is heard, there He is; there God, and God alone, speaks. Blessed are they that hear the word of God (Luke 11:28) there. There the inner man attains his full space because he is great and without magnitude. This is the man the Apostle comments to us in Collossians [3:10-1]: Putting on the new man which is renewed in the knowledge of God after the image of Him that created him; where there is neither male nor female, Gentile nor Jew, Barbarian, Scythian, bond or free: but Christ is all and in all (Gal. 3:28). Here too he expresses the wish, as one speaking from personal experience, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts (Eph. 3:16). It is this that makes a man rich.
This brings us next to the phrase was rich. Has not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith (James 2:5). Say in this connexion that the soul which clings to multiplicity withdraws from God. And the more and more closely it clings, the poorer, the worse and the more wretched it is and the less it really is. Hence the words spoken in Matthew [25:21] to the good and faithful servant: I shall set you over many things. For he would not be good if he were not over many things, higher than multiplicity. You are troubled about many things: one thing is necessary (Luke 10:41-2), and You say, I am rich and know not that you are wretched and miserable and blind and poor (Rev. 3:17). As Augustine observes in the first book of his De ordine: 'The soul which goes forth into multiplicity is greedily pursuing poverty, all unaware that she can only avoid it by keeping herself separate and apart'. And he goes on to say: 'The more she strives to embrace, the more she suffers want'. He gives this illustration: 'Just as in a circle, however large it may be, there is a single centre upon which everything converges, which holds sway over all by virtue, as it were, of a certain law of equality, so that if you were to go out from it in any direction, everything would be lost by the very act of advancing into multiplicity: so the soul poured forth from itself is torn asunder by a sort of universality and wasted away by real poverty or falsehood, inasmuch as it is compelled by its nature everywhere to seek the One and is prevented by multiplicity from finding it'. Hence in the first chapter of Luke, Chrysostom gives the following reading: 'He has filled the poor with good things and the rich He has sent empty away'. The poor, having nothing of their own and consequently having no falsehood, have the truth, have God, and have all things in the truth, in God.
Was rich, because having Christ he has all things. He gives us all things with Him (Rom. 8:32). Therefore he who has Christ has all the treasures of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God (Col. 2:3). Such a man can give of his riches to all men and can give abundantly. If you have much, share it out abundantly (Tob. 4:9); that is to say, show out of a good conversation (James 3:13) that you are rich in Christ 'through His indwelling spirit'. Augustine, commenting on the verse of the Psalm The righteous has compassion and will make restitution (Ps. 36:21 LXX), Augustine's reading is 'lends', says: 'He whose breast is full of love has always the wherewithal to give, Good will is the treasure of the poor. In this treasure there is sweetest repose and real security. No robber enters to make away with it nor is there any fear of shipwreck. He goes forth naked and is yet full. He lends eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, hands to the maimed. He provides counsel, prays for the afflicted, and is perhaps more readily heard than he who offers bread'. Thus Augustine.
But what is the meaning of the Apostle's words in the second chapter of Corinthians: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has ascended into the heart of man that which You have prepared for them that loves You (1Cor. 2:9). Augustine in his first sermon on John's Gospel writes: 'If it has not ascended into the heart of man, how has it ascended into John's heart? Or was John not a man?' And in reply he says, first, that 'it did not ascend into John's heart, but John's heart ascended into it'. Secondly, that 'if it did ascend into John's heart, it did so only in so far as he was not man', but 'began to be an angel'.
Thirdly, again, expound the passage thus. This kind of ascent is found in the case of those things which are too high for belief. But his is true of the blessed state, since our thoughts and beliefs concerning it always fall short of the reality. Fourthly, thus. Spiritual powers ascend by a precess of abstraction. Abstraction, however, comes to a standstill in being, above which is God, as the cause of being. Fifthly, as follows: those things which rank as lower than the intellect exist in nobler mode in the intellect than they do in themselves, and the opposite is the case with those things that are of a higher order than the intellect. Sixthly, the heart does not grasp it and so the verse says significantly into the heart, implying that it is enclosed in it. In the words of Matthew: Enter into the joy of your God (Matth. 25:21). Seventhly, it is not corporeal or material, whereas the heart is an organ of the body. Eighthly, according to the Gloss on the second chapter of Corinthians, 'a thing is said to ascend into the heart of man', therefore, that is to say, of the carnal man, 'it has not ascended'.
Listen to one such 'rich man', Paul giving a true and faithful account of heavenly riches from his own personal experience. I know a man in Christ, caught up to the third heaven (2Cor. 12:2). In this connexion point out first that the word I is not expressed in the Latin text but is understood in the verb scio. The reason for this is, firstly, because the experience he wishes to relate is ineffable; this is shown by the phrase in one of the ensuing verses: it is not lawful for a man to utter. Augustine says: 'If I have declared it, I have not declared it, for it is ineffable'.
In the second place the word I is understood, because the reference is to the intellectual light. In Your light shall we see light, says the Psalmist (Ps. 35:10 LXX); and again The light of Your countenance is impressed upon us, O Lord (Ps. 4:7 LXX). Point out here that, whenever the word super is used in the Scriptures, it is because God gives more abundantly than we ask. See Ephesians 3:20. Secondly, because all gifts of this kind come from above or from a higher sphere and are supernatural. Thirdly, because we ourselves must be raised or borne aloft to receive them, since they are given in the Holy Spirit, whom the world cannot receive (John 14:7). Fourthly, because every gift of God is conferred upon us, is given to us in its entirety and benefits us. Fifthly, because such gifts are freely given and we do not deserve them. For if they were deserved, they would no longer be gratuitous gifts.
Thirdly, the word I is not expressed because we ought to die to the world and to ourselves and to deny ourselves. I live, yet not I (Gal. 2:20). There shall no man see Me and live (Ex. 33:20). Note, too that the word I signifies pure substance, yet nevertheless we must deny it.
A man, that is to say, a humble person, from the Latin word humus [the ground]. The action of a humble man is: To despise the world, to despise no one, to despise oneself, to despise being despised. Point out also that the ground or the earth is fruitful and explain why.
Or man in the sense of a rational being, from the intellect, which is separate from here and now and from matter and is uncompounded.
In Christ, conformed to Christ, fashioned after the only-begotten, that he may be the son of adoption, crying detesting evil or departing from evil men, I called My Son out of Egypt, and this is preceded by: Israel is My child and I have loved him (Hos. 11:1). Secondly, by overcoming or mastering one's passions, that is, by the conquest, extirpation or overthrow of passions, These words are most faithful and true, and thereafter: He that overcomes, I will be his God he shall be My Son (Rev. 21:5. 7). Thirdly, in the fullness of time, when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son (Gal. 4:4). Fourthly, by the simple acceptance of faith, As many as received Him (John 1:2). Fifthly, by love, that is by love of God and one's neighbours, The Father has bestowed love upon us, that we should be called and should be the sons of God (1John 3:1). Sixthly, by divine generation, You are My Son, this day I (Ps. 2:7).
In Christ. John writes: He who says he abides in Christ ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked (1John 2:6), so that the true signs of the Son may be manifest in him. These are: first, seemly conduct, I will be his father and he shall be My Son, as the Lord said to David of Solomon (2Sam. 7:14). Secondly, peaceable behaviour, particularly love for one's enemies, Blessed are the peacemakers (Matth. 5:9), and with those who hate peace (Ps. 109:7 LXX). And there is another verse later in the fifth chapter of Matthew: Love your enemies, that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. Thirdly, continual increase of good works, You have found favour with God: and behold, you shall conceive and so on, down to the words the Son of the Highest (Luke 1:30-2). Fourthly, zealous contemplation of divine matters, Israel is My son, My first-born (Ex. 4:22). Sixthly, constant perseverance in obedience in all things, As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God (Rom. 8:14). Therefore, I know a man in Christ.
The phrase caught up follows next. In this connexion see the second article of the question dealing with ecstasy in Thomas' De veritate, at the end, where he establishes four kinds of ecstasy. The first is that of intention, when one spurns all creatures and is joined to God alone in love. The second consists in imaginative or spiritual vision, as when one is drawn by some supernatural power to see things supernaturally without the use of the senses or the action of the senses or external sensible objects. The third is when the mind is withdrawn or rapt from sense and imagination to intellectual vision, whereby it sees God by intelligible infusions. The fourth occurs when the mind itself sees God in Himself through His essence.
The first is the ecstasy of love, according to Dionysius. The second is the spirit in which John (Rev. 1:9-10) and Peter (Acts 11:5-6) found themselves. The third is the sleep or trance of Adam referred to in Genesis (2:21). The fourth is Paul's ecstasy which we have been discussing. 'These three terms, "ecstasy", "trance" and "rapture", are frequently understood in the same sense in the Scriptures'.
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