Meister
Eckhart was besought by his good friends, 'Give us one last word before you go.'
He said, I will give you a rule which is the sum of all my arguments, the key to
the whole theory and practice of the truth.
It very often happens that a thing
seems small to us which is of greater moment in God's sight than what looms
large in ours. Wherefore it behoves us to take alike from God everything
he send us without ever thinking or looking to see which is greatest or highest
or best but following blindly God's lead, that is to say, our own feeling, our
strongest dictates, what we are most prompted to do. The God gives us the
most in the least without fail.
People often shirk the least and
prevent themselves getting the most in the least. They are wrong.
God is everywise, the same in every guise to him who can see him the same.
There is much searching of heart as to whether one's promptings come from God or
no; but this we can soon tell for if we find ourselves aware of, privy to, God's
will above all when we follow our own impulse, our clearest intimations, then we
may take it that they come from God.
Some people make believe to find God
as a light or savour; they may find a light or a savour but that is not to find
God. According to one scripture, God shines in the dark where every now and then
we may catch a glimpse of him. Where to us God shows least he is often
most. So it behoves us to take God the same in every mode and in every
thing.
Someone may say, But if I do take God
alike in every mode and every thing my mind refuses to abide in that mode or in
this one as in that. -- Then I say, he is wrong. For finding God in
one way rather than another, I allow due credit, but that is not the best.
God is everywise, alike in every guise to one who can find him the same.
Knowing one guise, such and such, is not knowing God. Finding this or that
is not finding God. God is everywise, the same in every guise to one who
can see him the same.
Someone may object, But to find God
in every mode and in every thing do I not need some special way? -- In
whatever way you find God best and are most aware of him that way pursue. Should
another way appear quite different from the first you will do right in quitting
that to close with God in this one which appears as in the one forsworn.
It is a counsel of perfection in this manner to attain to such a final certainty
and peace that we can see God and are able to enjoy him in any guise and in any
thing without having to stop and look for him at all: a boon accorded me. For
this and to this end all works are wrought and on the whole works help. The
things that do not help let us eschew.
We thank thee, heavenly Father, for
giving us the only Son in whom thou givest thine own self and all things.
We pray thee heavenly Father, as thou has given us thy only Son our Lord Jesus
Christ, through whom and in whom thou dost deny us naught, nor wouldst nor
couldst not, hear us in him and make us pure and free from all our many faults,
uniting us with him in thee. Amen.