The eternal Word and its birth in the soul

In principio erat verbum (John 1): In the beginning was the Word. Theologians talk of the eternal Word. God never spoke but one word, and that is still unspoken. The explanation is this. The eternal Word is the logos of the Father which is his only begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ. In him he pronounces all creatures without beginning and without end. This accounts for the Word remaining unborn, for it never came out of the Father. This Word is to be known in four ways.

First, on the altar in the priest's hands. There it is ours to know and love the eternal Word as we, in his eternal Word, appear to the heavenly Father. Second, we know the eternal Word as it is explained by teachers from the pulpit. We receive it through their person; like water flowing in a channel, so does the eternal Word flow through its teachers. We should pay no attention to any shortcomings in the teacher: we must fix our gaze on the eternal Word in him, as it comes pouring eternally out of its own ground. Third, we can recognize the eternal Word in our Lord's friends who, having followed this eternal Word, have gotten proof of it in life eternal, and also those who follow it in time, namely those who are alive in our Lord Jesus Christ. Fourth, we have the eternal Word as spoken in the virgin soul by God himself; wordlessly, that is, since the soul is not able to express him.

I want you to know that the eternal Word is being born within the soul, its very self, nothing less, without ceasing. I tell you, the soul knows the eternal Word better than all the teachers can explain it. What we can put into words is all too little, so for now she carries the eternal Word in her mind. According to the masters we ought by rights to go to school where the Holy Spirit is teacher; and know that where he is teacher, and he is bound to be, there he finds students properly equipped to profit by his lofty teaching which comes forth from the Father's heart. So the soul has, if she will, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: she goes flowing into the one where naked is revealed to naked. Our masters say that no one can attain to this so long as he holds onto as much of lower things as a needle-point can carry. Into the naked Godhead none may enter except he be as naked as he was when he was poured out from God.

The masters say, giving us wise counsel, that leaving God his glory we ought to get all things directly from him and not from creatures. We shall leave God his glory by leaving him to work just how he will and when he will, while we remain idle and free. For we must see that God does all for the best. And so I believe it lies with us, as far as it is in us, to help God preserve his glory.

A master says: the king thinks little of those of his retainers who perform the drudgery. He notices the ones about his private chambers and grants their every want. God does the same with his chosen friends, the intimates of his hidden privacy: he never turns a deaf ear to their prayer. Yet the masters also affirm that many go to heaven who know no more of God on earth than, as it were, of the sun in the gloom of a forest. If we desire this above all else, it rests with us to attain it by practice and by strength of will. Amen.