Caught up into the third heaven: Eckhart on Paul's rapture

Scio hominem in Christo ante annos quatuordecim etc. (2 Corinthians 12:2) I know a man in Christ who, fourteen years ago, was caught up into the third heaven. Whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell, God knows.

St Paul says: I know a man who fourteen years ago was caught up into the third heaven; whether in the body or not I cannot tell, God knows. Now granting that Paul was there at some time, then either body and soul both turned to spirit, or else his soul took flight out of his body. It is certain that his soul did not leave his body, for she was giving life to his body. She must then have seen God in herself and herself in him.

The soul has three powers: mind, will, and the power that drives forward. These three powers are joined with God. Will, holding fast to God, can do all things. God, taking hold of her in his divinity, gives her power and fruitfulness. Mind, holding fast to the Son, knows with the Son, and it knows with the Son when it is empty of knowledge. The third power is the power of advance, and it is joined to the Holy Spirit. This power is always moving toward the source it came from, and the Holy Spirit leads it into the eternal nature. It floods the hidden chamber of the soul, and there she loses time and place in the eternal, passing beyond time even while in time. But for the soul this is not enough. If it were enough for her, she would have time instead of her eternity. Let us not grow weak. It is not our fault if, being ready and at one with him in will, God hides himself so that we cannot do all things with him, even though he plays his part just as the sun gives out light and fire gives out heat. Wild apples cannot help releasing their bitterness, but God, from time to time, finds a way to reach out to the soul that longs for him, if he is very near to her. So let her, never doubting, with a full heart of longing, call out to God often: my Friend, how long must I wait for you?

He says that a new name was given to Christ: one by the angel, another by St Paul, a third by his heavenly Father. The angel gave him the name Jesus Christ. Joseph and Mary called him by this name, which means the Healing of the World. This name is given to the wounded soul. We are too weak. We should be healed of our weaknesses, lifted up and brought in. We would be lifted up if we were stripped bare and free of attachment. For the exalted spark in which we see the divine light never parts from God, and there is nothing between them. So what does it matter if good and evil and pain come our way? They touch only the lower powers.

St Paul gave him three names and called him the brightness of the Father. He says the wounded soul is given the hidden bread of heaven. Where does her wound come from? From longing. What is longing? It is love. What is nobler than longing? What we ask God for humbly and with longing, he dares not refuse. Desire, modest and blushing, he leads into the inner chamber of the Holy Trinity.

Paul also called him the fruitfulness of the Father and the image in the Father, working with the Father to bring forth his Person. I tell you truly, the soul will bring forth Person if God laughs into her and she laughs back to him. To put it in a parable, the Father laughs into the Son and the Son laughs back to the Father, and this laughter gives rise to delight, and delight gives rise to joy, and joy gives birth to love, and love gives birth to Person, and Person gives birth to the Holy Spirit. In this way the soul labors together with the Father.

The third name he gave was the Majesty of the Substance of God. Majesty is the essence of his divine substance, and this substance is the shared ground of the three Persons. The soul is called majesty when she lets go of all mode and manner. Then she knows the Father and fatherhood, the Son and sonship, and she grasps the Persons of both together in unity. The Father gave him five names that cannot be spoken. May God keep us wholly in him. So help us God. Amen.