Sermon 68
The powers of the soul and the birth of God within her
Sermon 68 (Evans numbering). On Genesis 2:1, as he gives it: Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the adornment of them.
In brief
Eckhart starts from the opening of Genesis, where the heavens and the earth are finished and furnished. He turns that image inward: the soul too has her own heavens, and they are finished when her powers do their proper work. He names three such powers, one that receives, one that sees, one that loves, and follows the path love takes as it carries the soul toward God.
He then draws a line between two kinds of heaven in the soul. One still moves, even in high contemplation, because the mind is taking things in and the will is still reaching. The other does not move at all, for it belongs to the life the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit already share, and Eckhart says the soul can be drawn into that stillness, emptied of creatures, and become the place where the Son is born again.
In plain English
Sermon 68
Igitur perfecti sunt cceli et terra et omnis ornatus eorum (Gen. 2): Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the adornment of them. Even so the heavens of the inner man are finished and all the ornaments of them. In the passage where Christ speaks of the powers, we understand these to mean the sovereign powers of the soul. For the soul has three powers in her spiritual mind
which are heavenly inasmuch as they are capable of doing heavenly work, for every heavenly power is of the breath of the mouth of our God.
The first power receives, the second sees, the third loves. When the soul is occupied in entertaining God, in self-recollection and intellectual contemplation, the love of her will carries her right into God. Then occurs that movement of the heavens, in the act of fecundation, which is latent in eternity. For the end of all motion is rest. As Isaiah the prophet says: The heavens are moved and the earth with them, and after the motion comes rest. Now there is not perfect rest in intellectual vision, for in mental operations there is a certain motion of external things towards the soul, by virtue of which movement the forms of these same things are drawn into and pictured in the soul, starting a psychic motion in the isness of the soul and the real being of the things appearing in the picture; and this motion extends to the will, which is not at rest any longer.
So we see that in the starry heavens, the revolving heavens, God is nothing other than the mover, the starter, the source of energy from which the heavens get their power and their spin. And so too in this life he is present in the soul as the mover of our free will towards himself and towards good works, he being the fountain of grace, which, from his godly heart, flows down into the soul.
Beyond this heaven there is the motionless heaven, and this firmament is the home of the blessed. In this heaven God is in all his happiness, engaged in the personal act of his eternal divinity. For the Father goes on begetting his Son in himself without ceasing, and Father and Son breathe forth with equal power their holy Breath, both Son and Holy Ghost remaining with the Father in the essence, and in the vision of this Trinity of Persons lies the whole happiness of creatures who are able to share in his divine bliss. So the soul, having conquered the many heavens and taken possession of their hidden power, is plunged into the unity of the motionless heaven, called fire or the empyrean, not because it is burning but because it is enlightening, all who are in this heaven being ablaze with the cherubic light of divine love. The soul becomes the heavenly dwelling of the eternal Deity, and he performs his godly work in her, from which she receives the nectar that is denied to those who have not reached this fiery celestial mind. For her heavenly Father begets in her his Son whom she draws out of his Father's heart, and Father and Son breathe into her their holy Breath, the Son never leaving his Father's heart but proceeding forth from his Father in such a way that he always remains in his Father's heart. Thus the Father dwells in the soul; he clasps the soul to his breast, and in this embrace of
SERMONS AND COLLATIONS
the Father she conceives within her his Son as a proceeding Person and at the same time is aware of his presence with the Father in his essence. For so the Father says: I will lead her into the wilderness, into the solitude, and will speak into her heart. His leading her into the desert, into the solitude, means making her empty, stripped of creatures; he empties her of corruptible things and says all he can to her heart. He can speak but one word, and that Word is eternal: it is his only-begotten Son. That is the Word he speaks to the soul, giving birth to his Son in her, and in this birth the Father and Son breathe into her their Holy Ghost, which teaches her all things.
Thus the soul gets all things from the Father and has gotten all things in the Son and knows all things in the Holy Ghost and so, possessed of all things, she rests in God without end.
Plain-English version by Gregory Lahn, from C. de B. Evans's translation of Franz Pfeiffer's edition (London, 1924), which is in the public domain.
Read the 1924 translation
THE POWERS OF THE SOUL
Igitur perfecti sunt coeli et terra et omnis ornatus eorum (Gen. 2). 'Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the adornment of them.' Even so the heavens of the inner man are finished and all the ornaments thereof. In the passage where Christ speaks of the powers, we construe these to mean the sovran powers of the soul. For the soul has got three powers in her spiritual mind [No. 97 (2) in Pfeiffer's text.] which are heavenly inasmuch as they are capable of doing heavenly work, for every heavenly power is of the breath of the mouth of our God.
The first power receives, the second sees, the third loves. What time the soul is occupied in entertaining God, in self-recollection and intellectual contemplation, the love of her will transports her right into God. Then occurs that movement of the heavens, in the act of fecundation, which is latent in eternity. As saith Isaiah the prophet, 'The heavens are moved and the earth withal and after the motion comes rest.' Now there is not perfect rest in intellectual vision, for in mental operations there is a certain motion of external things towards the soul, in virtue of which movement the forms of these same things are drawn into and pictured in the soul, starting a psychic motion in the isness of the soul and the real being of the things appearing in the picture; and this motion extends to the will which is not at rest any more.
Hence we see that in the starry heavens, the revolving heavens, God is none other than the mover, the starter, the source of energy whence the heavens get their power and their spin. And so too in this life he is present in the soul as the mover of our free will towards himself and towards good works, he being the fount of grace, which, from his godly heart, flows down into the soul.
Beyond this heaven there is the motionless heaven, and this firmament is the abode of the blest. In this heaven God is in all his felicity, engaged in the personal act of his eternal divinity. For the Father goes on begetting his Son in himself without ceasing, and Father and Son breathe forth with equal power their holy Breath, both Son and Holy Ghost abiding with the Father in the essence, and in the vision of this Trinity of Persons lies the whole happiness of creatures which are able to participate in his divine felicity. So the soul, having conquered the multiple heavens and possessed herself of their mysterious power, is plunged into the unity of the motionless heaven, called fire or the empyrean, not because it is burning but because it is enlightening, all who are in this heaven being ablaze with the cherubic light of divine love. The soul becomes the heavenly habitation of the eternal Deity, and he performs his godly work in her, whence she receives the nectar which is denied to such as have not reached this fiery celestial mind. For her heavenly Sire begets in her his Son whom she lures out of his Father's heart, and Father and Son breathe into her their holy Breath, the Son never leaving his Father's heart but proceeding forth from his Father in such fashion that he ever abides in his Father's heart. Thus the Father dwells in the soul; he clasps the soul to his breast, and in this embrace of the Father she conceives within her his Son as a proceeding Person and at the same time is aware of his presence with the Father in his essence. For thus saith the Father, 'I will lead her into the wilderness, into the solitude, and will speak into her heart.' His leading her into the desert, into the solitude, means making her void, deserted of creatures; he empties her of corruptible things and says all he can to her heart. He can speak but one word, and that Word is eternal: it is his only-begotten Son. That is the Word he speaks to the soul, giving birth to his Son in her, and in this birth the Father and Son inspire her with their Holy Ghost which teaches her all things.
Thus the soul gets all things from the Father and has gotten all things in the Son and knows all things in the Holy Ghost and so, possessed of all things, she is resting in God without end.
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