Passion for Creation

“Rejoice, ye heavens, and let the earth exult.” (Is. 49:13)
“I am the light of the world.” (Jn. 8:12)^a

I have made two brief statements in Latin. The first is written in the Lesson, and is by the prophet Isaiah: “Rejoice, heaven and earth, God has consoled his people and will take pity on his poor” (Is. 49:13). The second is in the Gospel, and in it our Lord says: “I am the light of the world, and whoever follows me will not walk in the dark, and he will find and have the light of life” (Jn. 8:12).

Now pay attention to the first statement that the prophet makes: “Rejoice, heaven and earth!” Truly, truly! By God, by God! Be as certain of this as that God lives. All the saints in heaven and on earth as well as all the angels rejoice with such joy over the smallest good deed or the smallest goodwill or the smallest good desire that this whole world could not offer a joy like it! And the higher each saint is, the greater is his joy. And all this joy together is quite as small as an eye’s lens in comparison with the joy God has in this deed. For God has sheer delight and laughter over a good deed. For all other deeds that do not take place in praise of God are quite like ashes in God’s sight. On this account the prophet says: “Rejoice, heaven and earth! God has consoled his people.”

Note now how he says: “God has consoled his people and will take pity on his poor.” He says: “His poor.” The poor are indeed left to God, for no one else takes an interest in them. If a person has a friend who is poor, he or she does not acknowledge the friend. If the friend, however, has possessions and is wise, this person says, “You are my relative,” and quickly acknowledges the friend. But to a poor person he or she will say, “May God look after you!” The poor are left to God; for wherever they are, they find God and have God everywhere. God takes an interest in them because they are handed over to him. For this reason the Gospel says: “Blessed are the poor” (Mt. 5:3).

Note now the brief statement our Lord makes: “I am the light of the world” (Jn. 8:12). “I am”—with this he touches on being. The masters of the spiritual life say: “All creatures can indeed say I; this word is current. However, no one can utter the word sum (‘I am’) in its correct meaning except God alone.” The word sum means more or less “something that bears God within itself.” It is, however, denied to all creatures that any of them could have everything that might completely console human beings. If I had everything I could desire and only my finger hurt me, I would not have complete consolation as long as my finger hurt. Bread is quite consoling for a person so long as he or she is hungry. If, however, that person is thirsty, he or she would have as little consolation from it as from a stone. It is exactly the same way with clothing, which is quite comforting to someone who is freezing. But when a person is too hot, he or she has no comfort in clothing. This is exactly the way it is with all creatures. For this reason, it is true that all creatures bear bitterness within themselves. On the other hand, it is quite true that all creatures bear within themselves a form of consolation, like skimmed honey. All the good that can exist in creatures—all their honey—is gathered together in God. Thus it is written in the Book of Wisdom: “With you [Wisdom] all good things come to my soul” (Ws. 7:11). This consolation comes from God. The consolation of creatures is not perfect, however, because it brings a mixture with it. But God’s consolation is pure and unadulterated; it is complete and perfect. And it is so necessary for him to give to you that he cannot wait to give himself as the first gift to you. God has been made so foolish by his love of us that it is as if he had forgotten the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of earth and all his happiness and all his Godhead. It is as if he had nothing to do except what he does with me, so that he gives me everything that might console me. He gives this to me totally and he gives it to me perfectly. He gives it in its purest state and at all times and to all creatures.

Now he says: “Whoever follows me will not walk in the darkness” (Jn. 8:12). Note how he says: “Whoever follows me.” The masters of the spiritual life say that the soul has three powers. The first power always seeks what is sweetest. The second always seeks what is highest. And the third power always seeks what is best. For the soul is so noble that it can rest nowhere but in the source from which trickles forth whatever goodness accomplishes. Behold how sweet God’s consolation is so that all creatures seek it and pursue it. And I shall say something further, namely, that the being and life of all creatures depend on their seeking and pursuing God.

Now you can ask: “Where is this God whom all creatures pursue, and from whom they have their being and their life?” I shall speak gladly about the Godhead, because all our happiness flows from it.

The Father says: “My Son, I generate you today in the reflected glory of the saints” (Ps. 110:3). Where is this God? “In the fullness of the saints I am embraced” (Si. 24:16). Where is this God? “In the Father.” Where is this God? “In eternity.” No one could ever discover God, as the wise man said: “Lord, you are a hidden God” (Is. 45:15). Where is this God? God has acted exactly like people who hide themselves and then clear their throats, thus giving themselves away. No one could ever have discovered God, but he has now given himself away. A saint says: “I receive now and then such happiness with you that I forget myself and all creatures, and fly completely to you. If I wish to embrace this happiness completely, Lord, you remove it from me. Lord, what do you mean by this? If you entice me, why do you not then take me? If you love me, why do you flee from me? Alas, Lord, you are doing this so that I can receive much from you!” The prophet says: “My God!” “Who tells you that I am your God?” “Lord, I can never rest except in you, and I am only happy in you” (Ps. 16:2).

May the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit help us to seek and find God in this way! Amen.

COMMENTARY: God’s Joy and Our Joy/Who Is God, Where Is God?/How the Consolation God Gives Is Born of God’s Suffering/The Soul Is a Cornucopia of Blessing That Passes On the Blessing Called Creation/Eckhart’s Theology as a Theology of Blessing

Eckhart preaches this sermon with two biblical texts in front of him. One represents the first reading in the liturgy, which is from Isaiah, and the second is the Gospel and is from John. The fuller Isaian text from which Eckhart preaches is as follows:

Thus says Yahweh:

At the favorable time I will answer you,

on the day of salvation I will help you.

(I have formed you and have appointed you

as covenant of the people.)

I will restore the land

and assign you the estates that lie waste . . .

They will never hunger or thirst,

scorching wind and sun shall never plague them;

for he who pities them will lead them

and guide them to springs of water. . .

Shout for joy, you heavens; exult, you earthl

You mountains, break into happy cries!

For Yahweh consoles his people

and takes pity on those who are afflicted.

For Zion was saying, “Yahweh has abandoned me,

the Lord has forgotten me.”

Does a woman forget her baby at the breast,

or fail to cherish the son of her womb?

Yet even if these forget,

I will never forget you. (Is. 49:8, 10, 13–15)

It is in commenting on these scriptural texts that Eckhart discusses the deeds that save and create rejoicing for creature and Creator alike, the different kinds of consolation that creatures are offered by a compassionate God, and the radical unforgetting or remembering that God undergoes toward creation.

First Eckhart, like the Scriptures, calls for exulting. We need to exult at the exultation of all of creation. Be as certain of this as that God lives. All the saints in heaven and on earth as well as all the angels rejoice with such joy . . . and the higher each saint is, the greater is his joy. Joy is the end result of all saintly living, whether on earth or in heaven. Schürmann has called Eckhart’s spirituality one of a “wandering joy.” For joy is the fruit of love and our existence is bathed in such love for those who are awake and aware. But as great as the joy of creatures is, the joy of God is even greater—all this joy together is quite as small as an eye’s lens in comparison with the joy God has. Eckhart’s God is a God who rejoices—a pleasurable, joyful, feeling, laughing God. For God has sheer delight and laughter over a good deed. Eckhart speaks elsewhere of God’s good humor forming the very core of the Godhead.

When God laughs at the soul and the soul laughs back at God, the persons of the Trinity are begotten. To speak in hyperbole, when the Father laughs to the Son and the Son laughs back to the Father, that laughter gives pleasure, that pleasure gives joy, that joy gives love, and love gives the persons [of the Trinity] of which the Holy Spirit is one.¹

God rejoices over deeds that bring justice.

God rejoices at every work of the just person, however small it is. When this work is done through justice and results in justice, God will rejoice at it. Indeed, God will rejoice so thoroughly that nothing will remain in his ground which does not tickle him through and through out of joy. Ignorant people have to believe this, but enlightened ones must know it.²

Elsewhere Eckhart talks of God’s rapture at creation. “God finds joy and rapture to the full and the person who dwells within God’s knowing and God’s love becomes nothing other than what God himself is.”³ The inness of all creation dwelling in God gives God immense pleasure.

God is so joyful in this equality that in it he completely pours out his nature and his being through himself. This is a joy to him. In the same way, if one were to let a horse run about in a green meadow, which was quite flat and level, it would be the horse’s nature to pour forth its whole strength in leaping about in the meadow. This would be a joy to it and would be in accordance with its nature. In the same way, it is a joy to God and a satisfaction to him when he finds equality. It is a joy to him to pour out his nature and his being completely into his likeness, since he is the likeness himself.⁴

Eckhart says that in the soul’s core “God is fully verdant and flowering, in all the joy and all the honor that he is in himself. There reigns such a dear joy, so incomprehensibly great a joy, that no one can ever fully speak of it.”⁵ Thus the divine joy is as ineffable as the divinity itself. “In God there is neither wrath nor grief, but only love and joy.”⁶ Elsewhere, Eckhart talks in a similar vein. God “wishes himself to be only and absolutely our own . . . His greatest bliss and joy depend upon this. The greater and more comprehensively he can be this, the greater is his bliss and joy.”⁷

This very real joy on God’s part is a joy of giving, for God enjoys giving the divine gifts. “God gives away nothing so happily as big gifts . . . This is quite the way it is with grace and gifts and virtues: the bigger they are, the more happily does God give them. For it is his nature to give big gifts. Therefore, the more valuable the gifts are, the more does he bestow them.”⁸ In fact, so much does God enjoy giving the best gift—which is himself—that he “forgets” the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of earth and all his happiness and all his Godhead and is made foolish by his eagerness to give.

It is so necessary for him to give to you that he cannot wait to give himself as the first gift to you . . . It is as if he had nothing to do except what he does with me . . . He gives it to me perfectly; he gives it in its purest state and at all times and to all creatures.

God’s giving is not only a giving of self but also a giving of consolation, as Isaiah had said: “Yahweh consoles his peoples and takes pity on those who are afflicted” (49:10). However, the consolation the biblical God gives is not a condescending kind of consolation. It is a consolation of authentic compassion which means that before God gives consolation out of compassion, God has first to suffer. Eckhart’s God is one who rejoices and one who suffers.

However great suffering is, if it comes through God, God suffers from it first. Indeed, by the truth which is God, however slight the suffering that befalls a person may be, let us say some discomfort or trial, provided that one places it in God, it would affect God immeasurably more than the person and it would be more obnoxious to him, insofar as it is obnoxious to the person . . . God suffers for the sake of some benefit that he has destined for you by this means . . .⁹

The suffering that God suffers is in turn meant to turn our sufferings to joy. “If it is the case that God has suffered previously, before I suffer, and if I suffer for the sake of God, then indeed all my sufferings will easily become comfort and joy to me, however great and varied they are.” God not only rejoices with and more than us, God also suffers with and more than us.

God suffers with man, indeed he suffers in his way before and incomparably more than the person who suffers for his sake . . . God suffers so gladly with us and for our sakes that, if we suffer for the sake of God alone, he suffers without suffering. Suffering is so blissful to him that for him suffering is not suffering . . . God suffers with me, and suffers for my sake through the love which he has for me.¹⁰

This capacity of Eckhart’s God to suffer and to rejoice with humanity is what distinguished the biblical God from many Gods of the philosophers, as Rabbi Heschel points out.¹¹ Eckhart’s God, like Heschel’s God, is a caring, passionate God.

God’s suffering is especially oriented toward the poor. The poor in Isaiah, as Eckhart notes, are called “his poor.” The poor are God’s in a special way. The poor ore indeed left to God, for no one else takes on interest in them. We acknowledge the better-off as our friends, but not the poor of whom we feel ashamed. The first of the Beatitudes reads: “Blessed are the poor” (Mt. 5:3) and this is so because wherever they (the poor) are, they find God and have God everywhere. Eckhart seems to have in mind Matthew 25:31–46 when he comments that we console one another with bread only if the issue is starvation; with clothing, only if one is cold. He also seems to be suggesting a link with Jesus’ story on persons who ask for bread but receive a stone (Mt. 7:7–11). Thus there

exist two kinds of consolation to creatures: that which comes from creatures themselves and that which comes from God. Creatures fall short in their giving of consolation; they often give bread when a person is thirsty or clothing when a person is too hot. The consolation of creatures is not perfect . . . But God’s consolation is pure and unadulterated; it is complete and perfect.

What makes God’s consolation so complete and perfect? Only God has that which might completely console human beings. This is, first of all, the kingdom of heaven known as being. God alone can say: “I am.” To be means more or less something that bears God within itself. The being and life of all creatures depends on the being and life of God, who alone consoles fully. What consoles is being, what is. Thus what consoles fully is God, who is alone fully being. No one can utter the word sum (“I am”) in its correct meaning except God alone. Only God, being fully being, is fully capable of consolation. Eckhart, commenting on John 8:12, “I am the light of the world,” first concentrates on the “I am” (or eimi) statement. Like contemporary scholars such as Raymond Brown, Eckhart sees the connection between Jesus’ “I am” statement and that name with which Yahweh named himself in Exodus 3:14. Brown calls this the “all-important text for the meaning of ‘Yahweh.’ “

If we understand “Yahweh” as derived from a causative form, the Hebrew reads, “I am who cause to be,” or perhaps more originally in the third person, “I am ‘He who cause to be.’ “ But LXX reads, “I am the Existing One,” using a participle of the verb “to be,” and thus stressing divine existence.¹²

In his commentary on Exodus, Eckhart elaborates on the name of God as “I am”;

When God says, “I am,” “am” is here the predicate of the sentence and the second element in the sentence. Whenever this is the case, it signifies pure and naked existence in the subject and regarding the subject, and that it is the subject, in other words the essence of the subject, thus expressing the identity of essence and existence—which is proper to God alone, whose quiddity is in anitas. . ..and who has no quiddity except an/fas alone, which is expressed by existence.¹³

Applying Eckhart’s principles to Jesus’ saying, then, we would have to say that Jesus is declaring himself related to “pure and naked existence” by his “I am” declaration.

But Eckhart sees still more in the divine affirmation of “I am.” And that more is what is not being said, and what is being denied by this affirmation. All negation is being denied of God.

The repetition of “am” in the statement “I am who am” points out the purity of the affirmation, which excludes every negation from God. It also indicates a certain reversion and turning back of his being into and upon itself, and its abiding or remaining in itself: also a sort of boiling up or giving birth to itself: an inward glowing, melting and boiling in itself and into itself, light in light and into light wholly penetrating its whole self, totally and from every side turned and reflected upon itself.¹⁴

Here Eckhart connects “I am” and light, making a subtle connection between Exodus and John’s Gospel statement, “I am the light of the world.” Light was the first of the creatures made by the Creator (Gn. 1:3), light reveals the hidden God, light is the symbol of the Feast of Tabernacles at which Jesus spoke these words, light is a symbol for Wisdom and in the next chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus will restore sight (that is, light) to the blind man (Jn. 9). His deed will follow on his declaration of who he is.¹⁵ Thus, in walking after this light, one does not walk in the darkness. For God is the light of existence and of being, “an inward glowing, melting and boiling in itself and into itself, light in light and into light.” Nor does one any longer need to walk in sadness. Light is also a symbol for the Messianic age and the life and joy that this age ushers in with it. God is a light of passion and feeling who laughs, rejoices, suffers, and ultimately comforts. Such comfort is not condescending, for it is born of the divine suffering wherein passion truly precedes compassion. Only this divine light gives the light of authentic consolation to the world.

Behold how sweet God’s consolation is so that all creatures seek it and pursue it. And I shall say something further, namely, that the being and life of all creatures depend on their seeking and pursuing God.

The being that God is and the light that God is exclude all negation from God. God consoles so fully because he despises negation so totally, with all God’s being and all God’s light. God even negates negation. “The negation of negation is the quintessence, purity, and doubling of affirmed being” (Ex. 3:14: “I am who am.”). Hence it is aptly said: “Show us the Father”—that is, the One—”and it is enough for us.”¹⁶ The unity of God excludes all negation.

Unity is a negation of negation and a denial of denial. What does unity mean? It means oneness, to which nothing is added as an attribute . . . God is one. He is the negation of negation.¹⁷

Only this thorough oneness with all suffering and all wholeness and healing can truly console. God’s consolation is pure and unadulterated; it is complete and perfect. Creaturely consolation will always fall short of total healing because “all creatures have a negation in themselves; one denies that it is the other.”¹⁸ Creatures are subject to separation and division. Only God is panentheistically one and therefore capable of ultimate holism.

If God is the “negation of negation,” then God is the negation of darkness—God is light; God is the negation of separateness—God is unity; God is the negation of superficiality—God is depth; God is the negation of control—God is freedom; God is the negation of ugliness—God is beauty; God is the negation of sadness—God is consolation; God is the negation of names—God is silent namelessness. Thus Eckhart passes in this sermon from the cataphatic treatment of who God is—God as amness, God as light—to where God is.

Already Eckhart has begun to answer his question of the where of God. God is beyond God to the Godhead, from which all happiness flows. Citing Scripture wherever he meets the Godhead, he declares that God may be found in the fullness of the saints, in the Father, in eternity. These three meeting places for God can be understood as the communion of saints, the Creator of the world, and youthfulness or newness of spirit. But they are not enough. For God remains a hidden God. Lord, you are a hidden God and no one could ever discover God. And yet, an amazing revelation has happened. God, while remaining hidden, has also revealed himself like a person in hiding who clears his throat. No one could ever have discovered Cod, but he has now given himself away. God has revealed himself and so our seeking after our origins is not in vain.

The ultimate giveaway of the hiding place of God, the place where God may be found for certain, is where there is rejoicing over the blessings of God’s creation. Where there is rejoicing, there plays God. Creation itself—being and life—are the first of the divine blessings. All the good that can exist in creatures—all their honey—is gathered together in God. No one rejoices over the blessing that creation is more than God. All the saints in heaven and on earth as well as all angels rejoice with such joy . . . yet all this joy together is quite as small as an eye’s lens in comparison with the joy God has. But the joy of conscious creation, namely of angels and of humans, must be a joy taken at becoming blessings by way of their deeds. Conscious creation is destined to become blessings to creation. These deeds concern the poor in particular who are God’s own. For all persons are not equally blessed. The poor are more blessed than others. God takes an interest in them because they are handed over to him. For this reason the Gospel says: “Blessed are the poor” (Mt. 5:3) . . . God has sheer delight and laughter over a good deed. For all other deeds that do not take place in praise of God are quite like ashes in God’s sight.

The praise of God that creation returns to God is the return of blessing for blessing. Blessing is the work of the human soul, the masterpiece of creation. As Westermann puts it, talking of Jewish theology of blessing:

“Soul” is seen as expressing the person’s total state of being alive. The soul is a totality, filled with power. This power lets the soul grow and prosper so that it can maintain itself and do its work in the world. This vital power, without which no living being can exist, the Israelites called berakhah, “blessing.”¹⁹

Westermann’s explanation of the Jewish understanding of soul corresponds with Eckhart’s emphasis on spirituality as soul growth, which we have considered in the previous two sermons. If there exists an “identity” between us and God, then our growing into this likeness and our developing the image of God the Creator in us also means our developing our powers to bless. As Mowinckel puts it, “blessing is a capability of the soul, a power that lives in the clan and its members . . . The power that brings blessing in the ‘name of Yahweh.’ “²⁰ The human person, being a part of creation that is conscious of creation, is also responsible for creation and for blessing. That which is blest, blesses. To bless is to praise. What it means to be “submerged” in the grace of creation is that one passes on the blessing to others. “God is one; there is the soul blessed.”²¹ Blessing is the name given the power of the soul that so resembles God because it is God’s image. “Blessing is the center of life; it is life itself and it includes all phases of life. It is the positive vital power, which for the people of Israel is manifest above all in fertility.”²² Eckhart will develop this blessing theme of fertility at great length in Path Three, where he elaborates on our calling to give birth. The power that the soul is has no intrinsic limits, says Westermann, echoing what Eckhart said in Sermon Seven.

The total “soul” of a person embraces everything within the circle of his life, everything around him. If his soul is strong, it must leave an impression on all his undertakings . . . Blessing is the soul’s power that produces all progress (salah). This means it is related to wisdom . . . The act of blessing, berekh, means imparting vital power to another person. The one who blesses gives the other person something of his own soul.²³

The picture that Westermann paints of the soul that embraces everything within the circle of its life parallels the picture we have seen described by Eckhart in the past ten sermons, and the last three in particular. Both theologians insist that the one who possesses blessing and is therefore “blessed” is one from whom power of praise and consoling deeds flows out in every direction. Nothing is unholy, nothing unsacred, nothing hostile to this flow of creation’s energy. The senses too participate in this flowing out and flowing in. The blessing, like the Word of creation which it is, flows out but remains within. The innermost core, the ancilla animae, the divine spark, may well be conceived as a bonfire of blessing that burns its way into all of creation. “God loves all things in all his works. The soul is in ‘all things.’ “²⁴ Eckhart, who, we have seen, describes the human spirit as a “vortex” or “whirlpool,” thus suggests that the depth of our psyches is a cornucopia of blessings! From the world, which is also the soul, to the innermost spark of the soul, all is blessed. Our spiritual journey is a sinking into the innermost depths of the whirlpool or vortex, which is a cornucopia, for that is where God is most at home. “It is proper to God and to everything divine, insofar as they are divine, to be within, to be innermost.”²⁵

For all is divinely bestowed, divinely poured out. This is why all of Eckhart’s theology—and especially this phase of the First Path called Creation—is a theology of blessing. For creation, and human creation in particular, is a cornucopia of blessings.