"Come to me"
The treasures that God has hidden in the
depths of our souls, whosoever discovers them and contemplates them becomes,
indeed, a happy man.
"My yoke is sweet and my burden is light." It
is eternal truth itself - our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ - who utters these
words. And yet men contradict him, men who live according to mere matter; these
by act and word affirm that God's yoke is bitter and his burden is heavy. But
the right is with God.
Anything that crushes a man and drags him down is a
burden. Now, we understand by the word yoke, as here used, the inner man; and
by the word burden, the outer man. The inner man has come from God, and he is a
noble being, made after God's image and likeness. And as he comes from God, so
is he invited and urgently called back to God, so that, being drawn into the
divine life, he may become partaker of all good. The blessedness that belongs
to God by nature the soul may hereby obtain by grace. Now, dear children, the
treasures that God has hidden in the depths of our souls, whosoever discovers
them and contemplates them becomes, indeed, a happy man. And, although a man
may allow his spiritual insight to be for a time diverted from divine things,
yet he is incessantly drawn again to consider God's interior presence; he can
never otherwise be at rest. The whole universe is not enough to content him.
All outward things only turn him back into his inner life, whether he perceives
it or not; for there is God, his final end and the only purpose of his
existence. As all material things rest on their proper basis, as a stone on the
earth; or as they rise upward into their proper element, as fire into the air;
so does a devout soul rest upon God and rise into God as its only
salvation.
FATHER JOHN TAULER, O.P.
Father Tauler (d. 1361) was a German Dominican priest,
a popular preacher, and a mystical theologian.
a popular preacher, and a mystical theologian.