Light, Life, and Love: Selections from the German Mystics of the Middle Ages · Chapter 66On the Eternal Going Forth Which We Possess in the Birth of the Son
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NOW the Spirit of God saith, in the secret depths of our spirit: "Go forth," in an eternal contemplation and joy, according to the mode of God. All the wealth which is in God naturally, we possess in Him by love; and God possesses it in us, by His boundless Love, which is the Holy Spirit. For in this love all is tasted that can be desired. And this is why, thanks to this love, we are dead to ourselves, and have gone forth in loving liquefaction or immersion, in the absence of mode and in darkness. There the spirit, enveloped by the Holy Trinity, is eternally immanent in the superessential unity, in repose and in joy. And in this same unity, according to the mode of generation, the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father, and every creature in them both. And this is above the distinction of Persons, for here we understand by reason the fatherhood and sonship in the lively fruitfulness of nature.
Here is born and begins an eternal going forth, and an eternal work without beginning, for there is here a beginning without beginning. For by means of the eternal birth of the Son, the Word of the Father, all creatures have gone forth eternally, before they were created in time, and God has considered and recognised them distinctly in Himself, in lively reason, and in distinction from Himself: but not in another mode, for all that is in God is God. This eternal going forth and this eternal life, which we have and are eternally in God, without ourselves, is the cause of our created essence in time. And our created essence is immanent in the eternal essence, and this eternal life, which we have and are in the eternal wisdom of God, is like unto God; for they have an eternal immanence, without distinction, in the divine essence. And they have an eternal effluence by the birth of the Son, in a difference with distinction, according to the eternal reason. And thanks to these two things, a man is in this way like unto God, that he recognises himself and reflects on himself without interruption, in this resemblance, according to essence and according to the Persons. For though here there is still distinction and difference, according to reason, this resemblance is nevertheless one with the very image of the Holy Trinity, which is the wisdom of God, and wherein God contemplates Himself and all things in an eternal Now, without before or after. In simple vision He regards Himself as He regards all things. And this is the image and likeness of God, and our image and likeness, for in it God and all things are reflected. In this divine image, all the creatures, without themselves, have an eternal life, as in their eternal model, and the Holy Trinity has made us in this eternal image and likeness. And this is why God wishes that we should go out from ourselves, in this eternal light, and that we should pursue this image, which is our true life, supernaturally, and possess it with Him actively and joyously, in eternal blessedness.
For we know well that the bosom of the Father is our foundation and origin, wherein we begin our life and our being. And from our true foundation—that is to say, from the Father and from all that lives in Him, beams forth an eternal radiance, which is the birth of the Son. In this radiance, the Father manifests Himself, and all that lives in Himself, to Himself; for all that He is, and all that He has, He gives to the Son, except the prerogative of fatherhood, which resides in Himself. And this is why all that lives in the Father hidden in the Unity, lives also in the Son, and flows forth in His manifestation; but the simple foundation of our eternal image remains always without mode in the darkness. But the boundless radiance which shines out thence manifests and reflects in the mode the mystery of God. And all men who are raised above their creatureliness into a contemplative life, are united to this divine splendour. And they are this splendour itself, and they see, experience, and find, thanks to this divine radiance, that they are this same simple foundation, according to their uncreated essence, from which shines forth, in the divine mode, this immeasurable radiance, which, according to simplicity of essence, remains eternally within, and without mode. This is why interior men and contemplatives will go forth, according to the mode of contemplation, above distinction and above their created essence, by means of an eternal intuition. Thanks to this inborn light, they are transformed, and are united to this same light by which they see and which they see. In this manner contemplatives pursue the eternal image, after which they are made, and contemplate God and all things without distinction, by a pure vision in divine brightness. This is the most sublime and the most useful contemplation which we can attain in this life; for in this contemplation a man remains the best and freest master of himself, and at each loving introversion, above all that we can comprehend, he can advance in the sublimities of life, for he remains free and master of himself, in unity and in the virtues. And this contemplation in the divine light maintains him above all inwardness, above all virtue, above all merit, for it is the crown and recompense towards which we are striving, and which we already have and possess in this mode, for the contemplative life is a celestial life. But if we shall be drawn up out of this exile and this misery, we shall be, according to our created nature, more susceptible of this radiance, and then the glory of God would shine through us better and more sublimely. This is the mode above all modes, according to which we go forth in a divine contemplation and in an eternal stability, and according to which we are transformed and reformed in the divine radiance. This going forth of the contemplative is also loving; for by joyous love he surpasses his created essence, and finds and tastes the riches and delights which are God, and which He causes to flow without interruption into the most secret part of the spirit, into the place where he is like the sublimity of God.