--- title: "Sermons, Collations and Tractates" author: "Meister Eckhart" translator: "C. de B. Evans" languages: [en] shelf: "Mystics" section: 104 of 132 url: https://scriptura.si/works/eckhart-sermons-evans/104/ cite: "Meister Eckhart, tr. C. de B. Evans, Sermons, Collations and Tractates, section 104. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/eckhart-sermons-evans/104/" --- # Sermons, Collations and Tractates *Meister Eckhart, tr. C. de B. Evans* A hundred and four sermons, the tractates and the Sayings, in Evans's 1924 English of Pfeiffer's German. ## 104. Sermon 104 · Suffering Source: https://scriptura.si/works/eckhart-sermons-evans/104/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/eckhart-sermons-evans/104/#p-N [¶0] I say that next to God there is no nobler thing than suffering. Were there anything more noble than suffering the heavenly Father would have given it to his Son Jesus Christ, in exemplary fashion, for all things. We find in Christ, as regards his manhood, nothing so much as suffering. Suffering was with him at his birth, and it never left him while he was here on earth. I say, moreover, that had Christ been a man upon this earth without his deity, yet would he have been noble beyond all human ken by reason of his suffering; for granting that suffering is noble, he who has most suffering is the noblest. But no human suffering was equal to Christ’s passion. And he is the more noble in proportion to it. Again I hold, if anything were nobler than suffering, God would have saved mankind therewith, for we might well accuse him of being unfriendly to his Son if he knew of something superior to suffering. And I say, were not suffering always noble, the heavenly Father would have left his Son some few hours on earth that were free from suffering. But we do not find that Christ on earth spent one single hour without suffering. Suffering then must be superior to all else. I ween that our Lady, God’s mother, rather than that she should be deprived of the reward attached to the least instant of her suffering at sight of her child’s martyrdom, would choose to have remained here upon earth and not behold God till the judgment day, provided that would win back this reward. So great the guerdon won in that short hour. [¶1] I declare, all the humility and virtue we attribute to our Lady brought her no such great reward or love of God as the least of all the sufferings that God sent her. I say that if our Lady, God’s mother, and suffering stood together in the street and with our Lady all her earned reward for chastity, humility and her other virtues except suffering : to our Lady suffering would appear as lovely as sunshine in a burrow, for in that case she would be outside God. And again, I say : suppose a man committed a sin beyond all sins, it might involve a suffering wherein by virtuous conduct he could cancel all his sin and win greater merit in God’s eyes than any of his saints. Further, I maintain, no man apart from God has ever been so holy or so good as to deserve the least nobility such as the smallest suffering would give. Given one man endowed with the collective humility and virtues of all the people who have lived since God created the first man, he, for all his virtues, would not merit the reward a man wins by a little suffering. I tell you, right suffering is the mother of all virtues, for right suffering so subdues the heart, it cannot rise to pride but perforce is lowly. And suffering makes for chastity ; for in right suffering vice is burnt away. And to one who has mastered all the virtues, suffering is the mother of virtue as a whole. Nothing makes a man so like God as suffering. For he who has least vices is the most like God. But nothing is like suffering for killing a man’s vices. Ergo, it makes man Godlike. Finally I say, not all the theologists together could describe what profit, what glory lies in suffering. Suffering alone is sufficient preparation for God’s dwelling in man’s heart. God dwells only with the sinless. But suffering exorcises sin. Hence God is always with a man in suffering ; as he himself declared by the mouth of the prophet, ‘ Whosoever is sorrowful, I will myself be with him.’ [¶2] [Peradventure thou wilt say, ‘ If it be a fact that suffering is so noble and profits one so much, why are not the Jews and heathens saved ? I see and hear a great deal of their sufferings, for as captives they are ever subject to the Christians and that causes them much suffering.’ I answer. Baptism is the basis of the welfare, the salvation, of mankind. In the absence of it, virtues and good works are not rewarded with eternal grace. And since the Jews are not baptized, they have no guerdon of eternal grace, but are accursed on earth as well as in the other world.] But thou mayst object, Why is it that all Christians are not saved ; they are all God’s, and there is nobody on earth but is bound to suffer in some fashion ? My answer is, There are two kinds of sufferers. Some, when suffering befalls, take it not as if it came from God ; they resist it to the utmost, saying in their hearts. What have I done to God that he should visit me with such misfortune ? and are moved to tears. Not that in this thought they are to blame, but in other cases they chide God vehemently, whereas God sends the suffering to rid them of their sins and by not accepting it in the proper spirit they make it useless to them ; and to such as these there is no reward for suffering though they are always having it ; they scorn God’s gift and thrust it from them. And they chase away God too, albeit they fain would have him. On the other hand, some people take it as from God, when their suffering comes, and send it back to God. They take it from God, saying in their hearts ; God, T accept this suffering from no one else but thee, for my sins have thoroughly deserved it. And they send their suffering back to God, saying in their hearts. Lord God, I willingly contribute all the suffering thou hast suffered from the hour of thy birth down to the very end ; for thou wert a pure and sinless soul, yet wert in great affliction ; it is more fit