St. Francis knew nothing of this consciousness. "God
has chosen me because among all men He could find no one more lowly, and
because through my instrumentality He purposed to confound nobility,
greatness, strength, beauty and the wisdom of the world." He was the
disciple of the earthly Jesus, Who went through life the compassionate
consoler of all those who were sorrowful. But Eckhart aspired "to the
shapeless nature of God." "We will follow Him, but not in all things,"
he said of the historical Jesus. "He did many things which He meant us
to understand spiritually, not literally ... we must always follow Him
in the profounder sense." Compared to the religion of Eckhart, the
religion of St. Francis is the faith of a little child, picturing God as
a benevolent old man. Such a religion is equally true and sincere, but
it represents an earlier stage on the road of humanity. If Christianity
were--as we are occasionally assured--the religion of Jesus, then the
great mystics cannot be called Christians.
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