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We read in St John’s Gospel that St John the Baptist was standing, and two of his disciples, (one of them being Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother), and, when he saw Jesus pass by, he said: “Behold the Lamb of God.” The two disciples heard that, and saw them following, and said unto them: “What seek ye?” They said unto Him, “Rabbi (which is to say, being interpreted, Master), where dwellest thou?” He saith unto them; “Come and see.”
These words, remarks Tauler, teach three things.
(1)The overflowing Wisdom of Christ in the words of the Master.
(2)The Dwelling-place of His inscrutable Being, the stronghold of all beings, for they said: “Where dwellest thou?”
(3) The Comfort given to us by the invitation of God to seek Him in spirit, in the resting-place of His Godhead, and to learn at the Source of wisdom, that is, in the school of the Holy Trinity.
In Tauler's words, Christ is saying to us: “Come, O soul, abide with Me and in Me; and look that thou mayest learn; I will open unto thee the depths of My Divine Heart, that thou mayest learn and see all that is for thine eternal good.”
There are many things we can learn about God and from many diverse sources. There is, however, only one Place to learn of God, and that is from God Godself.
To help with our understanding of this process of movement into the Inner Sanctum, let us consider the concept of "Godhead," to which Tauler and other Christian mystics refer. I will share, first, from Scripture (AV),where the term occurs three times:
Acts 17: 29 ~ Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
Romans 1.20 ~ For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; ...
Col. 2: 9 ~ For in him [Christ] dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
The above uses show, by two different Greek words, both based on the root for Theos, or God, that "Godhead" refers to the Divine Being as the One encompassing the Aspects, or Persons, we refer to by "Father," "Son," and "Holy Spirit." In the Scripture and Christian mysticism, the Three depend on the One. We can say, then, that the Godhead refers to the Divine Reality before all differentiations into Aspects or our words referring to the movements of God toward creatures. We can, then, picture the Godhead, or God Godself, in the image of a circle encompassing three interlocking circles. We know the Trinity only within God Godself; we know God Godself by our knowing the Trinity.
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