Eckhart writes in the end
of the 13th and the start of the 14th centuries, living inside this debasement
of Rome’s, and he is bold and provocative in order to make people think more.
Knowing that he speaks the truth, sometimes he doesn’t even bother to explain it
(he didn’t do it 'properly' even in his apology), he lets his listeners understand
in a wrong way, to hold themselves responsible and repent at the time
when they would discover that they understood in a wrong way, if they did,
because their life was wrong, not the truth difficult. What he offers then
is an enigma: if you disparage your brother, hell awaits for you and you are
already in hell – yet by
doing this sin-indeed!, you praise God! Why?
This ‘why’ is Eckhart’s
purpose, and this simple ‘why’ is what the papal inquisition, in spite of all
infallibility and super-power, was not able to answer. Eckhart knows very well
that the truth can not speak to those who haven’t ears, and he speaks
sometimes in parables, “lest at any time they should see with their eyes and
hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be
converted...”[2]
