The Ninth Chapter: All Things should be Referred to God as their Last End

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The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
BOOK THREE: INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Ninth Chapter: All Things should be Referred to God as their Last End

The Voice of Christ

MY CHILD, I must be your supreme and last end, if you truly desire to be blessed. With this intention your affections, which are too often perversely inclined to self and to creatures, will be purified. For if you seek yourself in anything, you immediately fail interiorly and become dry of heart.

Refer all things principally to Me, therefore, for it is I Who have given them all. Consider each thing as flowing from the highest good, and therefore to Me, as to their highest source, must all things be brought back. Continue reading →

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER IX.

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Challoner’s Reflection on The Imitation of Christ1
BOOK THREE: INTERNAL CONSULTATION
CHAPTER IX.: All Things should be Referred to God as their Last End

All that is good flows from God, who is the supreme good, and all that He does is good, because He draws it from himself. There is not in the world any real evil but sin; for the punishment of sin is not an evil, because, supported with patience, it expiates it, and because it always re-establishes the order which sin had disturbed. Thus we hold from God life, intelligence, love, which should ascend again perpetually towards their source; and of ourselves we can do nothing, not even say: My Father! (Romans 8:15). For we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the spirit himself asketh for us with unspeakable groanings (Romans 8:26). The only thing which belongs to us is sin; it is the fruit of our free will, and its wages is Death (Romans 6:23).

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  1. Right Rev. R. Challoner, D.D., V.A., Imitation of Christ, Dublin: McGlashan and Gill, 1873 ↩

The Eighth Chapter: Self-Abasement in the Sight of God

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The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
BOOK THREE: INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Eighth Chapter: Self-Abasement in the Sight of God

The Disciple

I WILL speak to my Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. If I consider myself anything more than this, behold You stand against me, and my sins bear witness to the truth which I cannot contradict. If I abase myself, however, if I humble myself to nothingness, if I shrink from all self-esteem and account myself as the dust which I am, Your grace will favor me, Your light will enshroud my heart, and all self-esteem, no matter how little, will sink in the depths of my nothingness to perish forever.

It is there You show me to myself–what I am, what I have been, and what I am coming to; for I am nothing and I did not know it. Left to myself, I am nothing but total weakness. But if You look upon me for an instant, I am at once made strong and filled with new joy. Great wonder it is that I, who of my own weight always sink to the depths, am so suddenly lifted up, and so graciously embraced by You. Continue reading →

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER VIII.

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Challoner’s Reflection on The Imitation of Christ1
BOOK THREE: INTERNAL CONSULTATION
CHAPTER VIII.: Self-Abasement in the Sight of God

God shows Himself, in the Scriptures, full of immense compassion for faults purely human, if it may be so expressed; but he is without pity for pride, the beginning of all sin (Ecclesiastes x. 15); for pride, which is the special crime of the rebellious angel, and which directly attacks the Sovereign Being. He has said: I, the Lord, this is my name; I will not give my glory to another (Isaias, x. 15). Now all pride tends, in its essence, to make itself equal to God, to make itself God: a disorder than which a greater one cannot alone be conceived, but which we would hesitate to believe possible, if it were not continually before our eyes, and if we did not feel the germs of it in ourselves. Therefore see how God blasts it; first by that irony which freezes the soul with a supernatural terror: Behold Adam is become as one of us (Genesis 3:22); Adam cast naked, with his sin, on accursed earth! Adam, who had just heard these words: Thou shall die the death (Genesis 2:17)! Then read in the Gospel the fearful maledictions pronounced on the proud Pharisees, whilst he who humbles himself is at once justified. A woman weeps at the feet of Jesus; she humiliates herself on account of her sins; she scarcely ventures to ask pardon for them; her silence alone supplicates. The Saviour moved by her tears, consoles her, and many sins are forgiven her because she hath loved much (Luke, 7:47).

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  1. Right Rev. R. Challoner, D.D., V.A., Imitation of Christ, Dublin: McGlashan and Gill, 1873 ↩

The Seventh Chapter: Grace Must Be Hidden Under the Mantle of Humility

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The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
BOOK THREE: INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Seventh Chapter: Grace Must Be Hidden Under the Mantle of Humility

The Voice of Christ

IT IS better and safer for you to conceal the grace of devotion, not to be elated by it, not to speak or think much of it, and instead to humble yourself and fear lest it is being given to one unworthy of it. Do not cling too closely to this affection, for it may quickly be changed to its opposite. When you are in grace, think how miserable and needy you are without it. Your progress in spiritual life does not consist in having the grace of consolation, but in enduring its withdrawal with humility, resignation, and patience, so that you neither become listless in prayer nor neglect your other duties in the least; but on the contrary do what you can do as well as you know how, and do not neglect yourself completely because of your dryness or anxiety of mind.

There are many, indeed, who immediately become impatient and lazy when things do not go well with them. The way of man, however, does not always lie in his own power. It is God’s prerogative to give grace and to console when He wishes, as much as He wishes, and whom He wishes, as it shall please Him and no more. Continue reading →

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER VII.

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Challoner’s Reflection on The Imitation of Christ1
BOOK THREE: INTERNAL CONSULTATION
CHAPTER VII.: Grace Must Be Hidden Under the Mantle of Humility

To recognise one’s misery and never to lose sight of it; to abandon one’s self into the hands of God, with a lively faith and an obedient love; this is the entire spiritual life, of which humility is the foundation. He who says to himself in the bottom of his soul: I am nothing but weakness and poverty, relies in no way on himself and places his entire hope in Jesus. He follows with simplicity the movements of grace, does not rise into fervour, does not sink into dryness; always satisfied, provided that the divine will is accomplished in him. Pride, which often hides itself under the veil of that which is most holy, does not seduce him by the vain desire of a state apparently more perfect, to which he is not called. Faithful and tranquil in his own path, he says to God: Give me wisdom, that sitleth by thy throne, and cast me not off from among thy children: for I am thy servant and the son of thy handmaid, a weak man, and of short time, and falling short of the understanding of judgment and laws (Wisdom 9:4, 5).

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  1. Right Rev. R. Challoner, D.D., V.A., Imitation of Christ, Dublin: McGlashan and Gill, 1873 ↩

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER VI.

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Challoner’s Reflection on The Imitation of Christ1
BOOK THREE: INTERNAL CONSULTATION
CHAPTER VI.: The Proving of a True Lover

Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 7:21). It is by works that real love is known. Always prompt to obey, he never grows weary, never becomes discouraged. In sorrow and in joy, in consolation and in suffering, he praises, he blesses equally Him who strikes and who halts (Deuteronomy 32:39), according to the divine precepts, impenetrable to creatures. If temptations come to prove him, he combats, he resists with peace, because he does not rely on his own strength, and expects victory only through assistance from on high. If he sometimes yields, he at once rises up again without trouble, humiliated, but not conquered. His repentance, although deep, is calm, because it is free from the irritation of pride. His faults afflict him and do not surprise him. He knows his weakness and he grieves on account of it, full of confidence in the grace which will sustain him, if he is faithful to it. Detached from the earth and from its vanities, which are called goods, what does he wish for? What God wishes: he has no other will, no other desire.

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  1. Right Rev. R. Challoner, D.D., V.A., Imitation of Christ, Dublin: McGlashan and Gill, 1873 ↩

The Fifth Chapter: The Wonderful Effect of Divine Love

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The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
BOOK THREE: INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Fifth Chapter: The Wonderful Effect of Divine Love

The Disciple

I BLESS You, O heavenly Father, Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, for having condescended to remember me, a poor creature. Thanks to You, O Father of mercies, God of all consolation, Who with Your comfort sometimes refresh me, who am not worthy of it. I bless You always and glorify You with Your only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, forever and ever.

Ah, Lord God, my holy Lover, when You come into my heart, all that is within me will rejoice. You are my glory and the exultation of my heart. You are my hope and refuge in the day of my tribulation. But because my love is as yet weak and my virtue imperfect, I must be strengthened and comforted by You. Visit me often, therefore, and teach me Your holy discipline. Free me from evil passions and cleanse my heart of all disorderly affection so that, healed and purified within, I may be fit to love, strong to suffer, and firm to persevere. Continue reading →

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER V.

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Challoner’s Reflection on The Imitation of Christ1
BOOK THREE: INTERNAL CONSULTATION
CHAPTER V.: The Wonderful Effect of Divine Love

God is charity: and he that abideth in charily, aUdethin God, and God in him (1 John, 4:16). But charity has its times of proof as well as its times of enjoyment; and this entire life should be only a continual exercise of charity, or the consummation of a great sacrifice, of which an eternal life and an unchangeable love shall be the reward. All the attributes of charity, given in detail by St. Paul, bring to our minds the idea of sacrifice; and the infinite love itself could only manifest itself fully to us by an infinite sacrifice. God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son (John, 3:16); and our love for God can only be properly shown by a sacrifice; not indeed by an equal one, for that would be impossible, but by a similar one, by the gift of our entire being, or by the perfect obedience of our souls, of our hearts, and of our senses, to the will of Him who has loved us so much.

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  1. Right Rev. R. Challoner, D.D., V.A., Imitation of Christ, Dublin: McGlashan and Gill, 1873 ↩