The Imitation of Christ 1 part 2/3

What a man is unable to amend in himself or in others, he ought to bear patiently, until God orders otherwise. Consider that perhaps it is better so, for the testing of you and for your patience, without which our merits are not to be weighed for much. You ought nevertheless, amid such hindrances, to make supplication, that God may deign to help you, so that you may bear them kindly. 2. If someone, admonished once or twice, does not yield, do not contend with him, but commit the whole to God, that His will and honor may be done in all His servants; for He knows well how to turn evil into good. Strive to be patient in tolerating the faults and infirmities of others, of whatever kind, because you too have many things that must be borne by others.

If you cannot make yourself such as you wish, how will you be able to have another according to your pleasure? We gladly see others perfect, yet we do not amend our own faults. 3. We wish that others be strictly corrected, while we ourselves are unwilling to be corrected, or to be refused what we ask. We wish others to be restrained by statutes, and yet we will by no means suffer ourselves to be further restrained. Thus it is plain how seldom we weigh our neighbor as ourselves. If all were perfect, what then should we have to suffer from others for God's sake? 4.

But now God has so ordained, that we should learn to bear one another's burdens; for no one is without fault, no one without a burden, no one sufficient for himself, no one wise enough for himself; but we must bear with one another, comfort one another, alike help and admonish one another. How great each one's virtue is, is best shown by occasion of adversity. For occasions do not make a man frail, but show what he is. Chapter 17. On the monastic life. 1. You must learn to break yourself in many things, if you wish to keep peace and concord with others. It is no small thing to dwell in monasteries or in a community, and to live there without complaint, and to persevere faithful unto death.

Blessed is he who has lived well there, and has happily made his end. If you wish to stand and advance as you ought, hold yourself as an exile and a pilgrim upon the earth. You must become a fool for Christ's sake, if you wish to lead the religious life. 2. The habit and the tonsure do little; but change of manners and entire mortification of the passions make the true religious. He who seeks anything other than purely God and the salvation of his soul will find nothing but tribulation and sorrow. Nor can he long remain at peace who does not strive to be the least and subject to all. You came to serve, not to rule; know that you were called to suffer and to labor, not to be idle or to gossip. Here therefore men are tried as gold in the furnace.

Here no one can stand, unless with all his heart he is willing to humble himself for God's sake. Chapter 18. On the example of the Holy Fathers. 1. Behold the living examples of the Holy Fathers, in whom true perfection shone forth, and you will see how little, indeed truly nothing, is what we do. Alas, what is our life, if compared with theirs? The Saints and friends of Christ served the Lord in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, in labor and weariness, in vigils and fasts, in prayers and holy meditations, in persecutions and many reproaches. 2. Oh, how many and how grievous tribulations the Apostles, Martyrs, and Confessors, Virgins, and all the rest endured, who were willing to follow the footsteps of Christ.

For they hated their own souls in this world, that they might possess them unto life eternal. Oh, how strict and self-denying a life the holy Fathers led in the desert; how long and grievous temptations they endured; how often they were vexed by the enemy; how earnest and fervent prayers they offered to God; how rigorous abstinences they performed; how great zeal and fervor for spiritual progress they had; how mighty a warfare they waged against the subduing of vices; how pure and upright an intention toward God they kept; by day they labored, and by night they gave themselves to long prayer; though even while laboring they by no means ceased from mental prayer. 3. They spent all their time profitably; every hour seemed short for being free to God.

And because of the great sweetness of contemplation, even the necessity of bodily refreshment was given over to forgetfulness. They renounced all riches, dignities, honors, friends, and kindred. They desired to have nothing of the world; they scarcely took the necessities of life; they grieved to serve the body even in necessity. They were therefore poor in earthly goods, but very rich in grace and virtues. Outwardly they were in want, but inwardly they were refreshed with grace and divine consolation. 4. They were strangers to the world, but near to God and His familiar friends. To themselves they seemed as nothing, and despised by this world, but in the eyes of God they were precious and beloved.

They stood in true humility, they lived in simple obedience, they walked in charity and patience, and therefore they advanced daily, and obtained great grace with God. They are given as an example to all the Religious, and ought to provoke us more to advance well, than the number of the lukewarm to slacken off. 5. Oh, how great was the fervor of all the Religious at the beginning of their holy institution; oh, how great the devotion of prayer, how great the rivalry in virtue, how great the discipline that flourished, how great the reverence and obedience under the rule that flowered in all things. The traces they left still bear witness that they were truly holy and perfect men, who, warring so strenuously, trampled the world underfoot.

Now indeed a man is reckoned great if he has not been a transgressor, if he has been able to bear with patience what he has undertaken. 6. Oh, the lukewarmness and negligence of our state, that we so quickly decline from our former fervor, and now it wearies us to live, because of slackness and lukewarmness. Would that the progress of virtues did not utterly sleep within you, who have so often seen many examples of the devout. Chapter 19. On the exercises of a good Religious. 1. The life of a good Religious ought to abound in all virtues, that he may be inwardly such as he appears outwardly to men. And much more ought he to be within than what is seen without, because our beholder is God, whom we ought above all to reverence wherever we are, and to walk pure as Angels in His sight.

Every day we ought to renew our resolution, and to stir ourselves up to fervor, as though we had come to conversion only today, and to say: Help me, O God, in the good resolution and in Your holy service, and grant me now this day to begin perfectly, for what I have done hitherto is nothing. 2. According to our resolution is the course of our progress, and much diligence is needed for him who wishes to advance well. But if he who resolves firmly often fails, what shall he do who resolves something rarely or less fixedly? Yet in various ways the abandoning of our resolution comes about. And a slight omission of exercises scarcely passes without some loss. The resolution of the just depends rather on the grace of God than on their own strength.

In Him they always trust, whatever they undertake. For man proposes, but God disposes; nor is the way of man in himself. 3. If for piety's sake, or with a view to a brother's benefit, an accustomed exercise is sometimes omitted, it can easily be recovered afterward. But if through weariness of soul or negligence it is lightly forsaken, that is blameworthy enough, and is felt to be harmful. Let us strive as much as we can; still we shall easily fail in many things. Yet something definite should always be resolved; and those things especially should be resolved upon that most hinder us. Our outward and inward affairs alike must be searched out and ordered by us, because both are profitable to our own progress. 4.

If you cannot continually collect yourself, do it at least sometimes, and at the very least once a day, namely in the morning or in the evening. In the morning make your resolution, in the evening examine your conduct: what manner of man you have been today in word, deed, and thought; for in these perhaps you have often offended God and your neighbor. Gird yourself like a strong man against the wickednesses of the devil; bridle your gluttony, and you will more easily bridle every inclination of the flesh. Never be wholly idle, but either reading, or writing, or praying, or meditating, or laboring at something useful for the common good. Yet bodily exercises are to be performed with discretion, nor are they to be undertaken by all in the same way. 5. Things that are not common are not to be displayed outwardly, for private practices are more safely performed in secret.

Yet beware lest you be sluggish toward common duties, and more ready for singular ones. But when you have fully and faithfully completed what is due and enjoined, if time then remains beyond that, give yourself back to yourself, according as your devotion desires. All cannot have one and the same exercise, but one serves these better, another those, and different exercises please according to the fitness of the time; for some are more savory on feast days, others on weekdays; we need some in the time of temptation, and others in the time of peace and quiet. Some things we delight to think on when we are sad, and others when we are joyful in the Lord. 6. About the principal feasts good exercises are to be renewed, and the intercessions of the Saints more fervently implored.

From feast to feast we ought to resolve as though then about to depart from the world, and to attain the eternal feast. And therefore we ought carefully to prepare ourselves in devout seasons, and to live the more devoutly, and to keep every observance the more strictly, as those who shall shortly receive from God the reward of our labor. 7. And if it be deferred, let us believe ourselves less well prepared, and unworthy of so great a glory, which shall be revealed in us at the appointed time; and let us strive to prepare ourselves the better for our departure. Blessed is that servant, says the Evangelist Luke, whom the Lord, when He comes, shall find watching. Verily I say to you, He shall set him over all His goods. Chapter 20. On the love of solitude and silence. 1.

Seek a fitting time of leisure for yourself, and think often on the benefits of God. Leave curious matters; read rather such subjects as afford compunction rather than occupation. If you withdraw yourself from superfluous talk and idle wanderings about, and also from listening to novelties and rumors, you will find time sufficient and fitting for dwelling on good meditations. The greatest of the Saints avoided human company where they could, and chose to live to God in secret. 2. Someone said: As often as I have been among men, I have returned less a man. This we often experience, when we converse for long. It is easier to be silent altogether than not to exceed in speech. It is easier to lie hidden at home than to be able to keep guard over oneself sufficiently abroad.

He therefore who intends to attain to inward and spiritual things must, with Jesus, turn aside from the crowd. No one safely appears in public save he who gladly remains hidden. No one safely commands save he who has learned to obey. No one safely rejoices save he who has the testimony of a good conscience. 3. Yet the security of the Saints was always full of the fear of God. Nor were they any the less anxious and humble in themselves, because they shone forth with great virtues and grace. But the security of the wicked arises from pride and presumption, and in the end turns into despair of themselves. Never promise yourself security in this life, however good a monk or good a hermit you may seem. 4.

Often those who are better in the estimation of men have been the more endangered through their excessive self-confidence. Hence it is much more profitable that they should not be wholly without temptations, but should be more often assailed, lest they be too secure, lest perhaps they be lifted up into pride, lest also they decline too freely to outward consolations. Oh, he who would never seek transitory gladness, who would never busy himself with the world, what a good conscience he would keep! Oh, he who would cut off all vain anxiety, and think only of saving and divine things, and place all his hope in the Lord, what great peace and quiet he would possess! 5. No one is worthy of heavenly consolation, unless he has diligently exercised himself in holy compunction.

If you wish to be pricked to the heart, enter into your chamber and shut out the tumults of the world. As it is written, In your chambers be pricked to compunction. In your cell you will find what you will often lose outside. The cell, dwelt in continually, grows sweet; but ill kept, it breeds weariness. If in the beginning of your conversion you dwell in it well and keep it, it will afterward be to you a beloved friend and a most welcome solace. 6. In silence and quiet the devout soul makes progress, and learns the hidden things of the Scriptures. There it finds streams of tears, with which every night it may wash and cleanse itself, that it may become so much the more familiar to its Maker, the further it dwells from all worldly tumult.

He therefore who withdraws himself from acquaintances and friends, to him will God draw near with the holy Angels. It is better to lie hidden and take care of oneself, than, neglecting oneself, to work signs. It is praiseworthy for a religious man to go abroad rarely, to shun being seen, and to be unwilling to see men. 7. Why do you wish to see what you are not permitted to have? The world passes away, and the lust thereof. The desires of sensuality draw one to roam abroad. But when the hour has passed, what does it carry back but heaviness of conscience and dispersion of heart? A joyful going-out often begets a sad returning, and a merry evening vigil makes a sorrowful morning. Thus every carnal joy enters pleasantly, but in the end it bites and slays. 8. What can you see anywhere, that can long endure under the sun?

Perhaps you believe you will be satisfied, but you will not be able to attain it. If you were to see all things present, what would it be but a vain sight? Lift up your eyes to God on high, and pray for your sins and negligences. Leave vain things to the vain; but you, attend to those things which God has commanded you. Shut your door upon yourself, and call to you Jesus your beloved. Remain with Him in your cell, for you will not find elsewhere so great a peace. If you had not gone out, nor heard anything of rumors, you would have remained better in good peace. Since you delight at times to hear new things, you must thereafter endure disturbance of heart. Chapter 21. On compunction of heart. 1. If you wish to make any progress, keep yourself in the fear of God, and do not be too free.

But under discipline restrain all your senses, and do not give yourself over to foolish mirth. Give yourself to compunction of heart, and you will find devotion. Compunction opens up many good things, which dissolute living is wont quickly to lose. It is a wonder that any man can ever rejoice perfectly in this life, who considers and weighs his exile and the many perils of his soul. 2. Through levity of heart and negligence of our faults, we feel not the sorrows of our soul, but often vainly give ourselves to laughter, when by right we ought to weep. There is no true liberty, nor good conscience, save in the fear of God. Happy is he who can cast away every hindrance of distraction, and gather himself into the union of holy compunction.

Happy is he who casts away from himself whatever can stain or burden his conscience. Strive manfully. Habit is overcome by habit. If you know how to let men alone, they will gladly let you alone to do your own deeds. 3. Do not draw to yourself the affairs of others, nor entangle yourself in the causes of those greater than you. Keep always your eye first upon yourself, and admonish yourself especially before all those dear to you. If you have not the favor of men, do not therefore be saddened; but let this be grievous to you, that you do not bear yourself well and circumspectly enough, as it would become a servant of God and a devout Religious to conduct himself.

It is often more profitable and more safe that a man should not have many consolations in this life according to the flesh; especially, however, that we have not divine ones, or but rarely feel ourselves devout. We are at fault, because we do not seek compunction of heart, and do not cast away vain and external things. 4. Acknowledge yourself unworthy of divine consolation, but rather worthy of much tribulation. When a man is perfectly compunct, then the whole world is grievous and bitter to him. A good man finds sufficient matter for sorrow and weeping; for whether he considers himself, or thinks of his neighbor, he knows that no one here lives without tribulation; and the more strictly he considers himself, the more he grieves.

The matter for just sorrow and inward compunction is our sins and vices, in which we lie so entangled that we are rarely able to contemplate heavenly things. 5. If you would think more often of your death than of the length of your life, no doubt you would amend yourself more fervently. If also you would heartily ponder the future pains of Hell or of Purgatory, I believe you would gladly endure sorrow and labor, and would dread no rigor. But because these things do not pass to the heart, and we still love flattering allurements, therefore we remain cold and very sluggish. Often it is poverty of spirit whence the wretched body so easily complains. Pray therefore humbly to the Lord that He may give you the spirit of compunction;

and say with the Prophet, Feed me, O Lord, with the bread of tears, and give me drink in tears by measure. Chapter 22. On the condition of human misery. 1. You are wretched wherever you are, and wherever you turn, unless you turn to God. Why are you troubled because it does not turn out for you as you will and desire? Who is there that has all things according to his own will? Neither I, nor you, nor any man upon earth. There is no one in the world without some tribulation or distress, be he king or pope. Who is it that is better off? Surely he who can suffer something for God. 2. Many feeble and infirm folk say, Behold, what a good life that man has, how rich and how great, how powerful and exalted.

But look to the heavenly goods, and you will see that all these temporal things are nothing, but rather uncertain and very burdensome, because they are never possessed without anxiety and fear. It is not man's felicity to have temporal things in abundance; a moderate portion suffices him. It is truly a misery to live upon the earth. The more spiritual a man wishes to be, the more bitter the present life becomes to him, because he feels and sees more clearly the defects of human corruption. For to eat, drink, watch, sleep, rest, labor, and to be subject to the other necessities of nature, is truly a great misery and affliction to the devout man, who would gladly be released and free from all sin. 3.

For the inner man is greatly burdened by bodily necessities in this world. Whence the Prophet devoutly prays that he may be free from these, saying, Deliver me from my necessities, O Lord. But woe to those who do not recognize their own misery and corruptible life. For some so embrace this life, though they scarcely have the necessities by laboring or begging, that if they could live here always, they would care nothing for the kingdom of God. 4. Oh, the senseless and faithless of heart, who lie so deep in earthly things that they savor nothing but carnal things. But the wretches will yet, in the end, grievously feel how vile and how nothing was that which they loved.

But the Saints of God and all the devout friends of Christ heeded not the things that pleased the flesh, nor the things that flourished in this present time. But their whole hope and intention longed for the eternal goods. Their whole desire was borne toward the abiding and invisible things, lest by the love of visible things they should be drawn down to base ones. 5. Do not, brother, lose confidence in advancing to spiritual things. You still have time and the hour; why will you put off your resolution? Arise, and begin this instant, and say: Now is the time for doing, now is the time for fighting, now is the fitting time for amending. When you fare ill and are troubled, then is the time for meriting.

You must pass through fire and water, before you come to refreshment; unless you do violence to yourself, you will not overcome vice. As long as we bear this frail body, we cannot be without sin, nor live without weariness and sorrow. We would gladly have rest from all misery; but since through sin we have lost innocence, we have also lost true blessedness. Therefore we must hold to patience, and await the mercy of God, until this iniquity pass away, and mortality be swallowed up by life. 6. Oh, how great is human frailty, which is always prone to vices. Today you confess your sins, and tomorrow you again commit what you have confessed. Now you resolve to beware, and after an hour you act as though you had resolved nothing.

With reason, therefore, can we humble ourselves, and never think anything great of ourselves, since we are so frail and unstable. And quickly too can that be lost through negligence, which with much labor was at last hardly acquired through grace. 7. What will become of us still in the end, who grow lukewarm so early? Woe to us if we will thus turn aside to rest, as though there were already peace and security, when as yet there appears no trace of true holiness in our manner of life. Well were it that we should still be trained, like good novices, to the best of manners, if perchance there might be hope of future amendment and greater spiritual progress. Chapter 23. On the meditation of death. 1. Very quickly will this be over with you: see how it stands with you otherwise.

Today a man is, and tomorrow he appears no more. And when he has been taken from sight, he also quickly passes from mind. Oh, the dullness and hardness of the human heart, which thinks only of the present, and does not rather provide for the future. In every deed and thought you ought so to hold yourself, as though you were straightway about to die. If you had a good conscience, you would not greatly fear death. It were better to beware of sins than to flee death. If you are not ready today, how will you be tomorrow? Tomorrow is an uncertain day, and how do you know whether you will have a tomorrow? 2. What does it profit to live long, when we amend ourselves so little? Ah, long life does not always amend, but often rather increases guilt. Would that for one single day we had lived well in this world.

Many count the years of their conversion, but often small is the fruit of amendment. If it is fearful to die, perhaps it will be more perilous to live long. Blessed is he who keeps the hour of his death always before his eyes, and daily disposes himself to die. If you have seen anyone die, consider that you will pass by the same way. 3. When it is morning, suppose that you will not reach the evening. But when evening has come, do not dare to promise yourself the morning. Be therefore always ready, and so live, that death may never find you unprepared. Many die suddenly and unforeseen. For at an hour when it is not thought of, the Son of Man will come.

When that last hour comes, you will begin to feel quite otherwise about your whole past life, and you will greatly grieve that you were so negligent and remiss. 4. How happy and prudent is he who strives now to be in life such as he desires to be found in death. For a perfect contempt of the world will give great confidence of dying well, a fervent desire to advance in virtues, love of discipline, the labor of penitence, readiness, obedience, denial of self, and the bearing of every adversity for the love of Christ. You can do many good works while you are healthy, but when sick, I know not what you will be able to do. Few are amended by sickness; so also those who travel much are rarely sanctified. 5.

Do not trust in friends and kindred, nor put off your salvation to the future, for men will forget you sooner than you suppose. It is better to provide in time now, and to send some good before you, than to hope upon the help of others. If you are not solicitous for yourself now, who will be solicitous for you in the future? Now is the time most precious; but alas for the sorrow, that you spend it more uselessly, in which you might earn that whereby you should live eternally. The time will come when you will desire one day or one hour for amendment, and I know not whether you will obtain it. 6. Come, dearest, from how great a peril you can free yourself, from how great a fear deliver yourself, if only you are always fearful and mistrustful of death!

Strive now so to live, that in the hour of death you may be able to rejoice rather than to fear. Learn now to die to the world, that then you may begin to live with Christ. Learn now to despise all things, that then you may freely go to Christ. Chastise now your body by penitence, that then you may be able to have sure confidence. 7. Ah, fool, why do you think you will live long, when you have not one day secure? How many have been deceived, and unexpectedly drawn forth from the body! How often have you heard people say, that this one fell by the sword, that one was drowned, another, falling from a height, broke his neck, another stiffened in death while eating, another made his end while playing; one perished by fire, another by iron, another by plague, another by robbery:

and thus the end of all is death, and the life of men passes away quickly like a shadow. 8. Who will remember you after death, and who will pray for you? Act, act now, dearest, whatever you can do for yourself, for you know not when you will die. You know not either what will follow you after death. While you have time, gather up immortal riches. Think of nothing but your salvation. Care only for the things that are God's. Make yourself friends now by venerating the Saints and imitating their deeds, that when you fail in this life they may receive you into eternal dwellings. 9. Keep yourself as a pilgrim and guest upon the earth, to whom nothing of the world's affairs belongs. Keep your heart free, and lifted up on high to God, for here you have no abiding city.

Thither direct your daily groanings and prayers with tears, that your spirit may be worthy after death to pass happily to the Lord. Chapter 24. On the judgment and punishments of sinners. 1. In all things look to the end, and how you will stand before the strict Judge, to whom nothing is hidden, who is not appeased by gifts, nor accepts excuses, but will judge what is just. O most wretched and foolish, what will you answer to God, who knows all your evils, you who at times fear the face of an angry man? Why do you not provide for yourself against the day of judgment? When no one will be able to be excused or defended by another, but each one will be a sufficient burden for himself.