Blog one
The Imitation of
Christ by Thomas Kempis is a book of wisdom to guide the faithful in the
Christian life, which is also a spiritual life. It is a book that is divided
into four sections, and each section has many short chapters, each one of them
has a title which summarizes what the chapter is about. On the one side he
tells how the world or the none-spiritual side sees things, and on the other he
tells how we should see it from the spiritual side. Then he gives a short
reflection and comparing both sides, by doing that we can see both extremities.
For example, the things of the flesh that belong to this world are something
that does not have fruits but desired by most. As a contrast, the things that
belong to the spirit are something we have to work hard for, but not desired by
many and have eternal fruits. In that sense, it is an exhortation to live a
good life making a leap from the world of flesh to the things of the spirit.
Since it is a book that has many chapters, there is a progression in them
leading one into a more profound spiritual life. But is not meant just to be
read more than anything it is to put into practice that is why it should be
read slowly so that it may be practiced at the same time. “At the Day of
Judgement we shall not be asked what we have read but what we have done” [1]
Book
One. Thoughts Helpful in the Life of the Soul
Chapter one.
Imitating Christ and Despising All Vanities on Earth.” There is a distinction between
vanity and humility, and for the spiritual life, there must be a detachment
from the things of this world “It is vanity than to seek, and to trust in, the
riches that shall parish. It is vanity, too, to covet honours, and to lift up
ourselves on high. It is vanity to follow the desires of the flesh and be led
by them, for this shall bring misery at last. It is vanity to desire long life,
and to have little care for a good life. It is vanity to take thought only for
the life which now is. And not to look forward to the things which shall be
thereafter.” [2] Vanity is a distinction for the love of things that belong to
this world but do not transcend, such as riches, honor, self-lifting, flesh, a
long careless life, etc. all these things pass away, they are obstacles to the
spiritual life which lead to the eternal life. Further, there must be a denial
of these things and practice humility.
Humility
Humility is about
the proper knowledge of oneself; it is to think of other better than we do of
ourselves. “That is the highest and most profitable lesson when a man truly
knows and judge lowly of himself. To account nothing to one’s self, and always
think kindly and highly of others.” [3] The humility that comes from putting
other in the first place rather than ourselves brings a different meaning to
our lives, it is that they are more important than we are, and so our lives
change for the service of others. On the other hand, there must be some
knowledge of truth just as well the knowledge of oneself. We have to know about
the things that are profitable and the ones that are harmful. “The more a man
has unity and simplicity in himself, the more things and deeper things he
understands and without labor because he receives the light of understanding
from above. The spirit which is pure, sincere, and steadfast, is not distracted
though it has many works do because it does all things for the honor of God and
strives to be free from all thoughts of self-seeking.” [4] It is when we do not have a self-interest
that we may pay full attention to the thing of the Lord. For instance, people
that are interested in the things of this world never stop working for them.
And they do not have time to invest or to care for others, but they do profit
in a material sense. So is when one renounces to him/herself that the Lord take
an interest in us, pours His Holy Spirit on us, and we can do greater things
with less effort. He also allows us to understand things that without His grace
would be if not impossible harder. So it is that through humility there is help
from above for the care of others, which can be looked at spiritual works.
Obedience
and Subjection
Obedience is
something that we must practice through our lives, and it takes humility to
accept the authority of others. For everywhere that we go there is someone we
need to obey, sometimes is the law, and others the Church. But what is most
fruitful is to recognize that everyone has wisdom and that we might have
something to learn from them. “It is verily a great thing to live in obedience
to be under authority, and not to be at our own disposal. For safer it is to
live in subjection than in a place of authority. Many are in obedience for
necessity rather than love.” [5] The first thing that we have to give up for
obedience is our interest and put ourselves in the service of others. But there
are different reasons for doing so; it is that we might be doing it for the
protection of the authority that we are serving, or it could be that we are
doing it for the love of the one we are obeying. It is then that when we do our
will that we lose the unity of others, and we find alone and without fruits.
But when we obey the one we love for others life take a different meaning.
Another form of obedience is to hear rather than to speak, for instance, many
lack the gift if listening to others, and instead of listening we think what we
have to say is more important.
Footnotes
[1] Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I,
[2] Ibid
[3] Ibid
[4] Ibid
[5] Ibid
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