 Welcome to The Commentaries, a podcast series from Tan in which you'll learn how to read and understand history's greatest Catholic works from today's greatest Catholic scholars. In every series of The Commentaries, your expert host will be your personal guide to not just read the book, but to live the book, shining the light of its eternal truths into our modern darkness. Visit tancommentaries.com to get your copy of the book and to subscribe for access to all the great reading plans, new episodes, bonus content and exclusive deals for listeners of The Commentaries. Hello and welcome once again. I'm Father Robert Nixon, a monk of the Order of St. Benedict and director of the Institute for Benedictine Studies at the Abbey of the Most Holy Trinity in New Norsey Western Australia. This is the commentary series on The Imitation of Christ, the great masterpiece written by Thomas the Campus. Today is day five of our series of podcasts, and this day we'll be entering into book two, covering book two chapters one through six. As I mentioned before, the entire imitation of Christ is divided into what are called four books. Each of these books are really main sections of the single book. So in the second book, or the second main section, which is entitled Admonitions Concerning Interior Things, we hear Thomas the Campus giving us very wise advice concerning the cultivation of this inner life, this inward looking life. This was an important theme in spirituality in the late Middle Ages and has continued to be important, I think, until the present time. Chapter one of this second book of The Imitation of Christ is entitled of Interior Conversion. And it begins with a quote from the Gospel according to Luke. The kingdom of God is within, saith the Lord, convert yourself with your whole heart to the Lord, and quit this miserable world, and thy soul shall find rest, learned to despise exterior things, and give thyself to the interior, and you shall see the kingdom of God will come into them. So this is absolutely wonderful reflections on this line. The kingdom of God is within you. It's something which we've all heard, and perhaps reflected upon. And he's taking it to be the basis of his meditation here, that we need to cultivate a life which is more focused upon inward realities, spiritual realities, than external realities, than the outer world. And if we think about it philosophically for a moment, it is the inner life, our inner happiness or peace or sorrow or anxiety, which really contributes most to the condition in which a person lives, to how we feel, to how we actually are. The exterior world can only affect us insofar as we let it. And we typically imagine in our modern age that it's the exterior world, which is the real world, and the interior world, which is the unreal world. Thomas the campus is promising us or proposing to us a slightly different way of thinking that it's the inner world, which is the reality, which matters the most. And the exterior world almost is just something which we're passing through, just a visible display. And he says this when he says, learn to despise exterior things, and give thyself to the interior. These is perhaps a slightly old fashioned word which we wouldn't use today, but certainly it's important in the sense of being detached a little from the things of the exterior world, of recognizing them for what they are, merely contingent and merely appearances. He continues then to talk about how we can cultivate this interior life. He says, why do you stand there looking about you, since this is not your resting place? Your dwelling must be in heaven, and all things of the earth are only to be looked upon as passing by. All things will pass away, and you along with them. See that you cleave not to them, lest you be ensnared and be lost. Let thy thoughts be with the Most High, and thy prayer directed towards Christ without intermission. I think this is wonderful advice to cling to the things of heaven, because that's where our true home, our true destiny is. He then goes on, if you know not how to meditate on high and heavenly things, rest on the Passion of Christ, and willingly dwell in his sacred wounds. Very wise advice here, because there are times when it's difficult to contemplate these glorious heavenly realities. And he says, if you can't do that, think instead just about the sufferings of Christ, which will lead us there. The next chapter, chapter two, is upon humble submission. And humility is a recurring theme in the writings of Thomas the Kempers. And this submission in this case means a willingness to give way to the will of God, to submit to the will of God, as it is manifested, particularly in the things of this world, in the circumstances and peoples, which surround us, which are often largely beyond our control. He advises us, make no great account of who is for thee, or who is against thee. But let it be thy business, and thy care, that God may be with thee in everything that thou does. So he's suggesting here, we shouldn't worry so much about human approval or disapproval, as that what we're doing is on the side of God. He says, have a good conscience, and God will sufficiently defend you, for he whom God will help, no man's malice can hurt. So if we surrender ourselves to God, if we ensure that we've got a clean conscience in relation to God, then we can stand up to anything in this world. Nothing in this world can really hurt us. He continues, when a man humbles himself for his defects, he then easily appeases others, and quickly satisfies those that are angry with him. This is a very prudent piece of advice. If we're quick to recognize our own defects, if someone points out to us a fault that we've made a mistake or a shortcoming, honestly admit it if it's true. And this is the quickest way to achieve peace and reconciliation. Sometimes we've got this instinctive tendency to want to defend ourselves when it really would be much better, both for ourselves and for the sake of peace generally, to step back a little. In the third chapter, he talks about the characteristics of a good, peaceable man. Now I should say, when he uses the term man in this context, it applies equally to women, of course. And he advises us, keep yourself first in peace, and then you will be able to bring others to peace. A peaceable man does more good than one that is very learned. A good peaceable man turns all things to good. And this, I think, is very true, if we can keep ourselves in a state of peacefulness, if we can cultivate this precious inner peace, then it becomes contagious. It transfers itself to the people and circumstances that surround us, and we probably all know and people like that, who seem to be oceans of peace, and not only a piece which is self-contained but which spreads to those who surround them. He considers what others are obliged to do, and often neglects that to which he himself is obliged. This is talking about people who take the other approach, who view others more critically than they view themselves, who turn their attentions to others, to the outward world, and turn it away from themselves. And this, of course, is contrary to true peace. For the true peace, the only peace which is sustainable has to have an inner source. It can't be dependent upon anything in this outward world. And he concludes, with, He who knows how to suffer will enjoy much peace. Such a one is a conqueror of himself and the Lord of the world, a friend of Christ and an heir to heaven. This is very important. He who knows how to suffer. In other words, having the ability to accept suffering, adversity, and trouble, with a certain calmness, with a peace of mind. And this can only come through the presence of this interior peace. In chapter 4, he continues with a discussion of a pure mind and a simple intention. This quality of simplicity and purity is so very important. We can often find our lives and our minds and souls made complicated by the multitude of things we need to deal with, by the complex web of relationships in which we find ourselves. But he is telling us to try to keep ourselves simple and to keep life simple. And I think most people recognize that this is very, very useful advice. He says, with two wings, a man is lifted up above earthly things. That is, with simplicity and purity. Simplicity must be in the intention, purity in the affection. Simplicity aims at God. Purity takes hold of him and tastes him. If you intend and seek nothing but the will of God and the prophet of thy neighbour, you shall enjoy eternal liberty. If your heart was right, then every creature would be to thee a mirror of life and a book of holy doctrine. There is no creature so little and contemptible as not to manifest the glory of God. These are wonderful words about the effects of purity and simplicity. In purity and simplicity, we in fact are imitating the theological qualities of God himself who is absolutely pure and simple. By cultivating these, we become able to see the will of God in all things, to seek for nothing other than the fulfilment of God's will and the benefit of our neighbour. It makes life very simple. And from this, he says, proceeds eternal liberty. And if we think about the things which constrain us, they're not really earthly things, but rather it's our attachment to earthly things, our relationship with them, our entanglement in them, which restrains our liberty. And liberty, like this simplicity and purity, is also one of the theological qualities of God. And of course, Jesus himself was God. So in imitating this simplicity, purity and liberty, we're imitating not only God in an abstract sense, but also imitating Christ himself, which of course is the whole theme of the book. And we're told that purity of heart consists in detachment from everything that can defile it. And that's a lot of things. In chapter 5, we're talking about on the consideration of oneself. In other words, what view do we take of ourselves? What opinion do we have of ourselves? It's very difficult for a person not to take a certain view of themselves, because we're all, to one degree or other, social animals, so that our external appearance is something we're conscious that it's kind of an important part of our daily life. And we take this view of ourselves in the same way. Who are we? And we're told that we cannot trust much to ourselves because we often want grace and understanding. Now, want in this context is a slightly archaic word, but it means that we often lack grace and understanding. There is but little light in us, and this we quickly lose through negligence. Many times also, we perceive not that we are so blind interiorly. We often do ill and do worse in excusing it. We are sometimes moved with passion, and we mistake it for zeal. We blame little things in others and pass over great things in ourselves. How true all of this is, because when we look at ourselves, each one of us is a kind of biased judge, so to speak. We can hardly avoid that. And for this reason, we spot the faults in others, but overlook our own faults. And as he's saying, we might mistake something like a kind of passion for zeal. We mistake anger maybe for a desire for justice. We mistake maybe a desire for revenge for a desire for justice. So urging us to be self-critical, to be honest, to know ourselves. And this is the key, I think, to true amendment of life. And in chapter six, he deals with the joy of a good conscience. And a good conscience is a wonderful thing to have, as I'm sure all our listeners can attest. He begins with the glory of a good man is the testimony of a good conscience. Keep a good conscience and thou shalt always have joy. A good conscience can bear very much and is very joyful in the midst of adversity. But a bad conscience is always fearful and uneasy. There's such great truth in these words. If we're in a condition in which we have our own conscience in order, which we know that despite our many faults and fragilities, we're basically at rights before God, this places us in a position to face absolutely anything in this life, anything in this world, to face death itself and God himself with full confidence. And if we come from that position, then we suddenly find ourselves imbued with joy and strength in peace. On the other hand, as he says, an uneasy conscience gives rise to all kinds of difficulties. So I think this is a very good place to finish today. And hopefully we all have good consciences rather than uneasy consciences. And if not, of course, we can always pray for the infinite mercy of God and take whatever steps we need to take to amend our own lives. So this brings us to the end of day five in our study of the imitation of Christ. Thank you so much for listening and for joining with me on this very exciting journey into the spiritual life guided by the great Master Thomas E. Kempers. Next time we'll be discussing book two, chapters seven to twelve. Until then, I hope you all enjoy every blessing and I will speak to you again very soon. Goodbye for now. This has been an episode of The Commentaries, a podcast brought to you by Tan. To follow the show, study more of the greatest Catholic classics and to support The Commentaries and other great free content from Tan. Visit tancommentaries.com to subscribe and use coupon code C-O-M-25 to get 25% off your next order, including the imitation of Christ and countless more spiritual works to deepen your interior life and guide you to heaven.