 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 back. 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 Norcia, Western Australia. This is The Commentaries series on the imitation of Christ by the great spiritual teacher Thomas A. Kempis. Today is day seven of our series of podcasts and we're going to be covering book three, chapters one through six. Now as I mentioned before, the imitation of Christ is divided into four separate books or four major sections. This book three is by far the largest and is entitled of internal consolation. In chapters one to six, we're given some very illuminating passages and a lot of these are written in the form of dialogues between the soul and the soul of the disciple and Christ. So the disciple will speak to Christ, will ask him questions and then Christ will provide truthful replies. It's written in a really kind of original and distinctive way. So I think you'll enjoy reading this. The first chapter is the internal discourse of Christ to a faithful soul. And this faithful soul is speaking to God. He begins by saying, I will hear what the Lord God will speak to me. Blessed is the soul who hears the Lord speaking within her. And from his mouth receives the word of comfort. Blessed are eyes which are shut to outward things and attentive to the interior. Blessed is indeed which hearken to the truth itself, teaching within and not to the voice which sounds without. Blessed are they who penetrate into internal things and endeavor to prepare themselves more and more by daily exercises to the attainment of heavenly secrets. Blessed are they who seek to behold the intent on God and who rid themselves of every worldly impediment. And now to this wonderful declaration, Christ replies, thus says my beloved, I am thy salvation, thy peace and thy life. Abide in me and you shall find peace. Let alone all transitory things and seek things which are eternal. What are temporal things but deceit? And what will all things created avail me if thou has been forsaken by thy creator? Cast off then all earthly things and make thyself agreeable to thy creator and faithful to him that so they may attain to true happiness. And this wonderful chapter, it's kind of a recapitulation of what's been said so far that we need to turn towards the internal to the eternal to the divine and put aside the external, the temporal, that means the passing things, the things of the exterior world. And this is wonderful advice, which we can never fulfill completely, because as long as we're in these mortal bodies, we can't disregard completely the exterior world, nor should we. But indeed, we need to focus our intention, our desire, the longings of our heart upon those things which are eternal. And in the prayer we read, we are read with the demands of my senses, the tumult of my passions and the inefficacy of my desires. I come to thee, O Jesus, earnestly to implore thee to recall my mind and my heart to their centre, which is thy presence and thy love. So this coming back to the centre, coming back to the kingdom of God who lies deep within each one of us. In chapter two, we continue this kind of colloquial or discourse between the disciple and Christ himself. Chapter two is entitled, The Truth Speaks Within Us Without Noise of Words. And the disciple speaks to Christ. He tells him, Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. Let not, Moses, speak to me, but you, O Lord my God, the eternal truth, lest I die and prove fruitless, if I be only outwardly admonished and not in kindled with him. Lest the word which I have heard and not fulfilled, which I have known and not loved, which I have believed and not observed, rise up in judgment against me. Speak, then, O Lord, for thy servant hears, for thou alone hast the words of eternal life. And I think this is a wonderful declaration. He asks that he doesn't want to hear the voice of Moses, nothing against Moses, of course, but saying that the law of Moses represents the external demands of our religion. He instead wishes to encounter this internal, this ineffable truth. And this is the truth which sets us free, because the commandments, as we know, are a useful guide for our life. But in themselves, they don't bring salvation. They're not a formula for salvation. They might kind of be a prerequisite for salvation. But it's Christ himself who is the eternal truth, who is the authoritative word of God. And we're told that God speaks to the understanding by the light of his spirit and to the heart by his holy inspiration. All the prophets deliver in the word of God. All the truths which preachers announced to us cannot enlighten the understanding, nor touch the heart if God himself does not speak to us by the motions of his grace. So opening ourselves to the action of the grace of God and desiring it most fervently. In chapters three, we're told that the words of God are to be heard with humility, and many weigh them not. In other words, many don't give them proper consideration. And Christ speaks here. My son hear my words, words most sweet, exceeding all the learning of the philosophers and the wise men of this world. My words are spirit and life and are not to be estimated by the sense of man. They are not intended to gratify a vain self complacency, but are to be heard in silence and received with all humility and great affection. This is so important that the words of Christ offer us this wonderful sweetness. And when we say the words of Christ, it means, of course, what he actually said as it's recorded in the gospel. But it also means what he exemplified through his actions. One of the particularly important sets of words of Christ are the seven last words which he spoke on the cross. And I know that Tan has a great book by Saint Bonaventure coming out upon these seven last words. I recommend that to all of you. It was very privileged to have the opportunity of translating it myself. But to think of these utterances of Christ as of profound and almost infinite meaning, we can ponder them very carefully. Take one sentence of Christ in the gospel and make it your theme for the whole day. Then he goes on. But alas, for an unchangeable good, for an inestimable reward, for the highest honour and never-ending glory, they are unwilling to take the least pain. Be ashamed, then, you slothful servant who are so apt to complain seeing that you are more ready to labour for death than for life. They rejoice more in running after vanity than you in the pursuit of truth. And here he's comparing how eagerly people pursue the things of this passing world and how few of us put correspondingly great efforts into our spiritual life, into what will ensure our internal happiness. So there's, you know, a kind of strange dichotomy there that people are prepared to work so hard for certain things, for achievement in business, in sport or whatever. But, you know, we Catholics, we're, you know, we're often not prepared to do much more than turn up at mass on Sunday, which is a kind of strange state of affairs. In chapter four, we're told that we ought to walk in truth and humility in the presence of God. And this is so important. Christ speaks first. He says, Son, walk before me in truth and always seek me in the simplicity of thy heart. He that walks before me in truth shall be secured from evil occurrences and truth shall deliver him from deceivers and from the detractions of the wicked. If truth is on your side, you will be free from all anxiety and unconcerned at all that vain man can say against you. Then the soul, the disciple, replies to Christ, Lord, this is true, as thou say, so I beseech you. Let it be done with me. Let your truth teach me. Let your truth guard me and keep me till I come to a happy end. Let the same truth deliver me from all evil affections and all inordinate love. And I shall walk with the imperfect freedom of heart. And this is a recurring theme. You'll recall in the first book there was a chapter against inordinate affections. Now inordinate affections are kind of misguided attachments to earthly things. And it doesn't mean we shouldn't have regard or respect for earthly things and certainly for other people. But our love for them has to be ordered in the context of this unbounded love for God, who alone is the perfect and eternal good. The next chapter then takes us on the wonderful effects of divine love. And if we think about it, this divine love is a splendid thing. It overcame, it overcomes everything, sin, death and so forth. It finds its perfect expression in the life, the incarnation, in the miracles, in the teaching and above all in the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior. And we begin with the disciples speaking to Christ. I bless thee, because you have given to me to be mindful of so poor a wretch as I am. I bless you and glorify you forevermore, together with Christ and the Holy Spirit, the comforter to all eternity. For you are my glory and the joy of my heart. You are my hope and my refuge in the day of my trouble. But because I am as yet weak in love and imperfect in virtue, therefore do I stand in need of being strengthened and comforted. For this reason, visit me often and instruct me in your holy discipline. Free me from evil passions and heal my heart from all disorderly affections that being healed and well purified in my interior, I may become fit to love, courageous to suffer and constant to persevere. This is truly excellent because the disciple firstly declares his unbounded love for God, but then admits that because he is a weak and finite being, this love is not quite what it should be or what it would be. That, you know, we fall prey to distractions and to competing affections and desires and so forth. It's something which we shouldn't deny and it's something which we shouldn't be ashamed of because it's part of our nature while we're within this vessel of flesh, our mortal life. But at the same time, we need God's grace to help us to overcome it. And we conclude with the prayer. It is possible, O Lord, that thou who art infinitely lovable and thou lovest us with an infinite love should find in us so little love for thee. Revive in our hearts that fire of divine charity, which thou, my saviour, did bring from heaven upon the earth and which thou desire should glow within us. Grant that becoming insensible and indifferent to all creatures. We may feel neither ardent or attachment, but for thee alone. So imploring God, who is the source of all love and who is love itself, to inflame our hearts with a desire for him. So our love for God is actually a reflection of God's love for us. It's an imperfect reflection. But, you know, by working on it, by polishing the mirror of our life, by focusing on this love of God, by turning away from our attachment to our earthly things, we become a more authentic mirror and reflection of this glorious love of Christ. And chapter six is entitled The Proof of a True Lover. And it begins with Christ asking or telling, my son, thou art not as yet a valiant and prudent lover. Hmm, a very challenging statement there. And then the disciple replies, why, O Lord, and Christ answers, because you have fallen off from how they began upon meeting with a little adversity and to greedily seek after consolation. A valiant lover stands his ground in temptation and yields not to the crafty persuasions of the enemy. And he is pleased with me in adversity as he is pleased in prosperity. A prudent lover considers not so much the gift of the lover as the love of the giver. And this is so important because he's kind of using imagery he had drawn from earthly love and saying, if we, you know, if we love someone, if we're a man and we love a woman, or I guess if we're a woman and we love a man, it's a sign that our love is not really true. If it's changeable, if it depends upon things going well, if we're willing to turn aside from this love we profess, as soon as it gets a bit difficult, or if we're kind of looking around for other consolations rather than seeking alone for the happiness of the one whom we claim to love. He says, look not upon the gift we receive, but rather on the love of the person who gives it. And in this context, everything which happens to us in life is a gift of God. We should love and esteem it as such. We shouldn't look at it too closely and say, well, do I like this thing which God has given me today? We should say, no, I love it because I love God, the giver. So these are very inspiring and mystical thoughts and so much to ponder about as we find in every single chapter of this most glorious book, The Imitation of Christ. And so this brings us to the end of day seven in our study of The Imitation of Christ. Thank you once again so much for listening and for joining me on this great journey into the mystical life. Next time, we'll continue our discussion looking at book three chapters seven through twelve. Until then, may Almighty God bless you richly with every grace. 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.