 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. Tan commentaries.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. This is Father Robert Nixon here, a Benedictine monk and director of the Institute for Benedictine Studies at the Abbey of the Most Holy Trinity in New North here, Western Australia. And this is the Tan Commentaries series on The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A. Kempers. Today is book four in our series, and we're going to be covering book one, chapters 20 through to 25. Before we start on talking about these chapters and the many gems of wisdom which they contain for us, we're going to begin as always with a prayer, calling upon the help of God's Holy Spirit to lead us in the path of wisdom to help us to imitate His only begotten Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Enlighten, Lord, our souls and hearts, and to our minds thy grace impart, lead us by thy gentle hand, teaching us to understand the wisdom of thine only Son, the humble, patient Holy One, help us imitate Christ's ways, and live His Gospel all our days. Amen. So the chapters which we're dealing with today from The Imitation of Christ offer us some very important themes. And the first chapter, chapter 20 of the love of solitude and silence. These things are so important. Solitude and silence are things which we get very little of in this modern world. We've got, of course, many human and social distractions. And on top of this, there are a whole range of work demands. And then there's the whole electronic thing, which I guess as a monk I'm rather lucky to have to a much lesser extent to most people in the world. But you think about messages on mobile phones, computers, and so forth are constantly drawing us away from this silence and solitude. He begins by advising us, seek a proper time to retire into thyself, and often think of the benefits of God. Let curiosities alone read such matters as rather move thee to compunction than give the occupation. If thou wilt withdraw thyself from superfluous talk and idle visits, as also from giving ear to news and to reports, that will find time sufficient and proper to employ thyself in good meditations. This last point is very, very pertinent. I think a lot of people say, you know, I've got no time for prayer or meditation or spiritual reading. And then you think, well, you know, why do you have no time? Sometimes it's justified. Sometimes it's due to the demands of family or the demands of work. But more often than not, it's due to indulgence in a lot of unnecessary distractions. And sometimes these distractions, the borderline between what is necessary and what is unnecessary can be very gray. But, you know, if you find yourself with no time for prayer, recreation, contemplation, solitude, and silence, then it suggests that there is something kind of out of balance of your life. And that's, you know, not necessarily a criticism because it happens to everyone from time to time, but this practice of which he recommends at the beginning of retiring into yourself and thinking about the benefits of God. So setting aside a certain amount of time for silence and solitude each day and to spend that time in, in contemplation. So this is different from verbal prayer, although it can be accompanied by verbal prayer for some people, but thinking about the splendours and the glories of God, about the wonders and the joys of heaven, to think about on the other hand also, to try to feel true compunction for sins, true fear of health, true fear of offending God. Thomas the campus then continues with a few more suggestions related to this. He says, it is easier to be altogether silent than not to exceed in words. It is easier to keep retired at home than to be able to be sufficiently upon one's guard. Whosoever therefore aims at arriving at internal and spiritual things must, with Jesus, go aside from the crowd. And this is something which pops up quite a lot in the gospel. Even Jesus, who was God himself, found it necessary to get away from the crowd from time to time, to go and pray in silence. And we read that he often spent the entire night in prayer, in solitude. He advises us also that no one speaks but he who loves to hold his peace. No one securely governs, but he who would willingly live in subjection. No one securely commands, but he who has learned well to obey. So we need to be ready for this silence, to to prefer silence to speech. And I mean, of course, we can't cultivate silence all the time. But we should at least make it an important part of our life. It's in silence that God communicates to us the ultimate truths of our wisdom. And in silence that we come most fully to understand ourselves, and not only ourselves, but also others. So we live in a culture which is kind of saturated with overcommunication. We need to step back from that from time to time. And he tells us, what can you see elsewhere which you don't see here? Behold the heavens and the earth and all the elements. For of these all things remain. So after a while, I guess he's saying, you know, we people tempted to wander about looking for new things, but in the end, most people won't find anything new at all. And then we'll find peace, we'll find God, who is everything. The next chapter deals with compunction of heart. And compunction is a word which means a kind of sorrow for one's own sins of awareness of one's own weaknesses. So when I say sorrow, it's kind of a sad feeling, but it's not like sadness or depression or anything. So it's focused primarily towards God, recognizing the glory of God and the mercy of God, and recognizing that being coupled with an awareness of one's own failings, and one's own insufficiency without God. And he says, busy not thyself with other men's affairs, nor entangle thyself with the causes of great people, have always an eye upon thyself in the first place, and take special care to admonish thyself, preferably, to all thy dearest friends. I think this is very true, that we need to be our own biggest critics, to be ready to criticize and judge ourselves more so than we are ready to criticize others. And I guess a lot of people very easily find fault with others. But when it comes to finding fault with thyself, you know, they find that they're not quite as relaxed doing that. He's telling us to turn our attention to ourself. And this I think is not in a negative way, but more as the cultivation of self-awareness. Chapter 22 is of the consideration of the misery of man. And this is a very wonderful chapter, I think. Is this typical of late medieval spirituality, when they thought by reflecting upon the general wretchedness of the human condition, we're brought to a state of humility, of greater trust in God and of greater desire for heaven. These days, we live in a predominantly optimistic culture about our human condition in which we're more tempted to say, well, look on the bright side of things. So, you know, it's not that one way is right and another way is wrong. But there's a certain usefulness in this, because, you know, we don't have to look very far to see the general sadness and affliction, which is our human condition. And he tells us, Many unstable and weak men are apt to say, Behold how well such a man lives, how rich, how great, how mighty and powerful, but attend to heavenly goods. And that will see that all these are temporal things, and they are nothing but very uncertain and rather burdensome, because they are never possessed without care and fear. The happiness of a man consists not in having temporal things in abundance, but a moderate competency suffices. Now, this I think is wonderful that we look at people sometimes and we might feel a little bit envious thinking, well, look at everything they've got. If I was in their situation, I'd be happy. I wish I had their authority, their power. But in reality, the condition is often quite the reverse of what we imagine it to be, because with all of those things comes anxiety, stress and so forth. So rather to rejoice if we're fortunate enough to have a humble condition in this life. And he tells us that human happiness doesn't come from having a lot of temporal things, but rather a sufficiency or just enough is enough. So, you know, you could think about anything, money, food, girlfriends, whatever, having more than you want or you need isn't going to make you any happier. Normally quite the reverse that as human beings, as physical beings, our actual needs are few and simple. And we can be content with very little. The next chapter is an important one. This is called On the Thoughts of Death. And this relates to another book by Thomas the Kempus, which I recently had the privilege of translating for 10 books, Meditations on Death, in which he takes up this whole theme of thinking about the final things, the four last things which are death itself, final judgment, the terrors of hell and the glories of heaven. Keeping these in mind are lessons in true wisdom. And he begins this chapter by saying, very quickly must they'll be gone from hints. See then how Matt has said with me, a man is here today and tomorrow he is vanished. This is so important, bearing in mind that any day could be our last day and that we're not going to be here forever. Ask ourselves, are we ready to face the end? Are we sufficiently detached from earthly things to be able to say goodbye to them with a tranquil soul? More importantly, perhaps, are we ready to face that day of judgment when we'll be called to give an account of everything we've done and also everything we've failed to do? And of course, for most people, to be honest, we'll probably say, no, I'm not quite ready for that day. Then take the steps to make yourself ready. I think this is so important. He says, what benefit is it to live long when we advance so little? Long life does not always make us better, but often adds to our guilt. Would to God we had behaved ourselves well in this world even for one day? If it is frightful to die, perhaps it will be more dangerous to live longer. And I think this is so important that we can't assume, well, we can't put off our conversion or our repentance or trying to cultivate a holy life because, you know, this day could be our very last one. We don't need to panic, but it behooves us to act promptly. To realise that the days of our life are passing by, you know, like the sands of an hourglass, they're not going to come back. We don't get a second chance here in this world. And he reminds us of that when he says, the time will come when thou wish for one day or hour to amend. And I know not whether thou shalt obtain it. So sooner or later, we're going to face that final end. And how many thinking to live long have been deceived and unexpectedly snatched away. And in our own times, I guess we see that reality of death. It's brought home to us, not only in our private lives, but also in the passing of great men like Pope Benedict XVI of Australia's own Cardinal George Pell, and so forth. He tells us, keep thyself as a pilgrim and a stranger upon earth, to whom the affairs of this world do not, in the least, belong. Keep thy heart free and upraised to God, because thou hast not here a lasting abode. If we can remember that, we'll be on the right track for salvation for sure. Chapter 24 continues with judgment and the punishment of our sins. So again, he's continuing with this meditation of the four last things, keeping in mind that all that we do is brought to judgment. And he includes a book one with chapter 25. So this is the last chapter of book one and of the fervent amendment of our whole life. And the consequence of this meditation upon death and of final judgment and so forth is, hopefully, that we amend our life. And he tells us here, always remember thine end, and that time once lost never returns, without care and diligence, thou shalt never acquire the virtues. If you begin to grow lukewarm, you will begin to be uneasy. But if thou give thyself to fervour, thou shalt find great peace. And the grace of God, and a love of virtue, will make thee feel less labour. He that does not shun small defects, little by little, falls into greater ones. There's so much truth in that. We're called always to be on our guard, to live each day as if it might be our last. And by doing this, we will come to amend our lives. And however holy we might be, and I guess most people listening to this podcast, you know, are pretty devout Catholics, practicing Catholics, trying our best to follow the commandments and the teachings of the church and everything. But there's always room for improvement. We look at ourselves more honestly, and the more forward we go in grace, often the more conscious we are of our own failures. So this is what we're called to do. To conclude, watch over thyself, stir up thyself, admonish thyself, and whatever becomes of others, neglect not thyself. So I think that's a very fitting way to conclude our chapter 25 of book one. And this brings us to the end of book one. Thank you so much for listening and progressing with me on this wonderful journey into the treasures of the spiritual life. So next time we're going to be moving on to book two of the imitation of Christ, and we're going to be talking about book two, chapters one through six. And this book two is entitled The Inner Life. And I think you will find just as I found that it is tremendously illuminating and inspiring. Until then, may Almighty God bless you. 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 COM25 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.