 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 Norse or Western Australia. And this is The Commentaries series on The Imitation of Christ, The Great Spiritual Masterpiece by Thomas A. Kempers. Today is session 13 of this series of podcasts and we're going to be covering book 3, chapters 47 through to 53. Before we delve into the ideas presented to us in this series of chapters, let's pray that God shall enlighten our minds and hearts to the wisdom which we will encounter 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 we're now up to book 3, chapters 47 to 53. And this continues, offering us a series of pieces of spiritual advice. The chapters in book 3, which is the largest section of The Imitation of Christ, are all written in the form of dialogues between Christ and a disciple. And chapter 47 tells us that all grievous things are to be endured for the sake of eternal life. Christ speaks, do not be dismayed with the labours which you have undertaken for me, neither let the tribulations which befall you quite cast you down, but let my promise strengthen you and comfort you in every event. I am sufficient to reward thee beyond all measure. Thou shall not labour here long, nor shall you always be oppressed with sorrow. Wait a little while, and you shall see a speedy end of all your evils. The hour will come when labour and trouble shall be no more, all is little and short, which passes away with time. Very profound words there, and words of great consolation. I mean, of course in this earthly life we're very often afflicted by trouble and sorrow and adversity. But he's asking us to bear in mind that nothing here lasts forever, that compared to the great eternity which awaits us, the eternal joys and rewards, whatever we undercoat during this present life seems quite inconsequential. And Saint Paul says that so wonderfully that the trials of this present life are nothing compared to the glory which awaits us. We continue then with chapter 48, and this is entitled The Day of Eternity and the miseries of this life. The day of eternity, of course, is talking about the eternal day of heaven. And it begins with the disciple saying, O most happy mansion of the city above, O most bright day of eternity, which knows no night but is always enlightened by thy sovereign truth, a day always joyful, always secure, and never changing in its state for the contrary. O that this day would shine upon us, and all those temporal things would come to an end. It shines indeed upon the saints, resplendent with everlasting brightness, but to us pilgrims upon earth, it is seen only as far off and through a glass. Well, some wonderful words there, and inviting us to contemplate the splendors of the life of heaven, and this is something which probably people generally don't do so much in their spiritual practice now, either because it seems just too difficult to imagine what heaven will be like, or I think we sometimes succumb to interpretations of heaven that it's really only a metaphor to living a good life in this world. Well, there's a certain degree of truth in that idea, but you know, it's very inadequate. It doesn't explain the great glories of heaven, which are presented to us so vividly in the Bible, in the book of Revelation and elsewhere. There's another wonderful book published by Tan, which I myself had the honor to translate The Glories of Heaven, written by St. Anselm of Canterbury, which delves into all of those things in great detail and is a very life-changing book. But here we're asked, in a briefer form, but equally powerfully, to contemplate these glories of heaven, which we see only vaguely in this present life, but which the saints enjoy to its fullness. And he continues in contrast. The days of this life are short and evil, full of sorrows and miserings, where man is defiled with many sins, is ensnared with many fears, disquieted with many cares, distracted with many curiosities, entangled with many vanities, encompassed with many errors, broken with many labours, troubled with temptations, weakened with delights, tormented with want. Well, very powerful and comprehensive summary of the human condition here. I believe that passage, which you would have heard or would have noticed as quite a degree of repetition, probably rhymes in the original Latin, which is something which Thomas the Compass quite liked to do, as well as other writers of the period. But it gives us this series of meditations, and if we think about them, I think for most people they will ring true in one way or the other. Maybe not all of them all of the time, but certainly being distracted with curiosities ensnared with fears and so forth. And how often we experience that? And this is not to simply be a complainer and to say that this life is wretched and so forth, but it's to acknowledge the reality of its limitations and the limitations of our condition here. And that's something which, again, like the contemplation of heaven, people are perhaps reluctant to do, because it might sound a bit pessimistic or anything. Well, it's not pessimistic, it's realistic. And also it's ultimately optimistic because it turns our attention to the glory of heaven. In chapter 49, we encounter the desire of eternal life and what great things are promised to those who fight. Well, how true this is. And of course, there's nothing without a fight that everything worthwhile we need to struggle for in one way or the other. And most people realize that through their own experience of this mortal life. It's equally true of the supernatural life of heaven that it doesn't just come about by us doing nothing. It takes a firm commitment, a firm set of actions and a firm movement of the spirit. And in the practical reflections, we read, we are unwilling to suffer the trials which God sends us and would receive nothing from him but continual consolations. These, however, are only given to support us under dryness and desolation of spirit. He imparts them to us to enable us to support his apparent rigor, which is in reality his goodness towards us, by which he spares not in time that he may be merciful for us in eternity. There's a certain paradox here that things which we perceive to be difficult or unjust and so forth are actually sometimes manifestations of the love and mercy of God in a way that is utterly incomprehensible and transcendent, but which will be revealed in the fullness of time. In chapter 53, we receive instructions on how a desolate person ought to offer himself into the hands of God. And desolate, in this case, is talking about a certain spiritual condition where people don't find the feelings of encouragement and reassurance and so forth in prayer. And it's a common experience for people in spiritual life. Normally, you know, you go through stages of often God gives us what we need to draw us in, in the form of consolations. But then often to purify our faith, they'll give us periods of dryness and desolation. And the important thing is that we continue to offer ourselves to God to be committed, even during those difficult times. And I mean, I guess in a certain sense, it's like a marriage between two human beings, that there's going to be good times and there's going to be bad times. But the call to fidelity is tested and purified most strongly, precisely in those times which are difficult. Chapter 51 is entitled, We Must Exercise Ourselves in Humble Works When We Cannot Attain to the Highest. And it begins with Christ speaking, Son, you cannot always continue in the most fervent desire of virtue, nor stand in the highest degree of contemplation. But it must need be that you are sometimes descended to lower things by reason of original corruption, and that you bear the burden of this corruptible life, even against your will and with irksomeness. As long as you carry about with thee your mortal body, you shall feel trouble and heaviness of heart. You wart therefore as long as you are in the flesh, often bewail the burden of the flesh. For that you cannot, without intermission, be employed in spiritual exercises and divine contemplation. At these times it is expedient for you to fly to humble, to exterior works, and to recreate yourself in good actions, to look for my coming and my heavenly visitation with an assured hope, to bear with patience your benishment and the aridity of your mind till you be visited again by me and delivered from all anguish. Well, some very wise words here, and beginning with the realization that we can't always be involved in this sublime action of contemplation of eternal things, even if we wanted to be, even if we had the time to be, our human nature is such that we're burdened by this corruptible body, by the effects and consequences of the sin of Adam and Eve, which means that then, you know, we shouldn't give up, but what he's telling us is instead, engage in humble works, in works of piety and charity. And, you know, to think about an example of this, if a person really wanted to participate in meditation and contemplation, and found for whatever reason that they weren't, that it just wasn't working, it wasn't coming to them, then they participate instead in some humble activity. And this might be as simple as reciting the rosary, or helping out someone if they're able to do that, or cleaning the church, or whatever it is that they're able to do in a small way, no matter how humble and simple the work is, as long as the intention is to honor and glorify God, to be united with God, then we can be sure that it's going to work, and that God, if we find ourselves in a particular state where we can't pray or meditate, as we would like to, then we need to resign that to the will of God, and to wait patiently for His grace. And let's continue now with our 52nd chapter. And this is entitled, that a man ought not to esteem himself worthy of consolation, but rather deserving of stripes. Now, this word stripes is perhaps one we wouldn't use so often in this context. There is a famous line from the prophet Isaiah, by his stripes we were healed, it's really referring to the wound marks caused by whips or glones. So that's the expression here. I think it's actually quite a nice expression, even though it might be confusing to some people. We shouldn't consider ourselves to be worthy of God's graces and consolations, because these are infinitely precious things. We should consider ourselves more worthy to suffer because of our consciousness of favorings, of unworthiness, and so forth. And by this humility, we actually open ourselves up to receiving that grace. And it begins with the disciple saying, Lord, I am not worthy of thy consolation or any spiritual visitation, and therefore thou dealest justly with me when thou leavest me poor and desolate. For if I could shed tears like a sin, yet should I not be worthy of thy comfort? Since I have deserved nothing but stripes and punishment, because I have grievously and often offended thee, and in very many things sinned against thee. Therefore, according to all just reason, I have not deserved the least of thy comforts. But thou who art a good and merciful God, who will not have thy works perished, to show the riches of thy goodness towards the vessels of mercy, vouchsafeth beyond all his desserts, to comfort thy spirit above human nature. For thy consolations are not like the consolations of men. Well, wonderful expression, even if we could shed tears like the sea, an ocean of tears, it wouldn't be enough. And this is not about low self-esteem or believing ourselves to be terrible sinners or anything, but rather it's a consciousness of our frailty of the sin which pertains to our condition as human beings, which is sometimes called original sin, and indeed that's what it is. In chapter 53, we encounter the grace of God is not communicated to the worldly minded. And how true this is. God gives his grace to those who are properly disposed. And you know, if we think about, we can either love the world or we can love God. We can't be attached to both things with the same degree of intensity and sincerity. You know, it's a bit like a person having two girlfriends or having a wife and a girlfriend. You can only really be in love with one of them, you know, and the other one might be whatever to you, but you really love only one of them. And it's the same with God. Now think again about that example, how insulting that would be to either of these two women if you had, you know, tried to love both of them. How insulting it is to God if we want to love God, but we also want to love the world. You know, God gives his grace quite rightly only to those who choose to love him fully. But we can only love him fully by the gift of his grace which illuminates us. Because the love with which we love God is in fact the grace of love which he gives to us. And the prayer for the end of this chapter, I think is wonderful. Grant, oh Lord, that my heart may loathe all earthly things and cleave to those alone which are eternal, which will be given to me in exchange for the little I renounce in this world for the love of thee. Grant me, oh God, to love only that which I shall love forever. And to esteem everything as unworthy of a Christian soul which is not the eternal and sovereign good. How little does this world appear, said Saint Ignatius, when I view the heavens and how little do the material heavens and this immense universe appear when I think of thee, my God. Grant that in like manner, when impressed with the idea of thine immensity, I also may yield my soul to thee alone. Amen. And that brings us to the end of day 13 in our study of the wonderful The Imitation of Christ. Thank you so much for joining me today and listening. Next time we will be discussing book three, chapters 54 to 59, and this will bring us to the end of book three. After that, of course, we'll continue on to book four. Until then, may Almighty God bless you abundantly. 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 to guide you to heaven.