Unity of Self, Interior Simplicity, and God's Understanding: Bk 1, Ch 3, par 3.

How do you become a better version of yourself?  Ask Thomas a'Kempis.  Becoming a better version of our self  is a confrontation with the Truth.  As an Imitator of Christ, the more you look in the mirror, the more you should see Jesus (okay, for gals, think Mary in since Scripture tells us that Mary was full of the Holy Spirit).

Thomas' advice to us today comes from the next section of Bk 1, Ch 3 at paragraph 3. I purposefully bolded the whole quote this time since all of the below is so true and such a complete thought of the struggle and the main obstacle of our life and our pursuit of being Imitators of Christ......that person in the mirror.   Read and pray through this several times.  And then do some Winnie the Pooh theology: "Think, Think, Think".

"3.  The more a person is united within, and is  simple within the interior life, the more and higher things become understood without labor; because the  light of understanding is received from above.

 A pure, simple  and steady spirit is not dissipated by a multitude of activities, because these are performed to the honor of God.  Endeavor to be at rest within yourself and free from all self-seeking.

What is a greater hindrance and to you than thine own unmortified affection of the heart?

A good and devout disciple first finishes works inwardly which used to be done outwardly.

Neither do these affections draw one to the desires of an inordinate inclination, but are bent to the rule of right reason.  Who has a stronger conflict than one who strives to overcome himself?

  

And this must be our business, to strive to overcome ourselves, and daily to gain strength over ourselves, and to grow better and better."

I'll return to this later, since there's so much here, so tune in!

Thank you for reading and praying along with me. 'Til next time, be Imitators of Christ!


tim

Bk 1, Ch 3, Para 2: The Eternal Word Gives Us The Truth, Everything Else is Quibbling

"2. And why do we need to concern ourselves with terms of philosophy"

Good Thomas asks this question as his second pass through Chapter 3, Book I, The Doctrine of Truth. Referring back to the first paragraph, we know that such quibbling doesn't really matter when the Truth is presented.

Thomas' answer to his question is:

"He to whom the Eternal Word speaks is set at liberty from a multitude of opinions."

Kind of like Jesus does in Luke 4:16 and following:

" He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord."
Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him."

Interestingly, the word liberty has multiple definitions that philosophers quibble over constantly.  Sort of like Thomas says in the lead quote.  But Jesus simply states the Truth.  Every captive knows what liberty is and what liberty is not.  And when we hear liberty proclaimed by Him, we know we can follow our free will.

Then a short litany follows, which reminds me quite a bit of the Prologue to The Gospel of John.  Have a read of both and let me know if you agree.

The end of this reading closes with an exasperated plea - not quite a prayer, but followed by a meditation on being quiet and listening for the Lord:

"I am wearied with often reading and hearing many things; in Thee is all that I will or desire.
  Let all teachers hold their peace; let all creatures be silent in Thy sight; speak Thou alone to me."

In the next paragraph, Thomas arrives at an internal conclusion of profound truth....

'Til next time.
tim

p.s.  The passage above, from Luke 4, is one of my favorites in Scripture.  What's yours?

"Well said, teacher." Chapter 3 Book 1, cont'd - Looking for Loopholes like W.C. Fields

Chapter 3, Book 1.....continued.Seeking profitable Truth over the obscure.

Thomas then takes us to a short teaching on what's worth discussing:

"What availeth (what use is)  a great dispute about abstruse and obscure matters for not knowing which we shall not be questioned on the day of judgment.

It is a great folly for us to neglect things profitable and necessary, and willingly to busy ourselves about those which are curious and hurtful.  We have eyes and see not Ps 115:5."

The passage from Mark immediately came to mind:  In Mk 12:18-27 the Sadduccees were questioning Jesus about the Resurrection.  They babbled on, setting a trap for Jesus, about 7 brothers, the first of which married, then died.  Each subsequent brother having to then marry the bride of the first brother.  Who's wife will she be at the Resurrection. 

Jesus (who I imagine must have been smirking) having listened to them, then answers swiftly.  "Are you not misled because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?"  He goes on to teach them. He quotes Ex 3:6, about Moses and the burning bush and says: "He is not the God of the dead but of the living.  You are greatly misled."

Sometimes we are like Sadduccees, debating details of arguments, trying to figure it all out, while missing the Truth. Like W.C. Fields, were reading Scripture looking for loopholes!

Right after correcting the Sadducees, Jesus quotes Dt 6:4-5.  This is the Truth He is getting to for all of us -

"'Hear, O Israel!  The Lord our God is Lord alone!  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this:  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  There is not other commandment greater than these.  The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher."Mk 12:28-32.

 Every time I pick up this profound book, I feel like I'm there with Jesus at this moment of teaching.  When Jesus says something, it is always true.  I find myself guilty of entering into the quibbling.  Then I go back to the basics.  I go back to where He teaches me the Truth.  And all I can say afterward is "Well said, teacher."  I can only pray that He will say back to me:

"You are not far from the kingdom of God.Mk 12:34"

Until next time.
tim

Everyone wants to belong - listening is the hard part

The next few reflections will cover a single chapter - Chapter 3, Book I: The Doctrine of Truth.

In reading chapters like this (and there are many!) it is difficult to isolate a single verse without commentary.  And so breaking it up and praying on each seems the better way.

It is profitable, therefore, to look at one of several places in Scripture where our Lord discusses Truth.  This one with Pilate.  I note that Jesus never wastes His time, not even on pagans.  He's always sharing the Truth:

John 18:37-38

"So Pilate said to Him 'Then you are a king?'  Jesus answered, 'You say I am a king.  For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."  Pilate said to him, "What is truth?"

Good Thomas opens this chapter with the following:

"Happy is he whom Truth teaches by itself, not by figures and words that pass, but as Truth is in itself.  Ps 18:36, Is 28:26"

Sometimes, we get wrapped up in ideas and experiences which supposedly show us who God is.  We think we know the Him because someone told us how it is supposed to feel.....or we bowed our head and said the magic words.  But instead of investigating the matter, we quickly form an opinion or try to replicate the feeling through our eyes or other senses...even our ears, without listening for the God's still, small Voice (1 Kings 19:12-13).

Thomas refers to two Scriptures from which he makes this claim.  In Psalm 18, David personifies truth as a protecting shield, or even God's right Hand.  A protecting shield in ancient times covered the soldier's vital parts from his neck to his thigh.  Other shields were even larger, requiring a shield bearer who held the shield for the fighter.  These shields were heavy and durable and could withstand any weapon of the time.  It is thought that the Star of David comes from this verse, as does the rabbinic phrase "Shield of Abraham" which was a direct reference to God.

When God teaches us directly (like Jeseus did Pilate), the teaching is clear and reliable.  We can boldly stand behind the Truth, just as a soldier can rely on his shield to protect him against the onslaught of the enemy. A reckless disregard for the dangers of the battlefield will quickly expose the soldier to pain or death: even from small weapons. 

And so Thomas continues:

"Our opinion and our senses often deceive us and discover but little."

Confused, we may become indifferent or drop into old habits....  We step out from behind the Shield and get nicked by a piece of debris that infects us.  An infected wound can kill just as well as a spear - only slower.

We don't even know we are infected until the wound's poison has reached other aspects of our health.  At that point, we need major surgery.  Our soul needs The Great Physician.

The Lord will reach out to us, not with weak slivers of a conceptual framework, but with Truth that we can easily stand behind to defend our families, our lives... our very souls.  That is our prescription for being healed.

Until next time.
tim

Ps 18:36 reads:  You have given me your protecting shield; Your right Hand has upheld me; You stooped to make me great.

Is 28:26 reads: He has learned this rule, instructed by his God.

When you can't pray, wash the dishes!

In the walk of faith, we often engage in gatherings for prayer or teaching or spiritual exercises, or adoration.  From these we receive spiritual consolation or we attain indescribable feelings or confirmations where we simply know that God is present, listening to us, remembering us, praying with us, lifting us up in His Hands (Is 49:14-16). 

At other times, we experience nothing.  A dryness.  We get bored or, during a prayer cycle, decide that this litany being offered is tiresome and not fruitful.

Here, good Thomas has some advice for us:  Get over yourself!  Get to work!  Go out and help someone!  Wash the dishes without complaint - maybe even at your own house or at the bread line(Jas2:26).  Jesus may show up.

Here's what today's reflection says - I am copying the whole chapter because it is short.  See my note at the end about the Psalm citation.

Book III, Ch 51: Exercise in Humility - We Must Exercise Ourselves in Humble Works When We Cannot Attain to the Highest

Christ:
  Son, thou canst not always continue in the most fervent desire of virtue, nor stand in the highest degree of contemplation; but it must needs be that thou sometimes descend to lower things by reason of original corruption, and though bear the burden of this corruptible life, even against thy will, and with irksomeness.
  As long as though carriest about with thee thy mortal body thou shalt feel trouble and heaviness of heart.
  Thou oughtst, therefore, as long as thou art in the flesh, oftentimes to bewail the burden of the flesh: that thou canst not without intermission be employed in spiritual exercises and divine contemplation.
  2.  At these times, it is expedient for thee to fly to humble and exterior works, and to refresh thyself in good actions, to look for My coming and My heavenly visitation with an assured hope; to bear with patience thy banishment, and the aridity of thy mind, till thou be visited again by Me, and delivered from all anguish.
  For I will make thee forget thy pains and enjoy internal rest.
  I will lay open before thee the pleasant fields of the Scriptures, that thy heart being enlarged though mayst begin to run in the way of My commandments (Ps 119:32).
  And then thall shalt say that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come which shall be revealed in us (Rm 8:18).

A note on citations to the Psalms:  when you are looking up the verse, if it is after Psalm 9, you need to add one chapter.  Here's why -

The version of The Imitation of Christ being used here cites to Psalms in Roman Numerals.  However, the citation is usually one chapter LESS than modern translations of the Psalms.  Thus, in the passage above, the translation I am using is: CXVIII, 32  or 118:32.  Most modern translations of Scripture renumber the Psalms beginning with Psalm 9 & 10, whereas the translation used by this edition of The Imitation, has the older version.  So, when you are looking up the verse, if it is after Psalm 9, you need to add one chapter.

Friday Focus: What is the path shown to us by the Master? Did Jesus Go to Starbucks?

On Fridays I will attempt to pick a meditation that is relevant to the Crucifixion in some way.  So today's quote is from the end of Book II,  The Interior Life, Chapter 12, paragraph 15:

If indeed there had been anything better and more beneficial to man's salvation than suffering, Christ certainly would have showed it by word and example.

For He manfully exhorts both the disciples who followed Him, and all who desire to follow Him, to bear their cross, and saying, "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow Me (Luke 9, v.23)."

My point here from this very long chapter in The Imitation, is that this meditation on suffering comes down to this notion that Jesus showed us the path to salvation through suffering...and nothing else.  Embracing our cross, picking up our cross and following Him ( like the infantry soldier from earlier this week) is the path. 
 
We'd all have liked it if Jesus had said, "no, folks, I made a mistake.  You really don't have to endure trials and tribulations.  You can have it all.  Here, let's go to Starbucks and then on to Wal-Mart, for that is where salvation truly lies...aisle 7, I believe."
 
But of course, that's not what he said or did. Prosperity theology at its worst.
 
Which is not to say that comfort, or Starbucks for that matter, are bad....but not the Way to Heaven. 
 
In this week of Epiphany, while thinking of the magi and their efforts to find the king, and, upon finding Him, were warned in a dream to return home by another [W]ay (Matt 2:12), I am reminded that the journey to Bethlehem probably was no picnic.  So going home, dealing with Herod's spies and co-conspirators, finding a new route, was likely even more difficult than the original trip.  These pagan magi denied themselves by turning away from Herod.  Being open to the Spirit, they embraced the new Way.
 
Isn't it interesting that Scripture regularly uses the non-believer's faith to demonstrate to us the profound desire to fill the God-sized void in our lives?
 

The Imitation of Christ: On the Book, its orientation, and capturing the struggle

One of the challenges of commenting on a devotional book is in the extra scrutiny applied:  In trying to get it right, I want to avoid the tendency to over-analyze.   Clearly I want to communicate the brilliance and holiness of such a work as the Imitation.  At the same time, I don't want to miss anything by being hasty. 

However, having used this book for years as a prayer guide, I can only begin to acknowledge the countless points where, in confusion, I turned to the Imitation...which has shown meThe Way.

Curiously, the edition I use has, as its first picture, that of Christ, readily carrying His Cross up toward the light, with the caption - "I Am The Way".  If you've ever been in the military, specifically at Fort Benning, Georgia, it reminds me of the "Follow Me" statue there at Ft. Benning.

Briefly, dear reader, before you begin your journey, take a few minutes to study the Contents, which can be a grounding to orient your study and prayer. The edition I carry has the Contents in the back of the book.

At some point, I will go through each chapter and lift a particular meditation.  But for now, I'm going to select a meditation  because it struck me as particularly valid during my time in prayer.  From Book III (Interior Consolation), Chapter 48 ( The Day of Eternity and the Miseries of this Life), para 4: 

4. Comfort me in my banishment, assuage my sorrow; for all my desire is after Thee, and all that this world offers for my comfort is burdensome to me.

I long to enjoy Thee intimately, but cannot attain to it.

I desire to cleave to heavenly things, but the things of this life and my unmortified passions bear me down.

I am willing in mind to be above all things, but by the flesh am obliged against my will to be subject to them.

Thus, unhappy man that I am, I fight with myself, and am become burdensome to myself, whilst the spirit seeks to tend upwards, and the flesh downwards.

This captures the struggle quite well, don't you think?

Thank you for reading and praying along with me.  'Til next time, be Imitators of Christ!
tim

A Reflection on The Imitation of Christ

January 1, 2011


The Octave Day of Christmas

Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God
 

This holy book, written in the early 15th Century by the humble Thomas a'Kempis has been a great influence in my spiritual journey.

This periodic reflection will attempt to take a verse or two from a particular chapter of one of the four Books.  The version I'm using is published by:
Confraternity of the Precious Blood ( http://confraternitypb.org/). See image
below.

I like this version because it uses a more formal version of English.  Also, the artwork itself, by Ariel Agemian, adds to the prayerful experience.  The artwork is devout without being corny or too wishy-washy. 

For today, I'm selecting a verse that fits with the New Year; from Book 1, Useful Admonitions, Chapter 11; Acquiring Peace and Zeal for Our Spiritual Progress:
Paragraph 5, V1, states (with my emphasis):

"If every year we rooted out one vice, we should soon become perfect men."

 He goes on to say:

"But now we often find it quite otherwise: that we were better and more pure in the beginning of our conversion than after many years of our profession."

In my future posts, I'll describe a book and chapter arrangement, then perhaps cover a particular portion that sticks with me, and how it does so.
From time-to-time, I'll put in a short reflection on the life of Thomas a'Kempis.