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The Imitation of Christ
Thomas à Kempis
The Thirty-Second Chapter
SELF-DENIAL AND THE RENUNCIATION OF EVIL APPETITES
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
MY CHILD, you can never be perfectly free unless you completely renounce self,
for all who seek their own interest and who love themselves are bound in
fetters. They are unsettled by covetousness and curiosity, always searching for
ease and not for the things of Christ, often devising and framing that which
will not last, for anything that is not of God will fail completely.
Hold to this short and perfect advice, therefore: give up your desires and you
will find rest. Think upon it in your heart, and when you have put it into
practice you will understand all things.
THE DISCIPLE
But this, Lord, is not the work of one day, nor is it mere child's play; indeed,
in this brief sentence is included all the perfection of holy persons.
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
My child, you should not turn away or be downcast when you hear the way of the
perfect. Rather you ought to be spurred on the more toward their sublime
heights, or at least be moved to seek perfection.
I would this were the case with you -- that you had progressed to the point
where you no longer loved self but simply awaited My bidding and his whom I have
placed as father over you. Then you would please Me very much, and your whole
life would pass in peace and joy. But you have yet many things which you must
give up, and unless you resign them entirely to Me you will not obtain that
which you ask.
"I counsel thee to buy of me gold, fire-tried, that thou mayest be made
rich"[36] -- rich in heavenly wisdom which treads underfoot all that is low. Put
aside earthly wisdom, all human self-complacency.
I have said: exchange what is precious and valued among men for that which is
considered contemptible. For true heavenly wisdom -- not to think highly of self
and not to seek glory on earth -- does indeed seem mean and small and is
well-nigh forgotten, as many men praise it with their mouths but shy far away
from it in their lives. Yet this heavenly wisdom is a pearl of great price,
which is hidden from many.
