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← The Imitation of Christ/Book 1 · Counsels on the Spiritual Life
Chapter 23Imit.1.23

De meditatione mortis.

The Breathing Space We Waste

Life is brief and quickly forgotten; therefore live each moment as if death were near.

This will be done for you very soon — make sure you conduct yourself differently. Today a person is here, and tomorrow they are gone. And once someone has been taken from sight, they quickly pass from the mind as well. O the dullness and hardness of the human heart, that it dwells only on what is present and does not look ahead to what is coming. This is how you should hold yourself in every deed and thought: as if you were about to die at any moment. If you had a good conscience, you would not fear death so much. It would be better to guard against sin than to flee from death. If you're not ready today, how will you be ready tomorrow? Tomorrow is an uncertain day — and how do you know whether you'll have a tomorrow at all?

The Illusion of Lengthy Repentance

A long life does not guarantee holiness; blessed is the one who daily prepares for death.

What good is it to live a long time, when we're barely set right? A long life doesn't always set things right — it often makes guilt worse. If only we had lived well for a single day in this world. Many count up years of conversion, but often the fruit of amendment is small. If dying is frightening, perhaps living a long time will be even more dangerous. Blessed is the one who always keeps the hour of his death before his eyes, and every day prepares himself for dying. If you've watched someone die, consider this: you'll pass through the same road.

Live Each Hour as Your Last

Never presume upon tomorrow; the Son of Man comes unexpectedly, and at death you will see your life with painful clarity.

When morning comes, tell yourself you may not live to see evening. And when evening has come, don't presume to promise yourself the morning. Always be ready, then, and live in such a way that death never finds you unprepared. Many die suddenly, when they least expect it. For the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.✦ When that final hour arrives, you'll begin to see your whole past life very differently, and you'll grieve deeply — because you've been so careless and so lax.

The Virtues That Prepare for Death

Contempt of the world, growth in virtue, and self-discipline now bring confidence at the hour of death.

How happy and wise is the person who now strives to live in this life as they hope to be found at the hour of death. For a perfect contempt of the world will give great confidence in dying — a burning desire to grow in the virtues, love of discipline, the labor of penance, readiness in obedience, self-denial, and the patient endurance of whatever adversity comes for the love of Christ.1 You can accomplish many good things while you're healthy, but once you fall ill, I don't know what you'll be able to do. Few are reformed by illness, and those who wander about a great deal are rarely made holy.

Do Not Delay Your Salvation

Trust neither others nor future time; now is precious, and you may not get another chance to amend.

Don't put your trust in friends and neighbors, and don't put off your salvation to some future time, because people will forget you sooner than you think. It's better to provide for things now, in good time, and to send something good ahead of you, than to hope for help from others. If you're not concerned about yourself right now, who will be concerned about you in the future? Now time is extraordinarily precious — but oh, the grief of it — you're spending it more uselessly on that by which you could earn the right to live forever. A day will come — or an hour — when you'll long for a single day or hour to set things right, and I don't know whether you'll get it.

Die Now to Live with Christ

Learn now to die to the world through penance and detachment, so that death may bring joy rather than fear.

Come now, dearest friend — what a great danger you could free yourself from, what a great fear you could escape, if only you were always God-fearing and on your guard against death! Strive now to live in such a way that in the hour of death you may be able to rejoice rather than to fear. Learn now to die to the world, so that you may then begin to live with Christ. Learn now to despise all things, so that you may then freely go forward to Christ. Discipline your body now through penance, so that you may then have sure confidence.

Death Comes Without Warning

No one can count on tomorrow; countless have died suddenly and unexpectedly in every conceivable way.

You fool, what makes you think you'll live long, when you can't count on a single day? How many have been deceived and torn unexpectedly from their bodies! How often have you heard people say that someone fell by the sword, someone else drowned, someone falling from a height broke his neck, someone choked while eating, someone came to his end while at play — one died by fire, another by the blade, another by plague, another by robbery. And so death is the end of all, and the life of human beings passes swiftly like a shadow.2

Gather Imperishable Riches

Act now for your soul's salvation, gather eternal treasures, and make friends among the Saints to welcome you after death.

Who will remember you after death, and who will pray for you? Come now, dear one, do whatever you can for yourself while you still can, because you don't know when you'll die.3 You don't even know what awaits you after death. While you have time, gather riches that will never die.✦4 Think about nothing except the salvation of your soul. Care only for the things that are God's. Make friends for yourself now by venerating the Saints and imitating their deeds, so that when you fail in this life, they may receive you into eternal dwellings.✦56

A Stranger Awaiting Passage Home

Live as a pilgrim detached from the world, with heart lifted to God, praying tearfully for a happy passage to the Lord.

Keep yourself as a stranger and a guest on this earth, to whom nothing in the world's affairs is of any concern.✦ Keep your heart free and lifted up toward God, because you don't have a lasting city here.✦ Direct your groans and daily prayers with tears to that place, so that your spirit may deserve to pass over happily to the Lord after death.

Read the original Latin

Valde cito erit tecum hoc factum: vide aliter quomodo te habeas. Hodie homo est, et cras non comparet. Cum autem sublatus fuerit ab oculis, etiam cito transit a mente. O hebetudo, et duritia cordis humani, quod solum præsentia meditatur, et futura non magis prævidet. Sic te in omni facto et cogitatu deberes tenere, quasi statim esses moriturus. Si bonam conscientiam haberes, non multum mortem timeres. Melius esset peccata cavere quam mortem fugure. Si hodie non es paratus, quomodo cras eris? Cras est dies incerta, et quid scis si crastinum habebis?

Quid prodest diu vivere, quando parum emendamur? Ha, longa vita non semper emendat, sed sæpe culpam magis auget. Utinam per unam diem bene essemus conversati in hoc mundo. Multi annos computant conversionis, sed sæpe parvus est fructus emendationis. Si formidolosum est mori, forsitan periculosius erit vivere diu. Beatus qui horam mortis suæ semper ante oculos habet, et ad moriendum quotidie se disponit. Si vidisti aliquem mori, cogita quia tu per eandem viam transibis.

Cum mane fuerit, puta te ad vesperum non perventurum. Vespere autem facto, mane non audeas tibi polliceri. Semper ergo paratus esto, et taliter vive, ut nunquam imparatum te mors inveniat. Multi subito improvisi moriuntur. Nam hora, qua non putatur, Filius hominis veniet. Quando hora illa extrema venerit, multum aliter sentire incipies de tota vita tua præterita et valde dolebis, quia tam negligens, et remissus fuisti.

Quam felix et prudens qui talis nunc nititur esse in vita, qualis optat inveniri in morte. Dabit namque magnam fiduciam moriendi perfectus contemptus mundi, fervens desiderium in virtutibus proficiendi, amor disciplinæ, labor poenitentiæ, promptitudo obedientiæ, abnegatio sui, et supportatio cujuslibet adversitatis pro amore Christi. Multa bona potes operari dum sanus es, sed infirmatus nescio quid poteris. Pauci ex infirmitate emendantur; sic et qui multum peregrinantur, raro sanctificantur.

Noli confidere super amicos et proximos, nec in futuris salutem tuam differas, quia citius obliviscentur tui homines, quam existimas. Melius est nunc tempestive providere et aliquid boni præmittere, quam super aliorum auxilio sperare. Si non es pro te ipso sollicitus modo, quis erit sollicitus pro te in futuro. Nunc tempus est valde prætiosum, sed proh dolor, quod hoc inutilius expendis, in quo promereri vales, unde æternaliter vivas. Veniet quando unam diem seu horam pro emendatione desiderabis, et nescio, an impetrabis.

Eia, charissime, de quanto periculo te poteris liberare, de quam magno timore eripere, si modo semper timoratus fueris, et de morte suspectus! Stude nunc taliter vivere, ut in hora mortis valeas potius gaudere, quam timere. Disce nunc mori mundo, ut tunc incipias vivere cum Christo. Disce nunc omnia contemnere, ut tunc possis libere ad Christum pergere. Castiga nunc corpus tuum per poenitentiam, ut tunc valeas certam habere confidentiam.

Ha stulte, quid cogitas te diu victurum, cum nullum diem habeas securum? Quam multi decepti sunt et insperati de corpore extracti! Quoties audisti a dicentibus, quia ille gladio cecidit, ille submersus est, ille ab alto ruens cervicem fregit, ille manducando obriguit, ille ludendo finem fecit, alius igne, alius ferro, alius peste, alius latrocinio interiit: et sic omnium finis mors est, et vita hominum tanquam umbra cito pertransit.

Quis memorabitur tui post mortem, et qui orabit pro te? Age, age nunc charissime quidquid pro te agere potes, quia nescis quando morieris. Nescis etiam, quid tibi post mortem sequatur. Dum tempus habes, congrega divitias immortales. Præter salutem tuam nihil cogites. Solum quæ Dei sunt, cures. Fac nunc tibi amicos venerando Sanctos, et actus imitando, ut cum defeceris in hac vita, illi te recipiant in æterna tabernacula.

Serva te tanquam peregrinum et hospitem super terram, ad quem nihil spectat de mundi negociis. Serva cor liberum, et ad Deum sursum erectum, quia non habes hic manentem civitatem. Illuc gemitus et preces quotidianas cum lacrymis dirige, ut spiritus tuus mereatur post mortem ad Dominum feliciter transire.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Matt.24.44;Luke.12.40 — Therefore you also must be ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Luke.12.40 — You also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
  2. ↩Matt.6.19-Matt.6.20 — Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. Matt.6.20 — But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal.
  3. ↩Luke.16.9 — And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it runs out, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
  4. ↩1Pet.2.11 — Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the fleshly desires that wage war against the soul.
  5. ↩Heb.13.14 — For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the one that is coming.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩namque rendered as 'for' to capture its explanatory force rather than a simple 'and'.
  2. 2 ↩obriguit (lemma uncertain, possibly obrigesco) rendered as 'choked' based on context (manducando). If the lemma is confirmed differently, this clause may need revision.
  3. 3 ↩Age, age is a double imperative of urgency; rendered as 'Come now' to capture the force without archaism.
  4. 4 ↩divitias immortales — 'immortal riches' — refers to spiritual treasures (merits, virtues, almsgiving), not material wealth.
  5. 5 ↩The quoted span 'Fac nunc tibi amicos … ut … recipiant in æterna tabernacula' is a candidate allusion to Luke 16:9 — 'Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.' Final resolution deferred to Moses stage.
  6. 6 ↩defeceris rendered as 'fail' captures the sense of death/failing in this life; could also be 'when your life gives out.'