SR
← The Imitation of Christ/Book 2 · Counsels on the Inner Life
Chapter 10Imit.2.10

De gratitudine pro gratia Dei.

Born for Labor, Not for Ease

The soul is called to labor, patience, and the cross rather than to rest, and must recognize that worldly pleasures are vain while divine consolations, though surpassing all, cannot be possessed without interruption because temptation is ever near.

What are you looking for in rest, since you were born for labor — for patience more than for consolation, and for carrying the cross more than for joy?✦✦ Who among worldly people wouldn't gladly accept spiritual consolation and joy, if they could always have it? Spiritual consolations surpass all the delights of the world and all the pleasures of the flesh. All worldly delights are either shameful or vain.✦ But spiritual delights alone are pleasant and honorable, born from virtues and poured into pure minds by God. But no one can always enjoy these divine consolations as they would like, because the time of temptation doesn't stop for long.

Gratitude Opens the Channel of Grace

Presumption and ingratitude block the flow of God's grace, whereas humble thanksgiving keeps the fountain of grace open and draws further gifts from the Giver.

A presumptuous independence of spirit and great self-confidence are deeply opposed to God's heavenly visitation. God does well by giving the grace of consolation, but we do wrong by not immediately repaying God with thanksgiving. And so the gifts of grace cannot flow within us, because we are ungrateful to the Giver and do not return the whole to its fountain-source. For grace is always owed — to the one who gives thanks worthily, or to the one who repays it. What is customarily given to the humble will be taken from the proud.✦

The Humble Receiving and Surrendering of Grace

True spiritual discernment refuses consolation that breeds complacency and contemplation that breeds pride, embracing instead the grace that deepens humility, compunction, and self-emptying before God.

I don't want a consolation that takes away my compunction, nor do I seek a contemplation that leads into elation. Not everything lofty is holy, nor every desire pure, nor every pleasure good, nor every fondness pleasing to God.1 Gladly having received grace, from which I may be found more humble and more reverent, and more ready to let go of myself.2 Taught by the gift of grace and instructed by the blow of its withdrawal, he will not dare attribute anything good to himself, but will rather confess himself poor and naked.3 "Give to God whatever is God's," and to yourself ascribe what is yours.4 This is how you render thanks to God for grace: to yourself alone ascribe blame, and perceive that punishment is owed for your fault.5

The Lowest Place and the Glory of God

The soul that takes the lowest place before God and others will be raised to the highest, for true saints are least in their own eyes, grounded in God, and seek only the glory that comes from Him.

Always take the lowest place, and the highest will be given to you.✦✦6 For the highest place cannot stand without the lowest.7 The greatest saints see themselves as the least, and the more glorious they are, the more humble they are within — full of truth and heavenly glory, not hungry for empty praise. Because they are grounded and strengthened in God, they cannot be puffed up in any way.8 Those who give God credit for all the good they have received do not seek glory from one another. But they desire the glory that comes from God, and they seek God in themselves, and they long to be praised in God and in all the saints above all things, and they always press toward him.✦✦9

Thankfulness for Every Gift

Gratitude for the smallest gift prepares the soul to receive greater ones, and the one who honors the Giver in all things — consolation, correction, and trial — guards grace through humility, patience, and prayer.

So be grateful for the smallest gift, and you'll be worthy to receive greater things. Treat the smallest gift as though it were the greatest, and what seems worthless as though it were a special gift. If you consider the dignity of the Giver, no gift will seem small or of little worth. For it is no small thing that is given by the highest God. Even if He has given punishments and blows, you ought to be grateful, because whatever He allows to come upon us, He always does for our salvation.10 Whoever wants to hold on to God's grace should be grateful for grace given, patient when it is taken away, and pray that it be restored. Let him be cautious and humble, so that he doesn't lose it.

Read the original Latin

Quid quæris quietem, cum natus sis ad laborem, ad patientiam magis quam ad consolationem, et ad crucem portandam magis quam ad lætitiam? Quis etiam sæcularium non libenter consolationem et lætitiam spiritualem acciperet, si semper obtinere posset? Excedunt enim spirituales consolationes omnes mundi delicias et carnis voluptates. Nam omnes deliciæ mundanæ aut turpes, aut vanæ sunt. Spirituales vero deliciæ solæ sunt jucundæ et honestæ ex virtutibus progenitæ, et a Deo puris infusæ mentibus. Sed istis divinis consolationibus nemo semper pro suo affectu frui valet, quia tempus tentationis non diu cessat.

Multum contrariatur supernæ visitationi salsa libertas animi, et magna confidentia sui. Deus benefacit consolationis gratiam dando, sed homo male facit non statim Deo cum gratiarum actione retribuendo. Et ideo non possunt in nobis dona gratiæ fluere, quia ingrati sumus auctori, nec totum refundimus fontali origini. Semper enim debetur gratia digne gratias agenti sive referenti. Auferetur ab elato, quod dari solet humili.

Nolo consolationem quæ mihi auferat compunctionem, nec affecto contemplationem, quæ ducit in elationem. Non enim omne altum sanctum, nec omne desiderium purum, nec omne dulce bonum, nec omne carum gratum Deo. Libenter accepto gratiam unde humilior, et timoratior inveniar atque ad relinquendum me paratior fiam. Doctus dono gratiæ, et eruditus subtractionis verbere non sibi audebit, quidquam boni attribuere, sed potius se pauperem, et nudum confitebitur. Da Deo quidquid Dei est, et tibi adscribe, quod tuum est. Hoc est Deo gratias pro gratia tribue, tibi autem soli culpam, et dignam pœnam pro culpa deberi sentias.

Pone te semper ad infimum, et dabitur tibi summum. Nam summum non stat sine infimo. Summi Sancti apud Deum minimi sunt apud se, et quanto gloriosiores, tanto in se humiliores; pleni veritate et gloria cælesti, non vanæ gloriæ cupidi et in Deo fundati et confirmati, nullo modo possunt esse elati. Et qui Deo totum adscribunt quidquid boni acceperunt, gloriam ab invicem non quærunt. Sed gloriam quæ a Deo est volunt, et Deum quærunt in se, et in omnibus Sanctis laudari super omnia cupiunt, et semper in ipsum tendunt.

Esto igitur gratus in minimo, et eris dignus majora accipere. Sit tibi minimum pro maximo et contemtibile pro speciali dono. Si dignitas datoris inspicitur, nullum datum parvum aut minus vile videbitur. Non enim parvum est quod a summo Deo donatur, etiam si pœnas et verbera donaverit, gratum esse debet, quia semper pro salute nostra facit quidquid nobis advenire permittit. Qui gratiam Dei retinere desiderat, sit gratus pro gratia Dei data, patiens pro sublata, oret ut reddatur, cautus sit et humilis ne amittat.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Gen.3.17-Gen.3.19 — And to Adam he said, "Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat from it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Gen.3.18 — And thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. Gen.3.19 — By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, until you return to the ground, for from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
  2. ↩Matt.16.24 — Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."
  3. ↩Eccl.1.2 — Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
  4. ↩Jas.4.6 — But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.'
  5. ↩Luke.14.10 — But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when the one who invited you comes, he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher.' Then you will have glory before all who are reclining at table with you.
  6. ↩Luke.18.14 — I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than that one; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
  7. ↩John.5.44 — How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
  8. ↩1Thess.2.6 — nor did we seek glory from people—neither from you nor from others—even though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The four nec clauses are rendered with parallel 'nor every' to preserve the rhetorical force. 'Fondness' captures carum in the sense of what we hold dear, distinguishing it from the preceding terms.
  2. 2 ↩Accepto gratiam is an ablative absolute; rendered as a participial clause. 'Reverent' captures timoratior in the sense of godly fear/awe rather than anxiety.
  3. 3 ↩Subtractionis verbere — 'the blow of its withdrawal' — refers to the painful removal of consolation as a formative discipline. 'Naked' (nudum) carries the biblical/spiritual sense of utter destitution before God.
  4. 4 ↩The quoted phrase echoes Matthew 22:21 / Mark 12:17 / Luke 20:25 ('Render to Caesar… and to God the things that are God's'). The inversion here — giving God His due first, then claiming one's own share — is a devotional reworking. Status: candidate, pending Moses resolution.
  5. 5 ↩Gratias pro gratia — 'thanks for grace' — is a compact phrase; expanded to 'thanks to God for grace' for clarity. Dignam pœnam pro culpa deberi is rendered as 'punishment is owed for your fault,' preserving the impersonal obligation (deberi) while making the address direct.
  6. 6 ↩Echoes Luke 14:10 (Vulgate: 'sed cum vocatus fueris, vade, recumbe in novissimo loco') and Luke 18:14 / Matthew 23:12 on the humble being exalted.
  7. 7 ↩Thomas states a structural principle of grace: exaltation is built on humility, not alongside it.
  8. 8 ↩Cupidi rendered 'hungry for' to capture the appetitive force of the adjective; 'eager for' or 'desirous of' are alternatives.
  9. 9 ↩The phrase 'gloriam quæ a Deo est' (the glory which is from God) echoes John 5:44 ('quomodo vos potestis credere qui gloriam ab invicem accipitis') and possibly 1 Thessalonians 2:6.
  10. 10 ↩The Latin poenas et verbera (punishments and blows) frames suffering as divinely given and purposeful — not merely permitted — hence 'given' rather than 'allowed' for this clause, while permittit governs the final clause.