SR
← The Imitation of Christ/Book 3 · On Inward Consolation
Chapter 14Imit.3.14

De judiciis Dei occultis considerandis, ne extollamur in bonis.

Trembling Before God's Judgments

The soul is struck with dread before God's unfathomable judgments, recognizing that even angels and the heavenly stars have not been spared from falling.

Your judgments thunder over me, Lord, and with fear and trembling you shake all my bones, and my soul is struck with great dread.✦1 I stand in astonishment, and I consider that the heavens are not clean in your sight.✦2 If you found depravity in the angels and did not spare them, what will become of me?✦3 Stars have fallen from heaven, and I am dust — what do I presume?✦ Those whose works seemed praiseworthy have fallen to the lowest depths, and I have seen those who ate the bread of angels take delight in the pods of swine.✦45

Nothing Without Grace

All human virtues — holiness, wisdom, strength, chastity, vigilance — are utterly dependent on God's sustaining grace.

There is no holiness, then, if you withdraw your hand, Lord. No wisdom is of any use if you stop guiding. No strength helps if you stop preserving it. No chastity is secure if you don't protect it. Our own vigilance is useless if your holy watchfulness is absent. For when we are left to ourselves, we sink and perish; but when you visit us, we live and are raised up.6 We are indeed unstable, but you strengthen us; we grow lukewarm, but you set us ablaze.7

The Depth of Nothingness

The soul cries out in triple lament, confessing its utter worthlessness and the complete swallowing up of all vain glory beneath God's judgments.

Oh, how humbly and how lowly I ought to think of myself — how utterly worthless I am, even if I seem to have some good in me.8 Oh, how deeply I ought to place myself beneath your unfathomable judgments, Lord — where I find myself to be nothing other than nothing, and nothing at all.9 Oh, immense weight, oh, sea too deep to swim — where I find nothing in myself but utter nothingness.10 Where, then, is any hiding place for glory?11 Where is any confidence born of glory? All vain glory is swallowed up in the depth of your judgments over me.

Flesh, Clay, and Enduring Truth

All flesh is nothing before God; clay cannot boast against its maker, and no human praise or flattery can lift the soul that rests in God — only the truth of the Lord endures forever.

What is all flesh in your sight?✦ "Will clay boast against the One who shaped it?"✦ How can empty talk lift up anyone whose heart is truly subject to God? All the world together couldn't lift up the one whom truth has made subject to itself. Nor will the flattery of all who praise move the one who's placed his entire hope in God. For even those who speak are, look, nothing at all — and they'll fade away with the sound of their words. "But the truth of the Lord remains forever."✦

Read the original Latin

Intonas super me judicia tua, Domine, et timore ac tremore concutis omnia ossa mea et expavescit anima mea valde. Sto attonitus et considero, quia cæli non sunt mundi in conspectu tuo. Si in Angelis reperisti pravitatem, nec tamen pepercisti, quid fiet de me. Ceciderunt stellæ de cælo, et ego pulvis quid præsumo? Quorum opera videbantur laudabilia, ceciderunt ad infima, et qui comedebant panem Angelorum, vidi siliquis delectari porcorum.

Nulla est ergo sanctitas, si manum tuam retrahas, Domine. Nulla sapientia prodest, si gubernare desistas. Nulla juvat fortitudo, si conservare desinas. Nulla secura castitas, si eam non protegas. Nulla propria prodest custodia, si non adsit tua sancta vigilantia. Nam relicti mergimur et perimus; visitati autem: vivimus et erigimur. Instabiles quippe sumus, sed propter te confirmamur; tepescimus, sed a te accendimur.

O, quam humiliter et abjecte mihi de me ipso sentiendum est, quam nihili pendendum est si quid boni videor habere. O, quam profunde me submittere debeo sub abyssalibus tuis judiciis, Domine; ubi nihil aliud me esse invenio, quam nihil et nihil. O, pondus immensum, o pelagus intransnatabile, ubi nihil de me reperio, quam in totum nihil. Ubi est ergo latebra gloriæ? Ubi confidentia de gloria concepta? Absorpta est omnis gloria vana in profunditate judiciorum tuorum super me.

Quid est omnis caro in conspectu tuo? Numquid gloriabitur lutum contra formantem se? Quomodo potest erigi vaniloquio, cujus cor in veritate subjectum est Deo? Non eum totus mundus erigeret, quem sibi subjecit veritas. Nec omnium laudantium ore movebitur, qui totam spem suam in Deo firmavit. Nam et ipsi qui loquuntur, ecce omnes nihil, et deficient cum sonitu verborum. Veritas autem Domini manet in æternum.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Ps.2.10;Ps.38.11 — And now, O kings, be wise; be warned, O judges of the earth. Ps.38.11 — My heart pounds, my strength has left me; even the light in my eyes — it is no longer with me.
  2. ↩Job.15.15;Job.25.5 — Behold, He puts no trust even in His holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in His sight. Job.25.5 — Behold, even the moon does not shine, and the stars are not pure in his sight—
  3. ↩Job.4.18;2Pet.2.4 — Behold, he puts no trust in his servants, and in his angels he finds fault. 2Pet.2.4 — For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them into Tartarus with chains of darkness, delivering them to be kept for judgment;
  4. ↩Isa.14.12;Rev.8.10 — How you have fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who laid low the nations! Rev.8.10 — And the third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on the third of the rivers and on the springs of water.
  5. ↩Luke.15.16 — He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, and no one gave him anything.
  6. ↩Ps.39.5 — Make known to me, LORD, my end, and the measure of my days—what it is—that I may know how fleeting I am.
  7. ↩Isa.45.9;Rom.9.20-Rom.9.21 — Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker—a piece of clay among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay say to its maker, "What are you making?" Or your work say to him, "He has no hands"? Rom.9.20 — But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Will what is molded say to its maker, 'Why did you make me like this'? Rom.9.21 — Does not the potter have authority over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
  8. ↩Ps.117.2 — For great toward us is his steadfast love, and the faithfulness of the LORD is forever. Hallelujah.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The triple et/ac/et chain is preserved to keep the cumulative force of fear, trembling, and dread.
  2. 2 ↩The quoted clause 'cæli non sunt mundi in conspectu tuo' (the heavens are not clean in your sight) is a direct scriptural quotation, marked by italic spans in the source. Likely Job 15:15 (Vulgate) or Job 25:5 (Vulgate). Final resolution deferred to Moses stage.
  3. 3 ↩The italicized clause 'Si in Angelis reperisti pravitatem' is a scriptural quotation, likely from Job 4:18 (Vulgate) or 2 Peter 2:4. The connective nec...tamen ('and...not...nevertheless') is rendered as 'and did not' to preserve the concessive force naturally.
  4. 4 ↩Siliquis (pods/husks) refers to the carob pods eaten by the prodigal son in Luke 15:16. The image contrasts angelic food with the lowest form of sustenance, underscoring the depth of the fall.
  5. 5 ↩The phrase 'panem Angelorum' (bread of angels) likely alludes to Psalm 77:25 (Vulgate) / Psalm 78:25 (Hebrew), 'bread of the mighty ones.' The image of delighting in swine's pods echoes the prodigal son narrative (Luke 15:16). Final resolution deferred to Moses stage.
  6. 6 ↩The antithetical structure (relicti/visitati, mergimur-erigimur/perimus-vivimus) is compressed in the Latin; the colon after autem marks the turn. The rendering expands slightly to make the contrast clear in English.
  7. 7 ↩Tepescimus (grow lukewarm/cool) and accendimur (are kindled/ignited) form a deliberate contrast between spiritual coldness and fervor. The rendering preserves that fire/cold imagery.
  8. 8 ↩Sentiendum est and pendendum est are gerundives expressing obligation: 'must be thought' and 'must be weighed.' Rendered with 'ought to think' and 'am' to keep the force natural in English.
  9. 9 ↩Abyssalibus is a rare adjective ('abyssal, unfathomable') modifying judiciis. Rendered as 'unfathomable' to convey the depth of divine judgment in natural English.
  10. 10 ↩Intransnatabile ('unswimmable') is a vivid hapax metaphor. Rendered as 'too deep to swim' to preserve the image in natural English.
  11. 11 ↩Ergo carries inferential force ('therefore/then'), preserved here as 'then' to mark the logical step from the preceding self-abasement.