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← The Imitation of Christ/Book 3 · On Inward Consolation
Chapter 32Imit.3.32

De abnegatione sui ipsius et abdicatione omnis cupiditatis.

The Call to Total Self-Denial

True freedom and understanding come only through complete self-renunciation and letting go of all desires.

Son, you can't fully have your freedom unless you completely deny yourself. All who are their own — lovers of themselves, grasping, meddlesome, always wandering, always chasing after what's new and comfortable instead of what belongs to Jesus Christ — are shackled. And they keep fabricating and contriving schemes that won't last.1 All of this will pass away — everything that doesn't have its origin in God.✦2 Hold on to this brief and complete word: let go of everything, and you'll find everything; let go of desire, and you'll find rest.3 Meditate on this with your mind, and once you've carried it out, you'll understand all things.4

The Weight of Perfection

Self-denial is not a trivial task but the very essence of religious perfection.

Lord, this is not the work of a single day, nor a game for children — no, in this brief task the entire perfection of religious life is contained.56

Surrender and Obedience

Christ calls the disciple to cease self-love, surrender all attachments, and receive heavenly wisdom in exchange for earthly pretensions.

My child, you shouldn't turn away or be cast down the moment you hear about the way of the perfect; you should rather be stirred toward higher things, and long for this all the less out of your own desire. If only you were so at peace with yourself and had come to this point that you were no longer a lover of yourself, but stood purely at my command — and at the command of the Father whom I have placed before you: then you would please me greatly, and your whole life would pass with joy and peace. You still have many things to let go of, and unless you hand them over to me completely, you will not gain what you ask for. I urge you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may become rich — that is, heavenly wisdom, which tramples underfoot all that is lowest.✦ Set aside earthly wisdom entirely, along with all human flattery — and your own as well.

The Hidden Pearl of Heavenly Wisdom

True heavenly wisdom appears humble and is overlooked by many, yet it is a precious pearl worth all earthly trade.

I've told you to buy cheap things in exchange for what is precious, and to trade lofty human affairs for what is above them. True heavenly wisdom seems cheap and small, almost handed over to oblivion — not wise in its own lofty claims about itself, nor seeking to be made great on earth.7 How many preach with their lips alone, yet by their lives they stand far apart from what they say! Still, it is a precious pearl hidden from many.✦8

Read the original Latin

Fili, non potes perfecte possidere libertatem nisi totaliter abneges temetipsum. Compediti sunt omnes proprietarii et sui ipsius amatores, cupidi, curiosi, gyrovagi, quærentes semper curiosa et mollia, non quæ Jesu Christi: sed sæpe hoc fingentes et componentes hoc, quod non stabit. Peribit enim totum hoc quod non es ex Deo ortum. Tene breve et consummatum verbum: Dimitte omnia, et invenies omnia: dimitte cupidinem, et invenies requiem. Hoc mente pertracta et cum impleveris, omnia intelliges.

Domine, hoc non est opus unius diei, nec ludus parvulorum: immo in hoc brevi concluditur omnis perfectio Religiosorum.

Fili, non debes averti, nec statim dejici audita via perfectorum, sed magis ad sublimiora provocari, et ad minus ad hoc ex desiderio suspirare. Utinam sic tecum esses, et ad hoc pervenisses, ut tui ipsius amator non esses, sed ad nutum meum pure stares, et ejus quem tibi præposui Patris: tunc mihi valde placeres, et tota vita tua cum gaudio et pace transiret. Habes adhuc multa ad relinquendum quæ nisi mihi ex integro resignaveris, non acquires quod postulas. Suadeo tibi emere a me aurum ignitum, ut locuples fias, idest sapientiam cælestem, omnia infima conculcantem. Postpone terrenam sapientiam omnem ac humanam complacentiam et propriam.

Dixi tibi viliora emenda pro prætiosis, et altis rebus humanis. Nam vilis et parva, et pene oblivioni tradita videtur vere cælestis sapientia, non sapiens alta de se, nec magnificari quærens in terra. Quam multi ore tenus prædicant, sed vita longe dissentiunt: ipsa tamen est prætiosa margarita multis abscondita.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩1John.2.17 — And the world is passing away, and its desire; but the one who does the will of God remains forever.
  2. ↩Rev.3.18 — I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may become rich, and white garments to clothe yourself, so that the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.
  3. ↩Matt.13.45-Matt.13.46 — Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. Matt.13.46 — who, having found one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Compediti (literally 'fettered in shackles') is rendered 'shackled' to capture the vivid bondage image. Gyrovagi ('wanderers') is an ecclesiastical term for monks without a fixed community, here broadened to 'wandering about.'
  2. 2 ↩Enim is explanatory/postpositive; rendered 'For' to preserve the logical connection to the preceding sentence.
  3. 3 ↩Breve et consummatum verbum ('brief and complete word') is rendered to preserve the paradox of a short saying that contains full perfection.
  4. 4 ↩Impleveris is ambiguous between future perfect ('you will have fulfilled') and perfect subjunctive ('you have fulfilled'); the temporal sense 'once you have carried it out' captures both readings.
  5. 5 ↩Religiosorum rendered as 'religious life' per lexeme policy for religio in the sense of ordered devotional/monastic practice.
  6. 6 ↩Brevi ('in this brief [space of time/summary]') is ambiguous between a temporal reading ('in this short time') and a substantive one ('in this brief summary'). The translation 'in this brief task' leans toward the substantive sense, capturing the idea that the whole of religious perfection is compressed into one concise undertaking.
  7. 7 ↩The subject is sapientia (wisdom) personified. The phrase 'non sapiens alta de se' is rendered as 'not wise in its own lofty claims about itself' to capture the irony: heavenly wisdom does not think highly of itself or seek earthly greatness.
  8. 8 ↩The 'precious pearl' (prætiosa margarita) refers back to heavenly wisdom. The antecedent is sapientia from the previous sentence, carried forward by ipsa. This echoes the Parable of the Pearl (Matt 13:45–46), though the allusion is not a direct quotation.