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← The Imitation of Christ/Book 3 · On Inward Consolation
Chapter 40Imit.3.40

Quod homo nihil boni ex se habet, et de nullo gloriari debet.

Nothing of Ourselves

The soul confesses that man deserves nothing, possesses no good from himself, and without God's inward help quickly falls into spiritual tepidity.

"Lord, what is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you visit him?"✦ What has man deserved, that you would give him your grace? Lord, what can I complain about, if you abandon me? But what justification can I offer, if you don't grant what I ask? Surely this I can think and say in truth: Lord, I am nothing; I have nothing good from myself, but in everything I fall short, and I always tend toward nothing. Unless you help me and form me inwardly, I become completely lukewarm and dissolved.✦

God Unchanging, Man Unstable

God remains eternally the same in goodness and justice, while man is prone to constant change and can find stability only through God's helping hand.

But you, Lord, are always the same, and you remain forever: always good and just and holy; doing all things well and justly and holily, and disposing them in wisdom.✦ But I, who am more prone to falling away than to making progress, do not always remain in one state, because seven times are changed over me.✦1 Nevertheless, it is quickly better when it has pleased you and you have stretched forth your helping hand: because you alone, without human assistance, are able to help me and strengthen me to such an extent that my face is no longer changed into different things, but in you alone my heart is turned and may rest.✦2

Casting Away Human Consolation

If the soul could truly abandon all human consolation, it could rightly hope in God's grace and rejoice in new divine comfort.

So if I knew well how to cast away all human consolation — whether to gain devotion, or because of the necessity by which I am compelled to seek you, since there is no one who can comfort me — then I could rightly place my hope in your grace and rejoice in the gift of a new consolation.34

The Vanity of Boasting

The soul acknowledges its own vanity, rejects all self-glory and human praise, and warns that empty glory is a plague that strips away heavenly grace.

Thanks be to you, from whom everything comes, whenever things go well for me. But I am vanity and nothing before you — an inconstant and feeble human being. How could I possibly boast? Or why would I seek to be well thought of? Of nothing? Surely not even that? And that is the most vain thing of all. Truly, empty glory is an evil plague, the greatest vanity, because it draws us away from true glory and strips us of heavenly grace. For as long as a person pleases himself, he displeases you; as long as he gapes after human praise, he is deprived of true virtue.

Glory in God Alone

True glory consists in rejoicing in God's name and strength, not in one's own, and the believer will boast only in weaknesses.

True glory and holy exultation consist in this: to glory in you and not in yourself, to rejoice in your name and not in your own strength, and to delight in no creature except on account of you. Let your name be praised, not mine; let your work be magnified, not mine; let your holy name be blessed, not mine. But let nothing of human praise be attributed to me.5 You are my glory, you are the joy of my heart. In you I will glory and exult all the day; but as for me, nothing — except in my weaknesses.✦6

Eternal Glory Over All Vanity

The chapter closes by contrasting human glory-seeking with seeking God's glory alone, declaring all worldly honor vain before God's eternal glory, and ending in Trinitarian praise.

Let the Jews seek the glory that comes from one another; I will seek the glory that comes from God alone.✦ All human glory, every temporal honor, all worldly exaltation — set beside your eternal glory, it is vanity and foolishness. O my truth, and my mercy, my God, blessed Trinity — to you alone be praise, power, honor, and glory through the endless ages of ages.✦

Read the original Latin

Domine, quid est homo, quod memor sis ejus, aut filius hominis, quia visitas eum? Quid promeruit homo, ut dares illi gratiam tuam? Domine, quid possum conqueri, si deseris me? aud quid juste obtendere possum, si quod peto non feceris? Certe hoc in veritate cogitare possum et dicere: Domine, nihil sum; nihil boni ex me habeo, sed in omnibus deficio, et ad nihil semper tendo. Ego nisi a te fuero adjutus et interius informatus, totus efficior tepidus et dissolutus.

Tu autem, Domine, semper idem ipse es, et permanes in æternum: semper bonus et justus et sanctus; bene, juste et sancte agens omnia et disponens in sapientia. Sed ego, qui ad defectum magis pronus sum quam ad profectum, non semper sum in uno statu perdurans, quia septem tempora mutantur super me. Verumtamen cito melius sit, cum tibi placuerit, et manum porrexeris adjutricem: quia tu solus sine humano suffragio poteris auxiliari et in tantum confirmare, ut vultus meus amplius in diversa non mutetur, sed in te uno cor meum convertatur et quiescat.

Unde si bene scirem omnem humanam consolationem abjicere, sive propter devotionem adipiscendam, sive propter necessitatem qua compellor te quærere, quia non est homo qui me consoletur: tunc merito possem de gratia sperare tua, et de dono novæ consolationis exultare.

Gratias tibi, unde totum venit quotiescumque mihi bene succedit. Ego autem vanitas, et nihilum ante te, inconstans homo et infirmus. Unde possum gloriari? aut cur appeto reputari? Numquid de nihilo? et hoc vanissimum est. Vere inanis gloria pestis mala, vanitas maxima, quia a vera trahit gloria, et cælesti spoliat gratia. Dum enim homo complacet sibi, displicet tibi; dum inhiat laudibus humanis, privatur veris virtutibus.

Est autem vera gloria et exultatio sancta gloriari in te et non in se, gaudere in nomine tuo, non in virtute propria, nec in aliqua creatura delectari nisi propter te. Laudetur nomen tuum, non meum; magnificetur opus tuum, non meum; benedicatur nomen sanctum tuum, non meum; nihil autem attribuatur mihi de laudibus hominum. Tu gloria mea, tu exaltatio cordis mei. In te gloriabor et exultabo tota die; pro me autem nihil, nisi in infirmatibus meis.

Quærant Judæi gloriam quæ ab invicem est: ego hanc requiram quæ a solo Deo est. Omnis quidem gloria humana, omnis honor temporalis, omnis altitudo mundana æternæ gloriæ tuæ comparata vanitas est et stultitia. O, veritas mea, et misericordia mea Deus meus, Trinitas beata: tibi soli laus, virtus, honor et gloria per infinita sæculorum sæcula.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Ps.8.4 — When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have set in place—
  2. ↩Rev.3.16 — So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
  3. ↩Ps.102.27 — They will perish, but you will stand; they will all wear out like a garment; like clothing you will change them, and they will be changed.
  4. ↩Prov.24.16 — For the righteous person falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble into calamity.
  5. ↩Ps.121.2 — My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
  6. ↩2Cor.12.5 — On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except in my weaknesses.
  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. ↩Rev.5.13 — And every creature that is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them — I heard them saying, 'To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.'

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Septem tempora (seven times/seasons) echoes Proverbs 24:16 (LXX/Vulgate), where the righteous fall seven times and rise again. The phrase conveys repeated change and instability rather than a precise count.
  2. 2 ↩Vultus meus (my face/countenance) refers to the outward expression of interior state — the shifting, unstable disposition of the soul — which God alone can settle.
  3. 3 ↩devotio rendered as 'devotion' per lexeme policy: devotional disposition, not mere emotion.
  4. 4 ↩gratia rendered as 'grace' per lexeme policy: divine gift/effect, not charm or mood.
  5. 5 ↩The jussive subjunctives (laudetur, magnificetur, benedicatur, attribuatur) express prayerful desire, not command. Rendered with 'let' to preserve that devotional force.
  6. 6 ↩The italicized span 'pro me autem nihil, nisi in infirmatibus meis' is marked as a candidate quotation/allusion. It echoes 2 Cor 12:5 ('pro me nihil gloriabor nisi in infirmitatibus meis'), but final resolution awaits tx-08 Moses verification.