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← The Imitation of Christ/Book 3 · On Inward Consolation
Chapter 56Imit.3.56

Quod nosmetipsos abnegare et Christum imitari debemus per crucem.

Christ the Way, the Truth, and the Life

Christ teaches that self-denial opens the soul to God, and he reveals himself as the unbreakable Way, the unfailing Truth, and the eternal Life in whom the disciple must follow, believe, and hope.

Son, the farther you can go out of yourself, the more deeply you'll be able to enter into me. Just as wanting nothing outside yourself brings inner peace, so abandoning yourself inwardly joins you to God. I want you to learn the perfect denial of yourself in my will, without contradiction or complaint. Follow me: "I am the way, the truth, and the life."✦1 Without the way, no one goes; without the truth, nothing is known; without the life, no one lives. I am the way, which you must follow; the truth, which you must believe; the life, which you must hope for. I am the way that cannot be broken, the truth that cannot fail, the life that has no end. I am the most upright way, the highest truth, the true life, the blessed life, the uncreated life. If you remain in my way, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free, and you will lay hold of eternal life.✦✦2

The Conditions of Discipleship

A series of conditional sayings drawn from Scripture lays out the demands of following Christ: keeping commandments, believing, selling all, self-denial, despising the present life, humility, and carrying the cross.

"If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments."✦ If you wish to know the truth, believe me. "If you wish to be perfect, sell everything."✦ If you wish to be my disciple, deny yourself.✦ If you wish to possess a blessed life, despise this present life. If you wish to be exalted in heaven, humble yourself in this world.✦ If you wish to reign with me, carry the cross with me.✦ For only the servants of the cross find the life of blessedness and of true light.

A Prayer to Follow the Despised Christ

The disciple prays for grace to imitate Christ's contempt of the world, acknowledges that no servant is greater than the master, and finds all true salvation and delight only in Christ's life.

Lord Jesus Christ, because your life was narrow and despised by the world, grant me to imitate with you the contempt of the world.3 "For no servant is greater than his master, nor is a disciple above his teacher."✦4 Let your servant be trained in your life, because there is my salvation and true holiness.5 Whatever I read and hear beyond that neither refreshes me nor fully delights me.6

Taking Up the Cross Without Turning Back

The disciple is called blessed for doing what is taught, receives the promise of Christ's self-revelation to those who keep his commandments, and resolves to carry the cross to death, recognizing that the monastic life begun must not be abandoned.

Son, because you know these things and have read them all, you'll be blessed if you do them.✦ "Whoever has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me, and I will love him and reveal myself to him" and make him sit with me in my Father's kingdom.✦✦7 Therefore, Lord, just as you have said and promised, so may it surely fall to my lot to obtain it.8 I have taken up, I have taken up the cross from your hand; I will carry it even to death, just as you have laid it on me.✦ Truly, the life of a good monk is a cross — but it is a guide to paradise.9 It has been begun; it's not permitted to go back, nor is it right to abandon it.✦10

Courageous Perseverance in the Cross

The chapter closes with a communal exhortation to advance together in the cross, following Christ as King and leader, ready to die bravely in battle rather than flee in disgrace.

Come now, brothers, let's go on together. Jesus will be with us. For Jesus' sake we have taken up this cross; for Jesus' sake let's persevere in the cross. He will be our helper, our leader, and the one who goes before us. Look, let our King go in before us — he will fight for us. Let's follow courageously. Let no one fear what terrifies. Let's be ready to die bravely in battle — and let's not bring disgrace on our glory by fleeing from the cross.

Read the original Latin

Fili, quantum vales a te exire, tantum in me poteris pertransire. Sicut nihil foris concupiscere internam pacem facit, sic se interius relinquere Deo conjungit. Volo te addiscere perfectam abnegationem tui in voluntate mea, sine contradictione et querela. Sequere me: Ego sum via, veritas, et vita. Sine via non itur; sine veritate non cognoscitur; sine vita non vivitur. Ego sum via, quam sequi debes, veritas, cui credere debes, vita, quam sperare debes. Ego sum via inviolabilis, veritas infallibilis, vita interminabilis. Ego sum via rectissima, veritas suprema, vita vera, vita beata, vita increata. Si manseris in via mea, cognosces veritatem, et veritas liberabit te et apprehendes vitam æternam.

Si vis ad vitam ingredi, serva mandata. Si vis veritatem cognoscere, crede mihi. Si vis perfectus esse, vende omnia. Si vis esse discipulus meus, abnega temetipsum. Si vis beatam vitam possidere, præsentem vitam contemne. Si vis exaltari in cælo, humilia te in mundo. Si vis regnare mecum, porta crucem mecum. Soli enim servi crucis inveniunt vitam beatitudinis et veræ lucis.

Domine Jesu Christe, quia arta erat vita tua, et mundo despecta; dona mihi tecum mundi despectum imitari. Non enim servus est major domino suo, nec discipulus supra magistrum. Exerceatur servus tuus in vita tua, quia ibi est salus mea et sanctitas vera. Quidquid extra eam lego et audio, non me recreat nec delectat plene.

Fili, quia hæc scis et legisti omnia, beatus eris si feceris ea. Qui habet mandata mea et servat ea, ipse est qui diligit me, et ego diligam eum et manifestabo ei meipsum et faciam ipsum consedere mecum in regno Patris mei. Igitur, Domine, sicut dixisti et promisisti, sic utique mihi promereri contingat. Suscepi, suscepi de manu tua crucem: portabo eam usque ad mortem, sicut imposuisti mihi. Vere vita boni Monachi crux est, sed dux paradisi. Inceptum est, retro abire non licet, nec relinquere oportet.

Eja fratres, pergamus simul: Jesus erit nobiscum; propter Jesum suscepimus hanc crucem; propter Jesum perseveremus in cruce; erit adjutor noster, qui est dux noster et præcessor. En rex noster ingrediatur ante nos, qui pugnabit pro nobis. Sequamur viriliter, nemo metuat terrores; simus parati mori fortiter in bello, nec inferamus crimen gloriæ nostræ, et fugiamus a cruce.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩John.14.6 — Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'
  2. ↩John.8.31-John.8.32 — So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, 'If you remain in my word, you are truly my disciples.' John.8.32 — And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
  3. ↩John.14.6 — Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'
  4. ↩Matt.19.17 — And he said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. But if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments."
  5. ↩Matt.19.21 — Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
  6. ↩Matt.16.24;Luke.9.23 — 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." Luke.9.23 — Then he said to all, "If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me."
  7. ↩Luke.14.11;Luke.18.14;Jas.4.10 — For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted. 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. Jas.4.10 — Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
  8. ↩Matt.16.24;Rom.8.17;2Tim.2.12 — 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." Rom.8.17 — And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. 2Tim.2.12 — If we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us.
  9. ↩Matt.10.24 — A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above his master.
  10. ↩Jas.1.25 — But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom, and continues in it—not having become a hearer who forgets but a doer of the work—this one will be blessed in what he does.
  11. ↩John.14.21 — The one who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.
  12. ↩Rev.3.20-Rev.3.21 — Look, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to them and eat with them, and they with me. Rev.3.21 — The one who conquers, I will grant to sit with me on my throne, just as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.
  13. ↩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."
  14. ↩Luke.9.62 — Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

Notes

  1. 1 ↩John 14:6.
  2. 2 ↩Echoes John 8:31–32 and John 14:6.
  3. 3 ↩mundo despecta: ablative of respect, 'despised in the eyes of the world' or 'looked down upon by the world.'
  4. 4 ↩Quotation from Matthew 10:24 (Vulgate). Preserved as direct speech.
  5. 5 ↩Exerceatur: jussive subjunctive, 'let him be exercised/trained' — a prayerful petition for discipline.
  6. 6 ↩eam: refers back to vita tua ('your life'), i.e., the pattern of Christ's life.
  7. 7 ↩The first italicized span echoes John 14:21 (Qui habet mandata mea et servat ea, ipse est qui diligit me). The second italicized span continues the same Johannine promise (ego diligam eum et manifestabo ei meipsum). The closing clause (faciam ipsum consedere mecum in regno Patris mei) is Thomas's own continuation, not a direct scriptural quotation.
  8. 8 ↩Promereri (to obtain/merit as a reward) carries the sense of receiving something earned or granted; rendered as 'to obtain it' to keep the prayer natural while preserving the meritorious undertone.
  9. 9 ↩Sed here carries an adversative-but-also-corrective force: the cross is not merely suffering but a path. Rendered with em-dash and 'but' to capture both contrast and redirection.
  10. 10 ↩Nec ... oportet pairs non licet with a stronger moral obligation: not only is going back forbidden, but leaving the path is positively wrong.