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← The Imitation of Christ/Book 3 · On Inward Consolation
Chapter 58Imit.3.58

De altioribus rebus et occultis Dei judiciis non scrutandis.

The Danger of Disputing God's Hidden Judgments

The disciple is warned not to probe into God's inscrutable judgments about why some are afflicted and others exalted, for divine judgment surpasses all human reason and is to be feared rather than debated.

Son, don't get caught up in arguing about lofty matters and God's hidden judgments — why this person is left behind in such a way, and that one is raised up to such great grace. Why is one person afflicted so deeply, and another exalted so exceedingly? These things are beyond every human capacity, and no amount of reasoning or argument has the power to investigate divine judgment. So when the enemy puts these thoughts in your mind, or when certain curious people start prying into them, answer with the words of the Prophet: <quote>You are righteous, Lord, and your judgment is just</quote>; and that other verse: <quote>The judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves</quote>.✦ My judgments are to be feared, not debated, because they are beyond human understanding.

The Folly of Ranking the Saints

Arguing about which saint is holier or greater breeds quarrels, pride, and envy, and is displeasing to God, who is a God of peace rather than dissension.

Don't go prying into or arguing about the merits of the saints either — who is holier than another, or who is greater in the kingdom of heaven. Such talk often breeds quarrels and useless disputes, and it feeds pride and empty glory as well. From it spring envy and dissension, as one person tries to set that saint above another, and someone else pushes a different saint forward in the same arrogant spirit. Wanting to know and investigate such things brings no fruit at all; it's actually displeasing to the saints, because <quote>I am not a God of dissension but of peace</quote> — and that peace is found far more in genuine humility than in pushing yourself forward.1

God Alone Made the Saints Glorious

God speaks in the first person, declaring that He created all the saints, gave them grace and glory, foreknew and chose them, called them through mercy, led them through trials, consoled them, and crowned their patience.

Some people, moved by a zeal for devotion, are drawn to one saint or another with great effect — but it's a human effect rather than a divine one. I am the one who created all the saints; I gave them grace; I granted them glory. I know the merits of each one; <quote>I went before them with the blessings of my sweetness.</quote>✦2 I foreknew my beloved ones before the ages; <quote>I chose them out of the world</quote> — they did not first choose me.✦3 I called them through grace, drew them through mercy; I led them through various trials. I poured into them magnificent consolations; I gave them perseverance; I crowned their patience.

The Unity and Love of All the Saints

God is to be praised in all His saints; whoever dishonors the least of them dishonors God and all the heavenly communion, for the saints are one in love, feeling and willing the same thing.

I am the first and the last. I acknowledge them all and embrace them with immeasurable love.✦ I am to be praised in all my saints; I am to be blessed above all things and honored in each one—whom I have thus glorified magnificently and predestined without any preceding merits of their own. Whoever despises one of my least ones does not honor the great, 'for the small and the great I have made.' Whoever detracts from any of the saints detracts also from me, and from all the others in the kingdom of heaven. All are one through the bond of love; they feel the same thing, they will the same thing, and all love one another as one.

The Saints' Love for God Transcends All

The saints love God more than themselves, are swept beyond self-love into God's love, and are upheld by eternal truth and inextinguishable love; therefore carnal people must not presume to judge their state.

And yet — because this goes far deeper than that — they love me more than themselves and their own merits. For they are caught up beyond themselves and drawn outside their own affection, and they press forward wholly into love of me, in which they rest in joyful possession.4 There is nothing that can turn them away or cast them down — for they are filled with eternal truth and burn with the inextinguishable fire of love. So let carnal and merely natural people stop disputing over the state of the Saints — they know nothing but how to love private pleasures; they subtract and add according to their own inclination, not as it pleases eternal Truth.5

The Ignorance of Natural Minds

Most people, being unenlightened and bound by natural affection, imagine heavenly things according to their own limited experience, not understanding the vast distance between imperfect human perception and revealed contemplation.

Many people are ignorant, especially those who are seldom enlightened and rarely know how to love anyone with perfect, spiritual love. Many are still drawn by natural affection and human friendship to this person or that; and just as they conduct themselves in lesser matters, so too they imagine heavenly things to be. But there is an incomparable distance between what the imperfect do not understand and what enlightened men contemplate and gaze upon through revelation — the things of heaven.

Seek Humility, Not Hidden Knowledge

The disciple should abandon curiosity about things beyond knowledge, aim simply to be found in God's kingdom, and recognize that knowing others' spiritual rank is worthless unless it leads to greater humility; it is better to pray to the saints than to pry into their secrets.

So beware, my son, of curiously dwelling on things that exceed your knowledge. Instead, make it your chief concern and aim to be found even the least in the kingdom of God.6 And even if someone knew who was holier than another, or who was held greater in the kingdom of heaven, what good would that knowledge do them — unless through knowing it they humbled themselves before me and rose up to praise my name all the more?78 The one who thinks about the greatness of their own sins and the smallness of their own virtues, and how far they fall short of the perfection of the saints — that person acts far more acceptably before God than the one who disputes about the greatness or smallness of others.910 It is better to entreat the saints with devout prayers and tears, and with a humble mind to draw on their glorious intercessions, than to scrutinize their secrets through vain inquiry.1112

The Saints' Humility and Fullness of Joy

The saints do not boast of their merits but attribute everything to God; the higher they are in glory, the more humble they are, casting their crowns before the Lamb in worship.

They'd do well and be most content if people knew how to be satisfied and to restrain their own idle talk. They don't boast about their own merits, since they ascribe no goodness to themselves, but attribute everything to me, because I have given them all things out of my infinite love.13 They're filled with so great a love of God and with overflowing joy that nothing is lacking to them in glory, and nothing is lacking in happiness.14 All the saints, the higher they are in glory, the more humble they are in their own eyes, and the nearer and more beloved they are to me. And so you have it written, that they cast their crowns before God and fell on their faces before the Lamb, and worshipped the One who lives forever and ever.✦15

The Least in Heaven Is Greater Than We Know

Those who ask who is greatest in heaven do not even know if they will be counted among the least; yet even the least in heaven is great, for all are children of God, and only the humble like little children will enter.

Many ask who is the greatest in the kingdom of God, yet they don't even know whether they'll be counted worthy even among the least. It is a great thing, even, to be the least in heaven, where all are great — because all will be called, and will be, children of God. "The least shall be among thousands, and the sinner, though he live a hundred years, shall die." For when the disciples asked who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, they heard this answer: "Unless you turn and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven."✦ "Whoever, therefore, humbles himself like this child — this one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."✦

Woes and Blessings: The Final Reversal

Woe to those who refuse to humble themselves, for the lowly gate of heaven will not admit the proud; woe to the rich who have their consolation now; but rejoice, you lowly and poor, for the kingdom of God is yours if you walk in truth.

Woe to those who disdain to humble themselves willingly alongside the lowly, because the humble gate of the heavenly kingdom will not admit them to enter.✦16 Woe also to the rich, who have their consolations here, because while the poor enter into the kingdom of God, they themselves will stand outside, wailing.✦1718 Rejoice, you who are lowly, and exult, you who are poor, because the kingdom of God is yours — if indeed you walk in truth.✦✦19

Read the original Latin

Fili, caveas disputare de altis materiis et de occultis Dei judiciis: cur iste sic relinquitur, et ille ad tantam gratiam assumitur? cur etiam iste tantum affligitur, et ille tam eximie exaltatur? Ista omnem facultatem humanam excedunt, nec ad investigandum divum judicium ulla ratio prævalet vel disputatio. Quando ergo hæc tibi suggerit inimicus vel etiam quidam curiosi inquirunt homines, responde illud Prophetæ: Justus es, Domine, et justum judicium tuum; et illud: Judicia Domini vera justificata in semetipsa. Judicia mea metuenda sunt, non discutienda, quia humano intellectu sunt incomprehensibilia.

Noli etiam inquirere nec disputare de meritis Sanctorum, quis alio sit sanctior; aut quis major sit in regno cælorum. Talia generant sæpe lites et contentiones inutiles, nutriunt quoque superbiam et vanam gloriam: unde oriuntur invidiæ et dissensiones, dum ille istum Sanctum, et alius alium conatur superbe præferre. Talia autem velle scire et investigare nullum fructum afferunt, sed magis Sanctis displicent, quia non sum Deus dissensionis, sed pacis, quæ pax magis in humilitate vera, quam in propria exaltatione consistit.

Quidam zelo devotionis trahuntur ad hos Sanctos vel ad illos, ampliori effectu, sed humano potius, quam divino. Ego sum qui cunctos condidi Sanctos; ego donavi gratiam; ego præstiti gloriam. Ego novi singulorum merita; ego præveni eos in benedictionibus dulcedinis meæ. Ego præscivi dilectos meos ante sæcula; ego eos elegi de mundo, non ipsi me præelegerunt. Ego vocavi per gratiam, attraxi per miscericordiam; ego perduxi eos per tentationes varias. Ego infudi consolationes magnificas; ego dedi perseverantiam; ego coronavi eorum patientiam.

Ego primum et novissimum agnosco; ego omnes inæstimabili dilectione amplector. Ego laudandus sum in omnibus Sanctis meis; ego super omnia benedicendus sum et honorandus in singulis, quos sic gloriose magnificavi, et prædestinavi sine ullis præcedentibus propriis meritis. Qui ergo unum de minimis meis contemsit, nec magnum honorat: quia pusillum et magnum ego feci. Qui derogat alicui Sanctorum, derogat et mihi, et omnibus cæteris in regno cælorum. Omnes unum sunt per charitatis vinculum, idem sentiunt, idem volunt et omnes in unum se diligunt.

Adhuc autem, quod multo altius est, plus me quam se et sua merita diligunt. Nam supra se rapti et extra propriam dilectionem tracti, toti in amorem meum pergunt, in quo et fruitive quiescunt. Nihil est quod eos avertere possit aut deprimere: quippe qui æterna veritate pleni, igne ardescunt inexstinguibilis charitatis. Taceant igitur carnales et animales homines de Sanctorum statu differere: qui non norunt nisi privata gaudia diligere; demunt et addunt pro sua inclinatione, non prout placet æternæ Veritati.

In multis est ignorantia, eorum maxime qui parum illuminati raro aliquem perfecta dilectione spirituali diligere norunt. Multi adhuc naturali affectu, et humana amicitia ad hos vel ad illos trahuntur; et sicut in inferioribus se habent, ita et de cælestibus imaginantur. Sed est distantia incomparabilis inter ea quæ imperfecti non cognitant, et ea quæ illuminati viri per revelationem contemplantur, et speculantur superna.

Cave ergo, fili, de istis curiose tractare, quæ scientiam tuam excedunt; sed hoc magis satage et intende, ut vel minimus in regno Dei queas inveniri. Et si quispiam sciret, quis alio sanctior esset, vel major haberetur in regno cælorum, quid ei hæc notitia prodesset, nisi se ex hac cognitione coram me humiliaret, et in majorem mei nominis laudem exsurgeret? Multo acceptius Deo facit qui de peccatorum suorum magnitudine, et virtutum suarum parvitate cogitat, et quam longe a Sanctorum perfectione distat, quam is, qui de majoritate eorum vel parvitate disputat. Melius est Sanctos devotis precibus et lacrymis exorare et eorum gloriosa suffragia humili mente implicare, quam eorum secreta vana inquisitione perscrutari.

Illi bene et optime contentantur, si homines scirent contentari et vaniloquia sua compescere. Non gloriantur de propriis meritis, quippe qui sibi nil bonitatis adscribunt; sed totum mihi, quoniam ipsis cuncta ex infinita mea charitate donavi. Tanto amore divinitatis et gaudio supereffluenti replentur, ut nil desit eis gloriæ, nihilque desit felicitatis. Omnes Sancti quanto altiores in gloria tanto humiliores in se ipsis, et mihi viciniores et dilectiores existunt. Ideoque habes scriptum, quia mittebant coronas suas ante Deum, et ceciderunt in facies suas coram Agno et adoraverunt viventem in sæcula sæculorum.

Multi quærunt, quis major sit in regno Dei, qui ignorant an cum minimis erunt digni computari. Magnum est vel esse minimum in cælo, ubi omnes magni sunt: quia omnes filii Dei vocabuntur et erunt. Minimus erit in mille et peccator centum annorum morietur. Cum enim quærerent Discipuli, quis major esset in regno cælorum, tale audierunt responsum: Nisi conversi fueritis et efficiamini sicut parvuli, non intrabitis in regnum cælorum. Quicumque ergo humiliaverit se sicut parvulus iste: hic major est in regno cælorum.

Væ eis, qui cum parvulis se humiliare sponte dedignantur, quoniam humilis janua regni cælestis eos non admittet intrare. Væ et divitibus, qui habent consolationes suas hic, quia pauperibus intrantibus in regnum Dei, ipsi stabunt foris ejulantes. Gaudete humiles, et exultate pauperes, quia vestrum est regnum Dei, si tamen in veritate ambulatis.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Ps.18.8-Ps.18.9 — Then the earth shook and quaked; the foundations of the mountains trembled and shook, because his anger burned against them. Ps.18.9 — Smoke went up from his nostrils, and fire from his mouth devoured; coals blazed forth from him.
  2. ↩Ps.20.4 — May he remember all your grain offerings and fatten your burnt offering. Selah.
  3. ↩John.15.16 — You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give you.
  4. ↩Isa.44.6;Rev.1.17 — Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: "I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God." Rev.1.17 — And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. And he placed his right hand on me, saying, 'Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last,'
  5. ↩Rev.4.10 — the twenty-four elders fall down before the One seated on the throne and worship the One who lives forever and ever, and they cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
  6. ↩Matt.18.3 — And he said, "Truly I tell you, unless you turn and become like the children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."
  7. ↩Matt.18.4 — Whoever makes himself low, like this child—this one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
  8. ↩Matt.18.3-Matt.18.4 — And he said, "Truly I tell you, unless you turn and become like the children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Matt.18.4 — Whoever makes himself low, like this child—this one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
  9. ↩Luke.6.24 — But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.
  10. ↩Luke.6.20-Luke.6.21;Matt.5.3-Matt.5.5 — And he lifted up his eyes to his disciples and said: Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Luke.6.21 — Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Matt.5.3 — Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matt.5.4 — Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Matt.5.5 — Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
  11. ↩3John.1.4;Gal.2.14 — I have no greater joy than this: to hear that my children are walking in the truth. Gal.2.14 — But when I saw that they were not walking straight according to the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, "You, though you are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew—how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?"

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Quoted span: non sum Deus dissensionis, sed pacis. Candidate Pauline echo (cf. 1 Cor 14:33: Deus non est dissensionis sed pacis); final resolution deferred to tx-08 Moses check.
  2. 2 ↩Quoted span echoes Psalm 20:4 Vulg. (21:3 Heb.): 'praeveniet te benedictione dulcadinis.' Moses resolution pending.
  3. 3 ↩Quoted span echoes John 15:16: 'non vos me elegistis, sed ego elegi vos.' Moses resolution pending.
  4. 4 ↩Fruitive (rare adverb) rendered as 'in joyful possession' to capture the sense of resting in the enjoyment of God. The Latin is unusual and the sense is not entirely certain.
  5. 5 ↩Differere rendered as 'dispute' here, though the sense is uncertain — it could also mean 'to differ' or 'to delay.' The context suggests unqualified people presuming to judge or argue about the saints' condition.
  6. 6 ↩ergo rendered 'so' to capture the inferential force naturally; sed rendered 'instead' to sharpen the contrast with the preceding warning.
  7. 7 ↩Et rendered 'and' to preserve the additive link to the preceding sentence; vel rendered 'or' for the alternative; et before exsurgeret rendered 'and' to join the two purpose clauses.
  8. 8 ↩The passage is direct speech of Christ; 'me' and 'my' preserve the first-person divine address.
  9. 9 ↩et (after magnitudine) rendered 'and' to join the two objects of cogitat; et (after distat) rendered 'and' to link the two quam-clauses; vel rendered 'or' for the alternative.
  10. 10 ↩acceptius rendered 'far more acceptably' to capture the comparative adverbial force.
  11. 11 ↩et (after precibus) rendered 'and' to join prayers and tears; et (after exorare) rendered 'and' to join the two infinitive purposes.
  12. 12 ↩suffragia rendered 'intercessions' to capture the sense of the saints' powerful help on our behalf; implicare rendered 'draw on' to convey humble recourse to their aid.
  13. 13 ↩charitate rendered as 'love' per lexeme policy for charitas; the theological-virtue sense is preserved by context ('infinite love').
  14. 14 ↩amore divinitatis rendered 'love of God' (amor → love per lexeme policy).
  15. 15 ↩Quotation from Revelation 4:10 (Vulgate): 'mittebant coronas suas ante thronum… coram Agno… viventem in saecula saeculorum.' The normalized text reads 'ante Deum' rather than 'ante thronum'; the translation follows the supplied normalized reading.
  16. 16 ↩cum with parvulis read temporally ('alongside the lowly / when with the little ones'); a concessive reading ('although with the little ones') is possible but less likely.
  17. 17 ↩The italicized spans mark candidate scriptural quotation: 'Væ … divitibus, qui habent consolationes suas' echoes Luke 6:24 ('But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation'). Final resolution deferred to Moses stage.
  18. 18 ↩et is additive, extending the woe from the proud to the rich.
  19. 19 ↩si tamen rendered 'if indeed' to capture the concessive-adversative force of tamen within the conditional: the promise holds, but only for those whose walk matches their profession.