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← The Imitation of Christ/Book 3 · On Inward Consolation
Chapter 9Imit.3.9

Quod omnia ad Deum sicut ad finem ultimum sunt referenda.

God as Our Highest End

Christ calls the soul to make Him its supreme purpose, purifying all disordered self-seeking by referring every good back to its divine origin.

Son, I must be your highest end. From this intention your affection will be purified, so often bent badly toward itself and toward creatures. For if you seek yourself in anything, you will immediately fail in yourself and wither. Therefore refer all things principally to me, who am all things, who gave all things. Consider each thing as flowing from the highest good. And so all things are to be referred to me as to their origin.

The Fountain of Living Water

All people draw grace from God as from a fountain, and those who serve Him freely receive grace for grace, while self-glory brings only narrowness and joylessness.

From me the small and the great, the poor and the rich, draw living water as from a fountain of living water.✦✦ And those who serve me willingly and freely will receive grace in exchange for grace. But whoever wishes to glory outside of me, or to delight in any private good, will not be established in true joy, nor will he be enlarged in his own heart, but will be hindered in many ways and made narrow.✦ You should therefore ascribe nothing of the good to yourself, nor attribute virtue to any human being, but give the whole to God, without whom a human being has nothing.✦ I gave the whole; I wish to take back the whole; and with great strictness of graces I require acts of thanksgiving.

The Triumph of Divine Love

Truth banishes vain glory; where heavenly grace and charity reign, envy and selfish love cannot remain, and the wise soul rejoices and hopes in God alone.

This is the truth by which the vanity of glory is put to flight. And if heavenly grace and true love have entered in, there will be no envy, no constriction of the heart, and no selfish love will take hold. For divine love conquers all things, and it expands every strength of the soul. If you are truly wise, you will rejoice in me alone, you will hope in me alone, because no one is good but God alone, who is to be praised above all things and to be blessed in all things.✦

Read the original Latin

Fili, ego debeo esse finis tuus supremus. Ex hac intentione purificabitur affectus tuus, sæpius ad se ipsum, et ad creaturas male incurvatus. Nam si te ipsum in aliquo quæris, statim in te deficies et arescis. Omnia ergo ad me principaliter referas qui omnia sum, qui omnia dedi. Sic singula considera sicut ex summo bono manantia. Et ideo ad me tanquam ad originem suam cuncta sunt referenda.

Ex me pusillus et magnus, pauper et dives, tanquam ex fonte vivo aquam hauriunt vivam. Et qui mihi sponte et libere deserviunt, gratiam, pro gratia accipient. Qui autem extra me voluerit gloriari vel in aliquo privato bono delectari, non stabilietur in vero gaudio, nec in corde suo dilatabitur, sed multipliciter impedietur et angustiabitur. Nihil ergo tibi de bono adscribere debes, nec alicui homini virtutem attribuas, sed totum da Deo, sine quo nihil habet homo. Ego totum dedi, ego totum rehabere volo, et cum magna districtione gratiarum actiones requiro.

Hæc est veritas qua fugatur gloriæ vanitas. Et si intraverit cælestis gratia et vera charitas, non erit aliqua invidia, nec contractio cordis, neque privatus amor occupabit. Vincit enim omnia divina charitas, et dilatat omnes animæ vires. Si recte sapis, in me solo gaudebis, in me solo sperabis, quia nemo bonus nisi solus Deus, qui est super omnia laudandus, et in omnibus benedicendus.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩John.4.14 — but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst forever; rather, the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life
  2. ↩John.7.38 — The one who believes in me, just as the Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within him.
  3. ↩1Cor.1.31 — so that, as it is written, 'Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.'
  4. ↩1Cor.4.7 — For who makes you different? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you had not received it?
  5. ↩Mark.10.18;Matt.19.17 — But Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.' 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."