Name:
P. K. O. Mutula, CM
Reg No: 11063T
Book title: The Imitation of Christ By Thomas A’ Kempis
The
Author
 |
| I wish to model my life on Christ |
My
Motivation
Imitation of Christ though is classical spiritual
book, I am motivated to read it because as a Christian I need to model my life
to that of Christ and therefore it is my
hope that this book will help me realize this in a more splendid way. I believe
that the book is very necessary for everyone who wants to follow Christ and it
is able to instruct us on how to mould our whole life in Christ. Because The
charism of my Congregation is based on Luke 4:18 “the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring
the good new to the poor”, Which makes Christ the rule of our Mission, I
believe that as a Vincentian called to serve the poor, this book will help me learn
how to follow in the foot steps of Christ who served others with humility and
always placed the needs of all before himself. I therefore believe that by the
end of my reading of this book I will be able to grow in my spiritual journey,
learn how to carry my cross and follow Jesus and lastly to remain focus and
deeply spirited on prayer, serving God and all those in need at all times.
Summary of the Book The
Imitation Of Christ By Thomas A' Kempis
Introduction
The book The
Imitation of Christ is a classical spiritual text written by Thomas
A’Kempis between 1420 and 1427 to help Christians grow in their spiritual life
by living a life of renunciation of worldly things and dedicate ones self in
following Jesus as the way to eternal truth and also remaining faithful to the
Eucharist. In this book Thomas has given four interconnected instructions that
can help us remain focused on spiritual matters as we shall seen later. This
paper therefore is a short summary of the book The Imitation of Christ, which
will focus on all the four areas presented by Thomas and concludes by
giving a personal reflection in relation to the text.
Counsel
on the spiritual life
We all contemplate the desire for freedom and
enlightenment of heart, which for Thomas Kempis we can only achieve through following
the teachings of Christ. Even though the struggle to Know things is good, any
knowledge without grace of God remains nothing since every, knowledge depends
on the grace of God. And this being the case, we must be committed to study and
pattern our life after Christ with the aim seeking the
truth which only comes to us through reading the word of God with Humility,
simplicity and faith.
Good life for us is only possible when we can see all
things in the light of God’s will, when we become patience and able to respect
the counsel of our saviour. To following Jesus we must be ready to face
temptation with courage. For temptation helps us to be humble and always be on
Guard daily. As human, Sin remains part of our being and therefore we should
not always judge those struggling with their sinfulness but instead reflect on
our own inner life and our sinfulness. Claiming to have Knowledge is nothing if
that knowledge is not based on the fear of God. We should stop pursuit of
earthly Knowledge and concentrate on the knowledge from above which is God. If
we are able to control our passion and affection we will be able to realize
holiness and more so experience happiness. Therefore as Christians we are called
to try and abandon our passion for the sake of God. We should learn to do good
works with the aim of honouring God. But for Thomas, the best way to holiness
is through living a solitude life, where we are able embrace sorrows and be in
the guidance of the spirit always.
Counsel
on the inner life
Our attention in everyday life is turned towards many
things which sometimes make us forget our inner reflection. But for Thomas in
order to find peace in the soul we must always remain in an inward meditation with our life centred to Christ alone and our thoughts to heavenly things. But to
do this we must embrace Humility which if we have can also help us to appease
those around us and also bring us to freedom. Therefore as Christians, inward
reflection is very important for it can help us to find out our own weakness
and also accept our sufferings as away to perfection. This is so because for
Thomas, we are only perfected through the way of the cross and therefore
accepting suffering and difficulties can help us abandon all the earthly things
and follow Christ who is the source of all Happiness.
On
inward consolation
To be able to live an internal life, we are called to
forget the sensual world and respond to the voice of Christ. And for Thomas we
should be able close our ears and eyes form the world things and turn to our
inner voice where we will be able to listen to the voice of Christ speaking to
us. As Christians we should turn our interest from the temporal or transitory
goods and concentrate on the eternal good which comes to us through Christ
Jesus. For Christ, through his words brings us knowledge that is beyond any
Knowledge. If we accept Christ, then our life should depend fully on the world
of Christ. For it is only through Christ that we are able to overcome
temptation and his teaching will always lead us to freedom form evil. But even
here, humility still remains the measure of our merit before God. Therefore to
receive God’s grace we must see ourselves us nothing before Him and that we
totally depend on Him alone for everything.
To have wisdom we must learn to rejoice in God alone,
serve Christ alone and forget the material world. In addition to this we must
learn to obey the will of Christ even in suffering and pay our full attention
to him alone. It is only in doing this that we will able to find peace that can
endure through suffering and this can only come if we accept to fully follow
the voice if Christ. For Thomas, self love withdraws us from Christ whom we
should always strive to submit to all the times whether in trouble if we want
to enjoy everlasting pleasure.
On
the Blessed Sacrament
In all our various difficulties Christ is inviting us
to come to him and he will feed us with finest bread of life. But our sinfulness always brings us down and
turns us away from the voice of Christ inviting us. But Even though this
happens, for Thomas we should always strive to turn to the voice of Christ for
it is only here that we can be made clean from our sins. We therefore must
remain faithful to the Eucharist for it is in the Eucharist that we meet our
creator who comes to dwell among us in the Blessed Sacrament. We must be sure
that every time we partake in the Eucharist we become refreshed, cleansed from
the sins and our soul made healthy.
As Eucharistic ministers (the priests) we are called
to be virtuous and holy in order to act in the place of Christ. And we can only
achieve this holiness if we embrace humility in examining our conscience and
with truthfulness and sincerity of heart ask for forgiveness of our sins and
frailness. Every Christian for Thomas has a continuous call to return to the
Holy Communion for it has powers to free us from sins and brings us the happiness
and that by Sitting and sharing in the table of Christ we become happy. In
order to be worthy to receive Holy Communion we are called to depend on the
grace of God and also to come before the Holy Communion with fear, reverence,
and love. We must learn to submit and trust in the word of God and have sincere
faith in the Blessed Sacrament. It is only in doing this that we will be able
to appreciate the wonderful mystery in the Eucharist. And at the end enjoy the
graces that we receive through it.
Personal
Reflection
After reading this book, I have realized that the book
was wrote to fan the spiritual flame in the heart of every Christian and also
to guide our soul to deeper relationship with God who alone can give us the
peace of heart. This work for me is echoing St. Augustine’s famous statement
that our hearts are restless until it rest in God. Therefore in our daily
search for knowledge, truth, and Happiness we can only be satisfied when our
search directs us to God. In line with
Thomas, I believe that, in order to be a good Christian the only way out is to
try and always conform my life to that of Christ and make Christ the primordial
value of my life as a believer. This is because Christ is inviting me in his
own words to imitate his life and follow his ways, if I truly desire to
experience enlightenment of heart. And because our knowledge without grace of God remains futile,
as a Christian student I need to always take studies as one of the key ways
through which the Holy Spirit as promised by Jesus is revealing and reminding
me of all that Jesus taught hence enlightening me to understand and follow the
way of Christ.
As a Vincentian student called to serve the poor
following the foot steps of Christ himself, I have found this book very
beneficial for it is showing me the way of conforming my life to that of
Christ. And because it is said that one can not give what he does not have, in
order to show mercy, love, compassion, and be charitable to the poor people, I
must model my life to that of Christ who is the source of all these
qualities. In order to do this, I must
always remain focused to prayers, be open to serve God and other at all times
and to detach my self from worldly things which cannot lead me to peace.
According to Thomas, in order for me to lead a perfect life, I must through
humility accept my faults, ask for pardon and the grace from God to help me
accept my sufferings. I must always learn to pursue knowledge that leads to God
alone and ensure that all the things I do are done with the aim of honouring
God and not my self. The will of God through Christ should always be the guide
of my life. Therefore remaining faithful to the voice of Christ in the society which
is filled with a lot of noise that comes from material world is important in
making me to realize the peace of mind.
Eucharist should always remain central in my life as a
Christian and I should always try to return to it every time. For in the Blessed Sacrament I am nourished,
re-energized and refreshed for continuous ministry of service and therefore I do
agree with Thomas that in Eucharist we are able to meet Christ who makes us clean
from our sins and bring us to total happiness. My life as a Christian becomes
incomplete without Eucharist hence making it difficult to call my self a
Christian. For In Eucharist I receive Christ who becomes part of me hence
making be in likeness of Jesus Christ him self and live like him daily.
I therefore conclude by saying that Christ being the
rule of the Vincentian Mission, the success of my mission as a Vincentian and
as Christian depends much on how united and I am with Christ Jesus all through my
apostolate.
Bibliography
A’KEMPIS, T., The
Imitation of Christ, Harmondsworth, England: penguin books Ltd 1986
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