Episode 2 -- Imitation of Christ I.2 -- Knowing Oneself In God

If we want to imitate Christ, what do we need besides grace?

Self-knowledge. We read about Thomas a Kempis' advice on how to think of oneself. The Imitation is very aware of how easily we try to escape true self-knowledge by seeking after all kinds of other knowledge. We can learn all sorts of things about the world and other people and history and entertainment and sports, etc. But we can fail to know the one who knows all these things.

Last episode we began reading this masterpiece of Christian spirituality, The Imitation of Christ. The book grew out of a group of reform minded Canons Regular of Windesheim at Mount St Agnes near Zwolle. The Imitation begins with the first principle of the spiritual life: imitation of Christ! Christ is our model. The whole meaning of our lives consists in not only imitating Him, but sharing in his own Heart. We cannot imitate Christ without receiving the grace to want to follow Him. God the Father is pleased with one Person: His Son. All who want to be pleasing to God must resemble the Son of God made man. The more we are like Him the more we will be pleasing to God.