Episode 10 – The Imitation of Christ: Seek The Lowest Place

Four Things Which Bring Much Peace is the title to Chapter 23 in Book 3 of The Imitation of Christ. One of those things is, “Always seek the lowest place and to be inferior to everyone.”

Fr. Robert Nixon admits the idea of seeking the lowest place can be hard to understand. “This might sound a bit troubling,” Fr. Nixon says, “like when it says inferior does it mean we should try to be worse or less meritorious or less able than other people? That’s not what it means in this context. Inferior means occupying a lower place in any given scale…But the fact is, being higher in this scale doesn’t actually make us any happier or any closer to God.”

True humility, Fr. Nixon goes on to add, is the opposite of what our modern world often encourages. “It’s to our own peace if we can develop this inverse ambition, a contentment to take the lowest place unless we are called upon or there’s a grave responsibility that asks us to do otherwise.”

Episode 10 of The Commentaries dives into Book Three of The Imitation of Christ, chapters 23-31.