Infinite joy awaits the soul who is welcomed into paradise. As pilgrims in an alien land, we who remain on earth encounter many hardships throughout our earthly lives. However, all of our sufferings pale in comparison to the ineffable happiness we will experience in heaven.
Disciple:
1. O MOST happy mansion of the city above! O most bright day of eternity, which knows no night, but is always enlightened by the sovereign truth! A day always joyful, always secure, and never changing its state for the contrary!
Oh, that this day would shine upon us, and all those temporal things would come to an end!
It shines indeed upon the saints, resplendent with everlasting brightness (Tob. 13:13), but to us pilgrims upon earth it is seen only as far off, and through a glass. (1 Cor. 13:12).
2. The citizens of Heaven know how joyful that day is; but the banished children of Eve lament that this our day is bitter and tedious.
The days of this life are short and evil (Gen. 48:9), full of sorrows and miseries: where man is defiled with many sins, is ensnared with many fears, disquieted with many cares, distracted with many curiosities, entangled with many vanities, encompassed with many errors, broken with many labors, troubled with temptations, weakened with delights, tormented with want.
3. Oh, when will there be an end of these evils? When shall I be set at liberty from the wretched slavery of sin? (Rom. 7:24).
When, O Lord, shall I think of Thee alone? When shall I to the full rejoice in Thee? (Ps. 69:5).
When shall I be without any impediment in true liberty, without any trouble of mind or body?
When shall I enjoy a solid peace never to be disturbed and always secure, a peace both within and without, a peace every way firm?
O good Jesus, when shall I stand to behold Thee? When shall I contemplate the glory of Thy Kingdom? When wilt Thou be all in all to me?
Oh, when shall I be with Thee in Thy Kingdom, which Thou hast prepared for Thy beloved for all eternity? (Matt. 25:34).
I am left a poor and banished man in an enemy’s country, where there are wars every day, and very great misfortunes.
4. Comfort me in my banishment, assuage my sorrow; for all my desire is after Thee, and all that this world offers for my comfort is burdensome to me.
I long to enjoy Thee intimately, but cannot attain to it.
I desire to cleave to heavenly things, but the things of this life and my unmortified passions bear me down.
I am willing in mind to be above all things, but by the flesh am obliged against my will to be subject to them.
Thus, unhappy man that I am, I fight with myself, and am become burdensome to myself, whilst the spirit seeks to tend upwards, and the flesh downwards.
5. Oh, what do I suffer interiorly, whilst in my mind I consider heavenly things, and presently a crowd of carnal thoughts comes to interrupt my prayer? O God, be not Thou far from me (Ps. 70:12), and decline not in Thy wrath from Thy servant. (Ps. 26:9).
Dart forth lightning, and Thou shalt scatter them; shoot out Thine arrows (Ps. 143:6), and let all the phantoms of the enemy be put to flight.
Gather my senses together to Thee; make me forget all worldly things; give me the grace speedily to cast away and to despise all wicked imaginations.
Come to my aid, O eternal Truth, that no vanity may move me.
Come, heavenly sweetness, and let all impurity fly from before Thy face.
Pardon me also, and mercifully forgive me the times that I have thought of anything else in prayer besides Thee.
For I confess truly that I am accustomed to be very much distracted.
For oftentimes I am not there where I am bodily standing or sitting, but am rather where my thoughts carry me.
There I am where my thought is; and there oftentimes are my thoughts where that is which I love.
That thing most readily comes to my mind which naturally delights me, or which through custom is pleasing to me.
6. For this reason Thou who art the Truth hast plainly said, where thy treasure is, there also is thy heart. (Matt. 6:21).
If I love Heaven I willingly think on heavenly things.
If I love the world I rejoice in the prosperity of the world, and am troubled at its adversity.
If I love the flesh my imagination is often taken up with things of the flesh.
If I love the spirit I delight to think of spiritual things.
For whatsoever things I love, of the same I willingly speak and hear, and carry home with me the images of them.
But blessed is the man, who for Thee, O Lord, lets go all things created; who offers violence to his nature, and through fervor of spirit crucifies the lusts of the flesh: that so his conscience being cleared up, he may offer to Thee pure prayer, and may be worthy to be admitted among the choirs of angels, having excluded all things of the earth both from without and within.
Practical Reflections
What will it avail us to suffer and to deplore the miseries of this life, and to sigh after the good things of the next, if we do not endeavor to receive our present tribulations with patience, as coming from the hand of God, and with humility, as corresponding with our deserts; if we strive not to obtain that eternal happiness, after which we sigh, by constant fidelity? O happy day! O eternal joy! O infinite, unchangeable happiness! O establishment! O mansion! O plentitude of God in us and of us in God! O transformation of a blessed soul into its God and its all! When shall I possess thee? But when shall I deserve thee? Weary of myself and of the inefficacy of my desires, I ardently long for thee, O Paradise! and yet how little do I do to obtain thine eternal happiness! Let us join, my soul, let us add to the esteem we have of Paradise our exertions to obtain it. Let us regard it as a crown which can only be obtained by offering a holy violence to ourselves, and as a recompense to be earned only by a supernatural life.
Prayer
When, O God, shall I withdraw my heart from all things, visible and terrestrial, and give my whole self to Thee, my sovereign and invisible good? When shalt Thou alone become my consolation and the only happiness of my soul? When shall I see in Thee, my Saviour, what I now believe? When shall I possess what I love? When shall I find what I seek? Comfort me in this exile, support me in my sufferings, strengthen me in my weakness. Come, O Jesus, come into my soul, by Thy grace, Thy presence, and Thy love. Take possession of my heart, that it may never more be separated from Thee. I languish, I sigh, and burn with the desire of beholding Thee face to face in Thy glory. O when shall faith be lost in vision, and hope swallowed up in fruition?
How burdened is this life to a soul that loves only Thee, my Saviour! and how cruel a martyrdom to support it! No, Lord, I can no longer live without loving Thee, nor love Thee as I desire, without seeing Thee! Terminate therefore my anguish by closing my life. Speak, my soul, speak to thy God; but rather, O God, do Thou speak to my heart, that it may die to itself, and live only to Thee. Amen.
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This article is taken from a chapter in The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis which is available from TAN Books.
