Different styles of imitation

The imitation of Christ is not a fixed practice. Everyone can develop his or her own style.

Here are a few examples of how different saints developed unique styles of following and imitating Christ.

The Imitation of Christ, a book written probably by Thomas à Kempis (c.1380-1471), in the first two sentences instructs that the chief effort for imitation is to study the life of Christ—“He who follows Me, walks not in darkness, says the Lord (John 8:12). By these words of Christ, we are advised to imitate His life and habits, if we wish to be truly enlightened and free from all blindness of heart.  Let our chief effort; therefore, be to study the life of Jesus Christ” (Book 1, Ch.1 ).

 Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) in his Spiritual Exercises, in the section about “The Call of the Temporal King” one can notice an elaborate mystagogical procedure of how to imitate Christ: 1) the imagination of the Gospel scene, 2) orientation to hear His call, 3) enter into a state of his presence, 4) receive his invitation to act according to his lifestyle, and finally, 5) consider your answer.

“First Prelude. The first Prelude is a composition, seeing the place: it will be here to see with the sight of the imagination, the synagogues, villages, and towns through which Christ our Lord preached. Second Prelude. The second, to ask for the grace which I want: it will be here to ask the grace of our Lord that I may not be deaf to His call, but ready and diligent to fulfil His most Holy Will. First Point. The first point is, to put before me a human king chosen by God our Lord, whom all Christian princes and men reverence and obey. Second Point. The second, to look at how this king speaks to all his people, saying: “It is my Will to conquer all the land of unbelievers. Therefore, whoever would like to come with me is to be content to eat as I, and also to drink and dress, etc., as I: likewise he is to labour like me in the day and watch in the night, etc., that so afterwards he may have part with me in the victory, as he has had it in the labours.” Third Point. The third, to consider what the good subjects ought to answer to a King so liberal and so kind, and hence, if anyone did not accept the appeal of such a king, how deserving he would be of being censured by all the world, and held for a mean-spirited knight […]” (Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, n.91-100).

Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) in The book of her life elicits another aspect which is one of acknowledging the presence of Christ within oneself. Relating her experience, she writes, “I tried as hard as I could to keep Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, present within me, and that was my prayer. If I reflect upon some phrase of his passion, I represented Him to myself interiorly” (4,7). “This is my method of prayer I then used: since I could not reflect discursively with the intellect, I strove to represent Christ within me, and it did me greater good—in my opinion—to represent Him in those scenes where I saw Him more alone. It seemed to me that being alone and afflicted, as a person in need, He had to accept me. I had many simple thoughts like this” (9,4). Elsewhere she states, “I had such little ability to represent things with my intellect that if I hadn’t seen the things my imagination was not of use to me, as it is to other persons who can imagine things and thus recollect themselves. I could only think of Christ as He was a man, but never in such a way that I could picture Him within myself, no matter how much I read about His beauty and how many images I saw of Him. I was like those who are blind or in darkness” (9,6).

 John of the Cross (1542 -1591) in The Ascent of Mount Carmel points out three aspects the ‘habitual desire to imitate’ and to ‘renounce and remain empty of satisfaction’ with this study—“First, have a habitual desire to imitate Christ in all your deeds by bringing your life in conformity with his. You must then study his life in order to imitate him and behave in all events as he would. Second, to be successful in this imitation, renounce and remain empty of any sensory satisfaction that is not purely for the honour and glory of God. Do this out of love for Jesus Christ. […] If you cannot escape the experience of this satisfaction, it will be sufficient to have no desire for it” (Ascent 1,3,3).

Henry de Osso (1840-1896), in the book A Month in the Heart of Jesus suggests three means, namely: study, meditation, and doing everything in union with Christ. “To conform our life to Christ’s, we need, above all, to study His life, know it, and meditate upon it, not only in its outward appearance, but by immersing ourselves in the thoughts, feelings, hopes, and dreams of Jesus Christ to do everything in union with Him. In His goodness, Jesus Himself invites us, both in word and in action, to do this” (A Month in the Heart of Jesus, Prologue, EEO III, Rome, 1977, p.456-458).

 Charles Eugène de Foucauld (1858 –1916) introduces us to the method of asking questions that might provoke the imitation. “Take the habit and ask yourselves in everything: ‘what would Jesus think,’ ‘what would he say’, or ‘what would he do’ in your stead, and to think, say, and do whatever he would do […]”

(As in Tullo Goffi, “Sequela/Imitazione,” in Nuovo Dizionario di Teologia Morale, a cura di Francesco Compagnoni, Giannino Piana, e Salvatore Priritera, Ed. Pauline, Milano 1990, pp. 1218 – translated by the author).