Book 2: Admonitions Concerning Interior Things.
“I Am the Truth” Jn 14:6.
Book 2, CHAPTER 1: The Inward Life
Comment: Thomas spends a great deal of time in each of his books
telling us that we need to keep working on our inward life. He opens this Book on Interior Things by talking about our struggles – having shed the exterior things back in Book I.
Our intimacy with God grows in direct proportion to shedding the vanities of this world, an ardent prayer life, and re-positioning our focus from the temporal to the eternal.
This meditation affected me while at church recently when this notion of pursuing the interior life overcame me by examining my own absent of the same. A feeling of laziness permeated my prayers and participation in worship. I didn’t feel like actively praying or looking inwardly. Instead, I wanted to look at the inward side of my eyelids!
Instead of looking for the Kingdom of God, instead of preparing a place for Christ within me, I placed my selfish comfort above Godly pursuits. Instead of looking for the Lord to show up, I looked around to see which of my friends were showed up. Instead of contemplating the suffering of Christ, I readied myself to complain to the first willing ear about my discomforts.
Breaking out of my self-imposed exile, I turned my thoughts and attentions toward Him, climbing out of my hovel to look for Him. Then the Lord said: “When He reached the place, Jesus looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.’ And he came down quickly and received Him with joy(Lk 19:5-6).”
Chapter 1, In Short.
1. God’s Kingdom is within you.
2. Prepare a place for Christ.
3. Let God be your fear and your love.
4. Heaven is your home.
5. Christ’s friends will face adversity.
6. The love of Jesus makes you review your own life.
7. The truly wise are Those who know things as they really are.
8. All things work together for your good if you have a right, purified spirit within you.
1. “The kingdom of God is within you,”(Lk 17:21) says the Lord. Turn
with all your heart to the Lord and forsake this miserable world, and you shall find rest unto your soul. Learn to despise outward things and to give yourself to things inward, and you shall see the kingdom of God come within you. For the kingdom of God is peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, and it is not given to the wicked. Christ will come to you, and show you His consolation, if you prepare a worthy mansion for Him within you. All His glory and beauty is from within, and there it pleases Him to dwell. He often visits the inward disciple and holds with them sweet discourse, giving soothing consolation, much peace, and wonderful friendship.
2. Go then, faithful soul, prepare your heart for the Bridegroom that He may safely to come to you and dwell within you, for so He says, “If you love me and will keep my commandments: “my Father will love you, and we will come to you and make our abode with you.”(Jn 14:23) Therefore, prepare a place for Christ and refuse entrance to all others. When you have Christ, you are rich – you have fulfillment. Christ shall be your provider and faithful watchman in all things, so that you have no need to trust in others, for they will soon change and swiftly pass away, but Christ remains forever and stands by us firmly even to the end.
3. You should not place your trust in your frail mortal followers, even though they may be useful and dear to our community (Ps 146:2-3). Our community should not carry the burden of sorrow if you sometimes oppose and contradict the community. Those who are on your side today may be against you tomorrow, and often change direction like the wind. Therefore, put your whole trust in God and let Him be your fear and your love. He will answer for you Himself, and will do for you what is best (Jer 17:7). There is no continuing city for you here (Hebrews 13:14). You are a stranger and a pilgrim wherever you are, and you shall not have rest unless you are closely united to Christ.
4. Why do you cast your eyes here and there, since this is not the place of your rest? Heaven should be your home: all earthly things should be looked upon as if these were simply passing by. All things pass away and you with them. Look that you do not cleave these things or else you will be taken with them and perish. Let the Most High God be your contemplation. Let your ceaseless supplications be directed to Christ. If you cannot imagine high and heavenly things, rest in the passion of Christ and dwell willingly in His sacred wounds. For if you devoutly direct your attention to the wounds of Jesus, and the precious marks of the nails and the spear, you shall find great comfort in tribulation. In this the slights of others will not trouble you much, and you will easily bear their unkind words.
5. When Christ was in the world, He was despised and rejected. His greatest need was left by His acquaintance and friends to bear these rejections.
Christ willingly suffered and was despised: dare you complain of anything?
Christ had many adversaries and detractors: do you wish to have everyone as your friends and benefactors?
When will your patience receive its crown if you never encounter any reproaches? How will you be the Christ’s friend if you are unwilling to face any adversity? Therefore, sustain yourself with Christ and for Christ if you will reign with Christ.
6. If you had only once entered into the mind and heart of Jesus, and had tasted even a little of His fiery love, then you would care nothing for your own comfort. Rather, you would rejoice at troubles brought upon you. The love of Jesus makes you review your own life and easily see its defects.
A lover of Jesus and of truth and a true internally focused disciple, that is free from inordinate affections, can freely turn to God and in spirit be elevated above the self and rest in fruitful peace and enjoyment.
7. Those who know things as they really are and not as they are stated to be or seem to be, are truly wise. They are taught of God more than of men. Those who know how to walk interiorly, and to set little value upon outward things, do not require places nor must they wait for seasons. Rather, they wait – anticipating communion with God.
The inwardly reflected disciple quickly recollects, because that disciple is never entirely given up to outward things. No outward labor or unnecessary occupations stand in their way, but as events play out, so do they fit to the event. Those who are rightly disposed and ordered within care nothing for the strange and perverse conduct of others. They are hindered and distracted in so far as they are moved by outward things.
8. If you had a right spirit within you, and you were purified from evil, 
all things would work together for your good and profit (Rm 8:28). For this cause do many things displease you and often trouble you: you are not yet perfectly dead to yourself; you are not yet separated from all earthly things. Nothing so defiles and entangles your heart as impure love towards created things. If you reject outward comfort you will be able to contemplate heavenly things and frequently to be inwardly joyful (Jas 1:2).