The Passion of Christ

On the Passion of Christ According to the Four Evangelists
By Thomas à Kempis
Translated by Joseph N. Tylenda, S.J.
Ignatius Press, 2004
(164 pages, $12.95, paperback)

After the Bible, the three most influential devotional works in the literature of Western Christianity have been the Confessions of St. Augustine, John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, and The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. With over two thousand counted editions and translations into over fifty languages, The Imitation of Christ probably ranks first among these three in influence. Scholars contested the authorship of The Imitation for over three centuries, but now generally agree that it indeed was written by Thomas Hemerken of Kempen (1380-1471), a humble German priest who spent most of his life copying manuscripts, giving spiritual direction, preaching, and writing works of devotion for fellow monastics.

Though it sometimes reflects distinctively Roman Catholic doctrine and devotional practice, and though some of its counsel is subject to criticism, The Imitation of Christ generally expresses a non-dogmatic piety that Christians of all traditions have appreciated deeply for its emphasis on self-renouncing discipleship, on Christ and his example, and on communion with him. Both John Wesley and John Newton, for example, acknowledged the influence of The Imitation at the time of their conversions.

Other works by Thomas à Kempis are published only rarely. But in 2004, in what should have been hailed as a major event in Christian publishing, Ignatius Press released On the Passion of Christ According to the Four Evangelists, a translation by Joseph N. Tylenda S.J. of the second part of Thomas's four-part work Prayers and Meditations on the Life of Christ. There have been only four English translations of this work in history, and the last appeared nearly a hundred years ago.

In his introduction, Tylenda gives a clue to the significance of On the Passion of Christ for those who appreciate Thomas's most renowned work:

So here, in this new translation, English readers now can see how Thomas practiced what he preached in The Imitation: how he himself meditated on the Lord's Passion and drew lessons from it.

On the Passion of Christ consists of thirty-five meditations, from one to five pages long, that begin with the betrayal by Judas and end with the burial of Jesus. All of these meditations except one take the form of a sustained prayer to Jesus with an occasional exhortation to the author or his readers.

Thomas begins each prayer by addressing Jesus with pertinent, exalted titles, such as “Lord Jesus Christ, Sustainer of angels and Refuge of the desolate” or “Lord Jesus Christ, Hope of the saints and Tower of strength in every tribulation.” He then praises and thanks Jesus for some incident or aspect of his Passion or some virtue that he displayed. Finally he draws lessons from Jesus' example that he and his readers need to learn.

For example, in the first meditation, Jesus' patience in being betrayed by a disciple for a meager price leads Thomas to reflect on his own impatience with the trivial offences of a brother. In the second he thanks Jesus for not being ashamed to expose his sorrow to the disciples, for he did so “to comfort us, who are weak and cowardly, lest one of us, being severely tempted, despair of forgiveness and salvation.” At Calvary Jesus allows his robe to be taken from him to “clearly indicate what I must do when something I deem necessary is taken from me.” Thomas even finds hidden meaning in the detail of the soldiers gambling for Jesus' robe. The Lord's robe, preserved and kept whole, symbolizes the unity of the Church and leads him to pray for the grace “to preserve the unity of brotherly love in the bond of peace.”

In this way Thomas mines scene after scene of the Passion for similar gems of spiritual significance. I must confess, on my first reading some of these gems seemed unnaturally precious. But I have concluded that this results entirely from the extreme poverty of my own devotion to Jesus, not from any excessive richness of Thomas's.

As with The Imitation of Christ, Protestant readers, to varying degrees, will not follow Thomas in some of his occasional expressions of Roman Catholic doctrine, devotion, and mysticism. I came across one mention of penances, one of relics, one faint allusion to the primacy of Peter, a few references to monastic discipline, and a few brief prayers to Peter, John, and Mary. And of course, when Thomas mentions or addresses Mary, he sometimes uses language that gives her a higher place or a greater role in the Kingdom than Protestants generally allow.

Two meditations focus on Mary at the Crucifixion. The first deals mainly with Jesus' compassion for his mother; the second with the virtues she exhibited in her sorrow. Both meditations, I think, will deepen any Christian reader's understanding of the love and the suffering of this son and mother.

Chapter 34 differs from the rest in that it contains a series of mystical “prayers to the members of Christ's body,” each to be followed by a “Hail Mary.”

For this Protestant reader, however, such distinctively Roman Catholic aspects of Thomas's meditations, taking up in total only a few pages of the entire work, ultimately do not lessen the impact of his overwhelming exaltation of, and devotion to, the person of Jesus himself. There are proper times and places for Protestants and Catholics to argue about doctrine. It seems to me that the hallowed scenes to which Thomas takes his readers— Gethsemane , the Trial, the Via Dolorosa, and the foot of the Cross—are not among them.

And so, I would highly recommend On the Passion of Christ to all who want to meditate deeply on the Savior's sufferings. To fellow evangelicals who might be wary of this work, I will acknowledge that, of course, Thomas's understanding of salvation does not coincide entirely with a Reformed view, but I will leave you to consider two of Thomas's quite evangelical exhortations to fellow Christians:

Let meditating on Jesus Christ and him crucified be your daily prayer. Keep Jesus always before your eyes and keep ever near the foot of his Cross. (162)