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Document Details : Title: Venite ad me omnes Subtitle: A Mystical Reading of Matthew 11.28 in De imitatione Christi Author(s): WELZEN, Huub Journal: Ons Geestelijk Erf Volume: 91 Issue: 3-4 Date: 2021 Pages: 385-414 DOI: 10.2143/OGE.91.3.3289676 Abstract : This study of the intertextual relations between Mt 11.28 and the Imitatio Christi by Thomas a Kempis consists of four parts. As a first step we develop a vision on intertextuality. Intertextuality is seen as an event in the relation between the text and the reader. The recognition of echoes of an archi-text in pheno-texts adds meaning to the latter and deepens their significance for the reader. The second step is an exploration of the ‘syntactic’ aspects in the appearance of Mt 11.28 in the context of the prooemium and first chapter of book III of the Imitatio Christi. This verse appears for the first time as the first in a catena of quotations in the prooemium of book III. In this new context, Mt 11.28 becomes an invitation to Holy Communion. Next, the verse appears four times in Chapter 1. The way in which it appears is very beautiful because of the use of sandwich-constructions. The third step is an exploration of the meaning and the function of Mt 11.28 in the Gospel of Matthew. It is part of the thanksgiving of Jesus (Mt 11.25-30). It invites the disciples to the Torah-spirituality of Jesus and not to the spirituality of the scribes and the Pharisees. The spirituality of Jesus is founded in mystical-relational knowledge of God: that is, the reciprocal knowledge of father and son. The fourth step is an exploration of the ‘semantic’ and ‘pragmatic’ aspects of the verse in the context of the Imitatio. Here the verse becomes an invitation to the union with Christ that comes into being in Holy Communion. We see a similar kind of polemics as in the Gospel of Matthew; now with the self-oriented spirituality of scholars who want to show off their erudition. The reluctance to receive Communion is not only of a moral kind. It is rooted in a sense of the endless difference between God and man. The spirituality of the Imitatio looks like the reciprocal indwelling in the Gospel of John. The ‘rest’ in Mt 11.28 has become the refreshment of Communion. Thomas describes this refreshment as sanctification, deliverance, consolation, and enjoyment. |
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