From Meister Eckhart (14th century)
Our Lord says, "Whoever abandons anything for
me and for my name's sake, I will return it to him a hundred-fold, with eternal life as well" (Matthew 19:29). But if you give it up for the sake of that hundred-fold and for eternal life, you have given up nothing, even if you give it up for a thousand-fold reward you are giving up nothing. You must give up yourself, altogether give up self, and then you have really given up.
A man once came to me (it was not long ago) and told me he had given up a great deal of property and goods, in order that he might save his soul. Then I thought: Alas! how slight and how paltry are the things you have given up! It is blindness and folly, so long as you care a jot for what you have given up. But if you have given up self, then you have really given up.