On the Steps of Humility and Pride

On the Steps of Humility and Pride

ON THE STEPS OF

HUMILITY AND PRIDE

The treatise on humility was the first of Bernard's published works, written within ten years of his foundation of Clairvaux.

The subject was one on which he had given talks in the past, and Godfrey of Langres, abbot of Fontenay,' had asked him for a book which he could use with his own monks. Godfrey had been

Bernard's prior at Clairvaux until he was sent to be abbot of the new foundation, and he had had opportunities to hear Bernard's talk for himself.

The title is misleading, as Bernard realized. He writes not about humility but about pride. He explains why at the end of the treatise in a little jest: He himself knows more about pride than humility and so he has written of what he knows at firsthand. Still, the title had been a stumbling-block to some of his readers, and he added a note about it to the preface in later copies." But he did not alter the title. He continued to see pride and humility in an intimate relationship. Those who know the downward path of the descending steps of pride also know the way back. They can retrace their steps and learn humility (see Hum

57 and 27).

1. On the foundation of Fontenay in 1119, see L. Janauschek, Originum Cisterciensium

(Vienna, 1877), p. 8, with a brief biography of Godfrey. Godfrey eventually returned to Clairvaux.

2. Hum 57 and Retractatio.

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THE STEPS

Pride Humility . Curiosity about what is not 12. Containment of one's interone's proper concern. ests, which shows itself in a humble bearing and lowered eyes.

. Light-mindeness: chatter and 11. Quiet and restrained speech. exclamations about things which do not matter.

. Laughing about nothing; fool10. Reluctance to laugh. ish merriment.

. Boasting and talking too 9. Keeping silent unless asked to much. speak.

. Trying to be different: claim8. Regarding oneself as having ing special rights. no special rights in the community.

. Thinking oneself holier than 7. Thinking oneself less holy others. than others.

. Interfering presumptuously 6. Thinking oneself unworthy to with the affairs of others. take initiative.

. Self-justification.

Defending 5. Confessing one's sins. one's sinful actions.

. Insincere confession.

4. Patience in the face of accusation.

Rebellion against superiors.

3. Submission to superiors.

Feeling free to sin.

2. Desiring no freedom to exercise one's will.

10.

11.

. Habitual sinning.

1. Constant watchfulness against sin.

RETRACTATION

In this little work I mentioned the Lord's saying in the Gospel that he did not know the day of judgment. I cited the text in support of a point

I was making. It was rash to do it from memory, because afterwards I could not find it in the Gospel. I was mistaken in thinking the text said,

"Nor did the Son know." It was not a deliberate error. Yet although I

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remembered the words wrongly, I got the sense right. I should have said, "Not even the Son of Man knows" (Mk 13:32).

What I tried to prove in the argument which I developed from this incorrect quotation was true. But because my error was not noticed until much later, when the book was already published and many copies had been made, I could not pursue the error through them all one by one, and I have been obliged to take refuge in confession.'

In another place I wrote something about the seraphim which I have never heard anyone say and nowhere read. It occurs, as my reader will see, at a point where I have said, "I think," wishing to indicate that this was only my opinion, because I could not support it from Scripture.'

The title is "On the Steps of Humility," yet I have spoken not of the steps of humility but of those of pride. I have been criticized for this

(Hos 5:11), but by those who did not understand, or think about the reason for the title, which I took care to explain briefly at the end of the book.'

PREFACE You asked me, brother Godfrey, to give a fuller account for you ina book of what I said to the brothers about the steps of humility. I wanted to do justice to your request (Mk 15:15), as it deserved, but I feared that it would be beyond me. I was not able to find the boldness to begin until I had remembered the Gospel's advice (Lk 14:28) and then I sat down and counted up to see whether I had enough resources to complete it. Love conquered my fear (1 Jn 4:18) that I should not be able to finish the work (Lk 14:30). Then another fear swept me from the opposite direction, I began to fear that I should stand in a greater danger of pride if I did complete it than of ignominy if I failed. There I was at the cross-roads, hesitating long between fear and love, undecided to which road I might more safely commit myself, fearing either to try to speak profitably of humility when I should myself be found lacking in 1. The misquotation occurs in Hum 11. Bernard, like all his contemporaries, habitually quoted from memory and similar slips are not uncommon.

2. The notion that arguments can be "proved" correct by citing authorities in support of them as well as by reasoning is fundamental to classical and medieval rhetorical theory.

3. Hum 57.

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it, or to keep silent and be found useless. And since I saw that neither road was safe, but I had to take one or the other, I chose to do what I could to bring you the fruit of my talk rather than to lurk for my own safety in the harbor of silence. At the same time I feel confident that if perhaps I shall have said anything you approve of, I shall be saved from pride by your prayers; but if on the other hand, which I think more likely, you find nothing worth your attention, then I shall have nothing to be proud about.

The Reward to Which the Steps of Humility Lead I.1. Iam going to speak of the steps of humility which the blessed Benedict set before us to climb (although he does not ask us to count them).*

But first I shall show if I can where we shall arrive at if we reach the top, so that when you have heard what the reward is, the labor of the climb will seem less.

Our Lord shows us both the difficulty of the way and the reward of the labor. "I am the way, the truth and the life" (Jn 14:6). The way, he says, is humility, which leads to truth. The first is labor; the second is the reward for the labor (1 Cor 3:8). But, you ask, how do I know that he is speaking of humility when he says only, "I am the way"?

Listen to this clearer statement, "Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart" (Mt 11:29). He offers himself as an example of humility, a model of gentleness. If you imitate him you will not walk in darkness; you will have the light of life (Jn 8:12). What is the light of life but truth, which enlightens every man who comes into this world

(Jn 1:9), showing him where true life lies (1 Tim 6:19)? That is why when he said, *I am the way, the truth," he added, "and the life," which, he says, "I give." "For this is eternal life," he says, "to know that you are the true God and to know him whom you have sent, Jesus

Christ" (Jn 17:3). Or it is as though you were to say, "I reflect on the way; that is humility. I desire the reward, which is truth. But what if the way is so difficult that I cannot reach the desired reward?" He replies, "I am the life," that is, food for the journey (Dt 15:14; Jos 9:5).°

To those who go astray and do not know the road, he says, "I am 4. RB 7; cf. Gregory the Great, Moralia, IX.36, ed. M. Adraiaen, CCSL 143 (Turnholt, 1979).

5. Viaticum: Bernard probably means food for a journey (Dt 15:14; Jos 9:5), rather than communion brought to the dying, although that usage was familiar in his time.

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the way." To those who hesitate to believe, he says, "I am the truth."

To those who are already climbing, he says, "I am the life."

I think I have shown clearly enough from this chapter of the Gospel that the fruit of the knowledge of truth is humility. But listen to another text. "I praise you, Father of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things" (which surely means the secrets of truth),

"from the knowing and prudent" (that is, the proud), "and revealed them to the little ones" (that is, the humble) (Mt 11:25). And here it is clear that truth, which is hidden from the proud, is revealed to the humble (Jas 4:6; 1 Pt 5:5).

I.2. Here is a definition of humility. "Humility is the virtue by which a man recognizes his own unworthiness because he really knows himself." This description fits those who have resolved to make the climb and who go from strength to strength, that is, from step to step, until they reach the highest peak of humility,' on which, standing as though in Sion (Ps 83:6), that is, at a vantage point, they see the truth.

The lawgiver, it says, "will give a blessing" (Ps 83:8), for he who gave the law also gave a blessing. That is, he who told us to be humble leads us to the truth. Who is this lawgiver? It is the sweet and just Lord, who gives the law to those who have gone astray (Ps 24:8). Those who have turned aside from truth have indeed lost their way. But surely our sweet Lord does not abandon them? No! The sweet and just Lord gives them the law of the way of humility, by which they may return to the knowledge of the truth. He gives them a means of regaining safety, for he is gentle; but not without the discipline of the law, for he is just. He is gentle, for he does not let them perish; he is just, for he does not forget that punishment is necessary."

II.3. And so St. Benedict sets out in twelve steps' this law by which men are brought back to the truth; so just as a man comes to the ten commandments of the law (Ex 24:28) and the twofold circumcision

(Gn 17:26),'? which add up to twelve, so truth may be grasped by these twelve ascending steps.

The Lord appears, leaning on the top of the ladder, which is the 6. Compare Augustine, Jn Johannem, Tract 25.16, CCSL 36 (Turnholt, 1954).

7. RB 7.5; cf. SC 34.3.

8. Cf. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, 1.12, ed. F. S. Schmitt, Anselmi Opera Omnia (Rome/

Edinburgh, 1938-1968), Vol. II.

9. RB 7. 10-66.

10. Also Dt 30:6; Jos 5:2; Jer 4:4; Col 2:11.

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ladder revealed to Jacob as a model of humility (Gn 28:12).!! What does he show by his presence there but that the knowledge of truth is to be found at the peak of humility? The Lord looks down on the sons of men (Ps 13:2) from the top of the ladder with the eyes of truth. They cannot deceive and they cannot be deceived, and they look to see if there is anyone who knows God and is seeking him. Surely you can hear him crying from above to those who are seeking him (for he knows who are his own [2 Tm 2:19; Jn 10:14]), "Come to me all who desire me, and be filled with my fruits" (Sir 24:26). "Come to me all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will refresh you" (Mt 11:28).

"Come," he says. Where? *To me (Mt 11:28), the truth." How?

By humility. For what reward? "I will refresh you."

What is this refreshment that Truth promises to those who are climbing and which he gives to those who reach the top? Perhaps it is love itself? To this, as the blessed Benedict says, the monk will quickly come when he has climbed all the steps of humility.'? Truly, love is a sweet and pleasant food, which refreshes the weary, strengthens the weak (Is 35:3), makes the sad joyful, the yoke of Truth sweet and its burden light (Mt 11:30).

II.4. Love is good food, which is placed in the middle of Solomon's plate (Sg 3:9),!* fragrant with the many scents (Sg 1:2) of the virtues as if with a multitude of spices (Sg 3:6). It nourishes the hungry and makes them joyful as they eat. There peace, patience, kindness, longsuffering (Gal 5:22), joy in the Holy Spirit (Rm 14:17) are added; and if there are any other fruits of truth or wisdom, they are to be seen there.

Humility also has its feast on the same plate. This is the bread of sorrow (Ps 126:2), and the wine of compunction (Ps 59:5). These are offered first to beginners. To them it is said, "Rise up after you have eaten, you who eat the bread of sorrow" (Ps 126:2).

Then contemplation brings the solid food of wisdom (Heb 5:14), made from the finest flour (Ps 147:14), with the wine which makes men's hearts glad (Ps 103:15). To this Truth invites the perfect with the words, "Eat, my friends, and drink; be intoxicated, dearest" (Sg 5:1).

11. RB 7.6.

12. RB 7.5.

13. RB 7.67.

14. The word ferculum here can also mean a "litter" on which Solomon himself would be carried.

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To those who are not yet perfect he says, "Love lies in the middle for the daughters of Jerusalem" (Sg 3:10). While they cannot yet digest that solid food they are nourished in the meantime with the milk of love for bread, and oil instead of wine. This is rightly called "in the middle," because the sweetness would be too much for beginners, who are held back by fear; and the perfect find it unsatisfying in comparison with the richer sweetness of contemplation. While they are still being poisoned by fleshly delights, and have not yet been purged by the bitter drink of fear, beginners do not yet taste the sweetness of milk. The perfect turn from milk and delight to feast on the more glorious food of which they have had a taste. Only those in between who are still on the way are satisfied by the sweet foods of love which are intended for the young and tender."

II.5. The first food, then, is humility. It purges by its bitterness. The second is the food of love, which consoles by its sweetness.

The third is the food of contemplation, solid and strengthening.

Lord God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your servant who prays to you? How long will you feed me with the bread of weeping and give me tears to drink (Ps 79:5ff.)? Who will invite me to the middle banquet of the sweet food of love, where the just feast in the sight of God and exult in his joy (Ps 67:4)? Then I shall no longer cry out to God in bitterness of soul, "Do not condemn me"

(Jb 10:1); and feasting on the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Cor 5:8) I shall joyfully sing in the ways of the Lord (Ps 137:5), for great is his glory. The way of humility is good (Ps 118:71), for by it we seek truth, attain love, and share the fruits of wisdom.

Then, just as Christ is the fulfillment of the law (Rom 10:4), so the end result of humility is the knowledge of truth. For he makes himself known to the humble. "He gives grace," therefore "to the humble" (I Pets:

III.6. I have said as well as I can with what reward the climber will meet at the top of the steps of humility. I shall now say, as far as I am able, in what order the steps lead to the promised reward of truth.

15. These three stages of spiritual growth were traditional; they provide William of St.

Thierry with a framework for his Golden Epistle. See M. B. Pennington, "Three Stages of Spiritual Growth according to St. Bernard," Studia Monastica 11 (1969): 315—326.

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IN WHAT ORDER THE STEPS OF HUMILITY

LEAD TO THE PROMISED REWARD

Because the knowledge of truth itself comes in three stages, I shall distinguish them briefly if I can, so as to make it clearer how the twelve steps of humility lead to the three degrees of truth. For we seek truth in ourselves, in our neighbors, and for its own sake.

We seek it in ourselves in judging ourselves (1 Cor 11:31), in our neighbors by suffering with them (1 Cor 12:26), and in itself by contemplating it with a pure heart (Mt 5:8).

Take note of the order of these degrees as well as their number.

First, Truth himself teaches you that the nature of truth must first be sought in our neighbors before we seek it in itself. After this you will be shown why you ought to seek it in yourself before you seek it in your neighbor. In the list of beatitudes which he gave in the Sermon on the Mount the Lord put the merciful before the pure in heart (Mt 5:7-8).

The merciful are quick to see the truth in their neighbors when they feel for them, and unite themselves with them in love so closely that they feel their goods and ills as their own. When the weak suffer, they suffer. When their neighbors are led into sin they burn for them (2 Cor

11:29). They "rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep" (Rom 12:15). With hearts purified by this brotherly love they delight in the contemplation of truth in itself, for whose love they bear the troubles of others.

Those who do not share the troubles of others but, on the contrary, spurn those who weep or mock those who are happy, and do not feel in themselves the feelings of others because they are not moved by their emotion, how can they find the truth in their neighbors? That common proverb fits them well, "The healthy man does not know what the sick man feels."'5 The man who is well fed does not know what the hungry man feels. The sick man more readily feels with the sick and the hungry man with the hungry. For just as pure truth is seen only with a pure heart, so he who is wretched at heart feels more truly with the wretchedness of his brother.

But to have a heart which is sad because of someone else's wretchedness you must first recognize your neighbor's mind in your own and understand from your own experience how you can help him.

16. Terence, Andria, 309, ed. J. Sargeaunt (London, 1953).

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We have an example in our Savior. He wanted to suffer so that he should know how to suffer with us (Heb 2:17), to become wretched so that he could learn mercy, as it is written, "He learned obedience from the things he suffered" (Heb 5:8). He learned mercy in the same way.

It is not that he did not know howto be merciful before. His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting (Ps 102:17). But what he knew by nature from eternity he learned from experience in time.

III.7. But perhaps you find it hard to accept the idea that Christ, the Wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:24) "learned" mercy, as if he through whom all things were made (Jn 1:3) had ever been ignorant of anything which exists; especially since the text I quoted from Hebrews to support this view can be understood in another sense which does not seem absurd. Thus, "he learned" can be taken to refer not to our Head in his own Person, but to his body, which is the Church (Col 1:24), and then this is the sense: "And he learned obedience from the things he suffered" means that he learned in his body from what he suffered in his

Head. For that death, that Cross, the opprobrium, the scorn, the beatings which Christ endured, what else were they but outstanding examples of obedience for his body, that is, ourselves?

Paul says, "Christ was made obedient to the Father unto death"

(Phil 2:8). Under what necessity? The apostle Peter answers, "Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his footsteps" (1 Pt 2:21), that is, so that we might imitate his obedience.

From what he suffered, then, we learn how it behooves us as just men to suffer deeply for the sake of obedience; for he who was not only man but God did not hesitate to die for it. "And in this way," you are saying,

"it was not unfitting to say that Christ 'learned' obedience or mercy or anything else, in his body. At the same time we believe that there was nothing he could learn in time in his Person which he did not know before. And so since Head and body (Col 1:18) are one Christ, he who teaches us to be obedient and merciful is the same as he who learns."

III.8. I do not deny that this interpretation is correct. But it seems that the first interpretation is supported by another text in the same letter, where it says, "For he did not help the angels, but he helped the seed of Abraham. Thus it was fitting that he should become like his brothers in all things, so that he might become merciful" (Heb 2:16-7).

I think this is so clearly directed to the Head that it is impossible to take

17. RB 7.34.

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it to refer to the body. It is certainly of the Word of God that it is said that "he did not help the angels," that is, that he did not assume the angel as one Person with him, "but the seed of Abraham." For we do not read, "The Word was made an angel," but "the Word was made flesh" (Jn 1:14), and flesh of the flesh of Abraham, according to the promise which was made to him at the first (Gn 17:7; Gal 3:29). It was fitting that he should become like his brothers in all things, that is, it was fitting and necessary that he should be able to suffer like us (Jas

5:17), and should experience all the kinds of misery we experience, except sin (Heb 4:15). If you ask by what necessity: so that he might become merciful (Heb 2:16).

You say, why cannot this be correctly referred to the body? But hear what comes immediately after, "For because he suffered and was tempted he is able to help those who are tempted" (Heb 2:18). I do not know how these words are to be better understood than in this way.

He wanted to suffer and to be tempted and to share all our human miseries "except sin" (Heb 4:15)—for that is what it is to be "like his brothers in all things"—so that he might learn by his own experience to be merciful and to suffer with us in our sufferings and temptations.

III.9. I do not say that he was made wiser by the experience, but he came to seem nearer to us weak sons of Adam,'* whom he did not disdain to make and to call his brothers (Heb 2:11). He wanted men to have no hesitation in entrusting their weaknesses to him, who was able as God to heal them and who wanted to do so as one close to them who understood because he had suffered the same weakness himself. It is for this reason that Isaiah calls him "A man of sorrows and acquainted with weakness" (Is 53:3). And the Apostle says, "We do not have a high priest who is unable to feel for our weaknesses" (Heb 4:15). He adds, to indicate how he is able to do so, "He was tempted at every point like us, but without sin" (Heb 4:15).

Blessed is God, blessed the Son of God, in that form in which he did not think it robbery to be equal with the Father (Phil 2:6). I do not doubt that he was impassible before he emptied himself and took the form of a servant (Phil 2:7), for just as he had not experienced wretchedness and subjection, so he had not known mercy or obedience by experience. He knew by nature, but not by experience.

18. Quoad nos: the notion that God, who is impassible, does not himself feel mercy in his divine nature, but that we feel the effect of that mercy, is explored by Anselm in Proslogion,

8, Anselmi Opera Omnia, Vol. I. 106. 11-12.

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He became not only lower than himself, but also a little lower than the angels (Heb 2:9; Ps 8:6), for they too are impassible, though by grace not by nature. He lowered himself to that form in which he could suffer and be in subjection, for, as it is said, what he could not suffer in his divine nature he learned by the experience of suffering: mercy, and to be obedient in subjection.

Yet by that experience there grew, as I have said, not his knowledge but our faith, when by this wretched mode of knowledge he who had gone far astray brought himself near to us (Eph 2:13). When should we have dared to approach him if he had remained impassible?

But now, with the Apostle's encouragement, we are urged to come in faith to the throne of his grace (Heb 4:16), for, as it is written elsewhere, we know that he bore our weariness and grief (Is 53:4), and we can be sure he will have compassion on us because he has suffered himself (Heb 2:18, 4:15).

III.10. It ought not then to seem absurd if it is said that Christ did not begin to know something he once did not know, but began to know, by learning of it in the flesh in time, the mercy he had known in another way in his divinity from eternity (Ps 102:19).'°

See if it is not said in a similar figure of speech that when the disciples asked the Lord when the Last Day would come, he said he did not know (Mk 13:32). But how could he be unaware of that day, for all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge lay in him (Col 2:3)? Why did he deny he knew what it is certain he must have known? Surely he did not want to hide it from them by telling them a lie, because it was not profitable for them to know it? Perish the thought! Just as he could not have been ignorant of anything, since he is wisdom, so he could not lie, because he is truth.

He wanted to discourage the disciples' curiosity about something it was not good for them to know. He replied that he did not know what they asked. He did not say that he was utterly ignorant of it, but in this way he was able truthfully to deny that he knew. In his divinity he knew all things equally. Past, present, and future were clear to him, including that day. But he could not know it by experience in any of his bodily senses. For if he did he would already have slain Antichrist with the breath of his mouth (2 Thes 2:8); he would already have heard in his bodily ears the archangel calling and sounding the trumpet (Jos

19. Cf. Miss 2.10; LTR 4.28.

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6:20) at whose note the dead are to rise (Mt 10:8). He would already have seen with his eyes the sheep and goats which are to be separated from one another (Mt 25:32).

III.11. More: that you may be sure that he was able to say that he did not know when that day would be, in the knowledge he had in the flesh, notice that he answered carefully. He did not say, "I do not know," but, "Not even the son of man knows" (Mk 13:32).?? The term

"son of man" refers to the flesh he assumed. He used this name because he was saying that he did not know something as man, not as God.

When he was speaking of himself according to his deity, he usually said not "the son" or "the son of man" but "I" or "me," as in this passage,

"Amen, amen, I say to you; before Abraham was, I am" (Jn 8:58). He is clearly speaking here of that being which was before Abraham and without beginning, not that which came after Abraham and was born from Abraham.

At another time he asked his disciples what men thought of him.

"Whom do men say," he asks, not "that I am" but, "that the son of man is"? (Mt 16:13). When he went on to ask them what they themselves thought, he said, "But you," not "whom do you say the son of man is?" but "whom do you say that I am?" (Mt 16:15). When he was asking what a carnal people thought about his flesh, he used the name of the flesh, which is properly "the son of man." When he was asking his spiritual disciples about his deity, he did not say "the son of man" but— significantly—"me."

Peter understood that, as we can see from his saying, "You are," he said, not "Jesus, Son of the Virgin," but "Christ, the Son of God"

(Mt 16:16). If he had said the first, he would have spoken the truth. But he perceived the questioner's meaning in the wording of the question, and answered aptly and properly, saying, "You are Christ, the Son of God."

III.12. You see, then, that Christ has two natures in one Person, one which always was and another which began to be. And according to that nature which was eternally his he always knew everything. But according to that which began in time (Rom 1:3), he experienced many things in time. In this way he began to know the miseries of the flesh, by that mode of cognition which the weakness of the flesh instructs.

Our first parents were wiser and happier when they did not know 20. See Retractation, at the opening of Hum.

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that which they came to know only foolishly and in wretchedness. But God their Creator, seeking what was lost, came down in mercy in pursuit of his wretched creatures, to where they had miserably fallen (Ez

34:16). He wanted to experience for himself what they were (rightly) suffering because they had gone against his will. He came not out of a curiosity like theirs, but out of a wonderful charity. He did not intend to remain wretched among them, but to free those who were wretched as one made merciful. "Made merciful" (Heb 2:17), I say, not with that mercy which he who remained happy had had from eternity (Ps

102:17), but with that mercy which he discovered as a mediator who was one of us. The work of his holiness, which began at the prompting of the first mercy, was completed in the second; not because the first mercy was not enough, but because only the second kind could fully satisfy us. Both were needed, but the second kind fitted our condition better. Oh, supreme delicacy of thoughtfulness! Should we have been able to imagine that wonderful mercy if we had not seen it come to us in wretchedness? Should we have been able even to conceive of that unknown compassion toward us if the impassability which is everlasting had not come to us in the Passion?

Yet if he who did not know wretchedness had not first had mercy, he would not have come to that which is the mother of wretchedness.

If he had not come, he would not have drawn us to himself. If he had not drawn us, he would not have drawn us out.

From what did he draw us out? From the slough of misery and the mire of sin (Ps 39:3). He did not lose anything of his everlasting mercy.

But he added this to it. He did not change it but he multiplied it, as it is written, "You will save man and beast, Lord. How you have multiplied your mercy, O God!" (Ps 35:78).

IV.13. But let us return to our subject. If he submitted himself to human misery so that he might not simply know it, but also experience it, how much more ought you, not perhaps to make yourself what you are not, but to be aware of what you are, that you are truly wretched; and so learn to be merciful, for you can learn it in no other way.

If you see your neighbor's failing and not your own you will be moved not to mercy but to indignation, not to help him but to judge him, not to instruct him in a spirit of gentleness but to destroy him in a spirit of anger. "You who are spiritual," says the Apostle, "teach in a spirit of gentleness" (Gal 6:1). His advice, or rather his precept, is to be gentle, that is, to help your brother as if he were sick—as you would wish to be helped yourself in sickness. And so that you may know how

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: gentle you may be toward a wrongdoer, "Consider yourself," he says, "lest you too are tempted" (Gal 6:1).

IV.14. Notice how well Truth's pupil follows the sequence of his master's thoughts. In the beatitudes which I mentioned above, just as the merciful came before the pure in heart, so the meek are placed before the merciful (Mt 5:4-8). When the Apostle tells the spiritual man to teach the carnal-minded, he adds, "In a spirit of gentleness." The teaching of brothers belongs to the merciful, and the spirit of gentleness to the meek. It is as though he said that he who is not meek in himself cannot be counted among the merciful. See how the Apostle clearly shows what I promised above that I would show, that truth is first to be sought in yourself and then in your neighbor. "Think of yourself," he says, that is, how easily you are tempted, how prone you are to sin, how easily you let yourself off, and so hasten to help others in a spirit of gentleness (Gal 6:1).

If you do not listen to the disciple's warning, fear that of the Master, "Hypocrite, first cast out the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to cast out the mote from your brother's eye" (Mt

7:5). Pride in the mind is a great beam which is bloated rather than heavy, swollen rather than solid, and it blocks the mind's eye and blots out the light of truth, so that if your mind is full of it you cannot see yourself as you really are.

Nor can you see what you might be. You see what you would like to be and think yourself to be, or hope that you will be. For what else is pride but, as one of the saints defines it, love of one's own excellence?

That is why we can say the opposite, that humility is contempt of one's own worth."?

Neither love nor hatred can give a judgment of truth. Do you want to hear the judgment of truth? "As I hear, so I judge" (Jn 5:30), not,

"As I hate," "As I love," "As I fear."

This is the judgment of hatred, "We have a law, and according to the law he ought to die" (Jn 19:7). There is a judgment of fear, "If we leave him alone, the Romans will come and destroy our place and nation" (Jn 11:48). This is the judgment of love, as David said to his son who wanted to kill him, "Spare the boy Absalom" (2 Sm 18:5). I know that it is decreed in human laws, and in both secular and ecclesiastical

21. Augustine, Ennarrationes in Psalmos, Psalm 188, Sermo 22.5—6, ed. O. Faller, CCSL,

38 (Turnholt, 1956); De Genesi ad Litteram X1.xiv.18, PL 34.436. Cf. Bernard in Mor 19, PL

182.821; Div 47; LTR 6, 267.

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causes, that special friends of the litigants may not try their cases, in case they are misled, or mislead others by their love." If love can make you diminish, or even hide, your friend's fault, how much more will your judgment deceive you when you think of your own faults?

IV,15. He who wants to know the whole truth about himself must, when he has removed the beam of pride (Mt 7:5) which is cutting off his eye from the light, cut steps in his heart (Ps 83:6) by which he can find himself in himself, and thus he will come after the twelve steps of humility to the first step of pride. For when he has discovered the truth about himself, or better, when he has seen himself in truth, he can say, "I have believed, and therefore I have spoken. I have been profoundly humbled" (Ps 115:10).

Such a man has come to the depths of his heart (Ps 63:7), and truth is exalted. When he arrives at the second step he will say, in ecstasy,

"Every man is a liar" (Ps 115:11). Do you think that David was not here? Do you think this prophet did not feel what the Lord, the Apostle, and we ourselves feel after them and through them? "I have believed," he says, speaking to the Truth. "He who follows me will not walk in darkness" (Jn 8:12).

*I have believed," he continues, "and therefore I have spoken," in faith. In what faith? Believing the truth I have known. Afterward we have, "I have believed," to righteousness, and "I have spoken," for salvation, and "I have been profoundly," that is completely, "humbled"

(Jas 2:23).

It is as though he said, "Because I have not been ashamed to confess the truth against myself which I have come to know in myself, I have progressed to utter humility." "Profound" can be understood as "utter," as in, "He takes profound delight in his commandments" (Ps

111:1). If anyone argues that here the word does not mean "utterly" but merely "very much, ? as some expositors say, that is not out of keeping with the prophet's meaning. We can interpret him as saying, "I, when

I was still in ignorance of the truth, thought myself something when I was nothing (Gal 6:3). But after I had come to believe in Christ, that is, to imitate his humility, I learned the truth and that truth is raised up in me by my confession. But 'I am profoundly humbled,' that is, I have been greatly lowered in my own estimation" (Ps 115: 10).

22. Bernard would have known of this rule of litigation as a matter of normal contemporary practice.

23. Bede, De Orthographia, PL 90.139.

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V.16. The prophet has been humbled then in this first step of humility, as he says in another Psalm, "And in your truth you have humbled me" (Ps 118:75). He has been thinking about himself. Now he looks from his own wretchedness to that of others, and so passes to the second step, saying in his ecstasy (excessus), "Every man is a liar" (Ps

L5: D.

What is meant by this "ecstasy"? It is that state in which he is carried away from himself and clings to the truth and is able to judge himself (1 Cor 11:31). In that ecstasy of his he says—not angrily or accusingly, but full of mercy and compassion—"Every man is a liar."

What does it mean to say that "Every man is a liar"? Every man is weak, powerless, unable to save himself or others. Just as it is said that "A horse is a deceptive savior" (?Ps 32:17), not because a horse deceives anyone but because he who trusts in his own strength deceives himself, so every man is said to be a "liar," that is, to be frail, mutable. He cannot hope for salvation from himself, nor can anyone else hope for salvation from him. Rather, he who places his hope in man is cursed (Jer

17:5). And so the humble prophet makes progress, led along by truth.

What he grieved at in himself, he now grieves at in others. What he sees he grieves at (Eccl 1:18), and he cries, speaking generally but truly,

"Every man is a liar" (Ps 115:11).

V.17. This is very different from what the proud Pharisee feels about himself. What does he say in his "ecstasy"? "My God, I thank you that I am not like other men" (Lk 18:11).?* While he exults in himself alone he arrogantly insults others. David is different. He says,

"Every man is a liar." He made no exceptions, in case anyone should deceive himself, for he knew that "all have sinned and everyone needs the glory of God" (Rom 3:23). The Pharisee deceives only himself in making an exception of himself while he condemns others. The prophet does not except himself from the general wretchedness, lest he be left out of the mercy, too. The Pharisee waved mercy away when he denied his wretchedness. The prophet said of everyone, including himself,

"Every man is a liar" (Ps 115:11). The Pharisee asserts it of everyone but himself. "I am not," he says, "like other men." He gave thanks not because he was good, but because he was unique. He was not so concerned with his own good as with the wickedness he saw in others. He

24. Cf. Ann 3.10; LTR 5.41ff.

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had not yet cast out his beam and he was counting the motes in his brothers' eyes (Mt 7:5). For he added, "Unjust, robbers" (Lk 18:11). I think it is not in vain that I have digressed from the subject in hand if I have shown you the difference between the two kinds of "ecstasy."

V.18. Now let us come back to our subject. Those whom truth brings to know themselves it also causes to think little of themselves. It follows inevitably that all that they used to love will now become bitter to them. Brought face to face with themselves, they are forced to see things which fill them with shame. When they are distressed to see what they are, they long to be what they are not, and fear that they will never be by their own efforts. They grieve deeply over themselves, and the only consolation they can find is to judge themselves severely. They hunger and thirst after righteousness (Mt 5:6) and despise themselves utterly out of love for the truth. They demand full satisfaction for themselves, and a better life. But since they see that they cannot do it by themselves—for when they have done all that they were commanded they call themselves unprofitable servants (Lk 17:10)—they fly from justice to mercy. Truth advises them to do so. "Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy" (Mt 5 :7).25 This is the second step of truth, to look beyond one's own needs to the needs of one's neighbors, and to know how to suffer with them in their troubles (Heb 4:15).

VI.19. By these three things we have mentioned—the grief of repentance, the desire for righteousness, perseverance in works of mercy—the humble purify their hearts of the three impediments of ignorance, weakness, jealousy. And by contemplation they come to the third step of truth. These are ways which seem good to men (Prv 14:12,

16:25), to those who rejoice when they do wrong and exult in wicked things (Prv 2:14). They hide themselves behind their weakness and ignorance (Ps 140:4) so that they can go on having an excuse for their sins.

Those who deliberately remain in weakness and ignorance so as to sin more freely smooth over their weakness and ignorance in vain. Do you think it did the first man any good to say that he did not sin of his own free will, but through his wife, that is, as if through weakness of the flesh (Gn 3:12)? What about those who stoned the first martyr? They stopped their ears. Can they be excused on grounds of ignorance (Acts

7:57)? Those who know themselves to be cut off from the truth by a 25. Cf. Conv 29, LTR 4. 104ff.

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strong love of sin and weighed down by weakness and ignorance, let them put that energy into bewailing their sin, and turn their love of sin into sorrow for sin.

Weakness can be overcome by a fervent desire for righteousness.

Ignorance can be dispelled by generosity. If now they ignore Truth while he is naked and weak and in need; when he comes, terrifying with power and might and accusation (Lk 21:27; Mt 24:30), and when they recognize him too late, with shame and in vain will they answer trembling, "When did we see you in need and did not minister to you?" (Mt

25:44). They will know the Lord when he comes to judge (Ps 9:17), though now they take no notice of him when he pleads for mercy. The greedy will see him whom they have pierced (Jn 19:37) and spurned.

Let the eye of the mind then be purged of every weakness, ignorance, and jealousy by weeping, by zeal for righteousness (Mt 5:6), and by a continual striving to be merciful. Truth promises the pure in heart that they will see him. "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see

God" (Mt 5:8).

These are the three steps of truth. We ascend the first by striving to be humble, the second by compassion, the third in the ecstasy of contemplation. In the first, Truth is discovered to be severe; in the second, holy; in the third, pure. Reason leads to the first, in which we think about ourselves. Affection leads to the second, in which we think about others. Purity leads to the third, in which we are lifted up to see what is out of sight.

VII.20. It occurs to me that there is a way in which each of these wonderful works can be thought of as the work of one of the Persons of the undivided Trinity. (If a man such as I, sitting in darkness [Lk

1:79], can distinguish the work of the Persons, who work together as one.) In the first step the Son is seen at work, in the second the Holy

Spirit, in the third the Father.

Do you want to hear about the work of the Son? "If your Lord and Master washes your feet," he says, "how much more ought you to wash one another's feet?" (Jn 13:14).?° The Master of truth set his disciples an example (Jn 13:15) of humility by which he showed them the first step toward truth. Note the work of the Holy Spirit, too. *Love is diffused in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us" (Rom 5:5).

Love is the gift of the Holy Spirit; he gives it so that those who have 26. Cf. Ambrose, De Mysteriis 6.33, ed. O. Faller, CSEL 73 (Vienna, 1955).

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already proceeded to the first step of truth by humility under the discipline of the Son may, through their compassion for their neighbors, come to the second step under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Lastly, hear what is said of the Father. "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood have not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven" (Mt 16:17). And this, The Father will reveal the truth to the sons" (Is 38:19). And, "I confess to you, Father, for you have hidden these things from the wise and revealed them to children" (Mt 11:25).

You see that those whom the Son first humbles by word and example, and upon whom the Spirit afterward pours out love, these the Father receives at length in glory. The Son makes us disciples. 'The Paraclete comforts us as friends. The Father raises us up as sons. And because not only the Son but also the Father and the Holy Spirit are truly called Truth, it is agreed that one and the same truth, preserving the properties of the Persons, works in these three steps. The first teaches us like a master. The second comforts like a friend or brother.

The third embraces us as a father does his sons. ten VII.21. The Son of God, the Word and Wisdom of the Father, first mercifully assuming that power of our souls which is called reason, when he found it weighed down by the body (Wis 9:15),"' a captive to sin, blinded by ignorance, given up to outward things," he mercifully assumed it; he lifted it by his power, instructed it by his wisdom, drew it within himself and employed it in a wonderful way on his behalf as judge. It is truth's task to judge. That is why, out of reverence for the Word to which it is united, human reason becomes its own accuser, witness, and judge (Prv 18:17). From this first union of the Word and reason is born humility.

The Holy Spirit lovingly visited the second power of the soul, the will. He found it infected with the poison of the body, but already judged by reason. He cleansed it with sweetness, making it burn with love and filling it with mercy, so that like a skin which is made pliable with oil it would stretch wide and bring the heavenly oil of love even to its enemies. And so from this second union, of the Spirit of God and the human will, love is born.

The soul is now perfect in two parts, reason and will, the one taught by the word of truth (2 Cor 6:7), the other set on fire by the spirit

27. Cf. Pre 59; LTR 3.292; Asc 3.1; LTR 5.131.

28. Cf. Div 45.2; LTR 6-1, 263.

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of truth (1 Jn 4:6). It is sprinkled with the hyssop of humility (Ps 50:9), and inflamed by love. It is purged of stains by humility and love smoothes out all its wrinkles (Eph 5:27). The reason never shrinks from truth. The will never strives against reason.

This blessed Bride the Father binds'? to himself. Now the reason is not thinking of itself; the will does not strive against its neighbor.??

This blessed soul speaks of this one delight, "The King has led me into his chamber" (Sg 1:3, 3:4).*!

She has become worthy to enter because of what she has learned in the school of humility where the Son was her teacher. He gave her this warning, "If you do not know yourself, go forth and let your herds graze" (Sg 1:3). She has become worthy, because of what she learned in the school of humility, to be led in love by the Holy Spirit to where charity is stored—to that storehouse which is the care of one's neighbors. There, cushioned by flowers, stayed up by apples (Sg 2:5)? that is, by the good deeds and virtues of the saints, she is admitted at last to the King's chamber, for whose love she languishes.

There for a short time, half an hour, while there is silence in heaven (Rv 8:1)? she sleeps sweetly and at peace in that longed-for embrace. But her mind is alert (Sg 5:2), and it is filled with the secrets of truth on which she will feed in memory when she comes to herself.

There she sees things invisible, hears the ineffable, which no man can utter (2 Cor 12:4). These things exceed that knowledge which night can give to night, for this is the word that day speaks to day (Ps 18:3). Wise men speak wisdom to the wise (Dn 2:21). The spiritual are told spiritual things (1 Cor 2:13).

VIIL.22. Do you doubt that Paul passed up these steps when he said that he was carried up to the third heaven (2 Cor 12:2)? But why does he say "carried" and not "led"? If such an Apostle says that he was carried away, to a place of which he had no knowledge by learning about it and could not reach on his own feet even when he was conducted there, let me not presume to think that I, who am so much less

29. On the biblical use of this term, conglutinat, see Dt 10:15 on the divine bond of love and 1 Sm 18:1 on the human bond of love; also Gn 34:3 on the impure human bond.

30. See Gra 4, LTR 3.148, on the way reason and will are meant to work together.

31. This may be a slip for "cellar." In Div 92.1 he contrasts the "cellar" of Sg 1:3 with the "chamber" of Sg 3:4.

32. Cf. Dil 7; LTR 3:124ff.

33. Cf. Dil 27; LTR 3:142ff.

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than he, can get there by any labor of my own. Let me not trust in my own strength or effort.

On the other hand, he who is taught or led follows. He makes an effort. He acts on his own account to reach the place or experience to which he is being drawn, so that he can say, "Not I, but the grace of God in me" (1 Cor 15:10). He who is carried depends not on his own strength but on that of someone else. He is taken where he knows not, and he does not know how. He has nothing to boast about—not the whole, nor even a part—where he acts neither by himself nor with anyone else. And so the Apostle was able to ascend to the first or second heaven "led" or with help. But he had to be carried away in order to reach the third heaven.

For the Son is said to have come down to help those who are ascending to the first (Eph 4:9), and the Holy Spirit is said to have been sent down (Jn 15:26) to lead us to the second. But (although he always works together with the Son and the Holy Spirit) we never read that the Father came down from heaven or was sent to the earth. I read, certainly, that "The earth is full of the mercy of the Lord" (Ps 32:5) and "Heaven and earth are full of your glory"** and many things of this sort.

I read, too, of the Son, "When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son" (Gal 4:4). The Son says of himself: "The Spirit of the Lord sent me" (Lk 4:18; Is 61:1). And by the same prophet he said,

"Now the Lord in his Spirit has sent me" (Is 48:16).

I read, too, of the Holy Spirit, "The Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, whom the Father sends in my name" (Jn 14:26) and, "When I am lifted up I will send him to you" (Jn 16:7). Who else is this but the Holy

Spirit?

But although the Father is everywhere in his own Person I do not find him anywhere except in heaven, as in the Gospel, "My Father who is in heaven" (Mt 16:17) and in the prayer, "Our Father which art in heaven" (Mt 6:9).

VIII.23. I conclude from this that because the Father did not come down, the Apostle could not climb up to heaven to see him, but he remembers that he was carried there (2 Cor 12:2).? "No man has gone up into heaven but he who came down from heaven" (Jn 3:13). In 34. Cf. Is 6:3, and Te Deum.

35. Cf. Csi 5:3; LTR 3:468ff.

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case you think it is the first or second heaven that is spoken of here, David tells you that "His coming is from the highest heaven" (Ps 18:7).

He was not suddenly carried away. He was not stolen away. But, "He ascended before the very eyes of the disciples" (Acts 1:9).

Elijah was seen by only one.-Enoch was translated (Gn 5:24; Heb 11:5). But our Redeemer "rose," as we read, without help. He ascended by himself, without assistance. He was not carried in a chariot (2 Kgs

2:11). He did not have the help of an angel. By his own power alone, "A cloud received him from their sight" (Acts 1:9). Why the cloud?

Did it come to assist him because he was tired? Did it help him rise more rapidly? Did it support him in case he fell back? No. It covered him from the bodily eyes of the Apostles, who, even though they knew

Christ according to the flesh, were not to know him further (2 Cor 5:16).

Those whom the Son has called to the first heaven by humility, the Spirit summoned to the second by love, the Father exalts to the third by contemplation. In the first they are humbled in truth and say,

"In your truth you have humbled me" (Ps 118:75). In the second they rejoice together in the truth and sing, "How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity" (Ps 132:1). For we read that "love rejoices in truth" (1 Cor 13:6). Third, they are carried away to the secrets of truth and they cry, "My secret is mine, my secret is mine"

(Is 24:16).

IX.24. But why am I, a poor man, running about the two higher heavens with my tongue, talking with more loquacity than spiritual liveliness, when with my hands and feet I am still striving down here? At his bidding and with his help I have put up a ladder for myself (Gn

28:12-13). This is the road which points the way to God's salvation (Ps 49:23). For already I glimpse the Lord leaning on the top of it, and I rejoice already to hear the voice of Truth. He called me and I answered him, "Stretch out your right hand to the work of your hands" (Jb

14:15). You have counted my steps, Lord (Jb 14:15).

But I climb slowly, a weary traveler, and I need somewhere to rest.

Woe is me if the darkness surrounds me (Jn 12:35), or if I should flee in the winter or on the Sabbath (Mt 24:20), for now, even at an acceptable time and in a day of salvation (2 Cor 6:2), I can scarcely make my way.

Why am I so slow? Pray for me anyone who is my son, brother, 36. Cf. Asc 2:6; LTR 6:130ff.

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friend, companion of my journey in the Lord. Pray for me to the Almighty, that he may give my footsteps vigor and that the foot of pride may not come near me (Ps 35:12). For a weary foot is no use in climbing to the truth. The other, the foot of pride, cannot even stand, as you see,

"They are cast out. They could not stand" (Ps 35:12).

IX.25. This refers to the proud. But what of their head? What of him who is called "King of the sons of pride" (Jb 41:25)? He, it is said,

"did not stand fast in the truth" (Jn 8:44), and elsewhere we read, "I saw Satan falling from heaven" (Lk 10:18). Why did he fall, if not because of his pride? Woe is me (Is 6:5; Jer 4:31) if he who sees from afar

(Ps 137:6) beholds me in my pride. He will say to me with a terrible voice, "You were a son of the Most High, but you will die like a man and fall like one of the princes" (Ps 81:6ff.). Who would not shrink at the sound of that voice (Ps 103:7)? It was better for Jacob when the sinew of his thigh shriveled at the touch of the angel (Gn 32:25)," than for it to swell, collapse, and fall at the touch of the angel of pride. Would that the angel would touch my sinew and make it shrink, if as a result of this weakness I was able to progress (2 Cor 12:9), for I can make no progress in my own strength. I read further, "The weakness of God is stronger than man's strength" (1 Cor 1:25).

So also the Apostle complained when his sinew was struck not by the angel of the Lord but by the angel of Satan. This was the reply he heard, "My grace is sufficient for you, for strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor 12:7-9).

What strength? Let the Apostle tell us himself. "Gladly will I glory in my weaknesses, so that the strength of Christ may dwell in me" (2

Cor 12:7ff.). But perhaps you do not yet understand of what in particular he was speaking? For Christ had all the virtues. But although he had them all, he especially commended one of them to us in himself

(Rm 5:8), that of humility, when he said, "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart" (Mt 11:29).?* IX.26. I, too, Lord will freely glory if I can, in my weakness, in the shriveling of my sinew (Gn 32:25), so that your strength, which is humility, may be perfected in me. For your grace is sufficient for me when my own strength fails me (Ps 70:9). With the foot of grace planted squarely on the ladder of humility, trailing my own weak foot behind,

37. Cf. 2 Cor 12:9; SC 29.7; LTR 1.208.

38. Virtus can be rendered as *power" or as "virtue"; here Bernard takes it as virtue for the purposes of his argument.

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I shall climb safely upward by holding fast to the truth, until I come to the broad reaches of charity. There I shall sing a song of thanksgiving,

"You have set my feet on a broad plain" (Ps 30:9).

In this manner I cautiously begin to travel by the narrow way (Mt 7:14), and I come to the truth, even if I come late and with'a limp. But I get there safely. "Woe is me that my exile is so long" (Ps 119:5). "Who will give me wings like a dove so that I might fly away" to the truth and "be at rest" in love (Ps 54:7)? But I have no wings. "Lead me then, Lord, in your way, so that I may walk in your truth" (Ps 85:11) and the truth will make me free (Jn 8:32). Woe is me that I ever abandoned it. If I had not climbed down so lightly and carelessly, I should not be striving so long and hard to climb up.

But why do I say "climbed down"? I should rather have said that I "fell." In a way the first expression is more appropriate, because one does not fall to the depths of evil all at once, any more than one leaps to the heights of virtue in a single bound, but only by climbing step by step. So, too, the way down is followed step by step (Sir 19:1). Otherwise, how should we say, "The wicked man is proud all the days of his life" (Jb 15:20)? "There are ways that seem right to a man," but their end leads to evil (Prv 14:12, 16:25).

IX.27. There is a way down, then, as well as a way up. There is a way to good and a way to evil. Avoid the evil way and choose the good. If you cannot do it by yourself, pray with the prophet and say,

"Keep me from the way of sin" (Ps 118:29). How? "Show me the mercy of your law" (Ps 118:29). That is, that law which you have given to those who go astray on the way, those who desert the truth, of whom

I am one, for I have truly fallen from the truth (Ps 24:8).

But surely if a man falls he will rise again (Jer 8:4; Am 5:1)? Yes.

It is in that hope that I have chosen the path of truth (Ps 118:30) by which I shall ascend in humility back whence I fell through being proud. I shall ascend, I say, singing, "Lord, it is good for me that you have humbled me. The law of your mouth is better for me than a thousand pieces of gold or silver" (Ps 118:72).

David seems to offer you the choice of two ways (Ps 1:1, 6). There is only one, as you know; but there is a distinction to be made. We can use different names for the way of sin, by which those who are going down travel, and the way of truth, by which those who are going up journey. It is the same way which goes up to the throne and down from it, the same way to the city and back. One door lets people both into

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and out of a house (Jn 10:9). The angels appeared to Jacob going up and down by the same ladder (Gn 28:12).

What is the relevance of this? That if you desire to return to the truth you do not need to search for the road. You know it. You came down that way. Retrace your footsteps. Go up by the same steps by which you came down in your pride. Thus he who has sunk to the twelfth step of pride must climb the first step of humility. If it is the eleventh, let him find the second. If the tenth, the third; the ninth, the fourth; the eighth, the fifth; the seventh, the sixth; the sixth, the seventh; the fifth, the eighth; the fourth, the ninth; the third, the tenth; the second, the eleventh; the first, the twelfth. Identify the step of pride you have reached and you will not need to strive to find the way of humility.

The First Step of Pride: Curtosity X.28. And so the first step of pride is curiosity.*" You can recognize it by these indications. You see a monk of whom you had thought well up to now. Wherever he stands, walks, sits, his eyes begin to wander.

His head is lifted. His ears are alert. You can tell from his outward movements that the inner man has changed. "The worthless man winks with his eye, nudges with his foot, points with his finger" (Prv 6:12 ff.).

These unusual bodily movements show that his soul has fallen sick. He has grown careless about his own behavior. He wastes his curiosity on other people. "He does not know himself, so he must go out and pasture his goats" (Sg 1:7). Goats signify sin. I have rightly called them eyes and ears, for just as death entered the world through sin

(Rom 5:12), so it enters the mind through these windows (Jer 9:21). The curious man busies himself pasturing these when he does not care to know in what condition he has left himself within.

And truly, O man, if you concentrate hard on the state you are in it will be surprising if you have time for anything else. Hear what Solomon says, curious man. Hear, foolish man, what Wisdom says.

"Guard your heart with all your might" (Prv 4:23), so that all your 39. "Curiosity" in Augustine and other Fathers is an inordinate and excessive thing, and it is for that reason that Bernard condemns it. Cf. Div 14.2; LTR 6.135; QH 8.5, LTR

4.429.

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senses may be alert to protect the source of life." For where will you go when you leave yourself, O curious one? To whom do you entrust yourself while you are away? Do you dare to lift your eyes to heaven, you who have sinned against heaven? Look at the earth and know yourself.* It tells you about yourself, because, "Dust you are:and to dust you shall return" (Gn 3:19).

X.29 There are two reasons why you might raise your eyes which have no blame attached to them: to ask for help or to give it. David lifted his eyes to the hills to ask for help (Ps 120:1). The Lord lifted his eyes to see the crowds, so that he could help them (Jn 6:5). The one did it in wretchedness, the other in mercy. Both acted blamelessly.

If taking the time, place, and occasion into consideration, you, too, lift up your eyes because of your brother's need, not only do I not blame you; I praise you! Wretchedness is a good excuse. Mercy is a good reason. If you raised your eyes for some other reason I should have to say that you were no imitator of the prophet, or of the Lord, but of Dinah or Eve, or even Satan himself.

For when Dinah went out to pasture her goats she was snatched away from her father, and her virginity was taken from her (Sg 1:7). O

Dinah, you wanted to see the foreign women (Gn 34:1)! Was it necessary? Was it profitable? Or did you do it solely out of curiosity? Even if you went idly to see, you were not idly seen. You looked curiously, but you were looked upon more than curiously. Who would believe that idle curiosity or curious idleness of yours would not be idle in the future, but so terrible in its consequences for you and your family and for your enemies too (Gn 34:25)?

IX.30. You, too, Eve. You were placed in paradise to work there and look after it with your husband (Gn 2:15), and if you had done what you were told you were to have passed to a better life in which you would not have to work or be concerned about guarding. Every tree of paradise was given you to eat, except the one which was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gn 2:16). For if the others were good and tasted good (Gn 2:9), what need was there to eat of the tree which tasted bad? *Do not know more than is appropriate" (Rom 12:3). If you taste what is bad it is not tasty but distasteful. Take care of what is given you as your responsibility. Wait for what you have been promised.

40. Bernard, like Augustine, takes the soul to be the life of the body.

41. Bernard is drawing a contrast with the publican of Lk 18:13.

42. Cf. SC 36.7; LTR 2.8.

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Avoid what is forbidden, lest you lose what has been given to you. Why do you look so intently on your death? Why are you always glancing at it? What is the good of looking at what you are forbidden to eat?

"I reach out with my eyes, not my hand," you say. "I was not forbidden to look, only to eat. Can I not look where I like with the eyes

God gave me?" To this the Apostle says, "I may do anything, but not everything is good for me" (1 Cor 6:12). Even if it is not a sin, it hints at sin. For if the mind had not been failing to keep a check on itself your

. curiosity would not have been wandering. Even if there is no fault, there is an occasion of sin and a prompter to sin and a cause of sin. For when you are looking intently at something, the serpent slips into your heart and coaxes you. He leads on your reason with flattery; he awakes your fear with lies. ^You will not die," he says (Gn 3:4). He increases your interest while he stirs up your greed. He sharpens your curiosity while he prompts your desire. He offers what is forbidden and takes away what is given. He holds out an apple and snatches away paradise.

You drink the poison and you will die and be mother to those who must die. Safety is gone before you have even begun to give birth. We are born; we die. We are born to die because we were dying before we were born. This is the heavy burden you have laid on all your children up to this very day (Sir 40:1).

BERNARD'S VIEW OF THE FALL OF THE SERAPHIM

X.31. You too, Satan, were made in the likeness of God, and you had a place not even in the Garden of Eden but in the delights of God's paradise (Ez 28:12). What more ought you to ask? Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, *Do not seek what is too high and try to look into what is too mighty for you" (Sir 3:22).

Stand in your proper place, lest you fall from it, by walking in the great and wonderful which is beyond you (Ps 130:1). Why are you looking toward the north? I see you now. I do not know what you are thinking, except that it is about something which is beyond your reach. "I will place my throne in the north," you say (Is 14:13).

Everyone else in heaven is standing. You alone affect to sit. You 43. In the Bible the north is the place of evil. Bernard uses both the Old Latin and the Vulgate versions. Compare I Nov 2.5; LTR 5.310 and QH 11.4; LTR 4.451.

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disrupt the harmony of your brothers, the peace of the whole heavenly realm, and, if it were in your power, you would disturb the tranquility of the Trinity. O wretch, is this what your curiosity has led to, that all by yourself you do not hesitate to offend the citizens of heaven and insult its King? "Thousands of thousands minister to him. Ten times a hundred thousand stand before him" (Dn 7:10). In that court no one has a right to sit, except he who sits above the cherubim (Ps 79:2), and whom the others serve. You want to distinguish yourself from others.

You want to pry with your curiosity. You want to push in disrespectfully. You want to set up a throne for yourself in heaven so that you may be like the Most High (Is 14:4).** With what purpose? On what do you rest your confidence? Measure your strength, you fool. Think about the purpose of what you are doing; consider the manner in which you are doing it. Are you presuming to do this with the knowledge of the Most High, or does he not know? Is he willing for you to do it or are you acting against his will?

His knowledge extends to everything. His will is for the best. How can you contrive any evil of which he is ignorant or in which he supports you? Do you think he knows and is against what you do, but cannot prevent it? Unless you believe that you are not his creature, (Jb 36:4) I do not think you can be in any doubt about the omnipotence and universal knowledge and goodness of the Creator, for he was able to create you from nothing and he knew how to make you as he willed. How then do you think that God consents to what he does not will to be done and can prevent—unless perhaps I am seeing fulfilled in you (even begun by you) what has been common on earth ever since? As the proverb says, "Familiarity breeds contempt." Is your eye evil because he is good? (Mt 20:15). If you derive your confidence from his goodness you become impudent against knowledge and bold against power.

X.32. This is what you are thinking, O wicked one. This is the wickedness you brood on in your bed (Ps 35:5), and you say, "Do you think the Creator will destroy the work of his hands?" I know that none of my thoughts are hidden from God, for he is God. Nor do such thoughts please him, for he is good (Jn 7:12). I know that I cannot escape his hand if he does not wish me to, for he is mighty (Dn 13:22; 2

Mc 6:26).

44. Cf. Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job, 29.18, ed. M. Adraien, CCSL 143 (Turnholt, 1979).

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But surely there is no reason to be afraid? It is true that my wickedness cannot please him because he is good (Jn 7:12). But would it please him any better to act badly himself? I should say that even if I should act wrongly in going against his will, he would act wrongly in taking revenge. He cannot want to avenge himself for my sin, for he cannot will to lose his good; nor is he able to."

You deceive yourself, wretch, you deceive yourself, not God (Ps 26:12). You deceive yourself, I repeat. Wickedness deceives itself; it does not deceive God. You are trying to deceive him, but he sees everything. You deceive yourself, not God. Despite his great goodness toward you, you are planning to do him wrong, and your wickedness is hateful indeed (Ps 35:3). For what greater sin can there be than to despise your Creator for that which should make you love him more?

What greater wickedness is there than, when you have no doubt of God's power to destroy you (for he made you), you rely on his gentleness not to punish you, though he can? You repay evil for good, hatred for love (Ps 108:5).

X.33. This iniquity, I say, deserves not a moment's anger but eternal hatred. You desire and hope to make yourself the equal of your gentlest and most exalted Lord, against his wishes. You want to thrust your hateful self constantly before his eyes, to force him to have you as his unwanted companion, and not to destroy you when he could. You want him to suffer rather than let you perish. He can destroy you if he wishes, but you calculate that he cannot wish to do so because of his gentleness. If indeed he is as you think, your crime is the worse in not loving him. And if he allows himself to suffer rather than take any action against you, is it not wickedness not to spare him who, in sparing you, does not spare himself? But perish the thought that in his perfection justice and mercy should be set in opposition, as though he could not be gentle and just at the same time (Ps 24:8). In fact, mercy is better when it is accompanied by justice, not worse; gentleness without justice would not be a virtue. So then, because you show yourself ungrateful to God's free goodness, by which you were freely created," * you do not fear his justice, for in his kindness he has given you no taste of it. And so you boldly go on sinning and mistakenly promise yourself you will not be punished.

Now see yourself, you who regard yourself as just, you who have 45. There is a play on words here: gratis, ingratus, gratuitae.

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known what is good, falling into the trap which you have prepared for your Maker. You plot harm against him which he can avoid if he wishes, but you do not think that he can wish it because he is good.

You have not seen him punishing anyone. The just God will turn the harm back on you. God cannot allow his goodness to be insulted with impunity, nor ought he to. But still his goodness tempers the sentence upon you, so that if you repent he will not refuse to pardon you. But your heart is hard and you cannot will to repent (Rom 2:5),*5 and so the punishment will come.

X.34. But now hear the calumny. "Heaven is my throne," says God. "Earth is my footstool" (Is 66: 1; Acts 7:49). He does not say "east" or "west" or mention any other region of heaven. He says, "The whole of heaven is my throne." Therefore, Satan, you cannot set up your throne in any part of heaven (Rv 12:8), for he has claimed it all for himself. You cannot set it up on earth, for the earth is his footstool (Mt

5:35). Indeed it is on the solid earth that the Church sits, founded on solid rock (Mt 7:25). What are you going to do? Cast out of heaven, you cannot stay on the earth. Choose for yourself a place in the air (Eph

2:2), not to sit but to hang there, so that you who have tried to shake the stability of eternity may feel the punishment of your own instability. You must wander about between earth and heaven while the Lord sits on a throne high and lifted up, and the whole earth is filled with his glory (Is 6:1ff.). You have no place but the air.

X.35. Some of the seraphim fly on the wings of their contemplation from throne to footstool, from footstool to throne. Others veil the Lord's head and feet with their wings (Is 6:2). I think that this is to teach us that just as the cherubim keeps sinful man out of paradise (Gn

3:24),*" so a limit is placed on your curiosity by the seraphim, so that you may not be allowed to penetrate the secrets of heaven with impudence and imprudence, and so that you may not know the mystery of the Church on earth. The hearts of the proud have to be content with this. They do not stoop to live on earth like other men (Lk 18:11); but they do not fly to heaven like the angels. Both God's head in heaven and his feet on earth are hidden from them. But they are allowed to see in between so that they may be envious. While they hang in the air they

46. Cf. Gra 29, 47. Cf. Csi 5.8; LTR 3.472ff.; and SC 19.2-6; LTR 1.109-12, on the roles of the ranks of the angels.

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see the angels going up and down (Gn 28:12), but they do not know what they hear in heaven, nor what they tell on earth.

X.36. O Lucifer, who rose in the morning (Is 14:12),** now you are not light-bearer but bringer of darkness, or even of death. Your course was from the east to the south. Why did you alter your course wrongly to the north? The higher you went the more swiftly you came down.

But I am curious, O curious one, about the purpose of your curiosity. You say, "I will place my throne in the north." I know that this is not a bodily north; nor, since you are a spirit, is it a material throne.

But I think the north signifies wicked men; the throne, your power over them. For once you were very close to God, and perhaps in his foreknowledge (1 Pt 1:2) you foresaw more clearly than others; you saw these men, not shining with the light of wisdom or burning with spiritual love (Rom 12:11), but empty, and you swaggered as though you were their lord, pouring out on them the brilliance of your cunning and kindling in them the fires of malice, so that just as the Most High reigns in his goodness and wisdom over all the children of obedience (1 Pt

1:14), you want to be king of the sons of pride (Jb 41:25; Ps 2:6) and to rule over them with shrewd malice and malicious shrewdness, and to be like the Most High (Is 14:14). But I wonder, when you foresaw your lordship in the foreknowledge of God, did you not also see your fall?

For if you foresaw it, what madness was it that made you desire to rule in such misery that you would prefer to be a wretched lord rather than a happy subject? Would it not have been better to be a companion of those who dwell in light than ruler of those in darkness (Eph 6:12)? It is easier to believe that you did not foresee it. Or perhaps, as I have already suggested, -you did not consider God's goodness, but said in your heart, "He will not require me to give account" (Ps 9:34). Or perhaps the vision of your royal rule stuck in your eye like a beam (Mt 7:3) and got in the way, so that you could not see your fall?

X.37. Thus Joseph, when he foresaw the greatness which would be his (Gn 37:5-10), did not foresee that he would be sold into slavery

(Gn 37:28), although that was to happen first. It is not that I believe that such a patriarch lapsed into pride, but his example makes it plain

48. Patristic sources saw the King of Babylon here as a type of the fallen angel; cf. Lk

10:18.

49. See note 43.

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PRIDE that those who see the future in the spirit of prophecy must be considered to see something, even if they do not see everything. If anyone argues that he was vain to tell his boyhood dream when he did not know its meaning (Gn 37:6, 9), I should answer that that is to be put down rather to the greatness of the mystery or the boy's simplicity than to pride; and if there was any pride in it, he was able to expiate it by what he suffered later. For certain people have delightful things revealed to them at times. The human mind is bound to feel some vanity at knowing such things, especially when they turn out as prophesied. But that vanity which took pride in the greatness of the revelation or the promise it had been granted would not go unpunished perhaps (2 Cor 12:7).

For the physician uses not only ointments but fire and iron, with which he cuts and burns away whatever is superfluous and brings healing by the wound he causes. He removes anything which would prevent the ointment from healing. In the same way, God, the physician of souls, brings temptations upon the soul and sends tribulations. And when it is afflicted and humiliated by these its joy turns to sorrow (Bar

4:34; Jas 4:9). It thinks what has been revealed to it is an illusion. So it comes to be free of vanity and the truth of the revelation endures. Thus was Paul's pride kept in check by the stings of the flesh, though he himself was lifted up by many revelations (2 Cor 12:7). Thus Zachariah's lack of faith was punished by dumbness (Lk 1:20), and the angel's prophecy made to him proved to be true (Lk 1:57ff.). The saints go on in glory or dishonor (2 Cor 6:8). If they fall into common human vanity because of the special gifts they receive, so that they see by grace what is beyond them, they are reminded what they are.

X.38. But what have revelations to do with curiosity? I digressed when I was trying to show how the wicked angel could have foreseen, before his fall, the dominion he was to receive over the wicked, and not have foreseen his own damnation. Many questions are raised about this and by no means all of them have been answered, but this is the point of the discussion: that he fell from the truth as a result of curiosity. °°

He had peered curiously into what was to come and wanted what he was not allowed to have and hoped presumptuous hopes. Rightly is curiosity considered the first step of pride. It was the beginning of all sin

(Sir 10:15). Unless it is checked at once it leads swiftly to the second step: levity.

50. Cf. Div 14.2; LTR 6'.135.

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The Second Step: Light-mindedness X1.39. For the monk who instead of concentrating on himself looks curiously at others, trying to judge who is his superior and who is his inferior, will see things to envy in others and things to mock. Thus it is that the light-minded follow their roving eyes and, no longer pinned down by proper responsibility, are now swept up to the heights by pride, now cast down into the depths by envy. Now the man is consumed by foolish envy; now he grows childishly pleased about his own excellence. In one mood he is wicked, in the other vain. In both he shows himself to be proud, because he makes it a matter for self-congratulation both when he grieves to be outdone and when he is pleased to outdo others. He displays these changes of mood in his speech: Now his words are few and grudging; now numerous and trivial; now he is laughing; now he is depressed; but there is never any reason for his mood. Compare if you will these two stages of pride with the last two steps of humility and see whether the last does not quell pride and the last but one light-mindedness.*' You will find that the same is true for the rest, if you compare one with another.

But now let us come, not descending but teaching," to the third.

The Third Step: Foolish Merriment*?

XII.40. The proud always want to be happy and to avoid sadness, as in, "Where there is merriment, there is the heart of a fool" (Eccl 7:5).

The monk who has come down these two steps of pride in arriving at light-mindedness by way of pride will find that the joy he is always seeking is often disturbed by sadness; he will be upset by the goodness of others. Impatient at his humiliation he flies to false consolations.

Anything that shows him his own vileness and the excellence of others checks his curiosity; but on the contrary, he is always ready to notice anything which makes him seem to excel. He uses his curiosity to perceive how he excels others, and he always deceives himself so that he avoids sadness and he can go on being happy.

And so it comes about that anyone who thus continues to juggle joy and sorrow can enjoy only an empty happiness. This is the third

51. RB 7.62-66 and RB 7.60—61.

52. Docendo, non descendendo.

53. Gra 14; LTR 3.176; SC 37.3; LTR 2.10.

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step. Note the signs, which you can recognize in yourself or in anyone else. You will rarely or never see in such a man any signs of groans or tears. You would think to look at him that he was not giving himself a thought, or that he had no sin on his conscience, or that he was purged of his sins. He makes scurrilous gestures.** He giggles.? He preens himself. He is always joking and ready to laugh at the slightest thing. °°

If anything has happened which would bring contempt on him or cast him down, he wipes it from his memory. And if he notes any good things in himself he will add them up and parade them before his mind's eye. He thinks only of what he wants and he does not ask himself whether he ought to want it. At times he is seized by fits of laughter; he is unable to suppress his foolish mirth. He is like a blown-up bladder which has been punctured and squeezed. As it goes down it squeaks, and the air does not come out everywhere but whistles through the little hole in a series of shrieks. So, the monk who fills his heart with vain and scurrilous thoughts cannot let them out all at once because of the rule of silence, so they burst out at odd moments in giggles.*" Often he hides his face for shame, purses his lips, clenches his teeth. He still cannot stop laughing and giggling. When he puts his hand in front of his mouth the giggles can still be heard popping out through his nose.

The Fourth S. tep: Boasting XIII.41. When vanity has begun to swell the bladder and enlarge it, it makes a bigger hole for the wind to escape. Otherwise it would burst.

So the monk, when he cannot express his empty merriment by laughter or gesture, breaks into the words of Elihu, "See, my stomach is like new wine which has no vent; like new wineskins it is ready to burst" (Jb

32:19). Speak or burst! For he is full of talk and the spirit is straining to get out (Jb 32:18). He hungers and thirsts for listeners to whom he can make empty boasts, to whom he can pour out all he feels, and whom he can tell what he is and how great he is.

He finds an occasion to speak. Let us say the subject is literature.

He says new things and old (Mt 13:52). His opinions fly about. His

54. RB 6.8.

55. On monastic sign language, cf. Consuetudines Cluniacenses, Yl, 4; De Signis Loquendi,

PL 149.703-5.

56. RB 7.59.

57. RB 6; Perius, Satires, ed. W. V. Clausen (Oxford, 1956).

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words tumble over one another. He butts in before he is asked. He does not answer other people's questions. He asks the questions himself and he answers them, and he cuts off anyone who tries to speak. When the bell rings for the end of the discussion, even though it has been a long one, he asks for a little more time. He asks permission to come back to the stories later, not so as to edify anyone, but so that he can show off his knowledge (1 Cor 8:1). He may say something edifying, but that is not his intention. He does not care for you to teach, or to learn from you what he himself does not know, but that others should know how much he knows.

If the subject is religion, at once he has dreams and visions to offer.

Then he praises fasting, commends vigils, enthuses above all about prayer. He discusses patience, humility, and all the other virtues at great length, but in utter emptiness. Yet if you were to hear him you would say that he "speaks from the fullness of his heart" (Mt 12:34), or "A good man brings forth good things from his good treasure" (Mt

12:35).

If the talk turns to lighter things, he is discovered to be even more talkative, because this is something he really knows about. You would say if you heard him that his mouth was a stream of vanity, a river of scurrility, so that he stirs even solemn and grave minds to merriment. And to cut a long story short, "When there is much talk there is boasting" (Prv 10:19).°* Here you have the fourth step described and named. Avoid the thing but remember the name. The same warning is appropriate to the fifth step, which I call singularity .

The Fifth Step: Trying to Be Different XIV.42. When a man has been boasting that he is superior to others it is galling to him not to outdo them in performance, so as to make it obvious that he is more advanced than they are. It is not enough for him to keep the common rule of the monastery and obey his superiors.*? But he is more interested in seeming to be better than others than in being so. He acts not so as to live better but so as to seem to triumph, so that he can say, "T am not as other men" (Lk 18:11). He

58. Cf. Prv 10:19; RB 7.56—58.

59. RB 7.55; cf. SC 19.7; LTR 1.112ff.; SC 64.5; LTR 2.168.

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prides himself more on fasting for one day when the others are feasting than on fasting for seven days with the others. One special little prayer seems to him finer than a night spent in singing psalms. During a meal he often looks up and down the table to see if anyone is eating less than he, and then he grieves at being outdone and begins cruelly to deprive himself even of what he used to think it necessary to eat, for he fears a blow to his reputation more than the pangs of hunger. If he sees anyone thinner and paler than he is, he despises himself and cannot rest. And though he cannot see his own face he wonders what others think of it, and he looks at his hands and arms, which he can see, feels his ribs, and inspects his shoulders and thighs so as to test the pallor or color of his face from that of his members.

He is very anxious to perform his own special exercises and lazy about performing the common ones everyone does. He lies awake in his bed and sleeps when he is in choir. When the others wake to sing the psalms of the night office he sleeps on all night. When the others are resting in the cloister he stays behind by himself to pray in the chapel.*' By coughing and groaning and sighing he makes sure that those outside can hear that he is there in his corner. The simpleminded are taken in by these special but empty activities, and what they think to be evidence of his good works. But they do not see his motive and by canonizing the wretch they confirm him in his error

(Lk 18:11).

The Sixth Step: Arrogance XV.43. He believes the praises he hears. He is complacent about what he does. He does not give a thought to his intentions. He puts that from his mind when he accepts what others think of him. He believes that he knows more than everybody about everything else, but when they praise him he believes them rather than his own conscience. As a result he now not only shows off his piety in what he does and says, but in his own heart warmly believes that he is holier than others.9 When he hears something said in his own praise he thinks it comes not from the ignorance or kindness of the speaker, but from his own merit, and he arrogantly takes the credit.

60. RB 9.

61. RB 8.3.

62. RB 7.51-54.

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The Seventh Step: Presumption® XVI.44. He who thinks himself superior to others, how can he not presume more for himself than others? At meetings he must sit in the most important place. In discussions he speaks first. He comes without being invited. He interferes without being asked. He changes the rules and alters things which have been settled. What he himself has not done or ordained he considers not to have been done right, or to be arranged displeasingly. He judges the judges and prejudges every case. If he is not promoted to be prior® he thinks his abbot is jealous of him, or else deceived. If obedience imposes some humble task on him he is indignant. He disdains to do it, thinking that he ought not to be bothered with trivial things. For he feels himself to be fitted for great tasks. But since he is so eager to offer his services and rushes at things rather than taking thought before he acts, he is bound to make mistakes sometimes.

But it is a superior's task to reprove someone who goes wrong. Yet how will he who does not think he is in the wrong, or that he can ever be thought to be in the wrong, confess his fault? So when he is accused of a fault he adds to his sins rather than giving them up. If you see someone answering back when he is reprimanded you will know that he has fallen to the eighth step of pride, which is self-justification.

The Eighth Step: Self-Justification XVIL45. There are many ways of making excuses (Ps 140:4) for sin."

One person will say, "I did not do it." Another will say, "I did it, but it was the right thing to do." Another will admit that it was wrong but say, "It was not very wrong." Another will concede that it was very wrong, but he will say, "I meant well." If he is forced to admit that he did not mean well, he will say as happened in the case of Adam and Eve that someone else persuaded him to do it.5* If a man defends even his obvious sins in that way, when will he humbly confess to his abbot his hidden sins and the wicked thoughts which come into his heart?"

63. OH 11.4; LTR 4.451.

64. RB 65.

65. Bernard now lists the "excuses for sin."

66. Cf. Pre 27; LTR 3.272ff.; Gn 3:12-13; Ps 140:4.

67. RB 7.44; cf. Consuetudines Ordinis Cisterciensis, III.70, Nomasticon Cisterciensis, ed. H.

Séjalon (Solesme, 1892), pp. 145ff.

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The Ninth Step: Insincere Confession XVIII.46. Excuses of this sort are judged bad enough for the prophet to call them "words of malice" (Ps 140:4). But false and proud confession is far more dangerous than conscious and persistent self-defense.

For some, when they defend their obvious sins, knowing that they will not be believed if they do so, make up a more subtle defense in the form of pretended self-accusation. This is the man "who humbles himself deceitfully while his mind is full of wickedness" (Sir 19:23). His face is downcast; his body is bowed down to the ground; people of this sort wring tears out of themselves if they can. They let their voices catch with sighs and interrupt their words with groans. They not only admit what they have done but even exaggerate their guilt, so that you begin to doubt what you thought of them, and when they confess what you believed them to have done, what seemed certain becomes doubtful.

And while they affirm what they do not want to be believed, they hide what they are revealing, and when a praiseworthy confession (Rom

10:10) is heard from their lips, iniquity is still hidden in their hearts (Ps 139:3; Jer 16:17). The result is that he who hears them believes in their humility rather than their veracity, and applies to them the Scripture,

"The just man is his own first accuser" (Prv 18:17, Vetus Latina). These men prefer you to think they are untruthful rather than to believe that they lack humility. But in God's eyes they are putting both in jeopardy.

If the sin is so obvious that there is no way it can be hidden, they will make great play of penitence, hoping that others will admire their frank confession so much that they forget their sin; nevertheless, their penitence is in the voice not in the heart, and so they do not purge their sins.

XVIIL47. Humility is a glorious thing if it tries to disguise itself with pride so as to avoid punishment! This will soon be perceived by the superior as the deception it is, if he does not take any notice of this prideful humility and refuses to overlook the offense or put off the punishment. An earthen vessel is tested by fire (Sir 27:6), and tribulation makes it clear who is really penitent. A real penitent does not shrink from the labor of doing penance, but whatever hateful task is imposed on him for his sin he patiently embraces without complaint. If obedience forces him to what is hard and goes against his wishes, and even

68. Div 40.6; LTR 6/.239.

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if he suffers reproach he has not deserved, he bears it without flagging, so that he shows that he stands on the fourth step of humility. But he whose confession is all pretense, when he is tested by one little punishment cannot simulate humility or hide the fact that he has been pretending up to now. He complains and murmurs and grows angry and proves that far from standing on the fourth step of humility he has sunk to the ninth step of pride which, as we said, can rightly be called insincere confession.

How great do you think will be the confusion in the heart of the proud man when his deception is discovered, his peace gone, his praise diminished, and his sin is still not purged? At last everyone sees what he is; everyone judges him, and they are the more indignant with him when they see that they were wrong in what they thought of him before. Then the superior must not spare him, in case he thinks he can get away with it, for then he would be a stumbling-block to others.

XIX.48. The divine mercy may look on such a man and inspire him to do what is very difficult for him, to submit without a word to the judgment of the community.® But if his response is to frown and be insolent, by his rebellion he falls lower and to a more desperate state, to the tenth step, and he who before secretly despised his brothers in his arrogance now openly shows by his disobedience that he despises his superiors.

XIX.49. For you must know that all the steps I have divided into twelve can be put into three groups. In the first six there is contempt for one's brothers. In the next four there is contempt for one's superiors.

In the remaining two pride comes to a head in contempt for God. It should also be noted that these two final steps of pride, which are also the first two steps taken by the person who is ascending the ladder of humility, just as they must be climbed before entering the community, so they cannot be descended within the community. It is clear from what it says about the third step in the Rule that they ought to be climbed before entering. "It is the third step when a monk obediently submits himself to a superior for love of God."'° If then submission is placed at the third step when it is the first thing to happen when someone joins the community as a novice, it follows that the two previous steps are to be understood to have been already climbed. When a monk

69. RB 28.

70. RB 7.34.

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spurns the agreement of his brothers and the opinion of his superior, how can he remain in the monastery without being a stumbling-block?

The Eleventh Step: Freedom to Sin XX.50. And so after the tenth step, which is called rebellion, the monk is expelled from his monastery, or leaves it, and at once he is at the eleventh stage. Then he begins to travel roads which seem good to men

(Prv 14:12, 16:25)! and, unless God blocks his way (cf. Hos 2:6), he will come at their end to the depths of hell, that is, to contempt for God.

"When the wicked man reaches the depths of evil he is in contempt"

(Prv 18:3). The eleventh step can be called freedom to sin. When he stands there, the monk who recognizes and fears no superior and who has no brothers whom he may respect enjoys doing what he wants the more safely as he does it the more freely; and he does things which in the monastery fear or shame would have held him back from doing. But even if he does not now fear his brothers or the abbot, he is not yet entirely without awe of judgment. Reason, still murmuring faintly, puts this awe in front of him and he still hesitates a little before committing certain sins. Like someone entering a river, he does not plunge, but goes step by step into the torrent of vices.

The Twelfth S. tep: Habitual Sin XXI.51. And after he finds that his first sins go unpunished by the terrible judgment of God (Heb 10:27), he freely seeks to enjoy again the pleasures he has experienced. Habit binds him as desire revives, and conscience slumbers.?? The wretched man is dragged into the depths of evil (Prv 18:3) and handed over captive to the tyranny of the vices as though to be swallowed up in the whirlpool of fleshly desires; and he forgets the fear of God and his own reason. The fool says in his heart,

"There is no God" (Ps 13:1).

He cannot tell good from evil now. Nothing holds him back, in mind, hand, or foot, from wrong thoughts, plans, or action. Whatever is in his heart comes to his mouth or his hand. He conceives an idea.

71. Cf. Hum 19.

72. Conv 23; LTR 4.95; Pre 40; LTR 3.280.

73. Conv 5; LTR 4.76.

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He chatters about it. He carries it out. He is malevolent, evil-speaking, vile.

As the just man who has climbed all the steps of humility runs toward life with a heart now eager and unburdened because of his good habits, so, because of his bad habits, the wicked man who has descended all the steps does not govern himself with reason and he is not bridled by fear. And so he rashly rushes on to death.

Those in the middle of the climb or the descent are weary and constrained, now struck by fear of the pain of hell, now held back by the force of old habits. Only those at the top or the bottom run unimpeded and without strain. One hurries to death, the other to life. One runs upward, the other downward. Love lifts one up. Lust pulls the other down. In one love and in the other apathy feels the effort nothing. In one perfect love and in the other malice drives out fear (1 Jn 4:18). Truth gives one of them a sense of security, the other gets it from blindness.

The twelfth step, then, can be called habitual sin, because the fear of God is lost and replaced by contempt.

XXII.52. Now I would not that anyone should pray for such a one, says the Apostle John (1 Jn 5:16). But surely, Apostle, you are not counseling despair? He who really loves him will still weep. Let him not presume to pray nor cease to sorrow.

What am I saying? If there remains any refuge of hope, is there not a place for prayer?

But hear one who believes, hopes, yet does not pray, "Lord," she said, "If you had been here my brother would not have died" (Jn 11:21).

Great is the faith which believed that the Lord would have prevented death by his presence if he had been there. No more than that? Perish the thought that she who believed he could keep someone alive doubted that he could raise him from the dead. "But now," she says, "I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you" (Jn 11:22). When

Jesus asked where they had laid him, she answered, "Come and see"

(Jn 11:34). Why did she say that? O Martha, you have given us great signs of faith. Can you be failing in faith? "Come," you said, "and see."

Why, if you did not despair, did you not go on to say, "And revive him." But if you are in despair, why do you pester the Master relentlessly? Perhaps faith sometimes receives what prayer is not bold enough to ask for.

As he approaches the body you stop him and say, "Lord by this time he will be stinking; he has been in the tomb for four days" (Jn

11:39). Did you say this in despair, or for a purpose? For the Lord him-

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PRIDE' self, after his resurrection, pretended to be going further when he wanted to remain with the disciples (Lk 24:28). O holy women who are

Christ's friends, if you love your brother, why do you not press him to show mercy, him whose power you cannot doubt, and in whose holiness you have absolute trust (Jn 11:3)?

This is their answer. "We pray better by not appearing to pray.

We trust the better by seeming not to trust. We show faith by appearing to be uncertain. We show faith and demonstrate our love. He to whom there is no need to say anything knows what we desire (Wis 7:27; Mt

6:8). We know that he can do everything. But this great miracle, so new, so unheard-of even though it is within his power, greatly exceeds anything our humility can deserve. It is enough for us to have brought his power here, to have given his holiness a reason, and we prefer to wait patiently upon his will rather than impudently to ask what he will not perhaps wish to do. Perhaps what our deserving lacks our modesty will supply."

I see Peter, too, weeping after his serious lapse, but I do not hear him praying. Yet I have no doubt that he was forgiven (Mt 26:75; Mk

14:72; Lk 22:61-62).

XXII.53. Learn from the great faith which the Lord's mother had in the wonders he could do. She preserved her modesty in great faith.

Learn that modesty is the ornament of faith and that it reproves presumption. "They have no wine," she says (Jn 2:3). How briefly, how reverently she put the problem to him, despite her holy anxiety.

Learn, too, that in such circumstances it is much more holy to complain gently rather than to demand presumptuously, and better to give the shadowy expression of modesty to strong feeling and to speak quietly in prayer in the faith you have. She did not come up to him boldly. She did not speak to him openly and say frankly in everyone's hearing, "I beg you, son, the wine has run out, the guests grow solemn, the Bridegroom is embarrassed —show them what you can do."

Certainly her burning breast and aching heart would have said this or much more, but the holy Mother came to her powerful Son privately. She did not come to test his power but to see what his will might be. "They have no wine," she said. What could be more modest? What could be more trusting? Her faith was secure, her voice low; her desire prevailed."* If then she, his mother, forgetting that she was his mother,

74. O Assp 10; LTR 5.270.

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did not dare to presume to ask for the miracle of the wine, with what barefacedness do I, a vile slave, whose only greatness is to be the servant of mother and Son, presume to ask for the life of one who has been dead for four days?

XIX.54. We read in the Gospel about two blind men who were given their sight. One had lost his sight (Mk 10:46-52; Lk 18:35—43).

The other was born blind (Jn 9:1—2). One was blinded, the other congenitally blind. He who was blinded earned wonderful mercy by prayers, but the mercy the other received was the greater and more wonderful, and he felt the kindness of him who gave him light. To him is said, "Your faith has healed you," but not to the other. I read that two recently dead (Mt 9:18-26; Mk 5:21—43; Lk 5:21—43) and a third already dead for four days were resurrected (Jn 11:1—44)." But one was revived while she lay in her home, in answer to her father's prayers (Mt

9:18). The other two were restored to life by the great unasked-for gift of love (Lk 1:13; Jn 11:33-36).

XIX.55.

Ifa similar situation should arise (which God forbid) and one of our brothers should die—not in body, but in soul; sinner though

Iam I will plead with the Savior by my prayers and those of my brothers. If he comes to life again (cf. Lk 15:24) we shall have our brother

(Mt 18:15) restored to us as our reward. If we do not deserve to be heard and he is carried out from among us because he cannot endure the company of the living, and they cannot bear his, even then I weep faithfully, but I do not then pray in faith. I do not dare to say openly,

*Come, Lord, revive our brother who has died." But I do not cease to cry inwardly trembling, with a heart that has stopped, "If perhaps; if perhaps the Lord may hear the desire of the poor, and hear the words of their hearts with his ears." And this, "Will you not perform miracles upon the dead; will the physicians raise him and praise you?" (Ps 87:11).

And of him who is four days dead, "He who is in the grave will not tell of your mercy, and he who is in hell will not speak of your truth" (Ps

87:12).

Meanwhile, the Savior can, if he wishes, come to our help when we are not expecting it and when we have no hope, and, moved by our tears not by our prayers, restore the dead to life or even call back from the grave him who is already dead.

75. Jairus's daughter, Mt 9:18-26; Mk 5:22-43; Lk 8:41-56; the son of the widow of Naim, Lk 7:11-17.

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I have described as dead the man who, defending his own sins, has rushed down to the eighth step. For the dead do not make confession, any more than someone who does not exist (Sir 17:26). After the tenth step, which is the third from the eighth, he is already swept away by freedom to sin, when he is driven out of the community of the monastery. But when he has gone on to the fourth step after that eighth one, now truly is he said to be four days dead, when, slipping into the fifth stage, he is buried in habitual sin.

XXII.56. Perish the thought that even if we do not presume to pray openly for such, we should not continue to pray for them in our hearts; for Paul, too, grieves for those he knows to have died without repenting (2 Cor 12:21). For even if they cut themselves off from the community's prayers, they cannot sever themselves wholly from the love of their brothers. But they will see how much danger they are in when the Church dare not pray openly for them, although she prays faithfully for Jews, heretics, and pagans. For on Good Friday when she prays for each kind of sinner by name, she makes no mention of the excommunicated. '° A NOTE To THE PERSON TO WHomM Tuis Is WRITTEN

XXII.57. You are perhaps saying, brother Geoffrey, that I have done something different from what you asked and I promised, and instead of writing about the steps of humility I have written about the steps of pride." I reply, "I can teach only what I have learned. I did not think

I could fittingly describe the steps up when I know more about going down than going up. The blessed Benedict sets the steps of humility before you, which he himself first set out in his heart (Ps 83:6). I have nothing to set before you except the order of my descent. But, if you look carefully, you will find there the way up. If on your way to Rome you meet a man coming from there and ask him the way, how can he do better than show you the way he has come? As he lists the castles, towns and cities, rivers and mountains through which he has traveled,

76. On Good Friday the prayers of the faithful are extended and the central action of the Mass is omitted.

77. See Retractation.

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as he describes his journey he is telling you what you will find as you go, so that you will recognize each place as you come to it, just as he saw it as he came the other way. Similarly, in these steps of our descent you will perhaps find steps up. As you climb you will read them better in your heart than in this book. — ^

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