On Loving God
. ON Lovinc Gop Aumeric, cardinal deacon of the Church of Rome from 1121 and chancellor from 1126, was a good friend to Clairvaux. Bernard wrote him more than a dozen letters. At some time between 1125, when Bernard wrote the letter to the Carthusians with which he ends his treatise, and Aimeric's death in 1141, Aimeric asked him for a book on loving God.
Early in the 1120s Bernard had already written on the love of God in the context of the monastic life, in a letter to the monks of the Grande Chartreuse, written at their request. His thinking in the De Diligendo Deo is close to what he said there, although developed in more detail. He had evidently been pleased with the way he had expressed the central ideas in this letter, for he instructed that it be copied at the end of the new treatise. The whole treatise, including the letter, is translated here as Bernard himself would have wished. The letter is integral to what he has to say.'
PROLOGUE To the illustrious lord Aimeric, cardinal deacon and chancellor of the See of Rome, Bernard, called abbot of Clairvaux,' wishes that he may live for the Lord and die in the Lord.
1. See Introduction to this volume.
1. In referring to himself modestly in this way Bernard is following a convention of classical and medieval rhetoric.
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You usually ask me for prayers, not answers to questions. And indeed I confess that I am not worthy to offer either. Yet prayer is my profession, even if I do not live as though it were. As to the task you have given me, to tell the truth it seems to me that I lack the diligence and ability it requires. Still, I assure you that I am glad that you are asking for spiritual in return for wordly gifts (1 Cor 9:11). It is only that you could have asked someone richer in spiritual gifts than I.
Because it is the habit both of the educated and of the uneducated to make this sort of excuse, you would be hard put to it to know whether it is prompted by genuine inability or self-excusing modesty, were it not that the execution of the task will make it plain. Accept from my poverty what I have, or I shall be thought a philosopher because of my silence.
I do not promise to answer everything you ask—only to tell you what God will give me to say about loving him. This subject tastes sweeter, and is treated with more confidence, and is more profitable to whoever hears, than any other. Your other questions you must keep for those better qualified to answer them.
I.1. You wish then to hear from me why and how God ought to be loved. I answer: The cause of loving God is God himself.? The way to love him is without measure.? Is this not enough? Perhaps it is, but only for the wise. Yet I owe something to the unwise, too (Rom 1:14), and it is usual to add something for their benefit to what is sufficient for the wise.man.* And so, for the sake of those who are slower, I shall not find it tedious to go into each point at length, if not more deeply.
For two reasons, then, I say that God is to be loved for his own sake. No one can be more justly loved, or with greater benefit. Indeed, when it is asked why God ought to be loved, the question has two possible meanings. We may wonder which is the real question: whether
God is to be loved because he deserves it, or because it is for our good.
I give the same answer to both: There seems to me no good reason to love him which does not lie in himself.
So let us first see how he deserves our love.
2. Cf. William of St. Thierry, The Nature and Dignity of Love, 3, PL 184.382.
3. This pun makes use of a phrase in a letter to Augustine. See Letter 109 from Severus, PL 33.419.
4. Sat est dictum sapienti, "a word to the wise" is a commonplace in classical authors.
See Plautus, Persa, 4.7(19); Terence, Phormio, 3.3(8), for examples.
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How Gop Is ro BE Loven ror His Own SAKE He who gave himself to us when we did not deserve it certainly deserves a great deal from us (Gal 1:4). What better thing could he give us than himself? And so if we bring God's deserving into question in asking why God should be loved, we have the chief reason for loving him in this, "That he first loved us" (1 Jn 4:9-10). Surely he deserves to be loved in return when we think of who loves, whom he loves, how much he loves. Is it not he whom every spirit confesses (1 Jn 4:2) saying,
"You are my God for you do not need the goods I have" (Ps 15:2)?
This divine love is true love, for it is the love of one who wants nothing for himself (1 Cor 13:5). To whom is such pure love shown?
"When we were still his enemies," it says, "he reconciled us to himself"
(Rom 5:10). So, in utmost generosity, God loved even his enemies.
But how much did he love? St. John says, "God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son" (Jn 3:16). St. Paul says, *He did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us" (Rom 8:32). The Son, too, said of himself, "No one has greater love than the man who lays down his life for his friends" (Jn 15:13). Thus the righteous deserved to be loved by the wicked, the highest and all-powerful by the weak (Rom
5:6—7).
But someone says,^ "That is true for men but not for angels." It is true; he who came to man's help in his great need preserved the angels from that need. he who did not allow men to remain as they were, out of an equal love gave the angels the grace not to fall into such a need.'
II.2. To those who see these things clearly, I think it will be evident why God is to be loved—and why he deserves to be loved. But if unbelievers hide these facts, God is always able to make their ingratitude plain by the innumerable kindnesses he showers on men for their benefit and which are quite obviously his gifts. For who else provides food for everyone who eats, light for seeing, air to breathe? It would be foolish to want to list them when I have just said that they are innumerable. Let it be enough to give the chief ones, bread, sun, and air, as examples. I say "chief" not because they are more excellent than
5. The Latin text has puritas, but the reference is clearly to purity of love.
6. This device of the pretended interruption was often used by lecturers in the twelfth century.
7. Cf. Gra 29; LTR III.187.
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other gifts, but because they are more necessary, for they are bodily necessities.
You must look for higher goods in the higher part of yourself, that is, the soul. These higher goods are dignity, knowledge, virtue. Man's dignity is his free will, which is the gift by which he is superior to the animals and even rules them (Gn 1:26). Man's knowledge is that by which he recognizes that he possesses this dignity, but that it does not originate in himself. His virtue is that by which he seeks eagerly for his
Creator, and when he finds him, holds to him with all his might.
II.3. Each of these three has two aspects.
Dignity is not only a natural privilege. It is also the power of dominion, for all living things on earth can be seen to stand in fear of man
(Gn 9:2). Knowledge, too, is twofold, for we know both that we possess this dignity and whatever else we have that is good, and that they do not originate in ourselves. Virtue can equally be seen to have two aspects. By it we seek our Maker and when we have found him we cling to him so that we cannot be separated from him.
Dignity is nothing without knowledge, and knowledge can even be a stumbling-block without virtue. This is the reason for both these things. What glory is it to have what you do not know you have? And to know what you have, but not to know that it does not originate with you is to have glory, but not before God (Rom 4:2). To him who glories in himself the Apostle says, "What do you have that you have not received? But if you have received it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?" (1 Cor 4:7). He does not simply say, "Why do you boast?"
He adds, "As if you had not received," so as to emphasize that the guilt lies not in boasting of something, but in doing so as if it was not a gift which had been received. This sort of thing is rightly called vainglory, because it does not rest on a solid foundation of truth. St. Paul points out the difference between truth and vainglory. "He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord" (1 Cor 1:31; 2 Cor 10:17; cf. Jer 9:23—24), that is, in the truth. For the Lord himself is truth (Jn 14:6).
II.4. There are two things you should know: first, what you are; second, that you are not what you are by your own power. Then you will boast, but not in vain. It says that if you do not know yourself, you should go and follow the flocks of your companions (Sg 1:6—7).* This is what actually happens. When man has a high honor bestowed on him
8. Cf. SC 32.10; LTR 1.233.
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but does not appreciate it, he is deservedly compared with the beasts with whom he shares his present mortality and state of corruption (Jn
14:6).
It happens; too, when a man'does not appreciate the gift of reason and spends his time with herds of unreasoning beasts; and when he ignores the glory which is within him, and models himself on the outward things his senses perceive; and when he is so carried away by curiosity? that he becomes no different from any other animal, because he does not see that he has received anything more than they have.
And so we should greatly fear that ignorance which makes us think less of ourselves than we should. But no less, indeed rather more, should we fear that ignorance which makes us think ourselves better than we are. This is what happens when we are deceived into thinking that some good in us originates with ourselves.
But you should avoid and detest even more than these two that presumption'? by which, in full knowledge and deliberately, you dare to seek your own glory in good things which are not your own and which you know perfectly well are not yours by any power of your own. Thus you unashamedly steal another's glory. For the first ignorance has no glory. The second has a glory, but not in God's eyes (Rom
4:2). But this third evil which is committed knowingly is an act of treason against God.
This arrogance "born of the last ignorance is worse and more dangerous because while the second kind of ignorance causes us to ignore
God, this leads us to despise him. And it is worse and more disgusting than the first because while the first makes us the companions of beasts, this throws us into fellowship with demons. It is pride, the greatest sin, to use gifts you have been given as though you were born with them, and to arrogate to yourself the glory which belongs to the generous iver.
II.5. With these two, dignity and knowledge, must go virtue, which is the fruit of both. Through virtue we seek and cling to the Giver of all good things and give him the glory he deserves for all that he has given. But he who knows how to do what is right and does not do it will receive many lashes (Lk 12:47). Why? Because "He did not want to understand how to behave well" (Ps 35:4). More than that, "He
9. For Bernard curiosity is the first step of pride (Hum 28).
10. For Bernard presumption is the seventh step of pride (Hum 44).
11. For Bernard arrogance is the sixth step of pride (Hum 43).
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^ plotted wickedness upon his bed" (Ps 35:5). He endeavors like a wicked servant to snatch and steal away the good Lord's glory for himself, the glory due for the good qualities which he knows quite certainly do not originate with himself, because God has given him that knowledge.
It is perfectly obvious then that without knowledge dignity is utterly useless, and that knowledge without virtue is to be condemned.
Truly the man of virtue, in whom knowledge is not to be condemned and dignity is not fruitless, cries to God and freely confesses, "Not to us, Lord, but to your name be the glory" (Ps 113:9). That is, "We credit ourselves with no knowledge or dignity; we ascribe it all to your name, for it all comes from you."
II.6. We have wandered too far from our subject in striving to show that those who do not know Christ are without excuse: for they are taught enough by natural law (cf. Rom 1:19ff.; 2:14-5) and the good perceptions of their bodily senses to oblige them to love God for his own sake. To sum up what has been said: Is there anyone, even an unbeliever, who does not know that he has received the necessities of bodily life in this world which we mentioned earlier—by means of which he survives, sees and breathes—from no other but him who gives food to all flesh (Ps 135:25), who causes his sun to rise on the good and the wicked alike, and the rain to fall on the just and the unjust (Mt 5:45)?
Again, what man however wicked would think that that human dignity which shines in his soul came from any Author but he who says in Genesis, "Let us make man in our own image and likeness" (Gn 1:26)? Who can think that the Giver of knowledge is anyone but he who teaches man knowledge (Ps 93:10)? And who either thinks he has received the gift of virtue from any but the hand of that same Lord of virtues, or hopes to have it from any other source?
And so God deserves to be loved for himself, even by the unbeliever (Rom 3:2), for even if he does not know Christ, he knows himself.'? No one, not even an unbeliever, can be excused, if he does not love God with all his heart, all his mind, and all his strength (Mk 12:30).
An inborn sense of justice in him, which reason recognizes, cries out that he ought to love him with all his powers, for he knows that he owes him everything."
Yet it is difficult for anyone, once he has received from God the 12. On scito teipsum, see the introduction to Peter Abelard's Ethics, ed D. Luscombe (Oxford, 1971).
13. The play on debeat/debere is lost in English.
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power to will freely, to give up his will wholly to God and not rather to will things for himself. Perhaps it is impossible. he is tempted to treat what he has been given as his own, and clutch it to himself; as it is written, "Everyone. seeks his own" (Phil 2:21), and again, "The thoughts and feelings of men are inclined to evil" (Gn 8:21).
III.7. On the contrary, the faithful know how utterly they stand in need of Jesus and him crucified (1 Cor 2:2). They wonder at and reach out to that supreme love of his which passes all knowledge (Eph
3:19).'* They are ashamed not to respond to such love and deserving with the little they have to give.
The more surely you know yourself loved, the easier you will find it to love in return. Those to whom less has been given love less (Lk
7:47). The Jew and the pagan are not moved by such wounds of love as the Church experiences. She says, "lam wounded by love" (Sg 2:5), and again, "Surround me with flowers, pile up apples around me, for I am sick with love" (Sg 3:11). The Church sees King Solomon in the crown which his mother had placed on his head (Sg 3:11). She sees the Father's only Son carrying his Cross (Jn 19:17). She sees the Lord of majesty (1 Cor 2:8)'? struck and spat upon. She sees the Author of life and glory (Acts 3:15) transfixed by nails, wounded by a lance (Jn
19:34), smeared with abuse (Lam 3:30), and finally laying down his precious life for his friends (Jer 12:7; Jn 15:13). She sees these things, and the sword of love pierces her soul more deeply (cf. Lk 2:35), and she says, "Surround me with flowers, pile up apples around me, for I am sick with love" (Sg 2:5).
WHERE Do THE POMEGRANATES COME FROM?
These are beyond a doubt the pomegranate fruits which the Bride brought into her Beloved's garden (Sg 6:10). They were picked from the Tree of Life (Gn 2:22), and their taste had been transmuted to that of the heavenly bread, and their color to that of Christ's blood. At last she sees the death of death and death's author defeated (Heb 2:14). She sees captivity led captive (Eph 4:8) from hell to earth and from earth to heaven, so that at the name of Jesus every knee may bow, in heaven,
14. Cf. Csi 5.28; LTR 3.491.
15. Cf. Div 50; LTR 6. 270-71.
16. Bernard uses the Old Latin translation of the Bible here.
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on earth, and in hell (Phil 2:10). Under the ancient curse (Heb 6:8) the earth had produced thorns and thistles; now she sees it burst into bloom again under the renewed grace of a new blessing. And as she beholds all this, she remembers the verse "My flesh has bloomed again, and willingly shall I praise him" (Ps 27:7).
She desires to add to the pomegranate fruits which she gathered from the tree of the Cross some of the flowers of the resurrection whose fragrance more than anything else invites the Bridegroom to visit her more often.
III.8. Next she says, "You are fair, my Beloved, and beautiful.
Our bed is strewn with flowers" (Sg 1:15). By the mention of the bed she makes it plain enough what she desires; and when she says that it is strewn with flowers she indicates clearly why she hopes to be granted her desire: not for her own merits,'? but for the sake of flowers from the field the Lord has blessed (Gn 27:27). Christ delighted in flowers.
He wanted to be conceived and to grow up in Nazareth (Lk 1:26ff.).'?
The heavenly Bridegroom takes such pleasure in these fragrances that he comes often and willingly to the chamber of the heart in which he finds such fruits piled up and such flowers strewn. Where, that is, he sees constant reflection on the grace of the Passion and the glory of the resurrection. There he is present constantly and willingly.
The tokens of the Passion are like last year's fruits, the fruits that is of all the time past which was spent under the dominion of sin and death (cf. Rom 5:21). In the fullness of time they appear (Gal 4:4). But see, the signs of the resurrection are like the flowers of a new age, blooming in a new summer of grace; and their fruit will be the general resurrection which is to come at the last, and which will last for ever.??
"Now," it says, "winter is over. The rain is past and gone. Flowers appear in our land" (Sg 2:11—12). This means that summer has come, with him who changed the coldness of death into the warm spring of a new life. "Behold," he says, "I will make all things new" (Rv 21:5). His flesh was sown in death; it flowered again in the resurrection (1 Cor 15:42).
His fragrance makes the dry grass grow green again in the fields of our "valley." What was cold becomes warm again. What was dead comes to life again.
17. Versiculus: Bernard is not referring to a "verse" in quite the modern sense. The Bible was divided into verses it seems by Stephen Langton at the end of the twelfth century.
18. Bernard discusses merits in SC 68.6; LTR 2.200.
19. Nazareth was traditionally derived etymologically from "flower." Cf. Tpl 13; LTR
91225» 20. On the fruits of the Passion and resurrection, see Ann 1.4; LTR 5.15.
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III.9. In the freshness of these flowers and fruits and the beauty of the field which gives off so sweet a scent, the Father himself takes delight in the Son who is making all things new, so that he says, "Behold the odor of my Son is like that of a rich field which the Lord has blessed" (Gn 27:27): a rich field indeed, of whose fullness we have all received (Jn 1:16).
The Bride enjoys a greater freedom, for she may gather fruit and pick the flowers when she wishes (Sg 7:13). With these she strews her conscience within, so that when the Bridegroom comes the couch of her heart may give off a sweet fragrance.
It befits us, too, to fortify our own hearts with the testimony of faith, if we want Christ to be a frequent guest (Eph 3:17): faith both in the mercy of him who died for us, and in the power of him who rose again, as David said, "I have heard these two things: Power is of God and mercy is yours, Lord" (Ps 61:12-13). And so "the testimonies" of both these things "are utterly believable" (Ps 92:5). Christ died for our sins and rose again to make us righteous (Rom 4:25). For our protection he ascended (Mk 16:19) and sent the Holy Spirit to be our Comforter
(Jn 16:7; Acts 9:31). He will one day return to bring us fulfilment (cf.
Acts 1:11). He showed his mercy in dying, his power in the resurrection, and both in the remainder of his actions.
III.10. With these fruits and flowers the Bride begs to be surrounded and nourished now. I believe that she does so sensing that the warmth of her love can easily cool if it is not encouraged and supported until she is led into the chamber (Sg 2:5; 3:4), where she will be held in the long-desired embrace (Prv 7:18), so that she can say, "His left hand is under my head and his right hand has embraced me" (Sg 2:6).
Then she will know and experience indeed all the testimonies of love which she has received at his first coming,?' as though from the left hand of the Beloved, and far less sweet and of less worth than the embrace of his right hand (Ps 30:20). She will experience what she has heard, The flesh is of no value; it is the spirit which gives life" (Jn 6:64).
She will prove in reality what she has heard, "My spirit is sweeter than honey, and my inheritance than honey and the honeycomb" (Sir 24:27), and what follows: "The memory of me will endure forever" (Sir 24:28).
This means that as long as this world lasts, in which one generation is succeeded by another (Eccl 1:4), God's chosen ones will not be without 21. Cf. Adv. 4.9; LTR 4.182.
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., the consolation of memory until they can enjoy the feast of God's presence. Thus it is written, "They will broadcast the memory of your sweetness" (Ps 144:7), referring undoubtedly to those of whom it is said just before this passage, "Generation after generation will praise your works" (Ps 144:4). And so memory is for the generations of this world; presence belongs to the kingdom of heaven. Those who are chosen already enjoy the glory of his presence there; the generation which is still on its pilgrimage is comforted in the meantime by memory.
IV.11. It is important to note which generation takes comfort in remembering God. It is not the wicked and stubborn generation (Ps
77:8), to whom it is said, ^Woe to you who are rich; you have your consolation" (Lk 6:24), but rather the generation which can say, "My soul refused to be comforted" (Ps 76:3). This is truly our attitude if we add what follows, "I remembered the Lord and rejoiced" (Ps 76:4). It is indeed right that those who take no delight in present things should be sustained by the recollection of what is to come, and those who refuse to be consoled by plentiful but mutable things should find joy in thinking of eternity. This is the generation of those who seek the Lord
(Ps 23:6), who do not look for their own advantage (1 Cor 13:15), but seek the face of the God of Jacob.
In the meantime memory is sweet for those who long for God's presence. It does not satisfy their longing but intensifies it (cf. Mt 5:6).
He himself bears witness to the manner of his feeding, "He who eats me will hunger for more" (Sir 24:29). And he who is fed by God says,
"I shall be satisfied at the sight of your glory" (Ps 16:15).
Blessed are those who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness now (Mt 5:6), for they alone will be satisfied one day. Woe to you, wicked and perverse generation! Woe to you, stupid and foolish people
(Jer 4:22; 5:21), who do not trouble to think of the past, and who fear the future! Not even now do you want to be freed from the snare of the hunters (Ps 90:3, 123:7), for those who wish to become rich in this world fall into the devil's net (1 Tm 6:9). Even then you cannot avoid the harsh words (cf. Jn 6:61). Oh, the harsh and cruel sentence, "Go, you who are cursed, into everlasting fire!" (Mt 25:41). These words are harsher and more dreadful than that which is repeated every day for us in Church in the memorial of his Passion, "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life" (Jn 6:55). That is, "He who remembers my death and mortifies his members on earth after my example
(Col 3:5) has eternal life" (Jn 3:36). That means, "If we suffer together, you shall reign with me" (Rom 8:17; 2 Tim 2:12).
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And yet many today shrink back at these words and desert him (Jn 6:67; 18:6), and answer not in words but by their actions, "This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it?" (Jn 6:61). The generation which did not discipline its heart and whose spirit is not in good credit with God
(Ps 77:8), but which hopes instead 'in unreliable riches (1 Tm 6:17), feels oppressed by the story of the Cross (1 Cor 1:18), and thinks it burdensome to remember the Passion. How will it ever bear the weight of his words when it actually hears them, "Go, you who are cursed, into everlasting fire, which is prepared for the Devil and his angels" (Mt
25:41)? This stone will crush him on whom it falls (Mt 21:44).
But truly the generation of the righteous (Ps 11 1:2) will be blessed, those who, whether away from him or in his presence (2 Cor 5:9), strive with the Apostle to please God. They will hear, "Come, you blessed of my Father," and so forth (Mt 25:34).
Then the generation which did not discipline its heart (Ps 77:8) will learn too late how easy and sweet in comparison with that sorrow was
Christ's burden (Mt 11:30), from which they withdrew their stiff necks (Dt 9:13, 31:27) as if it were a rough hard load.
O wretched slaves of mammon (Mt 6:24), you cannot simultaneously glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal 6:14) and hope for a treasury of money or chase after gold (1 Tm 6:17), and taste how sweet the Lord is (Ps 33:9). So then, you will doubtless find him whom you did not find sweet to remember severe indeed when you stand before him in person.
IV.12. By contrast the faithful soul sighs deeply for his presence and rests peacefully in the thought of him, and until it is fit to have the glory of God revealed to it face to face (2 Cor 3:18), it glories in the ignominy of the Cross (Gal 6:14). So then does the Bride and Dove of Christ wait. In the meantime she rests upon her inheritance; for there fall to her lot (Ps 67:14) now in the present, in the recollection of the abundance of your sweetness (Ps 144:7) Lord Jesus, silvery wings (Ps
67:14), candid with innocence and purity. She places her hope in the joy she will feel at the sight of your face (Ps 15:11). Then even her back will gleam gold (Ps 67:4), when she is led with delight into the splendor of the saints (Ps 109:3). There the rays of wisdom will illuminate her more brightly still.
Rightly indeed does she glory now and say, "His left hand is beneath my head and his right hand embraces me" (Sg 2:6). His left hand stands for the recollection of his love, than which nothing is greater, for he laid down his life for his friends (Jn 15:13). His right hand signifies
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the blessed vision which he promised to his friends, and the joys of the presence of his majesty. Rightly, too, that vision of God which makes us resemble him, that inestimable delight in the divine presence is thought of as the "right hand," of which the Psalmist sings in delight,
"In your right hand are everlasting joys" (Ps 15:11). In the "left hand" we rightly "place" that wonderful love which is recollected and is always to be remembered, for the Bride leans upon it and rests until evil is past (Ps 56:2).
IV.13. Rightly then is the left hand of the Bridegroom under the Bride's head, upon which he supports her leaning head. This leaning is the intention of her mind, and he supports it so that it may not bend or incline toward fleshly and worldly desires (Gal 5:16; Ti 2:12). For the body, which is corruptible, weighs down the soul, and the earthly dwelling of the soul hems it in and keeps it preoccupied with many thoughts (Wis 9:15).?
What is the result of contemplating such great mercy and mercy so undeserved, such generous and proven love, such unlooked-for condescension, such persistent gentleness, such astonishing sweetness? To what, I ask, will all these wonderfully draw and deeply attract the thoughtful mind when it considers them carefully and is wholly set at liberty from unworthy love? It will despise everything else, everything which will get in the way of that desire. The Bride surely runs eagerly in the odor of these perfumes, and loves ardently (Sg 1:3). Yet even when she has fallen wholly in love she thinks she loves too little because she is loved so much. And she is right. What can repay so great a love and such a lover? It is as if a little speck of dust (Is 40:15) were to marshal itself to return a love which is ever before it in Majesty and which can be seen to bend all its power on the work of salvation. The words *God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son" (Jn 3:16) were certainly spoken of the Father, and, *He gave himself up to death" (Is
53:12) was undoubtedly said of the Son (Jn 14:26). And it is said of the Holy Spirit, "The Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom my Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and will cause you to remember all that I have said to you" (Jn 14:26). God, then, loves, and loves with all his being, for the whole Trinity loves—if the word
"whole" can be used of the infinite, the incomprehensible, absolute Being.
22. Wis 9:15; cf. Gra 37.41; LTR 3.192-93; Conv 30; LTR 4.106.
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V.14. I believe that he who understands this will recognize clearly enough why God is to be loved, that is, why he deserves to be loved.
Because the Son is not his, the unbeliever has neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit (1 Jn 5:12). For "He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him" (Jn 5:53). Nor does he honor the Holy Spirit whom the Son sent (Jn 15:26, 16:7). And so it is not surprising that a man should love the less someone whom he knows less well (cf. Lk 7:47). Nevertheless, the unbeliever is aware that he owes him everything, because he knows that he is the Author of everything.
But then what of me? What do I owe, who hold my God to be not only the generous Giver of my life, its beneficent Governor, its holy
Comforter, its careful Director, and above all these its most liberal Redeemer, everlasting Protector, Defender, Glorifier? It is written, "With him is plentiful redemption" (Ps 129:7), and again, "He entered the sanctuary once and for all, when he had won eternal salvation" (Heb
9:12). And, on conversion, "He will not forsake his own; they shall be kept safe forever" (Ps 36:28). And the Gospel says about the riches he brings, "They will pour into your lap good measure and full and pressed down and running over" (Lk 6:38). And again, "eye has not seen or ear heard, nor has it entered the mind of man, what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Cor 2:9). And about glorification,
"We wait for the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will renew the body of our lowliness and make it like his glorified body" (Phil 3:2021). And that, "The sufferings of this time are not to be compared with the glory which is to come, which will be revealed in us" (Rom 8:18), and again, "That which is but a brief and light trouble in this present life will work in us beyond its weight, for eternal life, as we contemplate not the things which are seen but the things which are unseen" (2 Cor
4:17-18).
IV.5. What shall I give to God in return for all these things (Ps 115:12)? Reason and natural justice press the unbeliever to give himself up wholly to him from whom he has everything, and to love him with all his heart. Faith urges me to love more than that him whom I know to have given me not only myself but his own self. When the age of faith had not yet come God had not made himself known in the flesh, died on the Cross, risen from the tomb, returned to the Father, or proved his great love for us (Rom 5:8), about which I have said so much; when he had not yet commanded man to love the Lord his God with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his strength (Dt 6:5; Mt
12:30), that is, with all he is, all he knows, all he can do.
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| God is not unjust when he claims his works and his gifts for himself (Heb 6:10). Why should the work of an artist not love its master, if it has the ability to do so? Why should it not love him with all its might, since it can do nothing except by his gift?
In addition, the fact that man was created gratuitously, out of nothing—and in such dignity—makes the duty of love still clearer and demonstrates further the justice of God's demand. Besides, think of the greatness of the additional kindness when he saved man and beast (Ps
35:7-8). How did God multiply his mercy then? We, I emphasize, exchanged our glory for the likeness of a calf which eats grass (Ps 105:20), and have become like brute beasts through our sins (Ps 48:13, 21). If I owe all that I am in return for my creation, what am I to add in return for being remade, and remade in this way? For I was not remade as easily as I was made. It is written not only of me, but of everything that was made (Jn 1:3), "He spoke and they were made" (Ps 148:5). But he who made me by speaking once said a great deal more to remake me, and did miracles, and endured hardship, and not only hardship but humiliation. "What then shall I give the Lord for all that he has given me?
(Ps 115:2)? In the first act he gave me myself; in the second he gave himself; and when he did that he gave me back myself. Given and given again, I owe myself in return for myself, twice over. What am I to give
God in return for himself? For even if I could give myself a thousand times over, what am I to God (cf. Jb 9:3, 9:14)?
How Gop SHouLD BE Lovep VI.16. First see in what measure God deserves to be loved by us, and how he deserves to be loved without measure. For (to repeat briefly what I have said) "he first loved us" (1 Jn 4:10). He loved—with such love, and so much and so generously—us who are so insignificant and who are what we are. I remember that I said at the beginning that the way to love God was to love without measure. Now since the love which is directed to God is directed to something immense, something infinite (for God is both immense and infinite)—who, I ask, ought to draw a line to our love or measure it out? And what about the fact that our love itself is not freely given but given in payment for a debt? So immensity loves; eternity loves; the love which passes knowledge gives itself (Eph 3:19); God loves, whose greatness knows no bounds (Ps
114:3), whose wisdom cannot be counted (Ps 146:5), whose peace
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passes all understanding (Phil 4:7), and do we measure out our response?
^I will love you, Lord, my strength, my fortress, my refuge, my deliverer" (Ps 17:2-3), you who are everything I can desire and love.
My God, my Helper, I shall lové you in proportion to your gift and my capacity, less indeed than is just, but to do that is beyond me. Even though I cannot love you as much as I ought, still I cannot love you more than I am able. I shall be able to love you more only when you deign to give me more; and even then you can never find my love worthy. "Your eyes have seen my imperfection," and "all shall be written down in your book" (Ps 138:16), all who do what they can, even if they cannot do all that they should. It is clear, I think, how much God ought to be loved, and for what merit in him. For his own merit, I say, but to whom is it really clear how great that is? Who can say? Who can feel it?
VII.17. Now let us see how he is to be loved for our benefit. How far does our perception of him fall short of what he is? We must not keep silent about what we can see clearly, even if all is not clear to us.
Above, when we proposed to seek why and how God is to be loved, I said that there were two meanings of the question with which we began. We asked why he should be loved, meaning by what merit of his or for what benefit of ours. Both questions can, it seems, be asked.
After speaking of God's merit, not as he deserves, but as well as I am able, it remains for me to say something about the reward, as far as it will be given to me to do.
Tuat Gop Is Nor Lovep wrrHour REWARD God is not loved without reward, even though he should be loved without thought of reward. True charity cannot be empty, but it does not seek profit, "For it does not seek its own benefit" (1 Cor 13:5). It is an affection, not a contract. It is not given or received by agreement. It is given freely; it makes us spontaneous. True love is content. It has its reward in what it loves. For if you seem to love something, but really love it for the sake of something else, you actually love what you are pursuing as your real end, not that which is a means to it. Paul did not preach in order to eat; he ate in order to preach. He loved not the food but the Gospel (1 Cor 9:18).
True love does not ask for a reward but it deserves it. A reward is
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offered to him who does not yet love; it is owed to him who loves; it is given to him who perseveres. When we are trying to persuade people about lesser matters, it is not the willing but the unwilling that we woo with promises and rewards. Who would think a man ought to be paid for doing what he wants to do? No one, for example, pays a hungry man to eat, or a thirsty man to drink, or a mother to feed the child of her womb (Is 49:15). Who would think of getting someone to fence his vine or dig round his tree or build himself a house by begging him to do it, or paying him a fee? How much more does the soul that loves
God ask for no reward but God? Certainly, if that is not all it asks, it does not love God.
VI.18. It is always natural for every rational being to desire what it sees to be finer and to direct its energies toward it. It is never satisfied with anything which lacks what it judges it should have. For example, a man who has a beautiful wife looks at a lovelier woman with a discontented eye or mind. He who is dressed in fine clothes wants better.
He who is very rich envies a richer man.
Today you see many men who already have great wealth and possessions still laboring day by day to add one field to another (Is
5:8) and to extend their boundaries (Ex 34:24)—with greed which knows no bounds. And you see those who have houses worthy of a king and vast palaces, nevertheless adding house to house every day
(Is 5:8), and building with a restless love of novelty, knocking down what they build, altering rectangles to rounds.? And what of men in high positions? Do we not see them striving with all their might to reach still higher positions; their ambition is never satisfied. There is no end to it all because the highest and the best is not to be found in any of these things. If a man cannot be at peace until he has the highest and best, is it surprising that he is not content with inferior and worse things? It is folly and extreme madness always to be longing for things which cannot only never satisfy but cannot even blunt the appetite; however much you have of such things you still desire what you have not yet attained; you are always restlessly sighing after what is missing.
When the wandering mind is always rushing about in empty effort among the various and deceptive delights of the world, it grows weary and remains dissatisfied. It is like a starving man who thinks that what23. Horace, Ep. 1.1(100), ed. H. Rushton Fairclough (London, 1970).
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ever he is stuffing himself with is nothing in comparison with what remains to be eaten; he is always anxiously wanting what he has not got rather than enjoying what he has. For who can have everything? That little which a man obtains by all his effort, he possesses in fear. He does not know what he will lose and when.
Thus the perverted will which is aiming for the best and trying to make speed toward that which will fully satisfy it fails in its endeavor.
Vanity makes fun of it, bringing it into these twisted paths; sin deceives itself with lies (Ps 26:12). If you really wish to have what you desire, that is, if you wish to lay hold of that which leaves nothing further to be desired, what need is there to bother with these other things? If you do, you are running along winding roads, and you will be dead long before you reach what you desire by this route.
VI.19. The wicked therefore walk round in this circle (Ps 11:9), naturally wanting what will satisfy their wants, and foolishly thrusting away the means of attaining it—that is, of attaining not consumption but consummation. In this way they wear themselves out with pointless effort and do not reach the end of happy fulfillment. They delight in the beauty of the creature rather than of the Creator (Rom 1:23).
They lust for each and every experience more than they desire to come to the Lord of all. And indeed if they could ever do all they set themselves to do, they would succeed—if anyone could indeed obtain everything without the Source of all things.
For by that law of human desire which causes man to hunger more for the things he does not have than for the things he has, and to spurn what he has for the sake of things he does not possess, soon he has obtained and cast aside everything in heaven and on earth
(Eph 1:10). In the end, I do not doubt that he will rush toward the only thing he now lacks—the God of all. There he will rest, for just as there is no rest this side of heaven, so on the other side, nothing can disturb his rest.
Then he will surely say, "It is good for me to cling to God" (Ps 72:28). He will say, "What is there for me in heaven, and what have I desired on earth?" (Ps 72:25). And again, "God of my heart, God, my lot for ever" (Ps 72:26). So therefore as I said, whoever desires the greatest good can reach it, if he can first gain all the other things he wants which fall short of it.
VI.20. But that is quite impossible. Life is too short. Our strength is insufficient. There are too many temptations. Those who struggle on are exhausted by the length of the roads and the uselessness of their
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, efforts. They wish to obtain all they want, but they are unable to reach the end of their desires. If they would only be content with reaching it all in thought and not insist on experiencing it! That they can easily do, and it would not be pointless, for man's mind is quicker than his senses and it sees further and the senses dare not touch anything which the mind has not already examined and approved. I think this is what is meant by the text "Test everything, and hold on to what is good" (1
"Thes 5:21). The mind looks ahead, and if it does not give permission the senses must not pursue what they want. If they did, you would not go up the mountain of the Lord, nor stand in his holy place (Ps 23:34), and you would have received your rational soul in vain; you would be following your sense like a dumb beast without any resistance from your lazy reason. Those whose reason does not keep ahead of their feet run, but not on the road (cf. Is 59:8). They spurn the Apostle's advice.
They do not run to win (1 Cor 9:24). When will they reach him whom they put off coming to until they have tried everything else? The desire to possess everything first is a winding road and a circle to go round and round forever.
VI.21. The just man is not like that. When he hears about the wicked behavior of those who are going round and round (Ps
30:14)—for there are many traveling the wide road which leads to death (Mt 7:13)—he chooses for himself the royal road and turns neither to right nor to left (Nm 20:17, 21:22). Finally, the prophet bears witness, "The path of the just is straight and straightforward to walk on" (Is 26:7). It is men such as this who take the shortcut to salvation and avoid the troublesome and unrewarding roundabout way, choosing the brief and abbreviating word (Rom 9:28). They do not want to have everything they see. On the contrary, they sell all they have and give it to the poor (Mt 19:21). "Blessed are the poor," indeed,
"for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 5:3). Everyone runs (1 Cor 9:24), but we must distinguish between the runners. For "the Lord knows the way of the just; the way of the wicked will perish" (Ps
1:6). So a little is better to the just than all their wealth is to the wicked (Ps 36:16), for indeed—as Wisdom says and the foolish man discovers—"He who loves money will not be satisfied by money"
(cf. Eccl 5:9). But those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be satisfied (Mt 5:6).
Righteousness is the natural and vital food of the rational soul.
Money cannot diminish the mind's hunger; more than air is needed to satisfy that of the body. If a hungry man opens his mouth to the wind
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and you see him blow out his cheeks with air in the hope of satisfying his hunger, will you not think he is mad? So it is no less a madness if you think the rational soul can be satisfied and not merely "puffed up" by bodily things. What do bodily, things mean to the soul? The body cannot feed on spiritual things or the soul on bodily things. "Bless the Lord, my soul. He satisfies your desire with good things" (Ps 102:1, 5).
He satisfies it with good things, stirs it to goodness, keeps it in goodness, anticipates, sustains, fulfills. He causes you to desire and he himself satisfies your desire.
VI.22. I said before that God is the cause of loving God. I spoke the truth, for he is both the efficient and the final cause. He himself provides the occasion. He himself creates the longing. He himself fulfills the desire. He himself causes himself to be (or rather, to be made) such that he should be loved. He hopes to be so happily loved that no one will love him in vain. His love both prepares and rewards ours (cf. 1 Jn 4:19). Kindly, he leads the way. He repays us justly. He is our sweet hope. He is riches to all who call upon him (Rom 10:12). There is nothing better than himself. He gave himself in merit. He keeps himself to be our reward. He gives himself as food for holy souls (Wis 3:13). He sold himself to redeem the captives (Lam 3:25).
Lord, you are good to the soul which seeks you. What are you then to the soul which finds? But this is the most wonderful thing, that no one can seek you who has not already found you. You therefore seek to be found so that you may be sought for, sought so that you may be found. You can be sought, and found, but not forestalled. For even if we say "In the morning my prayer will forestall you" (Ps 87:14), it is certain that every prayer which is not inspired is half-hearted.
Now let us see where our love begins, for we have seen where it finds its end.
VIII.23 Love is one of the four natural passions.** They are well enough known; there is no need to name them. It is clearly right that what is natural should be at the service of the Lord of nature. That is why the first and great commandmentis, "You shall love the Lord your
God" (Mt 22:37).
24. Cf. SV 85.5; LTR 2.310; OH 14.19; LTR 4.414; Div 50.2; LTR 65.271; Quad 2.3;
LTR 4.321; cf. Juvenal, Satires, 1:85-86, ed. W. V. Clausen (Oxford, 1959).
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THE First DEGREE or Love: WHEN MAN Loves HIMSELF FOR His Own SAKE But because nature has become rather frail and weak, man is driven by necessity to serve nature first. This results in bodily love, by which man loves himself for his own sake. He does not yet know anything but himself, as it is written, "First came what is animal, then what is spiritual" (1 Cor 15:46). This love is not imposed by rule but is innate in nature. For who hates his own flesh (Eph 5:29)? But if that same love begins to get out of proportion and headstrong, as often happens, and it ceases to be satisfied to run in the narrow channel of its needs, but floods out on all sides into the fields of pleasure, then the overflow can be stopped at once by the commandment "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Mt 22:39).
It is wholly right that he who is your fellow in nature (2 Pt 1:4) should not be cut off from you in grace, especially in that grace which is innate in nature. If a man feels it a heavy burden to help his brothers in their need and to share in their pleasures, let him keep his desires in check all by himself if he does not want to fall into sin. He can indulge himself as much as he likes as long as he remembers to show an equal tolerance to his neighbor. O man, the law of life and discipline impose restraint (Sir 45:6) to prevent you chasing after your desires until you perish (Sir 18:30), and to save you from making of nature's good things a way to serve the soul's enemy through lust.
Is it not much more right and honest to share nature's goods with your fellow man, that is, your neighbor, than with an enemy? If you take the advice of Wisdom and turn away from your pleasures (Sir
18:30) and make yourself content with food and clothing as the Apostle teaches (1 'I'm 6:8), soon you will find that your love is not impeded by carnal desires which fight against the soul (1 Pt 2:11). I think you will not find it a burden to share with your fellow man what you withhold from the enemy of your soul. Then will your love be sober and just, when you do not deny your brother what he needs from the pleasures you have denied yourself. It is in this way that bodily love is shared, when it is extended to the community.
VIII.24. But what are you to do if when you share with your neighbor you yourself are left without something you need? What but ask in full faith (Acts 4:29, 28:31) from him who gives generously to everyone and does not grudge (Jas 1:5), who opens his hand and pours blessing on every creature (Ps 144:16). There is no doubt that he will
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come to your aid generously when you are in need, since he is so generous in time of plenty. Scripture says, "First seek the Kingdom of God and his justice and all these things will be added to you" (Mt 6:33; Lk
12:31). He promises without being asked to give what is needed to whoever is not greedy for himself and loves his neighbor. 'This is to seek the kingdom of God and to implore his help against the tyranny of sin, to take on the yoke of chastity and sobriety rather than to let sin rule in your mortal body (Rom 6:12). More: This is righteousness, to share what is common to your nature with him who has the same gift of nature.
VIII.25. But to love one's neighbor with perfect justice it is necessary to be prompted by God. How can you love your neighbor with purity if you do not love him in God? But he who does not love God cannot love in God. You must first love God, so that in him you can love your neighbor too (Mk 12:30—31).
God therefore brings about your love for him, just as he causes other goods. This is how he does it: He who made nature also protects it. For it was so created that it needs its Creator as its Protector, so that what could not have come into existence without him cannot continue in existence without him. So that no rational creature might be in ignorance of this fact and (dreadful thought) claim for himself the gifts of the Creator, that same Creator willed by a high and saving counsel that man should endure tribulation; then when man fails and God comes to his aid and sets him free, man will honor God as he deserves. For this is what he says, "Call upon me in the day of tribulation. I will deliver you, and you shall honor me" (Ps 49:15). And so in that way it comes about that man who is a bodily animal (1 Cor 2:14), and does not know how to love anything but himself, begins to love God for his own benefit, because he learns from frequent experience that in God he can do everything which is good for him (Phil 4:13), and that without him he can do nothing (Jn 15:5).
Tue SECOND DEGREE OF Love, WHEN Man Loves Gop FOR His Own Goop IX.26. Man therefore loves God, but as yet he loves him for his own sake, not God's. Nevertheless the wise man ought to know what he can do by himself and what he can do only with God's help; then you will avoid hurting him who keeps you from harm.
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If a man has a great many tribulations and as a result he frequently turns to God and frequently experiences God's liberation, surely even if he had a breast of iron or a heart of stone (Ez 11:19; 36:26), he must soften toward the generosity of the Redeemer and love God not only for his own benefit, but for himself?
Tue Tuirp DEGREE OF Love: WHEN MAN Loves Gop FOR Gop's SAKE Man's frequent needs make it necessary for him to call upon God often, and to taste by frequent contact, and to discover by tasting how sweet the Lord is (Ps 33:9). It is in this way that the taste of his own sweetness leads us to love God in purity more than our need alone would prompt us to do. The Samaritans set us an example when they said to the woman who told them the Lord was there, "Now we believe, not because of your words, but because we have heard him for ourselves and we know that truly he is the Savior of the world" (Jn 4:42). In the same way, I urge, let us follow their example and rightly say to our flesh,
"Now we love God not because he meets your needs; but we have tasted and we know how sweet the Lord is" (Ps 33:9).
There is a need of the flesh which speaks out, and the body tells by its actions of the kindnesses it has experienced. And so it will not be difficult for the man who has had that experience to keep the commandment to love his neighbor (Mk 12:31). He truly loves God, and therefore he loves what is God's. He loves chastely, and to the chaste it is no burden to keep the commandments; the heart grows purer in the obedience of love, as it is written (1 Pt 1:22). Such a man loves justly and willingly keeps the just law.
This love is acceptable because it is given freely. It is chaste because it is not made up of words or talk, but of truth and action (1 Jn
3:18). It is just because it gives back what it has received. For he who loves in this way loves as he is loved. He loves, seeking in return not what is his own (1 Cor 13:5), but what is Jesus Christ's, just as he has sought not his own but our good, or rather, our very selves (2 Cor
12:14). He who says, "We trust in the Lord for he is good" (Ps 117:1) loves in this way. He who trusts in the Lord not because he is good to him but simply because he is good truly loves God for God's sake and not for his own. He of whom it is said, "He will praise you when you do him favors" (Ps 48:19) does not love in this way.
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That is the third degree of love, in which God is already loved for his own sake.
+ 'THE FourTH DEGREE or LOVE: WHEN MAN Loves
HIMSELF FOR THE SAKE OF Gop
X.27. Happy is he who has been found worthy to attain to the fourth degree, where man loves himself only for God's sake. "O God, your justice is like the mountains of God" (Ps 35:7). That love is a mountain, and a high mountain of God. Truly, "a rich and fertile mountain" (Ps
67:16). "Who will climb the mountain of the Lord" (Ps 23:3)? "Who will give me wings like a dove, and I shall fly there and rest" (Ps 54:7)? That place was made a place of peace and it has its dwelling-place in Sion (Ps
75:3). "Alas for me, my exile has been prolonged!" (Ps 119:5). When will flesh and blood (Mt 16:17), this vessel of clay (2 Cor 4:7), this earthly dwelling (Wis 9:15), grasp this? When will it experience this kind of love, so that the mind, drunk with divine love and forgetting itself, making itself like a broken vessel (Ps 30:13), throw itself wholly on God and, clinging to God (1 Cor 6:17), become one with him in spirit and say, "My body and my heart have fainted, O God of my heart;
God, my part in eternity" (Ps 72:26)? I should call him blessed and holy to whom it is given to experience even for a single instant something which is rare indeed in this life. To lose yourself as though you did not exist and to have no sense of yourself, to be emptied out of yourself (Phil
2:7) and almost annihilated, belongs to heavenly not to human love.
And if indeed any mortal is rapt for a moment or is, so to speak, admitted for a moment to this union, at once the world presses itself on him (Gal 1:4), the day's wickedness troubles him, the mortal body weighs him down, bodily needs distract him, he fails because of the weakness of his corruption and—more powerfully than these—brotherly love calls him back. Alas, he is forced to come back to himself, to fall again into his affairs, and to cry out wretchedly, "Lord, I endure violence; fight back for me" (Is 38:14), and, "Unhappy man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death?" (Rom 7:24).
IX.28. But since Scripture says that God made everything for himself (Prv 16:4; Rv 4:11) there will be a time when he will cause everything to conform to its Maker and be in harmony with him. In the meantime, we must make this our desire: that as God himself willed that everything should be for himself, so we, too, will that nothing, not
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even ourselves, may be or have been except for him, that is according to his will, not ours. The satisfaction of our needs will not bring us happiness, not chance delights, as does the sight of his will being fulfilled in us and in everything which concerns us. This is what we ask every day in prayer when we say, "Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Mt 6:10). O holy and chaste love! O sweet and tender affection! O pure and sinless intention of the will—the more pure and sinless in that there is no mixture of self-will in it, the more sweet and tender in that everything it feels is divine.
To love in this way is to become like God.^ As a drop of water seems to disappear completely in a quantity of wine, taking the wine's flavor and color; as red-hot iron becomes indistinguishable from the glow of fire and its own original form disappears; as air suffused with the light of the sun seems transformed into the brightness of the light, as if it were itself light rather than merely lit up; so, in those who are holy, it is necessary for human affection to dissolve in some ineffable way, and be poured into the will of God. How will God be all in all (1
Cor 15:26) if anything of man remains in man? The substance remains, but in another form, with another glory, another power.
When will this be? Who will see this? Who will possess it? "When shall I come and when shall I appear in God's presence" (Ps 41:3)? O
Lord my God, "My heart said to you, 'My face has sought you. Lord, I will seek your face' " (Ps 26:8). Shall I see your holy temple (Ps 26:4)?
IX.29. I think that cannot be until I do as I am bid. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength" (Mk 12:30). Then the mind will not have to think of the body.
The soul will no longer have to give the body life and feeling, and its power will be set free of these ties and strengthened by the power of God. For it is impossible to draw together all that is in you and turn toward the face of God as long as the care of the weak and miserable body demands one's attention. So it is in a spiritual and immortal body, a perfect body, beautiful and at peace and subject to the spirit in all things, that the soul hopes to attain the fourth degree of love, or rather, to be caught up to it; for it lies in God's power to give to whom he will.
It is not to be obtained by human effort. That, I say, is when a man will easily reach the fourth degree: when no entanglements of the flesh
25. On deificatio, see Augustine, Letter 10:2, ed. A. L. Goldbacher, CSEL 34 (Vienna), pp. 4-5.
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hold him back and no troubles will disturb him, as he hurries with great speed and eagerness to the joy of the Lord (Mt 25:21; 25).
But do we not think that the holy martyrs received this grace while they were still in their victorious'bodies—at least in part? They were so moved within by the great force of their love that they were able to expose their bodies to outward torments and think nothing of them.
The sensation of outward pain could do no more than whisper across the surface of their tranquillity; it could not disturb it.
XI.30. But what of those who are already free of the body? We believe that they are wholly immersed in that sea of eternal light and bright eternity.
Wuart Is IMPOSSIBLE FOR SOULS BEFORE THE RESURRECTION
It is not in dispute that they want their bodies back; if they thus desire and hope for them, it is clear that they have not wholly turned from themselves, for it is evident that they are still clinging to something which is their own, even if their desires return to it only a very little.
Until death is swallowed up in victory (1 Cor 15:54), and the everlasting light invades the farthest bounds of night and shines everywhere—so that heavenly glory gleams even in bodies—these souls cannot wholly remove themselves and transport themselves to God. They are still too much bound to their bodies, if not in life and feeling, certainly in natural affection. They do not wish to be complete without them, and indeed they cannot.
And so before the restoration of their bodies souls will not lose themselves, as they will when they are perfect and reach their highest state. If they did so the soul would be complete without its body, and would cease to want it.
The body is not laid down nor resumed except for the good of the soul. *Precious in God's sight is the death of his saints" (Ps 115:15).
If death is precious, what must life be, and life such as that? It need not be surprising that the glorified body should seem to confer something on the soul, for it was of use to it when it was weak and mortal.
Oh, how truly did he speak who said that all things work together for good to those who love God (Rom 8:28)! Its weak body helps the soul to love God; it helps it when it is dead; it helps it when it is resurrected, first in producing fruits of patience, secondly in bringing peace, thirdly
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" in bringing completeness. Truly the soul does not want to be perfected without that which it feels has served it well in every condition.
XI.31. It is clear that the flesh is a good and faithful companion to the good spirit. It helps it if it is burdened, or if it does-not help, it relieves it; at any rate, it is an aid and not a burden. The first state is full of labor, but fruitful (Mt 3:8); the second is a time of waiting, but without weariness; the third is glorious. Listen to the Bridegroom in the Song holding out this threefold invitation: "Eat," he says, "and drink, friends; be intoxicated, dearest" (Sg 5:1).?5 He calls those who are laboring in the body to eat. Those who have set aside their bodies he calls to drink. Those who have resumed their bodies, he encourages to drink their fill. These he calls "dearest," for they are filled to overflowing with love. For there is this difference between these and those others he calls "friends," not "dearest," so that those who groan because they are still laboring in the flesh are held dear for the love they have; those who are free from the weight of the flesh (2 Cor 5:4) are more dear because they are made more ready and quicker to love. More than both are they called "dearest" (and so they are) (1 Jn 3:1) who, having received the second garment, are in their resurrected bodies in glory.
They burn the more eagerly and fiercely with love for God because nothing is now left to them which can trouble them or hold them back in any way. Neither of the first two states can claim that. For in the first the body is born along with labor, and in the second, too, it is awaited with no small desire.
X1.32. First, then, the faithful soul eats its bread, but alas, in the sweat of its brow (Gn 3:19). While in the flesh the soul moves by faith
(2 Cor 5:7), which must act through love (Gal 5:6), for if it does not, it is dead (Jas 2:20).
This work is food, as the Lord says, *My food is to do the will of my Father" (Jn 4:34). When it is free of the flesh, the soul no longer feeds on the bread of sorrow (Ps 126:2), but having eaten it is allowed to drink deeply of the wine of love, but not the pure wine, for as it says in the Song of Songs in the person of the Bride, "I drank my wine mixed with milk" (Sg 5:1). The soul mixes the sweetness of natural affection with the wine of divine love when it desires to resume its glorified body.
The soul therefore burns when it has drunk the wine of holy charity, 26. Cf. Gra 9; LTR 3.172; Div 41.12, 87.4; LTR 6'.253, 331.
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but not to the point of intoxication, for the admixture of this milk tempers it for the moment. Intoxication overthrows minds and makes them forget everything. The soul which is still concerned with the restoration of its body is not forgetting itself completely. But after it finds the only thing it needs, what is to prevent it from taking leave of itself altogether and going to God, and becoming as much unlike itself as it is given to it to be like God? Then only is the soul allowed to drink from the goblet of wisdom, of which we read, "How splendid is my cup which intoxicates me" (Ps 22:5). Is it surprising if the soul is then intoxicated by the riches of God's dwelling (Ps 35:9)? No longer tormented by wordly cares, it safely drinks the pure new wine with Christ in his Father's house (Mt 26:29; Mk 14:25).
XI.33. Wisdom presides over this threefold banquet (Prv 9:1ff.) of love, feeding those who labor, giving drink to those at rest, and intoxicating those who rule. As at a banquet in this world, food is served before drink, as the order of nature requires, and Wisdom keeps to it.
First, up to the time of our death, we eat the work of our hands (Ps 127:2), when we chew effortfully what has to be swallowed. After death, in the spiritual life, we drink with ease whatever we are offered.
Then, when our bodies are resurrected, we are intoxicated by immortal life, abounding in wonderful plenty. This is what the Bridegroom means in the Song, "Eat and drink, friends; be intoxicated, dearest" (Sg
Sed):
Dearest indeed, who are intoxicated with love. Intoxicated indeed, who deserve to be present at the wedding feast of the Lord (Rv 19:9), eating and drinking at his table in his kingdom (Lk 22:30), when he takes his Church to him in glory, without blemish or wrinkle or any defect (Eph 5:27): Then will he intoxicate his dearest ones with the torrent of his delight (Ps 35:9), for in the most passionate and most chaste embrace of Bridegroom and Bride, the rush of the river makes glad the city of God (Ps 45:5). I think this is no other than that which the Son of God, who waits on us as he goes (Lk 12:37), promised: "The just are feasting and rejoicing in the sight of God, and they delight in their gladness" (Ps 67:4). Here is fullness without disgust, insatiable curiosity which is not restless, an eternal and endless desire which knows no lack, and lastly, that sober intoxication (Acts 2:1 5) which does not come from drinking too much, which is no reeking of wine, but a burning for God.
From this point that fourth degree of love can be possessed forever, when God is loved alone and above all, for now we do not love ourselves
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. except for his sake; he is himself the reward of those who love him, the eternal reward of those who love him for eternity."'
PROLOGUE TO THE LETTER WuiIcH FoLLows7® XII.34. [remember that some time ago I wrote a letter to the holy Carthusian brothers in which, among other matters, I discussed these same four degrees. Perhaps I said other things in it about love, much as I have talked of it here. For that reason I think it may be helpful to include it here, especially since it is easier to transcribe what I have already to hand, ready dictated, than to compose something new.
HERE BEGINS THE LETTER ON LOVE WRITTEN
To THE Hoty BRorHrens or LA CHARTREUSE True and sincere charity, I say, must be said to proceed wholly from a pure heart, a good conscience, unfeigned faith (1 Tm 1:5), by which we love our neighbor's good as our own. For he who loves himself most, or solely, does not love the good purely, because he loves it for his sake, not for its own. And such a man cannot obey the prophet who says,
"Praise the Lord, for he is good" (Ps 117:1). He praises the Lord perhaps, because he is good to him, but not simply because he is good. Let him take note that the same prophet utters a reproach to him, "He will acknowledge you when you do him good" (Ps 48:19).
There are some who praise God for his power, some who praise him for his goodness to them, and some who praise him simply because he is good. The first is a slave, fearful on his own account. The second is mercenary, and desires profit for himself. The third is a son who honors his father. Both he who is fearful and he who is greedy act for themselves. Only he who loves like a son does not seek his own (1 Cor 13:5).
I think this text speaks of this kind of love. "The law of the Lord is spotless. It converts souls" (Ps 18:8), for it alone can turn the mind from love of itself and the world and direct it to God. Neither fear nor love of self can convert the soul. They change the appearance of one's deeds
27. SC 83.4; LTR 2.300.
28. Ep. 11.3-9.
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from time to time, but never one's character. A slave can sometimes do God's work, but because he does not do it of his own free will he remains in his former state of hard-heartedness. The hireling can do it, too, but because he does not do it for nothing he can be convicted of being led by his own desire. Where there is self-interest there is the desire to be allowed special terms."" Where that is present there is a corner, and in corners you will find rust and dirt (Ez 24:12-1 3)0f «bet the slave, then, have his law (Rom 2:14), the very fear by which he is constrained. Let the mercenary have his greed, by which he is held back when he is enticed and tugged at by temptation (Jas 1:14). But neither of these is without spot, and they cannot convert souls. Love truly converts souls because it makes them willing.
XII.35. I have called love *unspotted" because it keeps nothing for itself. For if a man holds nothing as his own, all he has belongs to God.
What belongs to God cannot be unclean. Therefore love is the immaculate law of God, and it seeks not its own profit but what benefits many
(1 Cor 10:33; 13:5). It is called the law of the Lord because he himself lives by it, and also because no one can possess it except by his gift. It does not seem absurd for me to say that even God lives by the law, for I have said that the law is nothing else but love. For what preserves the supreme and ineffable unity in the blessed Trinity but love? Love is the law then, and the law of the Lord, which in some manner holds and unites the Trinity in unity in the bond of peace (Eph 4:3). But let no one think that I am taking this love as a quality, or an accident. If I did,
I should be saying—perish the thought—that there is something in God which is not God. But it is that divine substance which is in no way other than itself, as John says, "God is love" (1 Jn 4:8).
It is love indeed, then, and it is God, and it is the gift of God (Eph 2:8). And so love gives love; the substance gives rise to the accident.
Where it signifies the giver, it is the name of a substance. Where it signifies the gift, it is a quality. This is the eternal law, creating and governing the universe. All things were made in weight and measure and number (Wis 11:20), according to this law. Nothing is left outside this law. Even the Law of all is not outside this law, for the law is nothing but itself, by which even if it does not create itself, yet it rules itself.
XIII.36. The slave and the mercenary have a law which is not 29. The fifth step of pride. Hum 42; LTR 3.48-49.
30. LTR 5.208; sermon for the sixth Sunday after Pentecost.
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from God. One does not love God. The other loves something more than God. They have a law which is not of the Lord (Rom 2:14). And indeed each of us can make his own law, but no one can cause it to be independent of the changeless order of the eternal law. I should say that someone had made his own law when he puts his own will before the common and eternal law, wickedly wishing to imitate his Creator, so that just as God is a law unto himself, he too wants to rule himself and make his own will law. Alas! A heavy and unendurable burden lies on all the sons of Adam (Sir 40:1; Acts 15:10), bowing our necks and bending them, bringing our life to hell (Ps 87:4). "Unhappy man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death?" (Rom 7:24), by which I am made to tremble and am almost crushed, so that, "If the Lord did not help me, my soul would soon be in hell" (Ps 93:17).
Weighed down by this burden groaned he who said, "Why have you set me against you? I have become a burden to myself" (Jb 7:20).
Where he said, "So that I have become a burden to myself" he shows that he had been his own law, and that no one but himself had brought that about. But he said, first, addressing himself to God, "Why have you set me against you?" indicating that he had not escaped the law of God.
It is the property of the everlasting and just law of God that he who is not willing to be ruled gently is ruled painfully by himself, and he who is not willing of his own free will to take up the gentle yoke and light burden of love (Mt 11:30) will bear against his will the insupportable burden of his own will (Mt 23:4). And so in a wonderful and just way, the everlasting law has captured him who runs from it and set him in Opposition to it, and at the same time it has kept him in subjection to it. Yet he does not remain with God in his light and rest and glory, because he is subject to force and exiled from happiness.
O Lord my God, "why do you not take away my sin, and why do you not remove my wickedness?" (Jb 7:21) so that, freed from the heavy burden of my own will, I may breathe freely under the light load of love, and not be coerced by slavish fear or attracted by mercenary greed, but be moved by your spirit (Rom 7:21), the spirit of freedom (2 Cor 3:17) by which your children live, and which bears witness to my spirit that I, too, am one of your sons (Rom 8:14; 16), that there is the same law for us both, and I may be myself what you are in this world (1 Jn 4:17). Those who do what the Apostle says, "Owe no one anything but the debt of love"
(Rom 13:8)—they are undoubtedly as God is and in this world they are neither slaves not hirelings, but sons.
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XIV.37. And so the sons are not outside the law, unless perhaps someone wants to put a different interpretation on the text "The law is not made for the righteous" (1 Tm 1:9). But you must know that law given in a spirit of slavery by fear is different from the law of freedom given in gentleness. Children are not under fear, but they cannot survive without love.
Do you wish to hear why there is no law for those who are good?
Scripture says, "You have not received the spirit of slavery again in fear" (Rom 8:15). Hear then the just man saying of himself that he is not under the law and yet not free of the law. "I have become," he says,
"as if I were under the law with those who are bound by the law, although I am not outside the law of God but bound by that of Christ"
(1 Cor 9:20-21). So it is not right to say, "The just have no law," or, "The just are outside the law," but "The law is not made for the just," that is, it is not imposed on them against their will, but freely given to them when they are willing, and inspired by goodness (1 Tm 1:9). So the Lord says beautifully, "Take my yoke upon you" (Mt 11:29), as if he said, "I do not impose it on the unwilling; but you take it if you want to; otherwise you will find not rest but labor for your souls."
XIV.38. The law of love is good and sweet. It is not only borne lightly and easily, but it also makes bearable the laws which make men into slaves and hirelings. It does not destroy them; it fulfills them. As the Lord says, "I have not come to take away the law, but to fulfill it"
(Mt 5:17). It tempers the slave's law and makes the hireling's law orderly. It lightens both. For there will never be any love without fear but chaste love. There will never be love without greed unless it is kept within bounds. Therefore love fulfills the slave's law when it overflows in devotion. It fulfill's the hireling's law when it sets limits to greed.
Devotion mixed with fear does not remove the fear but purifies it.
Punishment is lifted, for while law was servitude it could not function without it. Fear remains forever, but a pure and filial fear (Ps 18:10).
For we read that "perfect love casts out fear" (1 Jn 4:18). This is to be understood to refer to the punishment which is never absent from servile fear, as I have said—by that mode of speaking by which the cause is often given for the effect."
Greed is brought to order when love overshadows it and evils are condemned and what is better is preferred to what is merely good, and 31. Usus loquendi is a favorite expression of Augustine and of Anselm of Canterbury.
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~*~ the good is desired only for the sake of what is better. When by the grace of God this is fully achieved, the body is loved, and all the goods of the body for the sake of the soul, and the goods of the soul for the sake of God, and God for his own sake.
XV.39. But truly, since we are carnal and born of carnal desire (Rom 7:14), it is unavoidable that our desire and love should begin with the body and if it is rightly directed, it will then proceed by grace through certain stages, until the spirit is fulfilled (Gal 3:3). For *The spiritual does not come first but the animal, and then the spiritual" (1
Cor 15:46). And first it is necessary for us to bear an earthly likeness, before we have a heavenly likeness (1 Cor 15:49). In the first instance therefore man loves himself for himself. He is a bodily creature, and he cannot see beyond himself. But since he sees that he cannot be the author of his own existence he begins to inquire after God by faith (Heb
11:6) because he needs him, and he begins to love him. And so he comes to love God in the second degree, but still for himself and not for God's sake. But then when he begins to worship him, and to keep coming to him because he needs him, God gradually begins to make himself known to him through his thinking, reading, prayer, and obedience.
By this growing familiarity God causes him truly to feel his sweetness.
In this way, when he has tasted how sweet the Lord is (Ps 33:9), he passes to the third stage, where he loves God, not now for himself, but for God's sake. Truly he remains for a long time in that state, and I do not know whether the fourth stage, where a man comes to love himself only for God's sake, is fully attained by anyone in this life.
If anyone has experienced it, let him say so. To me it seems impossible. But I have no doubt that that is how it will be when the good and faithful servant is led into the joy of his Lord (Mt 25:21) and intoxicated by the riches of the house of God (Ps 35:9). It will be as though in some miraculous way he forgets himself and as though going out of himself altogether comes wholly to God, and afterward holds fast to him, one with him in spirit (1 Cor 6:17). I think this is what the prophet felt when he said, "I shall enter into the power of the Lord. Lord, I shall be mindful of your justice" (Ps 70:16). He knew well that when he entered into the spiritual power of the Lord he would have cast off all the weaknesses of the flesh. He would no longer need to give it a thought.
In the spirit, he would have eyes for nothing but God's justice.
Then surely the individual members of Christ (1 Cor 6:15) can say for themselves what Paul said of their Head, *And if we have known
Christ according to the flesh we have not known him" (1 Cor 5:16). No
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one knows himself according to the flesh, for "flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God" (1 Cor 15:50). That is not because the flesh will not exist as a substance in the future, but because every need of the flesh will vanish and fleshly love will be absorbed in the love of the spirit, and the weak human affections we have now will be changed into divine affections.
Then the net of love, which ceaselessly drags every kind of fish from the great wide sea, will be drawn in to shore; the bad will be cast out and he will keep only the good (Mt 13:47—48). If in this life he enfolds every kind of fish within the folds of his wide-ranging love, and for the time being it wraps itself round them all (1 Cor 9:19), drawing all in, both those who are against him and those who are for him. Making them in some way all his own he does not only rejoice with those who rejoice. He weeps with those who weep (Rom 12:15). But when the net is drawn to shore, all that has been suffered in sadness will be thrown out like rotten fish, and he will keep only what pleases him and is a joy.
But surely even then Paul (to take an example) will either be made weak with the weak or burn for those who are made to suffer when scandal and weakness no longer exist (2 Cor 11:29; cf. 1 Cor 9:22)? Will he grieve for those who do not repent, when there is neither sinner nor penitent (2 Cor 12:21)? Perish the thought that he should weep for those who have been condemned to eternal fire with the devil and his angels
(Mt 25:41) when he is in that city the rush of whose river brings joy (Ps 45:5) and whose gates the Lord loves more than all the tents of Jacob
(Ps 86:2). Even if there is now sometimes rejoicing in victory, yet there is strain in battle and life is in danger. Yet in that land which is home there is no more sorrow or adversity, as the song says, "Just as the dwelling-place of all who rejoice is in you" (Ps 86:7), and again, "Everlasting joy will be theirs" (Ps 61:7). Finally, how can mercy be remembered when the only thought is of God's justice (Ps 70:16)? There will be no place for wretchedness, no time for mercy; there will then surely be no feeling of compassion. * 32. See the concluding passages of Augustine's City of God; CCSL 47 (Turnholt, 1955), 2 vols.
Sermons on I be Song of Songs
Bernard always had a special love for the Song of Songs. Early in his monastic career, when he made himself ill by overwork, he spent some time in a hut in the monastery garden resting and convalescing. William of St. Thierry spent some time with him there, himself convalescent, and they talked of the Song of Songs so as to pass the time in a constructive way.' The themes of the Song of Songs were always in his mind as he wrote and preached, and in 1135 he began a series of sermons that was to continue, with breaks while he was absent from Clairvaux, until his death in 1153.
He found matter there for reflection on current affairs, on his own personal experiences, on human life and the love of God.
It proved both a book about the present and particular and a hymn to eternal things. He points out in Sermon 30 (1ff.) [not in this volume] that there must be points of likeness between selfknowledge and knowledge of God (iam in aliquo similis) or we could not learn from one about the other, as God clearly intends us to do.
This is a consistent emphasis in Bernard's spirituality. He preaches the value of man in God's eyes, but at the same time he sees that value as lying in God himself, through the union with God that the perfect among men will one day enjoy. Self-knowledge is worthwhile, but only because it will be swallowed up in the knowledge and love of God. The kiss of contemplation is a participation in the life and love of the Trinity. Human dignity consists in man's capacity to return to God, to become again the being God made.
The "likeness" is portrayed in the Song of Songs as the bond 1. VP Lvii.32-33; PL 185.246C; VP I.xi.59; PL 185.258-59. See Introduction to this volume.
SERMONS . *
between Bridegroom and Bride. The bond holds not by any act of man, but by the action of divine grace.
It is a likeness that can never be finally lost. Even in exile, in the "region of unlikeness, " the soul retains an inborn resemblance to God (Sermon 27.6).
Among the sermons translated here are the opening series, on the "Kiss" of the soul and her Bridegroom and, some of the later sermons, in which Bernard conveys most vividly the quality of his personal experience of rapture in contemplation.
SERMON I To you, brothers, I shall say what I should not say to those who are in the world, or at least I shall say it in a different way. The preacher who follows the Apostle Paul's method of teaching will give them milk to drink, not solid food (1 Cor 3:1-2; Heb 5:12-4). Before those who are spiritually minded more solid food must be set, as the Apostle himself teaches by his own example. ^We speak," he says, "not in the words of those learned in human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit. We teach spiritual things to those who are spiritual" (1 Cor 2:13). Again,
"We speak wisdom to those who are mature in the faith" (1 Cor 2:6), among whom I am sure I can number you, unless you have studied divine teaching so long, mortified your senses and meditated day and night on the law of God, all in vain (Ps 1:2).
And so be ready to eat not milk but bread. In Solomon there is bread, and bread that is fine and flavorsome. I speak of the book which is called the Song of Songs. Let it be brought forth, then, if you please, and broken.
I2. Now if Iam not mistaken, through the grace of God you have been taught well enough by the words of Ecclesiastes to know and despise the vanity of this world. And what about Proverbs? Surely your life and conduct have been sufficiently amended and directed by the teaching found there?' You have already tasted these two, loaves you
1. The notion that Solomon had written three books of graduated difficulty by which the soul could progress from practical goodness in daily life to the contemplation of the highest spiritual truth and the love of God is a commonplace of medieval exegesis, borrowed from Origen.
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have accepted as being provided by a friend from his store (Lk 11:5).
Come for the third loaf, too, so that perhaps you may recognize what is best (Phil 1:10).
There are only two evils—or two chief evils—which war against the soul: an empty love of the world and too much self-love (1 Pt 2:11).
The two books we have mentioned can cure both diseases. One uproots wickedness and excess of body and of conduct with the hoe of self-control. The other, by the light of reason, shrewdly perceives that all the glory of the world has a deceptive look, and distinguishes it unerringly from solid truth. More than that, it sets the fear of God and the keeping of his commandments above all human pursuits and worldly desires
(Eccl 12:13). And so it should. For the first is the beginning of wisdom (Ps 111:10) and the second its fulfillment. For it is obvious that there is no true and perfect wisdom except in turning from evil and doing good
(Ps 36:27; Prv 3:7). And no one can turn wholly from evil without the fear of God, nor is any work good unless it is done according to the commandments.
I.3. Taking it that these two evils have been put from us as a result of reading these two books, we may fittingly go on to this holy, contemplative discourse which, the fruit of the first two, feeds only seriously inclined ears and minds.
II.1. Before the flesh has been subdued and the spirit set free by the pursuit of truth, before the glories of the world and its entanglements have been seen for what they are, and put from us, it is presumptuous of us to attempt the study of what is holy, for we are impure. Just as a light shines unseen on blind or closed eyes, so the man who is an animal does not see the things which belong to the spirit of God (1 Cor 2:14). For the Holy Spirit teaches only the truth (Wis 1:5), and has nothing to do with the life of a man who lacks self-discipline.
He will have no part in the emptiness of the world, because he is the Spirit of Truth (Jn 14:17). What does the wisdom from above have to do with worldly wisdom (Jas 3:17; 1 Cor 3:19), which is foolishness in God's eyes? Or the wisdom of the flesh, which is hostile to God (Rom
8:7)? But I think that the friend who comes with us will have no cause for complaint against us when he has shared this third loaf.
II.4. But who will break it? Here is the Master of the household.
Know the Lord in the breaking of bread (Lk 24:35). Who else is the right person to do it? I should not dare to do it myself. Look upon me as someone from whom you expect nothing.
For I am one of those who are expecting; I beg with you for food
SERMONS.
. for my soul, the nourishment of the Spirit. Poor and needy indeed, I knock at the door which, "when he opens it, no one can close" (Rv 3:7), asking for help so that I may understand the mystery of this most profound discourse. "The eyes of us all are turned upon you in hope, Lord"
(Ps 144:15). "The little children beg for bread; no one gives it to them"
(Lam 4:4). They trust that they will receive it from your merciful love.
O most Kind, break your bread for those who are hungering for it; by my hands, if you will allow, but by your own power.
III.5. Tellus, I beg, by whom, about whom, and to whom is said, "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth"?? Why this sudden and abrupt beginning in the middle of a speech? For he breaks into words as if he had mentioned a speaker in the text, to whom this speaker is replying as she demands a kiss. Then again, if she asks for or demands a kiss from someone, why does she clearly and specifically say "with his mouth," as if lovers were in the habit of kissing with anything but the mouth, or with mouths which are not their own? Yet she does not say, "Let him kiss me with his mouth," but, more intimately, "with the kiss of his mouth."
What a delightful way of putting it (Ps 103:34)! We begin with a kiss, and the lovely face of Scripture readily attracts the reader and leads him on, so that he delights to search into what lies hidden in it even if it costs him effort, and no difficulty can weary him where the sweetness of the discourse eases the labor. Surely this way of "beginning without a beginning," this freshness of expression in so old a book, must capture the reader's attention? It is clear that this work was not written by human wit, but was composed by the art of the Spirit. As a result, even if it is difficult to understand, it is nevertheless a source of delight to him who looks into it.
IV.6. But what now? Shall we leave out the title? No! Not even one iota may be omitted (Mt 5:18), when we are instructed to collect the fragments in case they are lost (Jn 6:12). This is the title: "The Beginning of the Song of Songs of Solomon."
Observe first the name of the Peacemaker, "Solomon"; that is appropriate at the beginning of a book which opens with the sign of peace, the kiss. And note, too, that only minds at peace are invited by this kind of opening to understand the Scriptures, minds which master the dis2. In classical rhetorical textbooks orators were taught to inquire in trying a case in court, by whom the offense was committed, whom it concerned and to whom it was done, and so on.
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turbances caused by the vices and the tumults of care within themselves.
IV.7. Again, the title says not simply "Song," but "Song of Songs." Do not think that that is unimportant. I have read many songs in Scripture, and I do not remember any with that title.
Israel sang a song to the Lord (Ex 15:1—19) because he had escaped the sword and yoke of Pharaoh, and the twofold miracle of the Red Sea both freed and avenged him. The song he sang is not called "The Song of Songs," but, if I remember correctly, Scripture says, "Israel sang this song to the Lord" (Ex 15:1).
Deborah sang (Jgs 5:1) and Judith sang (Jdt 16:1), and the mother of Samuel sang (1 Sm 2:1), and some of the prophets sang, too (cf. Is
5:1—2, 26:1-10). And none of them is said to have called his song the "Song of Songs." You will find, if I am not mistaken, that each sang in gratitude for himself or on behalf of his own people, for a victory, for example, for escape from danger, or for something longed-for which had been given. And so then many have sung, each for his own reason, so that they should not be found ungrateful for God's goodness to them, as in, "He gives thanks to you, O God, for blessing him" (Ps 48:19).
But King Solomon, singular in wisdom, sublime in glory, rich in possessions, secure in peace, is not known to have been in need of any benefit for whose granting he would have sung this song. Nor does
Scripture itself anywhere say that he did.
8. And so, divinely inspired, he sang the praises of Christ and the Church, of the gift of holy love and the mystery of eternal union with God. And at the same time he expressed the longing of the holy soul, its wedding song; and exulting in the Spirit, he composed a joyful song.
Yet it is in figurative language. It is not surprising that he veiled his face like Moses (Ex 34:33; 2 Cor 3:13). It must have shone no less than Moses' face did when he met God face to face, for in those days there was no one, or almost no one, who could bear the glory of the face of God unveiled (2 Cor 3:18). Therefore I think this wedding song is given its title because it is excellent, and that is why it alone is deservedly called "The Song of Songs," just as he in whose honor it is sung is alone called "King of Kings and Lord of Lords" (1 Tm 6:15).
V.9. If you consider your own experience, surely it is in the victory by which your faith overcomes the world (1 Jn 5:4), and "in your leaving the lake of wretchedness and the filth of the marsh" (Ps 39:3) that you sing to the Lord himself a new song because he has done marvellous works (Ps 97:1)?
SERMONS Again, when he began to "set your feet upon a rock and direct your steps" (Ps 39:34), I think that then, too, there was a new song in your mouth, a song to our God for his gift of newness of life. When you repented, he not only forgave your sins, but also promised rewards; did you not then sing of the Lord's ways, rejoicing the more in the hope of good things to come (Rom 12:12), for great is the glory of the Lord (Ps
137:5)?
And when, perhaps, he illuminates some passage in Scripture which was closed or obscure to you, then you cannot resist delighting his ears with the voice of exultation and praise (Ps 4:5), the sound of one who feasts in gratitude for the food of the bread of heaven he has given you.
And in the daily trials and battles from which those who live a holy life in Christ are never free, for they come from the world, the flesh, and the devil (2 Tm 3:12), you learn by your experience that the life of man on earth is an endless battle (Jb 7:1), and it is necessary to renew your song every day, for every victory that is won: each time temptation is overcome, or vice subdued, or a danger that threatens avoided, or the trap of the tempter detected, or a long-standing passion of the soul cured once and for all, or a virtue which has been longed for very much for a long time and often prayed for obtained at last by the gift of God. How can you not, just as often (in the words of the prophet)
"give thanks and sound the voice of praise" (Is 51:3)? Otherwise when the time of judgment comes, he will be thought ungrateful who cannot say to God, "Your statutes were my song in the place of my exile" (Ps
118:54).
V.10. Ithink you will recognize from your own experience those psalms which are called not "The Song of Songs," but "a song of steps."
Each of you, according to the steps he has taken upward in his heart (Ps 83:6), may choose one of these songs to praise and give glory to him who leads you on. How else is this passage to be taken, "There are shouts of exultation and safety in the tents of the just" (Ps 117:15)? And still more that beautiful and most saving exhortation of the Apostle,
"Singing songs and psalms to the Lord in your hearts with psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles" (Eph 5:19)?
VI.11. But there is a song which, in its singular dignity and sweetness, outshines all those we have recalled, and every other there may be, and rightly have I called it "The Song of Songs," because it is itself the fruit of all the others. This sort of song only the touch of the Holy
Spirit teaches (1 Jn 2:27), and it is learned by experience alone. Let
SERMONS
those who have experienced it enjoy it; let those who have not burn with desire, not so much to know it as to experience it. It is not a noise made aloud, but the very music of the heart. It is not a sound from the lips but a stirring of joy, not a harmony of voices but of wills. It is not heard outwardly, nor does it sound in public (Is 42:2). Only he who sings it hears it, and he to whom it is sung—the Bride and the Bridegroom. It is a wedding song indeed, expressing the embrace of chaste and joyful souls, the concord of their lives and the mutual exchange of their love.
VI.12. For the rest, it is not for the souls of children and novices to sing or to hear, or for those who have recently turned from a worldly life, but those who are making progress and have disciplined themselves to study, and who have, with God's help, reached, as it were, the age for marriage (I mean the "age" of deserving, not of years), and is made fit for the heavenly Bridegroom. This is a union which we shall describe more fully in due course. But the hour is passing and poverty and our
Rule demand that we go out to work.' Today we have been talking about the title. Tomorrow, with God's help, we shall go on to speak about the kiss.
SERMON 2 On the Kiss I.1. When I reflect, as I often do, on the ardor with which the patriarchs longed for the incarnation of Christ, I am pierced with sorrow and shame. And now I can scarcely contain my tears, so ashamed am
I of the lukewarmness and lethargy of the present times. For which of us is filled with joy at the realization of this grace as the holy men of old were moved to desire by the promise of it?
Soon now we shall be rejoicing at the celebration of his birth (Lk 1:14). But would that it were really for his birth! How I pray that that burning desire and longing in the hearts of these holy men of old may be aroused in me by these words: "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth" (Sg 1:1). In those days a spiritual man could sense in the Spirit how great would be the grace released by the touch of those lips (Ps
3. RB 48.
SERMONS:
44:3). For that reason, speaking in the desire prompted by the Spirit (Is 26:8), he said, "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth," desiring with all his heart that he would not be deprived of a share in that sweetness.
I.2. The good men of those days could say, "Of what use to me are the words the prophets have uttered? Rather, let him who is beautiful beyond the children of men (Ps 44:3) kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. I am no longer content with what Moses says, for he sounds to me like someone who cannot speak well" (Ex 4:10). Isaiah is "a man of unclean lips" (Is 6:5). Jeremiah is a child who does not know how to speak (Jn 1:6). All the prophets are empty to me.
But he, he of whom they speak, let bim speak to me. Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. Let him not speak to me in them or through them, for they are "a watery darkness, a dense cloud" (Ps
17:12). But let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth, whose gracious presence and eloquence of wonderful teaching causes a "spring of living water" to well up in me to eternal life (Jn 4:14). Shall I not find that a richer grace is poured out upon me from him whom the Father has anointed with the oil of gladness more than all his companions, if he will deign to kiss me with the kiss of his mouth (Ps 44:8)? His living and effective word (Heb 4:12) is a kiss; not a meeting of lips, which can sometimes be deceptive about the state of the heart, but a full infusion of joys, a revelation of secrets, a wonderful and inseparable mingling of the light from above and the mind on which it is shed, which, when it is joined with God, is one spirit with him (1 Cor 6:17).
It is with good reason, then, that I have nothing to do with dreams and visions, reject figures and mysteries, and even the beauty of angels seems tedious to me. For my Jesus outshines them so far in his beauty and loveliness (Ps 44:5). That is why I ask him, not any other, angel or man, to kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.
II.2. Ido not presume to think that I shall be kissed by his mouth.
That is the unique felicity and singular prerogative of the humanity he assumed. But, more humbly, I ask to be kissed by the kiss of his mouth, which is shared by many, those who can say, "Indeed from his fullness we have all received" (Jn 1:16).
II.3. Listen carefully here. The mouth which kisses signifies the Word who assumes human nature; the flesh which is assumed is the recipient of the kiss; the kiss, which is of both giver and receiver, is the Person which is of both, the Mediator between God and man, the Man
Christ Jesus (1 Tm 2:5).
SERMONS
For this reason, none of the saints presumed to say, "Let him kiss me with his mouth," but, "with the kiss of his mouth," thus acknowledging that prerogative of him on whom uniquely once and for all the Mouth of the Word was pressed, when the whole fullness of the divinity gave itself to him in the body (Col 2:9).
O happy kiss, and wonder of amazing self-humbling which is not a mere meeting of lips, but the union of God with man. The touch of lips signifies the bringing together of souls. But this conjoining of natures unites the human with the divine and makes peace between earth and heaven (Col 1:20). "For he himself is our peace, who made the two one" (Eph 2:14). This was the kiss for which the holy men of old longed, the more so because they foresaw the joy and exultation (Sir 15:6) of finding their treasure in him, and discovering all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in him (Col 2:3), and they longed to receive of his fullness (Jn 1:16).
II.4. I think that what I have said pleases you. But listen to another meaning.
III.4. The holy men who lived before the coming of the Savior understood that God had in mind a plan to bring peace to the race of mortal men (Jer 29:11). For the Word would do nothing on earth which he did not reveal to his servants the prophets (Am 3:7). But this Word was hidden from many (Lk 18:34), for at that time faith was rare upon the earth and hope was very faint even in the hearts of many of those who were waiting for the redemption of Israel (Lk 2:38). Those who foreknew also proclaimed that Christ would come in the flesh and that with him would come peace. That is why one of them says, "There will be peace when he comes to our earth" (cf. Mi 5:5). By divine inspiration they preached faithfully that men were to be saved through the grace of God. John, the forerunner of the Lord, recognized that this was to be fulfilled in his own time, and he declared, "Grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ" (Jn 1:17), and all Christian peoples now experience the truth of what he said.
III.5. In those days, although the prophets foretold peace, the faith of the people continually wavered because there was no one to redeem or save them (Ps 7:3), for the Author of peace delayed his coming (Mt 25:5). So men complained at the delay, because the Prince of Peace (Is 9:6), who had been so often proclaimed, had not yet come, as had been promised by the holy men who were his prophets from of old
(Lk 1:70).
They began to lose faith in the promises and they demanded the
SERMONS: kiss, the sign of the promise of reconciliation. It was as if one of the people were to answer the messengers of peace, "How much longer are you going to keep us waiting?" (Jn 10:24). You foretell a peace which does not come. You promise good things and there is still confusion (Jer
14:19). See, many times and in many ways (Heb 1:1) angels announced to the patriarchs and our fathers proclaimed to us (Ps 43:2), saying,
"Peace. And there is no peace" (Jer 6:14). If God wants me to believe in his benevolent will which he has so often spoken of through the prophets but not yet shown in action, "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth," and so by this sign of peace make peace secure. For how am I to go on believing in mere words? They need to be confirmed by deeds. Let him confirm that his messengers spoke the truth, if they were his messengers, and let him follow them in person, as they have so often promised; for they can do nothing without him. He sent a boy bearing a staff (Jn 15:5)' but no voice or life (2 Kgs 4:26—31).
I do not rise up or awaken; I am not shaken free of the dust (Is 52:2); I do not breathe in hope, if the prophet himself does not come down and kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.
III.6. Here we must add that he who makes himself our Mediator with God is the Son of God and he is himself God. What is man that he should take notice of him, or the son of man, that he should think of him? (Ps 143:3). Where am I to find the faith to dare to trust in such majesty? How, I say, shall I, who am dust and ashes, presume to think that God cares about me (Sir 10:9)? He loves his Father. He does not need me, nor my possessions (Ps 15:2). How then shall I be sure that he will never fail me?
If it is true, as you prophets say, that God has the intention of showing mercy, and thinks to make himself manifest for our reassurance (Ps 76:8), let him make a covenant of peace (Sir 45:30), an everlasting covenant with me (Is 61:8) by the kiss of his mouth.
If he is not going to go back on what he has said (Ps 88:35), let him empty himself, humble himself (Phil 2:7), bend low and "kiss me with the kiss of his mouth." If the Mediator is to be acceptable to both sides, let God the Son of God become man; let him become the son of man, and make me sure of him with the kiss of his mouth. When I know that the Mediator who is the Son of God is mine, then I shall accept him trustingly. Then there can be no mistrust. For he is brother to my flesh
1. John the Baptist.
SERMONS
(Gn 37:27). For I think that bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh cannot spurn me (Gn 2:23).
III.7. So, therefore, the old complaint went on about this most sacred kiss, that is, the mystery of the incarnation of the Word, while faith faints with weariness because of its long and troubled waiting, and the faithless people murmured against the promises of God because they were worn out by waiting. Am I making this up? Do you not recognize that this is what Scripture says, "Here are complaints and the loud murmur of voices, order on order, waiting on waiting, a little here, a little there" (Is 28:10)? Here are anxious prayers full of piety, "Give their reward, Lord, to those who wait on you, so that your prophets may be found faithful" (Sir 36:18). Again, "Bring about what the prophets of old prophesied in your name" (Sir 36:17). Here are sweet promises full of consolation, "Behold the Lord will appear; and he will not lie. If he seems slow, wait for him, for he will come, and that soon"
(Hb 2:3). Again, "The time of his coming is near and his days will not be prolonged" (Is 14:1), and, from the Person of him who was promised, "Behold," he says, "I am running toward you like a river of peace, and like a stream in flood with the glory of the nations" (Is 66:12).
In these words, both the urgency of the preachers and the lack of faith of the people is clear enough. And so the people murmured and faith wavered and, as Isaiah puts it, "The messengers of peace weep bitterly" (Is 33:7). Therefore, because Christ delayed his coming lest the whole human race should perish in desperation while they thought their weak mortality condemned them and they did not trust that God would bring them the so-often promised reconciliation with him, those holy men who were made sure by the Spirit looked for the certainty that his presence-could bring, and urgently demanded a sign that the covenant was about to be renewed for the sake of the weak in the faith.
IV.8. O Root of Jesse, who stand as a sign to the peoples (Is 11:10), how many kings and prophets wanted to see you and did not (Lk 10:24)? Simeon is the happiest of them all because by God's mercy he was still bearing fruit in old age. For he rejoiced to think that he would see the sign so long desired. He saw it and was glad (Jn 8:56).
When he had received the kiss of peace he departed in peace, but first he proclaimed aloud that Jesus was born, a sign that would be rejected
(Lk 2:25—34).
And so it was. The sign of peace arose and was rejected, by those who hate peace (Ps 119:7). For what is peace to men of goodwill (Lk
2:14) is a stone to make men stumble, a rock for the wicked to fall over
SERMONS — v (1 Pt 2:8). "Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him" (Mt 2:3).
He came to his own and his own did not receive him (Jn 1:11). Happy those shepherds keeping watch at night who were found worthy to be shown the sign of this vision (Lk 23:8). For even at that time he was hiding himself from the wise and prudent and revealing himself to the simple (Mt 11:25; Lk 10:21). Herod wanted to see him (Lk 23:8), but because he did not want to see him out of goodwill, he did not deserve to see him.
The sign of peace was given only to men of goodwill; the only sign which was given to Herod and his like is the sign of Jonah and the prophet (Mt 12:39). The angel said to the shepherds, "This is a sign for you" (Lk 2:12), you who are humble, you who are obedient, you who are not haughty (Rom 12:16), you who are keeping vigil and meditating on God's law day and night (Ps 1:2). "This is a sign for you," he said.
What is this sign? The sign the angels promised, the sign the people asked for, the sign the prophets foretold, the Lord Jesus has now made, and he shows it to you; the sign in which unbelievers receive the faith, the faint-hearted hope, the perfect security. This is your sign.
What is it a sign of? Indulgence, grace, peace, the peace which will have no end (Is 9:7). It is this sign: "You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger" (Lk 2:12). But this baby is
God himself, reconciling the world to himself in him (2 Cor 5:19). He will die for your sins and rise again to make you just (Rom 4:25), so that, made just by faith, you may be at peace with God (Rom 5:1).
This was the sign of faith that the prophet once asked Achaz the king to ask of the Lord his God, either from the heavens or from the depths of hell (Is 7:11). But the wicked king refused, not believing, wretched man, that in this sign the heights would be joined to the depths in peace. This came to pass when the Lord descended even to hell, and greeted those who dwell there with a holy kiss (1 Cor 16:20), so that even they received the sign of peace, and then he returned to heaven and made it possible for the spirits there to share the same sign in everlasting joy.
IV.9. We must come to the end of this sermon. But let me sum up briefly what I have said. It seems clear that this holy kiss was given to the world for two reasons: to give the weak faith and to satisfy the desire of the perfect. This kiss is no other than the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tm 2:5), who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns world without end, Amen.
SERMONS
SERMON 3 Today we read the book of experience. Let us turn to ourselves and let each of us search his own conscience about what is said. I want to investigate whether it has been given to any of you to say, "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth" (Sg 1:1). Few can say this wholeheartedly. But if anyone once receives the spiritual kiss of Christ's mouth he seeks eagerly to have it again and again. I think no one can know what it is except he who has received it. It is a hidden manna (Rv 2:17), and he who eats it hungers for more (Sir 24:23). It is a sealed-up fountain
(Sg 4:12), to which no stranger has access, but he who drinks from it thirsts for more and he alone (Sir 24:29).
Hear the demand of one who has experienced it: "Restore to me the joy of your salvation" (Ps 50:14). But a soul like mine, burdened with sins, cannot dare to say that, while it is still crippled by fleshly passions (2 Tm 3:6), and while it does not feel the sweetness of the Spirit, and is almost wholly unfamiliar with and inexperienced in inner joys.
I.2. But I should like to point out to the man who is like this that there is a place for him on the road to salvation. He may not rashly lift his face to the face of the most serene Bridegroom, but he can throw himself timidly at the feet of the most severe Lord with me, and with the Publican (Lk 18:13) tremble on the earth and not look up to heaven, in case he is dazzled by the light. Eyes that are used to darkness will be blinded by light (Prv 25:27), and wrapped again in a darkness deeper than before. You who are such a soul, do not think that position despicable in which the sinner laid down her sins and put on the garment of holiness. There the Ethiopian changed her skin (Jer 13:23) and, restored to a new brightness, she could reply faithfully and truthfully to those who reproached her (Ps 118:42), "I am black but I am beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem" (Sg 1:4).
Are you wondering how she was able to change like this, or how she deserved it? You shall hear in a few words. She wept bitterly (Lk
22:62) and sighed deeply from her inmost heart, and her sobs shook her one by one, and the evils within her came forth. The heavenly Physician came quickly to help her, for "his Word runs swiftly" (Ps 147:15).
Surely the Word of God is not a medicine? Indeed it is, strong and powerful, searching out the heart and mind (Ps 7:10). *God's word is living and effective, and more penetrating that any two-edged sword,
SERMONS penetrating to the place where soul and spirit meet, and separating the marrow; it judges the thoughts" (Heb 4:12).
O wretch, prostrate yourself like this blessed penitent, so that you can cease to be miserable. Prostrate yourself on the ground, embrace his feet, plead with kisses, water them with tears (Lk 7:37—50). Wash not only him but yourself, and you will become one of the flock of shorn ewes as they come up from the washing (Sg 4:2). Even then you will not dare to lift your face, swollen with shame and grief, until you hear him say, "Your sins are forgiven" (Lk 7:48), and "Awake, awake captive daughter of Sion, awake, shake off the dust" (Is 52:1—2).
II.3. Though you have given a first kiss to the feet, do not presume to rise at once to kiss the mouth. You must come to that by way of another, intermediate kiss, on the hand. This is the reason for that kiss: "If Jesus says to me, 'Your sins are forgiven,' what is the good of that unless I cease to sin? I have taken off my filthy garment. If I put it on again, what progress have I made?" (Sg 5:3). If I dirty again the feet that I have washed, surely the washing is valueless? Filthy with every sort of vice, I have lain for a long time in the slough of the mire
(Ps 39:3). If I return to it again it is worse than my first falling into it.
I remember that he who healed me himself said to me, "Behold you are healed; go and sin no more, lest worse befall you" (Jn 5:14).
It is necessary that he who gives the will to repent should add the virtue of continence lest I should do things to repent of worse than the first (Lk 11:26). Woe is me even if I repent, if he immediately takes away the hand without which I can do nothing (Jn 15:5). Nothing, I say, because without him I cannot repent, or contain my sin. For that reason I listen to Wisdom's advice, "Do not repeat yourself at your prayers" (Sir 7:15). I fear the Judge's reaction to the tree which did not bear good fruit (Mt 3:10). For these reasons I am not fully satisfied by the first grace, by whichI repent of my sins, unless I receive the second, too, so that I may bear worthy fruits of repentance (Lk 3:8), and not return like a dog to his vomit (Prv 26:11).
II.4. There remains to consider what I must seek and receive before I may presume to touch higher and more sacred things (Mt 7:8). I do not want to be there all at once. I want to proceed a step at a time.
The sinner's impudence displeases God as much as the penitent's modesty pleases him. You will please him more readily if you live within your limits and do not seek things too high for you (Sir 3:22). It isa long leap and a difficult one from the foot to the mouth, and that way of getting there is not appropriate.
SERMONS
How then, should you go? Should you who were recently covered in filth touch the holy lips? Yesterday dragged out of the mire, do you present yourself today to the face of glory? Let your way be by the hand. The hand first touched you and now lifts you up. How will it lift you up? By giving you the grace to aspire. What is that?
The sweetness of temperance and the fruits of worthy repentance (Lk 3:8), which are the works of holiness; these can lift you from the mire
(Ps 112:7) to the hope of daring greater things. When you receive this grace you kiss his hand. Give the glory not to yourself but to him (Ps
113:9). Give it once and again, both for the forgiveness of sins and for the virtues that are given. Otherwise you will need to fortify yourself against such darts as these, "What do you have that you have not received? If you have received, why do you glory as though you had not?" (1 Cor 4:7).
III.5. Now at last, having the experience of the divine kindness in these two kisses, perhaps you will not feel diffident of presuming to what is holier. The more you grow in grace, the more you are enlarged in faith. Thus it is that you will love more ardently and press more confidently for that which you know you still lack. For, "to him who knocks it shall be opened" (Lk 11:10). I believe that that supreme kiss of the highest condescension and wonderful sweetness will not be denied to him who so loves.
This is the way; this is the order. First we cast ourselves at his feet and deplore before God who made us (Ps 94:6) the evil we have done.
Secondly, we reach out for the hand which will lift us up, which will strengthen our trembling knees (Is 35:3). Last, when we have obtained that, with many prayers and tears, then perhaps we shall dare to lift our faces to the mouth which is so divinely beautiful, fearing and trembling, not only to gaze on it, but even to kiss it. For "Christ the Lord is a Spirit before our face" (Lam 4:20). When we are joined with him in a holy kiss we are made one with him in spirit through his kindness
(1 Cor 6:17).
III.6. My heart rightly says to you, Lord Jesus, "My face has sought you; your face, Lord do I seek" (Ps 26:8). In the morning you showed me your mercy (Ps 142:8). When I lay in the dust to kiss your footprints you forgave my evil life. Later in the day you gave joy to your servant's soul (Ps 85:4), when, with the kiss of your hand, you gave him grace to live a good life. And now what remains, O good Lord, except that now in full light, while I am in fervor of spirit, you should admit me to the kiss of your mouth, and grant me the full joy of your presence
SERMONS (Ps 15:11). Show me, O sweetest and most serene, "Show me where you feed, where you lie down in the noonday" (Sg 1:6).
Brothers, it is good for us to be here (Lk 9:33), but the duties of the day call us away. These guests whose arrival has just been announced to us oblige me to break off my sermon rather than bring it to an end. So I am going to our guests, so as not to neglect the duty of charity of which we have been speaking—lest we hear it said of us,
"They do not practice what they preach" (Mt 23:3). In the meantime, pray that the words of my mouth may be pleasing to God (Ps 118:108), for your edification and for his praise and glory (1 Pt 1:7).
SERMON 4 I.1. Yesterday's sermon outlined the progression of the soul in three stages, by means of the image of three kisses. You have not forgotten?
Today, I shall continue the argument, as far as God in his goodness may allow his poor one (Ps 67:11). We said, if you remember, that those kisses are given to the feet, the hands, the mouth, one after the other.
The first comes at the beginning of our Christian life. The second is given to those who are making progress. The third is a rare experience, given only to the perfect.
The Scripture we are trying to expound begins from this last alone, and we have added the other two for its sake. Whether it was necessary, you shall judge. For I think that the way the word is presented requires it. It would be surprising if you did not see that there was something else, other kisses, which she who said *He kisses me with the kiss of his mouth" (Sg 1:1) wanted to distinguish from the kiss of the mouth. Why, then, when she could have said simply, "He kisses me," did she distinctly and pointedly add, contrary to ordinary usage,
"with the kiss of his mouth," unless it was to show that the supreme kiss she wanted was not the only one?
Surely we say in her place, "Kiss me," or "Give me a kiss"? No one adds, "with your mouth," or "with the kiss of your mouth." What?
When we are going to kiss one another we do not have to say what we want when we offer our lips to one another. To take an example: St.
John simply says when he describes the kiss that Judas gave the Lord, "And he kissed him" (Mk 14:45). He does not add, "with his mouth" or "with the kiss of his mouth." So with everyone who speaks or writes.
There are, then, these three affections or stages of progress in the
SERMONS
soul. 'They are well enough known and obvious to those who have experienced them. First there is the forgiveness of sins; then the grace to do good; then the presence of him who forgives, the benefactor, is experienced as strongly as it can be in a fragile body.
I.2. Hear why I called the first and second stages "kisses." We all know that a kiss is a sign of peace. If, as Scripture says, "our sins separate us from God" (Is 59:2), peace is lost between us. When, therefore, we make satisfaction and are reconciled with the removal of the sin which was separating us, the favor we receive can surely only be called a kiss. And then there is no better place for receiving this kiss than the feet. The satisfaction we make for our sins of pride ought to be humble and lowly.
II.3. But when God grants us the grace of a sweet familiarity with him, so that we can live better lives in accordance with that relationship, we lift our heads from the dust with greater confidence, so as to kiss the hand of our benefactor, as people do. But in receiving this gift we seek not our own glory but that of the giver, and we ascribe his gifts to him and not to ourselves. Otherwise, if you glory in yourself and not in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31) you will be kissing your own hand not his.
That, Job says, is the great sin, and a denial of God (Jb 31:28). If then Scripture bears witness that to seek one's own glory (Jn 7:18) is to kiss one's own hand, then he who gives the glory to God is not improperly said to kiss God's hand (Jn 9:24). We see that this is even among men.
Slaves kiss the feet of the masters they have offended when they ask their pardon, and the poor kiss the hands of the rich when they receive gifts from them.
III.4. Truly, since "God is a Spirit" (Jn 4:24), his simple substance cannot have bodily members. Perhaps you will not accept all this, but demand that I show you these hands and feet of God and so support what I say about the kiss of the feet and the hands.
But what if I, in my turn, ask about the mouth of God, for Scripture certainly speaks of the kiss of a mouth? Show me how God has a mouth. Either he has a mouth, hands, and feet, or he has none of these things. But God has a mouth by which he teaches men knowledge (Ps
93:10), and a hand by which he gives food to all flesh (Ps 135:25), and he has feet, for which the earth is a footstool (Is 66:1). When the sinners of the earth turn from their sins and are humbled it is to these feet that they come with a kiss.
God has all these not by nature, but we understand them as ways by which we can come to him. A truly humble desire to confess casts
SERMONS us down before him as if at his feet. A burning devotion to God discovers renewal and refreshment in him as at the touch of his hand. A joyous contemplation finds rest in him in the rapture which is the kiss of his mouth.
He who governs all is all things to all, yet he has no particularities.
All that we can say of him in himself is that "he dwells in inaccessible light" (1 Tm 6:16). His peace is beyond our understanding (Phil 4:7).
His wisdom is beyond measure (Ps 146:5) and his greatness has no bounds (Ps 144:3). No man can see him and live (Ex 33:20).
Yet he who is the ground of all being is not far from each of us (Acts 17:27), for without him is nothing (Jn 1:3). But, to make you wonder more: Nothing is more present than he and nothing is more incomprehensible. What is more present to anyone than his own being? And what is more incomprehensible than the Being of all things? I say that God is the Being of all things not because they are the same as him, but because "from him and through him and in him are all things" (Rom
11:36). He is, as their Creator, the Being of all things that are made.
But he is the cause, not the stuff of their being.
In this way, this majesty has deigned to be present to his creatures, to be all in all things to all living things throughout their life; to all rational creatures the light of understanding; virtue to those who use their reason rightly; glory to those who conquer.
III.5. In all this creating, governing, administration, moving and causing motion, renewing and strengthening, he needs no bodily instruments, for by his word alone he created all bodies and spirits. Souls need bodies and bodies needed senses by which to know and affect one another. But the Omnipotent is not like that. By the swift action of his will he chose to create and ordain things. He can do what he will, as much as he wills, and without the help of any bodily members. Do you think he needs the help of bodily senses to understand what he has created? Nothing at all can hide from him, or flees the light of his presence.
Sense-awareness can never be the vehicle of his knowledge. Not only does he know all things without a body; he also causes the pure in heart to know him in this way.
I have said a good deal about this, so as to make it clear. But perhaps now that I must stop for today, we should postpone more discussion until tomorrow.
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SERMON 5 I.1. There are four sorts of spirits, as you know: those of beasts, our own, those of angels, and the Spirit which created them all. Only one of these needs no body, or anything like a body, for its own sake or anyone else's sake, and that is he whom every bodily or spiritual creature rightly confesses, saying, "You are my God because you have no need of my goods" (Ps 15:2).
First, it is clear that the animal spirit needs a body so much that it cannot exist without it. When an animal dies its spirit ceases to live at the same moment as the body. But we live after the death of the body.
Nevertheless, only through the body does the way, the ascent to the life of blessedness, lie open to us. He who said, "The invisible things of God are understood through the things he has made" (Rom 1:20) realized that. Those things which are made, that is, those bodily and visible things, come to our knowledge only through the bodily senses. The spiritual creature which we are has a body which is necessary to it, and without which it cannot reach that knowledge which is the only way to the knowledge the blessed have.
If any of you objects that baptized infants who die and who leave their bodies without any knowledge of bodily things are believed to enter the blessed life nevertheless, I answer briefly that this is a gift of grace, not of nature. It is out of place to talk of miracles here; I am speaking about nature.
I.2. There is a true and truly divine saying which will show you beyond doubt that the heavenly spirits need bodies. "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister to those who are heirs to salvation"
(Heb 1:14)? How are they to carry out their ministry without bodies, especially to those who live in the body? Only bodies can go from place to place as sure and well-known authority proves that angels do.* They were seen by the patriarchs, entered their dwellings, ate, had their feet washed. So both the lower and the higher spirits need bodies of their own, not for themselves, but so that they can give help to others.
I.3. Animals are created to serve man's bodily and temporal needs. [n the course of time, the spirits of animals pass away; they die
1. The animal soul is not rational or immortal, but it shares with the human soul the property of giving life to the body. Bernard is drawing on Augustine here.
2. Cf. Gn 19:1, 32:1; Ex 14:19; Mt 4:11, 13:49. It was assumed that motion from place to place is impossible without a body.
SERMONS with the body. A slave does not remain in the house forever. Those who use him well will find that their use of this temporal service will have its Outcome in an eternal reward. The angel, in freedom of spirit, eagerly takes care over the duties of his office and shows himself a willing servant in helping mortals to future blessing, as fellow-citizens with him for eternity and co-heirs of the joy of heaven.
Therefore both animals and angels need bodies, one to serve us as it is its nature to do, the other to help us because he loves us. I do not see how their bodies can help them in eternity. For the irrational soul, even if it perceives bodily things through the body, is surely not able to make use of the body's help to progress from the bodily and material things of which his senses tell him to an understanding of spiritual truths? Yet by its bodily and temporal service the body is known to help those who turn all their use of temporal things to eternal ends, and who live in this world as though they had no dealings with it (1 Cor 7:31).
I.4. The heavenly spirit, without the help of a body or the perceptions of its senses, is able to understand the highest truths and to penetrate their depths by the kinship of its nature and its liveliness.
The Apostle knew that. When he said, "The invisible things of God are understood through the things he has made," he added, "by the creature of the world" (Rom 1:20). For this is not true for the heavenly creature. The spirit which is wrapped in flesh and dwells on earth makes progress by thinking about the things the senses can perceive and gradually, little by little, it comes to know what the dweller in heaven grasps quickly and easily by his inborn subtlety and the sublimity of his being. It relies on no aid from the bodily senses or any part of the body, and its understanding owes nothing to any bodily thing. For why should he search the evidence of the senses for what he can read in the book of life (Phil 4:3), and without contradiction or difficulty? Why should he labor, covered in sweat, to separate the grain from the chaff, to squeeze wine from grapes and oil from olives, if he has all these things in plenty ready to hand?
Who will beg his living among strangers when he has all the bread he needs at home (Lk 15:17)? Who will bother to dig a well and search with hard effort for springs of water in the depths of the earth when a bubbling fountain is pouring out clear water for him? Neither angelic spirits nor those of beasts can make any use of bodily help for their own benefit in attaining the knowledge which makes a creature spiritually blessed. The one is not capable of it because
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of his innate stupidity; the angel does not need it because he has the privilege of a more excellent glory.
I.5. The spirit of man, which has its place between the highest and the lowest, has an obvious need for a body, for two reasons. Without it the soul cannot act for its own benefit, or do good to others. For, not to mention the other members of the body or their duties, how are you to teach a listener except with your tongue or hear instruction without ears?
I.6. And so, because the brute spirit cannot give the service its nature owes without the help of the body, and the spiritual and heavenly creature cannot fulfil its ministry of love without a body, and the rational soul cannot act for its own and its neighbor's salvation without a body, it is clear that every created spirit needs a body, whether to help or both to help and be helped.
What about those living things which seem to be no use to themselves, or to man either? They are beautiful to look at, even if they are useless. Their usefulness lies rather in providing food for reflection than in anything they do. Even if they are found to be harmful and even damaging to the salvation of man in this world, there is some way in which their bodies can work together for good for those he has called to be holy according to his purpose (Rom 8:28). If they are no good for work or food they make man use his wits and learn from the things God has made, as all exercise of the reason does, about the mysteries of God
(Rom 1:20). For both the devil and his company, whose intentions are always evil, are always trying to do harm to those who try to be good.
To them it is said, "Who can hurt you if you strive to do good?" (1 Pt 3:13). God forbid that they should be able to harm you. The truth rather is that despite themselves they help you, and work together for ood.
II.7. As for the rest, I do not want you to press me to tell you whether the bodies of angels are a part of their nature as men's bodies are to men; whether, even though they are immortal, they have an animal nature like that of man, which is not immortal in this life; or whether they change and alter these bodies into whatever form or appearance they wish, making them dense and solid when they want to be visible, while at the same time they are impalpable in reality because of the subtlety of their nature and substance, and wholly beyond our seeing; or whether they remain simple spiritual substances and assume bodies when they need them and put them off again to dissolve into the matter from which they were formed when
SERMONS . the task is done. The Fathers seem to have held different opinions.?
I myself do not see clearly what to say, and I confess that I am unsure. But I think that your spiritual progress would not be much helped by knowing.
; II.8. But note that no created spirit can act upon our minds by itself, that is, without the intermediary of the instrument of the body.
It cannot mingle with us or flood us, to give us knowledge or add to what we know, or to make us good or better. No angel and no beast can do that to me; I cannot do it myself. Even the angels cannot influence one another in that way.
III.8. That prerogative is unique to the Supreme and Boundless, who alone, when he teaches angels or men, does not need to speak with his mouth in their ears (Ps 93:10). He pours himself out directly and makes himself known. Himself pure, he is seen by the pure. Alone, he has no need of anyone. Alone he is sufficient unto himself and for all, by his own will alone.
III.9. Yet there are vast and countless effects which he has through his creatures, bodily or spiritual; but he uses them as one who gives them commands, not as one who begs them to act. For example, he uses my bodily tongue now to do his work of teaching you, when he could undoubtedly do so more easily and sweetly himself. He does it as a concession, not because he needs to do it. He acts in this way for your good, and to bestow merit on me, not because he needs to do so.
Every man must remember this when he does good, in case he is tempted to give the glory to himself and not to God (1 Cor 1:31).
There is the further case, of the person—evil angel or wicked man—who does good deeds despite himself, it is evident that any good he does, does not benefit himself, for no good can benefit anyone whose will is set against it. He is therefore to be credited only with "dispensing" good, but, I do not know why, we find the good which comes through a wicked man sweeter and more welcome. That is why God does good to the good through the wicked; it does not mean that he needs their help in doing good.
III.10. Who can doubt that God has even less need of creatures which have neither sense nor reason? But these have a share in doing good, and so it is clear that all things serve him (Ps 118:91) who can
3. On the sources of the views Bernard draws on here, see G. Bareille, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, 1 (1903), cols. 1195—1200.
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rightly say, "The world is mine" (Ps 49:12). Or certainly, because he knows what is the best means for his purpose he does not look to the capacities of the creature for service, but its suitability.
Agreed then that bodily instruments are often and appropriately used in God's works, as, for example, rain to make seeds sprout or cause crops to grow or fruit to ripen, what need has he, I ask, for a body of his own when at his bidding all bodies in heaven and on earth do his will? A body of his own would be superfluous to him when all bodies are his to use. Truly, if I were to include all that occurs to me in this connection this sermon would go on for too long and would outrun your patience. We will come to them on another occasion.
SERMON 7 I.1. I see that when I invited your questions I brought a good deal of work on myself! I tried to explain about the spiritual feet of God, with their descriptions and their names, under the heading of the first kiss.
You are now asking about the hand to which the second kiss is given.
I give in; I will do what you ask. I will also show you not the hand but both hands, and give them their names. One is called "generosity" because it gives freely. The other is called "strength" because it powerfully defends what it has given. He who is not ungrateful will kiss both, in gratitude to God who is the giver of all good things and recognizing and trusting him as protector.
1.2. I think enough has been said about the first two kisses. Let us examine the third. "Let him kiss me," she says, "with the kiss of his mouth" (Sg 1:1). Who is speaking? The Bride. But why "Bride"? She is the soul which thirsts for God. I set out the different affections so as to make it clearer which properly belongs to the Bride. If someone is a slave, he fears his master's face. If he is a hireling, he hopes for payment from his master's hand. If he is a pupil, he bends his ear to his master.
If he is a son, he honors his father. But she who asks for a kiss feels love.
This affection of love excels among the gifts of nature, especially when it returns to its source, which is God. For no names can be found as sweet as those in which the Word and the soul exchange affections, as Bridegroom and Bride, for to such everything is common, nothing is the property of one and not the other, nothing is held separately. They share one inheritance, one table, one house, one bed, one flesh. For this she leaves her father and her mother and clings to her husband and they
SERMONS . two are one flesh (Gn 2:24). She is also commanded to forget her people and her father's house so that he may desire her beauty (Ps 44:1).
50 then love especially and chiefly belongs to those who are married and it is not inappropriate to call the loving soul a Bride. For she who asks a kiss feels love. She does not ask for freedom or payment or an inheritance or learning, but for a kiss, in the manner of a most chaste bride, who sighs for holy love; and she cannot disguise the flame which is so evident.
It is a great thing which she will ask of the Great One, but she does not flirt with him as others do, and she does not beat about the bush.
She tells him clearly what she desires. She uses no preliminaries. She does not try to win him round. But with an open face she bursts out suddenly from a full heart (Mt 12:34), "Let him kiss me," she Says,
"with the kiss of his mouth." Surely it seems to you as though she said, "Who have I in heaven but you and who but you do I want upon earth?"
(Ps 72:25).
III.3. She loves most chastely who seeks him whom she loves and not some other thing which belongs to him. She loves in a holy way, because she does not love in fleshly desire but in purity of spirit. She loves ardently, because she is drunk with love so that she cannot see his majesty. What? He it is "who looks on the earth and causes it to tremble" (Ps 103:32). And she asks him for a kiss? Is she drunk? Indeed she is! And perhaps then when she burst forth thus she had come out of the wine-cellar (Sg 1:3, 2:4). She said afterward that she had been there, glorying in it. For David, too, said to God concerning such, "They shall be intoxicated with the plenty of your house, and you will give them the torrents of your pleasure to drink"
(Ps 35:9). Oh, what force of love! What great confidence of spirit!
What freedom! What is more evident than that perfect love casts out fear? (1 Jn 4:18).
III.4. But modestly she does not speak directly to the Bridegroom himself, but to others, as if he were not present. "Let him kiss me," she says, "with the kiss of his mouth." She asks a great thing, and it is necessary that such prayer should be accompanied by modesty, to commend the request. And so through servants and intimates one seeks to be allowed to enter a house and reach one's desire.
Who are these? We believe that the angels stand by in prayer, to offer God the prayers and vows of men, where they can see that the prayer is offered with clean hands upraised, without anger or deceit.
This angel speaking to Tobias demonstrates it, "When you prayed with
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tears and buried your dead and left your table and hid the dead by day in your house for burial at night, I bore your prayer to the Lord" (Tb
12:12). I think you are sufficiently persuaded by this and other testimonies of Scripture. For the Psalmist shows clearly that the holy angels are accustomed to mingle their songs with ours. "The princes went before with the singers in the midst of young damsels playing the timbrels" (Ps 67:26). He also said, "I will sing praise to you in the sight of the angels" (Ps 137:1).
IV.4. I grieve to find some of you deep in sleep during the night office; showing no respect for the criticisms of heaven you appear before these princes like dead men; yet they are deeply moved when you show eagerness, and they delight to be present at your solemn services. I fear that sometimes they may be horrified by our casualness and go away indignantly, and then when it is too late each of us will begin to groan aloud and say to God, "You have put my friends far from me; they have found me an abomination" (Ps 87:9).
Or, "You have turned my friend and my neighbor against me, those who know me will not share my misery" (Ps 87:19). Again, "Those who were close to me stand far off and those who sought my soul were violent" (Ps 37:12ff.).
If the good spirits stand far away from us, who will bear the attack of the wicked? I say then to those who behave in this way, "Cursed is he who does the work of God negligently" (Jer 48:10). He says, too, not I but the Lord, "Would that I found you hot or cold. But because I find you lukewarm, I spit you out of my mouth" (Rv 3:15-16ff.). For that reason, think of these princes when you stand up to pray or sing; stand with reverence and discipline, and glory that your angels daily see the Father's face (Mt 18:10). Sent to serve for our sake, who are heirs of salvation (Heb 1:14), they carry our devotion to the heights and bring us grace in return. Let us make use of their help, we who share their destiny, so that praise may be made perfect by the mouths of babes in arms (Ps 8:3). Let us say to them, "Sing praises to God, sing praises."
And let us hear them responding in turn, "Sing praises to our King, sing praises" (Ps 46:7).
IV.5. Singing praises then with the heavenly singers, sing wisely (Ps 46:8), as fellow-citizens with the saints and members of God's household (Eph 2:19). Food tastes sweet in the mouth, a psalm in the heart. But the faithful and wise soul will not neglect to tear at the psalm with the teeth of its understanding. If you swallow it whole without chewing it the palate will miss the delicious flavor which is sweeter than
SERMONS honey from the honey-comb (Ps 18:11). Let us with the apostles offer the honey-comb in the heavenly banquet at the Lord's table (Lk 24:42).
The honey in the wax is the devotion in the words. Otherwise, the letter kills (2 Cor 3:6), if you eat it without the condiment of the spiritual meaning. But if, with the Apostle, you sing with the spirit and with the mind, too (1 Cor 14:15), you will know as he did the truth of Jesus' saying, "The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life" (Jn 6:64) and also, "My spirit is sweeter than honey" (Sir 24:27).
IV.6. In this way your soul will be delighted in fatness (Is 55:2); in this way your sacrifice will be full of richness (Ps 19:4). In this way you will please the king, if you please the princes and make all his court well-disposed toward you. And when they smell this sweet scent in heaven they will say of you, too, "Who is this who comes up from the desert like a column of smoke, fragrant with myrrh and frankincense and with all the spices of the merchant?" (Sg 3:6).
V.6. "The princes of Judah," says the Psalmist, "are their leaders, the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali" (Ps 67:28), the angelic leaders of the faithful, the continent, those in contemplation. These princes know how acceptable to our king is the confession of those who sing psalms, the fortitude of the continent, the purity of those in contemplation. And they are anxious to make us show those firstfruits of the spirit which are nothing but the first and purest fruits of wisdom.
For you know that in Hebrew Judah means someone who praises or makes acknowledgement, Zebulun a fortified dwelling, Naphtali a swift hind (Gn 49:21),' which by its agile leaps signifies the ecstasies of the soul in contemplation.
The hind also finds its way into the dark woods, as the contemplative soul sees into the hidden meanings of things. We know who said, "The sacrifice of praise honors me" (Ps 49:23).
V.7. If truly, "Praise is ugly in a sinner's mouth" (Sir 15:9), you will see how absolutely necessary is the virtue of continence, through which sin is prevented from ruling in your mortal body (Rom 6:12). But continence will gain you no merit before God if you practice it to win glory among men. And so the most important thing is purity of intention, by which your mind seeks to please only God, and is able to cling
1. See Jerome on the interpretation of Hebrew names, ed. P. de Lagarde (1827), pp.
94.27—28 and p. 39.26.
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to him. For to "cling to" God is nothing but to see God, and that is given as a special happiness only to the pure in heart (Mt 5:8). David had a pure heart (Ps 50:12). He said to God, "My soul clings to you" (Ps 62:9), and again, "My joy lies in being near to God" (Ps 72:28). By his vision, he clung to him; by clinging he beheld him.
Souls exercised in these heavenly ways show themselves to be intimates of the angels and fellow-members of their family, especially if the angels often come upon him in prayer. Who will grant, O kind princes, that my petitions may be made known before God? It is not that they need to be made known to God (Phil 4:6), who knows all the thoughts of men (Ps 75:11), but before God, that is, to those who are with God, the blessed virtues and those souls which are separated from their bodies.
Who will raise me up in my poverty from the earth and lift this poor man from the dung-hill, that I may be seated with the princes (Ps
112:7) and be given a seat in glory (1 Sm 2:8)? I do not doubt that they; will gladly welcome into their mansions him whom they did not disdain to visit on the dung-hill. And if our conversation pleased them will they not welcome us when we join them?
VI.8. And so I think that it was to these, her companions and members of her household, that the Bride spoke when she opened up her heart and said, "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth." See the familiar and friendly conversation which the longing soul still in the body has with the heavenly powers. She desires to be kissed and she asks for what she desires. But she does not name him whom she loves, because she has so often spoken of him to them. Therefore she does not say, "Let him, or him, kiss me," but just, "Let him kiss me," just as Mary Magdalene did not say the name of him whom she sought, but she spoke to the man she thought was the gardener, "Lord, if you have taken him away .
. " (Jn 20:15). Who is "him"? She does not say. She takes it for granted that everyone knows who it is, who is never for a moment out of her thoughts. And so then she, speaking to the Bridegroom's companions, takes it that they know what she means, and she speaks no name when she bursts forth about her beloved. "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth."
I do not want to keep you longer today to talk of the kiss, but in tomorrow's sermon you will hear from me whatever your prayers can draw from him whose teaching is the source of all we know (1 Jn 2:27).
For flesh and blood do not reveal such a secret (Mt 16:17), but only he who sees into the depths of God (1 Cor 2:10), the Holy Spirit, who,
SERMONS . proceeding from the Father and the Son (Jn 15:26),? lives and reigns equally with them forever.
SERMON 8 I.1. You will remember that yesterday I promised that I would speak today about the supreme kiss, the kiss of the mouth. Listen the more carefully to that which tastes the sweeter, is enjoyed the more rarely, and is the more difficult to understand.
I think I should begin by speaking briefly about that highest kiss which is beyond description and which no creature has experienced, that kiss which was referred to in these words, "No one has known the Son except the Father and no one has known the Father except the Son, or him to whom the Son has chosen to reveal him" (Mt 11:27). For the Father loves the Son and embraces him with a special love. He who is supreme embraces his equal; he who is eternal embraces him who is eternal; the One embraces his only Son. But the Son is bound to him by no less a bond. For his love he even dies, as he himself bears witness when he says, "So that all may know that I love the Father, rise, let us go" (n 14:31). He went, as we know, to his Passion. And so that mutual love and knowledge between him who begets and him who is begotten, what is it but that sweetest and most mysterious kiss?
1.2. I myself am sure that no creature, not even an angel, is admitted to such and so holy a secret of divine love. Does not Paul say from his own knowledge that that peace surpasses all understanding, even that of the angels (Phil 4:7)? That is why the Bride, although she is bold in many things, does not dare to say, *Let him kiss me with his mouth," for that is reserved for the Father alone. But she asks something less. "Let him kiss me," she says, "with the kiss of his mouth."
See the new Bride receiving the new kiss, not from the Bridegroom's mouth but from the kiss of his mouth.
"He breathed on them," it says, and that certainly means that Jesus breathed on the apostles, that is, the primitive Church, and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (Jn 20:22). That was the kiss. What was it? A 2. Bernard adds "and the Son" as in the creed of Western Christendom. The schism of 1054, which had divided Greek and Latin Christians over the filioque clause, was the subject of heated debate in Bernard's day. Anselm of Canterbury's De Processione Spiritus Sancti (Opera
Omnia, II) was published at the beginning of the twelfth century.
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breath? No, but the invisible Spirit, who is so bestowed in the breath of the Lord that he is understood to have proceeded from the Son as well as from the Father (Jn 15:26).
The kiss is truly common to him who kisses and to him who is kissed. And so it satisfies the Bride to receive the Bridegroom's kiss, although it is not a kiss from his mouth. For she thinks it not a small or light thing to be kissed by the kiss, for that is nothing but to be given the Holy Spirit. Surely if the Father kisses and the Son receives the kiss, it is appropriate to think of the Holy Spirit as the kiss, for he is the imperturbable peace of the Father and the Son, their secure bond, their undivided love, their indivisible unity.
II.3. It is he who prompts the Bride's boldness, and it is he whom she trustingly asks to come to her when she asks for a kiss. She has a reason to be bold which never fails. For the Son, when he said, *No one has known the Son except the Father and no one has known the Father except the Son," added, "or him to whom the Son has chosen to reveal him" (Mt 11:27). The Bride has no doubt that if he is willing to reveal him to anyone, it is to her. Therefore she asks boldly to be given the kiss, that is, the Spirit in whom the Father and the Son will reveal themselves to her. For one of them cannot be known without the other. That is why Christ said, ^He who has seen me has also seen the Father" (Jn 14:9). And John, *He who denies the Son does not have the Father. He who believes in the Son has the Father, too" (1 Jn 2:23).
From this it is clear that the Father is not known without the Son and the Son is not known without the Father. The supreme happiness consists in the knowledge not of one but of both, as, "This is everlasting life, to know that you are the true God and to know Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (Jn 17:3). So those who follow the Lamb are said to have his name and that of the Father written on their foreheads (Rv 14:1—4), and that is to be glorified by the knowledge of both.
II.4. But someone is saying, "Therefore it is not necessary to know the Holy Spirit, for when he said that eternal life is to have known the Father and the Son, he made no mention of the Holy Spirit. That is so, but where Father and Son are known fully, how can their goodness, which is the Holy Spirit, not be known? For no man really knows another, as long as he does not know whether he is a man of goodwill or not. So although it has been said, "This is everlasting life, to know that you are the true God and to know Jesus Christ, whom you have sent" (Jn 17:3), that sending shows the good pleasure both of the Father who kindly sends and of the Son who willingly obeys; there is an im-
SERMONS plied reference to the Holy Spirit where mention is made of such grace on the part of both. For the Holy Spirit is the love and goodness of both.
II.5. So when the Bride asks for a kiss she begs to be flooded with the grace of this threefold knowledge as much as mortal flesh can bear.
She asks it of the Son, for he is to reveal it to whom he wills (Mt 11:27).
Therefore the Son reveals himself to whom he wills and he reveals the Father when he does so. It is undoubtedly through the kiss that he makes this revelation, that is, through the Holy Spirit. The Apostle bears witness to this when he says, "But God revealed himself to us through his Spirit" (1 Cor 2:10). But in giving the Spirit through whom he reveals, he reveals him as well. In giving he reveals him; in revealing he gives him. The revelation he makes through the Holy Spirit does not only illuminate the understanding; it also fires with love, as the Apostle says, "The love of God is diffused in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given us" (Rom 5:5).
III.5. 'That is perhaps why we do not read that those who know God but do not give him glory (Rom 1:21) do not know him through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, for although they know him they do not love him. Thus you have, "God has revealed himself to them" (Rom
1:19), but Paul does not add, "through the Holy Spirit," lest those wicked minds should think themselves to have received the kiss of the Bride. They were content with a knowledge which puffed them up, but they did not know about that which builds up (1 Cor 8:1). The Apostle tells us how they knew. "They perceived him in the things he had made" (Rom 1:20).
It is clear from this that they did not fully know him, for they did not love him. For if they had fully known him they could not have been ignorant of the goodness which made him willing to be born and to die for their redemption. Hear what was revealed to them about God, "his everlasting power and divinity" (Rom 1:20). You see that in their presumption of spirit (their own spirit, not the Spirit of God) they considered his sublimity and majesty, but they did not understand that he was meek and lowly of heart (Mt 11:29). That is not surprising, for their leader Behemoth sees everything that is high (Jb 41:25), nothing that is humble. But David did not walk in great things, nor in wonders above himself (Ps 130:1). He was not a peerer into majesty, in case he should be dazzled by glory (Prv 25:27).
IV.6. You, too, always remember the words of the wise, so that you may be cautious in stepping into mysteries. "Do not try to understand things that are too difficult for you, or try to discover what is
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beyond your powers" (Sir 3:22). Walk in such things in the Spirit (Gal 5:16) and not by your own senses. The teaching of the Spirit does not sharpen curiosity; it inspires love. The Bride rightly, when she seeks him whom her heart loves (Sg 3:1), does not trust her senses or rely on the vain speculations of human curiosity; she asks for a kiss. That is, she calls on the Holy Spirit, through whom she will receive at the same time both the taste of knowledge and the savor of grace. And that knowledge which is given in a kiss is received with love, for a kiss is the sign of love. The knowledge which puffs up (1 Cor 8:1) does not come from a kiss, for it is loveless. But they who have a zeal for God but not by knowing him (Rom 10:2) cannot in any way lay claim to it. For the grace of the kiss brings with it a double gift, both the light of knowledge and the wealth of devotion. He is the Spirit of wisdom and understanding (Is 11:2). Like a bee carrying both wax and honey he has the power to kindle the light of knowledge and to pour out the savor of grace. Neither he who understands the truth without love, nor he who loves without understanding, then, can think himself to have received this kiss.
This kiss leaves no room for error or apathy.
V.6. Therefore let the Bride who is about to receive the twofold grace of this holy kiss prepare her two lips, her reason for the gift of understanding, her will for the gift of wisdom, so that rejoicing in the fullness of the kiss she may deserve to hear, "Your lips are moist with grace, for God has blessed you forever" (Ps 44:3).
VI.6. And so the Father, kissing the Son, pours into him in full the mysteries of his divinity, and breathes the sweetness of love. Scripture says so when it remarks that "day to day pours forth speech" (Ps
18:3). As we have said, no creature has been given the privilege of witnessing this eternal unique and blessed embrace. Only the Holy Spirit is witness, and able to share their mutual knowledge and love. "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor" (Rm
11:34)?
VI.6. But perhaps someone will say to me, "What thunderous voice, then, told you what you say no creature knows?" I reply, "It is the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father. He has made him known" (Jn 1:18). He has made him known, I say, not to me, unworthy wretch that I am, but to John, the Bridegroom's friend (Jn 3:29), for these are his words; and he made him known to John the Evangelist, too, the disciple Jesus loved (Jn 13:23). For his soul was pleasing to the Lord (Wis 4:14), and worthy both of the dowry and the name of a Bride; deserving the Bridegroom's embraces and worthy to recline on the
SERMONS © Bridegroom's breast (Jn 13:25). John learned from the heart of the onlybegotten what he had learned. from his Father. Not he alone, but all those to whom the Angel of Great Counsel (Is 9:6) said, "I call you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have told you" (Jn
15:15). Paul imbibed it, for the Gospel he preached is not of men, not did he receive it through men, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ (Gal
1:11).
VIL7. All these could say happily and with truth, "The only-begotten who was in the bosom of the Father, he has told" us (Jn 1:18).
And what is that telling but a kiss? But it is the kiss of a kiss, not of the mouth. Hear about the kiss of the mouth, "I and the Father are one"
(jn 10:30), and again, "I am in the Father and the Father in me" (Jn 14:10). This is a kiss from mouth to mouth which no creature can receive. It is a kiss of peace and love. But that love surpasses all knowledge
(Eph 3:19) and that peace passes all understanding (Phil 4:7). Truly what eye has not seen nor ear heard, and what has not entered the mind of man (1 Cor 2:9), God revealed to Paul through his Spirit, that is, by the kiss of his mouth. Therefore, the kiss of the mouth is the Son in the Father and the Father in the Son (Jn 14:10). As we read, "Instead of the spirit of the world we have received the Spirit that comes from God, to teach us to understand the gifts he has given us" (1 Cor 2:12).
VII.8. But let us distinguish more clearly between the two. He who receives of the fullness receives the kiss of the mouth. He who receives of the fullness (Jn 1:16) receives the kiss of the kiss.
Paul was great. But however high he lifted up his mouth, even to the third heaven (2 Cor 12:2), he could only remain at a distance from the mouth of the Most High. He must be content to stay within the limits of his nature, and since he could not reach the face of glory, he humbly asked for the kiss to be given him from above.
He who did not think it robbery to be equal with God (Phil 2:6) dared to speak thus, "I and the Father are one" (Jn 10:30), because he was united to him as an equal and embraced him as an equal. He does not beg a kiss from below, but his mouth meets the Father's mouth directly and by a unique privilege he kisses him on the mouth. Therefore the kiss Christ receives is fullness, that of Paul a participation. Christ gloried in the kiss of the mouth, and Paul only in the kiss of the kiss.
VIL9. This kiss is a joy, however, through which not only is God known but the Father loved, who is never fully known unless he is loved. Is there not a soul among you who sometimes hears the Spirit of the Son crying in his inmost heart, "Abba, Father" (Gal 4:6)? Let him
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who feels himself loved by the Father realize that he is moved by the same Spirit as the Son. Trust without reserve. Be of good courage (Jas
1:6). Know yourself to be the Father's daughter in the Spirit of the Son.
Know yourself to be the Bride, or sister of the Son, for you will find both these names given to her who loves the Son. Here is a text to prove it—I need not labor the point. The Bridegroom says to her, "Come into my garden, my sister, my Bride" (Sg 5:1). She is a sister because she is of the one Father, a Bride because she is in one spirit with him. For if carnal marriage makes two one flesh (Gn 2:24), why should not spiritual union make two one spirit (1 Cor 6:17)? But hear, too, of the Father, how lovingly he calls her *daughter" to honor her, and nevertheless invites her as his own daughter-in-law to the sweet caresses of his Son,
*Hear, daughter, and see, and listen; forget your people and your father's house and the King will desire your beauty" (Ps 44:11ff.). See from whom this bride demands a kiss. O holy soul, be reverent, for he is the Lord your God (Ps 94:6ff.), who perhaps ought not to be kissed, but adored with the Father and the Holy Spirit, world without end,
Amen.
SERMON 50
I.1. Perhaps you are waiting for me to go on and finish talking about the verse we have been considering. I have a better idea; for I have still some crumbs of yesterday's feast to set before you, which I have gathered up so that they may not be lost (Jn 6:12). They will perish if I do not offer them to anyone. If I want to keep them to enjoy for myself, | myself shall perish! I am unwilling to cheat your throat, which I know well, especially as they come from the dish of love, the sweeter because they are delicate, the more full of flavor because they are tiny. It is quite contrary to love to cheat in love. So here I am; "He has ordained love in me" (Sg 2:4).
1.2. Love is expressed in action and in feeling. As to love in action, I believe men have been given a law, a settled commandment (Dt 5:6).
But what need has love of commandment? You are commanded to show love in action so that you may have merit; the sensation of love is its own reward. We do not deny that this present life can, by divine grace, give experience of its beginning, and of its progress, but we stoutly maintain that it is fully known only in the happiness of the life to come.
How then were things which could not in any way be fulfilled made
SERMONS commandments? Or, if you would rather say that it is the sensation of love which is commanded, I do not disagree, so long as you agree with me that it can never and never will be possible for any man to fulfill it.
For who dares to claim for himself what even Paul owned he did not understand (Phil 3:13)? The Lawgiver knew that the burden of law was greater than men could bear, but he judged it to be useful for this very reason to advise men that they were not able to fulfill it, so that they might know clearly to what end of righteousness they ought to strive as far as their powers permit. So by commanding what was impossible he made men, not prevaricators, but humble, so that every mouth may be silent and all the world made subject to God, for no one will be justified in his sight by keeping the law (Rom 3:19-20). So accepting that command and aware of our insufficiency, we shall cry to heaven and God will have mercy on us (1 Mc 4:10). And we shall know on that day that God has saved us not by the just works we have done, but because he is merciful (Ti 3:5).
1.3. This is what I should say if we were agreed that the sensation of love is commanded by law. But it seems to fit love in action much better, for when the Lord said, "Love your enemies" he spoke immediately afterward of actions, *Do good to those who hate you" (Lk 6:27).
Scripture also says, "If your enemy is hungry feed him; if he is thirsty give him drink" (Rom 12:20). Here you have a reference to actions, not to feeling. But hear also what the Lord commands concerning love of himself. "If you love me," he says, "keep my commandments" (Jn
14:15). And here, too, by telling us to keep the commandments, he presses us to action. 'There would have been no point in his saying that we were to be active if love were nothing but feeling. That is why it is necessary for you also to accept the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself, even if it is not put as clearly as this (Mt 22:39). Do you think, then, that you do enough to fulfill the command to love your neighbor if you observe perfectly what natural law tells every man to do: "Do not do unto others what you would not wish done to yourself"
(Tb 4:16; RB 61), and "Do to others as you would wish others to do to you" (Mt 7:12).
4. Ido not say that we should be without feeling, acting with our hands only and with cold hearts. I read among other things that the Apostle, describing the many great and heavy troubles of mankind, numbers among them being without feeling (Rom 1:31; 2 Tm 3:3).
II.4. But there is an affection born of the flesh and another ruled by reason; and one seasoned by wisdom. The first is that which the
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apostle describes as not subject to the law of God—as it cannot be (Rom 8:7). The second, by contrast, he shows to be in accord with the law of God because it is good (Rom 7:16). There can be no doubt that the contentious and the harmonious differ. The third is very different from both, because it tastes and experiences the sweetness of the Lord (Ps
33:9); it dispatches the first and rewards the second. The first is certainly pleasing, but it is vile; the second dry but strong; the last is rich and sweet. Through the second, therefore, works are done and love is there, not the love of feeling, which, growing richer with the condiment of wisdom's salt (Col 4:6), fills the mind with the manifold sweetness of the Lord (Ps 30:20), but rather that which is practical. It does not yet refresh sweetly with the sweetness of that love, but it kindles a fierce desire for it. "Do not love," he says, "in word or speech, but in deed and in truth" (1 Jn 3:18).
II.5. Do you see how cautiously he makes his way between flawed and feeling love, while distinguishing both from the love which is active and saving? He does not find room in this love for the pretending of a lying tongue, nor does he demand as yet the taste of loving wisdom.
"Let us love in deed and in truth," he says, because we are moved to good works more by the lively impulse of truth than by feeling the enjoyment of love. "He ordained love in me" (Sg 2:4). Which of these do you think he meant? Both, but in the opposite order. For love in action prefers what is humble; feeling, what is lofty. For instance, there is no doubt that the mind which feels rightly loves God more than men, and among men the more perfect is preferred to the weaker, heaven to earth, eternity to time, soul to body. In well-ordered action, on the other hand, often, or even always, the reverse is the case.
For we are more often and more urgently moved to help our neighbor, and we do so with the more care, in the case of our weaker brothers. By human right and very necessity, we think more of peace on earth than peace in heaven
(Lk 2:14). While we worry about temporal things we can scarcely attend to things eternal. In attending perpetually to the weaknesses of our bodies, we forget to take care of our souls. Lastly, as the Apostle says, we give greater honor to our weaker members (1 Cor 12:23), and thus fulfill in a way the Lord's words, "The last shall be first and the first last" (Mt 20:16). Who will doubt that a man speaks to God when he is praying? But how often are we drawn, even snatched away for love's sake, to help those who need our actions or words? How often does holy peace give way to the hurly-burly of business? How often is a book set aside with a good conscience, so that we may sweat at manual labor?
SERMONS How often do we quite rightly omit even the solemn celebration of Mass for the sake of the duties of this world? A preposterous order, but necessity is subject to no law. Love in action imposes its own order, according to the command of the Head of the family, putting the last first (Mt 20:8). That is certainly holy and right, which is not a respecter of rank, and does not consider price but human need (Acts 10:34; Jb
32:2.
II.6. But not so the sensation of love, which takes its order from the first. It is the wisdom by which everything is experienced as it is.
So, for example, the more deserving the nature, the greater the love it evokes; the less, the less; the least, very little. The order which the truth of love imposes, the love of truth makes its own. Now true love is found in this, that those who are in greatest need receive first (1 Jn 4:10), and once more loving truth is apparent, if we keep the same order in feeling as in reason.
III. But if you love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength (Mk 12:30), and, leaping in desire beyond that love of love with which love in action is satisfied to the divine love to which it is a stepping stone, you will be wholly on fire with the fullness of what you have received by the Spirit and you will taste God, not as he really is, for that is impossible for any creatures, but certainly to the limit of which you are capable. Then you will love yourself as you are, since you will know that there is nothing to love in you except insofar as you are his. He is all your reason for loving, and you pour all your love out upon him. You will know yourself as you are, I say, when you discover by experience of your love of yourself that there is nothing in you worthy of love except for his sake, you who without him are nothing.
IIL.7. As for your neighbor, whom you ought to love as yourself (Mt 19:19): To experience him as he is, is the same as to experience yourself, for he is as you are. You do not love yourself except as you love God, so love as you do yourself all those who love him likewise.
But you who love God cannot love an enemy as you love yourself, for he is nothing, because he does not love God (1 Jn 4:20). Nevertheless, you will love him, so that he may love. For to love someone so that he may love and to love him who loves are not the same. In order to experience him as he is, then, you must experience him not for what he is, for that is nothing, but for what he may become, itself almost nothing, for it is not certain. Him who will obviously not return to the love of God you must regard not as almost nothing, but as absolutely noth-
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ing, for he will be nothing forever. There is only this exception: not only is he not to be loved; he is even to be regarded with hatred, according to these words, "Lord, do I not hate those who hate you, and loathe those who are your enemies?" (Ps 138:21). Open-hearted love does not, however, allow us to reftise to feel anything at all to any man, even the greatest enemy. Who has wisdom to understand this (Ps
106:43)?
III.8. Give me a man who above all loves God with all his heart, himself and his neighbor in that they love God; but his enemy as one who will one day love perhaps; his parents who begot him with a warm natural love, but his spiritual teachers the more because of grace. Let him deal similarly with the other things of God in an orderly, loving way, despising the earth, looking up to heaven, using this world as if not using it (1 Cor 7:31), and discriminating between what is used and what enjoyed, by the experience of his mind. Let him treat transitory things as passing, as necessary for the moment; let him cling to eternal things with an enduring desire. Give me such a man, I say, and I will boldly call him wise, because he recognizes things for what they really are, because he can truly and confidently claim, "He has ordained love in me" (Sg 2:4). But where is he, and where will he be found? I ask in tears (Phil 3:18), how long shall we scent and not taste, seeing our homeland far off, not possessing it but sighing for it. O Truth, fatherland of exiles, end of their exile! I see you, but imprisoned in flesh, I may not enter. Muddy with sins, I cannot be admitted.
O Wisdom, stretching from end to end, establishing and ordering everything (Wis 8:1), and arranging all things sweetly by enhancing feeling and making it orderly, guide what we do as your everlasting truth requires, so that each of us may securely glory in you and say, "He ordained love in me"
(Sg 2:4). For you are the strength of God and the Wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:24), Christ, the Bridegroom of the Church and our Lord, God blessed forever. Amen (Rom 1:25).
SERMON 62
"My dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the crannies of the wall" (Sg 2:14).
The dove finds safe refuge not only in the clefts of the rock, but also in the crannies of the wall. If we take the "wall" to be not an assembly of stones but the communion of saints, perhaps the crannies of the wall can be seen as the gaps left empty by the angels when they fell, and
SERMONS which are to be filled by men, like ruins to be mended by living stones.
That is why the Apostle Peter says, "Come to him, to that living stone, and like living stones be yourselves built into spiritual houses" (1 Pt 2:4—
5).
I do not think it is inappropriate to understand the guardianship of angels as being like a wall in the Lord's vineyard (which is the Church of those who are predestined), for Paul says, "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who receive the inheritance of salvation?" (Heb 1:14). And the prophet says, "The angel of the Lord hovers round those who fear him" (Ps 33:8).
And so if we take it in that sense, it will mean that two things console the Church in her exile: the memory of the Passion of Christ in the past and in the future the contemplation of what she both thinks and believes will be her welcome among the saints (Col. 1:12).
In these glimpses of the past and the future she is filled with deep longing. Each is wholly pleasing to her. Each is a refuge from the evils which trouble her and from her sorrow (Ps 31:7, 106:39). Her consolation is complete, for she knows not only what she is to expect, but the source from which it is to come. It is a joyous expectation with no hesitation in it, because it rests on the death of Christ.
Why should she be awestruck at the greatness of the reward when she weighs the price that was paid for it? How joyously she thinks of the clefts in the wall through which the ransom of his most precious blood flowed upon her. How joyously she explores the crannies, the many and varied resting-places and mansions which are in her Father's house (Jn 14:2), in which he lodges his children according to the deserts of each! And indeed she does the only thing she can for now, and rests there in memory, entering in imagination into the heavenly home which is above.
In time, she will mend the ruins (Ps 109:6) and dwell in both body and mind in those crannies, when she will light up with the presence of all her members the empty habitations deserted by those who once dwelt there. Then no cranny will be seen in the wall of heaven. It will be happily restored again to perfection and wholeness.
II.2. But if you prefer, let us say that those crannies are not found but rather made, by studious and pious minds. How is that, you ask?
By thought and desire. The wall crumbles like soft stone before the holy desire of the soul (Is 26:8). It falls to pure contemplation and yields to frequent prayer. For "the just man's prayer pierces the skies" (Sir
Shed i
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It does not enter the spacious heights of this bodily air, in the way that a bird in flight does when it beats its wings, or pierce the dome of high heaven like a sharp sword. But there are holy heavens, living, rational, which tell of the glory of God (Ps 18:1), and they will look on us lovingly and gladly hear our prayers; and when they recognize our devotion, take us to their hearts whenever we come to them with good intentions. For "to him who knocks, it will be opened" (Mt 7:8).
So each of us is able, even while we live this mortal life, to hollow out a place for himself in this heavenly wall, wherever he likes. We can go and see the patriarchs now, greet the prophets now, now mingle even with the assembly of the apostles, now join the chorus of martyrs.
Now we can even, with the quickness devotion gives us, run up and down the dwelling-places and ranks of the blessed orders of the angels up to the cherubim and seraphim. And if we stand and knock wherever we are drawn, moved inwardly by the Spirit's will (1 Cor 12:11), the door will be opened to us at once (Lk 12:36). It will be as though a cranny has been made in the holy mountains, or rather, in the minds of the holy ones, and they take us to themselves so that we may share their rest for a time.
God is pleased by the face and voice of every soul which does this: the face because of its candor; the voice because it is lifted in praise.
"For praise and beauty are in his sight" (Ps 95:6). It is to the man who is like this that he says, "Show me your face. Let your voice sound in my ears" (Sg 2:14). This is the voice of wonder in the mind of the contemplative, the voice which gives thanks. God takes delight in crannies like this, from which rings out the sound of thanksgiving, the sound of wonder and praise.
II.3. Happy is the mind which is often at work making a hollow for itself in this wall. But how much happier is he who makes it in the rock! For it is good to make hollows in the rock, too, but to do that the mind must have a very keen edge of purity, and a wholehearted purpose, and it must have greater merits. "Who is equal to such a calling"
(2 Cor 2:16)? Surely he was who said, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God" (Jn 1:1-2). Does it not seem to you that he had penetrated to the very depths of the Word, and drawn forth from his innermost breast the holiest essence of divine wisdom? What of he who spoke wisdom among the perfect, wisdom veiled in mystery, which none of the princes of this world knew (1 Cor 2:6—8)?
Surely this holy gazer, who passed through the first and second
SERMONS heavens by his keen but devout curiosity, gained this wisdom at last from the third? He tells us himself, as faithfully as he can, in the most exact words he can find. But he also heard words which cannot be spoken, which he is not allowed to speak to men, for he spoke them to himself and to God (2 Cor 12:4). Perhaps God says to him, as if to console his anxious love, "Why are you troubled because human hearing cannot capture your thought? Let your voice sound in my ears" (Sg
2:14). If what you feel cannot be revealed to mortals, be comforted nevertheless, for your voice can seek to delight the ears of God. Do you see the holy soul of Paul, now solemn for love of us, transported in the purity of its love for God (2 Cor 5:13)? See Holy David, too, whether he himself is not the man of whom he says to God as though he were speaking of someone else, "For the thought of a man will offer you praise, and the rest of his thoughts will be a feast-day for you" (Ps
75:11). So as much as could come through the medium of the prophet's thought, word, and example, he spoke aloud at once in praising the Lord before the people; and the rest he kept between himself and God.
They hold festival together "in joy and exultation" (Ps 44:16). This, then, is what he wanted to tell us in this verse. He passed on whatever he could of all he saw and understood of the mystery of wisdom, by preaching it fully to the people. The remainder, which the people could not understand, he expressed in praise to God in a festivity of joy. See, there is nothing lost in holy contemplation, when what cannot be shared with the people for their edification becomes a sweet and lovely praise of God (Ps 146:1).
III.3. It is clear, then, that there are two sorts of contemplation.
One is concerned with the life and happiness and glory of the heavenly city, where a great multitude of heavenly citizens is busy with activity, or at rest. The other is directed toward the majesty, eternity, and divinity of the King himself. The first is of the wall, the other of the rock.
The more difficult the hollowing out, the sweeter the taste of the reward. Do not be afraid of Scripture's warning about gazing upon majesty (Prv 25:27). Just bring a pure and single eye (Lk 11:34). You will not be dazzled by the glory, but allowed to look into it (Prv 25:27)— unless it is not God's glory but your own that you are seeking. Otherwise, each is overwhelmed not by God's glory but his own. When you bend down toward your own glory, you cannot lift up your head to look at his, because you are weighed down by greed.
With that out of the way, let us tunnel confidently in the rock, in which the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden (Col 2:3). If
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you are still not convinced, hear what the Rock himself says. "Those who do things in me shall not sin" (Sir 24:30). Who will give me wings like a dove so that I may fly away and be at rest (Ps 54:7)? The meek and simple find rest (Mt 11:29) where the deceitful man is oppressed, and the man who is puffed up and desirous of vainglory (Gal 5:26). The Church is a dove, and so she rests. She is a dove because she meekly receives the Word which enters her (Jas 1:21). And she rests in the Word, that is, in the Rock, for the Rock is the Word.
And so the Church is in the clefts of the Rock, and she gazes through them and sees the glory of her Bridegroom. But she is not overwhelmed by glory because she does not claim it for herself. She is not overwhelmed because she is not peering into the majesty of God but seeking to know his will. She does sometimes dare to contemplate what belongs to his majesty, yet in wonder, not curiosity. But if ever she is carried away in rapture, it is because the finger of God deigns so to raise man up (Ex 8; Lk 11:20), not the rashness of man insolently pushing its way into the depths of God. For when the Apostle recalls that rapture, he makes excuse for his daring (2 Cor 12:2). What other mortal man would be so presumptuous as to attempt by himself to make a fearful scrutiny of the divine majesty? What insolent contemplative would try to burst into those awesome mysteries? I think that although those who scrutinize majesty are called "invaders," that applies not to those who are carried away but to those who push their way in. And so it is they who are overwhelmed by glory.
III.5. Scrutinizing God's majesty, then, is something to regard with awe. But it is safe and devout to seek to know his will. Why should
I not devote myself wholeheartedly to studying the mystery of his holy will when I know. that I must obey it in all things? Sweet is the glory whose only source is the contemplation of his sweetness, the riches of his goodness, the multitude of his mercies (Ex 34:6; Rom 2:4). "We have seen his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father" (Jn 1:14).
Whatever glory is seen in this way is kindly and fatherly. That glory will not overwhelm me (Prv 25:27), even if I bend all my energies upon it; rather, it will impress itself on me. And "with faces unveiled, beholding the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit (2 Cor 3:18).
We are transformed when we become like him. God forbid that a man should presume to be conformed to the glory of his majesty rather than the modesty of his will. This is my glory (2 Cor 1:12), to hear it
SERMONS said of me one day, "I have found a man after my own heart" (Acts 13:22). The heart of the Bridegroom is the Father's heart. What is it like? Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful (Lk 6:36). This is what he wants to see when he says to the Church, "Show me your face" (Sg
2:14), a look of love and gentleness. Let her raise such a face in perfect faith to the Rock she resembles. "Come to him and be enlightened," says the Psalmist, "and your faces shall never be ashamed" (Ps 33:6).
How can the humble be put to shame by the humble, the devout by the holy, the modest by the meek? The Bride's pure face will no more shrink back from the purity of the Rock than virtue from virtue or light from light.
IV.6. But because up to now the whole Church has not been able to make a cleft in the Rock—for it is not possible for everyone in the Church to search out the mysteries of the divine will (Eph 1:9) or penetrate the depths of God for himself (1 Cor 2:10)—the Church is shown to dwell not only in the clefts of the rock but also in the crannies of the wall. Therefore she dwells in the clefts of the rock through those who are perfect, who dare to explore and penetrate into the secrets of wisdom in purity of conscience, and who are able to do so because of the keenness of their understanding.
As for others, those who either cannot hollow out the rock for themselves or do not have the courage to do so, let them be content to dig in the wall and see the glory of the saints in their minds. If anyone cannot do even this, let him set before him Jesus and him crucified (1
Cor 2:2), so that without any labor of his own he may dwell in the clefts of the rock he has not made for himself (Jn 4:38). The Jews labored at them, and such a man will take advantage of the labors of unbelievers in order to be a believer himself. Let him not fear that he will suffer a rebuff. "Enter into the rock," says Isaiah, "and hide in the hollowed ground from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty" (Is 2:10). To the soul which is still weak and sluggish, who confesses in the words of the Gospel that he is unable to dig and ashamed to beg (Lk 16:3), is shown here a hollow in the ground where he may gather strength until he grows strong and vigorous enough to make a cleft in the rock for himself to enter the inwardness of the Word.
— IV.7. And if we understand a reference to this hollow in the ground in the words "they have dug my hands and my feet" (Ps 21:17), we can be in no doubt that the wounded soul which lies there will rapidly be restored to health. For what can be so effective a cure for the wound of conscience and so purifying to keenness of mind as steady
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meditation on the wounds of Christ? Indeed I do not see how anyone can apply the words "Let me see your face; let me hear your voice" (Sg
2:14) until he is wholly purified and healed. How can anyone dare to show his face or raise his voice if he is told to hide? He was told to "hide in the hollowed ground" (Is 2:10). Why? Because he was so ugly he was not fit to be seen.
He was not fit to be seen as long as he was not fit to see. But when he has made such progress in the healing of his inner eye by hiding in the hole in the ground that he can look on the glory of God with his face uncovered (2 Cor 3:18), then, pleasing in voice and face alike, he will confidently say what he will see. The face must be pleasing which can look on the brightness of God. Nor could it do this if it was not itself clear and pure, and wholly transformed into the likeness of the brightness it gazes on. Otherwise it would fall back through sheer unlikeness, recoil at the splendor it is not accustomed to. When a pure soul can gaze on the pure truth, then, the Bridegroom himself will want to look at his face and then to hear his voice.
IV.8. He shows how much he is pleased by the pure mind's preaching of the truth when he says at once, "For your voice is sweet"
(Sg 2:14). He shows that an ugly face makes the voice displeasing to him when he says next, "And your face is lovely." What is the inner loveliness of the face but purity? A lovely face is pleasing in many who do not preach. But without it, preaching pleases no one. Truth does not reveal itself to the impure; wisdom does not entrust itself to such.
How can they speak of that which they have not seen? We speak of what we know and we bear witness to what we have seen (Jn 3:11).
Go, then, and be bold to bear witness to what you have not seen, to preach what you do not know.
Do you ask whom I call impure? Anyone who seeks for human praise, who preaches for money (1 Cor 9:18), for a living, who sees godliness as a means of gain (1 Tm 6:5), who works not for the fruit of the Spirit but for financial reward—these are the impure; and although because they are impure they are not able to perceive the truth, they presume to preach it.
Why do you act so hastily? Why do you not wait for light? Why dare to do the work of light before the light comes? "It is vain for you to get up before it is light" (Ps 126:2). The light is purity, a love which does not want its own way (1 Cor 13:15). If that takes the lead, the tongue will not go astray.
The proud eye does not see the truth. To the sincere the truth is
SERMONS obvious (Ps 100:5). Truth does not withhold itself from the pure in heart and thus fail to be told. "God says to the sinner: what right have you to recite my statutes and speak of my covenant?" (Ps 49:16). Many, having nothing of this purity, try to speak before they see. They have gone badly wrong; knowing nothing of what they are saying or of what they claim, they deserve to be mocked when they teach others what they themselves have not learned (Rom 2:21).
Pray that we may always be preserved from these two evils by the Bridegroom of the Church, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
SERMON 74
I.1. "Return," she says (Sg 2:17). It is clear that he whom she calls to come back is not present. But he was there, and not long before. Indeed, she seems to be calling him back as he is leaving. She calls him back urgently, and that is a sign of the great love she bears him and of his great loveliness. Who are these who are so wrapped up in love, these unwearying lovers who are driven on by a love which will not let them rest?
It is my task to carry out my promise and to show how these words apply to the Word and the soul (Sc 73:10). But to do so worthily—or indeed at all—I tell you that I need the help of the Word himself.
That Word ought to be expounded by someone far, far more experienced, who knows more about that holy and mysterious love than
I. But I must do my duty—and what you ask. I see the danger, but I ignore it because you force me to (2 Cor 12:22). You oblige me to walk in great things and in wonders which are beyond me (Ps 130:1). Oh, how I fear that I shall suddenly hear, "Why do you speak of my delights and let my secret out in your talk?" (cf. Ps 49:16). Hear me then, as a man who is afraid to speak, but is not able to be silent. That fear of mine may perhaps excuse my boldness; and if you are perhaps edified, that will excuse me further—as perhaps, too, will these tears I shed.
"Return," she says. Good. He was going away; he is called back.
Who will explain to me the mystery of this change? Who will give a worthy account of the Word's coming and going? Surely the Bridegroom is not inconstant? Where can he come from or go to, he who fills heaven and earth (Jer 23:24)? How can he who is spirit (Jn 4:24) move
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from place to place? How can you say that there is any movement of any kind in God? He is unchanging.
L2. Let him who is able understand (Mt 19:12). But let us go on carefully (Eph 5:15) and with pure hearts (Prv 11:20) to expound this holy and mysterious utterance (Is 23:3), and do as Scripture does, in speaking of the wisdom which is hidden in the mystery (1 Cor 2:7); it speaks of God in images we can understand; in comparisons with things familiar to the senses; by putting what is precious, the unknown and unseen things of God (Rom 1:20), in common vessels (2 Cor 4:7), it brings them within the grasp of human minds.
Let us, then, follow the way of this pure Word (Ps 11:7) and say that the Word of God, God himself, the soul's Bridegroom, comes to the soul as he wishes and leaves it again (1 Cor 12:11). But let us understand that this is only how it feels to the soul; there is no movement of the Word. When the soul is aware of grace, she knows that the Word is with her. When she is not, she seeks him who is absent, and begs him to come to her, saying with the prophet, "My face has sought you; your face, Lord will I seek" (Ps 26:8). How could she not? For when so sweet a Bridegroom leaves her, she cannot desire or even think of any other.
So she longs for him in his absence, and calls him back as he leaves. So then, the Word is recalled, and by the soul's desire, by that soul which has once tasted his sweetness (Is 26:8).
Is longing not a cry? It is a loud one! Then, "The Lord has heard the desire of the poor," says Scripture (Ps 9:38). When the Word goes away, then, the one and continuous cry of the soul, its endless desire, is a repeated "Return," until he comes.
I.3. And now give me a soul which the Word, the Bridegroom, often visits, to which familiarity has brought courage, which hungers for what it has tasted, and whose contempt for all but him has freed it from all other preoccupations. I will unhesitatingly attribute to her the voice and name of Bride, and I shall consider everything this passage says to be applicable to her. For that is how the speaker is portrayed.
For she proves that she has deserved the presence of him whom she calls back, even if not his constant presence. Otherwise she would call him, not recall him. For the word "return" is a word of recall.
And perhaps he has withdrawn so that he might the more eagerly be called back and embraced more closely. For once he made as if to go further not because he wished to do so, but because he wanted to hear them say, "Stay with us till morning for the evening draws on" (Lk
24:28—9). And again, when the Apostles were in a boat and were la-
SERMONS boring at the oars, he walked on the water, and seemed to be passing them by; yet he was not going by, but only testing their faith and encouraging their prayers (Mk 6:48). Then, as the Evangelist says, they were troubled and cried out, thinking he was a ghost (Mk 6:49). This holy pretense, this saving contrivance, which the incarnate Word then showed, the same Word still makes as spirit, in his spiritual way, when he wants to stir the soul which loves him. He pretends to pass by, but he goes only to be recalled, for the Word is not irrevocable. He comes and goes as he pleases, as if visiting the soul at dawn (Jb 7:18), and suddenly putting it to the test. His going is part of his purpose; his return is at his will. Both are in perfect wisdom. Only he knows his reasons.
II.4. Now it is agreed that his comings and goings are the alterations in the soul of which he speaks when he says, "I go away and come to you again" (Jn 14:28), and "A little while and you shall not see me and again a little while and you shall see me" (Jn 16:17).
Oh, little and little! Such a long time! Dear Lord, you say it is only for a little while that we do not see you. What you say must be true, yet it is too long, far too long. Both are true: It is a little while in terms of our deserts, and a long time in terms of our desire. You can find both in the prophet. "If he delays, wait for him; for he will come and not delay" (Hb 2:3). How can he not be long, if he delays, unless he comes more quickly than we deserve and yet more slowly than we desire? The loving soul is carried away by longing, swept away by desire; she does not think what she deserves. She closes her eyes to his majesty and sees only the pleasure he brings; she trusts in his saving grace (Ps 11:6), and puts her faith in him. Boldly and without shame she calls the Word back, and trustingly she asks to have his delights again. She calls him with the freedom we associate not with a Lord but with a lover. *Return, my Beloved." And she adds, "Be like a fawn or a doe on the mountains of Bethel" (Sg 2:17). We shall come back to that later.
II.5. Now bear with my foolishness for a little while (2 Cor Hb I want to tell you, for I promised, about my own experience. It is not important (2 Cor 12:1). But I do so in the hope that it may benefit you, and if it does I shall be content in my foolishness. If not, my foolishness will be plain enough.
I tell you that the Word has come even to me—I speak in my foolishness—and that he has come more than once (2 Cor 11:17). Yet however often he has come, I have never been aware of the moment of his coming. I have known he was there; I have remembered his presence afterward; sometimes I had an inkling that he was coming. But I never
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felt it, nor his leaving me (Ps 120:8). And where he comes from when he enters my soul, or where he goes when he leaves it, and how he enters and leaves, I frankly do not know. As it says, "You do not know where he comes from, nor where he goes" (Jn 3:8). That is not surprising, for of him was it said, "Your footsteps will not be known" (Ps
76:20). He did not enter by the eyes, for he has no color; nor by the ears, for he made no sound; nor by the nostrils, for he is not mingled with the air, but the mind. He did not blend into the air; he created it.
His coming was not tasted by the mouth, for he was not eaten or drunk; nor could he be touched, for he is impalpable. So by what route did he enter?
Or perhaps he did not enter at all, because he did not come from outside? For he is not one of those who are without (1 Cor 5:12). Yet he does not come from within me, for he is good (Ps 51:11), and I know that there is no good in me. I have climbed up to the highest that is in me, and see! The Word is far, far above. A curious explorer, I have plumbed my own depths, and he was far deeper than that. If I looked outward, I saw him far beyond. If I looked inward, he was further in still. And I knew that what I had read was true, that "in him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). But blessed is he in whom he has his being, who lives for him and is moved by him.
II.6. You ask then how I knew he was present, he whose ways cannot be traced (Rom 11:33). He is life and power (Heb 4:12), and as soon as he enters in he stirs my sleeping soul. He moves and soothes and pierces my heart (Sg 4:9), which was as hard as stone and riddled with disease (Sir 3:27; Ez 11:19, 36:26). And he begins to root up and destroy, to build and to plant, to water the dry places and light the dark corners (cf. Jer 1:10), to open what was closed, set what was cold on fire, to make the crooked straight and the rough places smooth (Is 40:4), so that my soul may bless the Lord and all that is within me praise his holy name (Ps 102.1).
And so when the Bridegroom, the Word, came to me he never made any sign that he was coming; there was no sound of his voice, no glimpse of his face, no footfall. There was no movement of his by which I could know his coming; none of my senses showed me that he had flooded the depths of my being. Only by the warmth of my heart, as I said before, did I know that he was there, and I knew the power of his might because (Eph 1:13) my faults were purged and my body's yearnings brought under control. And when my secret faults were revealed
(Ps 18:13) and made visible, I have been amazed at the depth of his wis-
SERMONS dom (Sir 7:25). At the slightest sign of amendment of life, I have experienced the goodness of his mercy. In the remaking and renewing of the spirit of my mind (Eph 4:23), that is, the inner man, I perceived the excellence of his glorious beauty (Ps 49:2); and when I contemplate all these things I am filled with awe of his manifold greatness (Ps 150:2).
II.7. But when the Word has left me, and all these things become dim and weak and cold, as though you had taken the fire from under a boiling pot, I know that he has gone. Then my soul cannot help being sorrowful until he returns, and my heart grows warm within me, and I know he is there.
With such an experience of the Word, is it surprising if I speak the words of the Bride and call him back when he absents himself, when even if I do not burn with an equal desire, I burn with a desire like hers?
It will be natural to me as long as I live to speak "Return," the word of recall, to call back the Word.
As often as he slips away from me, so often will I seek him, and I shall not cease to cry, as if after someone who is leaving (Jgs 18:23), begging him, with a burning desire of the heart, to return (Ps 2033):/1 will beseech him to give me the joy of his salvation (Ps 50:14) and return to me.
III.7. [tell you, children, nothing else gives me joy when he is not with me, who alone is the source of my joy. And I pray that he may not come empty-handed (Is 55:11) but full of grace and truth (Jn 1:14), as is his way, as he did yesterday and the day before (Gn 31:3). In this he is like a roe or a faun (Sg 2:17), for his truth is like a roe's clear eyes and his grace like the gaiety of a faun.
III.8. I need both: truth, so that I cannot hide from him, and grace, so that I do not wish to hide. If either were lacking, his severity might seem heavy without the one and his gaiety frivolous without the other. Truth without grace is bitter; and without the restraint of truth, devotion can be capricious, immoderate, and overconfident. How many people have received grace and not benefited, because they did not accept the truth at the same time to temper it? As a result they have been too complacent in their possession of it (Is 42:1), without regard to the truth. They have not imitated the full-grown roe, but behaved like gay and giddy young fauns. So it is that they have lost the grace they wanted to enjoy by itself. It could be said, too late, to them, "Go then, and learn what it is to serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice in him with awe" (Ps 2:11).
The holy soul once said in her abundance, "I shall never be
SERMONS
moved" (Ps 29:7-8), when suddenly she felt the Word turn his face away from her, and she was not only moved but thrown into confusion. And so she sadly learned that she needed not only the gift of devotion but also the gravity,of truth. Therefore the fullness of grace lies not in grace alone, nor in truth alone. What profit is it to know what you ought to do if you cannot do it? I have known many who were sadder for knowing the truth, for they did not have the excuse of ignorance when they knew what the Truth wanted them to do and did not do it.
III.9. So neither is sufficient without the other. I have not put it strongly enough. Neither is of any use without the other. How do we know that? Scripture says, "If anyone knows what is good and does not do it, it counts as sin in him" (Jas 4:17). And again,
*A servant who knows his master's will and does not do it as he should will be soundly beaten" (Lk 12:47). That is said of truth.
What is said of grace? It is written, "And after the sop Satan entered into him" (Jn 13:27). The reference is to Judas who, having received the gift of grace, did not walk in the truth with the Lord of truth
(or rather, with truth as his mistress), but let the devil find a foothold in him (Eph 4:27). Hear again, "He fed them with the finest wheat and satisfied them with honey from the rock" (Ps 80:16).
Those he has fed with honey and the finest wheat have lied to him because they have not joined truth to grace. Elsewhere you can read of them, "The strange children have lied to me; the strange children have become feeble and limped off their paths" (Ps 17:46). Of course they limp when they walk on one foot, of grace, and do not use the other foot, of truth. Their destiny will be eternal, like that of their prince (Ps 80:16), who himself did not stand fast in the truth, but was a liar from the first (Jn 8:44), and for that reason heard the words, "You have lost your wisdom through your beauty" (Ez
28:17). I do not want a beauty which can rob me of wisdom.
III.10. Are you asking what this harmful and dangerous beauty is? It is yours. Do you perhaps still not understand (Mt 15:16)? Let me put it more plainly. It is a beauty which is exclusive and selfish.
It is not the gift that is to blame for the use to which it is put. For if you notice, it is not because of his beauty but because of his own beauty that Satan is said to have lost his wisdom. And unless I am mistaken, the beauty of an angel and the beauty of a soul are the same. Either is a rough, shapeless mass without that wisdom. But with it, there is not only shapeliness but beauty (Wis 10:1). But he
SERMONS. lost it because he kept it for himself, so that he lost his wisdom not only through his own beauty but through his own wisdom. Possessiveness is the reason.
It is because he was wise in his own eyes (Prv 26:5), not giving the glory to God (Jn 9:24), not returning grace for grace (Jn 1:16), not walking in grace in pursuit of truth (2 Jn 4), turning it to his own purposes; that is why he lost it. Scripture says, "And if Abraham was justified by his works, he has his glory, but not before God" (Rom 4:2). And I would say, "I am not safe." Whatever I have which is not before God,
I have lost. For what is as lost as that which is separated from God?
What is death but the deprivation of life? There is no loss which is not separation from God. "Woe to you who are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own estimation" (Is 5:21). It is said of you, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the prudence of the prudent I will frustrate" (1 Cor 1:19). They have lost wisdom, because their own wisdom has caused them to be lost. What have they not lost, who are themselves lost? Surely those whom God does not recognize are lost (Mt
12:12)?
III.11. Now the foolish virgins (whose foolishness I think consisted in their thinking themselves wise) (Mt 25:2), have been made foolish (Rom 1:22). They hear God saying, "I do not know you" (Mt 25:12).
Those who have used grace to perform miracles to give themselves glory will also hear, "I do not know you" (Mt 7:23). It is perfectly clear that grace is not profitable where there is no truth in the intention; in fact, it is a stumbling-block.
Both grace and truth are found in the Bridegroom. "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (Jn 1:17), says John the Baptist. If the Lord Jesus knocks at my door with one but not the other—for he is the Word of God, the soul's Bridegroom—he will enter not as a Bridegroom but as a judge. Perish the thought! "Do not enter into judgment with your servant" (Ps 142:2). Let him enter as a bringer of peace, joyous and glad; but may he come grave and adult, too, to purify my joy and restrain my overconfidence with the stern face of truth. Let him enter as a leaping faun and a sharp-eyed roe, to pass over my blameworthiness at a bound, and look on my faults with pity. Let him enter as one coming down from the mountains of Bethel, full of joy and radiance, descending from the Father (Jn
15:26), sweet and gentle (Ps 85:5), deigning to become the Bridegroom of the soul that seeks him and to be known as such (Lam
3:25), he who is God, blessed above all forever (Rom 9:5).
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SERMON 80
I.1. I gather that some of you are disturbed that for several days my sermon, lingering in delight with awe and wonder at the mysteries of God, has been spiced with nothing, or only the merest trace, of the salt of practical advice on the living of the Christian life (Col 4:6). That is indeed not my usual way. But let me put it right. I cannot go on unless
I cover everything fully. Tell me then, if you can remember, from what point I began to make this omission, so that I may start again there. For I must make good these losses—or rather, it is for the Lord to do, on whom we depend in everything. So where shall I begin again? Perhaps from here, "In my little bed by night I sought him whom my soul loves"
(Sg 3:1). I think that is the place. From there I had only one anxiety, to bring to light from the dense obscurity of these allegories the secret delights of Christ and the Church. So let us go back and look for the moral sense. What is for your benefit cannot be wearisome to me. And we shall do this appropriately if we look at the Word and the soul as we were looking at Christ and the Church (Eph 5:32).
].2. But someone says to me, "Why do you join these two together? What connection is there between the soul and the Word?" A great deal in every way (Rom 3:2). First, there is the kinship of nature, for one is the Image and the other made in his image (Col 1:15). Second, their kinship indicates an affinity. Surely the soul is made not only in the image of God but also in his likeness (Gn 1:27). In what does this likeness consist, you ask? Hear first about the image. The Word is truth and wisdom and righteousness; these are the Image. Of what? Justice, wisdom, and truth. For this Image is righteousness from righteousness, wisdom from wisdom, truth from truth, as he is light from light, God from God (Nicene Creed). The soul is none of these things, for it is not the Image. But it is capable of these things, and it desires them, and that perhaps is why it is said to be made in the Image. It is a supreme creature, in its capacity for greatness and in its desire to be visibly upright. We read that God made man upright (Qo 7:30) and great. As we have said, his capacity proves that. For what is made in the Image ought to conform to the Image and not bear his name in vain; for the Image himself is not so-called for nothing. You have the saying of him who is the Image that "although he was in the form of God, he did not think it robbery to be equal with God" (Phil 2:6). You see that his uprightness is implied in saying that he is in the form of God, and in the reference to his equality in majesty, so that when uprightness is compared with
SERMONS uprightness and greatness with greatness each is clearly seen to match the other, Image and he who is in his Image, Image with Image. For he is the one of whom you have heard holy David sing, "Great is the Lord and great is his power" (Ps 146:5), and again, "The Lord our God is upright and there is no wickedness in him" (Ps 91:16). He is the Image of this upright and great God, and the soul has it in her because she is in his image to be upright and great too.
II.3. But I ask, is there nothing more of greatness and uprightness in the Image than in the soul which is made in his Image? A great deal!
For the Image is equal with God, but the soul has these things according to her capacity. Is there more than this? Listen to something else.
The soul has both these things by creation and because God makes it worthy; the Image has them by begetting. And there is no doubt that that is more glorious. If anyone wants to deny that, he should remember that the soul receives both from God by his gift, but the Image has them from God directly, that is, from his very substance. For God's
Image is of one substance with him, and everything which he is seen to share with him is of their common substance, not accidental. There is still one thing to consider, in which the Image is no less supreme. It is obvious to everyone that greatness and uprightness are different; but in the Image they are one. And not only that, they are one with the Image himself. For the image, it is not merely the same to be great as it is to be upright, but it is the same to be great and upright as to be. It is not thus for the soul. Her greatness and her uprightness are other than herself and different from each other. If, as I said before, the soul is great because it has a capacity for things eternal, and upright in desiring heaven, then the soul which does not seek or taste what is above but what is earthly (Col 3:2) is not upright at all, but bowed; yet it does not cease in this way to be great; it remains forever capable of enjoying things eternal. For even if it never attains to heaven it never loses its capacity to do so, as it is written, "Truly man passes as an image" (Ps
38:7), but only in part, so that the supremacy of the Word may be clear in its fullness.
For how can the Word fail to be great and upright, since he possesses these as his very self? Man has these in part, because if he lacked them completely there would be no hope of salvation (Acts
27:30); for if he were to cease to be great he would not be capable of greatness, for as I have said, it is in its capacity for greatness that the soul's greatness lies. What hope could he have who could not receive it?
II.4. And so by the greatness which he still has even when he has
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lost his uprightness, "Man passes as an image," but it is as though he were limping on one foot and has become an estranged son. I think it is of such that it is said, "The estranged sons have told me lies; they have grown weak and limped away from the path" (Ps 17:46). They are appropriately called "estranged sons" for they are "sons" because they still have their greatness, "estranged" because they have lost their righteousness. If they had lost their image altogether the Psalmist would not have said "limped," but "fallen away" or something of the sort. Now, then, man "passes as an image" because of his greatness, but as far as his uprightness is concerned, he is troubled, and torn from the image as though limping. Scripture puts it like this, "Truly man passes as an image; he is troubled in vain." Wholly in vain, for it follows, "He piles up treasures and knows not for whom" (Ps 38:7). Why does he not know, unless it is because he is bending down to the ground, and putting his treasure there (Jn 8:6)? More, he does not know for whom he is piling up these treasures on the earth, which may be eaten by moths, dug up by a thief (Mt 6:19), stolen by a foe (Dt 9:3), devoured by fire
(Is 30:27). And so it is to the wretched man, bowed down and brooding over earthly things, that the voice of one who weeps speaks in the Psalm, "I am wretched, and bowed down to the earth; I go in sadness all the day long" (Ps 37:7). He has experienced the truth of Wisdom's saying: "God made man upright but he is bowed down by many sorrows" (Qo 7:30). And just afterward he is mocked and told, "Bow down and let us walk over you" (Is 51:23).
III.5. But how have we got here? Was it not by way of showing that uprightness and greatness, both of which we had found in the Image as his defining characteristics, are not one in the soul, nor one with the soul, in the way that, as we showed in our statement of faith, they are one in the Word and with the Word? It is clear from what we have said that uprightness is distinct from the soul and from the soul's greatness, for even when it is lost, the soul still exists and has its greatness.
But how can it be shown that there is a distinction between the soul and its greatness? It cannot be shown in the same way as we employed in the case of the soul and its uprightness, for the soul cannot lose its greatness as it can its uprightness. Yet the soul is not its greatness. For even if the soul cannot be found without its greatness, yet that greatness is found outside the soul. Where, you ask? In the angels, for the greatness of the angels comes from the same source as the greatness of the soul, that is, from a capacity for what is eternal.
If we agree that the soul can be separated from its uprightness,
SERMONS * because it can lose it, is it not equally clear that it can be distinguished from its greatness, which it cannot claim as its own? And since one is not found in every soul and the other is not found in the soul alone, it is obvious that both alike are distinct from the soul. Again, no form is that of which it is the form. But greatness is the form of the soul. It must be, if it is inseparable from it. All differences between substances are like this, both those with forms which are unique to one thing and those which have many varied forms. The soul is not itself its greatness, any more than a crow is its blackness or snow its whiteness, or a man his capacity for laughter, or his power of reasoning. Thus the soul and its greatness are not to be separated, but they are distinct from one another. They must be inseparable, since one is the subject and the other its substance. Only the supreme and uncreated Nature, which is God the Trinity, possesses this unique simplicity and purity of essence, in which there is not to be found one thing and another, nor one place and another, nor one time and another. God dwells in himself; he is what he possesses and what he is, always and changelessly. In the Trinity many are one, difference is alike, so that no plurality arises from number nor change from variety. God contains all places, and orders all things, being contained in nothing. All time is subject to him, not he to time. He does not look to the future or back at the past, or live in the present.
IV.6. Keep away, beloved, keep away from those who teach innovations, who are not logicians but rather heretics, who impiously argue that the greatness by which God is great (2 Ch 2:5), the goodness by which he is good, the wisdom by which he is wise, the righteousness by which he is righteous, and finally the divinity by which he is God, are not God.' "God is by divinity," they say, "but divinity is not God."
Perhaps it does not deign to be God because it is that by which God is what he is? But if it is not God, what is it? It is either God, or something which is not God, or else nothing. You will not concede that it is God; nor, I think, will you grant that it is nothing. But you say that it is so necessary to God that not only can God not be God without it, but by it he is God. But if it is something which is not God, it must be greater
1. On the controversy over the teaching of Gilbert of Poitiers to which Bernard is referring, and which came to a head in Gilbert's trial at Rheims in 1148, see N. M. Haring,
"The Case of Gilbert de la Porrée, Bishop of Poitiers (1142—54)," Mediaeval Studies 13 (1951):
1-40.
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than God, or lesser, or his equal. How can that by which God is be less than he? So you must postulate that it is greater or equal. If it is greater, it is itself the highest Good, yet not God. If it is equal, there are two highest goods, not one. But the Christian shrinks from both interpretations. Now we hold the same faith about his greatness, his goodness, his righteousness, his wisdom, as we do about his divinity, that they are one in God and with God. His goodness does not have a different source from his greatness, or his righteousness or his wisdom a different source from these. All these have no other source but God. And that is no other than himself.
III.7. But the heretic says, "What? Do you deny that God is God by his divinity?" No, but I hold that the divinity by which God is God is itself God, in case I should regard anything as more excellent than
God. For I hold that God is God by his greatness, but is himself that greatness. Not to believe that is to set something else above God. And I say that he is good by his goodness, which is nothing else but himself.
Otherwise I might appear to have discovered something better than he is. And so for the rest. I go on in freedom and security, without stumbling, as they put it, keeping before me the vision of him who said,
"God is great with the greatness which is himself, otherwise the greatness would be greater than God." It was Augustine who said so, that most powerful hammer of heretics. If this can properly be said of God, more correctly and appropriately may it be said, "God is greatness, goodness, righteousness, wisdom" than "God is great, good, just or wise."
III.8. [Omitted.} III.9. I have thought it worthwhile to go into this since the opportunity occurs, because we are examining the difference between the Image and the soul. Then if any of you had ever drunk the forbidden waters which seem to have a sweeter taste (Prv 9:17), you might drink the antidote and vomit them up. Then, with minds purged, you may come to what I have promised to tell you about the likeness of the Word and the soul, and may drink with joy (Is
12:3), not of what I say but of the fountain of the Savior, the Church's Bridegroom, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is God above all, blessed forever. Amen (Rom 9:5).
2. The omitted section refers to the trial.
SERMONS SERMON 2 1. Our earlier inquiry into the affinity of the soul for the Word was essential. For what can such majesty and such poverty (cf. 2 Cor 6:15) have in common that such sublimity and such humility should be thought to meet as equals? If we say truly that they do, that is a most joyous confidence. If we say it falsely, it is an audacity which deserves severe punishment. That is why we had to look into their affinity; and we have found many ways in which they are alike, but not all. No one can be so obtuse as not to see the likeness between the Image and that which is made in its image (Col 1:15; Gn 1:27). Yesterday, if you remember, our sermon dealt with their likeness and their difference. And not the image alone, but also the similitude was shown to be close (Gn
5:3). But we have not yet examined that similitude to see in what it chiefly consists. Come, let us now look into that, so that the soul, understanding her origin more thoroughly, may be the more ashamed to lead an unworthy life, and will indeed strive to reform by hard effort the damage she perceives that sin has done in her nature, so that, with God's assistance, she may govern herself in a way befitting her kind and faithfully enter the Word's embrace.
2. Let her take note, then, that because she is made in God's likeness she has herself a natural simplicity of substance, by which for her to exist is to live, even if not in blessedness. Thus it is a likeness, not an equality. It is near in degree, but still it is lowlier. It is not the same as living in a state of endless blessedness by nature, which is the case with the Supreme Excellence. If, then, life is the prerogative of the Word, because his nature is sublime, and of the soul because of her likeness to him, except that the Word is supreme, the affinity of nature between the soul and the Word is evident, and the soul's prerogative clear. And so that what I have said may be plainer, it belongs to God alone that being is blessedness; this is the first and purest simplicity.
The second is like it (Mt 22:39), that is, that to be is to live; this is the prerogative of the soul. Even if it is a lowlier prerogative, it can be lifted up, not only to living well, but also to living in blessedness: not that then it will be like God, whose being is blessedness, but it will be glorified by its likeness to him by whom it was raised up. Yet because of the difference it will always have reason to say, "Lord, who is like you?"
But there is in this a degree of uplifting for the soul, by which, and only in this way, it rises to blessedness of life (Ps 34:10).
3. For there are two kinds of living things, those which feel and
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those which do not. Those which have feeling are higher than those who do not, and above them both is life, by which comes living and feeling. Life and living things are not equal; much less life and lifeless things. Life is the living soul, but it does not have its life from any but itself. And so this is more properly called "life" than "living." That is why when it is infused into the body it gives it life, so that the body of this present life is not "life" but "living." From this it is plain that, even for the living body, to be is not the same as to live. How much less do things which have no life rise to this level. But not everything which is called "life," or is in fact life, will be able to continue thus. There is a life of beasts and of trees, the first a feeling life, the other without feeling. But for neither is their being life, for, as many think, they have existed in their elements before they had bodily parts or branches. But according to this opinion, when they cease to be filled with life, they cease to live, but not to be. They are dissolved and broken up, as though they had not only been brought together but mingled. For they are not one simple thing, but made up of many. And so such a creature is not reduced to nothing (Jb 16:8, 17:7, 30:15), but separated into parts, so that each may return to its beginning, for example, air to air, fire to fire, and the rest in their own ways. For life such as that to be is not the same as to live, for they exist when they do not live.
4. None of these things, to which to be is not the same as to live, will ever progress or rise, for they cannot reach even the lowest degree.
Only the soul of man is created with this dignity, which is inseparable from it, of being life from life, simple from simple, immortal from immortal, so that it is not far from the highest degree, where to be is to live in blessedness, in which dwells the blessed and only powerful King of kings and Lord of lords (1 Tm 6:15). The soul has received in its creation, not blessedness, but the potential for blessedness, and it approaches that highest degree as far as it can, although it does not reach it. For as we have already said, even when it attains blessedness, that will not be the same as being blessed by nature. We affirm the likeness, but we do not claim equality. God is life; the soul is life; like, indeed, but different. She is like him because she is life, because she lives in herself, because she is not only living but life-giving, just as he is all these things; she is unlike him as the creature is unlike its Creator, for unless he had created her she would not have existed, and unless he had given her life she would not have lived. She would not live, I say, but I am speaking of spiritual life, not a natural one. The soul must necessarily live immortally, by nature, even if it does not live spiritually.
SERMONS But what kind of life would it be in which it would be better not to have been born than not to leave it by death? It is more death than life, and the worse a death because it is thus by sin and not by nature. For, "The death of sinners is very the worst" (Ps 33:22). So then the soul which lives according to the flesh (Rom 8:13) experiences a living death, for it would have been better for her never to have lived at all than to live in such a way (1 Tim 5:6). And she will never ever arise from that living death except by the Word of life, or rather, through the Word which is Life, living and life-giving (Eph 5:26).
III.5. But the soul is also immortal, and in this she is like the Word, but not his equal. For the immortality of God so excels hers, that the Apostle was able to say of God, "He alone has immortality" (1
Tm 6:16). I think this was said of him because God alone is immutable in his nature, he who says, "I am the Lord and I do not change" (Mal
3:6). It is a true and complete immortality to have neither change nor end, for all change imitates death. Everything which changes dies in a sense when it alters from one thing to another, for that is to begin not to be. If there are as many deaths as changes, where is immortality?
"For the creature was made subject to vanity not of its own will but of him who made it and gave it hope" (Rom 8:20). Yet the soul is immortal, for, since she is her own life, there is no way in which she can fall from life, for she cannot cease to be herself. But we all know that she changes in her feelings, and she recognizes that she is so like God in her immortality that she knows she lacks no small part of immortality. She sees absolute and perfect immortality in him alone with whom there is no change, nor any shadow of alteration (Jas 1:17). But it has been settled in the present disputation that the soul has no small dignity, in that she seems to come close to the Word in her nature in two ways, in simplicity of essence and perpetuity of life.
6. But one further point arises, which I shall certainly not pass over: and which does not make the soul any less noble and similar to the Word, and perhaps makes her more so. This is freedom of choice, something clearly divine, which shines in the soul like a jewel in a setting of gold. From this the soul derives her power to judge and to choose between good and evil, life and death, and no less between light and darkness, and to make any other choices which present themselves to her. The eye of the soul, a critical judge, discriminates and discerns, a judge in discriminating, free in her choice. That is why it is called free choice, because the will can exercise its judgment in making it. For this a man is rightly praised; not only he who is able to do wrong and does
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not do it (Sir 31:10), but he who cannot do good and does it, and so merit is as much his who could do evil and does not do it as his who could have done good and did not do it. But where there is no freedom there is no merit. Animals which do not have reason have no merit, for just as they lack the power of thought, so they lack freedom of choice; they are moved by their senses, carried away by impulse, led on by appetite. They do not have judgment by which they may discriminate or govern themselves, not even the instrument of judgment, which is the reason. That is why they are not judged, for they cannot exercise judgment. Would it not be unreasonable to expect reason of those who have not received it?
IV.7. Only man is not subject by nature to this limitation, and so only he is free. Yet when he sins he feels the force of it in himself to some extent, but by will not by nature, and he does not thereby lose his inborn liberty. What is voluntary is also free. By sin the body which is corrupted burdens the soul (Wis 9:15), but by love not force. For although the soul fell by her own act she cannot rise by herself, because her will, weak and cast down by her depraved and flawed love of the corrupt body, cannot feel a love of righteousness at the same time. So, in some wicked and surprising way the will makes itself a slave of the sin into which it has fallen and actually changes for the worse, so that necessity cannot excuse the will because it acted freely, and the will, since it is in chains, cannot avoid necessity. For this "necessity" is in some sense voluntary. It is a pleasant bondage which flatters while it captures and captures while it flatters, so the will makes itself guilty by once consenting to sin, and cannot escape by itself, nor find any excuse for itself by reason. Then, like the voice of one complaining under the burden of necessity, there comes, *Lord, I am oppressed; answer for me" (Is 38:14). But again, knowing that he has no just cause for complaint against the Lord, for his own will was the cause, hear what he says next: "What am I to say? Who will answer for me, for I have brought this on myself?" (Is 38:15). He was burdened by the yoke, but the yoke of a voluntary servitude, and it was a wretched servitude, but he could not be excused from it for he had chosen it. For it is the will which, though it is free, has been made the slave of sin in consenting to sin; nevertheless, it is its will to place itself under the yoke of sin, and it serves voluntarily.
8. "Look what you are saying," someone says to me. "You say that something is voluntary which is agreed to be necessary." It is indeed so, because the will has brought itself to this necessity. But it does not
SERMONS keep itself there; it is, rather, kept there against its will. You must agree that it is being held. But hold onto the fact that it is the will which you say is being held. And so you say that the will is unwilling? The will is not held against its will. For the will is what wills, not what is against will. If it is held willingly, it holds itself. What then will a'man say, or who will answer for him, when he has done this himself (Is 38:15)?
What has he done? He has made himself a slave. That is why it is said, "He who sins is a slave of sin" (Jn 8:34). So when he sins—and he has sinned when he has decided to obey sin—he has made himself a slave.
But he would be free if he did not continue to sin. However, he goes on, holding himself in this servitude. For the will is not held unwillingly; it is the will. Therefore, because he does it willingly, he has not only made himself a slave, but he continues to do so. Rightly then— and this must be often remembered—is it asked who will speak for him, when his slavery was and is his own fault (Is 38:15).
9. "But," you say, "you will not force me to deny that I am in an entrapment which I feel in myself and against which I struggle hard?"
"Where do you feel this constraint?" I ask. "Is it not in your will?" So you do not will the less because your will is enslaved. Your will wills much that you cannot refuse to will, however much you resist. Now where there is will, there is freedom. "I am talking of natural not spiritual freedom, by which, as the Apostle says, Christ sets us free" (Gal
4:31). For of that he himself says, "Where the spirit is, there is freedom"
(2 Cor 3:17). So in a strange and evil way, the soul is held as a slave in this willing and yet irresistible bondage, and is also free. She is at the same time a slave and free, and what is more strange and wretched still, guilty in proportion to her freedom and a slave in proportion to her guilt, and in this was a slave in that she is free. Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the shame of this slavery (Rom 7:24)?
Wretched I am, but free: free because I am a man, wretched because I am a slave; free because I am like God, wretched because I go against God. "O guardian of men, why have you set me in opposition to you"
(Jb 7:20)? For you placed me thus when you did not prevent me from falling. Otherwise it is I who am against you, "and I have become a burden to myself" (Jb 7:20). It is very just indeed that your enemy should be my enemy, and he who sets himself against you should oppose me. It is I who do so, I who have opposed myself and in myself I find that which is enemy both to my mind and to your law (Rom 7:23).
V. Who will free me from my own hands? "I do not do what I wish to do" and it is I not someone else who is preventing me. "And
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what I hate I do" (Rom 7:24, 15-6), but it is I not someone else who compels me. But would that this prohibition and this compulsion were so strong that it was not voluntary. Then, perhaps, I might be excused.
If it were so much a matter of will that there was no compulsion, then I could be corrected. But as it is, nowhere does a way of escape lie open to this wretch, whom his willingness denies excuse and necessity makes impossible to correct, as I said. Who will snatch me from the hand of the sinner (Ps 70:4), from the hand of him who breaks the law and is wicked?
10. "Who do you complain of?" someone asks. Myself! I am that sinner, that outlaw, that wicked man. I am a sinner because I have sinned, an outlaw because I deliberately and persistently go against the law. For my will rules my members, denying the law of God (Rom
7:23). And since the law of the Lord is the law of my mind, it is written, "The law of God is in his heart" (Ps 36:31), my very will is seen to be against me; and this is the greatest iniquity. To whom am Í not wicked, when I am wicked to myself? If a man injures himself, how can he do good to anyone (Sir 14:5)? I tell you: I am not good because good is not in me. But I shall find comfort in the words of the saints, "I know that there is no good in me" (Rom 7:18). But the Apostle makes a distinction when he puts it like this, explaining that he speaks of the flesh because it is there where the perverse law rules. For he has a law in his mind, and that is a better law. Surely the law of God is good? If wickedness comes from evil law, surely good comes from good law in a man? If the law in a man's flesh is evil and that is why he is wicked, will he not be good because of the good law? It is so. The law of God is in his mind
(cf. Ps 36:31), and it is there in such a way that it is the law of his mind.
He himself is witness who says, "I find a law in my body warring against the law in my mind" (Rom 7:23). Can what is in his flesh be his and not what is in his mind? It is certainly his own; even more. I will use the Apostle's words. "With my mind I obey God's law, but in my flesh I obey the law of sin" (Rom 7:25). He makes it plain that he regards it as his own when he calls the evil in his flesh foreign to him, saying,
"And so it is not I who act but the sin that is in me" (Rom 7:20). And so perhaps he said that he found "another" law in his members because he thought this which came as if from outside him to be foreign to him.
So I am bold to go a little further, but not rashly. Paul was not evil because of the evil in his flesh as much as he was good because of the good which he had in his mind. Is not a man good when he consents to the law of God, for that is good? Even if he admits that he is a slave to
SERMONS the law of sin, that is in the flesh, not in the mind. So since he serves the law of God in his mind and the law of sin in his flesh, you can see which is rather to be considered his. I am readily persuaded that the law of the mind is greater than the law of the flesh, and not only I but Paul himself, as has already been said, when he claims, "I do what I do not wish to do, but it is not I who do so, but the sin which dwells is me" (Rom 7:20).
11. Let that be enough about freedom. In the little books I have written about grace and free will, you will find more reflections on image and likeness, but, I think, nothing which contradicts what I have said. You have read it; you have heard what I have said. I leave it to you to judge which is better put. If you find anything in either to your taste, I am glad and shall be glad (Phil 1:18). Whatever you choose, remember that I have made three points especially here: bear in mind the simplicity, immortality, and liberty of the soul. I think it must be obvious to you that through its inborn and built-in likeness, which shines in these three most clearly, the soul has no little affinity with the Word, the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is God above all, blessed forever. Amen (Rom 9:5).
SERMON 83
1.1. For three days I have set out as fully as the allotted time permits the affinity between the Word and the soul. What profit has there been in all that labor? Surely this: We have learned that every soul, even if it is loaded down with sins (1 Tm 3:6), ensnared in vices, trapped by the enticements of pleasure, a captive in exile, imprisoned in the body, stuck in mud (Ps 68:3), caught in the mire, bound to its members, enslaved by cares, distracted with business, shrinking with fear, afflicted with griefs, astray in errors, troubled by anxieties, disturbed by suspicions, and, lastly, a stranger in a hostile land (Ex 2:22) and, as the prophet puts it, sharing the pollution of the dead, counted with those who go down to hell (Bar 3:11)—we have learned that every soul, even thus condemned and thus despairing, can turn back and find that it can not only breathe the hope of forgiveness and mercy, but even dare to aspire to be the Bride of the Word, when it is not afraid to make alliance with God and to take on the sweet yoke of love with the King of the angels (Mt 11:30). For what can it not safely dare with him in whose image it sees it is honored to be created and in whose glorious likeness
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it recognizes itself made glorious? Why should it be fearful of majesty, when it has confidence that it is Majesty's creation? It has only to preserve purity of nature by innocence of life; or, rather, to strive to beautify and adorn the heavenly beauty of its creation with its actions and affections.
2. Why, then, does it doze in idleness? There is a great gift in our nature; and if it is not used to the full the rest of our nature will become ruined, as though it were gnawed away by rust. That would be an affront to the Author of our being. And indeed that is why that Author,
God himself, has desired divine glory and nobility to remain in the soul always, so that it may have within it that which may be touched by the Word, and moved to stay with him, or to return to him if it has slipped away. It does not slip away by moving to another place, or by actually walking; it slips away as a spiritual substance does, in its affections— or we should say defections; and it grows unlike itself when it becomes unlike him in its wickedness of life and actions. But this unlikeness is not a destruction of its nature, but a flaw; for natural goodness grows by returning to itself just as much as it is damaged by its dealing with what defiles it. So the soul comes back to itself and turns back to the Word, to be made new by him and to be made like him. In what? In love, for he says, "Be imitators of God, like beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ also has loved you" (Eph 5:1).
3. This "making like" marries the soul to the Word. It is like him in nature, but it shows that it wants to be like him by loving as it is loved. Therefore, if it loves perfectly, it "weds" him. What is more joyous than this union? What more to be desired than love, by which it comes about that, not content with a human master, you approach the Word with confidence, O soul, and cling to him with constancy, talk to him as a close friend about everything, with as clear a grasp as your desire is bold. Truly, that is the contract of a holy and spiritual marriage. I have not put it strongly enough in calling it a "contract." It is an embrace, a full embrace, where both are at one in will and which makes one spirit of two (1 Cor 6:17). Nor is it to be feared that inequality between the persons will prevent this coming together in one will, for love knows nothing of such distance. It is loving, not paying respect, that gives love its name. Let someone else be horrified, stupefied, terrified, amazed; he who loves feels nothing of these. His love fills him; love takes all other affections captive when it comes. Therefore what it loves it loves, and it knows nothing else. He who is feared, honored, regarded with awe, and admired would rather be loved. They are bride
SERMONS and Bridegroom. What other bond and commitment do you seek to find between those who are betrothed than to love and be loved?
II. This bond is stronger even than the firm tie nature makes, the bond of parents and children. That is why it says, "For this a man will leave his father and mother and cleave to his bride" (Mt 19:5). You see the love between bride and bridegroom is not only stronger than other affections, but even stronger than itself.
(" _ 4. Add to this that the Bridegroom is not only loving. He is Love) Is he not honor, too? It has been said that he is, but I have not read it
I have read that God is love (1 Jn 4:16), but not that he is honor. It is not that God does not want honor, for he says, "If Iam a Father, where is my honor?" (Mal 1:6). Here he speaks as a Father. But if he shows himself to be a Bridegroom, I think he will speak differently and say,
"If I am a Bridegroom, where is my love?" For he spoke differently . before, "If I am the Lord where is my fear?" (Mal 1:6)..God then de- 'mands to be feared as Lord, honored as Father, and-loved as Bride- |groom. Which of these is first? Which is supreme? Surely love.
| Without love, fear is a source of pain (1 Jn 4:18), and honor is thankless.
| Fear is servile until it is set free by love. And the honor which does not proceed from love is not honor but adulation. And indeed "honor and glory belong to God alone" (1 Tm 1:17), but God will accept neither if they are not sweetened with the honey of love. That is enough on its own; it pleases by itself and on its own account. It is its own merit and its own reward. Love needs no cause, no fruit besides itself; its enjoy- \ ment is its use (Augustine, De Doctrine Christiana I. 1). I love because I love; I love that I may love. Love is a great thing; as long as it returns to its beginning, goes back to its origin, turns again to its source, it will always draw afresh from it and flow freely. In love alone, of all the movements of the soul and the senses and affections, can the creature respond to its Creator, if not with an equal, at least with a like return jof gift for gift.
For example, if God is angry with me, can I return his / anger? Not at all; I shall be afraid and tremble and beg for his pardon.
"If he accuses me, I shall not return his accusation, but concede that he is right. If he judges me, I shall not judge him but adore him; and in saving me he does not seek to be saved by me in return, nor does he need to be set free by anyone in return when he frees all. If he commands it is for me to obey; if he gives me orders it is for me to do what he says and not ask service or obedience from the Lord in return., Now you see how different it is with love. For when God loves, he wants
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nothing but to be loved; he loves for no other purpose than to be loved, knowing that those who love him are blessed by their very love.
5. Love is a great thing, but there are degrees of love. The Bride stands at the high point. For children love, but they are thinking of their inheritance, and as long as they fear they may lose it in some way they honor more than love him from whom they hope to have it. I am suspicious of love which seems to be prompted by hope of gain. It is weak if when hope is gone it either vanishes or diminishes. It is impure when it desires something else, other than the beloved. Pure love does not hope for gain. Pure love does not draw its strength from hope; nor is it weakened by mistrust. Love is the very being of the Bride. She is full of it, and the Bridegroom is satisfied with it. He asks nothing else. 'That is why he is the Bridegroom and she the Bride. This love belongs only to them; no one else can share it, not even a child.
III. Thus he says to his children, "Where is my honor?" (Mal 1:6), but he does not say, "Where is my love?" for he protects the Bride's prerogative. He commands a man to honor his father and his mother
(Dt 5:16), but he says nothing of love, not because children ought not to love their parents, but because most children are inclined to honor rather than to love their parents. It is true that the King's honor loves judgment (Ps 98:4). But the Bridegroom's love, or rather the Bridegroom who is Love, asks only the commitment of love and faith. Let the beloved love in return. How can the Bride not love, the Bride of Love himself? How can Love not be loved?
6. So, rightly renouncing all other desires, she gives herself up wholly to Love, for it is in responding to Love that she is able to return love. For though she pours herself out completely in love, what is that in comparison with the inexhaustible flow of love from his spring? Love does not flow in equal measure from her who loves and Love himself, the soul and the Word, the Bride and the Bridegroom, creature and Creator, any more than a thirsty man is like a fountain. What then? Will the marriage vow come to nothing because of this, the desire of her who longs, the ardor of her who loves, the trust of her who is confident, because she cannot run step for step with a giant, rival honey in sweetness, the lamb in mildness, the lily in whiteness, the sun in brightness, or match in her love him who is Love (1 Jn 4:16)? No. For even if the creature loves less because it is lesser, yet if she loves with all her heart
(Mt 22:37), nothing is lacking where all is given. So, as I have said, to love in that way is to be married, for a soul cannot love like this and not
SERMONS — be loved in return. Full and perfect marriage consists in this (Mt 18:16).
No one can doubt that the soul is both first loved and loved most by the Word. He both goes before her in love and outruns her in love.
Happy is she who has deserved to be anticipated in the blessing of such sweetness (Ps 20:4)! Happy is she to whom it is given to know the embrace of such tenderness! For it is nothing other than holy and chaste love, love sweet and tender, love as tranquil as it is true, mutual, close, deep love, which is not in one flesh, but which joins two in one spirit, making two no longer two but one (Mt 19:5). As Paul says, "He who is united to God is one spirit with him" (1 Cor 6:17). On this subject let us listen to her who by his anointing (1 Jn 2:27), and by frequent experience, has become our mistress before all others.
But perhaps we had better keep this for the starting-point of another sermon, rather than compress something important into the short time before we finish. If you approve, I will end here before the end, so that we may come early tomorrow, eager to taste the sweets which are the reward of the holy soul, which the souls of the blessed deserve to enjoy with the Word and from the Word, the Bridegroom, Jesus
Christ our Lord, who is God above all, blessed forever. Amen (Rom 9:5).
SERMON 84
"All night long in my little bed I sought him whom my soul loves" (Sg 3:1). It is a great good to seek God; I think nothing comes before it among the good things the soul may enjoy. It is the first of its gifts and its ultimate goal. None of the virtues approaches it, and it yields place to none. What could be better when nothing has a higher place? To what could it yield place, when it is the consummation of all things?
What virtue can be attributed to him who does not seek God? What limit is there for him who seeks him? *Always seek his face," it says (Ps
104:4). I think that even when it has found him the soul will not cease to seek him. God is sought not on foot but by desire. And the happy discovery of what is desired does not end desire but extends it. The consummation of joy does not consume desire, does it? Rather, it is oil poured on flames, which itself catches fire. Thus it is. Joy will be fulfilled (Ps 15:11). But there will be no end to desire, and so no end of seeking. Put from your mind, if you can, the absence of God as the
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cause of this eagerness to seek him, for he is always present; and anxiety in the search, for you cannot fail to find his abundance.
2. Now see why I have said this as a preliminary. It is so that every soul among you which is seeking God will know that he has gone before and sought you before you sought him. Otherwise you may turn a great good into a great evil for yourself. For from great goods can arise evils no less great, when we treat as our own the good things God gives and act as though they were not gifts, not giving God the glory (Lk 17:18).
So it is that those who seem greatest because of the gifts they have received count for nothing before God because they do not give thanks for them. I am putting it mildly (1 Cor 7:28), using inadequate words,
"great" and "little," which I know do not say exactly what I mean. I have been obscure; I will make it plain. I ought to have said "good" and "evil." For truly and undoubtedly, the best of men, if he claims the credit for his goodness, is as evil as he seemed good. This is very evil.
If someone says, "Perish the thought, I know that it is by the grace of God that I am as I am" (1 Cor 15:10), yet is eager to take even the smallest credit for the grace he has received, surely he is a robber and a thief
(Jn 10:1)? Let such a man hear this, "Out of your own mouth I judge you, wicked servant" (Lk 19:22). What is more wicked than for a slave to usurp his master's glory?
3. "All night long in my little bed I sought him whom my soul loves" (Sg 3:1). The soul seeks the Word, but she has first been sought by the Word. Otherwise, once she had gone out from before his face, or been cast out, her eye would not look to see good again, if the Word did not seek her (Jb 7:7). Our soul is no different from a wandering spirit which does not return (Ps 77:39) if she is left to herself. Hear a fugitive and a wanderer who grieves and pleads, "I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant" (Ps 118:176). O man, do you wish to return? But if it is a matter of will, why do you plead? Why do you go begging for what you have in plenty in yourself? It is clear that she wishes but cannot; she is a wandering spirit which does not return (Ps
77:39). And he who does not want to return is still further away. If a soul wants to return and seeks to be sought, I should not say she was wholly lost and abandoned. For where does she get this will? Unless I am mistaken, it is from the visitation of the Word who has already sought her. That seeking has not been in vain, because it has made the will active, without which there can be no return. But it is not enough to be sought once. The weakness of the soul is great and great is the difficulty of the return. For what if she wills? Willing is idle, where
SERMONS © there is no power to act upon it. "For the will is in me," says Paul, "but I have no power to do good" (Rom 7:18). What does the Psalmist whom we quoted ask? Nothing but to be sought, for he would not seek unless he was sought, and he would not seek if he had been satisfied with the seeking. So he asks more, "Seek your servant," he says, so that he who has given the will may also give the power to act, at his good will (Ps
118:176; Phil 2:13).
4. But I do not think that this passage can be speaking of such a soul, which has not yet received the second grace, willing, but not yet able to approach him whom her soul loves (Sg 3:1). For how can the words which follow apply to such a soul? She rises and goes about the city, seeking her beloved in the streets and squares (Sg 3:2), and she could not do that if she herself needed to be sought. Let her do what she can, so long as she remembers that she was first sought, and first loved, and that it is because of this that she seeks and loves. And let us pray, beloved, that his mercies may quickly go before us (Ps 78:8), for we are only too poor. I do not say this of everyone (Jn 13:18). For I know that many of you walk in the love with which Christ has loved us (Eph
5:2), and seek him in simplicity of heart (Wis 1:1). But there are others, I am sad to say, who have not yet given us any sign of this saving and prevenient grace, men who love themselves, not the Lord, and who seek their own good, not his (2 Tm 3:2; 1 Cor 13:5).
5. "I have sought," she says, "him whom my soul loves" (Sg 3:1).
This is what the kindness of him who goes before you urges you to do, he who both sought you first and loved you first (1 Jn 4:10). You would not be seeking him or loving him unless you had first been sought and loved. You have been forestalled not only in one blessing (Gn 27:28) but in two, in love and in seeking. The love is the cause of the seeking, and the seeking is the fruit of the love; and it is its guarantee. You are loved, so that you may not think that you are sought so as to be punished; you are sought, so that you may not complain that you are loved in vain. Both these sweet gifts of love make you bold and drive diffidence away, and they persuade you to return and move you to loving response. Hence comes the zeal, the ardor to seek him whom your soul loves, for you cannot seek unless you are sought and now that you are sought you cannot fail to seek.
6. But do not forget whence you came. Now, to apply what I say to myself (1 Cor 4:6)—for that is the safest course—is it not you, my soul, who left your first husband (Sir 23:32), with whom you were happy, and broke your faith (1 Tm 5:12) by going after your
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lovers (Hos 2:5, 13)? And now that you have perhaps fornicated with them and been despised by them, do you dare, impudent and shameless, to return to him whom you proudly despised? What? Do you seek the light when you deserve to be hidden, run to your Bridegroom, when you deserve blows rather than kisses? It will be surprising if you do not come face to face with the judge when you expected the Bridegroom. Happy he who hears his soul answering in these words, *I do not fear because I love, which I should not do if I were not loved. And so this is love." She who is loved has nothing to fear. Let those who do not love be afraid. Must they not constantly fear hostility? I love, and I cannot doubt that I am loved, any more than that I love. Nor can I fear his face whose love I experience. In what? In that he not only sought but loved me, and made me bold in seeking. How can I not respond to his seeking since I respond to his love? How can he be angry with me for seeking him, when he overlooked my contempt for him? He will surely not thrust away the seeker whom he sought when he despised? Kind is the Spirit of the Word, and he greets me kindly (Wis 1:6), whispering to me and coaxing me to recognize the ardor and longing of the Word, which he knows well (Mt 5:14). He sees into the mysteries of God (1 Cor 2:10), and knows his thoughts, thoughts of peace and not of vengeance (Jer 29:11). How can I not be roused to seek him when I have experienced his mercy and been assured of his peace?
7. Brothers, to understand this is to be sought by the Word; to be assured is to be found. But not all receive this Word (Mt 19:11).
What shall we do for our little ones? I speak of those among us who are beginners, but not fools, for they have the beginning of wisdom
(Ps 110:10) and are subject to one another in the fear of Christ. How shall we bring them to believe that they may be his brides, when they do not yet perceive that this is how he deals with them? But I send them to him whom they should not fail to believe. Let them read in the book what they do not see in another's heart, and because they do not see it, do not believe. It is written in the prophets, "If a man puts away his wife and she leaves him and takes another husband, will he go back to her? Will she not be dishonored and in disgrace? You have committed fornication with many lovers. But return to me, says the Lord, and I will receive you" (Jer 3:1). These are the Lord's words. You cannot disbelieve them. Let them believe what they do not know from experience, so that by their faith they may in the future have the reward of experience. I think it has been
SERMONS | made plain enough what it is to be sought by the Word, and that this is a need not of the Word but of the soul. It only remains to say that the soul which has experienced this knows it more fully and more happily. It remains for us in what follows to teach thirsty souls how to seek him who seeks them, or, rather, we ought to learn it from her who is spoken of in this passage as seeking him whom her soul loves (Sg 3:3), the soul's Bridegroom, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is God, blessed above all, forever (Rom 9:5).
LETTERS
LETTER 64
About 1129 Bernard wrote to the bishop of Lincoln on behalf of Philip, who had become a monk at Clairvaux, and who held a benefice for whose disposition the bishop was responsible. Philip was anxious that his family should not suffer financially as a result of his action. Bernard asked the bishop to allow his mother to keep the house he had built for her. He takes the opportunity to paint for the bishop a picture of the foretaste of the heavenly
Jerusalem that is to be enjoyed at Clairvaux. Bishop Alexander (1123-1147) was notorious for his self-indulgence and injustice, and Bernard adds a personal note of exhortation to him.
To Alexander, bishop of Lincoln c. 1129
To the honorable Lord Alexander, by the grace of God bishop of Lincoln.' Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, wishes that he may desire to be honored more in Christ than in the world.
1. Your Philip, who wanted to go to Jerusalem, has found a shortcut and arrived there sooner than he expected. He crossed this great wide sea (Ps 103:25) quickly, and with a following wind he has now landed on the shore he was making for, and has dropped anchor in a safe harbor. Now he has his feet planted in the courts of Jerusalem (Ps
121:2) and him whom he heard of in Ephrathah he has found in the woodland plains, and he worships him gladly in the place where he now stands (Ps 131:6—7). He has entered the Holy City, and his lot is cast
1. On Alexander, bishop of Lincoln, see Bernard de Clairvaux (Paris, 1953), p. 637.
LETTERS — as a fellow heir with those to whom it is rightly said (Mt 27:53), "Now you are not guests and strangers, but citizens with the saints and members of God's household" (Eph 2:19). Going in and out with them (Act
9:28) like one of the saints, he glories with the others, saying, "Our home is in heaven" (Phil 3:20).
He has been made not a curious spectator but a loyal inhabitant and enrolled citizen of Jerusalem (Heb 12:23); and not of this earthly
Jerusalem which has a border with Arabia at Mount Sinai, (Gal 4:25— 26) and which is in slavery with her children, but of that free Jerusalem which is above and mother of us all.
2. And if you want to know, this is Clairvaux!-Clairvaux is itself Mu m — — Jerusalem; it is one with the Jerusalem which is in heaven, in wholehearted devotion of the mind and in similarity of life-and-in-spiritual _ kinship.-Here; as Philip promises himself, he will find rest forever (Ps
131:13-14). He has chosen it for his dwelling-place, because here is, if not yet a clear sight of it, certainly the expectation of true peace, that peace of which it is said, "The peace of God which surpasses all that we know" (Phil 4:7). He wishes to be able to enjoy with your good wishes this good of his which he has received from above. Indeed, he trusts that he has it, for he knows that you are aware of that wise saying that a wise son is his father's glory (Prv 10:1).
But he asks your fatherly kindness, and we ask it, too, with him and on his behalf, to allow the arrangement which he has made to continue, so that his creditors may have his prebend. He does not want to cheat anyone and be found (perish the thought!) a debtor and a breaker of promises. For the gift of a contrite heart, which he offers every day, will not be accepted as long as any brother has anything against him (Mt 5:23). He also asks that the house which he himself built for his mother on church lands may be granted to his mother as long as she lives, with the land he gave with it. So much for Philip.
3. And now a few words for you yourself. I thought I would add something, prompted by God, and perhaps inspired by him, to presume to exhort you lovingly not to take the glory of the world seriously as something which will last, and so lose that glory which will never pass away. Do not love your possessions more than yourself, or for your own sake, and so lose both your possessions and yourself. Do not let the pleasure of your present prosperity hide your end from you, or endless adversity will follow. Do not let the joy of this world bring about while concealing from you, and conceal
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from you while bringing it about, the grief which is everlasting. Do not think death is a long way off, for it may catch you when you are not ready, and when you think life will go on and on, it may suddenly come to an end when you are in the wrong frame of mind, as it is written, "When they are saying, 'Peace and security,' then suddenly death will come, like the pains of a woman in labor, and they will not escape it" (1 Thes 5:3).
LETTER 144
In the autumn of 1137, when he would have liked to return to Clairvaux, Bernard was forced to go to Apulia to try to bring an end to the sack of the Campania by Roger of Sicily and his Saracen forces. He had been working for a long time to heal the schism that had been dividing the Church under Pope and Antipope and bring Western Christendom together under the papacy of Innocent II. Southern Italy and Sicily were among the last areas to be settled. He writes with longing to his brothers at Clairvaux of the pain of his exile from them and the sweetness of life among them. He asks them to pray for the Pope, and for a number of those who are with him in Italy: Haimeric, cardinal deacon.of Santa Maria Novella and chancellor, a man who had been influential in the election of Innocent II, and the same Aimeric who asked Bernard to write his treatise On Loving God; Cardinal Lucas, cardinal priest of St. John and St. Paul; Cardinal
Chrysogonus, cardinal deacon of St. Mary in Porticu; Cardinal Ivo, who was-a former Victorine canon; and two of their own number, Bruno, who was later abbot of Chiaravalle, and Bernard's brother Gerard.
To the Brothers at Clairvaux!
My soul is sorrowful (Mt 26:38) until I can return to you, and it will not be comforted until I am with you again (Ps 76:3). For what consolation is there for me, "In this evil time" (2 Mc 1:5) "and in the place
1. September 1137, Bernard de Clairvaux (Paris, 1953), p. 590.
LETTERS of my exile" (Ps 118:54)? Surely only you in the Lord? Wherever I go the sweet thought of you never leaves me; but the sweeter the memory, the more grievous the separation. "Alas for me that my exile" is not only
"prolonged" but piled up (Ps 119:5)! And indeed, according to the prophet, "They added to the pain of my wound" (Ps 68:27) who separated me from you in the body for a time. There is a common exile which is hard enough to bear, in which, "as long as we are in this body we are in exile from the Lord" (2 Cor 5:6).
To this is added the further circumstance, which makes me almost impatient, that I am forced to live without you. It is a long tribulation and a tedious waiting, to remain so long a slave to the affairs of this empty life, and to be shut up in the rottenness of the body, and to be bound still by the chains of death, and not to be with Christ all this time (Phil 1:23). More: I had one remedy for all this, a gift truly given from heaven. Instead of the face of glory (Is 53:2) which is still hidden from me, I was able to see you who are the holy temple of God. The way seemed easy to me from this temple to that glory for which the prophet sighed, saying, "I have asked one thing of the Lord, and this I require, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, so that I may see the Lord's will and visit his temple" (Ps 26:4).
2. What can I say? How often has that solace been kept from me!
And now my heart is torn for the third time, if I reckon correctly. My children are snatched from my breast before it is time. Those whom I have "begotten" in the Gospel (1 Cor 4:15) I am not allowed to rear. I am forced to leave my own and take care of strangers and I do not know which hurts me more, to be taken away from the one or to be burdened with the other. Good Jesus, surely my life is not to be passed in sorrow and my years in grief (Ps 30:11)? O Lord, it is better for me to die than to live but not among brothers, intimates, those who are dearest. That is sweeter, safer, and more manly as everyone agrees. It would be an act of love to give me a period of refreshment, before I go away and am no more (Ps 38:14).
If it please my Lord, let my sons be allowed to close with their own hands the eyes of him who is a kind of father to them, although he is not worthy to be called "father," so that they may see his end and console him at his death and lift up his soul on the wings of their desire to join the company of the blessed (if you judge him worthy); let them bury this poor man's body with the bodies of the poor, and if "I have found favor in your eyes" (Gn 18:3) grant this great desire of mine for
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the sake of the prayers and merits of those same brothers of mine. But "not my will but yours be done" (Lk 22:42). I do not wish to live or to die for myself (Rom 14:7).
3. But since you have listened to my sorrow, you must know of my consolation, if I can be said to have any. First, all the labor and trouble (Jb 6:2) which I suffer is I think in the cause of him for whom all things live (Lk 20:38). Whether I will or not, it is necessary for me to live for him who has bought my life by laying down his own, the merciful and just judge who is able to recompense us for anything we suffer for him, on that day when the world ends (2 Tm
4:8; 1 Cor 9:17). If I fight for him unwillingly, his dispensation will allow for that, and I shall be an unprofitable servant (Mt 18:32). If I fight for him willingly, that is my glory. I find some rest in that thought. Then, often he has caused my work to prosper by his heavenly grace (Wis 10:10) through no merit of my own, and that grace will not be profitless in me (1 Cor 15:10) as I have often experienced; you know something of that. But how necessary to the Church my presence is and has been I should tell you personally for your consolation, if it did not sound like boasting. But for now it is better that you should hear of it through others.
4. At the most pressing request of the Emperor and at the Pope's command, and that of some of the princes and leaders of the Church,
I have given way, sorrowfully and reluctantly. Weak and ill, and, to tell you the truth, pale with fear of death, I am forced to go to Apulia.
Pray for the peace (Ps 121:6) of the Church. Pray for my safety, and that I may see you again and live and die with you. And live so that your prayer may be granted.
I have written this under pressure of time, with tears and sobs, as our dear brother Baldwin? will tell you, for I dictated it to him. The Church has called him to another office, and another dignity. Pray for him, too, as my only comfort and one in whom my spirit (II Kgs 2:15) finds great refreshment (2 Kgs 2:15). Pray for the Lord Pope, who has a fatherly affection for me and for all of you too. And pray for the Lord Chancellor,? who is like a mother to me, and for Luke* and 2. Baldwin, monk of Clairvaux, was later a cardinal, and from October 1137 he was archbishop of Pisa (Bernard de Clairvaux, p. 702).
3. On chancellor Aimeric, to whom Bernard wrote Letter 15 and others, see Bernard de Clairvaux, p. 624.
4. Cardinal Lucas, Bernard de Clairvaux, p. 625.
LETTERS .
Dom Chrysogonus,' and Master Ivo, who are like our brothers. Our brothers Bruno' and Gerard? greet you, and they, too, ask for your prayers.
LETTER 523
Ailred, abbot of Rievaulx (1147-1167), was one of the major authors of the Cistercian Order in the twelfth century. He grew up at the Court of the King of Scotland, but he was English born, and he returned to England to enter the monastic life as a young man. In this letter, written at the beginning of the 1140s, Bernard is encouraging him to write the book that was later published as Speculum Caritatis (Tbe Mirror of Love), to feel it not a presumption to write it, but an act of charity. Ailred had never attended the schools of northern France where so many of his contemporaries got a university education, and Bernard reassures him that he need not regard that as a disqualification for his task. God has given him a good mind and the Holy Spirit has educated him.
Ailred's books show him to have been deeply read in the Bible and the Fathers, especially Augustine. He brought to his writing, as Bernard did, a vivid personal experience of the spiritual life.
His treatise On Spiritual Friendsbip makes Christian Cicero's On Friendship, and everything he wrote reflects both a distinctively
Ailredian and a Cistercian spirituality.
To Ailred of Rievaulx'
The greatest virtue of the saints is humility, but a humility which is real because it is discreet. True humility has nothing to do with deceit; the sacrilege of disobedience destroys it.
5. On cardinal Chrysogonus, see Bernard de Clairvaux, p. 624.
6. On cardinal Ivo, see Bernard de Clairvaux, p. 625.
7. Bruno, monk of Clairvaux, later abbot of Chiarvalle; see Letters 164, 165, 209, and Bernard de Clairvaux, p. 705.
8. Bernard's brother; see Bernard de Clairvaux, p. 717.
1. C.1141-2. On Ailred, abbot of Rievaulx, see A. Hoste, Bibliotheca Aelrediana (Steenbrugge, 1962).
LETTERS
I have asked your brotherly love; more, I have ordered you; more, I have commanded you in the name of God, to write me a little something to help those who are entangled in grievances and who are following the narrow way of self-indulgence.
I do not condemn or reprove you for excusing yourself, but I accuse you of obstinacy. It was humility to excuse yourself. But is it humility to disobey? Is it humility not to give way? More: "It is the sin of the soothsayers to refuse, and to be stubborn is wickedness and idolatry" (1 Sam 15:23).
But you claim that it would be too heavy a burden for your girlish shoulders to carry and that it would be wiser not to take it on, than to fall down under the weight when you have undertaken it. What I command is, indeed, heavy. It is difficult. It is impossible. But that gives you no excuse. I persist in my view. I repeat my command. What will you do? Surely he in whose words you make your vow says, "Let the junior know that it is best for him, and obey, trusting in God's help."
You have done as much as you ought, if not more, to excuse yourself.
You have gone as far as you can. You have shown why it is impossible for you, saying you are not a learned man, indeed you are almost illiterate, that you come to the monastic life not from a school but from a kitchen, and that you have been leading the life of a country bumpkin among rocks and hills, and laboring for your daily bread in the sweat of your brow with axe and mallet (I Kgs 6:7). You say that in those circumstances it is easier to learn silence than skill in speaking and that an orator's rhetoric scarcely graces a poor fisherman's clothes.*
I accept your excuses very gratefully; but I am aware that they fan the flame of my desire rather than extinguish it. For knowledge got not from the school of some grammarian but from the school of the Holy
Spirit will taste the sweeter to me. And if perhaps you have this treasure in an earthenware vessel, "so that the excellence may come from God's power and not your own" (2 Cor 4:7), what a joyful thing, what a foretaste of the future, that you should be carried from the kitchen to the monastery. For perhaps one who has been entrusted in his time with the responsibility of providing bodily food in a royal household will be procuring spiritual food and feeding those who are hungry with the Word of God in the house of our King.
2. RB 68.5.
3. Ailred was once a steward in the household of the king of Scotland.
4. RB 14.12.
LETTERS ' ni I am not put off by what you say about the steepness of the mountains or the cragginess of the rocks or the plunging valleys, for in those days the mountains will drop sweetness and the hills will flow with milk and honey (Jl 3:18) and the valleys will stand thick with corn (Ps 64:14), and honey will drip from stone and oil from the hardest rock (Dt 32:13).
Christ's sheep (Ps 99:3) will feed among the crags and peaks. So I think that that mallet of yours will be able to strike something from those rocks that you have not taken from the books of the masters by using your sharp wits in study, and that you will have experienced something under the shade of the trees in the heat of the day that you would never have learned in the schools.
Therefore give the glory not to yourself but to his name (Ps 113:9), who not only snatched you from the lake of wretchedness and the filth of the mire (Ps 39:3), when you were in despair, from the house of death and the cesspit, but also remembering his mercies the merciful and compassionate Lord (Ps 110:4) gave the sinner hope that he would be raised up, gave light to the blind, instructed the ignorant, taught the inexperienced (Ps 145:8). So then, since everyone who knows you knows that what you give is not yours, why do you blush and tremble and hesitate? Why do you refuse to give it even at the command of his voice who gave you that which you have to give? Do you fear to be presumptuous or to be the envy of others? As if anyone ever wrote anything useful without being envied, or as though you could be called presumptuous when you are a monk obeying his abbot.
And so I order you in the name of Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God, that whatever thoughts about the excellence of love, its fruits, its ordering, have come to you in your daily meditations, you will not put off writing them down, so that we can see as in a mirror what love is and how sweet it is to possess; and how great an oppression there is in greed, which is its opposite; and that outward affliction does not diminish that sweetness of love as some think, but rather increases it; and lastly, with what discretion it should be exercised. Indeed, to spare your modesty, let this letter be copied at the beginning of the book, so that whatever may displease the reader in The Mirror of Love' (for that is the title I give it) may be blamed not upon you who obey, but upon me, who forced you to write it against your will.
Farewell in Christ, beloved brother.
5. On the writing of Ailred's Speculum Caritatis, see the edition of C. H. Talbot, Opera
Omnia, CCSL, Continuatio Medievalis, Y (Turnholt, 1971), pp. 3-161.