The Mystery of Christ
The Mystery of Christ The spiritual teaching of St Bernard is really the spiritual theology of the Mystery of Christ. It has its roots in his teaching on the Blessed Trinity. God, he says, lives by a law — the law of love; the law of love which holds together the Three Persons binding them in the bond of peace. This love, which is God himself, reaches down to draw all mankind to union with himself. It is God's gift to us making us like him, and it stamps our souls not only with a desire for him but with his desire for us.
This is the love I mean Not our love for God But God's love for us. (1 Jn) With the Fall, the original bonds between God and his creation began to disintegrate. There now existed in the human personality a conflict between good and evil, as we ourselves know when we look into our own hearts. Above all, our relationship with God, our Creator and Father, had been broken and neither we ourselves nor our first parents could restore it.
We are sinners unable to reach God by our own efforts, so the Blessed Trinity, overflowing with goodness, was ready to send the Word as our Saviour when the time had come. With the Incarnation of the Word, God was in his world making ordinary human living the vehicle of salvation and leaving a pattern for us all to follow; and then through his cross and passion, resurrection and ascension, leading the human race back to the side of his Father. Above all,
God is still with his world, loving us, seeking us and waiting to be found.
This is the heart of Bernard's message. It may be truly said that the following quotations from his works do not do him justice
removed as they are from their setting of biblical and liturgical allusions, and often his sense of style, play on words, and sometimes his sheer poetry have been lost. In spite of this, something of his genius does shine through; something of his sensitivity; something of his utter self-gift as a lover of Christ and a man of God.
What the Blessed Trinity has Done for Us In the beginning he created all things with power, and he governed all things with wisdom, and men had clear evidence of the divine power and wisdom in the creation and conservation of the universe. There was goodness in God — goodness exceeding great. As yet it lay hidden in the heart of the Father, ready to be poured out at the proper time on the children of Adam.
Even then the Lord was thinking thoughts of peace, of sending to us him who is our peace, so that he might give us peace upon peace. So, his own loving-kindness induced the Word of God, enthroned on high to come down to us. His mercy drew him down, his fidelity to his promise to visit us kept him here, and the spotless womb of the Virgin received him.
O Mother of God, O Sovereign Lady of the world all generations shall call you blessed, because to all generations you have given life and glory. For in you the angels shall for ever find gladness, the just grace, and sinners pardon. Rightly are the eyes of all the world directed towards you, since it is in you and through you and from you that the kindly hand of the Almighty has renewed what he originally created.
Charity is the Law of God When a person keeps nothing of their own for themselves, everything they have is God's, and what is God's cannot be unclean. Therefore the unspotted law of God is charity, which seeks not what may benefit itself, but what may benefit many. Charity is called the law of the Lord either because the Lord himself lives by it or else because none other may have it except by his gift.
What else but charity preserves that supreme and unspeakable unity in the Blessed Trinity? Charity is therefore a law, and it is a law of the Lord, holding together, as it were, the Trinity and binding it in the bond of peace. Charity is the divine substance itself.
God is charity. It follows that charity can be correctly said to be both God and the gift of God. That charity gives charity, the substance of charity, the quality of charity. When we speak of the giver we mean the substance; when we speak of the gift we mean the quality.
Nothing is left without law, since even the Law of all things is not without a law, yet a law not other than itself for, although it did not create itself, it nevertheless rules itself.
The Law of the Slave The slave and the hireling also have a law, a law not from God, but which they make for themselves; the one by not loving God, and the other by loving something more than
God. They have a law, but a law of their own, not of God, yet a law which is subject to the law of God. Anyone can make law for himself, but he cannot withdraw it from the order of the eternal law.
But anyone who thus makes a law for himself is trying to imitate his Creator by ruling himself, and making his own self-will a law for himself, just as God is his own law and subject only to himself.
What a heavy and insupportable burden this is. He is bowed down and bent under it. When he says: 'I am become burdensome to myself,' he shows that he has been a law unto himself, and that no other than he himself has done this. It is the property of the eternal law of God that anyone who will not be ruled sweetly by God, shall be ruled as a punishment by himself. He, who of his own will throws off the sweet and light yoke of charity shall unwillingly suffer the insupportable burden of his own self-will.
Christ our Saviour It was our need of him that induced him to visit us, and the greatness of that need is clearly indicated by the greatness of his condescension. Just as the gravity of the disease may be inferred from the costliness of the medicines used for its cure, so too may we know the number of our ailments from the many remedies provided for us.
For our Saviour is a faithful Counsellor, who can never deceive us or be deceived; he is a strong helper whom labour never wearies, he is a mighty protector who will quickly enable us to trample underfoot the power of Satan. For he is the wisdom of God, who is ever ready to instruct the ignorant; he is the power of God, to whom it is so easy to strengthen the weak and rescue those in danger. Therefore my brethren, in all our doubts and perplexities let us have recourse to so wise a Master. In all our undertakings let us invoke the assistance of so powerful a helper. In our every combat let us commit our souls to the keeping of so faithful a protector. He has come into the world for this purpose, that living here in us with us and for us, he might illumine our darkness, lighten our labours, and guard us from all dangers.
Our Need of Christ Without doubt the whole human race labours under a threefold misery, which painfully oppresses everyone who lives in this region of the shadow of death, subject to the infirmities of the flesh and the assaults of temptation. For we are easily led astray; we soon weary of labour; we quickly yield to violence. We are deceived when we try to discern between good and evil; we faint and give up as often as we undertake a good work; if we try to resist evil, we are promptly cast down and overcome.
Very necessary therefore is the coming of the Saviour. Very necessary is the presence of Christ for us so surrounded by dangers. God grant that he may not only come to us, but that he may also dwell in us by faith to enlighten our blindness. That he may remain with us by grace to assist our utter impotence, and stand by us with his power to protect and defend our fragility. If he remains with us surely we can do all things in him who strengthens us. If he is for us who can be against us?
The Time of our Saviour's Coming We must now think for a moment about the time at which our Saviour comes, for as you know it was not at the beginning, nor in the middle, but at the end of the ages that he came to us.
Truly the day was already far spent and the evening drawing near; the sun of justice was already beginning to set, and its rays now gave diminished light and warmth to the earth.
The light of the knowledge of God had grown feeble, and as sin increased, charity grew cold. Angels no longer appeared to men, no prophet raised his voice; it seemed as though, overcome by the great hardness and obstinacy of men, they had ceased to intervene in human affairs. Then it was that the Son of God said: 'Here am I.'
Eternity broke in upon the world at the moment when temporal prosperity was at its height. For to give only one example, peace among nations was at that time so universal that at a single man's bidding it was possible to carry out a census of the whole world.
The Road by which the Saviour Comes Now we must earnestly search out the road by which he comes, so that we may be able to go out to meet him as is fitting. However, as he came once on earth in visible flesh to work out our redemption, so he comes daily in a hidden spiritual way to save each individual soul. This spiritual coming of his is shown to be hidden in the text: 'Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.' So, then, surely even if the sick man is unable to go very far to meet such a great Physician, he should at least make an effort to lift his head and raise himself up a little to greet him as he approaches.
It is not necessary for you to cross the seas, nor to pierce the clouds, nor to climb mountains to meet your God. It is not a lengthy road that is set before you; you have only to enter into yourself to find him. 'For his word is very near you; it is on your lips and in your heart.'
Encounter him in compunction of heart and in confession of your sins, so that you may at least leave behind you the dunghill of a defiled conscience, for the Author of purity could not be asked to enter such a place.
The Kindness of God But I should like to know the reason why he has come to us, and why we did not rather go to him. For it is we who have need of him not he of us. Thus, among men, it is not the custom of the rich to visit the poor, even when they wish to give them help. My Brothers, it were more fitting that we should go to him than that he should come to us.
But there were two obstacles: in the first place our eyes were weak and dim, whereas he dwells in light inaccessible.
Secondly we were as the paralytic lying helpless in his bed, and could not by any means attain to the loftiness of the divine majesty. Therefore, our most kind Saviour, the tender physician of our souls, came down from his throne on high and tempered his glory's splendour to the weakness of our vision. For he, the brightness of eternal light, enclosed himself in the lantern, so to speak, of that glorious flesh which he took from a virgin mother, and which is clearly signified by that light and luminous cloud upon which, Isaiah says, the Lord was to ascend, so that he might come down into Egypt.
Why the Son of God came to Us The purpose must surely be something great, since the mercy is so great, and the kindness so great, and so great too the love. The Lord came down in haste from the heavenly hills to seek the one sheep of his hundred which had strayed from the fold .
. that hundredth sheep which as the Gospel tells us wandered from the fold. That sheep my Brothers, represents the human race which the loving-kind Shepherd comes in quest of, leaving his other ninety-nine sheep on the mountains.
Oh, how marvellous a condescension in God to come down from heaven in quest of the children of men! And how great an honour for us to be sought by God! Not that we seem to be anything of ourselves, but because he who made us has made so much of us.
For all the riches of the world, and whatever else it possesses which the human heart can desire, all this is little, indeed it is nothing at all in comparison with the honour of being sought after by God. O Lord, what is man that you should exalt him? Or why do you set your heart upon him?
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Love Love is the golden thread running through all Bernard's teaching, and, as Thomas Merton pointed out, it is not something that can somehow be profitably fitted into man's life. It is man's whole reason for existing and until he begins to love God he does not really begin to live. So Bernard discusses our obligation to love God and Christ, and what should be the measure of our love; to love without measure with a self-giving love that never withdraws itself.
Love, he says, is a great reality returning to its source, seeking the fountainhead so as to draw afresh and flow ever more freely.
Here is insight indeed! Cistercian monasteries were consequently called 'schools of charity' (gymnasia where it could be exercised and developed) for it has to be lived out in faith in the rough and tumble of daily life. We know from experience that our wants, our desires, our loves become tangled and get out of hand. Our love needs to be
'set in order'. So the great work of our lives is to set the compass of our love towards God and he himself will help us to purify it.
In his treatise 'On the Love of God', and in his letter to Guy the Carthusian Prior, Bernard speaks of the four degrees of love, showing that it belongs to man's very nature to love — he was born to love — but because of the Fall his love has become selfish, and to some extent will always remain so in this life.
Love unites the lover with what he loves, and ultimately it has to do with an act of the will going out to enjoy and to rest in something or someone as its last end. The 'last end' for a human person is God, and if we enjoy creatures, rest in them in this way, then we are untrue to our deepest selves. We are made for God, and the soul that loves creatures in this way becomes like the things that it loves, and thus unlike its true self — and unlike God.
Love Love is sufficient for itself; it gives pleasure to itself and for its own sake. It is its own merit and its own reward. Love needs no cause beyond itself, nor does it demand fruits; it is its own purpose. I love because I love; I love that I may love.
Love is a great reality; and if it returns to its beginning and goes back to its origin, seeking its source again, it will always draw afresh from it and thereby flow freely.
Love is the only one of the motions of the soul, of its senses and affections, in which the creature can respond to its
Creator (even if not as an equal) and repay his favour in some similar way.
When God loves, he desires nothing but to be loved, since he loves us for no other reason than to be loved, for he knows that those who love are blessed in their very love.
How God Should be Loved Consider first how God merits to be loved, that there is to be no limit to that love, for he loved us first. Such a one loved us so much and so freely, insignificant as we are and such as we are, that as I said at the beginning, we must love
God without any limit.
Finally as love offered to God has for object the one who is immeasurable and infinite — what I ask, should be the aim or degree of our love? What about the fact that our love is not given gratuitously but in payment of a debt? God whose greatness knows no end, to whose wisdom there is no limit, whose peace exceeds all understanding, loves — and we think we can requite him with some measure of love?
My God, my help, I shall love you as much as I am able for your gift. My love is less than is your due, yet not less than
I am able, for if I cannot love you as much as I should, still I cannot love you more than I can. I shall only be able to love you more when you give me more, although you can never find my love worthy of you.
Why We Should Love God You want me to tell you why God is to be loved and how much. The reason for loving God is God himself: and the measure of love due to him is immeasurable love. He gave himself for us unworthy wretches. Hence, if one seeks for God's claim upon our love here is the chiefest: because he first loved us.
Ought he not to be loved in return, when we think who loved, whom he loved, and how much he loved? For whom was such unutterable love made manifest? The Apostle tells us: 'When we were his enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son'. So it was God who loved us, loved us freely, and loved us while we were yet enemies.
And how great was this love of his? St John answers: 'God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life'. St Paul adds: 'He did not spare his own Son but delivered him up for us all'. And the Son says of himself:
'Greater love no man has than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends'. This is the claim that God the holy, the supreme, the omnipotent, has upon men, defiled and base and weak.
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Christ First Loved Us Good Jesus, the chalice you drank, the price of our redemption, makes me love you more than all the rest. This alone would be enough to claim our love. This I say is what wins our love so sweetly, justly demands it, firmly binds it, deeply affects it. Our Saviour had to toil so hard in this, in fact in making the whole world the Creator did not labour so much.
In the beginning he spoke and they were made; he commanded and they were created. But in saving us he had to endure men who contradicted his words, criticised his actions, ridiculed his sufferings, and mocked his death. See how much he loved us. Add to this fact that he was not returning love but freely offering it. For who had given him anything first, that it should be returned to him? As St John said: 'Not that we had loved him, but that he had first loved
us."
He loved us even before we existed, and in addition he loved us when we resisted him. According to St Paul: 'Even when we were still his enemies we were reconciled to God through the blood of his Son.' If he had not loved his enemies, he could not have had any friends, just as he would have had no one to love if he had not loved those who were not.
How We Ought to Love Christ Christian, learn from Christ how you ought to love Christ.
Learn a love that is tender, wise, and strong; love with tenderness not passion, with wisdom not foolishness, and with strength, lest you become weary and turn away from the love of the Lord. Do not let the glory of the world or the pleasures of the flesh lead you astray; the wisdom of Christ should become sweeter to you than these. The light of Christ should shine so much for you that the spirit of lies and deceit will not seduce you.
Finally, Christ as the strength of God should support you so that you may not be worn down by difficulties. Let love enkindle your zeal, let knowledge inform it, let constancy strengthen it. Keep it fervent, discreet, courageous. See it is not tepid, or fearful, or timid.
So love the Lord your God with the full and deep affection of your heart, love him with your mind wholly awake and discreet, love him with all your strength, so much so that you would not even fear to die for love of him. Your affection for your Lord Jesus should 'be both tender and intimate, to oppose the sweet enticements of sensual life. Sweetness conquers sweetness as one nail drives out another.
Degrees of Love Love is a great reality; but there are degrees to it. I suspect the love which seems to be founded on some hope of gain.
It is weak, for if the hope of gain is removed it may be extinguished, or at least diminished.
It is not pure, as it desires some return. Pure love has no self interest. Pure love does not gain strength through expectation, nor is it weakened through distrust.
This is the love of the Bride .
. Love is the being and hope of a bride. She is full of it, and the bridegroom is content with it. He asks nothing else, and she has nothing else to give. That is why he is the bridegroom and she is the bride; this love is the property only of the couple. No-one else can share it, not even a son.
True Love God is not loved without a reward, although he should be loved without regard for one. True charity cannot be worthless, but as it does not seek its own advantage, it cannot be termed mercenary. Love pertains to the will, it is not a transaction; it cannot acquire or be acquired by a pact. It moves us freely, and it makes us spontaneous. True love is content with itself; it has its reward, the object of its love.
Whatever you seem to love because of something else, you do not really love. You really love the end pursued and not that by which it is pursued...
True love merits its own reward, it does not seek it. A reward is offered him who does not yet love; but it is due to him who loves, and it is given to him who perseveres
The soul that loves God seeks no other reward than the God whom it loves. Were the soul to demand anything else, then it would certainly love that other thing and not God.
Steps in our Love for God Because we are flesh and blood born of the desire of the flesh, our desire or love must start in the flesh, and it will then if properly directed, progress under grace until it is fulfilled in the spirit.
At first a person loves himself for his own sake. He is flesh and is able only to know himself. But when he sees that he cannot subsist of himself, then he begins by faith to seek and love God as necessary for himself. And so in the second stage he loves God, not yet for God's sake, but for his own sake.
However when on account of his own necessity, he begins to meditate, read, pray and obey, he becomes accustomed little by little to know God and consequently to delight in him.
When he has tasted and seen how sweet is the Lord he passes to the third stage wherein he loves God for God's sake and not for his own. Anc here he remains, for I doubt whether the fourth stage has ever been fully reached in this life by any man. The stage that is, wherein a man loves himself only for God's sake.