Front matter
Bernard of Clairvaux On Loving God An Analytical Commentary by Emero Stiegman bv
. B3813
CISTERCIAN FATHERS SERIES: NUMBER THIRTEEN B
ON LOVING GOD
Bernard of Clairvaux
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/onlovinggodOOOObern
CISTERCIAN FATHERS SERIES: NUMBER THIRTEEN B
ON LOVING GOD
Bernard of Clairvaux by with
AN ANALYTICAL COMMENTARY
Emero Stiegman Cistercian Publications Inc.
Kalamazoo Michigan Thomas J. Bat» Library
TRENT UNIVERSITY
PiraiOROUOi ONTARIO
l\f\0 £,3t>\3 The translation here presented has been made from the critical latin edition prepared by Jean Leclercq, osb and Henri Rochais under the sponsorship of the Order of Cistercians and published by Editiones Cistercienses, Piazza Tempio di Diana 14, 1—00153
Rome, Italy.
Liber de diligendo deo, SBOp 3:119-154 The work of Cistercian Publications is made possible in part through support from Western Michigan University to The Institute of Cistercian Studies © On Loving God, Translation, Cistercian Publications Inc., 1973
© An Analytical Commentary, Cistercian Publications Inc., 1995
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ON LOVING GOD
by Bernard of Clairvaux 3
AN ANALYTICAL COMMENTARY
by Emero Stiegman 45 Abbreviations for the Works of Saint Bernard 197 Selected Bibliography 199 Analytic Index to On Loving God 211 An Index to An Analytical Commentary 215
ON LOVING GOD
Bernard of Clairvaux
ON LOVING GOD
T r OU WISH ME TO TELL YOU why and how God should be loved. .My answer is that God himself is the E. reason why he is to be loved. 1 As for how he is to be loved, there is to be no limit to that love. Is this sufficient answer?
Perhaps, but only for a wise man. As I am indebted, however, to the unwise also,2 it is customary to add something for them after saying enough for the wise.3 Therefore for the sake of those who are slow to grasp ideas I do not find it burdensome to treat of the same ideas more extensively if not more pro foundly. Hence I insist that there are two reasons why God should be loved for his own sake: no one can be loved more righteously and no one can be loved with greater benefit. In deed, when it is asked why God should be loved, there are two meanings possible to the question. For it can be questioned which is rather the question: whether for what merit of his or for what advantage to us is God to be loved. My answer to both questions is assuredly the same, for I can see no other reason for loving him than himself. So let us see first how he deserves our love.
1. Cf. William of St Thierry: "Love is due to God only, and for no other reason than God himself."— The Nature and Dignity of Love, 3; PL 184-382; tr. G. Webb and A. Walker (London: Mowbray, 1956), p. 14.
2. Rom 1:14.
3. Bernard employs here a dictum common among Classical authors: . . . sat est dictum sapienti. See Plautus, Persa 4:7 (19); Terence, Phormio, 3:3 (8).
4 On Loving God 1:1
HOW GOD IS TO BE LOVED FOR HIS OWN SAKE
God certainly deserves a lot from us since he gave himself4 to us when we deserved it least. Besides, what could he have given us better than himself? Hence when seeking why God should be loved, if one asks what right he has to be loved, the answer is that the main reason for loving him is "He loved us first."5 Surely he is worthy of being loved in return when one thinks of who loves, whom he loves, how much he loves. Is it not he whom every spirit acknowledges,6 saying: "You are my
God, for you do not need my possessions."7 This divine love is sincere/ for it Ls. the -love of one who does not seek his own _ advantage.8 To whom is such love9 shown? It is written:
"While we were still his enemies, he reconciled us to himself."10
Thus God loved freely, and even enemies. How much did he love? St John answers that: "God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son."1 1 St Paul adds: "He did not spare his only Son, but delivered him up for us."12 The Son also said of himself: "No one has greater love than he who lays down his life for his friends."13 Thus the righteous one deserved to be loved by the wicked, the highest and omnipotent by the weak.
Now someone says: "This is true for man but it does not hold for the angels." That is true because it was not necessary for the angels, for he who came to man's help in time of need, kept the angels from such a need,14 and he who did not leave man in such a state because he loved him, out of an equal love gave the angels the grace not to fall into that state.
4. Gal. 1:4.
5. 1 Jan 4:9-10.
6. 1 Jn 4:2.
7. Ps 15:2 (Psalms are cited according to the Vulgate enumeration.).
8. 1 Cor 1 3: 5.
9. The Latin text has puritas but, as W. Williams indicates, it means caritas: un mixed love. Select Treatises of S. Bernard, of Clairvaux: De Diligendo Deo and De
Gradibus Humilitatis (Cambridge: University Press, 1926), p. 10, n. 12.
1 0. Rom 5: 1 0.
11. Jn 3:16.
12. Rom 8:32.
13. Jn 15:13.
14. Cf. Gra 29; OB 3:187; CF 19.
On Loving God 11:2-3 II. 2. I think that they to whom this is clear see why God ought to be loved, that is, why he merits to be loved. If the infidels conceal these facts, God is always able to confound their ingratitude by his innumerable gifts which he mani festly places at man's disposal. For, who else gives food to all who eat, sight to all who see, and air to all who breathe? It would be foolish to want to enumerate; what I have just said cannot be counted. It suffices to point out the chief ones: bread, sun and air. I call them the chief gifts, not because they are better but because the body cannot live without them.
Man's nobler gifts— dignity, knowledge, and virtue— are found in the higher part of his being, in his soul.ls Man's dignity is his free will by which he is superior to the beasts and even dominates them.16 His knowledge is that by which he ac knowledges that this dignity is in him but that it is not of his own making. Virtue is that by which man seeks continuously and eagerly for his Maker and when he finds him, adheres to him with all his might.
3. Each of these three gifts has two aspects. Dignity is not only a natural privilege, it is also a power of domination, for the fear of man hangs over all the animals on earth.17 Knowl edge is also twofold, since we understand this dignity and other natural qualities are in us, yet we do not create them our selves.18 Finally, virtue is seen to be twofold, for by it we seek our Maker and once we find him, we adhere to him so closely we become inseparable from him.19 As a result, dignity with out knowledge is unprofitable, without virtue it can be an obstacle.20 The following reasoning explains both these facts.
What glory is there in having something you do not know you have? Then, to know what you have but to be ignorant
15. Bernard defines what he understands by the soul in Conv 11: ". . . the whole of the soul is nothing other than reason, memory and will."— OB 4: 84; CF 43.
16. Cf. Gen 1:26.
17. Gen 9:2.
18. In SC 37:5 (OB 2: 1 1-12; CF 7) Bernard offers a moral evaluation of knowl edge.
19. In SC 85:4 (OB 2:310; CF 40) Bernard defines virtue: Est quippe vigor animi cedere nescius pro tuenda ratione; aut, si magis probas, vigor animi im mobiliter stantis cum ratione vel pro ratione; vel sic: vigor animi, quod in se est, omnia ad rationem cogens vel dingens.
20. Cf. Bernard, Ep 372; PL 182:577; LSB, Letter 417, p. 485.
On Loving God 11:4 of the fact that you do not have it of yourself, for glory here, but not before God.21 The Apostle says to him who glorifies himself: "What have you that you have not received? And if you have received it, how can you boast of it as if you had not received it?"22 He does not say simply: "How can you boast of it," but adds: "as if you had not received it," to show the guilt lies not in boasting of something but in treating it as if it was not a gift received. This is rightly called vainglory, for it lacks the solid base of truth. St Paul marks the dif ference between true and vain glory: "He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord,"23 that is, in the truth, for the Lord is truth.24
4. There are two facts you should know: first, what you are; secondly, that you are not that by your own power, lest you fail to boast at all or do so in vain. Finally, if you do not know yourself, do as is written: "Go follow the flocks of your companions."25 This is really what happens. When a man, promoted to a high dignity, does not appreciate the favor re ceived, because of his ignorance he is rightly compared to the animals with whom he shares his present state of corruption and mortality.2.6 It also happens when a man, not appreciating the gift of reason, starts mingling with the herds of dumb beasts to the extent that, ignoring his own interior glory,27 he models his conduct on the object of his senses. Led on by curiosity,28 he becomes like any other animal since he does not see he has received more than they. We should, therefore, fear that ignorance which gives us a too low opinion of our selves. But we should fear no less, but rather more, that which makes us think ourselves better than we are. This is what hap pens when we deceive ourselves thinking some good is in us of ourselves. But indeed you should detest and avoid even
21. Rom 4:2.
22. 1 Cor 4:7.
23. 1 Cor 1:31; 2 Cor 10:17. Cf. Jer 9:23-24.
24. Jn 14:6.
25. Song 1:6-7. Cf. SC 32:10; OB 1:233; CF 7.
26. Ps 48:13.
27. Cf. Ps 44:14.
28. For Bernard curiosity is the first step of pride: Hum 28, OB 3: 38; see above p. 57. Cf. also, Div 14:2; OB 6-1: 135; CF 46.
On Loving God 11:5 more than these two forms of ignorance that presumption29 by which you, knowingly and on purpose, seek your glory' in goods that are not your own and that you are certain are not in you by your own power. In this you are not ashamed to steal the glory of another. Indeed, the first kind of ignorance has no glory; the second kind has, but not in God's sight.30
But the third evil, which is committed full knowingly, is a usurpation of divine rights. This arrogance31 is worse and more dangerous than the second kind of ignorance, in which God is ignored, because it makes us despise him. If ignorance makes beasts of us, arrogance makes us like demons. It is pride, the greatest of sins, to use gifts as if they were one's by natural right and while receiving benefits to usurp the benefactor's glory.
5. For this reason, virtue is as necessary as dignity and knowledge, being the fruit of both. By virtue the Maker and Giver of all is sought and adhered to, and rightly glorified in all good things. On the other hand, the man who knows what is good yet does not do it will receive many strokes of the lash.32 Why? Because, "He did not want to understand to do well;"33 worse again, "While in bed he plotted evil."34 He strives like a wicked servant to lay hold of and even to steal his good Lord's glory for qualities which the gift of knowledge tells him most certainly are not from himself. Hence it follows that dignity without knowledge is quite useless and that knowl edge without virtue is damnable. But the virtuous man, for whom knowledge is not harmful or dignity unfruitful, lifts up his voice to God and frankly confesses: "Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory;"35 meaning, "O Lord, we attribute no part of our dignity or knowledge to ourselves: we ascribe it all to your name whence all good comes."
29. Likewise, presumption finds a place in Bernard's steps of pride as the seventh: Hum 44; OB 3:50; see above, pp. 72. Cf. also QH 11:4; OB 4:451; CF
43.
30. Rom 4: 2.
31. Arrogance is Bernard's sixth step of pride: Hum 43; OB 3:49-50; see above, p. 71.
32. Lk 12:47.
33. Ps 35:4.
34. Ps 35:5.
35. Ps 1 13:9 (Vulgate: 113: Ibis).