On Loving God XII :34
On Loving God XII :34 gladness."305 Here is fullness without disgust; here is insatiable curiosity without restlessness; here is that eternal, inexplicable desire knowing no want. At last, here is that sober intoxi cation of truth, not from overdrinking,306 not reeking with wine, but burning for God. From this then that fourth degree of love is possessed forever, when God alone is loved in the highest way, for now we do not love ourselves except for his sake, that he may be the reward of those who love him, the eternal recompense of those who love him forever.307
THE PROLOGUE FOR THE FOLLOWING LETTER
XII. 34. I remember writing a letter to the holy Carthusians some time ago and having discussed in it these same degrees of love along with other matters.308 Perhaps I made some other remarks in it about charity but not different from what I say here. Hence I am adding the following passage to this tract as it appears useful, for it is easier to transcribe what has already been dictated than to compose something new.
HERE BEGINS THE LETTER ON CHARITY TO
30Q
THE HOLY BRETHREN OF CHARTRUSEJ
I maintain that true and sincere charity proceeds from a pure heart, a good conscience and unfeigned faith.310 It makes us care for our neighbor's good as much as for our own. For he who cares for his own good alone or more than for his neigh bor's, shows that he does not love that good purely, that he loves it for his own advantage and not for the good itself.
Such a man cannot obey the Prophet who says: ''Praise the Lord, for he is good."311 He praises the Lord indeed, because
305. Ps 67:4.
306. Cf. Acts 2:15.
307. See SC 83:4; OB 2:300; CF 40.
308. Ep 1 1; PL 182: 108-1 15; LSB, Letter 12, pp. 41-48. See above, Introduction, pp85-90. From this point on, in the Latin text the word caritas is used in the place of amor.
309. The text here comprises Ep 11:3-9.
310. 1 Tim 1:5.
311. Ps 117:1.
On Loving God X 11:3 5 he is good to him, but not because the Lord is good himself.
Let him be aware that the same Prophet addresses to him this reproach: "He will acknowledge you when you do him a favor."312 A man can acknowledge that the Lord is powerful, that the Lord is good to him, and that the Lord is simply good.
The first is the love of a slave who fears for himself; the second is that of a hireling who thinks only of himself; the third is that of a son who honors his father. He, therefore, who fears and he who covets do so for themselves. Charity is found only in the son. It does not seek its own advantage.313 For this rea son I think this virtue is meant in the text: "The law of the Lord is spotless, it converts souls,"314 for it alone can turn the mind away from loving one's self and the world and fix it on loving God. Neither fear nor love of self can change the soul.
At times they change one's appearance or deeds, they can never alter one's character. Sometimes even a slave can do
God's work,315 but it is not done freely; he is still base. The hireling can do it also, but not freely; he is seen to be lured on by his own cupidity. Where there is self-interest, there is singularity;316 where there is singularity, there is a corner; where there is a corner, no doubt there is rust and dust.317
Let the slave 'have his own law,318 the very fear which binds him; let the hireling's be the lust for gain which restrains him when he is attracted and enticed by temptation.319 But neither of these is without fault nor can either convert souls.320 Char ity converts souls because it makes them act willingly.
35. Then I have said charity is unspotted, it keeps nothing of its own for itself. For him who holds nothing as his own,
312. Ps 48:19.
313. 1 Cor 13:5.
314. Ps 18:8.
315. Bernard employs here a term that has great meaning for the monk: opus Dei, the work of God, the almost technical expression Benedict of Nursia employs in his Rule for Monasteries to denote the monk's celebration of the praises of God in choir through the day and night. See RB 43; 47; 58:7.
316. Singularity is Bernard's fifth degree of pride: Hum 42; OB 3:48-49; see above, p. 70.
317. Cf VI p P 1:3; OB 5:208; CF 25.
318. Rom 2:14.
319. Jas 1:14.
320. Ps 18:8.
On Loving God XIIL36
assuredly all he has belongs to God; and whatever belongs to God must be clean. Therefore, the unspotted law of the Lord is that love which does not seek what is useful to itself, but what is good for many.321 It is called the law of the Lord either because he lives by it or because nobody possesses it except as a gift from him. It does not seem absurd for me to say God lives by a law, because it is nothing else than charity.
What else maintains that supreme and unutterable unity in the highest and most blessed Trinity, if not charity? Hence it is a law, the law of the Lord, that charity which somehow holds and brings together the Trinity in the bond of peace.322
All the same, let nobody think I hold charity to be a quality or a kind of accident in God. Otherwise, I would be saying, and be it far from me, that there is something in God which is not God. Charity is the divine substance. I am saying noth ing new or unusual, just what St John says: "God is love."323
Therefore, it is rightly said, charity is God, and the gift of God.324 Thus charity gives charity; substantial charity produces the quality of charity. Where it signifies the giver, it takes the name of substance; where it means the gift, it is called a qual ity. Such is the eternal law which creates and governs the uni verse. All things were made according to this law in weight, measure, and number,325 and nothing is left without a law.
Even the law itself is not without a law, which nevertheless is nothing other than itself. Even if it does not create itself, it governs itself all the same.
XIII. 36. The slave and the mercenary have a law of their own326 which is not from the Lord. The former does not love
God and the latter loves something more than God. They have a law, I say, not the Lord's but their own, which is subject,
321. 1 Cor 10:33; 13:5.
322. Eph 4:3. Does Bernard have the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Bles sed Trinity in mind here? It is not clear. In the next sentence he does affirm that he is not speaking of some accidental quality.
323. 1 Jn 4:8.
324. Eph 2:8.
325. Wis 11:21.
326. Rom 2:14.
On Loving God XIII: 36 all the same, to the Lord's law. Each one can make a law for himself, but he cannot withdraw it from the unchangeable order of the eternal law. I mean each one wants to make his own law when he prefers his own will to the common, eternal law. He seeks to imitate his Creator in a perverse way, so that as God is for himself his own law and depends on himself alone, so does man want to govern himself and make his own will his law. This heavy and unbearable yoke weighs on all
Adam's sons,327 alas, making our necks curve and bend down so that our life seems to draw near hell.328 "Unhappy man that I am, who will free me from this body of death?"329 by which I am weighed down and oppressed to the extent that,
"Unless the Lord helped me, my soul would soon be living in hell! "330 The soul struggling under this load laments saying:
"Why have you set me against you, and I am become a burden for myself?"331 By the words "I am become a burden for myself" is shown that he himself is his own law and that no body but himself did that. But what he said previously, speak ing to God: "Why have you set me against you" means that he has not escaped from God's law. It is proper to God's eternally just Jaw that he who does not want to accept its sweet rule, will be the slave of his own will as a penance; he who casts away the pleasant yoke and light load of charity,332 will have to bear unwillingly the unbearable burden of his own will. By a mysterious and just measure the eternal law has set its fugitive against himself yet retaining him captive, foi he can neither escape the law of justice which he deserves nor remain with God in his light, rest, and glory, because he is subject to power and banished from happiness. O Lord, my God, Why do you not take away my sin, and wherefore do you not remove my evil,"333 that delivered from the heavy load of self-will, I may breathe under charity's light burden, that I may not be lorced on by slavish fear or drawn on by a hireling's cupidity? May I be moved by your Spirit,334 the 327. Sir 40: 1; Acts 15: 10.
328. Ps 87:4.
329. Rom 7:24.
330. Ps 93:17.
331. Job 7:20.
332. Mt 11:30.
333. Job 7:21.
334. Rom 8:14.