The Steps of Humility and Pride 11:3 31
The Steps of Humility and Pride 11:3
because they have gone astray from the truth. Will they then be deserted by our sweet Lord? No, the law that this good and kind Lord gives them is the way of humility by which they can return to the knowledge of the truth. The Lord is kind but also just. Because he is kind he gives them a chance of regaining safety; but because he is also just he vindicates the law.
His kindness will not let them perish; his justice will not omit to impose some punishment.14
II. 3. This law which points the way back to truth St Benedict sums up in twelve steps15. Just as the ten commandments of the Law16 and the twofold circumcision17—which add up to twelve—lead to Christ, so do these twelve steps which we have to climb to come to the possession of the truth. This was the ladder which was shown to Jacob18—a figure of humility.
Leaning on the top of the ladder the Lord looks on the sons of men with eyes of truth that deceive not and cannot be deceived to see if there is any who understands and seeks God.19
His place at the ladder's top20 shows us that the knowledge of truth is to be found only at the summit of humility.21 Can you not hear him calling from his lofty station and crying to those who seek him, for he knows who are his own:22 "Come to me all you who desire me and eat your fill of my fruits? " 2 3 "Come to me all you who labor and I will refresh you."24 He says:
"Come!" Where? "To me, the Truth." How? "By humility."
14. Cf. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo 1:12; tr. S. N. Deane, St Anselm, Religion of Science Library 54 (LaSalle, III.: Open Court, 1939), p. 203.
15. RB 7:10-66.
16. Ex 34:2& 17. Gen 17:26, Deut 30:6, Josh 5:2, Jer 4:4, Col 2:11. Cf. St Justin, Dialogue with Trypho; St Cyprian: ". . . the first circumcision of the flesh is made void, and the second circumcision of the spirit is promised instead."-Treatise XII: Three
Books of Testimonies against the Jews 1:8; tr. E. Wallis, Ante-Nicene Fathers (New York:Scribners, 1903), 5:510.
18. Gen 28:12; RB 7:6.
19. J>s 13:2.
20. Gen 28:13.
21. RB 7:5.
22. 2 Tim 2:19;Jn 10:14.
23. Sir 24:26.
24. Mt 11:28.
The Steps of Humility and Pride 11:4
For what? "And I will refresh you." What is this refreshment which Truth promises to those who climb and gives when they gain the top? Is it perhaps love itself?25 To this, St Benedict says, the monk will quickly come when he has climbed all the steps of humility.26 Love is indeed a sweet and pleasant food.
It refreshes the weary, strengthens the weak,27 cheers the depressed, mak^s sweet Truth's yoke and light its burden.28
4. Love is the excellent food. Its place is in the middle of the dish of Solomon,29 the dish which diffuses the mingled odor of the virtues, fragrant as all the powders of the perfumer.30 It fills the hungry, and gives joy to those being filled.
On this dish we find peace and patience and longanimity31 and joy in the Holy Spirit,32 and any other kind of virtue, any other fruit of wisdom you can think of. Humility has its own contribution to the banquet and graces the dish with the bread of sorrow33 and the wine of compunction.34 Truth offers these first to beginners, saying: "Rise up after you have been seated, you who eat the bread of sorrow."35 Contemplation then brings its offering—the solid bread36 of wisdom made of 25. "Love" in this translation generally stands for caritas, which denotes more a habit, a willed choice, rather than amor, with its more affective connotations.
Where amor is meant this will be indicated in the notes.
26. RB 7:67.
27. Is 35:3.
28. Mt 11:3a 29. Song 3:9f. "The word ferculum occurs only once in the Vulgate, and means a thing on which something is carried. Thus it is taken as either 'a litter' or 'a platter.' Bernard takes it in its second meaning, and on this he bases his exhortation for us to partake in the feast of charity, whereas Gilbert of Hoyland [or Gilbert of Swineshead, On the Song of Songs 17:1-3; PL 184:87-89; tr. T. Berkeley, OF 13] who continued Bernard's sermons on the Song of Songs, takes it as meaning litter."
—G. Webb and A. Walker, Introduction, in St Bernard, Steps of Humility (London:
Mowbray, 1957), p. 9. They perhaps are following B. R. V. Mills, Select Treatises of St Bernard of Claim aux, "De Gradibus Humilitatis et Superbiae," (Cambridge
University Press, 1926), p. 83, note.
3a Song 3:6.
31. Gal 5:22.
32. Rom 14:17.
33. Ps 126:2.
34. Ps 59:5.
35. Ps 126:2.
36. Heb 5:14.
The Steps of Humility and Pride 11:5
the finest wheat37 and the wine which gladdens the heart of man,38 to which Truth calls the perfect with the words: "Eat, my friends, and drink; be inebriated, my dearest ones."39 Truth does not fail to make provision for the less perfect. "Love is placed in the middle for the daughters of Jerusalem."40 These are the ones not yet able to take solid food, so Truth gives them love's milk instead of bread, and oil instead of wine. This portion is "in the middle," because beginners could not yet relish it, being too much afraid; the perfect find it insufficient now that they have plenty of the sweet food of contemplation.
Beginners are not able to enjoy the sweetness of milk until they have been purged by the bitter draught of fear. It must cleanse them of the infection of carnal pleasures. The perfect now turn from milk since they have had a glorious foretaste of the feast of glory. Only those in the middle, those who are growing, who are still delicate, are content with the sweet milkfoods of charity.41
5. The first food, then, is humility: bitter but medicinal; the second is charity: sweet and soothing; the third is contemplation: solid and strength-giving. Lord God of Hosts, how long will you be angry with the prayer of your servant? How long will you feed me with the bread of weeping and give me tears for my drink?42 Who will invite me to the middle banquet of the sweet food of charity where the just rejoice in the presence of God and exult for joy?43 Then no longer will I speak
37. Ps 147:14.
38. Ps 103:15.
39. Song 5:1. Bernard explains this text more fully, outlining the three degrees of contemplation indicated by eating, drinking and inebriation in Div 87:4; OB
6-1:33 If.
40. Song 3:1 a 41. Bernard here introduces the classical three stages of spiritual growth: beginners, proficients and the perfect. It is in common use among the early Cistercians, forming the basic framework for William of St Thierry's Golden Epistle (CF 12).'
See J. M. Dechanet, Introduction in William of St Thierry, Exposition on the Song of Songs, CF 6, pp. xxxi ff and the notes there, Exp 13ff, CF 6:1 Iff; J.
Morson and H. Costello, Introduction in Guerric of Igny, Liturgical Sermons, vol 1, CF 8 pp. xlix ff; M. B. Pennington, "Three Stages of Spiritual Growth according to St Bernard," Studia Monastics
11 (1969): 315-326.
42. Ps 79:5f.
43. Ps 67:4.
The Steps of Humility and Pride III: 6 in the bitterness of my soul, saying to God: "Do not condemn me,"44 but feasting on the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth45 I will sing a glad song as I go in the ways of the Lord, for great is his glory.46 Yes the path of humility is a good path.4' It seeks for truth; it wins charity; it shares the fruits of wisdom. Just as the end of the Law is Christ,48 so the perfection of humility is the knowledge of truth. When Christ came he brought grace; when truth is known it brings love.
It is to the humble it is known. "He gives his grace to the humble."49
III. 6. I have now shown to the best of my powers what fruits we win by climbing the steps of humility. Now let us see if I can show how they lead to the promised reward of truth.
HOW THE STEPS OF HUMILITY LEAD TO THE
PROMISED REWARD OF TRUTH
There are three degrees in the perception of truth. I will first explain these as well as I can and then we will be able to see how the twelve degrees of humility lead to these three degrees of truth. We must look for truth in ourselves; in our neighbors; in itself. We look for truth in ourselves when we judge ourselves;50 in our neighbors when we have sympathy for their sufferings;51 in itself when we contemplate it with a clean heart." It is important to observe the order of these degrees as well as their number. First of all, truth teaches us that we must look for it in our neighbors before we seek it in itself.
You will then see easily why you must seek it in yourself before you seek it in your neighbors. In the list of the beatitudes the merciful are spoken of before the clean of heart.53 The merciful quickly grasp the truth in their neighbors when their heart goes out to them with a love that unites them so closely that they feel the neighbors' good and ill as if it were their own. With the weak they are weak, with the scandalized they
44. Job 10: If.
49. 1 Pet 5:5.
45. 1 Cor 5:8.
50. 1 Cor 11:31.
46. Ps 137:5.
51. 1 Cor 12:26.
47. Ps 118:71.
52.Mt5:8.
48. Rom 10:4.
53. Mt 5:7-8.